Auntie Zhao added, “The night market stays open until the third watch. If you can still catch the morning market afterward, you’ll definitely earn even more.”
Jiang Ran was afraid Auntie Zhao might quit, but in truth, Auntie Zhao was also afraid Jiang Ran might quit.
Although she gave Jiang Ran a share of the profits, she still kept the larger portion. Selling twenty or thirty extra sesame cakes a day meant another seventy or eighty wen in earnings.
But Jiang Ran wasn’t carried away by Auntie Zhao’s words. Even if she moved to Bianjing in the future, she couldn’t spend every hour of every day selling things. People needed rest.
If someone worked all day long without stopping, they’d eventually exhaust themselves.
She didn’t have time to think about the future for long, because customers were already arriving.
It was another regular customer.
“Little lady, you’re selling here at night too? Give me a bowl of soup noodles.”
This customer had arrived too late at noon and hadn’t gotten any.
“Do you still have tea eggs?”
Jiang Ran replied, “The tea eggs are sold out, but I have fried eggs. Fried eggs are delicious too and go very well with soup noodles. How about adding a fried egg?”
Jiang Ran planned to sell tea eggs during the day and fried eggs at night starting tomorrow.
That way she wouldn’t need to carry so many things on the road. It was easy to buy fresh eggs here and fry them on the spot.
The customer said, “Save me a soft-yolk tea egg tomorrow. I’ll come eat it here. For today, I’ll take a fried egg.”
Jiang Ran agreed and skillfully lowered the noodles into the boiling water.
The smooth noodles rested in the bowl, topped with a fried egg and a few stalks of bok choy on the side.
The customer carried it behind the stall to eat.
He didn’t rush to try the fried egg.
Tea eggs already had plenty of flavor on their own, but fried eggs were only sprinkled with a little salt. There wasn’t much flavor beyond that.
If he wanted the egg to soak up more flavor, it would need more time.
Jiang Ran sold three portions of noodles, and by then the sky had completely darkened.
People flowed through the streets like a river.
The evening breeze carried all kinds of scents—powder and perfume, fruit, and the aroma of food.
Auntie Zhao came here often and had built up many regular customers.
Every time she sold something, she would say, “The girl next to me is my niece. She sells soup noodles. They’re really delicious. You should try a bowl.”
It was Jiang Ran’s first time at the night market, yet she already had customers from Bianhe Street, curious newcomers, and customers sent over by Auntie Zhao.
People gathered around her stall.
Some ordered immediately.
Others hesitated, wanting to see whether the food was truly good.
Some took a few looks and left.
Others chatted with people nearby.
“Have you tried the noodle stall up ahead? Is this one as good?”
“This one is definitely better. The noodles at that other stall are soft and break apart as soon as you pick them up. If that’s what you like, you’ll probably prefer theirs. But the noodles here are chewy.”
Jiang Ran had never visited the other stalls, but she knew there was another noodle vendor in the night market.
She planned to try it when she had time.
Only by knowing both herself and her competition could she truly understand the market.
While she was thinking about it, another customer spoke up.
“Give me a bowl too. Soup noodles, and add a fried egg.”
Jiang Ran said, “Sir, you’re fourth in line. Please wait a moment. I’ll prepare yours after I finish the orders ahead of you.”
As she worked, she couldn’t help calculating in her mind.
After selling out a full day’s worth of food by noon today, this was also the first time she’d ever had four customers waiting in line at her stall.
The first two orders were lard-mixed noodles.
Those were the easiest.
Cook the noodles, drain them, add seasonings, and mix everything together.
If the customer wanted a fried egg, she added one. If not, the bowl went straight out.
After dark, there was never a moment when Jiang Ran’s stall wasn’t surrounded by people.
Not everyone bought something, but the place felt lively all the same.
Using the light from the restaurant behind her, customers sat slurping noodles.
Some returned halfway through their meal to ask for extra vinegar or more chili.
These were all new customers.
Regular customers already knew exactly how many spoonfuls of vinegar or chili they wanted.
Jiang Ran didn’t have a moment to rest.
She was tired, but she was also happy.
The scent of her mixed noodles and soup noodles now had a place on this street.
While she was busy selling, a young woman suddenly waved at her from across the crowd.
“Miss Jiang! You really came to sell rice noodles!”
