They've all separated, so what does it matter to me if they get poorer and poorer?

Chapter 31 Potatoes and Sweet Potatoes are Here!

When Manager Tang of Lotus Restaurant saw Xu Zhichun and her companions, his smile became even more sincere. He couldn't help but share with Xu Zhichun, "Miss Xu, we've renamed our cold fish skin salad to Cold Crispy Tripe Salad. It was served yesterday, and all the customers who tried it said it was delicious. This is truly a masterpiece of turning waste into treasure."

Xu Zhichun was also pleased: "Congratulations, Manager Tang! Hearing you say that, I feel much more at ease taking that fifty taels of silver!"

Shopkeeper Tang laughed heartily.

Their Lotus Restaurant was one of the top-tier restaurants in the county. Even a simple dish of garlic lettuce cost ten coins, while a serving of cold fish skin salad, a new dish not available elsewhere, cost twenty-five coins, with costs almost zero. They could break even in less than six months.

After hearing what Manager Tang said, Xu Zhichun couldn't help but feel a little hungry. He planned to buy a fish to take home today, and that evening he would skin it, cut the fish meat into sections to make a braised dish, make a cold fish skin salad, and also make a fish head tofu soup.

After leaving the Lotus Restaurant, Xu Zhichun said he wanted to wander around a bit and asked Liang Mingliang to go and keep Zeng Xiaoyan and the others company.

Liang Mingliang was a little worried, but Xu Zhichun chuckled and said, "Don't worry, I know the way. What's there to be afraid of in broad daylight? I'll just wander around for a bit and then head back."

Liang Mingliang was a little worried about his wife, so he nodded and said, "Okay, Sister Zhichun, don't shop for too long."

"it is good."

Xu Zhichun's claim of "shopping" was a pretense; his real intention was to retrieve potatoes and sweet potatoes from the harbor warehouse.

She bought thirty acres of land, planted konjac on fifteen acres and left them untouched, but the remaining fifteen acres, along with the two acres she already owned, were left unplanted.

I bought about ten large sacks while shopping the day before yesterday, and they came in handy.

Fearing something might happen, Xu Zhichun deliberately came to a deserted alley near the county government office. If someone really had evil intentions, they could just shout loudly and alert the yamen runners. No one would be so stupid as to dare to rob someone here. Wouldn't that be blatantly provoking the government?

With a thought, she filled twelve large sacks with sweet potatoes and potatoes—three sacks of sweet potatoes and nine sacks of potatoes, each weighing about 120 to 130 pounds.

Seeing a middle-aged woman passing by with her grandson and a basket, Xu Zhichun, disregarding whether others were curiously looking at him, smiled and said to the woman, "Auntie, could you help me call an oxcart from the carriage shop? I'll give you five coins, and if you come with the oxcart, I'll give you another five coins."

The woman's eyes lit up, and she immediately nodded with a smile: "Okay, okay, you wait and see, I'm very fast!"

Earning ten coins for running an errand is like a windfall.

"Well, then I called the right person."

Xu Zhichun immediately counted out five coins and gave them to the woman, who then ran away with her grandson.

The carriage shop shouldn't be too far from here. The woman arrived in less than a quarter of an hour. Xu Zhichun kept his word and gave her another five coins.

The woman was even happier to see that she kept her word. She had originally thought that even if she didn't get the five coins, she wouldn't have lost out. Now she felt a little guilty. Instead of leaving, she asked curiously, "Miss, this big sack looks quite heavy. Would you like me to help you carry it?"

Xu Zhichun was overjoyed, "Thank you so much, Auntie!"

She haggled with the driver.

The coachman originally intended to take advantage of the young girl's lack of knowledge and ask for an exorbitant price, but Xu Zhichun said, "The coach company you work for must have pricing rules, right?"

With just one sentence, she managed to calm the driver down. After some haggling, she agreed on a price of sixteen coins and helped him take her things back to her village home.

As a business, a coaching company naturally has its own rules. It's one thing for the coachman to earn a penny or two in extra income, but it's not allowed for the coachman to arbitrarily raise prices and take advantage of customers. Otherwise, the business wouldn't last long.

If the driver dared to overcharge, Xu Zhichun only needed to inquire at the carriage shop to expose him. It wasn't worth losing his job for a few extra coins.

With the woman's help, along with the driver and Xu Zhichun's assistance, the twelve large sacks were soon neatly stacked on the oxcart.

Xu Zhichun climbed up and sat down. "Master, let's go to the East Market."

"okay."

The driver skillfully drove the cart, gossiping as he went: "Miss Xu's big sack is so heavy, it's not filled with grain or beans, what is it?"

Xu Zhichun smiled and said, "Just some odds and ends."

Seeing that she didn't want to talk, the driver didn't press her further, chuckled, and focused on driving.

Upon reaching the entrance to the East Market, Xu Zhichun, still worried about leaving, had to spend two coins to ask a passerby to call Liang Mingliang over. In the days before cell phones, communication relied solely on shouting and manual relay.

When Liang Mingliang saw that she had bought such a large cartload of unknown items after shopping around, he widened his eyes in surprise: "Sister-in-law Zhichun, what... what did you buy?"

"I'll tell you the details later," Xu Zhichun said with a smile. "You keep an eye on things here for me. I'm going to go and say a few words to Xiaoyan and Aunt Zhu'er."

"Hey, good."

Liang Mingliang swallowed his overwhelming curiosity.

More than half of the konjac tofu and konjac knots have already been sold, and it will probably take a while before the rest are sold out.

The oxcarts at the carriage shop couldn't wait forever, so Xu Zhichun gave them a brief explanation. Aunt Zhu'er accompanied her back first, while Liang Mingliang and Zeng Xiaoyan stayed behind to sell their goods.

Before going back, Xu Zhichun bought a large grass carp weighing over three kilograms, planning to prepare it in three different ways that evening.

Seeing that she was buying one, Aunt Zhu'er also bought one. "Zhichun, tell me how to cook this fish. I'll cook it for Brother Qi when I get back."

"Okay!" Xu Zhichun smiled. Aunt Zhu'er's family has plenty of oil and salt. If the fishy smell is removed cleanly and the seasonings are sufficient, the fish will taste good.

When Xu Zhichun and her group returned to the village, it was not yet noon. There were only two or three old ladies chatting with their children under the big locust tree. Before they could ask anything, the oxcart had already driven past while Xu Zhichun and Aunt Zhu'er greeted them.

Thank goodness, at least I can finally have some peace and quiet.

After unloading, Xu Zhichun and Aunt Zhu'er carried the huge sacks of sweet potatoes and potatoes into the house.

"This is really heavy, Zhichun. What did you buy? It doesn't feel like grain to me."

Xu Zhichun thought to herself, "These are better than grains." But at this moment, she couldn't explain it too clearly. She could only pretend to be a complete novice who knew nothing, and needed a long period of "practice and exploration" before she could publicly express her understanding of potatoes and sweet potatoes.

After all, this was something new that she had never seen before.

"I don't know what these are either; I've never seen them before. It's just a coincidence that I was strolling around when two out-of-town merchants were selling these two things, which they called potatoes and sweet potatoes. They said they were edible, but unfortunately, nobody had ever seen them before, so nobody was buying them. When I heard they were edible, I became interested and asked a few more questions. These sweet potatoes can be eaten raw, and I even tried a few bites. They tasted really good, so I bought them all."

(End of this chapter)