Jiang Yanyi was severely tortured by the cold. He drank extremely bitter medicine for several days, but he still felt dizzy and had no appetite.
Feng Shuo was in good health, so he just sneezed a few times the day before. After taking a dose of medicine, all his problems were gone.
After he learned that Jiang Yanyi was ill, he sent a doctor from his mansion to take Jiang Yanyi's pulse and prescribe medicine, but unfortunately there was no improvement.
In later generations, the cycle of a cold is usually seven days. Jiang Yanyi only hopes that he will get better in two days.
Chu Shubao has started selling rouge and powder in her store, but the business is not as good as expected. Firstly, there are not many female customers in the store. Secondly, girls from well-off families are always accompanied by maids and old women when they go out. They are very cautious and will not easily try things of unknown origin.
Chu Shubao was a little discouraged. Seeing that the business was not going well, she spent most of her time in Jiang Yanyi's room to accompany her.
Jiang Yanyi's weaknesses lie in skin care and makeup. She can't give any useful technical advice, but having seen many beauty bloggers promote products in later generations, she can also provide some ideas to Chu Shubao.
When Feng Shuo heard that Jiang Yanyi had not shown any improvement after catching a cold, he asked Aunt Guo to invite a female doctor to give her scraping treatment.
Jiang Yanyi’s grandmother used to be a barefoot doctor1. When she was a child, her grandmother scraped her neck when she was sick. The sha turned purple and red. The more severe the cold, the darker the color of the sha.
When the female doctor was scraping Jiang Yanyi's back, Jiang Yanyi thought that he had to do business after recovering from the cold, and he was afraid that he would not be able to see anyone with the scars all over his neck, so he asked the female doctor to scrape his back.
Aunt Guo was afraid that she would be cold, so she added a few more charcoal braziers to the room.
Jiang Yanyi lay on the mattress, wearing only an apricot-colored sweater. The doors and windows of the room were closed tightly, and the light was a little dim, but her entire back was still glowing white, and her skin was white and delicate, like milk.
It is often said that beauty lies in bones, not skin. These bones are not only the bones on the face, but also the skeleton of the body. People with good looks tend to dress better than others.
Jiang Yanyi has a slender figure but a small frame, and everything about him is just right.
The female doctor was an elderly woman. She had traveled extensively in the past and had seen many beauties. She had never seen a woman with such a perfect bone structure and skin as Jiang Yanyi. Not to mention the men in the world, even a woman like her couldn't help but feel a little pity for her.
The wine was warming in the small stove next to her. When it was hot, she put some on her hands and rubbed Jiang Yanyi's back. "It will be painful for a while, so bear with it, girl."
Jiang Yanyi rested his chin on his folded hands. Because he was ill, his energy and spirit were not good, and he looked a little weak: "Thank you, doctor."
The female doctor dipped the scraping board in wine and scraped Jiang Yanyi's snow-white back. It seemed that there was no method, but each stroke followed the meridian acupoints.
Jiang Yanyi could still bear it at first, but later on his back tensed up in pain.
Aunt Guo was watching from the side, knowing that she was in pain, and consoled her, "The area where you just scraped has already developed sha, and once you're done scraping, the cold will be gone, so just bear with it."
He turned to the female doctor and said, "Doctor Fang, please be gentle."
The female doctor’s surname is Fang
For a moment, Jiang Yanyi seemed to remember something, but the pain in her back disrupted her thoughts.
Jiang Yanyi could only say something else to Aunt Guo to divert his attention: "When you went back to the kitchen to help these few days, did you find that someone was squeezing okra?"
Aunt Guo said: "The newcomers are all willing to work hard and don't seem to have any conflicts with Qiu Kui. I even asked them indirectly and they got along well with Qiu Kui."
The scraping board repeatedly scraped the same area and felt a bit uncomfortable, as if it was going to scrape off the skin. Jiang Yanyi grimaced in pain: "Where's the new waiter?"
Aunt Guo said, "That's a clever one. She calls everyone Qiu Kui Sister, but it doesn't seem like she would target Qiu Kui."
Jiang Yanyi couldn't figure out this result no matter how hard he tried.
The effect of scraping was very significant. That afternoon, Jiang Yanyi felt that he was no longer dizzy and his body was no longer heavy.
After perking up and looking at the noodle shop's earnings, Jiang Yanyi discovered that the profits from the noodle shop were already catching up with the antique soup shop. In the past two days, the shop also received several large orders from caravans. He was extremely surprised.
During the days when she was ill, the kitchen was run by Chef Yao. The chickens that Duke Chen had killed, and the ones that were not eaten were made into specialties by Chef Yao and sold to avoid waste. In the shop outside, Yang Xiu could also handle things on her own.
