The people who hadn't been to town for the past few days were amazed and amazed when they heard the man say this.

"What is Mrs. Old Xiucai selling? How do you get your idea? A middle-aged woman asked.

The man who had just picked up the stubble said, "I see that it is selling water tofu. ”

"Water tofu?" The woman was surprised, "That thing can be sold?" Doesn't it mean that the water here is not good, so we can't make good water tofu? ”

"Who knows?" The man shook his head, "The water tofu made by Mrs. Xiucai is iron-set, otherwise why would so many people buy it?" ”

"Eh, I know! I know! A lean man called out happily, "A few days ago, Ya Cha Su searched a well for Mrs. Xiucai's house, saying that the deep well water is sweet, maybe it is the water from the well of Mrs. Xiucai's house!" ”

When even if someone refutes, "Do you believe the words of Ya Cha Su?" Wherever he scooped wells, he boasted that the water of the wells was sweet! ”

The lean man was not happy, "Then you say, why is the water tofu made by Mrs. Xiucai so delicious?" When the Mei family was not separated before, I didn't see Mrs. Xiucai making water tofu! ”

The refuting people were speechless for a moment, and everyone talked happily and enthusiastically for a long time, and they all felt that the suffering and sins suffered by the old lady Xiucai in the first half of her life had been rewarded, and the immortals gave their orphans and widows a sweet stone well, and gave them a way to live.

At this time, Uncle Mei's second uncle was wearing his clothes and clothes, and he was holding a small tune, and he came to the store in a hurry, and when he came over, all the people who were talking about it enthusiastically all collectively silenced.

"What do you mean? Why don't I squeak when I come? Second Uncle Mei leaned against the tree and said with a smile, at first he didn't think about other aspects, and he didn't expect everyone to talk about the eight trigrams of the old Mei family.

When the people dispersed, an idle man in the village who had a good relationship with Second Uncle Mei in private pulled Second Uncle Mei aside to speak, and repeated everyone's words to Mei Tang as they were, and finally patted Mei Tang's shoulder with a headache and said, "How do you say your family is divided?" Give such a good well to Mrs. Xiucai! If this well is still yours, why are you still worried? The money isn't going to rain down on your house! ”

"Not really!" Mei Tang was also very confused, when he was born, Mao and Mei Laosu had already moved out of the Mei family's old house, at that time, the grandfather and grandmother were still there, and they had never heard of the sweet water coming out of the well in the old house, could it really be the help of immortals?

"What else can I do?" Mei Tang copied her hands and sighed angrily, "My eldest brother is gone, my sister-in-law and Sister Qiu are all unconscionable, my family provides them with food for many years, when they split up, money, food, and houses are all given, they are good, they turn their faces and don't recognize people, they don't take me and my mother in their eyes at all!" I sent water tofu to Daqiao and Furong's house, but I didn't send it to my mother, my heart is really black! All my family's food is fed for nothing! Erniu, you give a review, what is this called! ”

Erniu slapped his thigh, "It's also your Lao Mei family who is kind and polite!" If they had left people aside, they would have come to the door and beat them up! If they didn't have the well in your old house, they could make a lot of money! According to me, the money should be yours. ”

"No!" Mei Tang's healed foaming star flew sideways, and finally found a bosom friend, pulling Erniu and saying that he couldn't stop talking, "My eldest brother is gone, my sister-in-law is not the daughter-in-law of the old Mei family?" No matter how much money we make, it should be our Lao Mei family! Sister Qiu, what's the matter with a yellow-haired girl? The girl is not a member of the family, and when Sister Qiu gets married in the future, who cares about her as a lonely old woman? Don't you rely on my big cow and two cows to help her aunt? The woman just didn't know it! ”

Erniu listened to Mei Tang's reasoning for an hour with patience, and finally persuaded: "Your sister-in-law and Sister Qiu are like this, no matter what you do, all of you will say that you are bullying other people's orphans and widows." Why don't you ......" Erniu said a few words close to Mei Tang's ear.

Mei Tang's face showed hesitation.

Erniu waited for a long time and didn't see Mei Tang speak, so he was anxious, pushed Mei Tang, and said, "What's wrong?" What are you still hesitating about? Don't you always worry about having no money to provide matchmaking for the big cow? ”

Mei Tang crooked her mouth, pulled up the coat she was wearing, and muttered, "According to what you said, why don't you do it yourself?" "He's a lazy man, if he wants him to work hard to get rich, he'd rather be poor like that, besides, Jia and Sister Qiu earn money, he just uses his ideas to get this money into his own hands.

Erniu turned Mei Tang around and scolded him a few times in his heart, and finally said with a smile: "Where is the use of Second Brother Mei's efforts, you just need to figure out how your sister-in-law and niece make water tofu clearly, I earned money to give you a share of dry shares, and the second brother only needs to sit at home to collect money, is this a success?" ”

He hid aside and saw clearly, Mrs. Xiucai could sell five or six hundred copper plates a day, if she made more iron, she would definitely be able to sell more, and she didn't have to shout at the customers to buy it, if he didn't take it over, where would he be willing!

