It wasn't until it was completely dark that Mrs. Wang and the three of them came out of Mrs. Shen's yard. When shopkeeper Liu saw no one around, he said, "Wang Cuihua, why are you doing this? You even have to pay for it for a month."
"I was so angry and uncomfortable that I didn't close my mouth for a while. I felt aggrieved at the moment." Mrs. Wang said as she walked: "Madam, it's just a matter of asking for help from everywhere because of my master's imprisonment. That's all. There is a lot of business, and none of it is supported by my wife. For a long time, I didn’t ask how my wife was, but I asked the little bitch carefully. I just said it on purpose to make the master know something."
Mrs. Liu said: "My good sister, you are too courageous. Don't do this again next time. If this is true, you will be punished. It's not like you don't know the man, even the wife Look away. Look, the cousin is now as black and ugly as a village woman. Even though the old lady and the second master are there to support her, it’s not like you don’t know what’s going on in that house.”
The three of them were walking and talking. Fireworks hurried over from the front and said, "Grandma Wang, Grandma Liu and Shopkeeper Liu, it's too late now. All the leftovers in the chef have been removed. I asked Chef Li to use them today." Make some dishes with the leftover fresh fish and shrimp scraps.”
Shopkeeper Liu scratched his head and said with a smile: "Okay, Old Man Li's craftsmanship is unique in Huzhou. My wife specially brought it from Huzhou to the capital. I have to try it today."
The kitchen of the Shen family is very large, a long bungalow. The door curtain of the east wing has been rolled up. Chef Li is walking out rubbing his hands and shouting to them: "The food is on the table, hurry up and eat."
There were full of vegetable bowls on the small square table. The maid in the kitchen next to it brought a basin and said: "I'll put the noodle soup in it first, otherwise it will stick together after a long time."
Mrs. Wang smiled and said, "Thank you so much, Miss Xichun. We are hungry, so it's just right to order some noodles for the pillow. By the way, I'll leave your sister Yayu at An's house today."
The noodle soup is made with fish soup as a base, and is cooked with bamboo shoots, pickles and fish fillets. The fish meat is smooth and tender, and the pickles are salty and fresh. The three of them ate it very happily. After eating a bowl full of noodle soup, they were already very hungry. Only then did the three of them regain their composure and began to eat the food, chatting while eating. Xichun also moved a chair to sit with them and chat.
"Try this pot of shrimps and fish rolled in tofu. Today there are several baskets of fish and shrimps in the kitchen. There are all kinds of leftovers, so just sauté the shrimps and fish in autumn oil, add ham slices and garlic Rolled together with tofu, it's very fresh." Xichun said while picking up vegetables for several people: "I said this plate of stick fish is deep-fried. Old Li Tou said that the stick fish has thick meat and tastes bad when fried. , just add some ginger slices and steam it, then I mixed some plum sauce and ate it as a dip."
Mrs. Liu ate slowly: "Speaking of this, Lao Li's cooking is really good. I thought of my cousin, eating the lion's head made by Lao Li's head. She disliked the lion's head as big as a fist and looked indecent, so she insisted on changing it to The small dumplings in one bite made Old Li so angry that he wanted to go back to his hometown. Now, he can eat four of these country cakes in one sitting. Tsk, tsk, tsk."
"Isn't that right? Back then, the delicate rice only ate green stem rice. Ordinary rice would scratch the throat. The master really believed this and even had a quarrel with his wife over this matter." Mrs. Wang took a bite of the fish and drank again. That soup, "This soup is very fresh. If there is rice, I can eat several bowls of it while soaking in the soup."
Chef Li put a bowl of rice in front of Mrs. Wang and said, "I knew you wanted to eat, so I left a bowl for you. Others who have no food can eat the noodles."
"Hey, you are taking care of Wang Cuihua like this. The two of us will have no food." Mrs. Liu said jokingly: "No, you can't treat one person favorably. I will share half of the food."
"Hey, hey, who doesn't know that I love rice? I don't think I've ever eaten it without eating. Just eat the noodles, don't you like noodles?" Mrs. Wang smiled and covered the rice bowl with one hand, and pushed Mrs. Liu away with the other. Stretched hand.