The speaker was none other than the Sixth Young Lady of Yongning Marquis Manor.
The Sixth Young Lady looked bright and cheerful, but there were simply too many people at the stall.
So she had Su Yu come over to buy the noodles.
After a quick greeting, she went to wait somewhere quieter behind the crowd.
Jiang Ran hesitated.
Should she let the Sixth Young Lady skip the line?
After thinking about it, she decided not to.
First come, first served.
Otherwise, it wouldn’t be fair to the customers already waiting.
Su Yu ordered a bowl of soup noodles and added a fried egg.
Jiang Ran said, “That’s nine wen altogether.”
Su Yu didn’t question the higher price compared to what they’d paid at the farmstead.
Doing business at a stall meant charging market prices.
She chatted casually while waiting.
“I never expected you would actually come sell rice noodles. The Sixth Young Lady wanted to come during the day, but she couldn’t find the time. She was worried the noodles wouldn’t taste as good if they were carried back too far. Who would’ve thought we’d run into you tonight?”
Jiang Ran smiled.
“Then I guess Heaven didn’t want the Sixth Young Lady to be disappointed.”
There were too many customers.
After cooking the noodles, Jiang Ran returned to work and paid no more attention.
She didn’t even know when the Sixth Young Lady and her maid finally left.
Jiang Song was busy too.
He was responsible for telling Jiang Ran who wanted extra noodles and constantly washing bowls and chopsticks.
The night market was bustling.
So bustling that what usually took an entire day to sell was completely sold out here in less than two hours.
Jiang Ran had stood there working nonstop for those two hours.
She was so hungry her stomach felt glued to her back.
In the end, only two fried eggs remained.
She had Jiang Song turn the price board around and officially close the stall.
Auntie Zhao glanced over.
“You’re leaving?”
Jiang Ran nodded.
If they left now, they still had an hour’s walk ahead of them.
They would reach home around midnight.
They couldn’t afford to leave any later.
She cooked a bowl of noodles for herself.
While she was doing so, a customer came over and asked for food.
Embarrassed, Jiang Ran said, “We’ve sold out. Please come again tomorrow.”
The customer pointed at the steaming pot.
“Isn’t there still some left?”
Jiang Ran choked on her words for a moment.
“This batch accidentally fell onto the cart board. I can’t serve it to customers, so we can only eat it ourselves.”
The disappointed customer left.
Jiang Ran finally relaxed.
Once the noodles were ready, she ate more than half the bowl with a fried egg.
Only then did she feel alive again.
Alive, but not full.
She had eaten sugar cakes earlier, but that wasn’t enough.
So she bought three meat buns from a stall nearby.
She hadn’t eaten enough, and Jiang Song certainly hadn’t either.
Yet Jiang Song only ate one bun and wrapped another in a lotus leaf.
It was getting late.
Jiang Song quickly washed the bowls, chopsticks, and cart.
The siblings first brought the cart to Auntie Zhao’s house for storage.
Then they returned to Bianhe Street to buy meat and bones before finally leaving the city and heading back to the farmstead.
The moat and city walls seemed like a barrier that enclosed all the excitement of Bianjing within them.
Outside the city lay only silent wilderness and official roads.
The evening breeze blew across them.
It cooled Jiang Ran’s heated excitement and left her feeling light and floaty.
She really was exhausted today.
And her money pouch was truly heavy.
Jiang Ran couldn’t help smiling.
“Brother, are you tired?”
Jiang Song shook his head.
They weren’t the only people on the road. Several other vendors were walking home as well.
The night was so dark that the slightest movement in the grass could startle someone.
Jiang Song kept glancing behind them, only relaxing when he was sure no one was following.
Jiang Ran suddenly remembered an old superstition she had heard before—that every person carried three flames on their shoulders, and one would go out each time they looked behind them.
But right now, living people were definitely more frightening than ghosts.
The roads and trees she knew so well during the day were difficult to recognize at night.
They walked southeast, step after step.
Finally, they reached the farmstead.
A dog barked twice.
Then, realizing it was someone familiar, it closed its eyes and lay back down.
When they entered the Third Branch’s courtyard, Madam Yun and Jiang Chuanli came out of the house.
Neither said anything.
But it was obvious they had been waiting for the siblings to return.
Jiang Song pressed his lips together.
“You two should go to sleep first.”
