The next day, Lu Yan began conducting her market research, asking every customer who came to buy breakfast.
The results left her deep in thought.
Many people ate their evening meal at home rather than outside. The ones who dined out generally fell into only two categories.
The first were apprentices working in various shops whose homes weren’t in town. Their employers provided food and lodging, but the meals were honestly terrible, so they would occasionally come out to treat themselves.
The second were scholars from other towns.
There were only a handful of successful provincial graduates in the entire Yao Mountain County, yet their town happened to have an old licentiate in his fifties who ran a private academy. Lu Sheng had even studied under him for a while. Many scholars from neighboring towns came to study with him and rented houses near the academy.
These two groups were Lu Yan’s real potential customers.
Thinking back to modern society, Lu Yan recalled the cheap food that remained popular all year round. Without a doubt, it was spicy hot pot skewers.
But winter was almost here. Displaying all kinds of fresh vegetables wasn’t very practical, so making it into skewers would be a better idea.
She could catch a few more fish and make fish balls, then prepare fish meatballs, chicken meatballs, pork meatballs, vegetable balls, tofu, tofu skin, tofu rolls, radishes, cabbage, and potatoes—ingredients available all year round. She could also have noodles ready to cook at any time.
That shouldn’t be a problem.
Next came the cooking equipment.
Lu Yan planned to make two pots. The noodle pot was simple enough, but for the other one, she wanted something like an oden pot—a square pot divided into sixteen compartments in a four-by-four grid. Each compartment would hold a different ingredient, and charcoal underneath would keep everything warm.
She sketched out her design, and as soon as Lu Da saw it, he understood. After a day’s work, he brought it back for her.
It was similar to the insulated container she used for selling breakfast.
The upper part was a metal tray divided into sixteen square compartments, with a wooden frame around the outside and handles so she could carry it easily. The lower part was an insulated wooden box containing a metal container. Between the double layers of metal was a space for charcoal.
Lu Yan also had a small pot made, perfect for cooking noodles over charcoal.
But with so many things to carry—not to mention all the water she would need—Lu Yan felt it was too troublesome.
So she turned her attention to a certain young scholar.
The scholar’s name was Ding You. He was from neighboring Yuyao Town and had come to Kaiyuan Town to study under the old licentiate. He rented a small courtyard nearby.
His family was reasonably well-off, but not wealthy enough to hire servants to take care of him, so he came to Lu Yan’s breakfast stall every day to buy flatbread.
This group of scholars came by every few days, and Lu Yan already knew their situations like the back of her hand.
That day, Ding You came as usual to buy a meat-stuffed flatbread.
As Lu Yan skillfully sliced and stuffed the meat, she casually struck up a conversation.
“Young Master Ding, I heard from your classmates that you’re not from Kaiyuan Town and are renting a courtyard here?”
“That’s right,” Ding You nodded.
“Then you have to buy your evening meals outside too, don’t you?” she asked.
“Yes.” Ding You grinned. “It’d be great if Miss Lu sold dinner as well.”
Lu Yan smiled.
“I was just planning to. I’ll be starting an evening stall soon. The problem is that I have too many things to carry back and forth. Could I borrow your courtyard to store some things and perhaps use a bucket of water every day?”
The moment Ding You heard this, he patted his chest.
“No problem at all!”
After all, he lived alone, and the courtyard was mostly empty. There was even a well inside, so it required almost no effort on his part.
Hearing that, Lu Yan’s smile grew even brighter.
“I won’t let Young Master Ding help for nothing. I’ll cover all your evening meals from now on.”
Ding You had intended to refuse and say it was merely a small favor, but when he thought of Lu Yan’s delicious food, the words simply wouldn’t come out.
In the end, he could only nod enthusiastically, his eyes shining.
Once she made up her mind, Lu Yan acted immediately.
That very day, she hauled the two pots, a sack of charcoal, and a water bucket to Ding You’s courtyard. It looked like a lot, but once organized, it occupied only a small corner.
