HCB Chapter 246: Going into the City to Shop
Chapter 246: Going into the City to Shop
After discussion by everyone, they decided that they had to do it as it was profitable, and that if they couldn't get all the chickens and ducks, they could sell them at a lower price.
So Shen Zhiqiu began to make arrangements. The old men stopped making jewelry and all made bamboo rings. The jewelry was made the size of a plate, and the poultry was made the size of a bowl.
There were at least ten stalls selling jewelry rings, because they made a lot of jewelry, and five stalls selling poultry rings.
They are not afraid that no one will come. After all, there is no other entertainment now. The father and daughter are quite confident.
But there is one thing, the innkeeper does not have that much buckwheat noodles for them to set up the stall, after all, they use a lot.
Shen Zhiqiu picked out a few people who could talk and took them to different villages to collect chickens, ducks and geese. Of course, they collected fewer geese, and they also collected buckwheat noodles, vinegar brewed by the farmers themselves, and garlic.
Because eating buckwheat noodles yesterday reminded Shen Zhiqiu and his friends of the fried noodles, they discussed and decided to make a wooden fried noodle press and give it to the shopkeeper.
After all, they take good care of them.
In fact, my uncle-in-law Wang Fuxi had been making it since early morning, and he finally finished it after half a day's work. This is because the principle and structure of the noodle making machine are very simple.
Its structure mainly includes four parts: bracket, lever arm, fulcrum and working point.
When using, place the noodle making machine on the pot, put the kneaded dough into the cavity with a circular mesh at the bottom, and use human pressure on the long bar to drive the wooden plug to squeeze the dough, so that the noodles leak directly into the boiling water in the pot.
At noon, in the back kitchen of the post station, this wooden rack was placed on the pot, with boiling hot water underneath.
Shopkeeper Bai and the chef in the kitchen watched with their own eyes as the kneaded buckwheat noodles were squeezed and turned into noodles of similar size before being put into the pot.
It was such a surprise that the chef in the kitchen insisted on dragging Shen Zhiqiu to become his apprentice.
He said that this must be a secret that would not be passed on and he couldn't get it for nothing. From now on, Shen Zhiqiu would be his master.
Shen Zhiqiu looked at the master chef who was much older than him and said, "This is not something I invented. I learned it from a book, so I am not your master and you don't need to feel any psychological burden."
It took a lot of persuasion before the master chef gave up the idea of becoming my apprentice.
Shopkeeper Bai was even more surprised, as his ancestors sold noodles. Of course, it could be seen that the noodles squeezed out in this way were different from the noodles they cut, as they were all round and looked chewier and more lustrous.
Holding Shen Zhiqiu's arm, he kept calling him "brother": "Thank you so much. I don't know what to say. Well... I'll waive your room fee."
Shen Zhiqiu patted Shopkeeper Bai on the shoulder and said, "You call me brother now, but if you waive the room fee, you are looking down on me. Let's not mention this anymore."
When Shopkeeper Bai heard Shen Zhiqiu say that, he was so anxious that he broke out in a sweat, mainly because someone gave him such a good thing, a noodle-making device he had never seen before.
What could he bring back? To put it bluntly, the noodles and the hotel were not cheap at all. After all, this was the imperial post station, and the lowest prices were enforced. Although Lao Bai, as a shopkeeper, could give his brothers a few more bowls,
But just because he gave a few more bowls of noodles, they gave him such a precious thing and didn't even waive his room fee. He felt really bad about it.
Of course, the free room fee was just a verbal promise. As the owner of the Imperial Post Station, he had to pay the money himself later.
It was precisely because Shen Zhiqiu knew this that he refused to speak, but directly interrupted the hesitant Shopkeeper Bai and said, "Brother Bai, come here, find a quiet place, and I will tell you what's in my heart."
A moment later, they arrived at a room on the second floor of the inn. This was the room Bai Zhantang usually lived in and where he did his accounting. It was used as both a sleeping and working room.
It was a suite. The inner room was for sleeping. Shen Zhiqiu didn't go in to see. The outer room was equivalent to a living room. There was a bookshelf next to the bed, two large wooden boxes, a desk and a chair.
In the middle is a round table and four wooden stools shaped like buckets.
The two sat face to face, and Shopkeeper Bai enthusiastically poured tea for Shen Zhiqiu: "Come, Brother Shen, try this tea of mine. I wouldn't be willing to give it to other people."
Shen Zhiqiu picked up the teacup, scraped off the foam, sniffed it, and then took a sip.
To be honest, he didn't like these things, but he was not completely ignorant of them. After all, in his previous life, he had discussed business at either the wine table or the tea table, and he had seen a lot.
"Brother, this is really good tea. It tastes sweet and has a light and elegant fragrance."
But he wasn't thinking about tea, after all, he had something important to do with Shopkeeper Bai: "Actually, we wanted to go into the city to set up a stall on the day of the temple fair."
Shopkeeper Bai immediately said, "Brother, if you need anything from me, just tell me. Do you need anything, such as tables and chairs? I'll take care of it."
Shen Zhiqiu shook his head: "Brother, let's just set up a snack stall. We don't need tables and chairs, just a few wooden boards and adobe bricks. The high one is the table and the low one is the stool. We don't need bowls and chopsticks, we can just use bamboo."
Before Shen Zhiqiu could finish, Shopkeeper Bai patted Shen Zhiqiu on the shoulder and said, "Brother, you don't treat me as your own. How can you make do with it so simply? We can still pack up a few sets of tables and chairs in the warehouse of our post station."
Shen Zhiqiu: "Really, no need. I'm not being polite. We only sell snacks for one penny. If we buy those, we'll lose money... I want to tell you something else.
Have you seen the noodle making machine? I want to ask my brother’s family if they want to set up a noodle making stall at the temple fair so that we can be next to each other?”
Bai Zhantang really didn't expect that Shen Zhiqiu would come to him, not to ask him for help, but to ask him to set up a stall together. He looked at Shen Zhiqiu with a more intimate look, but he still shook his head and said:
"Brother, I know you mean well, but I have to tell you that I have an old father at home who has been in poor health for many years. My wife has to take care of him at home. My eldest son is in a private school in the county, and my youngest son is also very young. There is no suitable person in my family to open a stall."
Shen Zhiqiu understood that it was not easy for Manager Bai. All the food and drink expenses for the whole family fell on him, and his wife was at home taking care of the elderly and could not leave.
He nodded to show that he understood, and mentioned in passing: "Then I have another question. When will our post station go to the county town to purchase goods? We need a lot of buckwheat noodles and some seasonings to set up a stall. The quantity is large. Can you help buy them?"
Bai Zhantang can do this, and it is easy to do: "The road is not easy to walk on today, and it is getting late. Tomorrow I will let Xiaowu take you into the city. You don't have to worry about the inspection before entering the city.
I told Xiaowu to just say that he is my relative who is here to help for a few days. Xiaowu is my wife's nephew, so if you have any questions, you can ask him without worry."
When Shen Zhiqiu heard this, he thought it was great. If this was the case, he could also buy sesame oil and sesame paste, and even more food. After all, Xiaowu was brought in, and they were people from the post station and should be familiar with the gatekeepers.
Since it's an inn and there's a temple fair going on, there are many people staying in the inn, so it's reasonable to buy more food.