Guangzhou is thousands of miles away from the capital, so it is naturally impossible to have a reply on the eighth day of ten days, so Shuning had to settle down and wait.

Tong's family has been out of confinement and is in good health, but he is busy managing housework, taking care of his younger son, and making friends with various officials, which can be said to be very busy.

After Wang Ruibao and his wife left, Changfu and Zhou Lin did things less controllably, which was naturally much more convenient, but the second sister-in-law was not there, and Tong still felt a little unaccustomed to it.

It was at this time that Shuning proposed to be responsible for part of the housework and share her mother's worries. Although Tong felt that his daughter was still too young, he couldn't twist her filial piety, so he finally agreed to hand over the food room to her.

There are three large rooms on the kitchen side, including a kitchen, a firewood room, and a food room. In addition to various ingredients such as rice, noodles, meat and vegetables, this room also has clean dishes, cups and plates. Shuning's mission is to manage this place.

This task is not heavy, but things are very trivial, and Tong Shi originally handed over this matter to her under the calculation of giving her daughter primary training in housekeeping management.

According to the custom, Shu Ning only needs to go to the food room in the morning and watch the people take the ingredients for the day, and then make sure that the dishes used are clean and appropriate before the meal, and after the meal, the people wash the dishes, and then make sure that they are indeed clean and have not broken any of them, and when everything is put away, she can leave.

In addition, it is necessary to check every day that the high-quality porcelain tableware in a locked cabinet has not been lost or damaged, whether there are any leftover ingredients for the day, and what needs to be added for the next day; Every two or three days, count whether the tableware used on weekdays has decreased, and whether the rice and noodle seasoning needs to be replenished. And so on and so forth.

However, with the help of other servants, and the ability to ask the Tong family for advice at any time, Shuning quickly got started. Not only did she get started, but she also made some small changes to the place.

She found that all the dishes were washed and dried with a cloth and put them in the cupboard. Although the dishwasher claimed that the cloth was clean, Shuning couldn't believe the gray water marks on it, not to mention that all the dishes and chopsticks had not been disinfected before eating. Thinking that she had used to eat with such dubious cleanliness utensils, she couldn't help but want to vomit.

So she asked someone to go to the back garden to cut two bamboos, cut them into thin strips, weave more than ten rectangular bamboo baskets, and weave four small feet at the bottom of the basket, wash and dry, and put the washed dishes and chopsticks on the top sparsely, so that the water slowly flows to the bottom of the basket and flows out again. Wait until the dishes are dry before putting them in the cupboard. While waiting, all baskets should be covered with a clean white cloth to prevent dust from falling in. These cloths have to be washed once a day, so I prepared two copies and used them separately.

Before each meal, she had to supervise the servants who served the dishes, and scalded all the dishes and chopsticks with boiling water before using them to fill the food.

In the beginning, people who worked in the kitchen were very unaccustomed to it, and privately complained that it was redundant and had nothing to do. After Tong heard about it, he also asked Shuning. Shuning couldn't explain the bacteria and other problems to the ancient people, so she had to tell Tong that the Lingnan area was humid and rainy, prone to miasma, and the water was not clean.

Tong was suspicious, but it was related to the health of his youngest son, so he ordered his subordinates to obey Shuning's command.

Most of those servants came to the third room after their family arrived in the capital, and they didn't take the quiet Shuning in their eyes originally. But after a long time, they all found that the status of the third girl in the third room was no worse than that of the second girl in the capital in the mansion, and even the old lady was willing to listen to her opinion, so they gradually put away their contemptuous thoughts, and because Shuning was stable and generous, they began to have real respect for her.

Shuning soon discovered that there was a big benefit to managing the food room. This room is connected to the kitchen, and she can clearly see Ah Yin and Chun Xing cooking in it. So she stayed in this room except for doing needlework, reading, practicing calligraphy, and accompanying her mother and brother every day. On the one hand, it is to do his job well, and on the other hand, it is to get along with Ah Yin more.

When she talked to Ah Yin, because the other party could only speak a little Mandarin, she followed to learn some Cantonese and then used it to communicate with Ah Yin. Children learn everything quickly, and even more so when they learn languages. Shuning gradually can talk to Ah Yin in Cantonese that is not salty or light.

In this way, if she has any ideas about diet, she can directly talk to Ah Yin. Ah Yin will think that she has already learned or seen it, and will not be suspicious; Others, on the other hand, would think that the cooking knowledge she knew was taught to her by Ah Yin, and when they talked, it was actually Shu Ning who was asking Ah Yin for advice.

This can be said to be a beautiful misunderstanding, and it can also be said to be Shuning's little trick. She believes that even if she comes up with any modern dishes in the future, her family will not be suspicious.

Shuning quietly implemented her little plan, and the days passed day by day. Soon, the Chinese New Year will be coming.

The whole family was preparing for the first New Year after arriving in Guangzhou, and the Tong family had already inquired about the rules of the past year from other official wives in advance, and learned some local customs from Ah Yin Adi, and was determined to do it better.

The closer the New Year gets, Zhang Bao finds that there are more and more people who give gifts to himself, and the things he gives are still very valuable, porcelain and silk are nothing, and there are still people who give all kinds of Western items and pearls and gems. He didn't know it at first, but when he took it and looked at it, he was startled, discussed it with Mr. Su, and went to ask Su Tongju for advice.

