Chapter 17
Chapter 17: Trial Sale
When the seasoned Chilled Jelly Noodles were set in front of them, no one moved at first.
Qin Hui Yin nudged the bowl forward. “Taste it!”
Li Tao Hua picked up one strip with her chopsticks and hesitantly put it into her mouth.
Qin Hui Yin leaned in, eyes bright. “Well?”
Li Tao Hua’s eyes lit up. “Delicious.”
The jelly had been chilled in well water—cold and refreshing. The seasonings clung to each strip, fragrant and sharp, and the first bite cut straight through the summer heat.
Qin Hui Yin wasn’t surprised. She picked up a slice of pork ear and placed it in Li Tao Hua’s bowl. “Try this too.”
The pork intestine and pork ear had been sliced into thin strips and mixed with the seasonings. The aroma alone made you want to swallow your tongue.
Li Tao Hua ate, then ate again. “Delicious. So delicious.”
“You two try it,” Qin Hui Yin said, nodding to the siblings beside her.
Tang Lu Wu and Tang Yi Xiao finally lifted their chopsticks.
Like Li Tao Hua, they tasted cautiously at first. It wasn’t that they didn’t trust her judgment—it was that Li Tao Hua doted on her daughter too much. They half expected she was praising it just to give Qin Hui Yin face.
Then the flavor hit.
Tang Lu Wu’s eyes widened. Tang Yi Xiao’s grip on his chopsticks tightened, and he took a second bite before he even realized he was doing it.
From the inner room, Tang Da Fu’s voice carried out around a mouthful. “Tasty.”
“Then eat more,” Qin Hui Yin called back. “I’m going to need your help later!”
Li Tao Hua frowned. “He can’t even get out of bed. How can he help you?”
“I want to take all this to town and sell it,” Qin Hui Yin said. “What do you think, Mom?”
Li Tao Hua didn’t answer right away. She studied her daughter’s face. “How do you plan to sell it?”
“We sell servings that are half the size of what we eat at home—three copper coins per bowl.” Qin Hui Yin spoke quickly, already picturing the stall. “If someone wants braised meat added, they pay extra. I need Uncle Tang to shave wooden sticks to use as chopsticks. Disposable ones. They don’t have to look pretty—just two thin sticks that can pick up the jelly.”
“And what will you use to hold it?” Li Tao Hua asked.
“No bowls,” Qin Hui Yin said. “Too much time, too much washing, not worth it. We carve bamboo tubes instead. There’s bamboo everywhere on the mountain—it’s easy to get.”
Li Tao Hua nodded slowly. “All right. In a bit, Mom will go up the mountain with you.”
Qin Hui Yin’s smile turned a little awkward. “I mean… all of us go up the mountain. More hands make light work.”
Li Tao Hua looked at Tang Lu Wu and Tang Yi Xiao. “Are you willing to help?”
“You won’t be working for free,” Qin Hui Yin added. “How about I pay you wages?”
Tang Lu Wu waved both hands, anxious. “No wages. We’re family—we should help.”
Tang Yi Xiao kept his head lowered, eating in silence.
He had to spend silver every month on medicine. It was already more than enough that the mother and daughter didn’t resent him for dragging the household down—how could he dare ask for wages?
Tang Da Fu, useless for so long, looked almost giddy at the thought of finally being useful. He promised again and again that he would shave good disposable chopsticks.
Later, Li Tao Hua and her daughter went up the mountain with the Tang siblings. As they passed, villagers gathered in clusters, tongues loose with gossip.
“Li Tao Hua bought meat,” someone said. “She made my Er Gou cry from craving it. That woman is stingy as can be—Er Gou guarded her gate for ages and didn’t even get a whiff.”
Another snorted. “Auntie, it’s a good thing your Er Gou didn’t eat any. Otherwise, who knows what trouble he might’ve gotten into. The Tang Family is in that state, yet she still has money to buy meat. Who knows if that money is clean.”
“Didn’t they say she sold her own clothes to buy it?”
“She’d rather sell her clothes than go without meat—what normal family does that? That vixen is probably trying to seduce some man again. You’d better keep the men in your homes on a tight leash. If any of them dares stay out and not come back, that vixen might just lure him away.”
Someone else clicked their tongue. “Isn’t Li Tao Hua being a bit too good to those Tang siblings? Back when she married Hunter Song, she wasn’t this nice to that little freak Song Rui Ze.”
“What’s so strange about it?” another voice said. “The Tang Family has Tang Yi Chen—best scholar around here. Song Rui Ze has a weird temper, and he’s also Coffin Wretch. Who wouldn’t think that’s bad luck?”
