Sun Yuexin and Li Lizhen at school are eagerly looking forward to the holiday, and Xiaofeng at home is also counting the days.
Unfortunately, high school students no longer have the benefit of two days off a week, and they only have one day of rest a week during summer hibernation.
Sunday finally arrived, and Xia Mian had a rare chance to sleep in. In a daze, she noticed that the quilt was carefully lifted, and a soft little thing crawled into her arms.
She closed her eyes and smiled, lowered her head and rubbed the child's head with her chin, "Why are you awake so early?"
Xiao Feng said happily, "Auntie doesn't have to go to school."
"Yes, Auntie won't go to school today, so she'll spend the day with Xiao Feng!"
Xiao Feng rolled happily in her arms.
The aunt and nephew stayed in bed for a while when they heard some commotion outside: fresh grass carp had been delivered.
The main ingredient for making fish tofu and fish balls is fish meat. Because their family’s demand is stable now, Xia Wenyue has contacted the supplier to deliver the goods on time every day.
After the fresh fish is delivered, the scales and bones have to be scraped off manually. Usually, Xia Wenyue gets up early in the morning to do the work.
In the beginning, Mao Huimei would get up early to help, but after she was covered in fishy smell, Xia Wenyue refused to let her help.
After all, Mao Huimei still has to go to work, and she is afraid of the bad influence.
But on weekends everyone goes to help.
After Xia Mian and Xiao Feng got dressed and washed up, they went to take a walk around the back room.
"There are so many fish here?" Xia Mian was a little surprised.
Xia Wenyue said happily while she was handling the fish skillfully, "A few days ago, Lao Jia from the compound introduced a chef from a restaurant to us. Today, the big restaurant officially placed an order for quite a large quantity."
"And those hot pot restaurants and barbecue stalls each demand more on weekends."
Mao Huimei also had a smile on her face, "There are quite a few sold individually."
When Xia Wenyue first started selling sesame cakes, she would give a few pieces to old customers to try. After all, this was a fresh food. At that time, the first month of the lunar year had not yet passed, and many families would eat hot pot. After trying it once, they fell in love with it.
Nowadays, neighbors are quite close to each other. If one person knows something, then everyone will know about it. Gradually, every day a neighbor would come and weigh one or two kilograms of food to cook.
"I think the machine can be used for half a day today." Mao Huimei said with a smile, "This way we can earn 100 or 200 yuan a day."
Xia Wenyue had a relaxed smile on her face, "That's about right." At this rate, if there are a few more big customers and the machine can run all day, the money spent on the machine can be earned back in a year.
Xia Mian said, "Second Aunt, you can hire two people like Lao Jia and ask them to help with sales. If the products are sold through them, give them some commission based on the sales volume. This way, you can expand faster."
Xia Mian knew that Xia Wenyue was a cautious person. She was enterprising but not reckless. The conditions were not ripe yet, and she would definitely not agree to directly hiring someone to do sales, so it was also good to do it as a part-time job.
Nowadays, everyone would be happy if they could earn some extra money.
Xia Wenyue threw the fish bone aside and said, "Hey! This is a good idea!"
She thought quickly, "Old Jia happens to be a ready-made signboard. After this order is sold, I will see how much I can give him. I will give it to him directly and let him promote it for us."
Mao Huilan said, "It seems like their family has a lot of brothers, maybe there are relatives willing to do it."
Mao Huimei smiled and said, "If we have more orders, we will have to hire people, right?"
"We have to hire someone," Xia Wenyue said, "but we have to find someone reliable. After all, we have to set up the skewers stall, and the stall at home still needs manpower."
Mao Huilan said worriedly, "Can we hire outsiders for this? What if they are like Wang Pangma and secretly learn how to do it themselves? We will be so sad."
Xia Wenyue was obviously worried about this as well. "So we have to look for it slowly. Mom will think about how to find it."
In fact, division of labor and cooperation is the best, but their place is so small that it is too difficult to hide the technology.
"If the order volume is really large," Xia Mian said, "we still have to open a factory."
After Xia Wenyue did it herself, she also realized the benefits of the factory. It not only saves time and energy, but also reduces costs and keeps effective process formulas confidential.
