Autumn had arrived, and the chilly rain carried a hint of frost.
A light drizzle the previous night had frozen Liu Yu right through his thin quilt, waking him up abruptly and prompting him to change into long sleeves first thing in the morning.
He got up, boiled some hot water to wash up, and had a simple breakfast of pork fat and crispy rice crust before heading out with his basket.
The vegetables in the garden had been maturing in large batches since early October. Because Liu Yu tended them well, the crops grew in wild, successive waves that he couldn’t finish eating alone, eventually forcing him to give them away to his neighbors.
Since it had rained lightly the night before, he planned to clear out all the napa cabbage and lettuce today. This would free up two rows of soil to plant Chinese cabbage and cilantro, just like the rest of the villagers, so he could stew them with meat for hot pots during the winter, warm and convenient.
He planned to send the uprooted napa cabbage along with the lettuce to his great-aunt’s house, as her family had many members and a small vegetable patch, often leaving them short on greens. Besides, he was sick of drinking lettuce soup every month and only needed to keep a few heads of napa cabbage to stir-fry over the next few days.
Squatting on the ground, Liu Yu cleaned the mud off the vegetable roots one by one. In the blink of an eye, it had been nearly two months since he transmigrated into this world. Aside from a slightly austere lifestyle, there were no other worries. He had adapted to this way of life and now felt that living out his days in such a peaceful manner wouldn’t be bad at all.
After delivering the vegetables to his great-aunt’s place, Liu Yu hurried right back to plant vegetable seeds. The rain was expected to continue on and off for a few days, and he would have considered it a waste if he didn’t plant the seeds during this window.
For lunch, Liu Yu stir-fried some dry-wok cabbage and made a chive-and-egg dish. The chives were also self-grown in a small patch; every time he harvested a batch, a new one grew back, and he was already getting tired of eating them.
The day before yesterday, Liu Wenyu came home from school for the break and brought him some news: many small vendors had recently appeared in town, setting up tables right by the roadside to sell goods without anyone chasing them away. It seemed the authorities were likely permitting it.
When he first arrived in this world, Liu Yu had assumed the era background was similar to the 1970s of his past life. Having stayed here longer, however, he realized his understanding of this world was far too superficial, as it was drastically different from what he had imagined.
Here, everyone’s cooking skills seemed remarkably poor. With Liu Yu’s already impressive culinary talents, setting up shop here was practically a dimensional reduction strike against the native residents.
Upon hearing this news, Liu Yu was overjoyed. At times, he felt anxious about not having enough money. If he had fields to farm like everyone else, at least he wouldn’t have to worry about food and clothing. The catch was that he hadn’t been allotted any farmland, meaning grain, flour, and oil all had to be bought with cash. Having gradually purchased some food and household tools over these past few days, he was now left with only 210 yuan.
Now that there was finally a channel to make money, he wanted to set up a small food stall. Even if he didn’t make a fortune, he could at least cover his daily expenses and avoid depleting his savings entirely.
He had carefully pondered what kind of food to sell for two days. Liu Wenyu had offered him a suggestion to sell whatever they had eaten for lunch, but when asked why, he just smiled and said nothing. After a moment, Liu Yu belatedly realized that Liu Wenyu was mocking him for being both lazy and cowardly, sleeping in late in the morning and being too afraid of the dark to walk home at night.
A mix of embarrassment and anger washed over Liu Yu as he secretly gritted his teeth. Good old Liu Wenyu, studying in town has really corrupted you. Bottling up a belly full of dark ink isn’t enough to pour on your own younger brother, you have to dump some on me too! You’ve lost all resemblance to the considerate, attentive good older brother I met when we first met.
After much deliberation, Liu Yu finally made up his mind to sell breakfast in town, just to prove to Liu Wenyu that he was not some lazy good-for-nothing who slept in until noon.
However, ideals were plump while reality was skeletal. Despite agreeing to catch the early morning trip to town on Sunday to buy a large iron wok for making pastries, Liu Yu was ultimately woken up by the pounding of the Liu Wenyu brothers at his door.
Right now, Liu Yu sat on the bed getting dressed, lowering his head in absolute silence, completely devoid of his initial arrogance. Liu Wenyu sat by the table with a half-smile, watching him. Liu Yu didn’t want to argue anymore and just buried his head even lower. He now had to admit that he truly was a rare slacker in the village.
With a guilty conscience, Liu Yu muttered, “Once I officially open my stall, I definitely won’t wake up this late anymore. Blame it on my circadian rhythm not being adjusted yet; waking up early all of a sudden is just too hard to get used to.”
Amused, Liu Wenyu chuckled, “Mm, it’s not your fault. It’s the fault of that so-called circadian rhythm for making little Yu sleep until noon again.”
Liu Yu:
By the time they reached the town, it was already noon. The group headed to a shop specializing in casting iron pots, stated their requirements to the veteran artisan, and promised to pick it up in two days.
Liu Wenyu took him for a stroll, covering three consecutive streets. Just as he had described, every street featured numerous small vendors selling seasonal vegetables or daily necessities like socks and shoe insoles, while food stalls were extremely rare.
Liu Yu observed them one by one. Perhaps because their culinary skills were decent, every stall was doing fair business, and one even had a short queue forming. Seeing this, he pulled the two brothers to wait at the back of the line.