Jiang Yanyi decided to cook a delicious meal for everyone, just as a way to comfort them for their hard work during this period.
The kitchen was stocked with chicken, duck, fish and meat, but what surprised her was that there was a large piece of beef, which looked to be more than ten pounds. After asking chef Yao, she learned that a farmer's ox slipped on the ice and broke its leg. It could no longer plow the land, so it was sent to the government to be slaughtered. He asked for favors to buy the more than ten pounds of beef.
The ancients mostly preferred stewing beef and mutton to enjoy their original flavor.
Jiang Yanyi cut a pound of beef, sliced it into thin slices, wrapped it with coriander, and skewered it with bamboo sticks to make coriander beef.
She was always generous with food to the people in the restaurant, and she would cook meat herself. But when Jiang Yanyi was not around, when Chef Yao cooked for the people in the restaurant, perhaps because Chef Li had told him to, he would be very stingy with the oil and meat, as if he was afraid that a group of people would eat Jiang Yanyi out of money.
Therefore, every time Jiang Yanyi said he would cook himself, the new guys in the store were as happy as if it were New Year’s Day.
Jiang Yanyi had just recovered from a cold, and Aunt Guo didn't let her touch anything cold. She took care of all the washing and cutting of vegetables.
Jiang Yanyi took Qiu Kui and others to skewer the processed ingredients with bamboo sticks.
When the antique shop first opened, Jiang Yanyi sharpened a lot of spare bamboo sticks in order to attract customers to grill skewers on the street, and they are now in use.
The old people in the store thought Jiang Yanyi wanted to roast the meat, so they were very happy and worked efficiently.
Only the three newcomers had not tasted Jiang Yanyi's grilled skewers, but based on Jiang Yanyi's skills in making other dishes and the excitement of the old people in the restaurant, they guessed that there would be another delicious meal tonight.
Yang Xiu said very consciously: "Boss, I'll go clean the barbecue rack and light the charcoal first?"
Jiang Yanyi knew that they had probably misunderstood, and said with a smile: "We won't eat roasted meat tonight, let's eat skewers."
"What's a skewers?" asked Qiu Kui while stringing lotus root slices.
Jiang Yanyi explained to them: "It means putting the food on bamboo sticks into the pot and cooking it. When you eat, you can just pick up the bamboo sticks and eat them, or you can dip them in a dish."
Chuan Chuan Xiang is another form of hot pot. Jiang Yanyi plans to use the old hot pot recipe to make the soup base.
Ancient people seldom ate spicy food. The spicy hotpot currently offered in her store uses dogwood as the base ingredient. It is not even as spicy as pepper, but it has already made many diners shake their heads and say it is spicy.
At the beginning, Chef Yao discussed with Jiang Yanyi and suggested putting less dogwood in the pot, otherwise the pot would not sell well. However, those diners who shook their heads due to the spiciness a few days ago seemed to have gotten used to the taste and came to the store again not long after, and specifically asked for another serving of the dogwood spicy pot they had eaten last time.
Gradually, spicy hot pot became a major feature of Jiang Yanyi's Antique Soup Shop. After all, no other place had sold such a weird hot pot.
Some people can make clear soup, but the base of the spicy hotpot uses more than 30 spices. The chef of Lai Fu Antique Soup Shop tried it himself and couldn't taste all the ingredients with his tongue. He was also completely clueless about which seasonings to put in first and which later. So he had to give up on learning how to sell spicy hotpot from her.
When skewering the coriander beef, Jiang Yanyi remembered that there seemed to be some sour cowpeas in the kimchi jar, so he asked Qiukui to get some.
She cut the sour cowpeas into thumb-length pieces, wrapped two pieces of cowpeas with chopped beef, and then skewered them with bamboo sticks.
The sour cowpea beef is sour and spicy, with a unique flavor.
When she used the knife to cut the boneless chicken feet, she felt that the knife was exceptionally sharp. She praised it, "The knife made by a blacksmith is really useful. It is still as sharp as when it was first sharpened after so many years."
The new kitchen helper was a hardworking old lady named An. She had a very recognizable mole on her lip. Upon hearing this, she smiled and glanced at Qiu Kui: "The blacksmith comes to the store every now and then to help sharpen the knives! How can he not be fast?"
Qiu Kui was busy with his own work and ignored Mrs. An.
Jiang Yanyi was thinking that this might be related to Qiu Kui's abnormal behavior, but before she could ask, the new waiter came in from outside and said to Qiu Kui, "Sister Qiu Kui, that woman is looking for you again."
When Qiu Kui heard this, he was careless when skewering the meat and almost stabbed his hand.
Jiang Yanyi asked her: "What's wrong?"
