Chapter 586: 163: Guidance (13 more updates)_1

After dinner, Zhou Danni and her husband, Lao Zhao, walked Ni Cuihua and her daughter Ni Yang, carrying Little Ni Yun, to the tram station.

Ni Yang was holding Little Ni Yun in her arms.

Ni Cuihua tightly held Zhou Danni’s hand, “Danni, whenever you have time, you need to come over with your brother-in-law and the children. You can take the number 9 tram and get off at Jinghua Village. Give us a call when you’re on your way, and I’ll meet you at the village entrance.”

Zhou Danni nodded, “We’re a bit occupied at the moment, but we’re definitely coming as soon as we get some free time!”

“I’ll be waiting at home for you all!”

Ni Cuihua reluctantly boarded the tram.

As they watched the tram slowly disappear into the night, Zhou Danni turned to Lao Zhao. “How did we do in business today?”

Lao Zhao sighed, “Not too good… Since the people of Beijing like eating steamed buns, that’s what we’ve been selling all these years.”

When they first started, business was good. But things went downhill recently, and it got to a point where they couldn’t even sell steamed buns worth one yuan a day.

They also had to pay 10 yuan every month as rent.

Zhou Danni expressed her worry as well. “What can we do? We have to pay the rent soon, and the kids need to go to school too. There are so many places we need to spend money.”

Lao Zhao said, “Don’t rush. Maybe tomorrow will be a better day.”

Zhou Danni suggested, “Do you think the problem lies with the market? What if you change your selling stall’s location tomorrow?”

Lao Zhao nodded in agreement.

The couple returned home, with their faces full of worry.

As soon as they got home, Xiaoshuang rushed over, grabbing their hands, “Mom and Dad, come and see! Aunt Daya and Sister Ni Yang brought over a lot of good stuff today!”

Given it was dark out, Zhou Danni didn’t really have a chance to see how much stuff Ni Cuihua and Ni Yang had brought. Only now she realised that they had indeed brought a lot of nice things.

There was malted milk and small chunks of beef.

The candies and biscuits had already been opened by the kids.

Zhou Danni also found two bottles of liquor.

Even when their family visited relatives for New Year, they could not afford to buy so many things!

Zhou Danni said, “Daya must have spent a lot today! She was too kind!”

Lao Zhao stared at the two bottles of liquor for a while before finally saying, “We should consider exchanging these two bottles of liquor for some money at the shop tomorrow; they’re worth thirty-five yuan. We don’t need a big profit; thirty yuan should be enough to pay the school fees and the rent.”

Even though this was slightly inappropriate, they had no other alternatives.

If they didn’t sell the liquor, their family of six would end up on the streets with the kids unable to afford school.

Zhou Danni was silent for a moment then nodded, “Alright. When we have money, we must thank Daya and her family properly.”

Lao Zhao nodded, “Definitely.”

The next day, Zhou Danni went to the shop and exchanged the two bottles of liquor for thirty yuan.

The regular selling price for these two bottles of liquor was thirty-five yuan.

The shopkeeper was more than happy to make this deal for thirty yuan.

They were relieved to finally have the money for the school fees and rent. Zhou Danni let out a sigh of relief.

After hearing Zhou Danni’s idea, Lao Zhao changed his selling spot today, continuing to sell from his stall.

As it was the inaugural day of the restaurant, at 11:30 a.m., Ni Yang arrived at the city market. She bought cigarettes, liquor, and prepared dishes, ready to treat everyone to a good meal.

She bought various meat dishes including braised beef, pig’s head meat, and tiger skin chicken feet.

People were in dire need of some decent nourishment at this point. Even if they ate a lot of meat, they wouldn’t feel greasy. Moreover, they were all performing manual labor and needed to restore their energy.

After buying the dishes, all she needed were the staple foods. Just then, Ni Yang spotted a vendor selling steamed buns.

Beijing people generally prefer wheat food, so Ni Yang steered her cart over and ordered, “Vendor, could I get fifty steamed buns please.”

There were eighteen workers in the restaurant.

A grown man could easily eat two to three steamed buns, so fifty steamed buns was really not that many.

Fifty steamed buns!

The Old Zhao, who had been originally hunched over eating his steamed bun, perked up upon hearing those words. He quickly put down the bun and picked up a bag, “Alright, please wait a moment.”

Ni Yang clearly saw Old Zhao at this point and exclaimed, “Uncle Zhao!”

Old Zhao also looked surprised, “Yangyang!”

Ni Yang chuckled and said, “Uncle Zhao, so you’ve been selling steamed buns here.”

