roccoschili Chapter 287
Chapter 287
The bamboo tubes used to hold rice were leftovers from the store, and a basket of them had been kept in the utility room unused.
Zhong Ruyi asked Zhang Mingzhu to wash and dry the bamboo tubes and then use them to store rice. It was a spectacular sight to see dozens of bamboo tubes washed and hung in the yard.
In the kitchen, Sun Tao was pouring oil into the pot, muttering, "Business in the store is already good enough, why is the boss still thinking of setting up a stall at the dock?"
With a sizzling sound, chopped rabbit meat was poured into the pot, mixed with various spices, and filled the entire kitchen.
When people were selling steamed buns on the street, I was suddenly filled with an overbearing aroma.
Passersby were eager to know who was cooking such delicious food so early in the morning, which made them salivate.
I took a bite of the dry steamed bun and made up my mind to have a good meal at noon.
Sun Tao took out the fried rabbit meat from the pot and placed it in a wooden basin beside him.
She picked up a piece of rabbit meat that had fallen on the edge of the pot. There were chili peppers on it. The meat had been fried dry, and it was very chewy when she took a bite.
Soon, under her operation, a pot of cold rabbit was ready, and there were also stir-fried pork with peppers and spicy and sour potato shreds left.
Zhong Ruyi filled the washed bamboo tube with three-fifths of mixed grain rice, pressed it tightly, and filled the rest with cold rabbit and pickled radish.
Twenty bamboo tubes were filled, twenty tubes were filled with fried pork with peppers, and ten tubes were filled with spicy and sour shredded potatoes.
After everything is loaded, cover it with a bamboo tube lid and put it into a wooden barrel, which is then placed on a cart.
It was not even ten o'clock yet, and Zhong Ruyi planned to wait until around noon before setting up his stall at the pier.
Zhang Mingzhu was busy with her, but she couldn't understand why Zhong Ruyi was going through all this when she already had two stores of her own.
If she couldn't figure it out, she would ask.
Seeing her looking anxious, Zhong Ruyi sighed and looked very melancholy, "Who would complain about having too much money? Would you complain about having too much money?"
Zhang Mingzhu shook her head like a rattle. What a joke. She had no money at all, so how could she despise herself for having a lot of money? She only despised herself for being poor.
"That's right, make money if you can. When the weather gets colder, the dock will be deserted again, and you won't be able to set up a stall."
Zhong Ruyi lowered her head to clean up the chopsticks, picked out the ones with burrs and threw away, and counted the number of chopsticks and found it was an even number.
She went to the kitchen and found a small stool that the carpenter had given her as a gift, and a wooden spoon. She would also make some egg drop soup as a gift with the meal.
The time was almost up, and Zhong Ruyi gave Cuicui the key to the small courtyard early. She asked Grandma Ji and Ji Xiaoyu to help with cleaning today, and paid them 100 coins a day.
Now the three of them were cleaning the small courtyard. Before leaving, she told Cuicui that she only needed to clean the low places.
We will ask someone to clean up the high places when the time comes. After all, some places in the yard still need some minor repairs.
It was almost noon, and some customers had already come to the restaurant and ordered food, so Sun Tao and Wei started to get busy.
Zhong Ruyi entered the kitchen and saw Sun Tao frying twice-cooked pork on the stove. The other stove next to it was temporarily unused.
She deftly put a dozen eggs into the pot, added an appropriate amount of salt, and after the soup boiled, asked Zhang Mingzhu to bring in the empty bucket.
The two of them worked together to move the egg drop soup onto the cart, covered it with the lid, and set off for the dock.
There are already people setting up stalls on both sides of the pier, selling noodles, wontons, buns and sesame cakes. Zhong Ruyi is the only one like him.
The two of them worked together to move the two wooden barrels down, and then took out the bamboo tubes one by one and placed them on the cart.
On the way here just now, Zhang Mingzhu was pulling a cart in front. However, he had a poor sense of balance and almost fell down with the cart.
There was no other way, Zhong Ruyi could only let her push from the back while she pulled from the front.
When they got there, they didn't have to pay for setting up a stall. They just found an empty space, moved their things, and started shouting when someone arrived.
Zhang Mingzhu looked at the stall selling steamed cakes opposite with envy. The faint sweet aroma drifted over here. She reached out and pulled the sleeve of Zhong Ruyi beside her and said, "Can we sell steamed cakes for you later? I'm kind of craving for some."
Zhong Ruyi rolled her eyes at her. She’s thinking about eating before she’s even done any work?
“Eat, eat, eat! All you know is eating!”
But seeing how greedy she is, I should buy her some after I sell the lunch boxes, so that she won't be accused of being harsh on her cousin.
Zhang Mingzhu laughed, not caring at all about Zhong Ruyi's disdain.
The two waited for a while, and soon someone came out from the dock.
The food at the stalls are what the dock workers are used to eating, and the taste is not much different, so many workers go directly to the stalls they often go to eat after they come out.
On the other hand, no one came here at all, let alone wanted to buy.
Zhang Mingzhu became a little anxious. She watched the sweaty workers walking past their stall, but no one came to ask.
A few people passed by and saw that their carts were filled with bamboo tubes, but they couldn't tell what was inside.
Zhong Ruyi noticed someone's gaze coming over here, so he quickly removed the small lids on the two bamboo tubes, revealing the meat inside.
Ji Jiang originally wanted to go to the noodle stall he often ate at, but when he got there he remembered that the owner of the noodle stall said yesterday that he had something to do and couldn't come in the next two days.
He didn't bring any food with him, so he could only go to other houses to see if there was any cheap food.
I only get a little over one or two taels of salary a month, and I still have to pay the rent, so I have to save on food every day, otherwise the salary will not be enough.
He was planning to buy a few sesame seed buns and eat them with water to fill his stomach, but before he could get over there, he saw a few co-workers who often excluded him.
With the idea of avoiding trouble, he turned around and walked to a small stall with a cart.
There was a row of bamboo tubes on the stall, two of which were opened. If I was not mistaken, they should be meat.
He paused. The price of the meat shouldn't be much cheaper, right?
So he walked straight past the stall, but this was the last place selling food, and there would be no more if he walked any further.
After much hesitation, he went back to the stall and asked the price.
Zhong Ruyi introduced the first customer with a smile, "These two are meat dishes, cold rabbit meat rice and green pepper fried pork rice, each costs 18 coins, and there is free soup. This is hot and sour shredded potato rice, each costs 15 coins."
Ji Jiang thought the meat one would be very expensive, but he didn't expect it to be only three cents more expensive than the noodles he usually ate.
After thinking about it, he ordered a dish of spicy and sour potato shreds. After paying fifteen cents, he found a seat nearby and squatted down to eat.
The evenly thick shredded potatoes are mixed with shredded green peppers, onions, garlic and chilies, and it smells very fragrant.
Because we had to wait for quite a while, the shredded potatoes were not as crispy as when they were just out of the pot, but they were still delicious, sour and spicy and went well with rice.
Ji Jiang squatted on the ground, scooped up the rice from under the bamboo tube, and put it into his mouth together with the shredded potatoes.
The sour radish is sour, crispy and delicious, and goes well with rice. The oil in the shredded potatoes seeps into the rice below, so you can finish the rice with just the sour radish and sour beans until all the dishes above are finished.
After eating, Ji Jiang wiped his mouth a little embarrassedly and took the empty bamboo tube to the stall, where he and one of the young girls poured a bamboo tube of soup to drink.
The soup was egg drop soup, and a portion of rice cost fifteen cents. The rice was quite filling, and after eating it, I could still have a bowl of soup. It was well worth the money.