After finishing his meal, Zhou Jiajing returned home and found that Jiang Lianyue still hadn’t come back. Farmer Sister’s words seemed to echo in his ears: “A newly married woman would feel it’s improper…”
Zhou Jiajing curled his lips.
The one who feels improper here is me, not her, Farmer Sister!
He let out a soft sigh and went to the kitchen to boil water for a bath. Just then, footsteps sounded outside the door, followed by the clink of keys and the sound of the lock turning.
Zhou Jiajing froze for a moment, then dashed into the study in one swift motion and shut the door behind him.
The door opened. She went to the dining table to pour herself some water, then headed into the kitchen…
Zhou Jiajing held a book in his hands, but his ears were fixed on the sounds outside the door. After quite a while, he suddenly realized he was holding the book upside down!
He hurriedly flipped it over. In his haste, the enamel cup on the desk was knocked over by the book. With a loud clang, it fell to the floor, water splashing everywhere.
Jiang Lianyue was just about to check whether the water in the kitchen had boiled. Passing by the study, she heard the noise and casually knocked on the door.
“Zhou Jiajing, are you home?”
Zhou Jiajing’s hand, reaching for the mop, froze midair. He opened his mouth to answer but found his throat dry. He quickly cleared it and raised his voice. “It’s me.”
“I asked someone to pass on a message saying I’d come back early. You got it, right?” Jiang Lianyue asked.
She had called and then returned with Huang Xing, but she wasn’t sure whether the message had actually been delivered.
Zhou Jiajing turned and opened the door, keeping his expression as natural as possible.
“I got it.”
Jiang Lianyue nodded.
“Good. I’ll go check on the water.”
Without hesitation, she turned and headed straight into the kitchen.
Zhou Jiajing watched her slender figure disappear neatly into the kitchen. The restlessness in his heart was instantly doused, as if someone had poured a basin of cold water over him.
They were just roommates.
What was he even thinking?
He quietly closed the door and mopped the floor, thinking to himself: from now on, he would treat her strictly as a roommate. He wouldn’t eat the food she cooked anymore. That way, he wouldn’t keep thinking about her just because the food was too good.
After that, Zhou Jiajing began leaving early and coming home late, deliberately avoiding the times when Jiang Lianyue cooked, trying hard to restore the order of his old life.
As for Jiang Lianyue, he had no idea what she was busy with. She got up earlier than him and came back later than him. In the blink of an eye, several days passed. Though they lived under the same roof, they hadn’t run into each other even once.
What could possibly make someone without a job busier than him, who went to work every day?
Several times, Zhou Jiajing stood alone in the empty kitchen, pondering this question.
Jiang Lianyue wasn’t busy with anything else, she was still busy making money.
After more or less securing a source for jasmine flowers, she took stock of her savings and realized that if she were to open a factory, her money would only be enough to rent a room as a workshop. She wouldn’t even have enough left to buy tools and equipment. Fortunately, there were still two months before the jasmine bloomed, she still had time to earn more.
Private business wasn’t allowed in these days, but regulations in Lingnan were relatively lax. Selling some snacks or taking surplus produce from home to the market usually went unchecked. Based on what she’d observed over the past few days in Hengzhou, Fucheng, and Xiaoyi Town, Jiang Lianyue analyzed the situation and concluded that everyone was poor. Aside from food, no other business was easy to run. So she decided to sell snacks.
She spent several days going out early and returning late, mapping out where crowds gathered in Hengzhou Town, where stalls were set up, and what people sold, getting a clear picture of everything. Only then did she settle on a location and decide what to sell, and finally begin preparations.
What she needed, coal briquettes, bowls and chopsticks, trays, could be bought ready-made. But the simple stove, folding tables and chairs, and the cart all had to be custom-made.
