Once Su Yi reached an area with no one around, she hopped straight onto her electric scooter and rushed home. For no other reason than she was in a hurry to get back, arrange her new furniture, and count the money she had made from selling her braised food (lu huo).
An hour later, Su Yi finally returned to her little home.
“I’m finally home! This is way too much trouble. If I keep selling braised food, I’ll have to travel back and forth every single day. If it really doesn’t work out, maybe I should just buy a house in town?” Sitting on a chair, Su Yi seriously contemplated whether buying a house was feasible.
“Maybe I should wait a bit longer and see! My business is bound to grow bigger and stronger sooner or later. It would be much more practical to buy a house and a shop in the county seat instead. For the next few days, I’ll just stick to running the stall!”
Having made up her mind, Su Yi went to arrange her furniture.
In the bedroom, she used a thought to directly teleport out a solid wood wardrobe and an exquisite dressing table. Looking at these two pieces of furniture, Su Yi nodded in approval. “They really do look quite nice!” Once she finished speaking, she placed all the items that needed to be displayed or stored right into their proper places.
Out in the courtyard, Su Yi brought out an ordinary lounge chair, then set up a small table and two small stools she had made herself. All set!
“I really am too clever! I had the shop owner leave all the furniture at the entrance of that alley, telling him someone would come to pick me up. This tactic really works like a charm every time!” That’s right—Su Yi had done the exact same thing last time in the county seat.
Su Yi inspected her courtyard from the inside out. Everything that should be there was there, and she was thoroughly satisfied! “My house now gives off a complete sense of belonging and security,” Su Yi mused with a sigh of appreciation.
“Time to rest for a bit, then I’ll continue making braised dishes this afternoon!” Su Yi said to herself as she strolled leisurely toward her large earthen bed (kang).
Lying on the bed, she thought, “This is honestly too boring! There’s no internet on my phone so I can’t browse anything. There are some magazines in the shopping mall, but they aren’t of much use. I should go buy some books to read tomorrow!”
After tossing and turning for most of the day, Su Yi was exhausted, and it didn’t take long for her to drift off. She slept until she woke up naturally, not waking up until four in the afternoon.
“Time to get to work again! Keep it up!”
After pumping herself up, Su Yi began preparing the braised food. Thanks to her experience from the day before, she was incredibly proficient at it and even added an extra pot to the batch!
After placing the food into the pot to simmer, Su Yi suddenly remembered she hadn’t counted her money yet. She quickly pulled out her coin pouch to do the math. “One copper, two coppers, three coppers… three thousand one hundred coppers!”
“That’s actually over three taels of silver! If I sell every day from now on, things will probably only get better and better!”
Su Yi was highly confident in her business. After all, her stall was the only one of its kind, with absolutely no competition. Even if someone tried to copy her, theirs definitely wouldn’t taste as good as hers. They didn’t have hot pot soup bases, and no one else’s ingredients could ever be this complete!
The next morning at 7:30 sharp, Su Yi appeared in town on time to set up her stall. It was the exact same spot as yesterday, but the situation today was completely different.
Yesterday’s customers had all approached with a “let’s give it a try” mentality, but today, a crowd was already waiting in front of the stall, ready to buy. Everyone was talking at once, praising how wonderful the flavor was, and others had come along simply because they heard it was delicious.
Seeing the situation, Su Yi had to quickly set up her table and arrange the dishes one by one. The sample dishes and toothpicks were still placed right at the very front, just like yesterday.
“We’re open for business! We’re open for business! Meat dishes are twelve coppers, vegetable dishes are three coppers!”
“Please line up nicely, everyone! One line for buying braised food, and one line for free samples!”
“I braised an extra pot today, so there will be enough for everyone!”
With a few shouts, Su Yi broadcasted the information, and the crowd quickly formed lines. There were slightly more people in the sampling line—after all, you’d be a fool not to take advantage of a freebie.
“Little girl, give me two catties of pork! I bought one catty yesterday, but it wasn’t enough to go around. My child has been clamoring for it ever since,” an auntie said to Su Yi.
“Coming right up! Just a moment, it’ll be ready right away. Do you need it sliced?”
“No need, I’ll slice it myself when I get back.”
“Alright, here you go!” Su Yi said as she handed the package over to the auntie.
Taking the money passed to her by the auntie, Su Yi looked at the next customer. “What would you like?”
“Give me two catties of vegetables and two chicken drumsticks!”
“You got it, here!” Su Yi packaged it up with great agility and handed it over.
“Everyone, please drop your money directly into this basket!” Su Yi shouted at the top of her lungs, making sure to notify every single person.
“What would you like?”
……
Su Yi remained busy for a long time until, finally, the crowd began to thin out.
“Whew—business was incredible today!” Su Yi finally let out a sigh of relief. She took a sip of spiritual spring water to replenish her energy, rolled up her sleeves, and kept pushing forward to sell the remaining goods.
By now, however, customers were only trickling in casually, one or two at a time. Su Yi didn’t mind and chatted quite relaxedly with the old man selling vegetables next to her.
After about an hour, Su Yi’s braised stock was down to just a handful of potato slices. Su Yi packed up the potato slices and handed them to the old man. “Old uncle, this is all that’s left. It’s a gift for you, I’ll be heading out now!”
“Oh, that won’t do. I can’t take your things for nothing,” the old man hurried to say.
“Just take it, it’s only this tiny bit. It doesn’t even weigh a catty, it’s not worth much money and isn’t even enough to register on the scale. As long as you don’t look down on it!” Su Yi said amiably. She wanted to maintain a good relationship with him; besides, the customers already knew her spot, so it wouldn’t be ideal to change locations now.
“Alright then, thank you, little girl. Here, take some of my vegetables!”
“No need, my family grows them too, we have plenty! You should head back early as well, I’m taking off first!” As Su Yi spoke, she began packing up her stall.
The stall was packed away in no time, and Su Yi headed straight for the bookstore.
The moment Su Yi stepped into the bookstore, the shopkeeper greeted her with an enthusiastic face.
“Young lady, are you looking for books? Or perhaps brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones? I have everything here!” the shopkeeper introduced to Su Yi.
“I want all of it, let me browse the books myself first!”
“Alright, feel free to pick and look through whatever you like!”
Hearing the shopkeeper’s permission, Su Yi walked over to the bookshelf and casually flipped open a book to read. It was written in traditional Chinese characters. Fortunately, she had been a calligraphy enthusiast in her past life, so she could read them and could even write a bit with an ink brush—skills that were coming in quite handy now.
Su Yi picked out a few travelogues and fiction storybooks (hua ben zi) for herself, and noticing two medical books sitting in a corner, she picked those up too. She was actually quite interested in learning medicine and could study it whenever she had free time.
Soon, under the shopkeeper’s guidance, Su Yi purchased a set of brushes, ink, paper, and an inkstone. After a round of bargaining, the total came to twenty-eight taels of silver, and the shopkeeper knocked off the small change.
“As expected, no matter the era, these things are never cheap!” Su Yi muttered softly to herself as she walked out the door.
“Nothing else left to do. I won’t have lunch in town today either since there’s nothing particularly good to eat. Let’s go home!” Su Yi said as she walked toward the outskirts of town.
As she walked along the road, she lifted her wrist to check her watch. It was already eleven o’clock, no wonder it was starting to get hot. Autumn had already arrived; the mornings and evenings were cool, but the daytime was scorching.
“Better hurry home! If I pick up the pace, I can make it back in forty minutes!” Su Yi said, quickening her steps toward home.