Baozi Xishi's Struggle

Chapter 269 The private room separated by bamboo curtains looks like a formal dinner party

When Shopkeeper Chen saw that it was Li, he smiled and bowed, saying, "Madam Li, the market is closed. My clerk and I are coming to install the curtains for your house."

It turned out that this Shopkeeper Chen was the owner of the bamboo shop in the market. He had made an appointment with Li and would come with tools to install the hanging curtain after the market closed.

The bamboo curtain bought by Li was already placed on the table in the shop. Shen Yu had just taken a look at it. It was different from what he had imagined. There was no mechanism on it.

Unlike modern roller blinds, which rely on gears on both sides and are pulled by ropes.

There is a fixed ring on the top of the bamboo curtain, which is convenient for hanging it on the beam ceiling. On both sides of the bamboo curtain, there are three cloth straps in opposite positions. If you need to roll it to a certain height, just tie the cloth straps on both sides and tie a knot at the bottom.

Li said that this kind of curtain can be hung with cloth straps or curtain hooks. Curtain hooks look good, but they can only fix the height and are not as flexible as cloth straps.

The shopkeeper Chen and his assistant set up the herringbone bamboo ladder according to the position pointed out by Li. In just one incense stick's time, all three bamboo curtains were hung.

Li went forward and pulled it gently to try, and it seemed very stable.

Shen Yu saw that they had finished installing it, took a few steps back, and looked up to examine it carefully.

The bamboo curtain was the light natural color of bamboo, the bamboo fibers were smooth, and it exuded the unique herbal fragrance of bamboo.

The cloth edges on both sides and the cloth tape that is rolled up to control the height are made of the common old blue coarse cloth. The color combination of bamboo silk and coarse cloth, one light and one dark, looks very clean and elegant.

Because the bamboo curtain is made of thin strips of bamboo, it does not completely block out light. When a person stands at the square table behind the bamboo curtain, it is not very dark, but it is dimly visible from the outside, so the privacy is good.

Shen Yu looked at the half-rolled bamboo curtain and suddenly thought, what if he put down the bamboo curtain completely and sat in the private room.

With a cup of hot tea at hand, a few plates of favorite snacks on the table in front of you, a storybook in your hand, you can inadvertently hear a few words of discussion from the diners next door and gossip about the latest happenings in the city. You should be very happy and carefree.

Shen Yu imagined the scene and amused himself.

I sighed in my heart, "If I pay off the money I owe, I can probably be lazy once in a while and enjoy the fun of my imagination."

After installing the curtains, Shopkeeper Chen packed up the installation equipment and left with his employees.

Everyone gathered around the bamboo curtains to look inside and out, and tried out the cloth ribbons on the curtains. Zheng Sanniang casually rolled up the cloth ribbons hanging below and tied them into a beautiful flower knot.

Shen Yu saw it and praised: "Sister Zheng, this flower knot is tied beautifully. From now on, the work of rolling up the curtains in this shop will be under Sister Zheng's charge."

"Look, once the flower knot is tied, the bamboo curtain immediately looks elegant and beautiful, and it looks much better."

Li and Jiang also praised it, while Yutao carefully turned the flower knot over and over with her hands, trying to understand how it was made.

She has always been interested in embroidery and sewing, but she was still young and didn't know many knots. After watching for a while, she still couldn't understand how to make this beautiful knot.

She had no choice but to look at Zheng Sanniang pleadingly. Seeing that Yutao liked it, Zheng Sanniang stepped forward and demonstrated how to tie a flower knot. The two of them taught and learned very seriously.

Li looked at it and said to Shen Yu, "Yuzhi, those flower knots you made before were also very beautiful. You like making flower knots, why don't you come forward and take a look."

After hearing this, Shen Yu pretended to suddenly remember something, took off the apron and put it aside, and said hurriedly: "Oh, I'm busy with this, there are still many things to do in the backyard, I have to go and get busy."

"Sister Zheng and Yutao can tie the knot for the curtains. I'll focus on cooking."

After saying this, without waiting for Li to say anything, he just laughed and quickly slipped away.

On the second day, the shopkeepers who came to the store to eat saw the square table and the hanging curtains, and said that with this arrangement, if they brought guests over, as long as the bamboo curtains were lowered and the wine and food were laid out, it would look like a formal dinner party.

Speaking of food and wine, a feast is not complete without wine.

At that time, most of the wine was brewed from grains, and the production method was still the most primitive method. As long as there was grain, it could be brewed with the guidance of an experienced person.

However, according to government regulations, not every restaurant could brew and sell wine on their own at that time.

One must apply for permission from the government and pay a large amount of tax every year before one can brew and sell their own liquor.

For example, in Anping County, there is a fixed number of places that can be used to brew wine on their own each year. Several large restaurants can brew wine on their own after applying, but small restaurants cannot get a place at all.

If a snack shop wants to sell wine in its own store, it must buy wine from a designated winery and cannot brew it on its own.

The wine from the winery was very expensive. The profit from selling wine in the snack bar was negligible, and the wine bought was difficult to preserve and easily went sour.

Buying and selling wine is a laborious and unprofitable endeavor.

Although Shen Yu felt that having food without wine was not a good combination, he remembered that his restaurant mainly served breakfast and lunch, and everyone was busy doing business, working, and shopping, so where would they have the time to sit in a snack bar and slowly drink a glass of wine?

Thinking of this, Shen Yu had no plans to buy and sell wine for the time being. If there were guests who wanted to drink, he would still have time to go out and buy wine.

After two busy days, it was the end of September in the blink of an eye.

Li was always muttering about the Cold Clothes Festival, and had already bought offerings for worship. She would go to the temple to burn incense and offer sacrifices, and burn winter clothes.

Shen Yu asked two local people, Zheng Sanniang and Zhou Dalang, whether the market would be closed on the Cold Clothes Festival like the Ghost Festival.

Zhou Dalang shook his head and said, "On the day of Cold Clothes Festival, the market and the shops on the street are open as usual. If there are families who need to worship their relatives, the owners will grant them leave, but the shops will have people on duty to receive and send goods."

"If the people in the county town don't have anything important to do on this day, they won't come to buy, so there will be fewer customers."

After Shen Yu found out, on September 29, he asked the waiters to reduce the amount of food they would deliver the next day. The waiters also knew that this was the custom during the Cold Clothes Festival, so they wrote down the instructions one by one and agreed to leave.

It was the first day of October. The weather was a bit gloomy early in the morning and the college was also closed for the day.

When the store opened in the morning, there were indeed not many customers. Most of them were shop owners and clerks who stayed behind from surrounding shops.

Li and Shen Yu agreed that when there were fewer guests for dinner in the morning, she and Jiang would take Yucheng, Yutao and Dundun to the temple to worship, and Zhou Dalang and his family of three would also go with them.

Zheng Sanniang's parents are still alive, so they stayed here today to look after the store with Shen Yu.

Although there were not many customers, the doors of the surrounding shops were all open, and it would not be appropriate for the restaurant to close.

Shen Yu was not interested in going to the temple in the first place, but she agreed readily and told them to just go with peace of mind.