How were they supposed to eat now?
Li Feng was fuming again.
With the way things were going, he’d rather feed the meal to the dogs than let his second brother and his wife have a bite.
Chen Guizhi held him back. “Why get so worked up? Let them act out. When the time comes to split the household, no one can say I’m being unfair. I’m their mother, and I still have to watch their moods, let them walk all over me? Now I can’t even eat dinner in peace.”
Lu Liu grabbed his chopsticks and picked up four buns, stacking them into her bowl until the wide bowl could barely hold them.
Chen Guizhi looked at him.
He smiled and said, “Don’t be mad, Mom. Eat some buns. They’re really tasty!”
Chen Guizhi had no words for that.
Lu Liu had eaten a lot today. He’d had buns for breakfast. Normally, two would fill him up, but he had three and a half this time. He even picked up another one while chatting and nibbled on it, washing it down with tea until his belly was full. Li Feng finished the leftover half.
He wasn’t even hungry at lunch but still ate stewed veggies and flatbread. Later in the afternoon, Li Feng bought meat pies, and they shared those too.
He wasn’t hungry now, but seeing his mom holding Li Feng back, he chimed in to help ease the tension. “I’ll go whip up a quick dish. Won’t take long!”
The buns were the main dish tonight anyway. They weren’t the kind of food that kept well—if you didn’t eat them fresh, someone else might beat you to it.
Shun picked up on the tense mood and offered to help in the kitchen too.
This meal was basically ruined. Chen Guizhi turned to Lu Liu and said, “Sanmiao’s family brought over some mushrooms today. Since we’ve got buns, no need to stir-fry anything. Just wash the mushrooms, chop up a radish, and make a light veggie soup. You two have been out in the wind all day—you need something warm.”
Lu Liu agreed.
Shun followed him to the kitchen. There were still embers in the stove, so getting a fire going was easy. He stacked some wood and added dry straw to build it up.
Lu Liu picked out a big radish and chopped it into chunks. He gave it a quick stir-fry in oil, then added boiling water. The mushrooms he sliced up and tossed in to simmer with the radish.
Shun was already tired of radish and grumbled, “I’ve eaten so much of it, I fart radish.”
Lu Liu knew how he felt—but there was no way around it. This time of year, it was radish or cabbage. Anything better cost silver.
Soup was simple, though. A strong fire for ten or fifteen minutes, and the radish softened while the mushrooms released their umami. He added some salt and soy sauce, sliced up a couple scallions, sprinkled them on top—and it was ready.
Back in the main room, Li Feng had taken the kettle off the stove and replaced it with a wire rack. Chen Guizhi was toasting the buns on it.
Left out too long, the buns went cold, but when toasted, the bottoms turned golden and crispy. A bite gave a satisfying crunch—like rice crust, but lighter and flakier, with a delicious, wheaty aroma.
Normally they toasted slices of steamed buns, and that alone was enough to eat a whole bowl of plain rice with. But toasted meat buns? That was a first. The buns were thin-skinned, and Chen Guizhi flipped them often, chatting with Li Feng as they cooked.
She noticed the big wine jars on Li Feng’s mule cart—two of them, each holding at least forty or fifty pounds.
“Those from your brother too?”
Li Feng took the chance to tell her about the little liquor stand and general shop.
“There’s more goods strapped to the mule. I brought back some melon seeds, peanuts, and red dates. I didn’t take any walnuts—figured we can forage those ourselves from the mountains. Remember how you were talking about maybe starting a side hustle? If we can get sauces and oil from him too, think that could work?”
Chen Guizhi nodded. “Sure, it could work. We’d need the right connections. People travel thirty, forty li round-trip just for the market, and they mostly just buy rice, flour, oil, and salt—no need for much else. The idea’s sound, but the profit margins are razor-thin. Remember old Wang the peddler? He sold sewing kits and odds and ends. Looked busy, but even after a month, he’d only make a few hundred coins—not even as much as digging bamboo shoots in the mountains.”
Li Feng figured a few hundred a month was still worth it.
He thought maybe Lu Liu could help his mom, bring Shun along, and the three of them could manage together. All three were capable and quick on their feet—they’d get it done. Even small earnings could cover day-to-day expenses.
Old Wang had to supply the manpower himself. He didn’t dare stock up too much at once and ran back and forth to town constantly. They wouldn’t need that. Once the goods were in, he could set a regular schedule—two or three trips a month, or even just once if things went smoothly.
His mom could drive a cart too. When he and his brothers were younger, she used to borrow one to go to town herself. They could handle it. The only catch was that—for now—his mom couldn’t bump into Lu Yang.
