Chapter 45 - Soon, tofu would be very popular in Nanxi county

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Shi Qingluo guided Xiao Baili to prepare dinner.

She wasn’t good at cooking, but she had the recipes and had tasted many of them.

Braised pork, home-style tofu, stewed pork ribs with radish, and scrambled eggs.

This was also the most sumptuous meal the Xiao family had ever had since their separation from their extended family.

It was also the best meal that Mother Xiao, Xiao Baili and Xiao Erlang had ever had.

Mother Xiao looked at Shi Qingluo with a smile in her eyes as she ate.

Ever since her daughter-in-law married into the Xiao family, her son smiled more frequently and their family was becoming more prosperous.

How wonderful!

After eating, they took a short walk until the sky darkened.

Then, everyone went to bed.

Because the villagers were going to make tofu the next day, even Xiao Hanzheng did not stay up late to write his novel.

At two o’clock before dawn the next day, there was a knock on the door.

Mother Xiao, who had already woken up and washed up, opened the door and let in the villagers that the chief had selected to make tofu.

Xiao Hanzheng and Shi Qingluo also dressed up and left the room.

Under the moonlight, everyone also saw Xiao Hanzheng walking out.

The chief’s third son, Xiao Qingshan, looked at Xiao Hanzheng and asked, “Dalang, how’s your body?”

Xiao Hanzheng smiled at Xiao Qingshan. “It’s almost healed.”

He added, “All thanks to my wife.”

This was the truth.

If it weren’t for Shi Qingluo’s fever medicine and the sugar water, he wouldn’t have recovered so quickly.

In the ears of others, Shi Qingluo was blessed.

Not only did she wake Xiao Hanzheng up from her chongxi, she had also healed his body.

As expected from the old immortal’s disciple.

This boosted their confidence in the Xiao family’s tofu business.

Xiao Hanzheng looked at them and said, “From today onwards, I’ll have to trouble everyone to help make tofu in my house.”

“Your daily wages are 10 wen and does not cover meal plans. You can go home for breakfast. After reaching the tofu quantity for the day, you can go home.”

He paused and said, “Your salary will be given once every 10 days. Is that okay?”

The chief had told everyone about the salary before, and they were all very satisfied.

They had thought that they would receive monthly wages, but they didn’t expect that they could receive their wages every 10 days.

This was an unexpected surprise.

“No problem, we can start working now.”

Xiao Hanzheng brought them to the backyard and lit a few oil lamps that Shi Qingluo had specially purchased from the county town.

Shi Qingluo instructed everyone to start working while Xiao Hanzheng helped alongside.

The five people chosen by the chief, three men and two women, were all hardworking.

Xiao Qingshan was also the leader, so no one was slacking off.

They were all very active in their work.

A few of them had been paying attention to the process of making tofu.

Shi Qingluo also did not deliberately hide the tofu making process.

After all, she was planning to open a bigger tofu workshop in the future, or even a chain of outlets, so there was no way she could hide it.

However, when she was tabulating the tofu, she deliberately said, “This is the secret recipe left behind by my master. Only with this can the bean juice turn into tofu.”

Previously, a few of them had been curious about how the bean juice transformed into pieces of tofu, but now they understood that it was because of this secret recipe.

As expected, after Shi Qingluo finished tabulating the tofu, the bean juice gradually condensed into pieces.

Everyone was stunned and awed at how magical the old immortal’s recipe was.

The tofu was freshly baked just before the sun rose.

The villagers who decided to buy the tofu for resale also came over.

Shi Qingluo brought Mother Xiao and Xiao Baili to weigh the tofu for everyone.

She even wrapped the few pots of small pieced-tofu that she told Xiao Baili to stir-fry with clean leaves.

Everyone who bought tofu was given a bag according to the amount they bought.

Shi Qingluo said, “When you are selling tofu, you can let the customers have a taste of the stir-fried tofu for free first.

“Also, share with them the tofu making process that I told you about before. That way, we won’t have to worry about selling it.”

It wasn’t as if the villagers had never sold things before.

In the past, they had sold local products harvested from the fields.

However, they had never thought that they could sell them like this.

“Aren’t we making a loss by letting those people eat for free?” Someone asked in puzzlement.

Shi Qingluo smiled and said, “Although each of us eats just a small piece, it is already sufficient to let us sell one or two catties of tofu in the future. We definitely won’t make a loss.

“Otherwise, if you don’t let them taste it first, others won’t know how it tastes, and they won’t dare to buy it and eat it.

“After the tofu achieved an excellent reputation, we won’t have to give people free samples anymore.”

Everyone agreed. “Alright, then we’ll do according to what you said.”

There weren’t many people who came to take the tofu today.

More people were still waiting to see how others were selling before making a decision.

Hence, not all the tofu were brought by those who intend to resell them.

However, the remaining tofu was subsequently exchanged by others in the village.

Shi Qingluo also announced that the families who had lent money to the Xiao family don’t need to pay.

Instead, they would use the tofu as deposits.

This made these families, who were already tempted, to give it a try.

For example, the chief’s eldest son took six catties.

The other families also took a few catties to try.

During lunch, Mother Xiao and her two younger children were a little absent-minded.

Shi Qingluo guessed the reason and said with a smile, “Mother, you don’t have to worry. The tofu won’t be difficult to sell. Don’t worry.”

Hearing her words, Mother Xiao didn’t know why, but she suddenly felt less worried. “Well, I have confidence in our tofu.”

As they were talking, they heard someone knocking on the door.

Erlang opened the door and saw a burly man, Xiao Dashu, who had initially proposed to resell the tofu, standing at the door with his other two brothers.

Xiao Hanzheng stood up. “Dashu, have you sold out your tofu?”

Xiao Dashu’s face was full of smiles and he was a little excited. “We’ve sold everything. It’s still not enough.

“It’s all thanks to your wife’s idea to let others taste it first.

“Almost all the people who tried it bought it.

“We only went to the nearby village once and had already sold out all 30 catties of tofu.”

They were quite brave. The three brothers each took 10 catties to sell.

The other villages only tried buying 3 to 6 catties to sell.

The revenue was great as they had expected.

They had already earned 30 wen in the morning, which was much better than going to the county town to work.

Xiao Hanzheng nodded. “It’s good that it’s sold out.”

Xiao Dashu smiled and said, “We want to take more tofu to sell tomorrow, so we want to inform you first.”

Xiao Hanzheng asked, “Then how much do you want?”

Xiao Dashu replied, “About 60 catties. We can sell them in two more villages”

It would at most take them a little more time to sell, but judging from today’s situation, they would definitely be able to sell all of them.

He had guessed that the tofu wouldn’t be hard to sell, but he had never tried before and wasn’t very confident.

Now, he was completely relieved.

He guessed that others who were selling tofu would definitely increase the quantity tomorrow, so he came over to make an advanced reservation.

Xiao Hanzheng didn’t answer immediately, but turned to look at Shi Qingluo.

After she nodded, he said to Xiao Dashu, “No problem, I’ll leave 60 catties for you tomorrow.”

Xiao Dashu and his brothers said happily, “Thank you!”

Not long after the three of them left, more people came to their house to make advanced reservations.

The tofu’s sales were excellent, and even the person with the worst mouth sold all of them at noon and returned to the village.

This was within Shi Qingluo’s expectations.

After all, Xiao Baili’s cooking skills were very good and the tofu she fried was delicious even if eaten cold.

For those who had never eaten it before, tofu wasn’t expensive and was delicious, so they also bought some to try.

Moreover, as long as someone bought it, the others could not help but follow suit.

Soon, tofu would be very popular in Nanxi county.