Chapter 638: Imperial Examination Family-Raising System (47)

Just like that, Xie Yang began this small business at her front door with Chun Niang, promising to give Chun Niang thirty percent of the earnings.

After all, she only had to use her mouth; aside from showing Chun Niang how to do it once at the beginning, the rest was basically the work of Chun Niang and Yang Mu.

Of course, she could have chosen not to give it, but Xie Yang felt that giving thirty percent of the profit could increase the enthusiasm of Chun Niang's family for their work, and it was worth it to have them consider the details before she even had to give instructions.

The variety of breakfast items was generally limited to this; apart from the "three-piece set" of pancake fruit, tea eggs, and small wontons which were daily standards, everything else was basically whatever her family ate in the morning, just made in slightly larger quantities.

Dinner was left to fate, as her family often had hot pot or iron-pot stews, and these dishes could not be sold at a small stall.

After some thought, she had Chun Niang steam more rice at noon, and when the students of the Imperial Academy finished their lessons, they would set up the stall to stir-fry "broken gold rice."

Broken gold rice was just egg fried rice. But her family's egg fried rice was not only golden in color and had distinct grains, but also included diced preserved meat and diced shiitake mushrooms, making the fragrance richer and the nutrition more comprehensive; it captured the students' stomachs in one go.

The egg fried rice was usually paired with radish soup boiled from large marrow bones, but occasionally they would cook a pot of dried shrimp and mustard green soup or cabbage and tofu soup to give the students a change of flavor.

Besides egg fried rice, they would occasionally sell a few portions of braised noodles with green beans, minced meat with vermicelli, or preserved meat claypot rice; these were things they made extra of when they were eating themselves.

For instance, if the family was eating duck, they would serve a few portions of duck blood vermicelli; if they were eating chicken, they would sell a few portions of chicken giblet soup.

Unexpectedly, these items sold on the side became the students' favorites—they would run to her door as soon as school let out, fearing that if they were a step too slow, someone else would get there first. Well, that "someone else" was the Libationer's wife.

Just like that, relying on the snack stall set up at the door morning and evening, the daily expenses of Xie Yang's family finally stopped dipping into their savings, and with the money Song Yanqing earned from copying books every ten days or half a month, their shrunken purses gradually grew plump again.

If she were willing to hire people to do it, the business could be expanded even further.

There were nearly two thousand students at the Imperial Academy!

However, it was enough to pass the time and earn a little money to supplement the household.

After all, one had to consider the scholar in the family; being too busy would go against her original intention.

But regardless, having the snack stall to pass the time made the days go by quite quickly.

In the blink of an eye, a month passed, and the inside and outside of Jingcheng were covered in vast white snow; it was not long before the New Year.

As soon as the first snow fell in Jingcheng, Xie Yang had Chun Niang and her husband move the snack stall to the gatehouse; since the neighbors were all familiar with them, it was just a matter of walking a few more steps and crossing a threshold, so there was no need to blow in the cold wind.

Now that it was the fifteenth day of the twelfth lunar month, the Imperial Academy students had started their winter break, and the operation of the snack stall came to an end.

Xie Yang clicked the abacus to calculate the earnings for this period and gave Chun Niang six and a half taels of silver; Chun Niang held the silver and wept with joy.

Xie Yang said with a smile, "Save slowly; you will eventually save enough for your family's redemption money."

"Thank you, Mistress!"

Actually, Xie Yang had not expected that casually setting up a small stall at her door to sell simple snacks to the neighbors would yield such good returns.

Xie Yang rubbed her chin, wondering if it would be even more profitable to get a mobile food cart and send Chun Niang and her husband to sell a wider variety of food in the bustling, crowded streets.

Besides, she had originally planned to buy a few acres of land in Jingjiao to build a Farm; when the time came, the crops and livestock from the Farm that they couldn't finish eating could be helped along by the mobile food cart.

She added this plan to her list of businesses after settling in Jingcheng and intended to wait and see after the spring began. If business remained this good, it was certainly worth a try.

