TTTQF Chapter 33

New Business

Jiang Miao sets up his stall for two days and, after deducting costs, earns over two taels of silver. On the third day, he doesn’t set it up anymore. Firstly, because many others start copying his idea, and with their lanterns looking better, he has no competitive edge.

Secondly, he had initially planned to set up the stall and then have a full day of fun. Jiang Miao didn’t want it to end up like the last Buddhist Festival, where he went but didn’t really experience much.

In contrast, Xiao Shitou becomes addicted to collecting money over the past two days. When he hears they won’t be setting up the stall anymore, he feels a bit disappointed. However, once Jiang Miao takes him for a walk down the street, he quickly cheers up. .

They sit on the street and each have a bowl of Yuanxiao (sweet dumplings). As they stroll, they buy a lamb pie and share it. When they watch a monkey show, the monkey comes around with a tray to collect money, and under Jiang Miao’s instruction, Xiao Shitou tosses two copper coins into the tray. This unique joy makes Xiao Shitou’s face still flushed and his eyes bright when they return home.

After the Lantern Festival, the various academies and private schools reopen.

Xiao Shitou, carrying a cloth school bag that Jiang Miao sews for him, comes to Scholar Yu’s house feeling both nervous and excited. Jiang Miao goes up and knocks on the door, which is opened by a chubby boy.

 “You’re here to study too, right? Come in, the teacher is waiting inside.”

Jiang Miao leads Xiao Shitou inside and presents his apprenticeship gift, book fees, first month’s tuition, and food expenses. Since the private school is a bit far from where they live, making four trips a day is impractical. After discussing it with Xiao Shitou, Jiang Miao decides that he will eat there for the first month. If the food turns out to be really bad, they will figure something else out next month.

Scholar Yu accepts the money and takes Xiao Shitou inside. Jiang Miao waits outside for a while and starts chatting with the chubby boy.

“Little brother, you study here too? How long have you been studying?”

The chubby boy answers seriously, “I’ve been here since Scholar Yu started taking students. It’s been over a year. Is that your younger brother inside?”

“Yes, his name is Xiao Shitou, his full name is Jiang Lei. What’s your name?”

“My name is Xu Yucheng.” Being older, he feels a bit shy about mentioning his nickname.

“Yucheng, my younger brother is new here and he’s a bit timid. Can you look out for him?” Jiang Miao thinks he seems quite reliable.

“I will. I’m the oldest here, and Scholar Yu often teaches us to be loving and supportive of each other. Arguing and fighting are not allowed here.”

“That makes me feel at ease. By the way, how many students are there in total?” Jiang Miao thinks, just in case he ever needs to bring food over, he wouldn’t want to bring too little. This is to help Xiao Shitou quickly build good relationships with his classmates.

“Including your brother, there are nine people in total.”

Jiang Miao is even more satisfied upon hearing this. Compared to modern large classes with dozens of students, the small class teaching system clearly offers the treatment that wealthy people receive in education.

As they are chatting, Scholar Yu comes out with Xiao Shitou. Xiao Shitou can’t hide his excitement; the teacher has just taken him to pay respects to many portraits!

After confirming the daily drop-off and pick-up times, Jiang Miao hurries back to buy ingredients. He needs to open his bun stall as soon as possible. Counting from the seventh day of the first lunar month, with rent and tuition fees, he has already spent over two taels of silver. Although he has earned some money from the lantern business, if he doesn’t open the stall soon, he will have to dip into his savings.

…

“Big brother, how much is this pork skin?” Jiang Miao plans to make meat buns to sell, as Manager Wang and others have been asking for them for a long time. However, when he sees the pork skin trimmed off in the butcher’s shop, he changes his mind.

The butcher glances at him and says, “This stuff is ten wen per jin.” Pork skin takes a lot of wood to cook and doesn’t taste very good, so unless someone really wants to taste a bit of meat, they generally don’t buy it. He usually doesn’t trim the pork skin separately; it is sold along with the meat. But some people who don’t like it ask him to cut it off.

Jiang Miao is delighted—it is half the price of meat!

“Weigh all this pork skin for me, and give me a piece of meat, like this.” Jiang Miao gestures with his hand over the meat, asking for a three-layered piece of pork belly.

The butcher quickly weighs it for him, and Jiang Miao takes the pork wrapped in dried lotus leaves, puts it in his basket, and pays happily.

