In the following days, Xiao Yu spent her days helping out at the restaurant, processing the fresh seafood they purchased. If she and Yaya managed to catch so fresh seafood, they would also carry it in buckets to the restaurant. In ten days, Yaya, with her own efforts and the help of Xiao Yu, surprisingly made 500 copper coins from Yingbin Building.
As soon as she got half a tael of silver, she imdiately went to the pharmacy’s doctor to repay the debt, saying she would repay another sum before the end of the year; she wouldn’t evade the debt, not wanting to let down those who had been kind. This reignited hope in the doctor, who had originally written off the money as a loss, and he gave a big thumbs-up to Yaya’s character.
When asked about Grandma’s health, Yaya rembered what Xiao Yu had told her and didn’t reveal too much, ntioning only that she was recovering and omitting other details.
The doctor, who had planned to make a house call, sensed her reluctance, and so he didn’t bring the matter up again.
Xiao Yu followed the lead of the kitchen staff, even helping Zhang Quan and his wife make fish balls.
The pepper powder, oyster sauce, light soy sauce, starch, and sesa sauce she brought were the basic ingredients for making fish balls. The resulting varieties included white pure fish atballs, black cuttlefish balls, red and white crab sticks, and shrimp balls. Since these were genuine fish and shellfish balls, their cost of production wasn’t low, hence their selling price was naturally not cheap either.
To ensure consistency in the size of these fish balls, they even made special molds for them, with roughly ten making up a pound, which made it easier to tally sales later on.
The vegetables were easy to prepare, so it wouldn’t be too late to get them ready the day before opening. Hence, these fish balls beca the main focus for these days.
She prepared hot pot ingredients to use as a base for the forthcoming dishes. As bamboo was scarce in the area, she had iron skewers made to be reused.
The specialized handcart for boiling hot pot ingredients was also completed as the opening day neared.
Grandma Liu’s illness had largely healed, but considering she might be contagious, they decided to let her go out only after the New Year had passed.
During this ti, quite a few neighbors still passed by their house, peered into the yard to see Grandma, and spoke a few words with her. Seeing her spirits improve more each day, the villagers were astounded, given that the doctor had left shaking his head—how could she have recovered in just a month or two?
Could this distant relative really have the ability to take good care of her?
In response to this, the sisters did not provide any clarification, going about their daily tasks as usual. The villagers didn’t converse with them much, and a basic greeting was enough since people wouldn’t watch them work all day long. This setup was quite pleasant.
As the sisters delivered fish to the town, they also carried so potatoes, which were the main ingredient for their spicy small potato shop at the opening. They had to prepare these in advance.
Finally, after being busy and bustling, the opening day on the 15th day of the twelfth lunar month arrived.
At noon, the restaurant’s staff pushed out the carts already laden with skewers.
As the aroma of the hot pot was particularly strong, selling it outdoors on the first day would attract more custors.
The skewers they prepared not only included various fish balls but also fresh abalones, squid, octopus, tofu, kelp, potatoes, and cabbages as side ingredients. On the tables, there were bowls of sesa sauce and chili sauce mixed with special condints, allowing diners to add flavors to taste.
Salt, which Yaya made and added to the sesa sauce, had been refined through repeated stages, and now the salt she produced had barely any bitter taste left.
After discussing with Zhang Quan, he agreed to barter future condints in exchange for the salt made by Yaya.
That is to say, Yaya would supply him with salt, and he would provide her with free use of the condints and oil he grew.
After all, compared to other things, salt was clearly more expensive and harder to co by. In the end, it was the lack of bitterness in Yaya’s salt that persuaded Zhang Quan to take the risk and ask her for it.
User Comments
0 comments from readers