Border Cook

Chapter 12: Making an Idea (asking for monthly ticket)
Liu took it and took a bite, but the frost on her face didn't melt at all. "Mrs. Xia's meat pie is indeed delicious, but no matter how delicious it is, you can't eat it all day long. What's more, I didn't say I wanted to eat meat pie today, but you went to buy it. If you don't know, you might think you're thinking about how pretty Mrs. Xia is, and you have to come forward to say a few more words to her!"

"Madam, you are really wronging me!" Shopkeeper Qian defended anxiously, "Madam, don't you know my character? I have been going there more often these days because I saw that Madam Xia's cakes are delicious and her business is booming, so I wanted to win them over and see if I could ask them to set up a stall here to attract more people to our store."

"You actually came up with this idea?" Liu was obviously not expecting this, and was a little surprised. Then she nodded, "But your plan is indeed good. If Madam Xia's food stall does good business, we can indeed benefit from it."

"Well, well, I'll believe you for now, but if Madam Xia doesn't come here to set up a stall, then I won't believe what you say. We'll settle the score later."

"Don't worry, Madam Xia is a smart person." Shopkeeper Qian was very confident, "We are sincere, Madam Xia has seen it, and when the time comes, she will express her position, and it will be almost the same..."

Here, two scholars came to Xia Mingyue and Lu's cake stall.

They were the scholars who came here yesterday to buy black vegetable meat patties. The tall one was named Zhang Mingyi, and the shorter one was Fan Pingyang.

The two men handed the small bamboo basket in their hands to Xia Mingyue.

"I want ten black vegetable meat patties and eight scallion meat patties. I just heard that there are new crispy pancakes today, so I'll have six as well." Zhang Mingyi said.

"I'm sorry." Xia Mingyue said embarrassedly, "You two came a little late. We don't have that many pancakes right now. There are only three black vegetable meat pancakes left, and only two scallion meat pancakes. The new chive egg pancakes we released today have been sold out."

"Only five meat patties left?" Fan Pingyang frowned and turned to discuss with Zhang Mingyi, "I'm afraid these five meat patties won't be enough to share. What should we do?"

"Explain the truth when you get back. You can only take these five meat patties back to give to the Master first. The rest will have to wait until tomorrow."

Zhang Mingyi was a little worried after making the suggestion, "But we have a lot of schoolwork, I'm afraid we won't be able to come early tomorrow."

I'm afraid this meat pie is still not available.

When Xia Mingyue heard the word "Master", her eyebrows slightly raised, "Are you two students from the county school?"

"That's right." The two nodded.

When the Xin Dynasty was established, the imperial examination system was still used to select talents.

However, in order to select talents more quickly, each county school recruited more students and lowered the threshold. No matter whether they were students or scholars, as long as they passed the entrance examination, they could enter the county school. The prefectural examination that was held twice every three years was changed to one year, and the provincial examination was changed to three times every two years.

With strong support from the imperial court, the number of students in the county school was naturally not small.

There is usually a canteen in the county school for students to eat, but students still run here to buy meat patties. There are probably two reasons for this.

First, the food in the county school cafeteria doesn’t taste good.

Second, the cakes she made tasted so good that some students could not forget them.

Money is coming to your door!
Xia Mingyue's eyes lit up. "Since you are students of the county school, you can pay half of the deposit today to make a reservation. I will have someone send you to the county school tomorrow."

"That's a good idea." Zhang Mingyi and Fan Pingyang agreed. They took out their money bags and paid the deposit as Xia Mingyue said. "Just as you said just now, a total of 24 cakes. Just send them to the gatehouse of the county school before noon tomorrow."

"Don't worry, I will deliver it on time." Xia Mingyue agreed readily, and took the opportunity to make a long-term plan, "If you want to order more after receiving the cakes tomorrow, you can directly inform the delivery person, and I can prepare it early."

The county school is in Dongcheng District, some distance away from Xicheng District.

For Xia Mingyue's pancake stall, the business coverage is limited. Although she is very confident in the taste of the various pancakes she makes, it is not yet to the point where people would run all the way from Dongcheng District to Xicheng District to eat a pancake.

Maybe we can take advantage of this to open up new sales channels. "Thank you, madam." Zhang Mingyi and Fan Pingyang thanked her, confirmed with Xia Mingyue the time for tomorrow's delivery, and bought the remaining five meat pies before leaving.

Xia Mingyue and Lu packed up their stalls and went home.

In the afternoon, she bought leeks and stocked up onions, ginger, garlic and other ingredients for making pancakes. When she had some free time, Xia Mingyue picked up needle and thread.

In order to save money, she only bought the cloth for the clothes she planned to make and did not ask the cloth shop to make them into ready-made clothes. Lu helped cut the cloth into pieces of appropriate size.

Relying on the memories and instincts she received from the original owner, Xia Mingyue was able to sew the clothes fairly smoothly, and after threading the needle for two consecutive days, her technique became more and more proficient.

Today's stitches are much finer than the first time I picked up the needle, and the sewing speed has also increased a lot.

By the evening, when it was getting dark, Xia Mingyue had finished her first piece of clothing.

Arrange and try on.

It was the perfect length, the right width, and even the sleeves were the length she wanted.

Not bad.

Xia Mingyue tugged at her sleeves and the hem of her clothes again and again, but the corners of her mouth drooped after a moment.

Without a dressing mirror, she couldn't even see clearly when she was putting on the clothes she made.

A small, polished, smooth, and clear bronze mirror is expensive, not to mention a dressing mirror that is more than a meter tall...

It is something she absolutely cannot afford with her current income.

The money you earn is not enough, you have to keep working hard!
Xia Mingyue clenched her fists and made a secret decision. That evening, when she and Lu were kneading the dough together, she put two more scoops of flour into the large basin.

Tomorrow is another day to collect heavy money!
Seeing this, Mrs. Lu smiled happily, and her hands kneaded the dough even faster.

The next day was busy as usual. Xia Mingyue and Lu prepared the cakes to be sent to the county school office in advance and asked the brothers Zhao Dahu and Zhao Erhu to make the trip.

Zhao Dahu and Zhao Erhu quickly agreed to the job, which would prove that they were two very useful children. They also repeatedly assured that they would deliver the cakes safely and bring back the money in full.

"These are pancakes for the guests. If you two dare to be greedy and eat them secretly, you'd better watch out for yourselves!" Mrs. Lu warned them repeatedly, fearing that it would affect Xia Mingyue's business.

"Don't worry, mom. We two are not greedy people!" Zhao Dahu and Zhao Erhu puffed out their chests and assured loudly.

Lu: "..."

I really didn't notice.

"Anyway, just remember one thing. Your Aunt Xia takes the county school's business very seriously. If you don't do well, think about the consequences yourself!"

as a result of?

Is there any need to think about it?
　Thanks to "Apeach828" for the monthly ticket~
　　(End of this chapter)