"Done!" Second Uncle Mei hurriedly agreed.

In the afternoon, Lin Zhun went home with the big seal, Sister Qiu and Zhang Yuxiu reviewed the words they learned today, and then went back to the house to record the accounts of these days, Sister Qiu used simplified Chinese characters and Arabic numerals, from the left is the date, the first column and the second column are the income of Douhuaer and water tofu, the next few columns are expenditures, there are capital expenditures and living expenses, and the final total item is surplus, in short, this is an account book that only Sister Qiu herself can understand.

After finishing the accounts, Jia and Li Ailian all had to get up in the middle of the night to grind beans and cook bean juice, so they went to bed early the night before, and their dinner was earlier than ordinary people. The door rang for Second Uncle Mei, and Mei Tang's loud voice came from the side of the door: "Sister Qiu, open the door!" ”

"What's the matter? Second uncle. Sister Qiu frowned, kept rummaging through the beans in the basket, picked out the soil grains and pebbles and threw them aside, and didn't move her belly.

Mei Tang tapped the door a few more times, "Sister Qiu, you open the door, I'll come in and pick up two buckets of water." ”

Sister Qiu's palm that threw the pebble paused in the air and asked, "Second uncle, why did you come to my house to fetch water?" "The two families are not close!

It took a long time for Mei Tang to speak: "Big cow and two cowhides, the well at home told them to pour dirty things into it, and the water can't be eaten for the past two days." Open the door quickly, I'll pick up two buckets of water and leave, your milk is still waiting to cook! ”

Fool the devil! Sister Qiu didn't believe it at all, the two families were so far apart, and there were wells in almost every yard in the village, even if the Mei family was of poor character, no one in the surrounding neighbors was willing to ask them to carry water, and the small river at the entrance of the village was full of water, no worse than the deep well water.

Sister Qiu walked over, and saw from the door that Mei Tang really had two empty buckets, so she opened the door for him, and Mei Tang looked around with a pair of eyes after entering the courtyard, and looked at the room with a long perspective. When she saw Sister Qiu's basket on the ground, Mei Tang asked in confusion: "Sister Qiu, what are you doing with the beans in the basket?" Drying beans? ”

Sister Qiu couldn't help laughing and nodded seriously, "Yes, it needs to be dried to be easy to use." "Mei Tang is a lazy person out of ten, except for the work in the field, he can't look at all the housework, otherwise he wouldn't ask such a funny question.

"So that's how you use this mill to grind beans?" Mei Tang pointed to the small mill in the courtyard and interrogated.

Sister Qiu was impatient, looked at the well in the courtyard and asked, "Second uncle, are you still picking up water?" ”

"Pick, pick!" Second Uncle Mei was angry, opened the manhole cover, and began to carry water, muttering angrily, "What the hell!" After earning two dollars, he turned his face and didn't recognize people, it's not a personal thing! ”

When Second Uncle Mei left with water, Jia came out of the small kitchen and asked, "What are you doing here?" Running so far to carry water? ”

"It's really just to carry water." Sister Qiu nodded, and whispered to Jia's family, "I guess it's a good job of our bean flowers, and it's the light that sticks to this well." ”

"Then he can't do it!" Jia Shi also bit Sister Qiu's ears softly, and finally the mother and mother looked at each other and smiled, wanting to "copy" their water tofu, but it was not so easy.

Before going to bed at night, Sister Qiu pulled Li Ailian and Zhang Yuxiu, and solemnly took 150 copper plates to Li Ailian, "Auntie, this is the salary I paid you, let's have a good idea in the future, your salary will go up!" ”

Li Ailian's heavy copper coin in her hand was taken aback, "No, I'm here to help you, where can I ask for a salary?" Aren't you all in charge of eating and living? Besides, you are still in debt, so it is important to pay the money early. ”

Sister Qiu smiled and said, "Auntie, you have this money, where can I ask my mother and I to make you work in vain?" Even if you use such money to hire people, you can't hire your aunt to work so hard for our good! Besides, doesn't my brother Qian spend any money to study? ”

After hearing the last sentence, Li Ailian accepted the money a little recklessly, at first she wanted to help her sister leave in two days, but the idea was getting better and better, Sister Qiu gave her a generous salary and good food, so she had the idea of continuing to work.

Erniu and Mei Tang didn't sleep all night after the water, and quietly touched Sister Qiu's house in the middle of the night, padd a broken long pestle to the eaves of the wall, and watched the whole process of Jia Shi and Li Ailian's grinding tofu with dew intently, and didn't dare to blink at all, for fear of missing the important steps.

"These beans are soaked." Erniu said to himself, if a few beans are crushed, they can't be broken with a stone.

Second Uncle Mei said on the side: "Isn't it? In the afternoon, I went to fetch water, and I saw that Sister Qiu's Nizi was drying the beans, and said that the beans were dried to be easy to use! ”

Erniu turned his face and looked at Second Uncle Mei's father, he couldn't see what kind of expression Mei Tang had on his face when the light was blind, and he wanted to ask him, "Sister Qiu told you to jump into the well, do you want to go?" "Then I thought about it and put up with it.

