Chapter 141: Worry-Free Friendship Price

  "How could she blame you?! Alright, don't cry, you're her own mother, and she's not far away, how could she refuse to see you? As long as you truly repent, in the future she will only be close to you..." Niu Laogen comforted her: "Just don't have those thoughts from before again..."

  His tone was still stiff, but Tian Guihua understood what he meant. She looked at him with bright eyes and said excitedly: "... Old Root, can you help me talk to my daughter and let her see me? I thought about it all night and couldn't sleep... Waaah..."

  It turned out that melancholy had made him ill, and thinking of this, Niu Laogen's heart softened even more. He said: "As long as you truly care for her, she will understand, I'll go talk to her, how can she not agree to see you? Don't worry, the distance between the Zhong family and our house is just a stone's throw away, in the future when things are better, you can go see your daughter every day..."

  Tian Guihua burst into tears, and Niu Laogen's heart softened even more. He comforted her, saying: "Have some porridge, is it worth crying so much over this?!"

  Facing his old wife, Niu Laogen couldn't bring himself to be completely heartless. As long as she sincerely repented, he could forgive her. Moreover, she was after all the birth mother of Niu Xiaohua, how could he let his daughter not acknowledge her own mother?

  Tian Guihua's eyes didn't have any tears, she forced them out, and only then did a few come out. She found the stairs and went down to eat some porridge, but as soon as something entered her stomach, it felt like burning flames twisting in pain, and she hated even more.

  The Zhong family started digging the pond the next day, and Shen Sisi couldn't help much with this, only guiding where to dig from and where to, and it was still a large rectangular shape. The pond was dug very large, all the way to the foot of the mountain behind the house, it was a big project.

  After determining the depth, firecrackers were set off, and Zhong Gensheng worked together with the workers. After all, he was the host, except for the time to collect pigs, basically spent most of his time on it, this is their main business after the beginning of spring, how could he not be serious, afraid that if something goes wrong, they will lose money...

  He Qiu and Niu Xiaohua only cooked lunch for the workers at home, and spent the rest of their time making sauerkraut until they had filled ten jars. They were relieved that they would have enough sauerkraut to eat during the New Year's celebration. When they had some free time, they would go to the tea fields to help with the harvest, as well as tidy up the vegetable gardens on the mountain and in the backyard. By the time the pond was finished being dug, all of the family's vegetable gardens were also ready.

  As for Dabao and Sibao, they spend the whole day taking Er Gouzi into town to sell braised meat, and when they get home, they have to braise more meat, chop firewood... they're really extremely busy.

  The second and third treasures read books. They are not at home during the day.

  At home, Shen Sisi was extremely idle. She went up the mountain several times, secretly entering and exiting the space to get a lot of things done. Every day, she stir-fried over 10 kilograms of base ingredients. Every day, there were people from Fumanlou coming to pick up the base ingredients. The Zhong family could smell the aroma every day - in the morning it was the aroma of stir-frying base ingredients, and in the afternoon it was the aroma of braised meat and dried goods. With the Zhong family being so busy, and the people from Fumanlou coming and going every day, the villagers began to suspect that the Zhong family had started another business. After asking around, they finally found out that Fumanlou had recently purchased seasonings from Tuniu, and had made a lot of money...

  I heard that Fumanlou is a dish that welcomes customers, it's all because of the bottom material, especially the hot pot I had at Zhong's house last time, now it's also popular in Fumanlou. The villagers are both envious and jealous, but also helpless, knowing that their own family can't make such a dish.

  The villagers also have guests coming to their homes, so they come to the Zhong family to buy a catty of braising sauce and take it back to braise meat. The braised meat that comes out is really different. People with a conscience even calculate how much money the Zhong family can make in a day, and they are envious beyond measure.

  Shen Sisi was really bored that day, and the people at home were also busy. She couldn't find anyone to play with, and playing with kids her age was just... unbearable. In the past, she had followed Er Gouzi and the others around because she was so hungry she needed something to do, but now that she had enough food and clothes, she didn't feel like hanging out with those little brats anymore. As for the village girls, Shen Sisi shuddered at the thought of having to embroider flowers with them every day - it would drive her crazy.

  She couldn't stay idle any longer, so she took her ingredients and followed Fumanlou's staff into the city.

  The partner of Fumanlou heard that she was also going, and smiled: "The boss said that we have lost our bottom material. Now the business in our building is particularly good, others are jealous to death, but they can't do anything about it. Several restaurants have imitated this hot pot, but they don't have the bottom material, the taste is average, people go once and won't go again. Our building has repeat customers every day, haha..."

  That fellow was obviously delighted, for he had been running back and forth every day, initially not very happy, but later because he took on a heavy responsibility, the shopkeeper was afraid that he would make mistakes, so he gave him a lot of extra wages to carefully guard the goods entering the city, and even more so that no one could follow him. This matter was actually not hard work, but the money earned was three times that of an ordinary fellow, so he was naturally extremely happy, usually just being more careful. There were indeed people who secretly followed him, but they were still secretly shaken off by him...

