“I’m sorry, I can only buy two people today.” Su Yujin said.

She actually wanted to buy a few more.

After all, after the shop opened, she was confident that the business would be prosperous due to the taste, and servers were essential for the smooth running of the shop.

But her purse wouldn’t allow it.

In addition to the one hundred and eighty taels spent on paying for the store, she spent nearly ten taels on decorating the store, purchasing tables and chairs, etc. Her hands were almost empty now, and she had less than thirty taels.

As for girls with innocent family backgrounds here at the Brokerage firm, even if the firm gave her a preferential price, they cost thirteen taels each.

She really couldn’t afford one more!

The other four people wanted to fight for it again, but the manager stopped them.

The slave shop had its own rules. It existed to make things convenient for the buyers, solving their problems. There was absolutely no reason to cause trouble for the buyers.

The appearance of these four people had already caused the buyer a lot of trouble and lost the dignity of the business.

The manager was dissatisfied and scolded a bit too loudly.

When the four of them saw this, they didn’t dare to say anything anymore. They hurriedly went back to their houses and learned the rules according to the steward’s instructions.

As for the clerk, he took Su Yujin to hand over the money, sign the business documents, register with the Yamen, and hand over the deed of sale.

After working hard for an hour, after all the procedures were completed, Su Yujin and Ai Cao returned home with Zhou Xiaotao and He Erya.

The first thing she did when they got home was to change their name.

Su Yujin looked at Zhou Xiaotao, who looked thin and petite, with a reserved temperament, and He Erya, who looked a little rough, tall, and obviously had a bold temperament. Suddenly, the phrase “green and plump, red and thin”¹ came to her mind.

After thinking for a moment, Su Yujin had an idea in mind.

Zhou Xiaotao was renamed as Shuangye, and He Erya was renamed as Qingkui.

After receiving their new names, Shuangye and Qingkui knelt down to thank her and then followed Mama Liu to settle down.

There was an empty room in the courtyard, so Mother Liu placed the two of them in one place. Seeing that their clothes were shabby, she took out the half-worn clothes of fine cloth that she usually kept and gave them as a temporary measure.

Knowing that Shuangye was good at needlework, she found some new fine cloth from the box and asked Shuangye to help make new clothes for the two of them.

Knowing that Qing Kui was very strong, she asked her to put the long tables and benches used for setting up the stalls together and wash those that needed cleaning.

Both of them went about their work according to Mother Liu’s arrangements, in an orderly manner.

Ai Cao was there to help. If the two of them didn’t understand something or needed reminding, she would explain it carefully.

Seeing this, Su Yujin couldn’t help but nod.

Oh the importance of having capable people around you!

It seemed that if the Second Master came again next time, she must mention the slave deed of Ai Cao and Liu Mama.

Su Yujin lowered her head and thought. After a moment, her hand clenched into a fist and fell on her forehead.

Judging from the fact that the Second Master was so lukewarm towards her, with so little politeness and insufficient intimacy, he definitely happened to be just passing by when he came back last time. Did she really expect the Second Master to come back again?

Su Yujin gave a wry smile, put her plans on hold, and only focused on thinking about the upcoming opening of the shop.

Shuangye and Qingkui spent a day or two getting familiar with the situation at home and understanding the process of the wonton stall. Mother Liu and Ai Cao also began to teach them how to mince meat fillings, roll out wonton wrappers, and wrap wontons.

Both of them were not stupid, they learned quickly, and they cooperated well with Feng.

The wonton stall was open for a few more days, and in the blink of an eye, it was the 18th day of the 6th lunar month.

It was time to open the restaurant.

Amidst the sound of firecrackers, Su Yujin unveiled the red silk on the plaque and announced that the new store would be open for three days with a 10% discount on the entire store menu.

Amid the cheers and blessings from the audience, Su Ji opened the restaurant lively and welcomed the first batch of guests.

The restaurant was newly renovated, and Su Yujin had the windows enlarged, making the inside of the restaurant appear brighter and more spacious.

The tables and chairs were all new, clean, and tidy. The square, stable tables, and corresponding stools were much more comfortable than the simple long tables and stools outside before.

The most important thing was that Su Ji had new food here.

Hóng yóu liángpí.²

The chewy and translucent liángpí was topped with cucumber shreds, gluten pieces, sesame seeds, and crushed peanuts, topped with various sauces, and topped with a spoonful of red, fragrant spicy oil…

After stirring it evenly with chopsticks, the entire bowl became shiny and bright with the red oil. Taking a bite with chopsticks and sending it to her mouth!

Clear, fragrant, chewy, and smooth…

All kinds of flavors mixed and collided in the mouth, and even after swallowing, the strong taste still remained, making people unable to help but lick their lips, trying not to waste any delicious food.

This was simply a great appetizer in the summer!

The hóng yóu liángpí became the most popular type of food on the first day it was sold. Su Yujin originally prepared a day’s supply, but it was all sold before noon.

Although the sales volume of the scallion wontons and fried noodles was not as good as the hóng yóu liángpí, they were all sold out before the end of the day.

After the ingredients were sold out, everyone started to clean up the shop, had a simple lunch, and then went to the backyard to wash everything.

“Miss said that today is the first day of business, and business should be booming than usual, so I prepared a lot of extra things. I also thought that I would have to open for dinner today, but it turned out that they were all sold out in the afternoon.” Ai Cao pursed her lips and smiled, “It seems that we need to prepare more tomorrow?”

Su Yujin said with a smile, “It’s still the same quantity, there is no need to prepare more.”

If there’s enough preparation and ingredients available, then it’s necessary to continue opening the store for business, and the selling hours will become longer.

To prepare these meals, you have to start working early in the morning.

Chop the meat, mix the wonton stuffing, stir-fry the meat sauce, knead the noodles, roll out the noodles and wonton wrappers in advance, make liángpí, stir-fry the red oil, prepare various side dishes…

It can be said that since early morning, after everyone had a simple breakfast, they have been busy until now, selling the ingredients until they were depleted.

Even though the door was closed now, they still had to do some more cleaning and washing. After they were completely busy, it was time to prepare dinner.

If this business was really done at night she was afraid that they wouldn’t rest until the beginning of Haishi, and then she will be busy with her own personal affairs. The time she could rest in a day was simply too short.

People cannot bear such high-intensity work for a long time.

Even if you can bear it, you are afraid that your tired body will affect your mood, and you will not be able to do your best in your work.

When it comes to making money, you have to pay attention to moderation in many cases. Being greedy may not necessarily lead to more money.

Su Yujin didn’t have time to elaborate on these words, but Ai Cao nodded, “Yes, Miss.”

If Miss was doing it this way, there must be a reason for it. Just follow her instructions; you won’t go wrong.

She liked employees who obeyed orders completely.

The corners of Su Yujin’s mouth couldn’t help but curl up, and she asked with a smile, “You’ve been counting here for a long time, and you’ve been doing calculations for a long time, how much money did we make today?”

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Footnote

1. This means an idiom  The green leaves are luxuriant and the flowers fade away / Refers to the late spring season / It also describes the scene of spring remnants
2. Spicy Cold Skin noodles. https://thewoksoflife.com/cold-skin-noodles-liangpi/

T/N Are you liking the images with my recent posts? I am using Microsoft Bing AI image generator which is pretty good and kind of addictive. My new favorite thing is finding the best image for the post.

Also thank you Esmerelda, for your Ko-Fi donation.

We also have a local version of this dish, here in India in the North-East.