“Brother, do you sell pork skin every day?”

“It’s hard to say, sometimes we have it, sometimes we don’t.”

“Thanks. When you do have it, could you save some for me? I’ll come by every day to buy groceries.”

Jiang Miao returns home and boils the pork skin into pig skin jelly, then mixes it with lean meat to make bun filling, and wraps it into small buns the size of a palm.

After making them, he first steams a batch to test the flavor. There’s a saying about eating soup dumplings: “Lift gently, move slowly, open a window first, then sip the soup.” The soup dumplings Jiang Miao makes have thin yet resilient skins, with a fresh and thick broth, and the meat filling is tender and smooth. He is quite pleased with his exceptional performance that day.

Noticing the time, it is almost the agreed time for school to end. Jiang Miao hurries to the private school and arrives just as school is dismissed. Scholar Yu leads a group of children out, and Jiang Miao immediately spots the smallest one, Xiao Shitou. Xiao Shitou also sees his brother and is about to run over when he suddenly turns back to say goodbye to the teacher before running towards Jiang Miao.

Jiang Miao extends his hand to catch him, smiles, and greets Scholar Yu, inquiring about Xiao Shitou’s performance at school that day. Learning that he has done well, Jiang Miao is delighted, thanks Scholar Yu, and takes Xiao Shitou home, where he cooks him a lot of delicious food.

…

As expected, the new small soup buns unsurprisingly receive widespread praise. These buns are small and, despite containing meat, Jiang Miao doesn’t sell them for much. While market meat buns are five wen for two, he sells his for the same price. Initially, some people think it is expensive, but after seeing others enjoy them, they too pay for some.

After eating, Manager Wang and Manager Chen wipe their mouths and say, “This is how it should be. We’ve been eating your vegetarian buns for almost half a year. Finally, we get to have some meat. We’ll come again tomorrow. If we’re late, save us half a basket.”

“Actually, these small soup buns aren’t available every day. I can only make them when I can get the ingredients, so there might not be any tomorrow,” Jiang Miao explains. Getting pork skin is hit or miss, and with the weather getting hotter and no refrigeration, it would be difficult to make them consistently.

“Alas,” Manager Wang sighs upon hearing this, “you’re something else. Others worry about not being able to sell their goods, while people worry about not being able to buy yours.” The lotus root buns are only made once, tofu buns are always fewer than radish buns, and now these new soup buns are also sporadic.

“There’s no other way. When I earn enough money, I’ll expand the business, and then you can have whatever you want,” Jiang Miao says with a grin. Unlike modern times, where markets and supermarkets are everywhere, it isn’t as easy to get ingredients here.

After packing up his stall, Jiang Miao carries his load home. Xiao Shitou has already cleaned up and is sitting on the threshold of the main room with his cloth school bag, chanting something while practicing writing with his hand.

This serious look makes Jiang Miao feel that life is getting more and more promising.

In the following days, after dropping Xiao Shitou off at the private school, Jiang Miao doesn’t rush back home but instead wanders around the streets, intending to survey the market and see what else he can do.

His survey yields some findings. He notices that most of the shops on Yifeng Street are related to food, such as grain and oil shops, southern goods stores, sauce shops, and so on. There are also many places selling food. Therefore, except for the early morning market, which has the highest foot traffic, setting up a stall to sell food here at other times is not very profitable. Judging by a full day’s sales, the revenue might not even be better than an hour at the morning market.

However, the shops on Fulai Street, two streets over, mostly deal with household items like clothing, fabrics, cosmetics, and furniture. Moreover, there are teahouses and opera houses there, attracting a more affluent clientele compared to Yifeng Street. Jiang Miao decides to focus his market research on this street and even makes a special trip to a teahouse.

In the teahouse, there is a storyteller named Old Meng, who happens to live in the same courtyard as Jiang Miao. Old Meng has previously included Jiang’s bun shop in his stories, hoping to bring some business to Jiang Miao. Unfortunately, the distance between the two areas means that few people make the trip just to have breakfast there.

Jiang Miao takes a seat at a table, and a waiter quickly approaches. With a sharp eye, the waiter sizes up Jiang Miao’s spending capacity and recommends the cheapest teas made from leftover tea leaves, though still carrying fancy names like Bi Luo Chun and Longjing tea. The prices of the two are very different.