"I went to see that instant noodle factory." Xia Wenyue said helplessly, "I'm afraid it won't be sold without 40,000 or 50,000 yuan."
She obviously had her own ideas. "Anyway, we can hire someone to handle grass carp first, and then we can think about the other things later."
Xia Mian didn't say anything else. It's easy to say that starting a business from scratch, but there are many things to do in the process. At most, she was just talking and providing Xia Wenyue with some reliable ideas, but it was Xia Wenyue herself who was taking the first step.
"Sister Mian, didn't you say you would cook for a few days?" Mao Huilan said expectantly, "Go ahead and do it, I'm hungry."
“Wait!”
I said I would accompany Xiaofeng today, so Xia Mian decided to make something cute for him to eat.
The dough on the stove had already risen. When Xiao Feng untied the lid, she couldn't help but exclaim, "Wow! Green, orange, and yellow!"
Xia Mian stayed up very late yesterday, using spinach juice, carrot juice and pumpkin juice, milk and eggs to ferment the colored dough.
At this moment, they are all swollen and have absorbed alkali during summer hibernation. I start to make small animals for the children.
Xiao Feng's eyes lit up, "Little pig."
Looking at his surprised expression, Xia Mian couldn't help showing off her skills and made him a model of everything she could think of:
"snails!"
"Butterfly!"
“Flower!”
Xiao Feng touched it unconsciously with her little hand. Xia Mian looked up and saw Mao Huizhu coming out of the east room with sleepy eyes outside the window. It was obvious that she had just woken up.
She smiled slyly at Xiao Feng and whispered, "We'll scare your Aunt Hui Zhu later."
As she spoke, she quickly grabbed a piece of green noodles and pinched it into a caterpillar.
The method of making caterpillars is very simple. Just roll the green noodles into long strips as thick as your thumb, use the back of a knife to press out horizontal textures at two millimeters intervals, and finally use two chopsticks to gently squeeze along the direction of the strips. Use scissors to cut out a row of claws along both sides, and a fat caterpillar will be formed. Finally, use two black sesame seeds to add eyes.
It was very lifelike. After Xia Mian was done, she suddenly stretched it in front of Xiao Feng. Xiao Feng was so scared that he turned around and hugged Xia Mian's legs.
This made her laugh out loud, and Xiao Feng couldn't help but smile when she came to her senses.
Hearing Mao Huizhu's footsteps approaching, Xia Mian made a gesture to Xiao Feng to keep quiet.
Xiao Feng turned around, lay on the panel and began to stare at the door.
There was a panel right at the entrance to the kitchen. Xia Mian pushed the caterpillar towards Mao Huizhu the moment she lifted the curtain, "Wow, look, a caterpillar!"
Mao Huizhu screamed in fear, slapped him, turned around and ran, "Oh, Mom! There's a big bug in the house!"
Xiao Feng was stunned for a moment, stood on tiptoe to look at the lump on the panel, blinked and looked up at Xia Mian, "Aunt, it's flattened."
Xia Mian didn't know whether to laugh or cry, "Yes, it was beaten." Huizhu was a very wild girl.
Xiao Feng tiptoed towards Xia Mian, staring at the dough in her hands.
Xia Mian laughed and teased him intentionally, "What else do you want to pinch?"
Xiao Feng pursed her lips, her grape-like eyes flashed with a hint of cunning, and she whispered, "Caterpillar."
Xia Mian couldn't help laughing, "Okay, pinch the caterpillar."
After a while, Mao Huizhu dragged Mao Huilan to the kitchen.
My eyes widened when I saw a row of green, yellow and orange caterpillars.
Mao Huizhu reacted and immediately showed an excited smile on her face, "Sister Mian, give me one!"
Xia Mian slapped her little hand down, "Take it after it's steamed. It will be flat if you pinch it raw."
Mao Huilan also found it interesting. "This one is so similar, especially the green one. It makes people feel creepy."
Mao Huizhu pointed at the green dough and said, "Sister Mian, pinch this, pinch this!"
So under Mao Huizhu's strong request, not many cute little animals were made, but a lot of caterpillars were made.
When they were out of the pot, they crawled on the steamer one by one. Although they looked cute because of their swelling, some of them looked hideous because of their deformation.
