Mooncakes with mung bean paste and red bean paste were priced at eight cents each, while those with salted egg yolk were priced at ten cents each.

As soon as the price was shouted out, the people who came to see the moon cakes immediately clicked their tongues.

“The Wuren ones only cost five cents each, and they are a bit bigger.”

“That’s right, your mooncakes can be eaten in one bite, and even a child doesn’t think they’re enough to fit between their teeth…”

“It has always been that you get what you pay for. If something is sold at a high price, there must be a reason for it.” Su Yujin immediately took a small knife and cut the mooncake on the plate into small pieces. “Taste the mooncake from our Su family, and you’ll naturally understand why other mooncakes, even if they are larger, are only sold for five wen.”

Naturally, no one refused when the free samples were offered to their mouths.

The onlookers each took a small piece and put it into their mouths, tasting it carefully.

The texture of the mooncake skin was extremely soft and waxy, as delicate as the expensive pastries sold in pastry shops. It was much more delicious than those hard mooncake skins that made a slight “click” sound when you took a bite.

The filling of the bean paste was also sweet and delicate, with occasional graininess, but it was not obtrusive. On the contrary, the more you chewed, the more fragrant and rich the aftertaste was.

It could be said that when the mooncake entered the mouth, even after swallowing it, it still left people with endless aftertaste, and they wanted to eat more to feel satisfied.

Although there were free food tastings, they were all people living in the same county, looking up and down, and twisting and turning, they were eager to be related to each other, and no one was embarrassed to take advantage of it.

So driven by the delicious food and greedy stomachs, some people have already opened their wallets and started choosing mooncakes.

“Five red bean pastes, five mung bean pastes.”

“I want six mung bean pastes.”

“Ten salted egg yolks!”

“…”

The mooncake stall suddenly became lively.

Just after lunchtime, all the mooncakes were sold out.

Ai Cao carefully counted the money they earned today, and her whole demeanor was full of excitement. “Miss, today we sold one tael and five qian of silver, making a net profit of one tael of silver.”

“It’s okay.” Su Yujin nodded.

It was not much, but mosquito legs were still meat no matter how small they were.

A little adds up to a lot.

And this was just the beginning. Ai Cao and Mother Liu were not yet proficient when they became proficient and let Shuangye and Qingkui help, they can make two to three hundred mooncakes a day. It will not be a problem at all.

Su Yujin thought this way and asked Ai Cao and Mother Liu to buy a few more cake molds, then go to the street to find a mason, and then temporarily set up a larger oven in Su Ji’s backyard.

Ai Cao got the order and quickly split up with Mother Liu to finish the work.

Ai Cao went to negotiate the mooncake mold. In order not to delay the business, the price was doubled, but she asked to get it tomorrow.

Mother Liu also successfully found the mason from the street and asked him to start working in the afternoon.

By the afternoon of the next day, all the noodles, wontons, and cold noodles in Su Ji were sold out. After the shop was cleaned up, Su Yujin led everyone in the shop to make moon cakes.

Wait until the next day and then set up a stall to sell at the door of Su Ji.

Because the mooncakes tasted really good, even though the price was indeed higher than others, the business was still very prosperous.

After all, the Mid-Autumn Festival only came once a year, and on such rare occasions, it was not unreasonable to indulge in something good. Mooncakes were a festive gift, a decoration, and you didn’t buy too many of them. It was acceptable to indulge in a bit of luxury spending, even if it was just a few dozen wen a year.

Business was booming, and the production of mooncakes increased, making Ai Cao and others even busier.

Seeing how hard everyone was working, Su Yujin asked Mama Liu to buy some fresh ingredients and come back to cook for everyone herself.

Chestnut chicken required only a few seasonings – scallions and ginger in the pot, with soy sauce for freshness. Slowly stewing it over a low flame was enough to achieve the perfect tenderness for the chicken chunks. The peeled chestnuts were soft, sticky, and sweet, leaving a full and satisfying aftertaste.

The braised fish was made with a special kind of grass carp that primarily fed on aquatic plants, ensuring a cleaner taste. The fish was expertly sliced, and marinated with salt and seasonings, and the thickness of the flour coating on the skin was carefully adjusted. When fried, the fish had an incredibly crispy and fragrant outer layer. The final touch was the rich and flavorful broth poured over it. As they savored the dish, even the soup on the plate was dipped by Qingkui and others to enjoy with bread.

Steamed pork with lotus leaf powder was made of marinated pork belly slices, wrapped in fried glutinous rice powder, wrapped in lotus leaves, and steamed in a basket. When eating, open the lotus leaves, the rich meat aroma, and fresh lotus leaf aroma, accompanied by the strong aroma of glutinous rice, made people want to smell it. After one bite, the meat was plump, juicy, tender, and fragrant…

Su Yujin even asked a tailor from the cloth shop to come to her door, helped Qing Kui and others measure the size, and made them custom-made new winter clothes.

Although the work in the past few days had indeed been harder than before, Qing Kui and others were very happy because they had better food and new clothes, and they worked harder and harder.

Even when chatting before going to bed at night, they did not forget to express their feelings.

“If I had known that I could live such a good life after being sold, I should have asked my aunt to sell me earlier.”

It was Qing Kui who spoke.

Her parents left early and because she was an only daughter with no older brothers, she could not inherit the family business. All the houses and fields in the family were given to her eldest uncle’s family. However, accordingly, her eldest uncle’s family needed to raise her help her find a good marriage, and prepare a dowry for her.

But the way her uncle raised her family was not very good. She could never finish the tasks assigned to her every day, and she had the worst three meals a day. She only ate one or two white flour steamed buns during holidays.

Even seeing that she looked rough due to working all day long, it was difficult for her to arrange a marriage, and when she didn’t get them a good bride price, he simply sold her to Ren Yazi.

Before she was sold, she heard other people in the village say that if she was sold, she would have to work as a servant in those high-rise courtyards. She would not be able to eat well or wear warm clothes, and she would have to sleep in a stable at night, work hard every day, and be beaten and scolded at every turn. If the master was unhappy, she would be beaten to death.

Qingkui was very scared at the time, and she often worked harder because of her aunt’s words: “If you don’t work hard, I’ll sell you.”

Although life in the uncle’s house was not easy, the uncle’s family could only do more work, get scolded a lot, but not beaten very much, and eat bran-thick vegetables and the like, at least she could still eat enough.

But now, it was very different from what she had imagined.

After she was sold, she had plenty to eat, warm clothes, and a nice Miss as her master. Her life was really beautiful.

Qing Kui was really glad that she took the initiative to stand up and caught Miss’ eyes that day.

“I don’t think so. The main reason is that we were lucky enough to meet Miss. If we were at someone else’s house, we definitely wouldn’t be so lucky.” Xue Rong replied.

Su Ji’s business was good and there were many customers on weekdays, so they would naturally chat about some gossip in the county during meals.

(End of chapter)

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