Shopkeeper Liu also smiled and said: "Okay, okay. Let's eat these noodles. Lao Li Tou's craftsmanship is really good. The noodle soup is rich and fresh, and the fish meat is not loose. I had a wedding banquet last month. , there is also a noodle soup made of fish on the table. Compared with this, the soup is thin and the fish is scattered."
Old Li Tou took a sip of tea and said leisurely: "This soup base is made from the bones of a big snakeheaded fish. Today at noon, Madam wants to drink fish soup. I used the body bones of three three-pound snakeheaded fish early in the morning. Fry and boil again. Strain the soup. The fish soup will be spoiled tomorrow. I sliced the remaining fish fillets, simmered them until cooked, and rolled the dough slices separately before putting them together."
"As expected, you are very particular about your craftsmanship. My wife can't stop praising you. But my cousin is still picky." Shopkeeper Liu said.
Mrs. Liu laughed and said: "It's really flattering to call me cousin. Who doesn't know that the old lady's maiden name is Yao, and this cousin is also a cousin of the Yao family in northern Jiangsu. They are all distant relatives to the Shen family, where are they from? My cousin. It was just the old lady who called for the disgusting lady. The family is so poor. They almost come in naked and pretend to be a eldest lady, so the master is just a treasure."
"I heard that you went to see the master in prison today. Did the master ask about this cousin?" Xichun asked.
"I asked. I asked carefully. How are the medicines, how are the food and clothing expenses?" Mrs. Wang sneered.
"You are just too impulsive." Shopkeeper Liu said: "It was the same back then. Why was the old lady caught in the wrong place and sent to the village? Isn't it because you couldn't hold it in anymore?"
"That's because the old lady and that little bitch set up a buckle." Mrs. Wang raised her voice angrily, and then lost her temper again: "It's my fault that I can't hold myself still, so I managed to get into such a stupid buckle."
"But you have survived in the village these past few years. Don't worry, that cousin will not have a good life in the village I manage." Mrs. Liu poured the fish soup on the rice for Mrs. Wang.
"Then what will we do when the master comes back? Then we will have to quarrel with the wife again. Besides, the cousin is having troubles, so I'm afraid it won't end well." Xichun said worriedly.
"I don't know when I will come back, maybe three to five years. If I come back, there are many ways to do it. It's not like you don't know how confused I am. I told the truth in prison, and I didn't tell any lies. That means If a girl is weak in energy and blood, she should exercise more to be strong. This is what the doctor at Huichun Hall said. The village is also Biao's mother's favorite. It is picturesque and she happens to be active in the fields. The food and clothing expenses are compared to those in the mansion. They were all sent to Zhuangzi. They were all sent away if they were not needed." After Mrs. Wang said this, she took a mouthful of rice soaked in fish soup and was extremely satisfied.
Mrs. Liu smiled and said, "Xichun, you think it's ridiculous, don't you? It's just too confusing."
Xichun nodded and said: "This is too confusing, I am not stupid."
Shopkeeper Liu smiled and said, "Little girl, think about why Granny Wang was caught in the wrong position by the old lady before?"
Mrs. Wang looked at Shopkeeper Liu with a disheveled look on her face. Shopkeeper Liu smiled and shook her head, making Mrs. Wang violently chop the rice.
"I remember it was the winter three years ago, and my cousin had been suffering from cold for a long time. The old lady first blamed her for not hiring a good doctor, and then she blamed her for not using good medicine. Doctor Hu used her own medicine here. They were caught in the store, and the recipes were all there, so the master couldn’t say anything. Later, the old lady grabbed the little girl who was cooking the medicine, and said that she didn’t cook it for half an hour intentionally. The little girl later confessed that it was Wang It was the mother-in-law's instigation. The old lady wanted to beat Granny Wang with twenty sticks and then sell her. It was only after the madam found someone to buy Granny Wang and sent her to a village in Jiangbei that she escaped."
"Do you think this buckle is done cleverly?" Shopkeeper Liu motioned to Xichun to continue.
"It's so ridiculous. We all think that the master is out of his mind. The girl who cooked the medicine has only been in the house for half a month, and she went to serve her cousin as soon as she came. How could she listen to Granny Wang? Besides, The decoction is always watched by two maids, and no maid has ever looked at the whole medicine stove by herself, which is against the rules. If she throws something into the medicine stove, who can know."
