The two of them quickened their pace, munching on sweet potatoes, gasping from the heat yet unable to stop laughing.

Jiang Yanyi used a shovel to scoop the clean snow from the yard into a basket and then took it out to the front door.

The snow in front of the homes along the street had already been cleared, and with more pedestrians around, the accumulated snow had turned into a muddy mess underfoot.

The people passing by tucked their hands into their sleeves, hunched over to avoid the cold.

Jiang Yanyi scooped several baskets of snow to the front door, then joined Qiu Kua to roll snowballs.

A familiar passerby spotted them and couldn’t help but tease, “Manager Jiang hasn’t lost her childlike spirit!”

Each time, Jiang Yanyi just smiled, acknowledging their greeting.

When Aunt Guo and Yang Xiu, along with Bing Shao, arrived at the shop, Jiang Yanyi instructed Aunt Guo to go to the kitchen and slice the lamb for hotpot, as there would surely be more customers wanting soup on a snowy day.

Yang Xiu was called to clear the snow in the yard, while Bing Shao was assigned to pick up the old scholar.

With the heavy snow today, it was difficult to find a cart in the southern part of the city.

Jiang Yanyi worried that the old scholar, being advanced in age and with limited mobility, might encounter some accident.

She built a snowman nearly as tall as herself, using walnuts for eyes, several stones to form a smiling mouth, and extravagantly bought a whole bunch of candied hawthorn sticks to stick onto it as arms.

The passing children, upon seeing the bright red candied hawthorn sticks beside the snowman, couldn’t help but cry out in envy.

The snowman drew considerable attention at the entrance of the shop.

Any passerby couldn’t help but glance at Jiang Yanyi’s shop, akin to how cartoon characters in modern times might promote their stores outside.

By noon, Jiang Yanyi’s shop began to get busy.

Despite the heavy snow affecting the number of diners, there were still plenty of takeout orders.

Most ordered lamb hotpot, while dry pot orders were fewer.

Jiang Yanyi was quite content with the lighter workload.

Her initial marketing strategy was to offer a free plate of appetizers with every order.

As vegetables were hard to find in winter and meat was too expensive, she mostly provided bean sprouts and tofu, occasionally giving out a plate of flower cake.

However, she wasn’t skilled at making pastries.

The only flower cakes in her shop that customers favored were egg tarts, which were bought from a pastry shop.

But after Laifu Restaurant began selling more exquisite flower cakes, her shop’s offerings were overshadowed, especially since she didn’t offer egg tarts, which further put her at a disadvantage.

In the realm of baked goods, Jiang Yanyi felt she couldn’t compete with those skilled bakers who had decades of experience.

Spending a lot of money on delicate pastries felt uneconomical to her.

After much thought, Jiang Yanyi figured that the production cost of Western-style cakes was relatively low and their flavors were light and sweet.

Perhaps they could attract the elite’s favor due to their novelty.

When she tried to make them, she wasted three cakes with her homemade oven before finally succeeding.

The first cake was undercooked due to insufficient temperature, the second was burnt because it was too hot, and the third… shrank after cooling.

Jiang Yanyi realized that the ingredients for Western-style cakes were actually quite similar to those for traditional steamed cakes; the main difference was that one was baked while the other was steamed.

After mastering the baking temperature and ingredient ratios, Jiang Yanyi added a sprinkle of raisins to her chiffon cakes, enhancing the texture and making the sweetness more complex.

Making chiffon cakes was much easier and less time-consuming than making egg tarts, so she naturally promoted the new product for free at first, hoping to open up the market before charging.

To her delight, the chiffon raisin cake received unanimous praise when offered as a complimentary item on the diners’ tables.

Some customers even directly asked to buy a portion, saying it was perfect for their elderly mothers who had difficulty chewing.

The number of people in the shop gradually increased.

Outside, it was cold and frosty, but once inside, the warmth made them feel cozy.

This was due to Jiang Yanyi placing small charcoal stoves under each table, burning silver frost charcoal that lasted long without producing any smoke.

Customers felt that the shop was well arranged, which made their dining experience much more enjoyable.

“When will you start telling stories today?” an old customer who had visited yesterday couldn’t help but shout.

Those who hadn’t been there yesterday inevitably asked, “What stories?”

“I guarantee you haven’t heard it! ‘Dream of the Red Chamber!’”

“What’s that? Even Mr. Ding over at Laifu Restaurant hasn’t told it.”

Upon mentioning Mr. Ding, others chimed in, “I heard that Mr. Ding was invited to Laifu Antique Soup today; could it be that he’s trying to compete with us?”

“Food aside, when it comes to storytelling, who in Xizhou City can tell it better than Mr. Ding?”

“That’s not necessarily true. I heard the old gentleman telling stories in this shop yesterday was quite talented too!”

While the diners debated passionately, the old scholar in the backyard took a sip of tea, adjusted his collar, and headed out to the shop.

He stood straight as a pencil, just like yesterday, and with a light knock on the wooden surface, he cleared his throat and began today’s storytelling.

At first, there were voices in the shop, but it soon fell silent.

Some people who couldn’t afford a meal gathered outside, braving the wind and snow to listen to the story being told inside.

Jiang Yanyi was worried that the old scholar might get cold, so she asked Yang Xiu to place a charcoal stove under the old scholar’s table.

---

Today was a rest day for the military.

