Su Yu felt disappointed when she heard the first part of Jiang Ran’s answer, worried that she would fail the task and make her young lady unhappy. But after hearing the rest, she felt as though a dead end had suddenly opened into a new path. Compared to eating it once, being able to eat it regularly would definitely make her young lady happier.
She asked for details. “Bianhe Street? Which stall is it?”
Jiang Ran said a little embarrassedly, “It’s just a small stall, not very noticeable, and it’s toward the back. But there’s a price board, and there’s also a sign that says Jiang Family Rice Noodles.”
Su Yu smiled. “Alright.”
That solved everything. She could report back to her young lady, and she could even go try it herself someday. She could never bear to spend two qian of silver on a single meal, but food sold from a street stall ought to be much cheaper.
Jiang Ran was happy too. Once the young ladies from the Marquis Manor returned home, she would be able to get a few more orders from them.
After seeing Su Yu off, Jiang Ran lay back down and went to sleep. When she woke the next day, the sky was still dark.
There was firelight in the kitchen. Yawning, she walked out and saw that the signboard had already been carved. It was made of wood, with neat characters engraved into it. Since the wood and the characters were the same color, the lettering had been traced with charcoal.
Against the natural wood background, the black characters stood out clearly. Even from a distance, the four words Jiang Family Rice Noodles were easy to see. Together with the price board, her stall looked much more professional.
Jiang Song and his father had already gone out again. Only Madam Yun remained in the kitchen making breakfast. Jiang Ran stood nearby stir-frying minced meat and simmering bone broth. Once everything was ready, she carefully packed it into wooden buckets.
As usual, she brought breakfast to eat on the road: one boiled egg and two baked flatbreads.
Without a cart, Jiang Song carried the wooden buckets for her to the entrance of the village, and from there Jiang Ran carried them herself.
Walking and resting along the way, she watched the sky gradually brighten. By the time she reached the city gate, dawn had fully arrived. She entered through Jingmen Gate, headed to Bianhe Street, found Auntie Zhao, and immediately began washing bowls, setting up the stall, mixing the rice batter, and boiling water.
She could no longer bring firewood from home, so she had asked Auntie Zhao to help buy some. There were many firewood sellers in the city, making it quite convenient.
Auntie Zhao was in a good mood today.
She said to Jiang Ran, “I sold quite a few sesame sugar cakes last night. Here’s your share of the money.”
Sixteen cakes meant thirty-two wen.
Regular sugar cakes sold for seven wen each, while sesame sugar cakes sold for eight. Not only did they bring in more profit, they sold better too. How could Auntie Zhao not be happy?
Jiang Ran accepted the money. “Auntie, from now on just keep it with you and settle the accounts every ten days or half a month.”
Otherwise, she would have to divide earnings every day, and she was afraid the accounts would become confusing.
Auntie Zhao chuckled. “Since you trust me, we’ll do it that way.”
If Jiang Ran didn’t trust her, she wouldn’t have left her cart at Auntie Zhao’s house.
Auntie Zhao said, “Business is much better at night. One evening can match an entire day’s sales.”
Jiang Ran replied, “Our fields are almost finished. Once my brother is done, he can come with me, and I’ll be able to stay later.”
Of course, she still couldn’t stay until midnight. It took her another hour to walk home. If she stayed too late and had to open the stall again the next day, she would have no time to rest.
Auntie Zhao was surprised. Jiang Ran had been coming here for quite a while, and the Jiang family still hadn’t finished planting? Just how much land did they have?
She asked about it.
Jiang Ran said, “My family rents land to farm.”
The Jiang family didn’t own a single mu of land.
In truth, tenant farmers could earn a decent living. The problem was that the Jiang family had supported two scholars. After all these years, neither had achieved anything, yet money kept being poured into their studies. There was also Old Master Jiang and Madam Liu, who only took money and never spent any. Add Madam Yun and Jiang Chuanli’s excessive filial piety, and life for the Third Branch naturally became difficult.
Auntie Zhao’s family didn’t own land either.
She said, “Selling things from a stall doesn’t earn less than farming. Business is business.”
A single mu of land cost ten to twenty guan, and better land was even more expensive. Where would ordinary people find that kind of money?
Auntie Zhao’s family lived in Bianjing only because generation after generation had always lived there.
Jiang Ran nodded. While waiting for the water to boil, she fixed the signboard beside the price board.
