Chapter 1485 - 1480: The Small Business Takes Off (First Update)
"Grandpa, maybe Le’er isn’t that talented, but Le’er isn’t afraid of hardship. As long as Grandpa is willing to give Le’er a chance, Le’er definitely won’t let Grandpa down!"
Cheng Le refused to give up; even after Cheng Dagang said he wasn’t up to it, he still persisted.
Only then did Cheng Dagang stroke his long white beard in satisfaction.
In fact, what Cheng Dagang had said wasn’t his true opinion; with just one look, he could tell this boy’s bones were quite good.
Although he was a bit older, if he was willing to work hard, given time, he might well amount to something.
That was why he’d said those earlier words to discourage the boy; in truth, he just wanted to see the boy’s attitude after being rejected.
"Kid, kung fu isn’t something you talk about, it’s something you practice. How about this: you follow me for a month first. If you really can stick with it, I’ll take you as my apprentice, how’s that!"
"Really?" Cheng Le’s eyes instantly lit up with delight.
Cheng Dagang nodded. "Of course! But you can’t tell anyone that I’m teaching you kung fu! Only when your skills are truly solid one day can you tell outsiders about this."
"Alright! Thank you, Grandpa!"
"Don’t thank me yet. Whether you’re up to it or not is another matter! For now, the most important thing is to go help my girl with her work. It’s a small business she’s running, you mustn’t make her lose out!"
Cheng Dagang wasn’t a muddle-headed old man; he knew Shuangshuang hired people to get things done.
So no matter how he messed around, he would never smash his own family’s business.
Cheng Le went to help Mu Shuangshuang; by then, she had already finished making the steamed buns.
They were just waiting to go into the steamer. With Wang Guilan helping her out, she didn’t feel tired.
Once two batches of steamed buns were done, Mu Shuangshuang was already getting ready to do business.
It was still Cheng Ying and Cheng Le who accompanied her, while Wang Guilan stayed at home to help.
As soon as they opened the shop door, before long, people came over for breakfast.
In her good mood, Mu Shuangshuang chatted with the customers whenever she had a free moment while working.
Someone asked why she always stuffed sauce into the steamed buns.
Mu Shuangshuang explained cheerfully, "This sauce is actually passed down in my family. Whenever our household eats steamed buns or noodles, we always use half a spoon of sauce.
This sauce comes in many kinds—fermented black bean sauce, beef sauce, mushroom and meat sauce, and then there’s broad bean paste. Broad bean paste everyone often has at home, but the first few kinds aren’t that common!"
Hearing Mu Shuangshuang’s words, the customers’ mouths were watering.
"Girl, you describe this sauce so well, but when we go home we won’t get to eat it, just left here craving it for nothing—what are we supposed to do about that?"
"Exactly, now when I eat steamed buns, if there isn’t a spoon of sauce, it just feels like the buns don’t taste right!"
"Girl, if you ask me, why don’t you sell the sauce on its own? We could buy it and eat it at home!"
"That’s right, if we had this sauce ourselves, we wouldn’t need to come out in this freezing weather to buy it!"
Listening to the customers’ discussion in the shop, Mu Shuangshuang increasingly felt that her original decision had been correct.
Once you got used to her sauces, eating steamed buns or noodles without sauce just felt wrong.
Put simply, it just wasn’t satisfying!
"Everyone, don’t be impatient. Our family does indeed have a business making sauce! I haven’t brought it out to sell before because I was afraid you wouldn’t accept it. Now that you all think it’s good, I can start selling the sauce too.
It’s just that my shop is really too small, so I’ll ask those of you who buy the sauce to help spread the word and get more people to buy it. Today’s breakfast will be my treat, on me, Mu Shuangshuang!"
As soon as they heard breakfast was free, the diners all urged Mu Shuangshuang on.
"Boss lady, hurry up and bring out the sauce so each of us can buy some!"
Mu Shuangshuang was in no way shy about it; after giving a few instructions to the two little girls, she went back to the house herself.
In the storeroom, she took out the beef sauce she’d prepared long ago.
As for the fermented black bean sauce, there was no way to finish it today; she would only have time to make it in the afternoon, and it could be sold tomorrow morning.
The earthen pottery jars were about the length of a palm; the top was wrapped in a layer of oiled paper, then covered with a lid, so that even if you turned it upside down, the sauce inside wouldn’t spill out.
Mu Shuangshuang carried out more than a dozen jars in one go.
Back when she bought these pottery jars, the cost was three copper coins for two.
Actually, if she weren’t pressed for time, she could have found some clay herself and made them.
That would certainly save quite a bit of money!
On each pottery jar, Mu Shuangshuang pasted a piece of red paper and wrote the words "Lu Family Good Taste."
This was the name she came up with for the sauce. The reason she used "Lu" instead of "Mu" was because the traditional character for Mu was much harder to write than Lu.
Otherwise, in the future, if every pottery jar had to be written by her, she would be worked to death.
The dozen or so jars of sauce were snapped up the moment they were brought into the shop.
Mu Shuangshuang had set the price at eight copper coins per jar, actually already including the cost of the pottery jar, but even so, their speed still left her a bit dumbfounded.
But accordingly, Mu Shuangshuang knew her choice had been right!
A quiet happiness welled up in Mu Shuangshuang’s heart.
She saw to it that the remaining customers finished their breakfast, then closed the shop early.
After that, she wrote a few large characters on the shopfront—
[This shop sells ancestral sauce. Whether you’re an inn or an individual, you’re welcome to come and buy!]
To Cheng Ying and Cheng Le, this whole series of actions from Mu Shuangshuang was actually a bit baffling.
They didn’t understand why someone who had been selling breakfast suddenly changed trades to selling sauce. Only when Mu Shuangshuang called them to help fill jars in the storeroom
and explained her original idea did they finally see the light.
"So that means, Sister Shuangshuang making breakfast was just so those people could have a chance to try the sauces you make?" Little Cheng Ying looked at Mu Shuangshuang with a face that said, I get it now.
"You guessed right. Reward: you get to eat two extra pieces of meat at noon." Mu Shuangshuang said.
"Hee-hee, my brother also says I’m very smart. But anyway, my brother and I will definitely help Sister Shuangshuang with the business!"
Cheng Ying might have been small, but she was sharp, and the things she said were wonderfully pleasant to hear.
Mu Shuangshuang gently patted Cheng Ying’s hair. "I know you’re a good girl! But remember this: in business, hygiene comes first!
Like right now, when you enter this room, you have to wrap up your hair. Not even half a strand is allowed to fall in here!
Also, before entering, you must wash your hands perfectly clean with scented soap!"
Scented soap was the equivalent of modern soap, but it was made from the juice of soap pods.
Generally, only wealthy households could afford to use it.
Theirs was made by Mu Shuangshuang herself; it was simple enough to make anyway.
But it still wasn’t as good as that kind of water plant gathered from the clear little stream north of Er Gui Village!
Every word Mu Shuangshuang said, Cheng Ying and Cheng Le remembered in their hearts.
So when they worked, they became all the more cautious and careful!
Since Mu Shuangshuang hadn’t been sure before whether she really could make money, the number of pottery jars she’d prepared wasn’t large.
She took a moment to go out once more and directly ordered five hundred pottery jars.