Ding You had assumed she would continue selling flatbread for dinner, but judging by all this equipment, that didn’t seem to be the case.
Curious, he asked, “Miss Lu, what are you planning to sell for dinner?”
Looking at this dish that resembled oden, spicy skewers, and hot pot all at once, Lu Yan couldn’t even think of a proper name.
So she put on a mysterious smile.
“You’ll find out tomorrow.”
After returning home, Lu Yan slaughtered another chicken and used its innards to lure fish in the Cui River. She speared another basketful of fish.
Whether it was oden or spicy skewers, one thing was indispensable—fish cakes and meatballs.
She first mixed the fish meat with scallion-and-ginger water and pounded it into a paste, then added starch. She divided it into two portions: one mixed with egg whites and the other with egg yolks.
The egg-white mixture was shaped into balls and poached in boiling water, producing a pot of snow-white fish balls.
The egg-yolk mixture was spread onto a plate, steamed for fifteen minutes, cut into small cubes, and pan-fried on all sides, becoming golden fish tofu.
Chicken breast and pork tenderloin were also made into meatballs.
Soon, every kind of meatball filled the entire kitchen.
Lu Yan took out the bamboo skewers that Lu Da had prepared for her and threaded three meatballs onto each skewer.
Finally, the sixteen-compartment pot on the Lu family’s dinner table was nearly full.
The meat dishes included fish balls, fish tofu, chicken meatballs, pork meatballs, sliced chicken, sliced pork tenderloin, and fish slices.
The vegetables included chunks of radish, cabbage skewers, potato slices, sweet potato slices, tofu cubes, and tofu skin.
The broth base was made from pork bones, rich and fragrant.
Lu Yan also used the broth to cook noodles and served everyone a large bowl.
She let everyone pick whatever ingredients they liked, and those who enjoyed spicy food could add a few spoonfuls of chili oil.
Madam Xu’s leg had improved considerably, and she could finally come out to eat with the family.
As they sat around the table, everyone finally learned what Lu Yan planned to sell.
While eating, Lu Sheng offered a suggestion.
“I think you could add more meat dishes. Like those braised intestines you made before—they could go in too.”
As soon as Lu Yan heard it, she felt it made perfect sense.
Offal was dirt cheap.
Tomorrow, she’d go to the butcher’s and buy ten jin of it to braise.
“I’m thinking of charging two wen for each meat skewer, one wen for each vegetable skewer, and two wen for a serving of noodles,” Lu Yan said. “I’ll prepare ten skewers of each kind and ten portions of noodles to start with. If everything sells out, I can make over two hundred wen in revenue and over a hundred wen in profit. If it’s not enough, I can always make more later.”
Lu Da nodded.
“Sounds pretty reliable.”
Lu Yan chuckled.
“Well, it’s worth a try. It may all be small amounts, but together with the breakfast stall, I can earn more than three hundred wen a day. That’s almost ten taels of silver a month.”
Lu Da and Madam Xu were stunned.
They couldn’t do the math and looked eagerly at Lu Sheng.
He calculated it in his head and found that she was right.
He was also surprised.
Lu Yan had calculated it so quickly, as if she hadn’t even needed to think about it.
“Father, Mother, she’s about right,” Lu Sheng said.
When Lu Da and Madam Xu realized the numbers were correct, they were so excited they didn’t know what to say.
Everyone had assumed Lu Yan only made a few wen from her stall. With how much money the family spent on meat every day, they thought she’d spent everything she’d earned.
Who would have guessed that she could quietly make so much money in a single month?
Ten taels of silver!
Their family had spent several years saving just to accumulate ten taels.
Seeing Lu Da and Madam Xu so overwhelmed that they couldn’t even speak, Lu Sheng and Lu Yan exchanged a glance and lowered their heads to eat their noodles.
Silently, they decided not to tell their parents about the fifty taels of silver they had already earned.