CH 23

For several days in a row, the weather had been sunny and clear, making it easy for ox carts to travel on the road. More and more people were coming to the county town to pay their land taxes and go to the market.

As the warehouse door of the yamen opened, two long lines formed.

Along both sides of the lines, vendors of all kinds formed another line, with some selling steamed buns and dumplings, some selling pancakes, some selling needles and thread, and some selling sweet soups1糖水 (táng shuǐ) literally translates to “sugar water” and refers to a type of traditional Chinese sweet soup or dessert. It is a popular street food in China, often sold by street vendors or in specialized dessert shops. It is typically made by boiling various ingredients such as fruits, beans, grains, or herbs with sugar or syrup to create a sweet and flavorful soup. Some common varieties of 糖水 (táng shuǐ) include red bean soup, black sesame soup, lotus seed soup, and sweet potato soup. It is enjoyed as a refreshing and comforting treat, especially during hot weather or after a meal. …

This had become a custom formed over decades. Every year when it was time to pay the land tax, this place would spontaneously turn into a lively market. The people in the town also had to pay taxes, and after they finished, they would also come to join the fun and stroll around the market.

Today, Yu Dameng and Qiao Yuan also came early to occupy a spot. Fortunately, they stayed at the iron shop last night, so they got a good location.

The town had a curfew, and the villagers often arrived at the gate before the curfew was lifted. They usually didn’t have time for breakfast. At this time, they couldn’t resist the smell of food, especially the vegetable pancakes. As soon as they hit the hot pan with cold oil, they made a sizzling sound and the aroma filled the whole street. When they asked for the price, it was only two wen without an egg. They paired up two by two, one would help line up for the land tax, another would help buy pancakes.

Fortunately, Lin Cuifen was also here today. As a housewife used to household chores, she was much more efficient than Yu Dameng. She was in charge of stir-frying vegetables, Qiao Yuan wrapped them in pancakes, Yu Dameng prepared oil paper, waiting to wrap up the finished pancakes from Qiao Yuan to hand to customers. Old Man Yu was in charge of collecting money, while the twin brothers watched over Liu Ge’er.

After the busy breakfast rush, they finally got a chance to relax. Lin Cuifen was also quite tired from the work, feeling distressed for her children who worked hard to earn money.

The sweet soup seller next to them even brought them soup, thinking to himself that he was so clever today to set up next to the pancake stand, doing several times his usual business!

Of course, the Yu family would not just drink his soup for free. Qiao Yuan gave him some pancakes to eat.

When they saw that the sun was almost up, and the people in the town had also finished their breakfast and came to join the fun, Qiao Yuan asked Yu Shanwu to ring the copper gong they borrowed from the village.

The sound of the gong drew people over to see what was happening.

Qiao Yuan stepped forward and bowed his hands, saying: “Greetings to all the elders and fellow villagers, we are from the Yu family iron shop. Recently, the iron shop has produced a new kind of iron tool, and we would like to show it to you all.”

Yu Shanwu played along as a sidekick and asked: “What is it?”

“It’s this potato shredder and peeler!”

Their back and forth banter delighted the crowd.

Someone was curious and asked, “What are these things?”

Qiao Yuan smiled and immediately responded, “I’ll demonstrate for everyone right away!”

As he spoke, he took out two potatoes. First, he used the peeler to peel them. He shredded one into strands with the shredder and sliced the other into pieces. The whole operation only took a few moments. Yu Shanwu held up the prepared potatoes and walked around the crowd for everyone to see.

Everyone exclaimed in amazement, “It can slice and shred so quickly!”

“The shreds are quite uniform in thickness and size, and the slices are neither too thin nor too thick, just right.”

“How much does this cost?”

Qiao Yuan replied: “The shredder and slicer are the same price, two hundred wen each. They can both shred and slice. The peeler is only fifty wen.”

The price was quite reasonable, since the shredder required more delicate workmanship and more difficult to make than scissors.