Less than a week before the New Year, another heavy snow fell in Jingcheng.

Fortunately, the New Year goods her family needed to prepare were already fully stocked—

Winter vegetables like radishes and cabbage were stored in the cellar; she had bought two whole sides of pork, made sausages, sun-dried cured meat, and pickled preserved pork ribs, while the rest was cut up, wrapped in oil paper, and frozen in the natural "refrigerator" of the snow pile at the base of the back wall, ready to be used at any time.

Seafood like fish and shrimp were bought whenever she saw them on the street; she would pick the lively ones to keep in the koi pond, and the ones that didn't look as good were cooked and eaten that same day.

In addition, she had bought quite a lot of mountain goods from farmers entering the city, such as sun-dried autumn wood ear mushrooms, mushrooms, and jujubes; the amount gathered in the mountains wouldn't be much, so Xie Yang had Chun Niang and her husband buy them whenever they saw them. Dried thoroughly, they wouldn't spoil for a year.

Even the firewood was stacked neatly against the kitchen wall, covered with a tarpaulin, and taken as needed.

For Charcoal, she found a charcoal seller and had him deliver it to the house whenever he had it.

She also lit the kang in the empty room to keep the indoor temperature warm, and grew celery, yellow chives, and mushrooms in large flowerpots, and also sprouted bean sprouts.

Some of the sweet potatoes brought from home had sprouted, so she simply soaked them in water diluted with Plant Nutrient Solution, hydroponically growing the sweet potatoes to pick the sweet potato vines to eat.

She took stock of the family's supplies, which were enough to last for a month or two.

And so, she closed the door to hibernate for the winter.

She sat at the head of the kang, cutting out the new clothes for her and Song Yanqing to wear for the New Year, as well as the fur cloaks for going out.

The fur was bought from a hunter, and she also bought the pheasant and wild rabbit the hunter had; the pheasant was made into a Codonopsis soup that same day, and the rabbit was smoked.

Song Yanqing leaned at the end of the kang, holding a book in his hands, but his thoughts were not on the book; looking at his focused appearance, he was likely immersed in the System Library again.

"Mistress."

Chun Niang's voice sounded from outside.

Xie Yang quickly got up, put down her work, threw on a cotton robe, and walked to the outer room: "What is it?"

"When Xiaohu's father was sweeping snow at the door, he met an old man who had come into the city to sell mutton. He said that the heavy snow last night collapsed his sheep pen and crushed a sheep to death. Helplessly, it was freezing cold, the New Year market had already dispersed, and he hadn't found a buyer after walking the whole way. He thought the Mistress might want to buy it..."

"Buy it!" Xie Yang didn't wait for her to finish before quickly replying, "Tell Yang Mu to keep the old man there, pour him a bowl of hot ginger tea to warm up, and I will come over once I get the Silver."

"Yes."

Being able to buy mutton in this weather was truly a stroke of great luck.

Xie Yang did not haggle with the old man; he stated a price, and she felt it was reasonable, so she paid the Silver.

There was mutton to eat!

Xie Yang decided to have hot pot tonight.

She set the Soup Pot on the small red clay stove, ladled in a few spoonfuls of broth, and added green onions, garlic cloves, dried jujubes, and ginger slices to enhance the fragrance and remove the gamey smell. Once the soup boiled, she put in thinly sliced lamb tenderloin and lamb neck, blanched them until cooked, and ate them dipped in a prepared sauce—warm and delicious!

Xie Yang also took out a bottle of cellar-aged red wine, poured it into a clean, dry, odorless small jar, and made up the excuse that the grapevines at the Farm had borne fruit this year, and since there was no time to eat them, she had brewed a few jars of wine.

In any case, Song Yanqing had never drunk wine before and couldn't tell what wine brewed that year should taste like; nor had he counted exactly how many jars and pots she had moved from home to Jingcheng, so he believed whatever Xie Yang said. He only felt that his wife was capable and hardworking, and with the corners of his eyes reddened, he toasted Xie Yang a cup.

Xie Yang: "..."

That was really unnecessary.