“That Song Rui Ze is really pitiful.”
“You pity him?” came the sharp reply. “He can punch a wild deer to death. Can you?”
Silence followed, thick with discomfort.
After Hunter Song died, Li Tao Hua had sold the fields cheaply to Hunter Song’s brothers while Song Rui Ze was still up in the mountains searching for his father’s body. When Song Rui Ze came back, he didn’t throw a tantrum. He simply drove that mother and daughter out.
He had been 14 then—already taller than his father had been. From that day on, he became even more solitary, as if whatever warmth he once had was buried with Hunter Song.
Up on the mountain, reality was less dramatic and far more exhausting.
Qin Hui Yin led them to bamboo stands and set them to work. Bamboo wasn’t hard to find, but cutting it and carving it into usable tubes was another story.
Li Tao Hua had never been made for heavy labor. Before long, sweat plastered hair to her temples, and her hands shook with strain.
The other three were half-grown kids. They knew how to work, but this kind of labor was still too much, and their arms started to tremble as the pile of bamboo grew.
Qin Hui Yin wiped her forehead and looked around. Broad leaves carpeted the mountain in every direction.
If she washed them clean, they could work in a pinch—just not as pretty.
“All right,” she decided. “We’ll carve 50 bamboo tubes. Then we’ll pick leaves, wash them at home, and keep them as backup. If we run out of bamboo tubes tomorrow, we’ll use leaves.”
By the time they trudged back down the mountain, it was already late.
They used to keep an oil lamp at home—one for Li Tao Hua, and one that Tang Yi Chen sometimes needed. But lately they’d been saving everything they could. Usually they went to bed when it got dark and didn’t touch the lamp at all.
Tonight, Li Tao Hua brought it out.
By the time the last bit of lamp oil was used up, they had finally prepared everything they needed for tomorrow.
For the first day’s trial sale, Qin Hui Yin used one jin of pea starch to make the jelly, then chilled it in the water jar so it would stay cool for the trip into town.
One jin of pea starch could make six or seven jin of Chilled Jelly Noodles. She hadn’t weighed it exactly, so she couldn’t calculate the precise amount, but judging by the bamboo tubes they’d prepared, it should be enough for 50 servings.
As for the braised meat, it could be mixed into the noodles or sold separately. It wasn’t much, but they could still make a small profit.
That night, Qin Hui Yin lay in bed, tossing and turning, sleep refusing to come.
In her modern life, she only needed to livestream online. She’d never done business face-to-face, never stood behind a stall with strangers judging her product with their eyes and their tongues. Starting over with a new identity made her nervous and excited in equal measure.
Tang Lu Wu couldn’t sleep either.
Earlier, Qin Hui Yin had said everyone would go to town tomorrow to sell the noodles, and that she would pay them wages. Tang Lu Wu hadn’t planned on taking any, but with it being their first time doing business, her chest still felt tight with unease.
“Sister Lu Wu,” Qin Hui Yin whispered into the darkness, “do you think we’ll succeed tomorrow?”
Tang Lu Wu hesitated only a moment. “The Chilled Jelly Noodles Sister Yin makes are so good. They’ll definitely be popular.”
The next day, Qin Hui Yin was woken by noise outside. She jolted up, disoriented.
She’d been sleepless for so long last night that when sleep finally came, it dragged her under too deeply. She hadn’t even noticed Tang Lu Wu had already been up for a long time.
Li Tao Hua had made breakfast. When she saw Qin Hui Yin stumble out, she clicked her tongue. “Still sleepy? You can sleep on the cart later. Wash your face and get ready to leave.”
As Qin Hui Yin moved around the room, her eyes snagged on Tang Yi Xiao.
His clothes were patched on top of patches—more mending than fabric. In the whole family, his outfits looked the most worn. Tang Da Fu used to work outside and still dressed fairly properly. Tang Yi Chen went without saying—he was the tutors’ precious treasure, and the teacher’s wife made him new clothes every season. Tang Lu Wu wore clothes Qin Hui Yin had altered smaller; they were still decent.
Only Tang Yi Xiao looked like he’d been stitched together from scraps.
Qin Hui Yin quietly decided that once they had money, she’d buy him two new outfits. Even if the cloth was rough, it would still be better than this.
After the past few days together, she could feel Tang Yi Xiao starting to see her differently. He did what she arranged. He no longer tossed nasty words just to make her angry.
If he was going to be this obedient, she should reward him—so he’d keep cooperating.