Many of the village households still felt it wasn’t necessary to spend the money, thinking that it was just for cutting vegetables.

But most of the town families were well-off, and this was just pocket change for the women, equivalent to a box of rouge. Someone asked, “Young man, can I try out these two things?”

Seeing it was Granny Niu from the Niu Family Bun Shop, Qiao Yuan readily agreed.

These tools were easy to use. After just watching Qiao Yuan’s demonstration briefly, Granny Niu was already using them smoothly. The experience was great – she could sleep in for two more hours in the mornings now. She immediately paid for two shredders and a peeler, and even asked Qiao Yuan if he could make something convenient for chopping meat filling.

Qiao Yuan: “……”

Now this really put him in a difficult spot!

Granny Niu had been selling buns in the town for decades, so everyone in Yunshui County was very familiar with her. The onlookers crowded around asking if it worked well.

“It works great! If it didn’t, would I have bought it?” She thought that cutting radishes would be much easier in the future, and the old man wouldn’t be able to shirk and make her do it all the time.

Qiao Yuan saw the situation and timely added: “Anyone who wants to buy can try it out first.” Anyway, the peeled potatoes wouldn’t be wasted, they would be sold in the vegetable pancakes at noon.

With this, business for the shredders finally kicked off in earnest. In no time, the stand was surrounded by people. Qiao Yuan was worried about problems arising, so he had Yu Dameng keep a close eye on things. But his worries were unnecessary – with Yu Dameng following Old Man Yu, their hulking builds were intimidating. Despite their young age, the twin brothers were also tall and large. The four of them standing there were like bodyguards, so who would dare cause trouble!

This was the busiest time at the market. Latecomers seeing the crowd gathered thought some street performers were putting on a show, so they squeezed in to watch the excitement. They didn’t expect it to be the Yu family iron shop selling new iron tools! By the time they realized what was happening, everything was sold out before they could even get in line.

“Sorry everyone, the shredders and peelers are complex to make, so we only made this many. If you still want to buy them, please leave your information with me to pay a deposit, or go to the Yu family iron shop. Everyone remember, the potato shredder and peeler are only available at the Yu family iron shop! Only the Yu family iron shop has them!”

Many people in the town had dealt with the Yu family iron shop before, and they knew that this iron shop was always honest, and the quality of the iron tools they made was also good. And since the shop was right in town, they wouldn’t dare cheat people over small deposits. Those who didn’t get to buy readily paid deposits to order them.

When they saw that they also asked for their names, where they were from, where they lived, when they would come to pick them up and wrote them on paper, and gave them a receipt, they felt completely reassured.

This was Qiao Yuan’s idea, to prevent someone from claiming someone else’s order. He also deliberately wrote in modern simplified characters with a charcoal pen, thinking that no matter how good you are, you can’t imitate it in such a short time!

In the afternoon, because of the excitement of selling iron tools, the vegetable pancake stand once again became wildly popular.

After a day of hard work, the whole family was exhausted.

But the results were gratifying. The family gathered behind closed doors to count the money they earned.

The vegetable pancakes earned 733 wen today!

The potato shredder and peelers together earned 27 taels and 500 wen, with 10 taels being deposits.

This made Lin Cuifen so happy she clapped repeatedly. “How wonderful is this! How has our family suddenly earned so much money in just one day!”

Seeing his family’s joy, Qiao Yuan was also delighted, being a bit of a money-lover himself. “Mother, there’s still 10 taels of deposit! And as word slowly spreads, I estimate we can sell even more.”

“Even more?” Lin Cuifen imagined silver ingots raining down on her. She hugged Qiao Yuan happily and said, “This is all thanks to our Yuan Ge’er’s capabilities!”

Qiao Yuan looked at Yu Dameng proudly and said: “This was Dameng’s idea!”

Yu Dameng blushed and smiled shyly as he rescued Qiao Yuan from Lin Cuifen’s hands.

