Chapter 39 – Business (1)

“Jinji.”

“Are you serious, jie1? Are you going to sell the cakes to Jinji?”

1Jie (姐) : older sister.

If it was before yesterday, she might have tried this. But after going through the Rong Entang incident, she realized that she was a little village girl and couldn’t get into the eyes of these shops at all.

“Let’s go opposite the Jinji.”

Su Ergou was so stupid: “Jie, Jinji is a selling the snacks! How many shops opposite of it have closed down! If we want to become their business competitor, can we do it?”

Su Xiaoxiao said calmly, “Become their business competitor? You’ve been thinking too much. There are only two baskets of cakes and we can only sell it to a few people. However, it is good for you to have this ambition. Maybe one day in the future, we can really compete for business with Jinji.”

Su Ergou muttered, “Jie, why do you like daydreaming more than I do?”

Su Xiaoxiao smiled and said, “Okay, whether it can be sold or not, we’ll know it after a while.”

In ancient times, there was no urban management. As long as they did not block the entrance of the shop, they could usually set up some small stalls. Of course, if the operation of the shop was affected because of it, the shop owners would also drive them away.

The jewelry shop opposite the Jinji opened late. Which was the right time to set up a stall.

The first pot of osmanthus cake in Jinji was about to come out, and there was a long queue at the door.

The more Su Ergou looked at it, the more he felt that he might not be able to sell any of them today.

Su Xiaoxiao found a suitable place and took out the cakes.

They didn’t have a stall cart, and before they were setting off, Su Xiaoxiao made a bamboo sieve tray hanging around her neck.

-Bamboo sieve tray

The golden pastries were neatly placed on the tray. If it were another seller, it might not attract much attention.

But Su Xiaoxiao was a fatty weighing 200 pounds!

Who walked over and didn’t look at her twice?

Even those people who were queuing for Jinji snacks couldn’t help but look at her frequently.

“Jie, let me hold the cakes.” Su Ergou said.

“No, you have other tasks.” Su Xiaoxiao picked up a flaky cake and handed it to Su Ergou, “Eat it.”

-Flaky Cake 

Su Ergou: “Aren’t we going to sell it?”

Su Xiaoxiao said, “You don’t understand. This is called eating show2.”

2Eating show / mukbang : genre of online broadcast consisting of the host eating food while interacting with their audience.

Su Ergou: “……”

Su Ergou had been used to all kinds of abnormalities after his older sister broke her head. Since his older sister asked him to eat, then he would just eat it.

When he ate the third cake, finally there was a little girl who was so greedy that she took her mother’s hand and said, “Mom, I want to eat that.”

The mother and daughter came forward.

The woman asked, “How do you sell this cake?” Su Xiaodao said, “10 wen for one piece, there are three flavors. White sesame is stuffed with red bean, black sesame is stuffed with meigan cai and meat, and double sesame is stuffed with mung bean.”

-Mung Bean filling

-Red Bean filling

-Meigan Cai with pork meat filling

-A bundle of Meigan Cai (梅干菜)
A type of dry pickled chinese mustard. The pickle consists of a whole head of various varieties of chinese mustards and cabbages that has undergone an elaborate process consisting of drying, steaming, and salting. The vegetables are harvested, trimmed before the Qingming Festival, and sun-dried until limp. It is then salted or brined, kneaded until the juices are exuded, and left to ferment in large clay urns for 15 to 20 days. The vegetable is then repeatedly steamed and dried until reddish brown in color and highly fragrant. [Wikipedia]

The woman frowned and said, “The meat bun is only 2 wen for a piece, and the size of your small cake is so small and you sell it for 10 wen. It’s too expensive!”

Su Xiaoxiao patiently explained to her: “There is a lot of sugar inside. We made it very sweet. There is meat in the meigan cai stuffing, and the stuffing is very full.”

Sugar was expensive in ancient times. Including the cost of the labor, this was a good price.

“Why don’t you try it first, you can buy it later if you think it’s delicious.”

“What……”

The woman was stunned.

Su Xiaoxiao wrapped her hands with clean gauze, and cut three cakes on the spot. She let the woman and her child taste a small piece of each flavor.

“Mom! It’s so delicious, delicious, delicious!”

It was the taste that was hard to get elsewhere, she could not deny it.

She thought that the snacks that were sold by a village girl wouldn’t taste good. But who would have expected it to be so delicious.