Jiang Miao set up the stall for two days and earned more than two taels of silver after deducting the cost. He stopped setting up the stall on the third day. Firstly, there were many people who were learning from him. If they used his ideas while others made more beautiful lanterns, he would not be competitive.
Secondly, they had agreed to set up the stall first and then have a good time for the day. Jiang Miao didn't want it to end up like the last Buddhist meeting, where he went there and didn't even know what it was like.
On the contrary, Xiao Shitou had become addicted to collecting money these days, and was a little disappointed when he heard that he would not be setting up a stall anymore. But when Jiang Miao took him for a stroll on the street, he immediately became happy.
They sat on the street and ate a bowl of Yuanxiao each. They also bought a mutton pie to share while they were walking. When they watched the monkey show, the monkey came with a tray to collect money. Xiao Shitou threw two copper coins at Jiang Miao's signal. This special joy made Xiao Shitou's face still red when he returned home, and his eyes were shining brightly.
After the Lantern Festival, all academies and private schools will start classes.
Little Shitou, carrying the cloth schoolbag that Jiang Miao had sewn for him, came to Yu Xiucai's house with both nervousness and anticipation. Jiang Miao went forward and knocked on the door, and a fat boy came to open the door.
"You are here to study, right? Come in quickly. The teacher is waiting inside."
Jiang Miao led Xiao Shitou inside and presented his apprenticeship gift, book fees, first month's tuition and food expenses. Because the private school was a bit far from where he lived, he had to go back and forth four times a day. After discussing with Xiao Shitou, Jiang Miao decided to eat here for the first month. If the food was not good, he would think of another way next month.
Yu Xiucai took the money and went inside with Xiao Shitou. Jiang Miao waited outside for a while and started talking to the fat boy.
"Little brother, you are also studying here, right? How long have you been studying here?"
The fat boy replied in a serious tone, "I came here when Master Yu started accepting students, and I have been studying here for more than a year. Is that your brother inside?"
"Yes, his name is Xiao Shitou, and his full name is Jiang Lei. What about you?"
"My name is Xu Yucheng." He was older and a little embarrassed to say his nickname.
"Yucheng, my brother just came here to study, and he is a little timid. Could you please take care of him more, please?" Jiang Miao thought he looked very reliable.
"I will. I am the boss here. Master Yu always taught us to love each other. Quarrels and fights are not allowed here."
"Then I'm relieved. By the way, how many people have you accepted in total?" Jiang Miao thought, if he wants to send food over one day, it would be awkward if he brings too little. This is to help Xiao Shitou establish good relationships with his classmates as soon as possible.
"Including your brother, there are nine people in total."
Jiang Miao was even more satisfied when he heard this. Compared with modern large classes with dozens of students, this small class teaching is clearly the treatment for rich people to go to school.
As they were chatting, Yu Xiucai came out with Xiao Shitou. Xiao Shitou was so excited that he had just been taken to worship many portraits by the teacher.
After asking for the daily pick-up time, Jiang Miao hurried back to buy ingredients. The bun stall had to be opened as soon as possible. Since the seventh day of the first lunar month, including rent and tuition fees, he had spent more than two taels of silver. Although the lantern business made some money, if he didn't open it again, he would have to eat up his savings.
"Brother, how much is this pig skin?" Jiang Miao originally planned to make meat buns to sell, because Manager Wang and the others had been talking about it for too long, but when he saw the pig skin peeled off in the butcher shop, his mind changed instantly.
The butcher looked at him and said, "This stuff costs ten cents a pound." Pig skin takes a lot of firewood to cook, and it's not very tasty. Unless you really want to taste the meat, you generally won't buy it. He usually doesn't shave the pig skin alone, but sells it with the meat. But if someone doesn't like it very much, he will let him cut it off before buying it.
Jiang Miao was delighted because it was half the price of meat!
"Weigh all these pig skins for me, and give me a piece of meat. Cut it like this." Jiang Miao gestured on the meat with his hand and asked for a piece of three-layer pork belly.
The butcher quickly weighed the meat for him. Jiang Miao took the meat wrapped in dry lotus leaves, put it in the basket, and paid happily.
"Brother, do you sell pig skin every day?"
