After eating a few times, they started thinking about it and came to support the business.
They couldn’t help but support it—there was only so much in the bowl, and it wouldn’t be right to just sit down and eat at their place.
Lu Liu and Shun Ge were shy. They kept talking, and before they knew it, they might have actually eaten for free. Chen Guizhi waited outside, so they couldn’t eat without paying. They all bought a pound or two to eat.
Lu Liu saw that mushroom sauce sold well in the village. At night, he’d fill the basin to soak mushrooms, then swing the spatula fiercely the next day until sparks flew. He was incredibly driven.
Shun Ge’er told him, “I heard from Brother An that other households are trying to make sauce too.”
Brother An was Yao An Yao Fulang.
Lu Liu had heard about it too, but it didn’t matter.
Just one or two families—it wouldn’t amount to much.
Just like now, every household in the village had mountain goods and could collect them, but no one’s place was as bustling as theirs.
Li Feng took a break to check on them and said, “Next time I go to the county seat, I’ll have the blacksmith make us a big pot and a big spatula. The pots we use at home are too small. Stir-frying batch after batch is wearing you both out.”
Lu Liu wiped his sweat. Stir-frying sauce in the small pot was painfully slow, yielding just over three pounds at a time. The small batch meant endless flipping with the spatula.
He was trying to speed things up, using both pots simultaneously, stir-frying sauce with both hands on the stove.
Li Feng, stronger, took over whenever he could, leaving seasoning adjustments to Lu Liu while he focused on the frying.
Not only was the daily frying exhausting, but the stuffy kitchen left them gasping for fresh air.
Lu Liu knew iron was expensive. The business had just started, and they hadn’t made any silver yet. He didn’t want to spend money now. He discussed with Li Feng, “We’ll just work hard for a few days here. After Brother tastes it, we’ll see if this sauce sells well. If it sells well, Brother will pay us for the goods. Once we get the silver, we can buy the pot. What do you think?”
Selling the sauce meant waiting for the silver before accounting for expenses, and their household wasn’t flush with cash.
Lately, the costs of sourcing goods had been high, and they hadn’t recouped their investments anywhere yet. While the home seemed bustling with activity, they were actually subsidizing everything out of pocket.
Once the payment settled and they had a bit more breathing room, they could consider other things.
Li Feng kept a close eye on the silver. Lately, more people had been coming to sell mountain goods.
Their little shop stayed open. Mushroom sauce sizzled in the wok. Mountain goods piled up. The tools for pounding rice cakes had been moved in. The whole family was bustling with purpose, each member busy at work.
Visitors who came to their home gathered in groups to chat. Seeing the family spinning around in a whirlwind of activity, they couldn’t sit still.
Other goods weren’t in season yet, but every household had mountain produce. They pulled theirs out to sort and sun-dry.
The poorer-quality items, damaged ones, were kept for their own consumption. The best-looking ones were brought out to sell.
Lu Liu and Shun Ge’er were tied up in the kitchen, so Chen Guizhi handled the mountain goods outside while keeping an eye on the small shop. She’d dash off now and then to fetch liquor or sell salt.
Li Feng was busy too. He’d swap shifts with Lu Liu so she could take a break, then hurry back to build rabbit hutches in the backyard.
The rabbit hutch was large, built as a double-layered structure between the livestock shed and the courtyard wall, covering more ground than the shed itself.
To ensure the rabbits thrived, Li Feng constructed the hutch with earthen bricks to shield them from wind and heat, tending to every detail.
For the long rabbit enclosure, he used thin bamboo poles tied with straw rope to create partitions for convenience. Multiple partitions meant multiple nests, and they were easy to remove.
Currently, the young rabbits shared one nest, the does another, and the bucks meant for sale occupied a separate one. A small partition was reserved for breeding.
Their rabbit population was modest: two does, three bucks, and five young rabbits.
Lu Liu kept them all in excellent health. No sickly, listless rabbits had appeared yet, and the sight was heartening.
With the front house and backyard to tend, all four family members were spinning like tops.
Er Tian and Wang Dongmei heard the news and brought ten eggs over to visit.
Though they claimed to be seeing the mother, they were actually snooping around the entire yard.
