Chapter 257

Tangtang took out the bill and money he had received today from the counter. He poured all the money on the table and placed the account books in front of Xu Ran.

Tangtang said to Xu Ran, “Dad, I’ve received  2,815 taels in all today. Here are the account book and the silver, they were all on the table. Dad, would you like to check it again?”

Xu Ran opened the account book and looked at it. It was all recorded in Arabic numerals. Xu Ran checked it effortlessly. He roughly calculated it in his heart and found that it was the same as what Tangtang has said. He put down the account book and started counting the silver on the table.

Most of them were copper coins, and the scattered copper coins were also strung together with thick threads by Tangtang. One thousand coins in a string. The others were the pieces of silver, but they were all one tael of silver, which was easy to count.

However, these taels of silver covered quite a large area. Xu Ran took out the account book he had kept for buying materials. Apart from the Labor cost, the amount of money which used to buy vegetables and meat was nearly 100 taels. And that didn’t include the cost of The Honeycomb briquet and other things. So today’s profit is only a hundred taels.

Xu Ran patted the table and said, “Making100 taels on the first day of the opening is not very bad, but only for the first few days will there be a lot of people, and the traffic will level off later on. At that time, we don’t need the people from King Yan’s Mansion. Then we can do it ourselves, everyone will have to work hard for a while. I will hire other people after we can make ends meet.”

After Xu Ran said that, Liu Tong continued to say, “Don’t ever say that agai, we are family. Ran, when will we start selling the breakfast that you mentioned before?”

When they heard Liu Tong’s words, everyone looked at Xu Ran in confusion. How could people eat hot pot at breakfast? They had never heard of it before. They all seemed very confused, especially Baozi, but he was more like voracious.

Xu Ran explained, “Here’s the thing. People ould only come at noon and evening to eat hotpot, and they would not come every day. But if they don’t come, we won’t have any income all day, that’s not going to work. So I thought that we should also sell breakfast in the morning, and it would be the pancakes, porridges and noodles.”

“I’ll pass the porridge. There are only a  few kinds of it, w’ll make some of each kind. And if it doesn’t sell out, we’ll give them to these people who come to eat hotpot at night. As for the pancakes, it might be different from the one we usually eat. The pancake I was talking about is called Wu Dahang Pancake. It’s filled with food. It’s delicious and thick after it’s fried, so a lot of people will definitely like it. You’ll see when I cook it for you.

“Then, the last thing I want to say is noodles. You guys have eaten noodles before, and I’ve made many kinds of it. We will mainly sell two types of noodles. One is Hand-pulled Noodles while the other is sliced noodles. There are many things that can be added to this noodles, such as fried eggs, pig’s large intestines, or shredded meat. Those with added things would be more expensive. I’ll fix the price in a few days, then wen can print some pamphlets and put them on the table. So people who come to the store can choose for themselves. And you have to remember the prices and tell them right away if anyone asks, okay?”

After Xu Ran said that, he quietly looked at the crowd and waited for their response.

Tangtang andGuoguo was the first to nod. They were okay with that anyway, and the following was Baozi. He said, “Dad, I can help you serve porridge.”

Xu Ran touched his head and said, “Alright, I’ll leave the porridge to you.”

Baozi was only seven years old and Xu Ran didn’t care so much. Besides, Baozi was someone who would marry his husband in the future. It was impossible that he did nothing all day.

Liu Tong said to Xu Ran, “Ran, Baozi is a childe. There are so many people coming and going here, is that okay?”

Xu Ran shook his head and said, “It’s okay. Who cares about this? Can I marry Baozi to him?” In Xu Ran’s opinion, this was quite normal. Anyone who runs a roadside stall these days, if they have children, would bring them.

Liu Tong looked at Baozi and said nothing when he saw his excited expression.

With regards to breakfast, Xu Ran started to assign tasks when he saw that no one had any objections.

Xu Ran said, “Gao Quan would mix the dough. It requires a lot of energy and could be hard work. And it is required in both pancakes and Hand-pulled Noodles and sliced noodles. Shao Yu would be responsible for cutting noodles, and you will do the pulling, try to make it even. The people here probably haven’t eaten these two things before, so we have to attract them at the beginning.

“Tangtang will collect the money. Guoguo and Tongtong take care of everything inside, such as serving porridge and noodles. Baozi will be responsible for packing. Then we should be able to make it. If there are too many guests, we will go and hire some other people.”

Everyone understood who he was referring to.

And so the matter was settled, but everyone did not go back to the yard to rest immediately. Instead, they went into the kitchen to cook. There was not much left, just a little meat, and no vegetables at all.

Xu Ran looked around and found a bag of flour. Xu Ran rolled up his sleeves and said, “Then let’s eat noodles! And we can go back to have a good sleep after we are full. We will have to get up early tomorrow morning to buy some vegetables.