"Look, this truth is simple and clear. Don't you still believe it?"
Xichun nodded and said, "My master's idea is really strange."
Shopkeeper Liu said: "Actually, Miss Cousin and the old lady have done quite a few tricks. What Liu Wuniang encountered is even more tricky than this."
Xichun said in surprise: "Has Grandma Liu encountered her too? I haven't heard of it."
Mrs. Liu said with a smile: "I guess the cousin and the old lady spent a lot of money and brains on what I encountered. I was in charge of purchasing clothes for the four seasons in the house. The cousin was very weak and kept talking about being cold all day long. I The people checked the cousin's clothes and found out that the amount of silk in the cousin's jacket was too little, so it was not warm, which made the cousin suffer from the cold. Then they took me to be interrogated. The account for buying silk floss and the account assigned to the sewing room were all taken out. Several kilograms of silk floss were bought for the whole house. Ten kilograms were distributed to the cousin, and two kilograms were used for making clothes. Where were the two kilograms used? There are records in the sewing room on several pieces of clothing. Two maids must come to pick up the clothes for my cousin. The design, material and weight are recorded in the booklet, and the two maids must sign it. "
"My God, even the clothes are weighed." Xichun said in surprise.
"You don't know that the person in charge of the items in the warehouse will record everything that can be recorded. Clothes in winter must be weighed especially, woolen clothes, furs, clothes made of gold, bedding, etc., must be recorded in detail."
"Then the old lady and the others have nothing to say, right?"
"No. The old lady asked someone to dismantle Cousin Jiang's thin yellow satin jacket. When she opened it, it was filled with old cotton wool. The weight was correct, but the cotton wool was old. At that time, the master was about to call someone. Drag me down. Fortunately, my wife is here. She called all twelve people in the sewing room and explained the rules of our sewing room. The old lady's face turned green."
"What are the rules? Is our sewing room different from other houses?"
"It's different. Generally, everyone in the sewing room of a house makes one piece of clothing by one person. After Madam arrived at Shen's house, the sewing room was changed. That piece of clothing is divided into more than a dozen processes, and each person only needs to Make this part of the dress. You see, the fabric of this jacket was cut by Zhang San, and the embroidery on the cuffs and collar was done by Wang Wu. The stuffing and stitching required two people, Li Si and Zhang San, and I finished it all. Only after seeing that there is no problem can it be sent to each room. So either all the people in the sewing room did it together and replaced the silk floss used to hold the cousin's coat. The master himself thought that it was impossible, and a silk floss used to hold the coat was needed. Three or four taels, less than one tael of silver together, how could it be possible for more than ten people in the sewing room to collude for one tael of silver. Later, the lady ordered all the cousin's newly made clothes to be dismantled, and only that one was old cotton. , and then let the people on the sewing thread look at the stitches, and the jacket had been dismantled and sewn. Madam tied up all the maids around my cousin and sent them to the court."
"Madam is so smart. How could she have thought of this in advance?"
Shopkeeper Liu burped and said: "Madam is very talented in business. Not only the sewing room in the house, but also the tailor shop in Madam's dowry, all have this process. This makes it faster. You only do one thing every day. Things are naturally fast and good. If you are cutting clothes and embroidering, it will naturally be slow. The ready-made garment shop has hired twenty female workers. It can produce three hundred pieces of ordinary spring and autumn clothes a month, and hundreds of autumn and winter thin coats. . Ordinary ready-to-wear stores can’t even produce half the quantity. And this way the price and cost of each piece will come down.”
"Shopkeeper Liu really talks about business. Fortunately, the old lady, the second master, and the cousin have all moved out now. Otherwise, this house would be in a mess, and we would be in fear every day. By the way, shopkeeper Liu, the old lady, and the second cousin have all moved out. Can you please stay in Xiaohe Town? I heard that there was a lot of trouble in the shop that day."
"Second Master is very willing. The house provides good food and drink, and the lady also gave Chunhui Pavilion a large sum of money, and there are female prostitutes to serve her every day."
"Ah, it's so annoying to spend so much money for that second master. Back then, the second master took all the money away." Xichun said angrily.
"Then what can we do? It's not like you don't know the master." After finishing her meal, Mrs. Wang lay back and said, "Let's just follow my wife."