They inspected the little shop, peeked into the kitchen where soy sauce was being stir-fried, and visited the rabbits in the back yard. But the mountain goods drying in the front yard? They didn’t bother looking at those.
This couple, having just gone through the division of property, hadn’t even started plowing the fields yet. They’d lived in the big house for a few comfortable days before returning to the Wang family, where they were comforted and coaxed, finding a new anchor.
After all, even after the division, they were still mother and son, brother and brother. As long as they didn’t openly break ties, they were still family. Since they were family, what was wrong with them coming to ask for a meal?
Chen Guizhi didn’t mince words, putting them to work.
The mountain goods in the front yard needed weighing and sorting.
They were still stir-frying sauce at home, and the soaked mushrooms had to be washed.
They had to be washed thoroughly, no sand left behind—it would crunch between teeth, and customers wouldn’t buy again!
They weren’t allowed to handle the meat; the small shop was only for viewing. Everything behind the shelves was locked up.
The shelves were custom-made long tables by Li Feng, secured with nails and locks between them and the wall.
To get past them, one would have to climb the tables—not a pretty sight.
The two came seeking a meal, working diligently without complaint.
Lu Liu saw they seemed honest enough. After stir-frying sauce for two straight days until his arms ached, he sent for Er Tian to take over.
Er Tian was a man, used to manual labor in the fields, strong and capable.
He glared at Lu Liu, who was puzzled: “What’s wrong? Didn’t you come to work?”
Er Tian stomped off in a huff.
Stir-frying the sauce was exhausting, hardly any easier than farming.
Lu Liu had to supervise the process. Each ingredient had its own sequence—the diced meat and mushrooms were prepped beforehand, added one by one. The soybean paste was used as if it cost nothing, ladled in by the spoonful.
Their soybean paste was cheaper than the one Lu Yang used, lacking both the rich aroma and sufficient saltiness. Lu Liu devised a workaround: he pre-treated the paste using a rather crude method. He added water and salt to the paste, simmered it until it boiled, making it salty. Stir-frying it in the large pot allowed the other ingredients to absorb the saltiness, resulting in a decent flavor.
He tasted it and found it differed slightly from his brother’s rich, savory-salty flavor—overall, it was fresher. The saltiness was decent enough to go well with rice, and it had that satisfying craving-inducing kick that made you want another bite.
If you really want to pinpoint the difference, it comes down to personal preference—whether you prefer a saltier, savory flavor or a fresher, more aromatic one.
On his first day stir-frying the bean paste, Er Tian was quite frustrated.
By the second day, he was all smiles. While stir-frying, he kept chatting with Lu Liu, trying to get him to spill the beans.
Lu Liu added seasonings while prepping ingredients.
With crowds and prying eyes during the day, he handled ingredients at night, using the stir-fried sauce by day. Even simmering sauce for extra flavor was done overnight, kept warm on the stove.
Knowing the sequence was pointless, Er Tian worked with vigor, so Shun Ge kept assigning him sauce-stirring tasks.
Seeing this, Shun followed suit, sending Wang Dongmei to dice mushrooms.
With helpers at work, Lu Liu freed up his hands. He took the opportunity to feed the rabbits, observing their growth and health.
Of course, he was a fair father. Whenever he checked on the rabbits, he’d first visit Erhuang and play with him briefly.
When he had a bit more free time, he’d sit in the small shop, bring a basin of water, and do a little cleaning—wiping down whatever he could manage.
This hardly counted as rest. Only when Chen Guizhi called him outside to talk did he drag over a small stool to help sort mountain goods, the two of them sitting together chatting.
Chen Guizhi asked him, “Do you think Er Tian and his wife work efficiently?”
Lu Liu nodded. “They’re great. They’ve really lightened my load.”
Chen Guizhi pressed further, “Would you consider hiring them as helpers?”
Lu Liu’s eyes widened.
Of course he didn’t!
This couple worked with ulterior motives—they were clearly learning the soy sauce stir-frying technique. Their busyness was fake. He could tolerate using them for short-term help, but hiring them long-term meant they’d eventually steal his trade secrets. No way.
But if Mother asked this, did it mean she’d softened?
Lu Liu murmured his resistance: “Not really.”
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