Mao Huizhu immediately picked out the scariest looking one and said, "Sister Mian, I want that one!"
Xia Mian picked up one for her and Xiao Feng respectively. The two children held them in their hands and froze them for a while. After they cooled down a little, they certainly didn't eat them. They just took them and ran to the opposite yard.
Xia Mian shook his head and laughed, and whispered, "The meal will be ready soon, call Chenchen and come over quickly."
While the buns were being steamed, Xia Mian had already prepared several dishes, and all he needed was an egg soup to complete the meal.
Xia Mian looked at the time. She remembered that Ning Shaobai seemed to be on duty today.
He dug out an aluminum lunch box, put a few pieces of thick omelette, braised beef in soy sauce, and chicken wings in it, picked up two pieces of hand-torn cabbage with chopsticks, and paired it with a few crispy pickled radish strips, and then put in the caterpillars with the most ferocious looks.
Xia Mian chuckled, put his lunch box into his cloth bag, and prepared to go next door.
Just as he walked to the door, he saw Ning Shaobai passing by. Xia Mian smiled and said, "What a coincidence."
She handed over the bag, "The lunch box is a thank you to Dr. Xie Ning for his great help."
Ning Shaobai looked at the cloth bag hesitantly, full of vigilance, "Are you doing something new again?"
Xia Mian was immediately hurt and said, "Doctor Ning, how could you think of me like this? It hurts my heart so much. I am obviously repaying the kindness."
As soon as she finished speaking, Chenchen screamed and ran out from the opposite door, with Mao Huizhu holding a hideous caterpillar and laughing behind him.
Xiao Feng's short legs couldn't run as fast as them, so he followed them out slowly. When he saw Xia Mian and Ning Shaobai, his eyes lit up. He ran over with his hand holding up the bug, pouting his little mouth and making a "woooo" sound to scare Ning Shaobai.
Ning Shaobai took a step back, and Xiao Feng immediately chuckled, "Uncle Ning."
Ning Shaobai pulled his silly hair, raised his hand and knocked Xia Mian on the head, "Repaying a favor?"
"Isn't it? So cute. I'm keeping you in mind." Xia Mian's tone was a little regretful. Alas, these naughty kids.
Ning Shaobai rolled his eyes and took the cloth bag, "Then I am very grateful to you."
The three children, each with a caterpillar, played with it for almost the entire morning, scaring one or another out of the blue. The adults only had to show a scared look to make them laugh.
At noon, I was forced to take a nap on the bed due to summer hibernation.
"Chenchen, aren't you going out to play with your dad today? Hurry up, you can see your dad when you wake up."
"Xiao Feng, we are going out this afternoon as well. Have you forgotten?"
"Huizhu, what time did you meet with Niuniu?"
Only then did the three little guys calm down.
After an hour's nap, the three children woke up one after another. Xia Mian took Xiao Feng and Ning Shaoyun to meet up and prepare to go to the art exhibition together.
Most of them were works by Zhu Yuanhai’s last disciples. Ning Shaoyun specifically told Xia Mian to let Xiao Feng go and take a look.
Although Xiaofeng has not formally started learning painting skills, he has been exposed to art since he was a child, and he has a strong talent in this area.
Huo Xuewen drove them there. He had promised Chenchen that he would take him ice skating, so he took Chenchen out to play today.
By the way, they took it to the gallery.
Before getting off the car, Ning Shaoyun was worried and gave Huo Xuewen and Chenchen a few more instructions.
They both listened attentively until Ning Shaoyun was about to get off the car, when Huo Xuewen suddenly spoke up, "Xiaoyun, when do you finish? I'll pick you up."
Ning Shaoyun smiled and said, "No, I can't say for sure. Just have fun with Chenchen."
Huo Xuewen pursed his lips and said nothing more. Xia Mian could see that he was not speechless like before, but was being too cautious, as if he was afraid of displeasing Ning Shaoyun.
Xia Mian sighed secretly but didn't say anything. After all, this was Ning Shaoyun's private matter. She just needed to support her when she needed support.
There were a lot of people at the exhibition. After all, Zhu Yuanhai was a leader in the industry, and his disciples naturally attracted a lot of attention, so many people came to visit.
