Xu He nodded, and the weather was so hot now that the pork has to be sold out in two days, otherwise the taste would be so bad that it couldn’t be sold, and the business was not as good and easy as before. 

There were tens of pieces of bacon hanging on the stove in their house, which was marinated by themselves for fear the pork would change the taste and they couldn’t sell them all. If there was more mutton, it was easy to lose money.

    “It’s better to sell your cold dishes and lo mei. The hotter the weather, the more people will eat them.”

    Xu He sighed slightly, and sat back to continue making chicken coops: “It’s good to sell before, but now it’s summer, on the contrary business is not as good as it used to be.”

The business people in the city were not fools, seeing that the business of selling cold dishes and lo-mei now was so good, and within two months he set up a stall there were some people selling the same thing. 

Xu He was also witty and brave enough to add some new tricks, marinated courgettes, bean, cowpeas, and lotus root slices, so the business was still stable, and the old customers recognized the taste of his cooking.

    But these things were easy to learn by other street vendors, and within two days they had these things on their stalls, and what’s more, they also sold braised chicken and duck. They also learned from him and made two flavors. Chili oil and pepper oil were mixed, although the taste was not good, but people couldn’t resist to buy it.

    Not to mention the customers, even if it was him who was squatting in front of his stall, bored and hungry, he wanted to buy two to eat. But naturally, he was not willing to give up the few copper coins.

    Zhang Fangyuan said: “That’s how it is when you set up a stall. If you have a gold-lettered signboard, you don’t have to worry about others selling the same thing to steal the business, but there are only several gold-lettered signs in the world.”

    Xu He knew that earning money was not so easy, first he had already made some money from selling the fresh ones for two months, which was not bad. Setting up a small stall was inherently unstable, so how could he be able to make a lot of money from it? 

For this reason, he didn’t put all his thoughts on selling lo mei. Now he made chicken coops again, although It couldn’t be sold for a few copper coins.

    “I know, let’s sell this. If it really can’t be sold, let’s see.” 

    Zhang Fangyuan said: “I thought the same way. Look, I bring you some good things here.”

   Xu He noticed the bucket Zhang Fangyuan put at the door. He thought it was an empty bucket, but when he went over, it turned out to be a bucket full of crucian carp.

    “Where are so many crucian carp come from? What did you do?”

    Zhang Fangyuan fished one up, and it was the crucian carp with a green back and white belly weighed about half a catty: “I bought it from the fisherman on the way back. 5 copper coins for a catty, and I only paid 80 copper coins for 20 catties”

    He raised his thick eyebrows slightly: “How about it, can I bargain like you?”

    Xu He laughed: “It’s a good deal, but how could you buy so many, can you eat all?”

    “I only need to eat four and the rest I will give them for you for free to sell.”

    Zhang Fangyuan said, “In the summer, I ate cold crucian carp in a restaurant in the city, and it tasted delicious. Aren’t you worried about what to sell in the stall?, now you don’t need to worry, isn’t it good to sell the crucian carp?”

    Xu He’s eyes lit up suddenly: “Yes, first steam the crucian carp and let it cool, and then prepare the sauce to sell in  the stall. It’s also a seasonal cold dish. I will cook four crucian carps for you tonight.”

    Zhang Fangyuan said yes, this trip was not in vain.

    The crucian carp was cold and refreshing, the soup was delicious, and the stew with shallots was even more delicious. However, in order to ensure that the crucian carp at the stall tomorrow would taste good, Xu He would make cold salad first tonight, and tried the taste first with someone’s greedy mouth.

    The crucian carp was descaled and its belly was removed, its internal organs were taken out and washed. For large fish, two cuts were made on both sides of the carp to facilitate the taste, and it was not necessary for the small fish. 

Cut some thick yellow ginger slices, knot the shallots and stuffed them into the belly of the fish, and steamed them in a pot. No need to steam them for too long, otherwise the meat would easily to fall off the bones and become rotten, which would not look good.

    Whether the salad would taste good or not depended on the sauce. He made too many summer sauces. In order to make it looked better, he used two kinds of red pepper and green pepper, and mixed them together. 

It looked good, and the indispensable minced green onion, ginger and garlic were sauted with soy sauce, black bean vinegar. Put the sauce on the crucian carp belly, and a plate of cold crucian carp with the complete color, flavor and taste was ready.

    Rapeseed oil must be used for frying the ingredients until fragrant, otherwise it would be greasy in summer and if you used the lard, the taste would not good.

    At night, Zhang Fangyuan specially opened a pot of wine to serve with the food. He ate three crucian carps by himself, and Xu He ate one. Crucian carp meat was delicious, and the cold salad was more sweet, but the fish had a lot of small bones, so it needed to be chewed slowly, and it made people calmed down to taste the taste.