In April, the mountains are full of flowers, insects and birds chirp happily, willow trees are dressed in full costumes, and after several heavy rains, the water of the Xijiang River passing through the city has also returned to its former height.

With the increase in the number of merchants coming and going from the south to the north in the local stability, and the fact that there are many people in the city who play the spring, several streets lined with shops in the city have become bustling.

The "The Complete Biography of Yue Yue" and "The Biography of Tong Lin" printed by the printing workshop sold very well, and the sensational effect brought by Han Wuye's storytelling before, many people know the details of the story, and it is not very convenient to drag the family to listen to the book, so it is better to buy a copy and go back to read.

From the beginning of just reading people to buy books, it has developed into a matter for the entire gentry class, and finally those rich or literate people in the city will also save money to buy a book to keep up with the trend, and the bookstore in the city is really popular.

With the best-selling books, it has brought about a relatively cold business in the tea shop. Han Wuye still tells stories every day as before, and he tells new stories and new contents, but there is more than one storyteller in the city, and some big teahouses and wine shops also tell stories and use this as a selling point.

Other teahouses and restaurants, some talk about "The Legend of Yue Quan", some talk about "The Legend of Tong Lin", even if there is no novel story of "Romance of the Fengshen" and "Three Heroes and Five Righteousness" told by Han Wuye, but people also tell it according to the book printed by Shen Xi, which is equally wonderful for those who have not heard of it.

There are more places for people to choose from, and the trend of going to tea shops to listen to books and making it fashionable has gradually passed.

After Shen Mingyou became the shopkeeper, he was ambitious and wanted to do a lot of work, and felt that the VIP table made a lot of money, so he simply increased the number of tables from four to twelve, and painted the store inside and out, happily waiting for the distinguished customers.

But then he found out that not everyone in this city spends a lot of money, and it is still a very luxurious thing to spend 200 yuan a day to sit at a VIP table and listen to books.

Later, the twelve tables were full, not to mention full, and slowly reached the point where no one cared.

Even those who came to listen to books in the past felt that there were too many VIP tables, and sitting down to listen to books did not show their noble status.

The gentry who were accustomed to sitting at the VIP table naturally did not compromise their identity to sit in ordinary seats, and in the end, none of those old customers came, so they simply went to other teahouses to listen to "The Legend of Yue Quan" and "The Biography of Tong Lin".

The large teahouse is clean and elegant, although there is no VIP seat, but people have private rooms and private rooms, not to mention the cost of less, and the service is better.

No one expected in advance that those rich people who had not fallen out of the game would also learn shrewdly, and the new shopkeeper Shen Mingyou's several fires after taking office all failed.

With the hot sales of the two books "The Complete Biography of Yue Yue" and "The Biography of Tong Lin" in the city, the business of storytelling has also developed from a teahouse restaurant to a market, and the ordinary people, who were originally the main consumers of listening to books, have gradually lost their interest in patronizing the Shen family's tea shop because there are more people telling these two stories among the neighbors.

By the end of April, less than a month after Shen Mingyou took over the tea shop, the business had changed from full of friends to a wide range of people, and he could barely maintain its operation every day only by night clubs.

Shen Mingyou was not a diligent person, and he was also enthusiastic at the beginning, thinking that he could make a lot of money, and his motivation was enough, and when he found that the business of the tea shop was not good, he began to spend money from the account for his own squandering, and began to resign himself to running the tea shop.

After the Li family entered the city, they borrowed it to live in the Shen family's big house.

After the Li family decided to let Shen Mingyou stay, they sent their honest third son Shen Mingtang back to the countryside to farm, and then let Shen Mingyou rent a place to live next to the tea shop, so as to reduce the supervision of Shen Mingyou and the tea shop.

What the old lady remembers most in her heart is Shen Mingwen, the talented man who shoulders the hope of the family.

For Shen Ming, the second son who seems to be quite capable of being shrewd, the Li family still trusts him very much, and the tea shop business is completely let go, but when the account is paid at the end of the month, the amount is very different from her expectations.

The tea shop, which originally had a net income of twenty taels of silver a month, only earned a total of seven or eight taels of silver in April, which was also due to the care of Han Wuye in the first half of the month.

On the afternoon of April 28, the Li family came to Shen Xi's house and called Shen Mingyou and Shen Mingjun over, also to ask why the income of the tea shop had decreased.

"Mother, it's not because of the eldest brother's guest house, we have to pay the money from the account to the eldest brother's family, and I just took over, I added tables, chairs and benches before, and I have to rent a place to live...... This tea shop business pays attention to the long-term flow of water, and cannot focus on the moment. ”

When Li heard this, she felt that Shen Ming's explanation was reasonable, a small fortune would not make a big fortune, and she also knew that Shen Ming had added tables and chairs and painted shops before, but in fact, these did not cost a few dollars, but the old lady had lived in the countryside for twenty or thirty years, and she had no idea about the prices in the city, thinking that she would spend a lot of silver.

When Li and Shen Mingyou left, Zhou mentioned to her husband: "I don't know what the revenue of the tea shop is this month?" ”

In the past, the tea shop was Zhou's account, even if she was illiterate, she was shrewd and had always memorized the accounts.

Shen Mingjun cared too much about these, in the past, it was Han Wuye who handed over the accounts to him, and he let Shen Xi read them and then gave them to the Zhou family for safekeeping.

"It's seven or eight taels on the account, but my mother didn't tell me the exact number." Shen Mingjun wasn't so sure.