When Jia Shi and Li Ailian grinded the bean juice, the two of them carried the big bucket of bean juice to the small kitchen, and the two of them on the eaves of the wall couldn't see the situation in the small kitchen, just as the two were about to go back, they watched Sister Qiu come out of the house and enter the small kitchen, and after a while, a pot of snow-white bean curd came out of the house and rested in the courtyard to suppress the water tofu.

Erniu observed the general process, and he had a spectrum in his heart, he had also tried to make water tofu before, and there was still a bottle of salt brine at home, but the water tofu made was not delicious, so it naturally could not be sold for money. Now he sees that the water tofu made by Jia and Sister Qiu is nothing special, and there are two barrels of magical "deep well water", and he firmly believes that he can also make delicious water tofu by himself. At that time, he will give Mei Tang, who has no brains and no roots, two ideas, and this well will belong to him!

Sister Qiu still only soaked 30 catties of beans, 20 catties of beans, and 10 catties of tofu. Yesterday, Dayin and the donkey caught the small river fish and small green shrimp to her spread on a broken grass mat to dry, and in the evening it was withdrawn to the house, not all dry, Sister Qiu caught the small river fish and small green shrimp, chopped it with a kitchen knife, and put it in a bowl, ready to sell the bean curd when she sprinkled a pinch to enhance the taste.

Today's bean curd is as popular as ever, and the water tofu has sold a lot more than yesterday. When it was time to close the stall, Sister Qiu cut a piece of water tofu and wrapped it in leaves as usual, ready to give it to her uncle.

Sister Qiu talked to Jia's and ran to Li Zhongquan's shop. Behind her back, Li Ailian sighed to Jia's family: "You are a blessed child, Sister Qiu, this child is smart and capable, not to mention, the important thing is that her heart is clear, she knows everything, she knows who is good to her!" "There are a lot of girls with active brains, but what is difficult is that Sister Qiu has a grateful heart.

Sister Qiu sweated a little, and ran away with the water tofu, in fact, she was not very happy to go to her uncle's house, if she didn't like her uncle's father and mother Tian. Tian's person is not bad, in essence, he has no bad intentions, and compared with Aunt Mei, who wants to sell her, they are all bodhisattvas, but Tian's is sour and stingy, every time Sister Qiu goes to send water tofu, Tian's appearance is very polite, in fact, his eyes clearly write: You owe us too much, what is it to give us these water tofu? You have taken advantage of us, and we have suffered a lot of losses......

When I arrived at the door of Li Zhongquan's store, it was just in time for the students of Tingfeng Academy to get out of class, and there were 30 students who came to buy pastries and berries in less than a moment, and the small shop was crowded. Sister Qiu stood outside and observed for a while, these Xu students were all dressed in makeup, although they were clean and neat, but the clothes were not very good, she remembered that Li Zhongquan had said that the students who came to buy pastries and berries were all quite a little bit of family background, lazy to cook by themselves, and most of the students from ordinary families could only line up in the small kitchen behind the college to cook by themselves with a few large rice stoves.

Pastries and berries taste sweet and greasy, they can only be eaten as snacks, and they can't be eaten enough when they eat a meal, especially when most of these Xu students are teenagers, just when they can eat and grow their bodies. If you steam dozens of pancakes every day and sell them at the gate of the college, especially for these students, you will definitely not be able to sell them!

The more Sister Qiu thinks about it, the more she feels that this idea is feasible, thinking that when she was out of school, the food stalls next to the school were all crowded, and the stall owners of the food stalls made more money than the urban white-collar workers in the city office buildings, and only sold for this moment, a penny for a pancake, a spoonful of vegetables, and more people would buy it if it was not expensive, and there would definitely be more people to buy it, and there were hundreds of students in Tingfeng College, even if half of them were from wealthy families and brought their own families to serve meals, there were 50 students who needed to eat, and it was at least 150 cents, The cost can be 70 cents, although it is not as much as selling bean curd, but it is extremely good to sell such a moment a day.

"Sister Qiu, why did you send water tofu again?" Li Zhongquan was done, and when he came out of the store, he looked at Sister Qiu, and said in a loud voice, "Isn't it necessary to send it after you say it?" Leave you to eat with your mother. ”

"There's a lot left, enough for us to eat." Sister Qiu said with a smile, handed the water tofu to Tian who came out of the store, and asked, "Uncle, are you busy for a while at noon?" ”

Li Zhongquan nodded, "These students come and go quickly, buy a bag of pastries and leave." ”

"Then they will eat some hearts at noon and not eat?" Sister Qiu asked tentatively.

"I'm still eating, I can't eat enough just to eat a little heart." Li Zhongquan said with a smile, "Such a big half-grown child is the most prone to hunger, and there are many people queuing up to cook rice on the stove after this work, and they also buy some things to cushion the bottom first." ”

Sister Qiu nodded, hesitated, and looked at Li Zhongquan's shop again.

Li Zhongquan looked at Sister Qiu's appearance that she had something to say, and couldn't help but smile and said, "What's wrong?" Is there anything I can't say to my uncle? ”