Jiang Ran asked, “Brother, what about you?”
Jiang Song replied, “I’m going to make a table.”
They really did need one.
The stall now sold fried eggs and tea eggs, and some customers even ordered extra noodles.
Holding everything while eating was inconvenient.
People could place bowls on the ground, but customers without seats had to bend over to reach their food.
Jiang Ran nodded.
Madam Yun and Jiang Chuanli went back inside.
Jiang Song handed the money he had collected to Jiang Ran.
The money Jiang Song collected came from extra noodle orders.
Everything else had gone directly to Jiang Ran.
Jiang Ran tightened her grip on the money pouch.
“Then don’t stay up too late either.”
After an exhausting day, her arms and legs felt like they were about to fall apart.
Jiang Ran started another batch of tea eggs, then washed up, scrubbing away the dust from the road and the smell of cooking oil from her body.
She looked at the bright moon hanging in the sky.
Her head felt heavy.
She returned to her room and lay down.
But her sleepiness gradually faded.
Outside, Jiang Song was still making the table.
The sound of wood being sanded drifted through the night again and again.
Jiang Ran wasn’t sleepy anymore.
She climbed out of bed and took out her money pouches under the moonlight shining through the window.
She couldn’t sleep until she counted the money.
There were two pouches.
One was light.
The other was heavy.
She counted the extra-noodle money first.
Not all of the extra-noodle payments were in this pouch. Some customers ordered extra noodles from the start, while others finished eating and wanted another serving afterward.
The pouch contained a total of forty-two wen.
The second pouch held much more.
After counting it, Jiang Ran found a total of two hundred and fifty-three wen.
She couldn’t remember exactly how many bowls of noodles she had sold.
But she knew how many eggs she’d sold.
More than forty eggs altogether.
That alone accounted for over one hundred wen.
What she had in hand now was basically pure profit.
She had bought two jin of meat today and still brought home forty eggs.
Even after all that, she still had nearly three hundred wen left.
Normally, when she sold noodles for a full day, she collected close to two hundred wen.
After buying meat and paying expenses, she was left with only eighty or ninety wen.
Today she had added new items, and business had been better than usual.
Her earnings were three times higher than before.
If she hadn’t known how many hands had touched the money, she would have hugged it and cherished it properly.
Now that the money was counted, the next question was how to divide it.
Jiang Song had handed the money to her.
The meaning was obvious—she would decide.
Of course, Jiang Ran had never intended to let Jiang Song make that decision.
Figuring out the division became a problem.
Before, they used ingredients from home, making costs difficult to calculate.
She contributed twenty wen a day to household expenses.
After accounting for vegetables, rice, and other household supplies, there wasn’t much left.
Now, after deducting costs, they could keep around three hundred wen a day.
Giving only twenty wen to the household didn’t seem right anymore.
After all, Jiang Song had done plenty of work too.
Sixty wen?
That still felt too little.
Eighty wen?
A month of that would be two guan.
Jiang Ran herself still needed a lot of money.
If they rented a house, that money wouldn’t stretch very far.
It wouldn’t be right to rent a house while she kept all the profits for herself.
If Jiang Song paid the entire rent…
Jiang Ran counted out another forty wen.
Forget it.
One hundred and twenty wen.
That would be the amount.
Any more than that and she’d feel reluctant.
If the money stayed with her, she could spend it or hand it out whenever she wanted.
But if she gave too much to Jiang Song, she wouldn’t feel secure.
What if one day someone cried and complained until the money was taken back again?
The sounds outside still hadn’t stopped.
Jiang Ran put her clothes back on, picked up the money pouch, and went outside.
Jiang Song was sitting in the courtyard.
Hearing movement behind him, he turned around.
“Why aren’t you asleep yet?”
Jiang Ran said, “Time for serious business. This is today’s earnings. You can keep the household share. There’s one hundred and twenty wen.”
Jiang Song’s hands were covered in wood shavings.
Whether from surprise or fear of dirtying the pouch, he didn’t take it immediately.
“So much… Will you have enough left for yourself? Keep more. Buy whatever you need. You don’t have to give the family this much…”
Jiang Ran replied, “I have enough.”
She looked at her older brother.
Words she had been turning over in her mind for a long time finally came out.
“Brother, let’s rent a house in Bianjing.”