Chapter 109: Chapter 109 Too Embarrassing (An additional chapter released for every 15 monthly tickets, the tenth update)
Translator: 549690339
Mrs. Ye said, “If you want to eat, I will go to Zhuang Yonghe’s place early tomorrow to buy a piece, then steam some rice and fry the tofu for lunch tomorrow.”
“Alright,” Zhuang Jingye nodded, then sneered, “If the tofu business is good, then just grind more. What’s with all the fuss, making it seem like tofu is something rare.”
“You better believe it, it really is rare.” Mrs. Ye said, “You probably don’t know this, but every morning there are people who take more than two hundred pounds of tofu from Big Sister Ning’s tofu workshop. It’s said that those people are from the county town and they take the tofu to the restaurant there. Big Sister Ning also has to sell in town, and then there’s what Zhuang Yonghe sells. With all of this, the tofu workshop can’t keep up; just those two tofu pots, they can’t grind more.”
“So, even if you’re rich enough to hand over money to them, it’s not necessarily accepted. Doesn’t this make it valuable? I also heard that Big Sister Ning’s tofu workshop can’t keep up, and have already employed two people to make the tofu. Given the situation, I guess they might still need more people.”
Did such a thing happen?
Zhuang Jingye widened his eyes.
Because there hadn’t been any recent events in the village, he’d been laying low and hadn’t been wandering about much in the village. Everyday, he would just take a look at the fields, not realizing that Zhuang Qingning’s tofu workshop had reached this stage.
“That’s why I say, you better get along well with Big Sister Ning from now on. Her tofu workshop is flourishing and she buys many beans from the village, creating more employment in the village. She also pays more in taxes. In the long run, won’t this benefit you as the village chief?”
These were wise words of advice from Mrs. Ye to her husband.
Yes, why hadn’t he thought of this before?
Wouldn’t this all become part of his achievements as the village chief?
Moreover, anyone else with a bit of skill or ability for business would move out, whether to the town or the county. Even if they became successful, at most they’d only belong to the same village. But Zhuang Qingning was different, her tofu workshop was solidly based in the village. If her business continued to prosper in the future, the whole village would benefit.
So, he should be kind to Zhuang Qingning and help her if he can!
Even though she’s just a girl…
Well, anyway, she’s doing a man’s job, just consider her a man.
Having made up his mind, Zhuang Jingye couldn’t help but glance at Mrs Ye.
His wife, at last, seemed to have grown in wisdom.
Finally, after spending so much time with him, the village chief, her vision as a housewife had broadened.
So you see, it all depends on whom a woman marries.
In the evening, the salted duck eggs were opened.
After carefully cleaning off the yellow mud on the outside, they were steamed until cooked.
A few were sent to Mrs. Wen and to Zhuang Yonghe’s family. They ate two that night, and the rest were taken to the town the next day.
In total, there were more than twenty salted duck eggs left. Ten of them were given to Zhang Yongchang and the remaining ones were placed at the tofu stall.
As before, they didn’t actively sell them but simply put them there. If someone saw them and wanted to buy, they could, but there was absolutely no pressure to do so.
Despite this very “low-key” method of selling salted duck eggs, in just fifteen minutes, all the duck eggs were sold out.
Some people, upon hearing the news and arriving only to find out that they were sold out, had to return the next day. They left disappointedly, vowing to themselves that they must come earlier the next day.
After all, these salted duck eggs, the ones that almost got Zhang Yongchang and others fighting in the street, had to be tasted to see what made them so special.
“Grandma, are these salted duck eggs really that delicious?” Zhang Qiuying looked dumbfounded and asked Mrs. Liu secretly when she had a moment.
She had also tasted salted duck eggs before, and indeed they were delicious, salty and fragrant with a sandy texture to the yolk. Some even had oil, making them very appetizing with rice.
But duck eggs were just duck eggs. If compared with meat, there was no competition. Meat was definitely better.
But seeing the enthusiasm of these people buying salted duck eggs, seemingly not even caring about the meat shop nearby, Zhang Qiuying was utterly puzzled. She became extremely curious about these salted duck eggs.
“Well…” Mrs. Liu didn’t know how to respond.
She had never tasted them either.
“Anyway, on the first day your sister Ning started selling these duck eggs here, the head chef of Fushun Tower started a fight with others over them…”
Based on their family relationship, Zhuang Qingning should call Mrs. Liu ‘aunt’, and Zhang Qiuying, as Mrs. Liu’s granddaughter, should call Zhuang Qingning ‘aunt’ too. But they were close in age, so they simply changed the terms; Zhang Qiuying called Zhuang Qingning ‘big sister’, and Zhuang Qingning called Mrs. Liu ‘aunt’. This made their relationship sound more straightforward.
“What?!” Zhang Qiuying’s eyes widened again.
If a head chef of a restaurant could start a fight over salted duck eggs, it was a clear indication of how delicious these eggs must be!
“I originally planned to let you try these salted duck eggs, Aunt Liu, but things got messy with Uncle Zhang that first day and we completely forgot. Last night we opened the first jar of new pickles, and we didn’t know you were coming to set up your stall today. By the time your stall was set up, the eggs were sold out, so we didn’t deliberately save some for you,”
Zhuang Qingning said, “Tomorrow, I will save some for you. Aunt Liu, you and Qiuying also can taste how my salted duck eggs taste.”
“No, no, no, that’s not necessary.” Zhang Qiuying hastily waved her hands, her face flushed.
Initially, she was just curious about how good these salted duck eggs could taste. But now, with Zhuang Qingning suddenly offering to give her some, it seemed as if she had asked for them on purpose.
Zhang Qiuying felt terribly embarrassed.
“It’s fine, I really always wanted both of you to taste them.”
Zhuang Qingning felt that Zhang Qiuying was a very good girl, both diligent and honest.
“If it wasn’t for the fact that they weren’t ready a few days ago, I would have brought some when I visited Aunt Liu. We’re all close here, so let’s not be so formal. It feels strange, don’t you think, Aunt Liu?”
Zhuang Qingning was very grateful to Mrs. Liu for her help when they first started their stall. If it weren’t for her, the business wouldn’t have gone so smoothly.
“Yes, that’s true.” Mrs. Liu laughed, patted her granddaughter’s hand to reassure her, and told her not to worry too much, “We are all honest folks here; we don’t have time for devious thoughts. Your sister Ning isn’t a calculating person.”
Seeing her grandmother’s words, Zhang Qiuying finally felt relieved.
This was her first time helping her grandmother sell fried chop rice cakes in town. If she made such a big mistake at the start, it would be bad.
Fortunately, it seemed like there wouldn’t be any issues. Zhang Qiuying steadied her nerves and resumed calling out to sell the fried chop rice cakes.
The tofu sold out quickly, but only half of Mrs. Liu’s fried chop rice cakes had been sold. Zhuang Qingning and Zhuang Qingsui, who hadn’t seen Mrs. Liu for a while, missed her and decided to stay a little longer to chat..
