Chapter 102 - Skimping on Work (1/2)
As she talked, she dispensed with having her maidservant serve her. The old lady picked up her chopsticks to grab more crispy pickled radish and placed it in her bowl...unconsciously, after consuming a whole bowl of nourishing and dense congee, she still wanted to eat more. She had her maidservant serve her up another bowl. She had a taste of all of the other dishes on the table. However, the one she ate the most of was still the sweet, crispy and tasty radishes.
On the other hand, the patriarch of the family loved the wine-marinated beans the most. The old man liked to have a few drinks of alcohol every day. Since the wine-marinated beans had the slight fragrance of wine and a hint of spiciness, they provoked his taste buds and made him want to eat them continuously without stopping.
As for the other members of the family, they all praised these two appetizers continuously. A satisfied expression crossed Zhou Zixu’s face. Suddenly he remembered the words that the shabbily dressed little girl, who had more dazzling talents than any of those noble young ladies,had said. He spoke to his grandfather, “Grandfather, do you think these pickled vegetables are delicious?”
Patriarch Zhou picked up a small steamed roll and used his chopsticks to place some wine-marinated beans on top. He opened his mouth wide to take a bite and closed his eyes, “Not bad…”
“Grandfather, do you think the customers would like it if Zhenxiu Restaurant added a couple small plates of these pickled vegetables to the cold appetizer platters?” At the pickled vegetable stall, the little girl had off-handedly mentioned this idea, and it lit up a lightbulb in his business minded self.
The patriarch’s eyes, which had been comfortably closed, abruptly opened wide. He placed down the chopsticks in his hands and stroked his beard. He nodded and remarked in a gratified tone, “Xu’er, Grandfather has not missed the mark with you. You really are like Second Son ah...this idea is quite feasible, so I’ll give it to you to handle!”
Zhou Zifang clenched his hand that was underneath the table into a tight fist. Despite his fingernails digging into his flesh, he felt no pain as he did his best to keep a faint smile on his face, “Grandfather, Younger Brother Xu is truly a dark horse whose ideas amaze the world! Fortunately, all of the Zhou family members have the same blood in our veins.”
Within his heart, he secretly hated his younger brother. No matter how hard he tried, no matter how well he did business-wise, in his grandfather’s heart, it wasn’t enough for him to overcome his brothers who were born from the wives of the family.
Although his grandfather had complimented him for his business acumen and talents, he was only ever given a few small-scale business ventures. Zhou Zixu was just a little brat who didn’t know anything. However, with just a simple idea that anyone could have come up with, his grandfather had decided to give him a larger share of the business in disguise, setting him up to be the successor. How could he accept this?
Within the Zhou Family, the wealthiest family in Tanggu Town, there were some people who were rejoicing and some people who worried. On the other hand, Xiaocao continued on with her usual tasks: making braised food and selling braised food. The whole household bustled around busily working to fulfill their aspirations.
After Madam Zhang made a fuss and came away with the recipe for the braised food, the next day she went to the market and bought a large pig head. She also made the butcher give her some pig intestines and tripe before she went home to prepare the food.
Pig intestines and tripe were not only dirty but also smelly. Naturally Madam Zhang didn’t want to work with these ingredients herself. However, her daughter was also at home sewing her dowry and couldn’t rough up her hands. Thus, the task naturally fell to Madam Li.
Madam Li was a lazy person who only liked to eat and gossip, so how could she possibly be someone who could do the hard work? If her efforts would result in money going into her own pocket, that would be a different story. However, all of the family’s income went straight into her mother-in-law’s control. Thus, she really had no incentive to work hard.
With one hand pinching her nose closed, Madam Li used water to wash out the nasty gunk that was inside the pig intestines. She then let the intestines soak a couple of times in clean water without scrubbing them. As for the pig head, she didn’t even bother to remove all of the hair and fur or clean out the junk in the ears before she immediately placed it in a pot to boil.
During the braising process, Madam Zhang didn’t want to waste money by using too many spices, so she cut down the amount needed for each spice by half. As for the expensive seasonings, she directly left them out. With this, the taste of the product had also been diluted.
The finished braised pig head meat and offal had a sickening stench of feces that could make anyone want to vomit. Who would want to eat something that smelled that bad? At the table, Old Yu didn’t even bother trying the plate of braised pig meat. Instead, he slapped the table and howled, “Is this food fit for humans to eat? Quickly take this off the table and throw it far away! How can anyone have the appetite to eat with a smell this disgusting around?”
Third Son Yu Bo was at home for one of his rare visits. However, the stench of the braised food made him dry heave a couple of times. He didn’t even finish the egg that was added to each of his meals before he threw down his chopsticks and went back to his room. The door to his room was slammed forcefully shut. As for Yu Caidie, she grabbed a pancake and some dried radish strips and went to the courtyard to eat her meal.
Heizi was the only person not affected by the horrible stench. Instead, he picked up a plump piece of pig head meat and ate it in large bites. Had Xiaocao been there, she would have silently laughed, ‘This stupid boy. As long as it’s meat, even if it smells worse than human excrement, he’ll still eat it!’
However, they had spent around ten copper coins to buy the pig head. In addition, the spices also cost money. All in all, they spent around twenty to thirty copper coins. If they threw this food away, wouldn’t that be the same as throwing money away?
Madam Zhang didn’t care about any of this. That afternoon, she placed the braised pig head meat and intestines into a basket and dragged Madam Li with her to the docks.
“One copper coin for a portion of meat! This is the authentic Yu Family’s braised food! Tasty and cheap...Big Brother, buy a portion and try some!” Under Madam Zhang’s prodding, Madam Li managed to squeeze out a smile on her face as she advertised their wears. However, she was quite unwilling on the inside.
It was quite an opportune time for them. There wasn’t a lot of work under Foreman Sun, so the dockworkers had all come early to wait for Xiaocao’s braised food for one copper coin a portion. When they heard Madam Li yelling, all of them came over.
As usual, Old Hao fished out two copper coins and casually asked, “Give me two portions of pickled fish...where’s Xiaocao today? How come she’s not here?”
Pickled fish? The smile on Madam Li’s face froze for a second. Madam Zhang, on the other hand, quickly took the money and said, “You’re talking about my granddaughter, ah! She’s busy today...Big Brother, we don’t have any pickled fish today. We have pig head meat and intestines, do you want some?”