“Give me a pot of Tieguanyin. By the way, do you sell any snacks here?” Jiang Miao asks casually, though this is his main purpose. He has previously inquired with Old Meng, but Old Meng never orders snacks, often feeling too full after drinking the free tea.

“Snacks? We have plenty, such as rice cakes, osmanthus cakes, mung bean cakes, and almond crisps,” the waiter recommends several reasonably priced items.

“Are they all sweet? Do you have any savory ones?”

“We do have savory ones. The peanuts and sunflower seeds are salted,” the waiter replies.

Having gathered the information he needs, Jiang Miao doesn’t ask more. He orders a plate of mung bean cakes and eats them with his tea. During this time, he also listens to a storytelling session. To be honest, Old Meng is quite skilled, turning an ordinary story into an engaging, dramatic, and intricate tale.

Jiang Miao doesn’t dare to enter the opera house, as it is beyond his means. He wanders around outside for a while and eventually spends some money to ask the gatekeeper about the food offerings inside. The opera house has more variety than the teahouse, but sweets still dominate. It seems that the people here prefer sweet snacks in the afternoon.

Jiang Miao doesn’t plan to sell sweet snacks. Although sweet foods currently seem to suit the tastes of the common people, this also means that the streets are filled with vendors selling sweets.

There’s an old saying, “It’s hard to cater to all tastes,” which highlights the differences in people’s dietary habits. Jiang Miao doesn’t believe that on such a big street, there wouldn’t be a few people who prefer savory foods. Perhaps he could open up a new market; the first business to offer something new always makes more money. Of course, there is also the risk of losing money. But in business, profit and loss are normal.

So, he decides to sell savory snacks on this street every afternoon. There are many types of savory snacks, but Jiang Miao likes to keep things simple. Since he is already selling buns at the morning market, he decides to sell buns in the afternoon too, but with a twist: he will fry them. Fried buns, when done right, emit such an enticing aroma that even those not hungry feel their appetites whetted.

To make fried buns, he needs the right tools. The street is quite far from his place, so carrying everything on a pole is impractical. Jiang Miao decides to make a small cart, just big enough to hold a stove, an iron pan, and some ingredients.

He goes to a carpenter’s shop and shows the carpenter a crooked drawing he has made with Xiao Shitou’s help. The carpenter stares at the paper for a long time, frowning, before finally falling silent.

Feeling a bit embarrassed, Jiang Miao hurriedly explains. After a long explanation, the carpenter finally understands what each line on the drawing represents. He says, “I’ll try to make it. If it doesn’t turn out well, don’t blame me. Also, even if it fails, you’ll still have to pay for the wood and labor.”

“That’s fine, as long as you can make it!” Jiang Miao thinks that making the cart shouldn’t be too difficult. The carpenter just hasn’t made one before; once he starts, it will go quickly.

After paying a deposit, Jiang Miao leaves the carpenter’s shop and goes to a blacksmith. The blacksmith is standing in front of a blazing hot furnace, swinging a heavy hammer and striking a red-hot piece of iron, sending sparks flying.

Afraid of getting burned, Jiang Miao stands aside and waits for a while before approaching the blacksmith to discuss the custom item he wants: a flat-bottomed iron pan.

There is no need for a drawing for this; a simple description is enough for the blacksmith to understand. Making a flat-bottomed pan is actually easier than making a round-bottomed one.

Iron is quite expensive in those days, and such a pan costs Jiang Miao nearly half a tael of silver. In addition, he has to register his name and place of origin with the authorities because the government tightly controls the use of iron. Its purpose has to be clearly documented. In the event of a war, they could collect some of these items for smelting into weapons.

Jiang Miao’s name has appeared in these records several times. He reminds himself that wherever he goes, he can’t afford to leave behind any of the pans he has bought.

Three days later, Jiang Miao collects the cart and the iron pan. Despite the carpenter’s initial uncertainty, the finished product turns out quite well, perfectly meeting Jiang Miao’s expectations.

The cart has wooden wheels at the bottom, and there are three-tiered shelves at both ends for storing items. Four poles support the shelves, which can be covered with a cloth to provide shade and keep out dust. The middle section is left open for the stove.

With everything ready, Jiang Miao eagerly pushes his cart loaded with supplies out the door at noon that day.

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