Old Man Yu took a puff of dry tobacco, a smile continuously on his face. “Let’s recount the money and string it up properly to exchange for ingots at the money shop tomorrow.” He tapped his tobacco pouch and added, “The iron shop account has 30 taels of silver already, that’s enough operating funds. From now on, we will divide money earned from the shop monthly. Since this idea was yours, the money will be counted separately, and you’ll get the bigger share.”

He wouldn’t let his son depend solely on his son-in-law’s earnings all the time.

Qiao Yuan was unwilling, but Old Man Yu and Lin Cuifen insisted. In the end, he could only accept fifteen taels of silver this time. In the future, the income would be divided into a 4:6 ratio each month.

After settling on the arrangements, Lin Cuifen hurried to fetch hemp cords to string up the coins, and the family happily entered another period of counting money.

The next day, they got up early again. Old Man Yu and Yu Dameng took the things first to grab a spot, while Lin Cuifen and Qiao Yuan brought ingredients for the pancakes, with the pancakes already prepared overnight. Although they were very tired these two days, they could make money, and the family didn’t feel tired.

Today, people from Xianhe Village also came to pay their land tax. Though the village chief had only arranged for a few people, everyone was anxious and wanted to see for themselves, and also go to the market and buy things. As such, Qiao Yuan ran into many familiar faces on the street today.

Aunt Zhao also came to buy pancakes from him. Qiao Yuan didn’t want to take money, but before he could say anything, Aunt Zhao said: “Business is business. Even if we are from the same village, we can’t pay less than a wen.”

Clearly this was said for the other Xianhe villagers crowding around to overhear.

Qian Caiwang’s wife agreed enthusiastically, “That’s right! I’ll also buy one and try it, Yuan Ge’er!” Her family runs a lotus pond fish farm, and they had been selling fish on this street for the past couple of days. Yesterday, Qiao Yuan brought them some pancakes to eat, and today, since there were many women from the village visiting, she decided to join them and naturally wanted to speak up for Qiao Yuan.

Other people who wanted to bargain also felt embarrassed to speak up after hearing this. A woman could fill her stomach with a pancake for two wen, which was much cheaper than buying steamed buns. So, anyone who wanted to fill their stomachs chose to buy pancakes.

After helping out at the stand for a while, Aunt Zhao finally chatted with them after the stall was free, “You all wouldn’t know since you weren’t in the village these past two days, but Da Qiao beat Xiuhua again!”

“Why did he hit her again? How can he keep hitting women?” Lin Cuifen was very angry.

Right is right – even though Xu Xiuhua was very annoying, but as a fellow woman, Lin Cuifen despised men who beat their wives.

Aunt Zhao also sighed, “Xiuhua didn’t dare say anything. I only found out when I went to collect taxes at her place and saw her lying in bed crying.” She lowered her voice, “I took a look, and she was covered in injuries, but you couldn’t tell from her face!”

It is in line with Qiao Guangzhi’s style, which is vicious and hypocritical. So, despite Xu Xiuhua’s behavior, it did not affect Qiao Guangzhi’s reputation in the village. Qiao Yuan even heard several times that some villagers sympathized with Qiao Guangzhi for marrying such a troublemaker.

“But you don’t have to pity her either! Her wheat was damaged by rain this year, right? They lost quite a lot of harvest this year, and she was sitting in the field crying the other day, pointing at the people in our village and cursing, saying that no one helped her! If she usually did more work, wouldn’t we lend a hand?”

What Aunt Zhao didn’t say was that Xu Xiuhua was specifically cursing the Yu family, and the one she cursed the most and the harshest was Qiao Yuan. Right now, their family was happily making money, and she didn’t want to say these things to upset them. It was most important to live a good life for themselves.

However, even if she didn’t say it, Qiao Yuan also guessed that Xu Xiuhua wouldn’t leave him out.

I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. If you want to show your support, you can buy me a coffee. It would make my day! For every five coffees I get, I will release a bonus chapter.