Compared to yesterday, Gu Lin prepared an extra one hundred bamboo tubes of cold side dishes today.
Looking at the two bamboo baskets in front of him, he furrowed his brow slightly. He could carry one bamboo basket on his back, but what should he do with the other one?
Gu Lin first hoisted one bamboo basket onto his back, then tried lifting the other with both hands, but ultimately failed due to a lack of strength.
He felt rather troubled, wondering whether he should go next door and ask Sister-in-law Zhao for help, when a voice came from behind him.
“What are you doing?”
Gu Lin turned around to see Zheng Hao standing by the door of the woodshed, and without hiding anything, he said, “The bamboo baskets are too heavy. I was wondering how to lift them both.”
Zheng Hao’s dark eyes shifted. He walked into the woodshed and, under Gu Lin’s puzzled gaze, lifted the bamboo basket with a single hand.
Gu Lin’s eyes widened abruptly, unable to believe what he was seeing. That bamboo basket weighed a solid thirty to forty catties!
The teenager’s eyes were naturally round to begin with, and now, out of sheer shock, they grew even larger and rounder.
Zheng Hao held the bamboo basket in one hand, looking completely relaxed and effortless compared to the struggle the teenager had just displayed.
Gu Lin asked with a strained voice, “Has your strength always been this great?”
Zheng Hao put the bamboo basket down and replied with an unchanged expression, “My father and I both have a lot of strength.”
Gu Lin recalled that Hunter Zheng indeed seemed to possess much greater strength than ordinary men. Since Zheng Hao was his son, having such incredible strength made sense.
Thinking back to the original book, Zheng Hao had started as a nameless soldier in the military camp, accumulated military merits step by step, was enfeoffed as a prince, and eventually became the regent feared by both enemy and native states alike. If he did not possess some extraordinary gifts, how could a commoner cross class barriers to stand at the pinnacle of national power?
County Streets
A large crowd of people formed a queue right down the middle of the street, leaving only narrow spaces on the sides for pedestrians to pass while filling up all the remaining room.
A passerby walking through had never seen such a lively scene and asked with curiosity, “What is going on? Why are there so many people?”
A man at the back of the queue replied, “I am not too sure myself. People have been lining up here since early morning. I heard from the people ahead that a small food stall sells something exceptionally delicious, so I just joined the line.”
The passerby looked at the queue again and noticed that in the blink of an eye, the line had grown significantly longer. Curiosity stirred within him: exactly what kind of food was so delicious that it made everyone wake up early in the morning to line up and wait?
Unable to suppress his curiosity, the passerby joined the queue as well.
After receiving a wooden token from the street manager, Gu Lin walked toward his stall. Before even getting close, he was taken aback by the sea of people crowding the area.
Looking at the shoulder-to-shoulder crowd before him, Gu Lin’s expression turned slightly bewildered, failing to understand why all these people were gathered on the street.
Then, a mild sense of worry arose in him: how was he going to squeeze his way through to his stall?
Unexpectedly, a man in the queue on the opposite side looked around and spotted him.
The man shouted in Gu Lin’s direction, “Boss, you are finally here!”
Everyone’s gazes shifted over. Some people who had bought the cold dishes yesterday recognized Gu Lin and shouted loudly, “The ge’er who sells cold dishes is here!”
“Everyone, please make way and let the boss through.”
Hearing someone greet him, and seeing the expectant expressions and reactions of the crowd, Gu Lin felt a sense of pleasant surprise.
He could hardly believe that all these people had been waiting here specifically for him.
The winding, crowded queue parted to clear a small path. As Gu Lin walked through, he instinctively took hold of Zheng Hao’s hand at his side. Zheng Hao raised his head to look at him, but did not shake off his hand.
Gu Lin pulled Zheng Hao through the crowd and arrived at his stall.
His mind was still in a daze as he looked at the crowd in front of him.
Those who had failed to get any cold dishes yesterday looked somewhat anxious and said, “Ge’er, hurry up and mix three portions of cold dishes for me. After tasting just a single bite of my friend’s cold dishes yesterday, I kept thinking about them all night, so I came here to wait early this morning.”
“I want three portions too! The cold dishes you make are so delicious that after my wife and daughter tried them, they urged me to rush over and buy them early this morning, terrified we would miss out.”
“Ge’er, I want five portions, not too sour, add extra spice.”
“Ge’er, I want four portions, not too spicy, add extra vinegar.”
Faced with the overlapping cries, Gu Lin quickly snapped back to reality. He unloaded the bamboo tubes and various utensils, saying to the crowd, “Don’t rush, nobody rush. Line up properly, and I will start making them right now.”
With his spoons and wooden chopsticks ready, Gu Lin swiftly mixed three portions of cold dishes according to the first customer’s request, followed immediately by the second customer’s order. As he mixed, some customers wanted three or four portions, some wanted one or two, some wanted no spice, and others wanted extra spice and vinegar. With different people making different requests, as time went on, though Gu Lin made no mistakes, he felt somewhat overwhelmed.
Just as his mind began to spin into chaos, Zheng Hao’s voice cut through the bustling noise of the crowd: “Next customer, two portions of cold dishes, no spice, extra vinegar.”
Hearing Zheng Hao’s voice, Gu Lin’s mind cleared up a bit. Seeing Zheng Hao standing at the front maintaining order and diligently noting down every customer’s request, a smile of relief and joy bloomed on Gu Lin’s face.