Old Zhao nodded, “Yes, but Yangyang, are you sure you can finish off all these buns? They’ll go bad if you don’t finish them quickly in this weather.”

Ni Yang assured him, “Don’t worry, we have more than a dozen people for dinner.”

Only then Old Zhao was relieved. He swiftly packed up fifty buns and handed them to Ni Yang.

At this point, one could buy four buns for one cent. Ni Yang had occasionally bought them before, so she was familiar with the price. She took the steamed buns and handed one yuan and three cents to Old Zhao.

However, Old Zhao refused to take the money.

Ni Cuihua and her daughter Ni Yang were so polite. If it wasn’t for the gifts they brought, sending the children to school next month would have been a problem.

If he were to insist on taking the money for a few steamed buns, it would be utterly heartless!

“Uncle Zhao, you are running a business, how could you not accept money? If you refuse to accept the money, then I can’t accept these buns.” Saying this, Ni Yang put down the buns. She knew that Old Zhao’s family had it hard, so, she insisted on paying him.

Old Zhao said, “Yangyang, both you and your mother are so nice. You brought so many things to our house yesterday! These are just a few homemade buns, they’re really not worth much! Unless you think these buns of mine aren’t worth the money!”

Ni Yang said, “Uncle Zhao, we have to be fair. If you won’t accept the money, I’ll go to the shop next door!”

After much persuasion, Old Zhao finally accepted the money reluctantly.

Ni Yang noticed a half-eaten bun on the basket, and a flask next to it, “Uncle Zhao, are you only eating buns for lunch?”

Old Zhao chuckled, “Yes, it’s far from home, and I don’t feel like going back for lunch, so I appease my hunger with some buns. They’re good, sweet and soft. It’s a much better time now. During the Great Famine, who could afford such fine white flour buns!”

In reality, Old Zhao was eating the buns left unsold from a few days ago. They were dry and hard, with no taste at all.

“Uncle Zhao, have this with your bun.” Ni Yang handed Old Zhao a wax paper bag.

“I’m alright eating the buns, I don’t need that.” Old Zhao quickly declined.

“Please take it, I bought too much anyway, it will be a waste if I don’t finish it.” Having said that, Ni Yang continued, “Also, Uncle Zhao, are there lots of buns left over each day?”

Old Zhao sighed, “Business has been slow recently, there are leftovers every day.”

“So, the next day’s leftovers are not that easy to sell?” Ni Yang asked.

“Yes.” Old Zhao nodded, “The leftover buns from the day before aren’t as good, so we usually keep them for ourselves.”

Ni Yang picked up the bun that Old Zhao had eaten half of, the stale bun wasn’t as fluffy as freshly made ones; they were dry, exaggerating a bit, they were like bricks.

Ni Yang continued, “Uncle Zhao, actually, you could slice these leftover buns, fry them until golden brown on both sides, then sprinkle some black pepper or spread some ketchup on them. Those who love salty and spicy food can add black pepper, those who like sweet and sour can go for ketchup. Then, sell them in front of the school during dismissal time. They should sell well.”

The leftover buns, if preserved properly, don’t harm health. They’re just not as delicious as fresh ones. But when fried till crispy, they won’t be affected at all, and will even taste wonderfully crispy!

They would be well received by young people.

Old Zhao seemed skeptical, “Will that really work?”

Ni Yang laughed, “I think you can give it a try.”

Old Zhao continued, “What is ketchup?”

Ni Yang explained, “Ketchup is tomato sauce.”

Old Zhao was curious, “Can tomatoes be made into a sauce?”

Tomato sauce is actually invented by Chinese people. But, originally, it was not made of tomatoes but a pure fish sauce made from miscellaneous fish. The pure fish sauce had a mild salty taste with a unique flavor, and later when our ancestors found the taste a bit monotonous, they added beans to it, creating a low-grade soybean paste, which was very popular at that time.

Likewise, during the Ming dynasty, pure fish sauce became popular in the south and was named “Brine”. The dialectic pronunciation at that time was ‘kê-tsiap’.

Later on, Brine was introduced overseas. This Chinese-style Brine sauce became extremely popular, spreading rapidly worldwide, and was modified by foreigners into American-style tomato sauce.

So, the globally popular American-style tomato sauce is not America’s tomato sauce, but China’s kê-tsiap Brine!

During the 1980s, when KFC and McDonald’s were still not introduced to China, Chinese people did not really like tomato sauce. In fact, some people did not even know what tomato sauce was.

Ni Yang nodded, and said, “Of course tomatoes can be made into sauce. I’ll write down the recipe for you, you can try it at home.” With that, Ni Yang pulled out a pen and a small notebook from her pocket.

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