Auntie Zhao couldn’t help saying, “That thing’s useless for street stalls. People can see at a glance what we sell. There’s no need for it.”
She had seen Jiang Ran’s price board but never made one herself. She only sold sugar cakes. One cake cost seven wen. What was the point of making such things?
Jiang Ran said, “With this, it won’t matter if others start selling rice noodles. People who like mine will recognize my sign.”
So far she hadn’t seen any rice noodle stalls on this street, but Jiang Ran preferred to prepare ahead of time.
As soon as she arrived, she made three sales. The third customer was the spicy-food lover.
One bowl of soup noodles, one spoonful of vinegar, and three spoonfuls of chili oil. That was his regular order.
He had already been eating here for seven days.
The two of them were fairly familiar by now. He picked up some noodles and slurped down a few mouthfuls. Only after satisfying his craving did he say, “Last night I had a bowl of noodle soup on Maxing Street. The noodles were all soft and mushy. They weren’t nearly as good as yours.”
Jiang Ran suddenly understood.
It wasn’t that nobody else was making soup noodles and mixed noodles. They just weren’t selling them on this street.
Perhaps one day, when people ate inferior rice noodles elsewhere, they would tell others, “The rice noodles from Jiang Family Rice Noodles on Bianhe Street are still the best.”
Instead of simply saying that some stall on Bianhe Street was good. Once rice noodle stalls became common, who would know which one was hers?
After saying that, the customer lowered his head and continued eating.
Auntie Zhao had heard the conversation too and thoughtfully looked at Jiang Ran’s stall.
Jiang Ran paid no attention to her. She simply thought that making noodles springier wasn’t that difficult. Sooner or later, others would figure it out.
She just hoped Jiang Song would finish planting the fields soon so she could add more items to her stall.
Business was excellent all morning, just as usual. Auntie Zhao’s stall was doing well too.
She now sold two kinds of sugar cakes. Sugar was expensive, and if she wanted them to taste good, neither sugar nor oil could be skimped on.
If she used too little sugar, the filling would simply stick to the dough and fail to achieve the flowing center effect. If she lowered the price further, there would be no profit left.
The new stall wasn’t affecting Auntie Zhao for the time being. But once they learned how to make sesame sugar cakes, and if they sold them cheaper, it would still hurt her business.
Auntie Zhao wasn’t worrying about that. She wasn’t thinking so far ahead. As long as she could sell and make money now, she was satisfied.
Jiang Ran was extremely busy throughout the morning. The new signboard attracted plenty of attention.
Even customers who couldn’t read would stop to look at the price board and sign. Some even asked what the words said, and Jiang Ran answered each one.
Boiling noodles, collecting money, mixing noodles…
As she used up more lard today, she noticed there wasn’t much left at home. She would need to buy pork fat this afternoon to render more lard. She also had to buy vinegar.
She definitely wouldn’t save any money today, so there was naturally no need to hand over money to the family.
After working nonstop for most of the day, the crowd finally thinned after noon, and there were hardly any customers left at the stall.
Jiang Ran quickly calculated her earnings.
Today she had taken in one hundred and ninety-eight wen, plus the thirty-two wen Auntie Zhao had given her.
This money had nothing to do with the Jiang family. She didn’t plan to mention it. She wanted to save it herself.
After selling out of minced meat, Jiang Ran pushed the cart to Auntie Zhao’s house. Auntie Zhao planned to continue selling for a while longer, so Jiang Ran went by herself.
After putting away the cart, she went to a butcher’s stall and bought pork, pork fat, and a jug of vinegar.
Pork cost sixty wen per jin, and she bought a little over one jin. Pork fat cost forty wen per jin, and she bought three jin. Vinegar was the cheapest, only five wen per sheng.
Since she started storing the cart at Auntie Zhao’s house, this was the heaviest load Jiang Ran had ever carried home.
Usually she sold everything before leaving.
Now the days were growing longer. By the time she returned to Jiang Village, the sun had only just set.
Jiang Ran didn’t know how to render lard.
In her previous life, everything had been so convenient that she always bought ready-made lard.
That meant leaving it to Madam Yun.
She made some chili oil first, then went to the vegetable garden to pull weeds and pick tomorrow’s bok choy. After washing it clean, she noticed how fresh and tender the chives in the courtyard looked and harvested a whole basket.
Rendering lard would produce crispy pork cracklings. Since she had bought over a jin of lean pork, Jiang Ran planned to use two liang of it for dinner.
