After washing his hands and straightening his clothes, Jiang Song took a walk around the area before heading to the noodle stall not far away.
Jiang Ran had long expected something like this might happen, which was why she had prepared sweet potato mash mixed noodles.
But when it actually happened, she still felt worried, even though she had prepared for it.
She wasn’t overconfident enough to think that having a new flavor meant everything would be fine, so she sent Jiang Song to gather information.
How did the other stall’s food taste? Should she lower her prices too?
The two stalls were so close together that the impact was already noticeable. She definitely couldn’t start selling sweet potato noodles today. Right now, she just wanted to reduce the damage as much as possible.
A quarter of an hour later, Jiang Song returned. Lowering his voice, he said, “The stall is run by a young couple. I tried their food. It doesn’t taste as good as yours.”
He added, “They also sell tea eggs and fried eggs. Three wen each. They have quite a few customers.”
From where she stood, Jiang Ran could already see a crowd around the stall.
The taste naturally couldn’t be exactly the same, but the price was indeed cheaper. For people who weren’t looking for exceptional flavor and only wanted a bowl of noodles, there was nothing wrong with eating there.
After thinking for a moment, Jiang Ran asked, “Do they also let customers add vinegar and chili separately?”
Jiang Song nodded.
Other than being cheaper and tasting slightly worse, that stall was almost identical to Jiang Ran’s.
As an older brother, he naturally thought his sister’s food was the best. After recalling carefully, he added, “Their vinegar isn’t strong enough, and their chili isn’t as good as yours either.”
Jiang Song observed things very carefully. Whatever Jiang Ran asked, he could answer.
A few customers were still standing at Jiang Ran’s stall. While cooking noodles, she thought things over.
In Bianjing, vinegar was cheap. Ordinary vinegar cost only five wen per sheng, and it was plenty sour.
If the vinegar lacked flavor, Jiang Ran guessed they had probably mixed water into it.
At her stall, the rice came from home, and so did the vegetables. Because of that, she could save quite a bit of money. After deducting costs, her profit margin was around sixty percent.
These days, Jiang Ran earned around three hundred wen a day. She kept most of it and gave a smaller portion to Jiang Song, which also covered business expenses and the household contribution.
If she lowered her prices too, she would still make money, but definitely less.
Since that stall had reduced prices so much, they had to be cutting corners somewhere besides the vinegar.
Jiang Ran glanced over.
Fewer vegetables.
Weak vinegar.
Poorly made chili.
And when serving minced pork, what looked like a full spoonful might actually only be half a spoonful.
If that stall had been farther away and wasn’t trying to steal customers through price-cutting, she wouldn’t have cared. People could copy her all they wanted.
But they were deliberately lowering prices to push her out.
That wasn’t right.
Jiang Song had already gone over once. It wouldn’t be appropriate for him to go again.
So Jiang Ran turned to Auntie Zhao.
“Auntie, could you help me with something?”
Auntie Zhao replied, “What do you mean help? Your business is my business.”
Over the past few days, Auntie Zhao had started making cakes with glutinous rice wrappers and fillings of black sesame and brown sugar.
After frying and griddling them in oil, the outside became crispy while the wrapper stayed soft, chewy, and sweet. The flowing filling inside was fragrant and delicious.
Each cake was only half the size of a palm and sold for two wen.
They were selling quite well.
The profit was good.
Thinking back to when she had only sold steamed flatbread at her stall, it was all thanks to Jiang Ran. Helping out was the least she could do.
Jiang Ran handed her ten wen and leaned close to whisper in her ear.
“Auntie, go to that stall and buy a bowl of noodles. Add lots of vinegar. Whatever you do, don’t say it’s bad or that there isn’t enough food. Just keep asking for more vinegar.”
Jiang Ran remembered that when she first started selling noodles, many first-time customers had been too shy to ask for extra vinegar or chili.
Usually, they only went for more after seeing someone else do it first.
A lot of people wouldn’t complain even if something wasn’t to their liking. At most, they simply wouldn’t come back.
Since Jiang Ran was helping watch her stall, Auntie Zhao felt completely at ease and went off to eat noodles.
For one bowl of noodles, she asked for vinegar six or seven times.
At first, she thought adding so much vinegar would make it taste awful.
But it didn’t.
The vinegar at that stall was incredibly weak. Instead of being dark brown, it was more of a light brown color and barely sour.
Auntie Zhao also added several spoonfuls of chili. It wasn’t nearly as tasty as Jiang Ran’s.
She grumbled to herself but said nothing. Following Jiang Ran’s instructions, she simply did those things, wiped her mouth, and left.
Auntie Zhao left.
But she also left the young couple at that stall running around in complete confusion.
Once Auntie Zhao started asking for more vinegar, the other customers eating noodles began doing the same.
One refill wasn’t enough.
Some people went back three or four times. Others went five or six times.
After all, even after adding two spoonfuls, it tasted almost the same as before.
They could only keep adding more.
The stall still had customers waiting. With everyone constantly carrying bowls back and forth, it seriously affected business.
One customer finally became impatient.
“Why doesn’t your vinegar have any flavor at all? How are people supposed to eat this? It’s not sour enough.”
The wife replied, “Maybe we bought poor-quality vinegar. Why don’t you add a little more?”
Her husband muttered, “You’ve already added it so many times. We didn’t say anything, and now you’re complaining about the vinegar.”
His tone clearly implied that the customer was being difficult.
The customer wasn’t easy to push around.
“Your vinegar doesn’t taste right, and we’re not allowed to say so?”
Madam Li felt a headache coming on. She patted her husband’s hand and forced a smile onto her face.
“If you don’t think it’s sour enough, feel free to add more. We don’t mind. Tomorrow I’ll buy vinegar from another seller. This one must have cheated us.”