  She smiled to herself, thinking that this was a situation she had long anticipated, and so didn't take it to heart. She listened to the chatter of her companions all the way to Fumanlou, entering through the back door. The shopkeeper, hearing that she had arrived, came out with a smile on his face, sweating profusely, saying: "Quickly come in and sit down, I'm sorry for keeping you waiting, today is really busy, haha..."

  "Are you busy every day?!" Shen Sisi smiled and said: "What about the limited method I thought of?"

  The shopkeeper smiled and said, "It's really wonderful. With a daily limit of 50 pots, the price is more than double what it was before, making more money than selling 100 pots. I didn't expect that city people not only want to eat fresh food but also unique ones. Now our restaurant is full every day, and there are so many reservations that we're almost booked up until after the New Year..."

  Shen Sisi burst out laughing and said: "Then congratulations to He Zhuanggui for getting rich..."

  "Hehe, hehe..." He Zhuanggui smiled, obviously busy to the point of being unable to cope, chatting and laughing with her while dispatching the apprentices who came to ask questions. His mood was really good, although his forehead was sweating, but his face was full of smiles. In fact, Shen Sisi could see that every apprentice who came had sweat on their heads, not even having a moment's rest, sometimes taking out dishes, sometimes adding seasonings, turning around in circles, but each face had a smile, obviously they had been given a lot of overtime pay and were happy to be so busy.

  Hot pot restaurants are indeed busier than ordinary wine houses, especially with the constant back-and-forth of dishes being cooked and the cluttered cups, bowls, plates, and chopsticks, making things even more trivial and numerous.

  He Zhuanggui smiled and said, "I didn't expect the business to be so good at first, everyone rushed to come and eat, it's an unstoppable situation... haha, also thanks to your delicious seasoning..."

  Shen thought for a moment and smiled, saying: "He Zhuanggui must have made a lot of money..."

  He didn't deny it, but he also didn't say that although there was a limit of 50 pots per day, with 25 at noon and 25 in the evening, every table had ten or eight people surrounding it, and just for stir-frying dishes alone, there were dozens of portions. The beef, mutton, and vegetable dishes, one plate after another, were even more expensive than before, not to mention the wine that was drunk, the clear tea, and sometimes even the cost of condiments... It was exorbitantly expensive, but people were willing to eat like this. These were just the consumption patterns for beef, mutton, and pork pots.

  Sour soup fish hot pot, is even more expensive, each pot in a single pot costs five taels of silver, of course, the base ingredients and fish and sour vegetables are all included here, unlike other pots, the base ingredients are charged, and each dish is also charged, this fish uses the freshest grass carp or carp or black fish, the sour vegetables are also from an old jar, paired with red chili peppers, the flavor is absolutely wonderful...

  But a table of seven or eight people, more than ten people squeezed together, can't eat this pot of sour fish soup?! They will also order stir-fries and braised dishes, and when the time comes, they will have to add seasonings again, and calculate the cost... wine money, tea money... not to mention the internal expenses...

  So these days He Zhuo's shop owner made money and counted money until he fell asleep at night, although he was really tired and thinner.

  However, he also has worries. Thinking about it, he furrowed his brow and said: "Tuniu, nowadays old pickled vegetables are really hard to buy in our city. Last time I went to the market, I met an old lady selling pickled vegetables, fortunately, I bought them all on impulse, but they're almost used up now. Now there are too few in the market, even if someone is selling pickled vegetables, it's not the right season, and the pot doesn't smell good after cooking, sigh..."

  Shen thought for a moment and smiled, saying: "What's the big deal? I'll go back to the village to help you harvest it. Ten cents per catty, I guarantee they're all old-fashioned pickled vegetables, absolutely delicious..."

  He Zhuo's face lit up, and he said: "In that case, I'll trouble you. Lately, my shop has been so busy that I couldn't take time off to collect it myself. I'm afraid someone will come looking for trouble, so I've always got my ears perked up. How about this? I'll give you 12 cents a catty. You can collect as much as you want and put it in your home first. Then notify me, and when the time comes, I'll send an apprentice to take it back..."

  This is already a friendly price, although He Zhuang knew that this local tyrant couldn't really get it back for ten cents a catty, but since he was willing to put in the effort, he could naturally make some money from it. Adding another two cents would also be a gesture of goodwill.

  Besides, she's still young and not very strong, so it's already tiring for her to stir-fry ten kilograms a day. If you want her to do more, you'll probably have to wait until she grows up some more or is willing to do so herself. It never hurts to be nice to her, even if she doesn't do more, the wine shop will still make a lot of money from this...

  Although he has to pay 50 taels of silver to Shen Sisi every day, the daily revenue of his wine shop is now at least 500 taels, so this small amount of money doesn't matter anymore...

  "Alright... " Shen Sisi naturally understood the situation and smiled: "I'll take care of it, I'll give that fellow a shout, you send another car to pick up..."

  "Anyway..." Master He was apparently very busy and another assistant called him, so he had to get up with a rather helpless expression.