Chapter 165
The pumpkin cakes and roast duck were selling better than expected.
The people in the town did not have a lot of large sums of money, but they did have small change. Village people emphasized that food should just fill the stomach, but town people pursued only whether it was delicious or not.
If it was good, they were willing to spend a thousand pieces of gold without hesitation.
The pumpkin cakes were mildly sweet and had a soft texture. They became particularly popular with elderly customers and children, who often purchased them as snacks.
Just after opening the door this day, Old Master Wu came. He said he was returning to Yuanzhou and came to bid them farewell. He also took the opportunity to ask Fang Zichen if he was really not going to study at Qinghe Academy.
Fang Zichen thought about it: "I still plan to go, but I've heard that academy is particularly scammy. The yearly tuition and fees alone cost thirty taels."
Old Master Wu's brow twitched faintly: "Are you short of those thirty taels?"
"No," Fang Zichen was very honest: "But not being short doesn't mean I'm willing to be scammed. After I pass the tongsheng exam and become a xiucai, I'll go and investigate it first before deciding!"
These words made Qinghe Academy sound like a shady shop. Old Master Wu was furious. Zhao Ger quickly poured him a bowl of water and brought over a few pumpkin cakes.
Old Master Wu ate two, his expression unchanged: "Zhao Ger, pack a few for me to eat on the road! Pack a roast duck for me as well."
He wanted to pay, but Zhao Ger declined, saying it wasn't necessary.
Old Master Wu took his money back.
No sooner had he left than County Magistrate Jiang arrived.
He looked around the shop: "Has the teacher left?"
Fang Zichen was confused: "Who? Do you mean Old Man Wu?"
Hearing someone address Old Master Wu like this for the first time, County Magistrate Jiang was taken aback: "Yes!"
Fang Zichen said: "He left long ago. By now, he's probably already reached the side of the Naihe Bridge."
[Naihe Bridge (奈何桥, Nàihé Qiáo): lit. Bridge of Helplessness; fig. The bridge in the underworld that souls must cross after death, often associated with forgetting past lives and facing judgment before reincarnation]
In front of outsiders, one should save face for one's husband, but Zhao Ger's hand was faster than his brain. He reflexively hit him, his mouth blurting out: "What nonsense are you spouting again? Be careful or I'll hit you!"
Fang Zichen glared at him resentfully, then sullenly ran to the backyard.
Seeing County Magistrate Jiang looking dumbfounded, Zhao Ger came to his senses and said, timidly and haltingly: "Your Excellency, is there something you need?"
"Ah," County Magistrate Jiang pointed to the back yard: "I came to find Fang Tongsheng."
When he entered the backyard, Fang Zichen was mashing pumpkin. Zhou Ger was beside him, holding a pumpkin and peeling it.
His movements were nimble and quick, he worked diligently. Last time Zhao Ger had gone to find him, saying there was a job at the shop, asking if he wanted to do it, the kind that paid wages.
Zhou Ger knew about his plans to open a shop. Fang Zichen didn't have many relatives. On the day the shop opened, they didn't invite many people. Apart from the Liu family and the village chief, there were only Yang Mutao, Yang Mingyi, and a few workers from Zuixiao Restaurant, barely making two tables. They gave gifts, ate a meal, and after some lively festivities, everyone left.
The villagers were all very timid and set in their ways, always thinking that opening a shop in town was easy to lose money on, and that digging for food in the fields was the proper thing to do.
A few years earlier, the clan leader's son, full of reckless courage, went to town and opened a noodle shop. It ended up closing in less than two months, and he came back crestfallen.
It wasn't that business was bad, but just a few days after opening, he faced suppression from competitors. The other party was from the town. After investigating, they knew he was from a village and had no background, so they hired a few local ruffians to cause trouble at his shop.
After struggling for two months, he found that the silver he earned wasn't even enough to pay the rent. He could only close the shop and return to his village, where he resigned himself to farming the land.
After that incident, the villagers began making sarcastic remarks. They said that if making a living in town were truly easy, then everyone would move there. They questioned who would willingly remain in the village to labor in the fields, everyone knew farm work was exhausting.
Knowing Zhao Ger had rented a shop, Zhou Ger and Aunt Liu were quite worried.
Zhou Ger had asked Zhao Ger before and knew he wanted to sell pumpkin cakes and roast duck, but he had never even heard of these two things. He didn't know if the business at Zhao Ger's shop was good. Shop rent was expensive, if business wasn't good, he would lose money. He said that if he came to help, it was fine, but he didn't want wages.
"The shop is very busy. If you don't want wages, then I'll have to find someone else," Zhao Ger said.
Thus, Zhou Ger could only come.
He understood that Zhao Ger was trying to help him, so he resolved to be exceptionally diligent once he started working.
After a few days, the business at the shop was beyond his imagination. There was always a long queue at the door. Pumpkin cakes weren't easy to cook through. Zhao Ger often got up in the middle of the night to fry them in advance. This time, he would fry them until ninety percent done. When customers came, he would put them back in the pan to heat them up a bit more. By the time they were heated through, they were fully cooked.
There were still chickens, a goat, and a dog at home that needed feeding; someone had to stay. Zhao Ger had to let Fang Zichen take the child back at night, while he himself stayed in town.
The chickens were easy to feed, just toss a few leaves into the coop. For the little dog, just put some vegetable soup and mix it with rice to feed it. Only the goat was troublesome. By the time they returned home at night, it was already dark, making it impossible to find grass for the goat.
Fang Zichen already regretted buying the goat. Apart from letting his son ride it, it was completely useless. However, he had been accustomed to a life of abundance before; whenever he took a liking to something, he bought it without considering its practicality. At that time, the seller mentioned that if he couldn't afford a horse, he could consider buying a donkey instead. During the busy farming season, it could help carry loads. But donkeys were not cheap either, costing over nine taels of silver. How could he possibly afford that?
After picking and choosing, he bought a goat.
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