Thus, Gu Lin mixed the cold dishes in the back and handed them to Zheng Hao, while Zheng Hao relayed customer requests and collected money in the front.
Clink, clink, the copper coins kept dropping into the wooden box, producing a crisp and resounding sound.
Gu Lin’s hands kept moving nonstop, mixing away. He lost track of how long he had been busy, knowing only that the requests transmitted by Zheng Hao never stopped.
Those who bought the cold dishes eagerly opened their bamboo tubes to eat on the spot, sighing in praise, “Goodness! What kind of flavor is this? It has the pungency of wild pepper and garlic, yet the sourness of vinegar.”
Another person chimed in, “I have never tasted such a novel food, both sour and spicy. At first bite, I even thought the cold dishes had gone bad, but this taste is truly wondrous.”
Someone hurriedly swallowed a piece of eggplant in their mouth and said, “More than that! I used to hate eggplant the most and wanted to vomit the moment I touched it, but the eggplant made at this cold dish stall is tender, soft, sour, and spicy, appetizing and so delicious that you simply cannot stop eating.”
A passerby who had been drawn in and bought the cold dishes out of temporary curiosity tasted it and sighed with delight, “When I first saw you all lining up here for cold dishes, I thought it was exaggerated. Now that I have tasted them, I dare say nobody can resist cold dishes in the summer.”
“Extremely true!”
Everyone expressed their agreement.
Gu Lin had thought that preparing an extra hundred portions of cold dishes today would at least last him until noon, but in less than half an hour, all the cold dishes were sold out. Gu Lin’s hands, sore and trembling from mixing, were about to shout out when Zheng Hao spoke up ahead of him: “Today’s cold dishes are sold out. Everyone come back tomorrow!”
A young man complained, “Why did they sell out so fast? I have missed out two days in a row. Boss, make more tomorrow.”
Hearing this, Gu Lin could not help but look down at his sore and trembling arms, shaking his head with a bitter smile. Making one hundred and fifty tubes of cold dishes in a day was already his limit; preparing any more than that meant he might not even finish them.
After the customers left, Gu Lin changed from standing to sitting down in place to rest, and beckoned for Zheng Hao, who had been managing the customers all morning, to come over as well.
Zheng Hao walked over carrying the wooden box filled with money. Gu Lin looked at the stuffed box, grabbed a handful of copper coins, and mentally calculated today’s earnings. Even though he was mentally prepared, after calculating the profits, Gu Lin still could not help but feel a surge of excitement. Today he had earned one tael of silver, a full three times more than yesterday.
Gu Lin stuffed that handful of copper coins into his own pouch and then placed it into Zheng Hao’s arms. After locking the wooden box with its key, he turned his head to see Zheng Hao holding the pouch with his brows tightly furrowed, deep in thought.
Gu Lin sighed inwardly and said, “This is what you earned. You saw how things were today; if you hadn’t helped out, I certainly couldn’t have managed. I am going to need your help all the time from now on.”
Zheng Hao did not speak, but his fingers holding the pouch moved slightly, and finally, he put the pouch away.
After resting, Gu Lin got up and took Zheng Hao to the butcher’s shop. Aside from buying half a catty of meat, he also bought a few pork bones, feeling that Zheng Hao was currently too thin and malnourished and needed a proper nourishment boost.
After buying the meat, Gu Lin headed to the grain and oil shop. The seasonings used for making cold dishes over the past two days had been consumed in large quantities, and the oil and vinegar at home were running low.
The shopkeeper of the grain and oil shop recognized Gu Lin the moment he stepped inside as the ge’er who had come to buy Sichuan peppercorns two days prior. Not for any other reason, but because this ge’er possessed exceptionally striking looks, and the child following him was different from other kids, exuding a fierce air at a young age that made him look untouchable.
Gu Lin said, “Shopkeeper, ten catties of white rice, and one catty each of soy sauce, vinegar, and salt.”
Though Gu Lin always believed in thriftiness, he would not stint on himself. Now that he had earned money, he felt they could buy some white rice to mix with the millet.
Seeing that the customer had been buying millet just a few days ago and was now buying white rice, the shopkeeper felt curious but did not pry further. “Coming right up, please wait a moment.”
After buying the rice and seasonings, Gu Lin took Zheng Hao’s hand and walked toward the city gate. Passing by a small stall selling tofu and dried bean curd, he diverted his steps to the stall. The vendor was a woman of about thirty years old.
Gu Lin asked, “Big Sister, how much are your dried bean curds?”
The woman glanced at Gu Lin and said, “Three coins a catty.”
Gu Lin said, “Give me three catties.”
The woman reminded him, “Once you buy dried bean curds, they will spoil in two or three days if you do not finish them quickly.”
Gu Lin smiled and said, “It is fine, they will not spoil.”
Seeing that she could not persuade him otherwise, the woman stopped trying. She weighed the dried bean curds and handed them to Gu Lin.
Gu Lin’s bamboo basket was already full, so after accepting the dried bean curds, he placed them into Zheng Hao’s bamboo basket. Under the other person’s quiet and faintly fierce gaze, the corners of his lips curved upward, blooming into a full, toothy smile.
Zheng Hao’s gaze flickered. Bathed in the sunlight, the teenager before him seemed enveloped in a layer of golden brilliance, his smile dazzling and bright like the summer sun, as if capable of chasing away all the darkness in the world.