Liu Weisheng quietly tugged at his sleeve and asked, “Brother, are we really eating here for lunch? What’s so good about this? Whatever they make certainly won’t taste as good as what you cook. Why don’t we go back and you make me some tomato and egg noodles? I’ve been craving that taste for ages.”
Liu Yu coaxed him gently, “I’ll make it for you tonight, I guarantee you’ll eat until you’re stuffed. For lunch, we’ll eat here to see how the most popular food stall in town tastes.”
Before long, it was almost their turn. Only then did Liu Yu see what the stall was selling: ordinary fried mantou slices. The vendor drained the oil from the mantou slices, quickly sprinkled a pinch of salt over them, wrapped them in oil paper, and handed them to the buyer.
Liu Yu couldn’t help pressing a hand to his forehead. No wonder they had queued for so long and only smelled the aroma of oil. Adhering to the mindset that since he had already waited in line he might as well buy some, he ordered 12 deep-fried mantou slices, split into three portions for the three of them. He ate two slices before feeling cloyed, stuffing the rest into Liu Weisheng’s stomach.
“Weisheng, how do you think these mantou slices compare to what I make?” Liu Yu pulled him into a corner and asked.
Liu Weisheng answered without hesitation, “Is there even a comparison? I’ve never eaten anything better than what Brother Xiao Yu makes. These mantou slices have flour and oil, sure, and they smell fragrant, but they can’t compare to yours at all.”
Liu Yu finally felt reassured. He had previously worried that his skills wouldn’t measure up to others and that his venture would fail before it even started. It seemed he had overthought things.
Two days later, Liu Yu went to town alone to collect the wok, buying a large piece of fatty pork along the way to perform a simple seasoning ritual. In the end, the fatty pork was rendered into lard cracklings, sprinkled with white sugar, and devoured entirely by Liu Weisheng.
Knowing he would open his stall the next day, Liu Yu started making preparations early. He mixed a large basin of flour to make spring roll wrappers, and to make the dough more fragrant, he deliberately added two eggs into it. He then wrapped a specially seasoned large pot of chives, eggs, and vermicelli into the wrappers.
Looking at the neatly arranged, square spring rolls resting on the bamboo curtain, Liu Yu felt an overwhelming sense of accomplishment, waiting only for tomorrow morning to drop them into the oil pan and fry them until crispy and fragrant.
In the past, no matter how delicious the food he made was, he ate it alone. But tomorrow was different; starting tomorrow, he would be cooking for others to eat, and he wondered if it would suit the tastes of the townspeople.
Too excited to sleep well all night, Liu Yu woke up a little after five in the morning. Pushing the handcart rented from Grandpa Xu, loaded with the wok, stand, spring rolls, and a large barrel of oil, he hurried toward Tianxiang Street in town.
He arrived at 7:00 AM, by which time the street was already bustling with people. Finding an unoccupied spot to set up his equipment, he didn’t shout out calls; he simply lit the fire, heated the oil, and started dropping the spring rolls into the wok one by one.
The freshly fried spring rolls looked golden, crispy, and mouth-watering at a single glance.
“Young man, what is this fragrant thing called? How much is it?” Passersby quickly gathered around, asking impatiently.
Liu Yu replied unhurriedly, “These are spring rolls. One for a penny, or two for one cent and eight cash.”
“Then I’ll take two. Here’s one cent and eight cash, count it properly.”
“I want two as well.”
“I want four!”
Instantly, the surrounding crowd stretched out their arms, shoving money toward Liu Yu and nearly drowning out his small frame.
Helpless, Liu Yu had to shout to maintain order, “Don’t rush, line up one by one. I promise everyone will get to buy some.”
Hearing this, the crowd complied obediently, reforming the queue on their own while waiting for Liu Yu to finish frying the spring rolls and hand them over.
The person at the front of the line clutched the spring rolls in his hands. Catching a whiff of the oil aroma, he couldn’t wait and took a bite. An explosion of savory flavor instantly flooded his mouth. The outer crust was crispy and fragrant, while the inside was remarkably fresh and refreshing. He couldn’t stop eating bite after bite until he realized two spring rolls were simply not enough, prompting him to rush back to the end of the line. By then, the queue already contained several people who had just bought spring rolls with him, realizing just like him that two pieces of such delicious food were far from satisfying.
Before 8:30 AM, Liu Yu packed up his stall. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to continue, but the pre-made batches he prepared yesterday simply weren’t enough. Even when the last few spring rolls were bought out by customers, a long line still remained behind.
With a pained expression, he dismissed the crowd and let out a deep sigh. He had assumed the goods wouldn’t sell out on the first day, so he had prepared a conservative amount to minimize any losses.
He hadn’t expected the townspeople to be so enthusiastic; 300 spring rolls had sold out completely in an hour and a half. Even so, many people saw them but couldn’t get a taste.
It looked like he would have to prepare double the amount tomorrow, Liu Yu thought with inward satisfaction.
As soon as he got home at noon, paying no mind to anything else, he rushed straight to the vegetable patch to harvest chives. Passing by the tofu shop earlier, he had casually bought a few blocks of tofu, planning to mix them with chives, eggs, and vermicelli for the filling. The flavor would definitely beat what he sold this morning.
Once everything was settled, Liu Yu sat down by the table and excitedly pulled out the money earned today from his cloth pouch, eager to calculate his profit.