After drawing up the designs, she commissioned a blacksmith and a carpenter, then went around asking where she could have rice ground into batter, negotiating cooperation with shop owners. Considering that she lived on the third floor and moving things up and down would be inconvenient, Jiang Lianyue bought two cartons of Liu Sanjie cigarettes and gave them to Old Meng, the gatekeeper. She arranged with him to store her things outside the guardroom at night and asked him to keep an eye on them, paying him five yuan a month.
Old Meng earned only eighteen yuan a month. Being paid five yuan just to keep an eye on things made him overjoyed. He immediately became much warmer toward this young wife from the countryside. Every time he saw Jiang Lianyue, he greeted her enthusiastically and even shared plenty of news about the factory and the county.
Since the gatekeeper stayed at the entrance all day, he was well-informed. Jiang Lianyue was happy to be on good terms with him, always smiling when coming and going, occasionally slipping him some food. Before long, the two became quite familiar.
Seeing Jiang Lianyue pushing over something that looked like a strange box, Old Meng hurried forward to help.
“Little sister, is this the stuff you wanted me to look after?”
“Yes,” Jiang Lianyue replied. “Once I open tomorrow, I’ll bring you some to try.”
“No need, no need. Making a living isn’t easy,” Old Meng said as he helped push the cart into a corner beside the guardroom. He stepped back a couple of paces, looking over the cart, the stacked steam trays, and the folding tables and chairs. Pointing at the latter, he asked, “What’s this?”
“Tables and chairs.” Jiang Lianyue took down a folding stool, unfolded it, and showed him.
What she had made were folding stools: fir wood legs crossed into an X-shape, with three sturdy strips of canvas cloth forming the seat, lightweight yet solid.
Old Meng tried sitting on one and found it very stable. He laughed in praise.
“Not bad, not bad. Light and doesn’t take up space. Where did you buy these? I’ve never seen stools like this.”
“I had them made by a carpenter.”
“Ah, no wonder.” Old Meng stood up, picked up the stool, and examined it again and again. “Another day I’ll get someone to make a couple for my place. That way, when guests come, I won’t have to borrow stools from the neighbors.”
“I had them made at Carpenter Xie’s on Liuming Road. You can go to him if you want.”
“Good, good.”
After chatting for a bit, Jiang Lianyue saw it was getting late. She put the folding stools back on the cart, secured everything with straps, then went upstairs to soak rice. After that, she grabbed her meat ration coupons and money and headed out again.
All the equipment was ready. Now it was time to prepare ingredients.
Since she was just starting out, Jiang Lianyue didn’t plan to sell too many varieties. She bought only green beans, pork, wood ear mushrooms, and scallions, ginger, and garlic.
After returning home, she took out some preserved mustard greens from her dowry, soaking them separately along with the wood ear mushrooms. She minced the pork, added locally brewed rice wine from Hengzhou and Iron Bird soy sauce produced in Yongnan City, mixed it well, and stored it in the cupboard.
Next, she washed the newly bought bowls, chopsticks, and trays, setting them aside to dry, then began preparing sauces.
Lingnan had a local specialty called huangpi sauce, sweet and sour with a distinctive fruity fragrance. It was perfect as a dipping sauce and didn’t need anything added. Just the sauce itself was delicious.
When Jiang Lianyue had gone to the grocery store to buy seasonings earlier, she’d seen huangpi sauce for sale and bought two bottles.
But one sauce alone felt monotonous, so she decided to make an additional soy sauce chili dip. It was March, and fresh chili peppers weren’t in season yet, so she used dried chilies.
She heated the wok without oil, added the dried chilies, and slowly toasted them over low heat. Once the aroma was released, she turned off the fire, transferred the chilies to a large bowl, and crushed them with the bottom of a clean enamel cup. Adding soy sauce, a simple soy-chili sauce was finished.
By the time she was done, it was already dinnertime. Jiang Lianyue casually cooked herself a bowl of egg noodles. After filling her stomach, she poured off the soaking water from the rice, picked out the grains, and went out to have them ground into batter.