Qiu Kui seemed to be trying to cover up something: "It's nothing, I'll be out for a while."
Seeing Qiu Kui go out with a heavy heart, Jiang Yanyi asked the waiter, "What's going on?"
The waiter scratched his head and said, "This... I don't know either. During the days when you went back to the Chu family, a woman came to the store to look for Sister Qiu Kui. She claimed to be Sister Qiu Kui's aunt, but when I asked Sister Qiu Kui, she said she was not."
Jiang Yanyi wiped his hands on his apron and said, "I'll go out and take a look."
Jiang Yanyi arrived outside the store but didn't see anyone. He lifted the bamboo curtain that blocked the wind and found that Qiu Kui and the woman were fighting outside. The woman was wearing coarse cloth clothes, had a strong body, high cheekbones, and a pair of drooping eyes. She didn't look like someone who was easy to get along with. One hand was holding Qiu Kui's arm, and the other hand was pinching the tender flesh on Qiu Kui's waist.
"What are you doing?" Jiang Yanyi shouted.
The woman saw that she was well-dressed and thought she was most likely the female owner of the antique soup shop. She then let go of her hand, put away her fierce look, and put on a smiling face: "You are the owner of this shop, right? I am the aunt of this girl. Her uncle is seriously ill. I want to take her back to see her uncle, but this girl refused to do so."
Qiu Kui's waist was still aching where the woman had pinched it. She was afraid that Jiang Yanyi would misunderstand her, so she almost immediately retorted, "He's not sick!"
The woman glared at Qiu Kui fiercely: "You damn girl, have you let a dog eat your conscience? You've been missing for all these years, and he's been so worried that he's sick! Now he's looking forward to seeing you."
Qiu Kui was afraid of being taken away, so he angrily said, "You're lying! You just want to sell me out again!"
The woman pretended to hit Qiu Kui: "You don't want to go back with me to see your uncle, and you can even say such a heartless thing!"
Jiang Yanyi pulled Qiu Kui behind him and said, "She is the one I bought. Auntie, just keep your word. If you resort to violence, I will report her to the government."
The woman quickly smiled at Jiang Yanyi and said, "I am just mad at this damn girl. Why is she such a liar?"
It would be strange if okra could lie.
Jiang Yanyi's tone was polite, but his words were not polite: "I bought Qiu Kui from the Xizhou camp. Why did she go to that kind of place? Auntie, do you really not know, or are you pretending not to know? Trafficking in people is punishable by death according to the law!"
The woman's momentum dropped significantly, and she said awkwardly, "I'm her aunt, how could I do such a thing as betraying my own niece."
Jiang Yanyi said: "When a good family girl sells herself into slavery, it is registered with the government. It records where she was sold and who sold her to."
The woman didn't seem to be afraid when she heard what Jiang Yanyi said. She even shouted, "She got lost on her own and was coaxed back by the brothel madam to sign a contract to sell her body. It has nothing to do with me!"
It seems that she was most likely the one who tricked Qiu Kui into signing a contract to sell herself, and then used the money to clear herself of all charges, which is why she is so fearless.
Jiang Yanyi was not angry, but smiled at her: "You also know that Qiu Kui's indenture contract is in my hands now. It is up to me to decide whether to let her go back or not."
The woman was furious at Jiang Yanyi's words.
Yang Xiu and the waiter saw that Jiang Yanyi had been out for such a long time and did not come back, so they followed him outside.
When the woman saw two men coming out of the store, one of whom had a fierce look on his face, she knew that she was in trouble and immediately gave up the idea of arguing with Jiang Yanyi. She said to Qiu Kui viciously, "Just wait for me," and left in disgrace.
Jiang Yanyi brought Qiu Kui into the store and found a secluded place before asking her, "Why didn't you tell me that your aunt came to see you before?"
Qiu Kui's eyes were red, like a child who had done something wrong: "Hua Hua is busy, I don't want to cause trouble for Hua Hua."
Jiang Yanyi sighed and said, "If you encounter something like this in the future, tell me the first time, understand?"
It is obvious that Qiu Kui's aunt is a hot-tempered person with a sharp tongue, but Qiu Kui is not good at speaking, so she cannot win an argument with her aunt even if she is right.
Okra nodded obediently.
Jiang Yanyi asked again: "Why did she come to you?"
Her aunt kept saying that she wanted to go back to see her uncle, but Qiu Kui said that her uncle was not sick. Jiang Yanyi was more inclined to believe that Qiu Kui's aunt lied, but Qiu Kui's indenture contract was in Jiang Yanyi's hands, so what could she do even if she coaxed Qiu Kui back
The author has something to say: There are still 3,000 words left, and it will be updated later~