Ning Shaoyun took Xia Mian and Xiao Feng to the lounge upstairs first. Zhu Yuanhai and several of his disciples were there.
As soon as Xia Mian took Xiao Feng in, there were several shouts of surprise.
"Hey, baby Xiao Feng is here!"
"Little Junior Brother, come to my place, we haven't seen each other for a long time."
"Xiao Feng, let me hug you, I'm too nervous."
"… "
In almost the blink of an eye, the little guy was surrounded.
Xiao Feng seemed to be used to such scenes. Seeing his senior brothers and sisters reaching out their claws, he quickly ran to Zhu Yuanhai, hugged his legs and asked for help: "Teacher!"
Zhu Yuanhai touched his little head with a smile and said to several disciples, "Stop teasing him. What? Aren't you afraid of embarrassing me now?"
Several senior brothers and sisters laughed:
"Oh, I'm not nervous anymore as long as Xiao Feng is here."
"Let baby Xiao Feng take a look at our paintings and we'll have an idea."
Although Xiao Feng doesn't understand art collections, he has a very keen and rich appreciation of art. In short, any painting that can impress him must be good.
"Baby Xiaofeng, come on, let's go downstairs and look at the paintings."
Xiao Feng looked up at Zhu Yuanhai, who said with a smile, "Go ahead, Xiao Feng should take a closer look."
Xiao Feng immediately ran towards Xia Mian at a high speed, "Auntie!" for fear of being caught by his fellow brothers and sisters.
It made everyone laugh.
"How come Junior Brother is becoming more and more clever?"
"Exactly. The calf was moving so fast that I couldn't catch it."
"Yeah, he was so well behaved at the beginning."
Xia Mian laughed. Although she was not very familiar with them, she knew them all. When Xia Mian brought Xiao Feng to pay New Year's greetings to Zhu Yuanhai during the Chinese New Year this year, these senior brothers and sisters gave him red envelopes.
Obviously, everyone dotes on him.
But Xiao Feng obviously wanted to be with her aunt more today, so she hugged Xia Mian's legs tightly and said, "Aunt, look at the painting."
Xia Mian picked him up, and several senior brothers and sisters followed him, "Let's go, let Xiao Feng give us some 'comments'."
Upon hearing this, Xiao Feng hugged Xia Mian's neck tightly, as if he was afraid that these people would snatch him away.
One of the sisters couldn't help but stroke his ahoge and said, "Don't worry, I won't rob you today. Can we watch from side by side?"
Xia Mian didn't know much about painting, but Xiao Feng immediately became focused after seeing the painting. He seemed to be able to sense the wonderful world behind the colors.
Several fellow students followed behind them, watching and discussing in low voices, then teased Xiao Feng and said that they felt very moved by the paintings.
If Xiao Feng looks relaxed, happy, sad, or amazed, the owner of the painting will be very happy.
"Look, our Xiao Feng felt it."
"Haha, it's all right, I'm not nervous anymore."
"I think it won't embarrass the teacher."
…
Everyone had their own things to do during the viewing, so Xia Mian took Xiao Feng to look at it slowly. Before they knew it, more than two hours had passed. After viewing the last painting, Xia Mian turned back to look for Ning Shaoyun.
She was surrounded by two young men and seemed a little uncomfortable.
Xia Mian hurried over and saw that one of the young men looked familiar.
The young man said excitedly, "Teacher Xinyun, I didn't expect to meet you here."
As he said this, he slapped his forehead and said, "Look at what I said. It's normal for you to come to Professor Zhu's student's art exhibition."
Xia Mian recognized him as Wei Hongqiu, who had admired Ning Shaoyun very much at Old Master Ning’s birthday party.
It’s just that Xia Mian didn’t recognize the young man next to him, and Ning Shaoyun’s discomfort seemed to come from this young man.
The other person was well-dressed and handsome, with a pair of gold-rimmed glasses that gave him an unpredictable and mysterious aura, but the way he stared at Ning Shaoyun was a little... burning
"So it's Teacher Xinyun. I've heard a lot about you." The young man said, "I'm Ren Xiude..."
Wei Hongqiu couldn't help but ask, "Teacher Xinyun hasn't released any works to the public yet. How did you know about this, Brother Ren?"
Xia Mian couldn't help laughing. This young master was still very cute.