Chives, pork cracklings, and lean meat.
Nothing was more suitable than dumplings.
Pork cracklings were so fragrant. They added much-needed richness to the meal. Even if there were leftovers, reheating or pan-frying the dumplings the next morning would make them delicious.
Since she had bought vinegar today, she could mix it with chili oil for dipping sauce. Thinking of that, Jiang Ran went and pulled a few heads of garlic from the garden as well.
The vegetable patch in the Third Branch’s courtyard was small, but it contained many different vegetables. They mainly grew enough for the family’s own needs.
There were hardly any weeds in the courtyard garden, so Jiang Ran went to the larger vegetable plots outside.
There were nine plots altogether, and weeding was hard work.
But when she arrived, she saw only vegetable seedlings. Wilted weeds were piled along the edges of the fields.
Jiang Song had probably cleared them while making time.
Her brother was truly hardworking and capable.
The napa cabbage seedlings were doing much better too. Jiang Ran picked another basketful.
The family couldn’t possibly finish all of it themselves, so she carried it over to the young ladies from the Marquis Manor.
She had asked before, and the Sixth Young Lady and the others planned to leave the next morning.
Since there was no sun at night, the vegetables would be fine until morning.
The other branches of the Jiang family were also taking advantage of their free time to deliver vegetables to the Marquis Manor.
When Madam Lin saw Jiang Ran, she couldn’t resist mocking her.
“Aren’t you out doing business at your stall? What’s this? Still delivering vegetables?”
Jiang Ran lowered her head and said, “Business doesn’t make much money.”
Hearing that made Madam Lin feel much better.
“You think just anyone can do business? Your second brother tried before and failed.”
Jiang Ran let the words go in one ear and out the other.
In Madam Lin’s eyes, not everyone could become a maid, and not everyone could earn money from a stall. In short, the Third Branch should stay exactly as it had always been—honest, hardworking, and poor. It simply wouldn’t do for their lives to become better than the First Branch’s.
Keeping things hidden had definitely been the right decision.
Jiang Ran carried the vegetables over.
She didn’t see any of the young ladies from the Marquis Manor. Su Yu came out instead.
Unlike before, when she would simply hand over two qian of silver, this time she paid the usual price the Marquis Manor gave the Jiang family for vegetables.
Twenty wen.
The basket weighed about four jin, and five wen per jin was a very good price.
Looking at the fresh vegetables, Su Yu said, “They’re quite nice.”
Jiang Ran had picked them and brought them over immediately. She had only cleaned them a little, removing the smaller leaves and brushing off some dirt from the roots.
That alone made the vegetables look much cleaner and more attractive.
If she grew more vegetables in the future, perhaps she could prepare them the way large fresh-food supermarkets did in her previous life.
A wealthy household like the Marquis Manor would certainly buy them.
Jiang Ran took the twenty wen and went home.
When Jiang Song and the others returned, she handed him ten wen right in front of Madam Yun.
Jiang Ran said, “I bought pork fat and pork today. There’s no money left from today’s earnings.”
Jiang Song looked at the coins.
“Then what’s this?”
Jiang Ran said, “I picked a basket of napa cabbage from the garden and sold it over there. It brought in twenty wen.”
The Third Branch had never sold vegetables before. Jiang Song had no idea vegetables could sell for that much at once.
Madam Yun and Jiang Chuanli both looked briefly stunned, but neither said anything.
Jiang Song asked, “Do you still have enough money over there?”
With Madam Yun and Jiang Chuanli present, Jiang Ran replied, “Not really.”
Jiang Song didn’t take the ten wen. Instead, he gave Jiang Ran another hundred.
“If you run short, tell me.”
Jiang Ran struggled inwardly for a moment before accepting the money.
She had spent a lot today, and it hurt to part with it. Once she earned more later, she could always pay it back.
This was wonderful.
Over the past few days, everything she had handed over had now come back to her.
She had bought so many things, yet her secret savings remained completely untouched. In fact, she had even saved more than usual!
After putting the money away, Jiang Ran said to Madam Yun, “Mother, render the pork fat I bought into lard. Tonight let’s make dumplings with pork cracklings.”
Madam Yun answered twice with a quiet “Mm,” then headed for the kitchen.
Jiang Chuanli wiped his face.
“I’ll go clean the pigsty.”
For some reason, Jiang Ran felt as though the two of them were working even harder than before. Maybe it was just her imagination.