Transmigrated as an Unwanted Ugly Girl

Chapter 54: Chapter 32: Business Opening (Part 2)

Mrs. Yang smiled. ”Whether my brother is actually looking after me or not, we should still be sending him some food. Isn’t it only natural for a niece’s family to be good to her maternal uncle? It’s not like it’s anything special. Making a fuss would just make us a laughingstock.”

Yang Defa smiled. ”You all should hurry and get ready. My shop is about to open. When it does, you can just bring the food right over. My place isn’t far from Erli Village, either!”

Mrs. Yang agreed happily. Then she, her mother, her sister-in-law, and Juhua discussed what equipment they would need.

Ms. Zhang raised an eyebrow and said contentiously, ”You’ll definitely need a pot—one you can put on the stove to heat up the food. You’ll also need some big earthenware crocks to hold the dishes, and a ladle—not too big, though.”

Juhua nodded. ”Aunt is right. We’ll need several crocks. The greens, pickles, and savory sauce are all served cold, so they don’t need heating. We can just keep them in the crocks and add a scoop when someone buys an order. Customers will want more of the meat anyway; these are just side dishes. The offal and fish can also be stored in crocks, and we’ll just ladle them into the pot to heat up before serving.”

Mrs. Wang smiled at Mrs. Yang. ”Juhua has it all planned out perfectly. You don’t have to worry about a thing; just focus on running the stall.”

Mrs. Yang gazed at Juhua with delight, asking what else they needed to prepare.

Juhua thought for a moment. ”It may be a small business, but we should be fully prepared. Over the next few days, let’s buy extra offal, clean it well, and marinate it. That way, if we ever can’t buy enough or can’t find any at all, we’ll have some in reserve to tide us over. Besides, marinated offal is just as delicious when cooked, and if it doesn’t sell, we can always eat it ourselves. Going forward, Mother, you can make a deal with the butchers to buy their daily supply of pig offal.”

Mrs. Yang nodded repeatedly.

In the afternoon, Juhua’s grandmother and the others left. They agreed that since her uncle’s shop was opening the day after tomorrow, Mrs. Yang would go to offer her congratulations.

Juhua and Mrs. Yang went over the shopping list in detail again. As it happened, Qingmu had the next day off, so he could go with Mrs. Yang to buy everything.

That evening, Juhua had Qingmu write out a list. ’He’s a scholar now, after all,’ she thought. Even if he didn’t recognize many characters, it was good enough as long as he could understand what he himself had written.

Qingmu saw his sister constantly arranging things for the family, getting busier by the day. Meanwhile, he was off to school every day, exempt from chores. The guilt was eating him up. The only thing he could do was rush around like a whirlwind every morning and evening, snatching up any task he could to help out.

Zheng Changhe was also miserable. He watched the mother-daughter duo bustling about with such purpose, unable to lend a hand at all. He even had to be waited on for his meals. He was so antsy it felt like steam was coming out of his ears.

Juhua laughed. ”Dad, what are you so worried for? Your job right now is to heal up. There will be plenty for you to do later! Just think, by next spring, we’ll have our regular work at home plus the food stall. How will you ever manage all that if you’re not in good health? If you don’t recover properly and it turns into a chronic issue, you won’t be able to do any heavy lifting. That would really set us back, wouldn’t it?”

Mrs. Yang raised her voice and chided him, ”See? That’s exactly it! I told you, but you wouldn’t listen. Even Juhua gets it!”

Only then did Zheng Changhe fall silent, just chuckling sheepishly.

Juhua said, ”Dad, I’ve found a job for you. You can help whittle some thin bamboo skewers. We’ll use them to let people sample the food.”

Zheng Changhe eagerly and happily agreed.

Over the next few days, Juhua and her mother washed the earthenware crocks they had bought, marinated the offal, and simmered shrimp paste. With all the preparations complete, they just had to wait for her uncle’s shop to open before they could start selling.

That evening, Juhua figured the acorns were probably dry enough from sunning. She ran out to the courtyard and, leaving her shoes on, began stomping on the desiccated nuts. A continuous CRACKLING filled the air as the shells shattered, revealing the yellow kernels within.

Zheng Changhe, sitting on the bed, called out, ”Juhua, will that really get the shells completely off?”

Juhua kept her head down, searching for uncracked acorns to stomp on. ”It does!” she replied. ”And for any stubborn ones, we can just gather them up and give them a few whacks with a mallet. They’ll break open!”

When Qingmu got back from school, he immediately started helping, pounding the remaining acorns with a mallet, while Juhua gathered the kernels into a burlap sack. The siblings worked until dark before they finally finished processing the whole batch.

Qingmu asked, ”Don’t these kernels still need to be ground? We’ve been so busy lately, we’ll have to light the lamps and do it at night.”

”It’s fine,” Juhua said. ”We can just smash them with the mallet and soak them. It’s not like the pigs are picky. When we have more time, we can grind some properly and see if we can make something for ourselves to eat.”

Qingmu looked at Juhua in disbelief. ”How can people eat that? It’s so bitter!”

Juhua said to him, ”The pigs ate them and they’re fine, right? So haven’t they basically tested them for us? Look how much our pigs have grown recently. That proves these acorns are good food. We just didn’t know how to prepare them before and were scared off by the bitter, astringent taste. Now that we know we can leach the bitterness out with water, why shouldn’t we see if they’re delicious? Don’t worry about it, Brother. I’ll just make a small batch to test. It’s not going to kill anyone. And if it’s good, it could be another thing for us to sell.”

Qingmu felt a bit uncomfortable at her comparison between people and pigs. But then he remembered being so hungry as a child that he ate wild vegetables and fruits. ’This is nothing compared to that,’ he thought. ”I’ll grind them tomorrow night,” he said.

Juhua nodded. ’Just you wait,’ she thought. ’You’ll all love this acorn tofu when it’s ready.’

On the day her uncle’s shop opened, Mrs. Yang went to Xiatang Market to offer her congratulations. Juhua, meanwhile, stayed home to carefully simmer the pig offal so Mrs. Yang could take it to the market first thing in the morning to sell.

Since it was their first day, Juhua didn’t dare make too much, preparing just one set of offal.

She cooked the heart and lungs separately from the intestines and stomach, adding some pickled vegetables. Once done, she mixed them all together to make them easier to heat in the pot. The savory sauce was already prepared. She also braised a pound of small dried fish with vinegar, chili, and green garlic. As for the spinach, she would wait until morning to blanch it in salted boiling water and toss it with minced garlic and oil to keep it fresh.

That evening, Zheng Changhe watched his daughter pack the food into the earthenware crocks. Once they were full, she moved them into the courtyard to cool.

The pig offal filled two large crocks and weighed a good ten pounds. The savory sauce and the fish were packed into separate crocks.