They had no  choice but to agree with him.

They went back after they finished eating. Xu Ran and the others had been living in the yard for a few days, and there was also a stove here. When they went out in the morning, they would put a big iron pot on the stove. The fire in the stove was covered by the pot, so it would burn slowly. So the water was hot when they went back at night. There was no problem with showering or washing their face.

It saved them the time to boil water when they got home at night.

The shower was necessary, or the smell of hotpot would stay.

By the time they were ready to sleep, half the moon was already in the sky and it was too late.

They all slept soundly.

Xu Ran got up the next morning,. He went to the street with Liu Tong and Shao Yu to buy some food and meat. Tangtang and Guoguo continued to learn Kung fu from Gao Quan, so Baozi was the only one who was sleeping happily.

Xu Ran was now very familiar with the market of Yanzhou.

All the people who sell vegetables and meat in Yanzhou are gathered in one place. It was said that it was King Yan’s arrangement, so it really felt like a vegetable market.

“You have to get up early to get the freshest vegetables. ” This conclusion applied to any era.

Of course, Liu Tong and the others bought all the vegetables. He mainly wanted to buy meat, suhc as chicken, duck, fish, as well as some dog meat and lamb. Xu Ran also bought the pig’s internal organs, as well as the duck’s intestines. Duck intestines, beef tripe, and pig brains, these three things were essential for the hotpot, so how could they be lacking?

However, the trouble was that he had to deal with these internal organs agagin when he got back. After all, these were things to be thrown away. How was it possible that the slaughterer would deal with them seriously? No one would sell it if Xu Ran didn’t aske them to keep it.

Therefore, he was very busy this morning, and he had been working untill noon when there were guests.

The three of them carried a lot of things but they still couldn’t bring all the things home in one go, so they had to come a second time. Xu Ran planned to get acquainted with these people and ask them to send his things over. Otherwise, they would get exhausted.

The meat was directly sent to the Red Tower. Without even bothering to eat in the morning, they started to work.

Xu Ran was responsible for dealing with all the  internal organs, and he had done it before, so he finished it quickly. The intestines of Chicken and duck were cut directly with a bamboo stick. Then he wouold clean up the things inside, and then wash them carefully with salt.

As for the pig’s internal organs, they have to be put in a big pot and boiled with boiling water before they were handled. He has to be busy for a long time for these things.

Xu Ran started calculating in his heart when he was working. It was estimated that he would have to stop selling noodles after 10 o’clock, or he would not have time to deal with these things.

Think of this, Xu Ran sped up his again. It was not easy to make money. After planting the fruit trees for a few years, he could finally make money while seated. But the good days had not been long before an accident happened.

It took them four months from Xu Village to  Yanzhou. It was almost a third of one year. And the rest of the year seemed to pass by more rapidly. And they were always busy.

After Xu Ran was done with his work, he went to help cut the meat. After Shao Yu settled the dishes, he went to make breakfast.

It was a nice day today. The sun was hanging high and the sun shone on the ground. Although it didn’t feel hot, it made people feel much better.

There were quite a few people coming out to bask in the sun, and there were also many people chatting at the entrance of the Red Tower.

After Shao Yu made breakfast, Tangtang and Guoguo came over. The family had breakfast and opened the door. They put melon seeds and candy on the table, then poured hot water, and everyone who was chatting sat down at the door.

Some of these people had been here yesterday and some of them had not.

The person who came yesterday asked Xu Ran, “Boss Xu, do you have any story to tell today?”

Xu Ran answered with a smile, “Everyone knows that the person who told the story yesterday is the Master of  King Yan. It was already an honor to invite him here yesterday. I don’t have the ability to do it today, but in the future, I will try my best to invite him over every month. If I am not busy during the day, I will tell stories for you, too. As long as you guys don’t mind it.”

Xu Ran said with sincere and humble, leaving these people a good impression.

The person who asked hurriedly said, “No, of course not. We’re all looking forward to hearing your story.”

Xu Ran cupped his hands together and said, “There is no need to choose another day. I’ll do it today! When there are more people here in the afternoon, I will tell everyone a story.”

“This is a good thing. Boss Xu, you have to leave a seat for me downstairs today!”

Xu Ran nodded repeatedly. “Of course, of course, there are so many seats, so you can sit wherever you want, Master Zhu.” Xu Ran heard someone call him so yesterday, so he remembered it.

When he heard Xu Ran call him Master Zhu, he was obviously very happy.

Master Zhu touched his chin and said, “Then I’ll help myself.”

Xu Ran nodded and said in his heart,”You don’t need to be polite. You can even book the whole place. I really don’t mind at all.”

╮(╯_╰)╭ Say it again at night, ‘Happy Valentine’s Day !!