Ren Xiude seemed a little embarrassed. He looked at Wei Hongqiu helplessly and said to Ning Shaoyun, "Excuse me," and then continued to introduce himself, "I like art very much, so I opened this gallery."
Ning Shaoyun smiled and said politely, "So you are the owner of the gallery. You are young and promising."
Ren Xiude smiled and said, "Thank you, Teacher Xinyun."
He looked at his watch and said, "At this time... My friend has just opened a French restaurant. The food is very good. I wonder if I would have the honor to invite you for afternoon tea."
Ning Shaoyun said hurriedly, "I'm sorry, I have some plans later, so I won't go."
Ren Xiude said regretfully, "We can only do it another day. Why don't you leave me your contact information, Teacher Xinyun?"
This skillful pick-up technique made Xia Mian feel strange.
Ning Shaoyun smiled and said nothing, which naturally meant rejection.
Ren Xiude smiled and said, "It seems that I was presumptuous. I thought we were both in the art circle and would have intersections in the future."
Ning Shaoyun felt embarrassed, so Xia Mian quickly stepped forward to hold her arm and said, "Sister Ning, are you okay? It's getting late, we should leave."
Ning Shaoyun breathed a sigh of relief and said to Ren Xiude and Wei Hongqiu, "Then I'll take my leave first."
Wei Hongqiu treated her like an idol and said excitedly, "Good luck, Teacher Xinyun. I look forward to seeing your work."
Ning Shaoyun smiled.
The three of them went upstairs to say hello to Zhu Yuanhai and the others, and then came down to go home. When crossing a street, Xiao Feng slowed down his pace and looked around frequently.
Xia Mian was puzzled, "What's wrong?"
Xiao Feng pointed at the ancient shop and said, "Aunt, antiques."
aestivation:…
This area is full of galleries and art museums, and there are indeed many wealthy people and collectors coming and going, so this street naturally developed into an antique street.
Ning Shaoyun couldn't help but laugh, "He remembers it very well. Now his brothers and sisters all know that he likes antiques."
"Every time Xiao Feng was hiding from them, as soon as we mentioned there were antiques, he would show up obediently."
Xia Mian didn't know whether to laugh or cry. She touched the child's ahoge and said, "How about we go buy one?" At least this obsession is gone. Otherwise, wouldn't it be easy to be cheated
Ning Shaoyun whispered, "Although this street is famous, in fact, everyone in Old Yan City knows that the real antiques can be found in Zhuyu Lane, and these are just some nouveau riche from outside."
Xia Mian immediately clapped his hands and said, "That's perfect!" Xiao Feng didn't know whether it was real or not anyway, so as long as it was bought in the Antique Street, it would be fine. Let's get rid of this obsession first, and he will understand when he grows up.
So Xia Mian took Xiao Feng for a stroll. Although they decided to buy one at random, since they had to spend money, they might as well buy one that was nice-looking or practical.
"Boss, this is really the real thing," the man said anxiously. "The other one I bought at the auction last year was sold for 100,000 yuan. I only want 20,000 yuan. Damn, 20,000 yuan will do."
"I'm really in urgent need of money."
"Come on, all ten people who sell fake antiques say the same thing," the boss said, obviously not buying it. "I'll only charge you two hundred yuan for this bottle."
"That won't do." The man's voice sounded like he was about to cry.
Xia Mian took a curious look and saw a man wearing a military green jacket with patches all over it. The man looked relatively young, but his face was filled with sorrow.
The faces of the few bosses who came out to watch the fun were normal. It seemed that this kind of thing happened very often here.
Xia Mian didn't care at first, but Xiao Feng suddenly stopped and stared at the colorful bottle in the man's arms.
aestivation:
Xiao Feng pointed at the bottle and said, "Antique!"
Xia Mian was stunned for a moment, then looked at the bottle, which did look familiar.
Ning Shaoyun also had some vague memories, "The enamel-colored vase from the previous dynasty at the previous auction?"
"An enameled jade vase with wild goose pattern." Xiao Feng said in a baby voice.
aestivation:!!!
Are all geniuses like this
The man holding the porcelain bottle's dull eyes suddenly lit up after hearing these words, and he looked at Xia Mian excitedly, "You know it!"