Baozi Xishi's Struggle

Chapter 262 Newly Released Citrus, Let the Girl Taste Some

Shen Yu told Qixi the price of the ingredients one by one and explained the cooking method in detail.

After calculating all this for Qixi, Shen Yu hesitated and said, "You are talking about 40 cents a day for food expenses."

"These two bowls of fried shredded pancakes only count the cost of the ingredients, not the labor. Do the cooks in your government office get a commission for making these?"

"How much do you plan to give him? If you only give him ten cents, he can make these two large bowls. If you give him more, he won't be able to make them."

After Shen Yu finished speaking, he couldn't help but feel a little worried about Lu Lang.

His idea was good, to use as much of the money as possible on the people who were conscripted to do hard labor. But the implementation might not be so smooth.

Qi Xi said confidently: "Ten cents is not a small amount. Ten cents per person per day, ten people will earn a hundred cents."

"Chef Jiang from the county government's kitchen is a kind person, but he is also timid. He doesn't skimp on the food he cooks for the runners."

"He is a local cook who gets paid monthly. He has to report all his purchases. He has a master watching over him, so he should be much better than the cook on the construction site."

Shen Yu thought to himself, "So that's how it is. This cook has no backers, so he can work hard and not cut corners."

Although she understood it in her heart, she didn't know what to say, so she just smiled and nodded.

Qixi said, "Miss, can I take these two bowls of fried pancakes away? Let the young master see the size of this portion, and taste it by the way."

Shen Yu nodded and smiled: "Of course, but can you return the food box and the bowl to me?"

Shen Yu smiled sheepishly: "There is only this one food box in the store. The large bowls are a set, and when I went to buy them, the clerk said that this is the base stock, there are only these six. If two are missing, it will be difficult to match them."

Qi Xi smiled and said, "Don't worry, girl. I will definitely send it back to you after I'm done with it."

After seeing Qixi off, Shen Yu remembered that he had forgotten to ask him whether the county government was in charge of the road construction.

However, Qixi had already left, and Shen Yu could only shake his head, thinking of saying hello next time Qixi came over.

Everyone in the store had long been accustomed to seeing Sprite frequently entering and leaving the store with food boxes.

They thought that Lu Lang had been lacking meat these days, so he secretly came to the store to order food to take away. They didn't find it strange at all.

There were many customers in the store today, and everyone took turns to eat lunch. Jiang and the others were so busy that they had no time to pay attention to what dishes Shen Yu had prepared.

Shen Yu secretly breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that no one asked about it. It was better if fewer people knew about this kind of thing.

After the promotional paper was distributed in the past few days, more and more customers came to the store to pack up baskets full of sauce-flavored biscuits and the like, and several large baskets of food were sold in a day.

While waiting for the food to be packed, I chatted with the customers intentionally or unintentionally and found out that most of them were people who sent their orders from the boats docked at the canal.

Some said that the restaurant was introduced to them by the passengers on the ship, while others said that they saw the promotional paper in the store when they went to the market to deliver goods.

No matter where you saw it, the small, stiff paper promotional note did play a role. The sales of the sauce-flavored biscuits and thousand-layer meat patties in the store began to increase every day.

Two more days passed like this. This morning, Shen Yu was busy making cakes with Zhou Dalang in the kitchen.

Occasionally, he would look up and see the large bowl in the cupboard, and mutter to himself, "Seven Up is really untrustworthy. He promised to return the bowl and food box to me, but I haven't seen him since."

Unexpectedly, just as he finished talking, Qixi came over with two food boxes. One was the one usually used in the store, and the other was the large food box that he usually used to keep warm.

As soon as Shen Yu saw him, he smiled and said, "I thought you wouldn't return the two bowls to me."

Qi Xi saw Zhou Da Lang busy at the side, and laughed, and said vaguely: "How can that be possible? I have been busy these two days, so I have no time to come over. I must do what I promised the girl."

Shen Yu took his own lunch box, which felt a bit heavy in his hand.

When I opened it, I saw the two large bowls on the top layer and a dozen big, round, golden tangerines on the bottom layer.

Qixi smiled and said, "Someone gave the master a small basket of newly-released tangerines. The master knew that the young master loved to eat them, so he gave them all to the young master. The young master asked me to pack some in a food box for the young lady to try."

There are no such good quality tangerines for sale at the fruit stalls in front of the market. The tangerines are very large and the peels exude the unique fragrance of tangerines.

Qixi said again: "There are several lunch boxes in the government office. This one will be kept here by the young lady. The weather is getting colder and colder. This lunch box is best used in winter."

Shen Yu thought about it, smiled and thanked: "This lunch box is good, but it's a little too big. It's best for soup and vegetables in winter. I heard from Aunt Jiang that this lunch box is not cheap."

"Just consider it as a loan to you. I've been busy these past two days and forgot to buy lunch boxes. I'll buy two small ones tomorrow and put them in the store. You can take this one back then."

Qixi said, "Miss, you are too polite. You can use the lunch box first. If you think it is too big and inconvenient to use, we can talk about it later."

Shen Yu had no choice but to nod and put the lunch box away.

Qi Xi saw Zhou Dalang making pancakes in the next kitchen, so he whispered, "Young Master asked me to thank the young lady on his behalf. The fried pancake shreds the young lady made were large and delicious, with plenty of oil and water. Although there was no meat, it tasted very fragrant."

"The day before yesterday at noon, I took my lunch box and went directly to the road construction site. The young master and I shared one bowl of food, and I called a janitor who was working on the road construction site and gave him the other bowl."

"We came here to taste the flavor, and also to see the difference between eating half a bowl and a full bowl, and whether it can offset the hunger of the whole afternoon."

"It was late in the evening and I felt a little hungry. If I had eaten a whole bowl, I would definitely not be hungry now."

Qi Xi paused, with a look of emotion that didn't match her likable face: "The young master called the servant over again and asked him if he was hungry after having a bowl of this for lunch."

"The servant was so grateful that he knelt on the ground and kowtowed. He said that he had been recruited to do odd jobs many times. Every time he worked for ten days or half a month and then went home, he had to eat a lot for several days to make up for it."

"When I was doing odd jobs, I never had a full meal. I couldn't bear to bring my own dry food, so I had to make do with it. Today's lunch was the first time I had a full meal."

"My master and I felt very sad when we heard this, so he asked us to keep it a secret and let us go back."

"After finishing work and returning to the county government office, I followed the instructions of the girl the next morning, bought some ingredients, and tried to cook it in the big stove in the county government office."

"Even though the stoves in the county government burn coal, the fire is not as strong as that in the girls' homes, and the food they cook is not as delicious as that of the girls."