Shen Xi was originally peeking in the house with Lin Dai, but at this time he came out and said: "Dad, when we handed over the shop, there were more than twenty taels of silver in the account, if there are only seven or eight taels left now, it is not a revenue, but a big loss." ”

Zhou frowned: "Don't talk nonsense, don't talk nonsense, after all, it's your second uncle, and the money you make in the business is also owned by the Shen family, and it's not as good as you to say bad things about him." ”

Shen Xi had no choice but to apologize and say two soft words, so that Zhou stopped training people. In fact, Zhou herself also suspected in her heart that she had not touched the accounts, and she had not asked what was going on in the tea shop for most of the month, and the account books were all made by Shen Ming, and it was difficult to ensure that there was no greasy.

When Shen Mingjun went to Shen Xi's uncle's house to see the old lady again, Zhou reminded her husband and the old lady to come over to take a look at the accounts, but Li managed the accounts strictly and refused to hand over the account books to Shen Mingjun.

The old lady was worried that Shen Mingjun and his wife would not be willing to hand over their business, and would take advantage of Shen Mingyou's low income as a shopkeeper to slander Shen Ming's ability to do things with the account books, and then doubt her decision.

The Li family is old, and her thinking is complicated, she never thought that in fact, Shen Mingjun and his wife just didn't want Shen Mingyou to do things without supervision, and then unscrupulously took them for their own use.

The old lady refused to hand over the account book, so Zhou naturally didn't talk much, but she was faintly worried in her heart...... Now that the Shen family is missing Shen Mingwen's silver and rice, if there is another problem in the operation of the tea shop, life may be even more difficult than before, but all this is decided by the old lady, since she believes in the second son, then wait for the results to come out.

Zhou is more willing to take care of the business at hand, the pharmacy is full of customers, and the printing workshop continues to launch the book, and now "The Complete Biography of Yue Yue" and "The Biography of Tong Lin" have been published in the fourth volume, and the sales are hot, and she is a little busy running at both ends.

The printing shop settled at the end of the month, and only sold half a month's worth of books, and the money for hiring people and buying tools and paper and ink has begun to make a profit.

In the first month, they got back the investment and made money, which made Zhou and Hui Niang very happy, and at the end of the month, Shen Mingjun did not come back from the Wang family, so the two families got together for dinner, which was actually a celebration banquet.

This afternoon, Hui Niang had already asked Ning'er to buy back vegetables, mushrooms and meat, but the pharmacy was busy until it was closed, and it was too hasty to make it when it was dark, and it was estimated that it would take an hour to eat.

Shen Xi came up with an idea, and it was not so troublesome to use a small pot stove to "shabu shabu".

"Xiaolang, let's eat seriously, you said that you just use soup to soak the meat and vegetables, can you eat it?" Hui Niang has always felt that Shen Xi has a bright brain, but this time when it comes to food, she doesn't blindly agree.

Shen Xi smiled: "How do you know if it's delicious if you haven't eaten it?" My aunt and mother are too busy, we can try it first, if it is delicious, we can save a lot of time when cooking in the future. ”

"Hanwa'er, where did you learn these things, when we were in the countryside before, wild vegetables were often boiled and eaten, and it is strange that this good meat and good vegetables can't be eaten when cooked, but where can you just eat these without eating? Sister, I think so, let's close the shop early in the future, let Ning'er and Xiu'er come back in shifts, don't be too busy. ”

Ning'er's job was originally to stay in the backyard to do chores and take care of Lu Xi'er, but the pharmacy business on both sides was on the track and extremely busy, and Ning'er was also pulled to the new shop to help.

Hui Niang nodded: "That's fine, it's a big deal, let's go back and buy two more maids back, so that they don't have to work too hard." ”

Xiu'er is honest, and when she heard this, she hurriedly defended: "Grandma, I don't work hard, it's grandma that you work hard." ”

This is agreed by both families, if you want to say who is the busiest in this pharmacy, you must count Hui Niang, who often stays up late at night to check the accounts, in fact, this is mainly because she has no husband and pins all her feelings on business, so that she doesn't think about it much.

"It's your hard work, I'm the shopkeeper, and the money I make is mine."

Hui Niang smiled and said, "That's it, let's try what Xiaolang said today, if it's not delicious, you all rely on Xiaolang, don't blame me." ”

The two families began to prepare dinner happily.

In fact, as early as the Northern and Southern Dynasties, people used hot pot to cook pigs, cattle, sheep, chickens, fish and other meats. But Ninghua is located in a remote area, and the food culture is very scarce, so Hui Niang and Zhou don't know this way of eating.

The most important thing in shabu-shabu is the small pot stove, and this room full of people can't always gather around the stove, you have chopsticks, and I have a bowl of shabu-shabu in the big pot.

Shen Xi took out the brazier that was used for heating in the previous winter, found charcoal from the firewood room in the backyard and added it, and then set up a small pot, and the simple hot pot was formed.

Eating hot pot must be placed on the table, Hui Niang was afraid that it would be troublesome to make a fire in the back hall, so she simply put the octagonal table in the courtyard, and the two families sat on stools around the octagonal table. Shen Xi went to the kitchen and took out the ingredients he had prepared, that is, simple condiments such as green onions, garlic, tofu milk, minced celery, salt, and sesame oil.

At this time, there are no chili peppers, and the bottom of the hot pot is simply added to the white water with dried shrimp, jujubes, wolfberries, ginger, garlic, green onions, etc.

Seeing this, Zhou couldn't help scolding: "You stinky boy, you have already thought about this?" ”

"Mother, I see that you and your aunt are busy, so I will try my best to save you trouble, if you think it is delicious, you will come back in the future, and we can eat it on fire, right? At most, you can cook some rice in advance and eat it with the dishes. ”

The table was almost full of women, and this time it was Shen Xi's turn to be the man in charge, and he proposed to eat hot pot, and others would not do it, so he instructed Ning Er and Xiu'er to wash the vegetables and mushrooms, and then cut the purchased mutton and pork into slices and serve them on the table. For mobile phone users, please visit http://m.piaotian.net