Chapter 369 (2/2)

Yingtao replied in surprise, ”Oh my! I only helped you because I saw there were a lot of customers here earlier and I was afraid that they would have to wait too long. It really wasn't out of malicious intentions! That being said, if you didn't tell me, how could I know that the young miss was trying to help you to become better at calculating sums ah?” Yingtao even had a look of 'why didn't you tell me earlier' on her face.

Yu Xiaocao somewhat helplessly gave Yingtao a look before she interjected, ”Normally you are quite generous and open-minded. How come you're causing trouble for Xiaomei today?”

When Yingtao heard this, her eyes turned red and she squeezed out a reply, ”Young Miss, you have a new servant now. Doesn't that mean you don't want me anymore?”

”How could that thought possibly cross your head? Didn't I explain it to you earlier ah? Xiaomei will be solely in charge of the day to day management of the pickled vegetable store in the future and doesn't have any conflict with your current duties ah. Yingtao, you and Yangliu and the other two are all my personal maidservants that I selected myself! What does 'personal maidservant' mean? It means that wherever I go in the future, you will all go with me! You and Xiaomei are different. One of you will be helping with my daily needs while the other one will be helping my family take care of the shop. Everyone has their own duties, so why do you need to strive for favor?”

Although Yu Xiaocao's body hadn't reached the age of twelve, the soul inside of her was over thirty years old. Seeing through Yingtao's inner thoughts and fears, who was only in her teenage years, was quite easy.

After hearing the young miss's explanation, Yingtao felt her face turn bright red and sheepishly looked at Huang XIaomei. She lowered her head and said, ”Xiaomei, I was the one at fault earlier. Let me apologize to you! In a bit, when more customers come, you only have to handle calculating the totals and handling the money, I'll weigh the pickled vegetables!”

Huang Xiaomei also wasn't a petty person who held onto grudges. She finally understood why Yingtao kept targeting her; it was because she was afraid of losing her position. Huang Xiaomei smiled openly at her and said, ”Now that I know what was the issue, it's not a problem! If we're not busy, Older Sister Yingtao you can check if the sums I'm calculating are correct. If it's more busy, then you can help handle the money and give the change to the customers. You're wearing such a beautiful set of clothes. If they got stained with soy sauce or other things, it'd be hard to wash off!”

Yingtao shook her head and said, ”It's okay! Young Miss, I believe your cousin has a set of working clothes that she's not using. This servant will change into that and help. I will truly be helping this time!”

With enough people manning the shop, Yu Xiaocao could finally do other tasks. After Yangliu pleaded to her, she took the maid to the kitchen and taught her a few more recipes. That night, the Yu Family and their servants were all able to eat at a much more sumptuous table.

The next evening, Yu Xiaocao took out a bunch of already slaughtered ducks and chickens from the ice cellar to thaw and brine for a night. On the morning of the prefectural magistrate's wife's birthday banquet, she especially woke up early and instructed her two personal maidservants to prepare the ingredients needed to make longevity peach cakes.

That's right, she was preparing to make a longevity peach cake for each table at the birthday banquet. She even called her uncle, Liu Hu, and cousin, Liu Junping, over to do hard labor. It was unavoidable. If she and the two other girls were in charge of making the whipped cream frosting, it would take them too long and their arms would die from the effort.

During the slow times of the farming seasons of summer and autumn, Yu Xiaocao had made quite a few cans of preserved peaches, preserved strawberries, rose jam, strawberry jam and other sweet treats. When she came to the prefectural city, she also brought quite a few of these over with her to use as snacks. At this time, it was the perfect time to use them.

The cakes were baked and shaped such that the bottom was wider than the top, which made them have the shape of a peach. A knife was used to cut slices across the peach-shaped cakes that were about as wide as two fingers. They added preserved peaches and strawberries between each slice and then covered the whole cake with a layer of whipped cream frosting to make it look like a whole longevity peach. A bit of strawberry and rose jam was used to color the tip of the peach and a bit of whipped cream frosting was squeezed out at the bottom of the peach cakes to resemble little leaves, which were dyed green using spinach juice. Thus, each beautiful and perfect peach cake was finished.

In the inner courtyard of the prefectural magistrate's residence, all of the guests were exchanging pleasantries and idly talking. Just as the prefectural magistrate and his wife invited the guests to take their seats to start the banquet, the head steward of the residence hurriedly came over and spoke a few words into the prefectural magistrate's ear.

The prefectural magistrate's eyes immediately lit up and the smile on his face became more broad. He gave a few instructions to the head steward and then stood up to address the guests, ”For my wife's birthday celebration, I had originally wanted to have it at Zhenxiu Restaurant and enjoy the atmosphere with all of you. However, who would have thought that Zhenxiu Restaurant is too popular and we weren't able to reserve enough tables. I am truly regretful that we weren't able to properly serve everyone.”

No matter whether it was the male guests or the female guests behind the screen, all of them replied that the prefectural magistrate was being too courteous.

Prefectural Magistrate Ning's smile did not abate and he raised his voice to continue, ”I have a little friend whose ability to make roasted duck and roasted chicken is not in any way inferior to Zhenxiu Restaurant. However, the store that she opened only limits their sales of roasted duck and roasted chicken to ten a day. I'm sure many of the guests also know about this?”

The people who were at the prefectural magistrate's banquet were all mostly people with some standing in the prefectural city. They naturally had heard that when the Yu's Braised Food Store had opened, the prefectural magistrate himself had gone to the opening ceremony. Who would have thought that the prefectural magistrate really regarded these people with importance.

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