Su Tongju told him that other officials were like this, and everyone would accept it, so let Zhang Bao accept it. He said: "Most of the people who gave these things were wealthy local merchants, and most of them were compradors of the Thirteen Banks, or merchants attached to them. They purchased goods for Western merchants, had their own business, and had at least tens of thousands of taels of income every year, and hundreds of thousands of taels at most. These gifts look expensive, but in fact, they will spend hundreds of taels at most, and a thousand taels is considered to be the sky, compared to the money earned in business, it is only a drop in the penny. We have worked hard for a year, and we should get some benefits. ”

Zhang Bao was still a little uneasy: "But this gift is too valuable, they gave us these, shouldn't it be a request?" ”

Su Tongju smiled and said, "What can you ask for?" It's just to ask for peace of mind, and I hope that the yamen everywhere will not take too much trouble against them, and don't make more difficulties on weekdays, and the most important thing is to keep their comprador position. You must know that inside and outside the city of Guangzhou, together with the nearby Panyu, Nanhai, and Foshan, there are more famous businessmen, not to mention the big businessmen in other provinces. That's a big mouthful. As long as we don't harass them, we can accept these filial piety with peace of mind. ”

Zhang Bao understood, so he thanked Su Tong and resigned. After coming back, he smiled and said to Mr. Su: "In this way, it is similar to the property that the people below respected when I was in Fengtian City in the past, but the value has increased several times. ”

Mr. Su smiled and said: "Everyone thinks that the official position in Jiangnan is fat, but I never thought that this Guangzhou city is also so rich." It's ridiculous that when adults had this shortage, some people sympathized with adults, saying that in this remote place, there was no oil and water to fish. ”

Zhang Baodao: "That's their ignorance, all trade ports are rich places." However, the sea ban has only been reopened for a few years, and local officials have only received these goods in recent years, and probably the rumors have not yet spread to the interior of the Central Plains. ”

He looked at the gift box again, sighed and said, "That's it, I didn't want them to give it, and I won't help them do anything wrong just because I received the gift, I just accept it." ”

He divided the gift into three percent, except for one percent for Mr. Su, and the rest were distributed to the people of the Tongzhi Yamen, etc., so that everyone was naturally praised, and his reverence for him was a lot more.

Mr. Su was about to push it back, but when he saw Zhang Bao's insistence, he accepted it.

The remaining seventy percent of the property, Zhang Bao handed over all the property to the Tong family. Tong was also startled at first, and after listening to Zhang Bao's explanation, he personally took Su Yun to classify things and receive them in the warehouse on the second floor. The couple discussed for a night, and finally decided to put the things away first, and then slowly look for a reliable trader to take the things that were not needed in them to the provinces and sell them in exchange for silver.

With money in his hands, the Tong family is more confident, and the whole family has lived a very nourishing life this year.

Although Shuning didn't know that her parents had received a lot of valuable gifts, she also found that her family had become rich. On the antique shelves of the flower hall, there are a lot of precious porcelain; The new clothes made by his parents and his younger brother for the New Year are made from materials that are many times more beautiful than those I have seen before; Even the servants in the house have changed into new clothes. Changfu and Zhou Zhou Lin are wearing silk clothes, Su Yun, Qiaoyun and Chun Xing all have new jewelry, they can't put it down every day, and they show off to each other, Ah Yin, Ah Di and Ah Hua, although they didn't show it, they also wore a smile all day long, and they must have gained a lot of benefits.

Shuning was also worried, I don't know if Zhang Bao will do something to accept bribes, so she asked Mr. Su in private. Mr. Su said that there was no need to worry, the officials in the city were like this, and they were too incorruptible and unsociable. Shuning was still not at ease, and then asked Ah Song to go outside to inquire about the news.

Speaking of which, in their whole family, the fastest learner of Cantonese is not Shuning, but Ah Song, who is next to Mr. Su. Shuning had a foundation in her previous life, and now she can only speak a few words of half-salty local dialect, but Ah Song can already talk to people fluently.

Because he has such a skill, Mr. Su does not need him to be by his side on weekdays, but lets him wander around the tea shops outside to inquire about some local gossip.

Shuning heard from Ah Song that his father's official reputation in the city was fine, and the people in the city seemed to be accustomed to giving gifts for the New Year, so she was relieved. It's also a little funny to think back to her cranky thoughts, is it that after so many years of getting along, she still doesn't understand her father's personality? He will accept it if it is beneficial, but he does not dare to do anything wrong with the exploitation of the people and the collusion of officials and businessmen.

In a blink of an eye, it was the twenty-third day of the lunar month, which was the New Year, but the Lingnan people didn't seem to attach much importance to this day, so the Shuning family just celebrated casually. However, Ah Yin proposed to go home for the New Year, and Ah Hua Ah Di also resigned. Tong was very sorry, so he had to make an appointment with them to come back after the Lantern Festival.

Zhang Bao was going to have a holiday in the New Year, and he came back early with the things assigned by Changgui from above. Tong Shi looked, there is half a pig, half a sheep, rice, noodles each a stone, a large basket of melons, fruits and vegetables, but there are two bamboo baskets, I don't know what to load, I asked people to open a look, it turned out that one was a live fish, the other was a live shrimp.

Zhang Bao said with a smile: "This big winter is also rare, people here pay attention to eating fish for Chinese New Year's Eve, and ask for the auspicious meaning of 'more than every year', we have known this for a long time." But it's fresher to eat shrimp, so please cook it with your wife. ”

Tong ordered everyone to receive the ingredients in the kitchen, and Shuning wrote them down one by one, and began to think about what fresh dishes to eat during the New Year.