“It’s hard to say, sometimes there is, sometimes there isn’t.”
"Thanks. Then please save some for me sometimes. I will come here to buy groceries every day."
Jiang Miao returned home and boiled the pig skin into pig skin jelly. He then mixed it with lean meat to make stuffing and wrapped it into small buns the size of his palm.
After making them, he steamed a basket to test the taste. There is a saying about eating soup dumplings: "Lift gently, move slowly, open the window first, then suck the soup." Jiang Miao's soup dumplings have thin and tough skin, fresh and thick soup, and the meat filling inside is also very smooth and tender. After eating them, he felt that he had performed exceptionally well today.
Looking at the sky, it was almost time for the agreed school to end. Jiang Miao hurried to the private school. When he got there, school had just ended. Yu Xiucai led a group of children out, and Jiang Miao saw the smallest one, Xiao Shitou. Xiao Shitou also saw his brother and was about to run over, but suddenly turned back to say goodbye to the teacher, and then ran towards Jiang Miao.
Jiang Miao reached out his hand to catch him, smiled and greeted Yu Xiucai, and learned about Xiao Shitou's performance in the private school that day. Knowing that he performed very well today, Jiang Miao was very happy, thanked Master Yu, took Xiao Shitou home, and cooked a lot of delicious food for him.
As expected, the new soup dumplings received a lot of praise from everyone. The soup dumplings were small, and although they contained meat, Jiang Miao didn't sell them for a high price. The meat dumplings on the market were five cents for two, so he sold them for that much. At first, some people thought they were too expensive, but after seeing others enjoying the food, they still paid for them.
After eating, Shopkeeper Wang and Shopkeeper Chen wiped their mouths and said, "That's how it should be. We've been eating your vegetarian dumplings for almost half a year, and today we finally get to eat some meat. We'll come again tomorrow, and it's getting late, so leave half a basket for us."
"Alas," Shopkeeper Wang sighed after hearing what he said, "You are in a bad situation. Others are worried about not being able to sell their products, but you are the only one who has to worry about not being able to buy them." The lotus root buns were only made once, and the dried tofu buns were less than the radish buns every day. The newly-produced soup dumplings were sometimes available and sometimes not.
"Isn't there anything we can do? I'll wait until I make enough money to expand my business, and I'll make sure you have whatever you want to eat." Jiang Miao said with a smile. The ancient times were different from the modern times, where you could buy vegetables everywhere in the market or supermarket.
After setting up the stall, Jiang Miao went home with his load on his shoulders. Little Shitou had packed up and was sitting on the threshold of the main room with his cloth schoolbag on his back, mumbling something while practicing calligraphy with his hands.
This serious little look made Jiang Miao feel that life was becoming more and more promising.
In the next few days, after sending Xiao Shitou to the private school, he did not rush back, but wandered around the streets, intending to investigate the market and see what else he could do.
This investigation did lead him to some discovery. He found that most of the shops on Yifeng Street were food-related, such as grain and oil shops, southern goods shops, sauce shops, etc., and there were also many food stalls. Therefore, except for the morning market with the largest flow of people, it was not cost-effective to set up a stall to sell food here. After a day of operation, the goods sold would probably not be much more than those sold in the morning market for only one hour.
However, most of the shops on Fulai Street, two streets away, are related to daily necessities, such as clothes, fabrics, rouge, powder, wood, furniture, etc. There are also teahouses and theaters there, and the consumer group is obviously richer than that of Yifeng Street. After Jiang Miao initially decided that this street was his key research target, he also went to the teahouse on purpose.
There was a storyteller in the teahouse, who was Mr. Meng, who lived in the same courtyard with him. Mr. Meng had specially included the Jiang family's steamed bun shop in his storytelling, hoping to bring some business to Jiang Miao. Unfortunately, there was a distance between here and there, and few people were willing to walk over for breakfast.
Jiang Miao took a table and sat down when the waiter came over. He knew Jiang Miao's spending level as soon as he saw his eyes, and recommended him a large bowl of tea made from tea leaves. Although they were also called Biluochun or Longjing tea, the prices of the two were very different.
"Give me a pot of Tieguanyin. By the way, do you have any snacks for sale?" Jiang Miao asked casually, but this was actually the purpose of his visit. He had asked Mr. Meng before, but unfortunately Mr. Meng had never asked for snacks. After drinking the free tea, he couldn't eat anything else.
