Chapter 86 - 86: Uneasy
Second Uncle Ning chuckled as he stepped forward and took a bite. That’s right. This was the taste.
He placed the jars on the cart. “How can that be? Mother’s pickled vegetable skills are incomparable.”
When Second Uncle Ning pushed the cart with 10 large jars towards the county, he was actually filled with the desire to show off. However, in order to prevent others from snatching business from him, he still kept a very low profile. The cart was even specially covered with a layer of cloth so that no one could see what was inside. However, in Xiaoxiao’s words—
“If I didn’t know better, I would have thought that he was going to transport the night soil.”
Ning Erlang, who was still angry, burst into laughter. Xiaoxiao patted him. “Second Brother, watch. His unlucky days are yet to come.”
At that time, no one expected Xiaoxiao’s “yet to come” to happen so quickly.
After the bamboo shoots were sent to the Heavenly Fragrance Restaurant, Second Uncle Ning excitedly took back a tael of silver and a bag of copper coins. The Heavenly Fragrance Restaurant also immediately began to publicize their new sour bamboo shoots that had just been launched by the Fragrance Restaurant not long ago. Most importantly, the price of each dish was a few copper coins lower than the Fragrance Restaurant!
This really disgusted Shopkeeper Xu. Although the price of the Heavenly Fragrance Restaurant was low, their taste was not good and the quantity was small. However, there were those customers who were greedy for small benefits. Now, the entire county said that the Fragrance Restaurant was bullying customers.
He was so angry that he ran to the Ruyi Clothing Shop to drink tea to cool down. Xiaoxiao comforted him casually at the side and he asked, “Do you have any other pickled vegetables at home?”
Xiaoxiao sighed. “Shopkeeper Xu, you’re being forced into a corner. Is pickled vegetables something precious? If you have the time to fight with them for this, why don’t you focus on researching some new dishes?”
How could Shopkeeper Xu not know this logic? However, there were only so many things about cooking. As chefs, they always liked to hide their skills. It was already good enough that they did not lose them over time. How could they be expected to make new dishes?
He looked at Xiaoxiao expectantly, but Xiaoxiao only coughed lightly and said vaguely, “I’ll go back and think about it.”
After returning home, Xiaoxiao turned around and saw her parents’ bitter frowns.
Ever since the first day the Heavenly Fragrance Restaurant launched the “new dishes”, the Fragrance Restaurant had correspondingly reduced the prepared dishes related to bamboo shoots. Today, when they collected the Ning Family’s bamboo shoots, they also said that they only wanted three jars next time. It was fine if they did not have this income in the past. No one could let it go when they suddenly lost it after getting used to it.
Ning Fengnian sighed and said, “Forget it. At least our family has already saved up eight taels of silver. In the past, we wouldn’t even dare to think about this amount. It’s almost time to plant seedlings. Let’s farm well in the future and live a stable life.”
Xiaoxiao shot glances at her brothers and said to her father at the same time, “Father, why don’t we go to the village chief’s house first and return the silver on credit? 1 don’t feel at ease owing money.”
Her father was a contented person. This was a good thing, but it was not entirely a good thing with the old residence eyeing them covetously. Hence, she was worried about the money in her father’s hands.
She was not the only one who was worried. Ning Erlang immediately pulled their father to the village chief’s house.
Ning Fengnian thought about it and felt that his daughter’s words made sense. He did it without hesitation.
With this calculation, there were about two taels of silver left at home. Xiaoxiao narrowed her eyes and said to her mother casually, “Mother, I saw something strange in the county today..”