So he’d do the runs for the first few months. He could also use the trips to bring Lu Liu to see Lu Yang. That’d work well for both sides.
By the time Lu Liu and Shun brought the soup to the table—bowls of mushroom and radish broth—the mother and son had already moved on to talking about stock variety and profit margins.
Most of the little things didn’t bring in much, but if you were going to sit at home anyway, you might as well lay them out. Every one or two coins earned was still something.
Mountain goods, though—that was the real earner. Chen Guizhi had sold wild goods before to support the family. She knew exactly how to prep them, what they were worth out there, and how the prices changed between selling them retail or to a shop. She had it all down pat.
Lu Liu was really generous—bringing buns and handing them out like candy. Just the buns alone must’ve cost over a hundred copper coins today. Then there was the wine, the dried goods, and everything else. All of it came through personal connections. For their family to get it—it was a favor.
Chen Guizhi thought to herself, If he doesn’t push down the price too hard when buying mountain goods, we can work together. But if he’s trying to use thin profits on his end to squeeze us for big gains—then forget it. I’m not doing that kind of business, no matter how chummy he pretends to be.
She glanced at Lu Liu. He was clearly stuffed—couldn’t even finish the meat buns. He picked the filling out and gave it to Li Feng, only nibbling on the bun skins himself.
Li Feng noticed. “You not craving the meat anymore?”
Lu Liu shook his head. He’d eaten way too much today.
There was meat in the stew too. Xie Yan’s knife skills were terrible but generous—there were big chunks of meat in that pot.
Three meals today, and every single one packed with meat—he’d overdone it.
Li Feng split a bun skin with him and turned to Chen Guizhi. “His older brother just opened that shop recently. Things have been hectic, but he said he’ll ask around these next few days. By the time I go back, we’ll be able to talk prices.”
Chen Guizhi responded without thinking, “What do you mean his older brother, his older brother all the time? You worse than Er Tian? Isn’t his brother your brother too? Is he the eldest or second brother? Just call him ‘big bro’ already.”
Li Feng: “…”
Lu Liu nearly snorted into his bowl, trying to hold back his laughter.
He knew Li Feng and Lu Yang didn’t get along. When they met earlier today, Lu Yang only let them call him “brother-in-law,” and didn’t even let Li Feng call him “brother.”
Now their mother was telling him to call him “big bro”?
Absolutely hilarious. Ha!
Li Feng didn’t respond. He just ignored it and moved on.
But something still puzzled Chen Guizhi. “Wait a minute. I’ve seen both Chen family sons before. They didn’t look like they could do much of anything. How’d they open a shop? Weren’t they just selling tofu?”
Li Feng gave a quick explanation. “It’s the brother from the county, same last name as Lu Liu—his surname’s Lu.”
Chen Guizhi asked, “What’s his name?”
Lu Liu had already stopped eating, but he didn’t dare lift his head.
Li Feng said, “Didn’t ask. He’s already married. That guy sticks to his wife like a baby chick to its mom. Couldn’t even have a normal conversation with him—he’s always hovering. No way I could’ve asked his name.”
Chen Guizhi turned and stared at Lu Liu. He pretended not to notice, still shoveling food into his mouth like he was starving.
Chen Guizhi: “…”
Forget it.
Going into town was a hassle anyway. She’d think it over some more.
“We still have to make rice cakes, don’t we? Just wait a bit—I need to figure out what goods we should bring in. I’ll go out for a few days too, make the rounds. Been so busy with rice cake prep, I haven’t had time to visit anyone lately.”
Lu Liu perked up the moment he heard “make the rounds”—he jumped in before Li Feng could answer. “Mom, I want to go with you!”
Chen Guizhi frowned. “What for? When I go visit people, I’m just chatting with other old women. You think you can join in those conversations?”
Lu Liu didn’t know if he could join or not—but if he went with his mom, no one could scold him.
That was the point. He didn’t need to talk—he was going to promote his little shop!
Chen Guizhi didn’t say anything more. Fine, go if you want. Once these next few busy days were over, every household would start prepping for the new year—cleaning, stocking up, tidying things up.
Their own house only had a couple days of work left. After that, it’d just be sitting in the sun, chatting idly, doing light needlework to pass the time.
After dinner, Lu Liu wasn’t asked to clean up.
Li Feng went to ask Chen Guizhi for some leather and asked if she had any hats or gloves already made.
Going by cost alone, two pairs of gloves and two hats to give Lu Yang would be more expensive than all those meat buns.