"As for snacks, there are so many of them, including cloud cakes, osmanthus cakes, mung bean cakes, and almond cakes." The second brother recommended a few relatively affordable ones to him.
"Why are they all sweet? Are there any salty ones?"
"We have salty ones too. Peanuts and melon seeds are all salty." said the second brother.
Having already found out what he wanted to know, Jiang Miao did not ask any more questions. He asked for a stack of mung bean cakes and ate them with tea. During this time, he also listened to a storyteller. To be honest, Mr. Meng's level was quite good. He told an ordinary story with ups and downs and twists and turns.
Jiang Miao didn't dare to go into the theater, it was not a place he could spend money. He wandered around outside for a while, and finally spent some money to ask the old man guarding the door what kind of food was available inside. There were more food in the theater than in the teahouse, but most of them were sweets. It seemed that people here were more accustomed to eating sweet snacks in the afternoon.
Jiang Miao didn't plan to sell sweets. Although this thing seemed to be more in line with the tastes of the people, it was also because of this that almost all the food sold on the street was sweet.
There is an old saying that goes, "It's hard to satisfy everyone." This is exactly what is meant by the differences caused by different eating habits. Jiang Miao still doesn't believe it. In such a big street, there are not many people who like salty food? Maybe a new market can be opened up. The first business is always more profitable. Of course, there may be losses. But in business, it is normal to make losses and gains.
So, he decided to come here every afternoon to sell salty food. There are many kinds of salty snacks, but Jiang Miao is a convenient person. He has to sell buns at the morning market every day anyway, so he might as well sell buns in the afternoon. However, he has to change the method. He wants to fry the buns. When the fried buns are done, the fragrance is so fragrant that it will make you hungry even if you are not hungry.
To make fried dumplings, you need to prepare tools. This street is a little far from where you live, so it is not practical to carry the load. Jiang Miao thought about making a small cart. It doesn't need to be too big, just enough to hold the stove, the iron pot and the ingredients.
He went to the carpenter's shop and showed the crooked picture he had drawn with the pen and paper of the little stone to the carpenter. The carpenter took the paper, frowned and looked at it for a long time, and finally fell into silence.
Jiang Miao was a little embarrassed and hurried to explain. After explaining for a long time, the master finally understood what each line on the diagram represented. He said, "I'll try to do it. Don't blame me if it doesn't work. Also, if it doesn't work, you have to pay for the wood and labor."
"Okay, as long as you can make it for me!" Jiang Miao felt that making this thing should not be difficult. The master just had never done it before. Once he got the hang of it, he would be able to do it quickly.
He paid the deposit and left the carpenter's shop. Afterwards, he went to a blacksmith's shop. The blacksmith stood in front of a red-hot furnace, swinging a big hammer and hitting the red-hot iron again and again, causing sparks to fly.
Jiang Miao was afraid of burning himself, so he stood by and waited for a long time before he went up to the blacksmith to discuss what he wanted to order, a large flat iron pot.
There was no need to draw a picture of this thing. He just roughly described the shape and the master nodded. For them, making a flat-bottomed pan was actually easier than making a round-bottomed one.
Iron was quite expensive these days, and Jiang Miao spent half a tael of silver on such a round lump. In addition, he had to go to the other side to register his name and place of origin. There was no other way. The imperial court had always kept a tight control on ironware, and its use must be made clear. In case of a war in the future, he could recycle some of it according to the booklet and use it to refine weapons.
Jiang Miao's name had appeared several times above, and he secretly warned himself that no matter where he went in the future, he must not leave behind the pots he bought.
Three days later, Jiang Miao got back the cart and the iron pot. The carpenter said that it might not be possible to make it, but the finished product was quite good and perfectly met Jiang Miao's expectations.
The cart has a board with wooden wheels at the bottom, and three-layer shelves at both ends for storing things. There are four sticks on top of the shelves. If a piece of cloth is tied on them, it can also be used to block the sun and dust. There is an empty space in the middle for the stove.
After everything was ready, at noon that day, Jiang Miao pushed his cart full of things and went out excitedly.
(End of this chapter)