The customer pulled a long face.
“No matter how much I add, it still doesn’t taste good.”
It seemed as though water had been mixed into it.
The noodles themselves had become soft as well.
As a result, many curious customers standing nearby began to hesitate.
Some simply left and went directly to Jiang Ran’s stall.
Auntie Zhao still didn’t fully understand what had happened, but she noticed that Jiang Ran’s business suddenly improved again.
Customers crowded around the stall asking for more vinegar, more chili, and tea eggs.
There were people everywhere.
After the morning rush ended, Jiang Song washed the bowls and chopsticks before heading out again.
Auntie Zhao still hadn’t figured it out.
Jiang Ran explained, “Even if the price is lower, customers are still paying money. They can still judge whether something tastes good.”
Her voice was soft.
“When other customers see it isn’t good, they won’t think saving that one wen was worth it. Especially those who switched from my stall to theirs. They’ll only regret being greedy for a small bargain and ending up disappointed.”
After all, breakfast was important.
A bad breakfast could ruin an entire morning.
The other stall had exposed its own weaknesses.
The first day of business was especially important.
For food stalls, if the food wasn’t good, customers wouldn’t come back.
If the food was good but the owner had a bad attitude, the impact on business could be even worse.
If both the food and attitude were bad, who would want to go there?
Jiang Ran had planned to wait until after renting a house before introducing sweet potato mash noodles.
She didn’t want her plans disrupted.
Once one customer started complaining, others would too.
Today they’d complain about too little minced pork.
Tomorrow they’d complain about too few vegetables.
If you didn’t want complaints, you had to make the food properly.
But making it properly increased costs.
And there was more than one person selling tea eggs on this street.
Selling at a discount just made everyone dislike you.
Whether that stall could keep it up remained to be seen.
Auntie Zhao felt everything Jiang Ran said made sense.
Jiang Ran really had ideas.
Even though they had spent a few wen, they had protected the business.
The money was well spent.
At noon, some regular customers arrived. Two of them were discussing trying the other stall.
A customer standing at Jiang Ran’s stall immediately said,
“Don’t go, don’t go. Their food isn’t as good as this place. Even the vinegar has no flavor. And the owner is sour too.”
Jiang Ran said nothing.
She merely adjusted the sign reading “Jiang’s Rice Noodles” and continued cooking.
Once the noodles were ready, she added bone broth and minced pork.
“How many spoonfuls of vinegar and chili would you like? Do you eat scallions?”
The customer was new.
“Is the vinegar very sour? Is the chili very spicy?”
Before Jiang Ran could answer, another customer explained,
“It’s your first time here, right? If you can’t handle sour or spicy food, just add one spoonful of each. If that’s still too much, you don’t have to add any at all. The stall owner is very nice. Even if you’re halfway through eating, you can come back and add more. We just add however much we like.”
Jiang Ran smiled shyly.
“Try it first. If it isn’t flavorful enough, you can always add more.”
There was no need to openly compare the two stalls.
The difference was already obvious.
Jiang Ran’s food tasted good, and she treated customers kindly.
As for the other stall?
The wife was alright.
But her husband always wore a face as long as a donkey’s.
Of course, there would always be people chasing bargains.
If they could satisfy a craving and save one wen at the same time, why not?
Fortunately, Jiang Ran’s business wasn’t affected too much.
She sold about forty bowls during the day as usual and another forty or so at night.
She could still earn more than three hundred wen a day, about the same as a carpenter or laborer.
Jiang Ran was happy.
Someone else, however, was worried.
Madam Li’s business wasn’t doing well.
But since she had copied someone else’s idea and was already in the wrong, she couldn’t exactly go looking for trouble with Jiang Ran.
With business slow, the couple wasn’t particularly busy.
The husband couldn’t help walking over to observe Jiang Ran’s stall.
The more he watched her thriving business, the more anxious he became.
Then he spotted Auntie Zhao.
At first, he paid no attention.
But the longer he looked, the more familiar she seemed.
Wasn’t she the woman who had come to his stall this morning and asked for vinegar over and over again?
If not for her, business wouldn’t have become this bad.
She had started it, and everyone else had followed her example.
The man hurried back to Madam Li.
“Do you know why our business is doing so badly? That Jiang’s Rice Noodles stall hired someone to sabotage us and tell people our food isn’t good.”
Madam Li looked confused.
“But nobody came to make trouble.”
The man said bitterly,
“That’s what makes it worse! The old woman selling sweet cakes next to them came to eat noodles and kept asking for vinegar. Think about it. Wasn’t it after that that customers started nitpicking everything? No, I have to go confront her.”
It was already past noon.
Jiang Ran’s stall was nearly sold out.
In the past, there were days when she ran out of food completely, only to have leftovers the next day.
She had reduced her portions today, yet there was still a little left.
One customer stood in front of the stall.
Two others sat behind it, almost finished eating.
One customer said,
“Cook mine later. I’ll wait until they’re done eating so I can have a seat.”
Jiang Ran nodded.
“Alright. Stand in the shade of the tree and wait.”
The sun shone directly overhead.
Jiang Ran had to blink frequently to ease the strain on her eyes.
Since she wasn’t cooking noodles at the moment, she stepped a little farther from the stove.
Heat rose continuously from the pot.
The fire inside the stove was dazzling.
After staring at it too long, black spots appeared whenever she looked elsewhere.
A chimney extended from the front of the stove, with smoke curling around it.
She wiped away her sweat.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw two people stop in front of the stall.
Pulling herself together, she asked,
“What would you like to eat, customers?”
“Eat? Eat what? You’re so vicious. If you won’t let me do business, then don’t expect to do business either!”