When Zhou Jiajing got home from work, he immediately smelled a spicy fragrance in the house. Curious, he went to the kitchen to look around and found many extra ingredients. He couldn’t help but wonder, was Jiang Lianyue planning to host a meal?
If she was inviting people over, shouldn’t she at least inform him, the landlord?
But she hadn’t said anything.
Zhou Jiajing stared at the minced meat, preserved greens, and wood ear mushrooms in the cupboard for a while, completely baffled. Shaking his head, he left.
He was finding it harder and harder to understand this “wife” of his.
Jiang Lianyue returned after having the rice batter ground and immediately washed up and went to bed to rest.
At five o’clock the next morning, Jiang Lianyue got up. She trimmed the green beans, diced them, and stir-fried them with the marinated minced pork from the day before. She prepared the preserved greens and wood ear mushrooms the same way. Then she took out twenty eggs from her dowry and packed everything, along with the bowls, chopsticks, and trays, into two shoulder poles and carried them downstairs.
Old Meng had just gotten up when he saw her heading down with the load.
“So early, little sister? Are you going to set up your stall already?”
It was only six o’clock. The sky was still dim.
“Yes. Breakfast stalls have to start early. Any later and everyone will already have eaten.”
Old Meng helped her bring out the cart, load everything onto it, and even push it out of the residential compound.
Jiang Lianyue thanked him.
“Uncle, thank you so much. When I get back, I’ll bring you a portion to try.”
Old Meng waved his hand.
“No need to be so polite. Hurry and go get busy.”
Jiang Lianyue smiled and nodded, pushing the cart toward the city center.
The spot she had chosen was at the mouth of an alley in the city. Turning left led to the market, turning right led to Hengzhou Park. There happened to be an open patch of land at the alley entrance where people often set up small stalls selling vegetables or eggs.
When she arrived, no one else was there yet. Jiang Lianyue placed the pot onto the stove mounted in the cart, poured in water, lit the coal briquettes, set up the pot and trays, arranged the rice batter and toppings, and unfolded the tables and stools. Finally, she hung up the signboard she’d had written and fixed it to the front of the cart.
Once everything was set, Jiang Lianyue clapped her hands and stepped back to take a look.
Not bad, looked quite professional.
As the sky gradually brightened, the water began to boil. Wisps of steam curled up from both sides of the pot, lending the stall a sense of everyday warmth. At a glance, anyone could tell it was selling food.
Jiang Lianyue stood behind the cart, waiting for her first customer.
Several passersby walked past the stall, glanced at it, but didn’t stop.
Finally, an elderly man in a white shirt passed by. He stopped in front of the sign and read aloud.
“Rolled rice noodles. Add meat: one mao per roll. Add egg: eight fen. Add green beans: eight fen. Add wood ear mushrooms: eight fen. Plain roll: five fen.”
Jiang Lianyue smiled and greeted him. “Good morning, Uncle.”
The old man nodded and said earnestly, “Girl, your rice rolls are a bit expensive. A bowl of boiled noodles only costs eight fen.”
“Uncle, just try one and you’ll know,” Jiang Lianyue replied. “The rolls are tasty and generous. One roll is enough to fill you up.”
“Too expensive, too expensive.” The old man shook his head and turned to leave.
Jiang Lianyue didn’t call after him. She simply smiled and watched him go.
Eggs cost five fen each these days. Selling an egg rice roll for eight fen wasn’t expensive at all. Besides, rolled rice noodles were popular even in an era with abundant food. In these days of scarcity, they were sure to sell out. There was no need to lower the price.
After walking two meters, a young man jogged up to the old man and complained softly, “Grandpa, didn’t we agree I’d go to the park with you today? Why didn’t you wake me?”
“I’m fine,” the old man shot him a look. “Aren’t you always sleeping in?”
The young man scratched the back of his head and laughed. “Not today, I wanted to keep you company and exercise.”
The old man snorted and kept walking.
The young man took a few steps forward, then seemed to think of something. He turned back to look Jiang Lianyue over and exclaimed, “Hey—why are you running a stall here?”