Normally, Chef Li should have come to her shop, but seeing that it was almost noon and he still hadn’t arrived, Jiang Yanyi couldn’t help but worry, recalling Chef Li’s chronic back pain.

After the lunch rush was over, while Jiang Yanyi was inviting everyone to eat, Chef Li finally arrived, bringing a chill with him.

Jiang Yanyi hurried over to greet him, “Master, if it snows like this again, and it’s inconvenient for you to come from the Xizhou camp, you don’t have to come. What if something happens on the way?”

Winter was not like other seasons; the road to the Xizhou camp was hardly traveled.

Yang Xiu and Bing Shao were seeing Chef Li for the first time.

Since Jiang Yanyi called him “Master,” they showed him a bit more respect.

The old scholar was about the same age as Chef Li.

When Chef Li looked at the old scholar’s clothing and then at the long table set up inside the shop, he guessed his identity.

Seeing that Jiang Yanyi’s shop was thriving, he felt genuinely happy, and the gloom from his journey eased a bit.

He said, “It wasn’t that I was delayed on the road; I went to Old Yao’s house.”

Jiang Yanyi brought a fire basin to Chef Li to warm his hands. “What happened with Master Yao? I ran into him at the blacksmith’s a few days ago.”

Chef Li sighed and said, “He had a falling out with the owner of the Laifuh Restaurant, and now he’s no longer working there.”

“That old fellow is just too stubborn and narrow-minded! I told him many years ago that the owner of the restaurant is a businessman and he shouldn’t consider himself too important.

He shouldn’t try to be buddy-buddy with them, but he didn’t listen. Now the restaurant owner has brought in a royal chef’s descendant, and they don’t need his old, rusty spatula anymore. Just imagine how embarrassing it is that they ruined his ancestral kitchen knife!”

When Jiang Yanyi asked Master Yao if he would come work with her, he said it would be ungracious.

She thought he was still working at Laifuh Restaurant; how did he leave so suddenly?

Jiang Yanyi said, “I know about this. I was upset for Master Yao and wanted him to come open a shop with me. He said it would be ungracious to do so. When did he leave? I didn’t hear a whisper about it.”

Chef Li replied, “Laifuh Restaurant wouldn’t dare release news of him leaving. Over the years, how many old customers have been nurtured by Old Yao’s skills? With him gone, it would be a miracle if those old customers stayed.

The people from Laifuh still had the nerve to try to convince him to come back, but I went there and scolded them away.”

He then turned to Jiang Yanyi and said, “You’ve always been carefree. As for the recipes, you should be a bit more cautious. Old Yao told me that the owner of Laifuh Restaurant has been keeping an eye on you.

The day you ran into him at the blacksmith’s, when he returned, the owner immediately asked him what the iron box you made was for.”

“Today, Old Yao went to retrieve his repaired kitchen knife and heard the blacksmith say someone asked him to make a few more of those iron boxes, but the blacksmith didn’t take the order.”

Although Jiang Yanyi hadn’t interacted much with Master Yao, she understood his temperament fairly well.

However, she didn’t dare take things lightly. Her previous remark at the blacksmith’s was merely a test.

Now that Master Yao had truly fallen out with Laifuh Restaurant, she wondered if this was a scheme of the restaurant owner’s.

What if they were deliberately setting a trap for her?

Nonetheless, she trusted Chef Li.

She said, “That iron box is just a small stove for heating food. Even if I hide it, someone will eventually replicate it. As you said, I must focus on the recipes. I’ve recently launched a dry pot dish, but it’s tough for me to handle alone. I want to invite Master Yao to help out. What do you think?”

Chef Li shook his head, “Old Yao probably won’t agree. The owner of Laifuh Restaurant already thinks he has ties to your shop. If he leaves Laifuh and comes to you, it would give people something to talk about.”

Just then, the old scholar, who was eating, suddenly shook his head and sighed, “People, you see, it’s not that they are driven to death by others, but rather, they drive themselves to death. When we’re alive, we’re not living for ourselves, but for the words of others.”

Jiang Yanyi added a pair of chopsticks and a bowl for Chef Li.

He and the old scholar were of similar age and both had no children.

Chef Li had spent his life diligently at the fire camp, while the old scholar had faced too much criticism in his youth but had become more open-minded over time.

The two old men drank a few small cups of wine and, in a conversation about various topics, felt as if they had met too late.

Moved by the old scholar’s words, Chef Li turned around to persuade Master Yao to come back.

However, Master Yao couldn’t overcome his inner barriers and never agreed.

Upon seeing Jiang Yanyi vigorously trying to recruit people, Laifuh Restaurant grew anxious.

The manager of Laifuh personally visited Master Yao’s home several times, but Master Yao refused to see him.

Jiang Yanyi was still trying to put the shovel to work when she was stunned by another operation from Laifuh Restaurant.

Laifuh Restaurant found out they had invited Mr. Ding, the best storyteller in Xizhou, to tell stories, yet they still couldn’t steal customers from Jiang Yanyi.

After some investigation, they discovered that the stories Jiang Yanyi told were completely unfamiliar to them.

Because too many people came to listen to stories every day, and the space was insufficient, the old scholar had changed from telling one story a day to three.

Each session was packed with people, and those who entered the shop couldn’t just sit idly, so they often ordered some food, which made the shop’s dishes sell well.

Laifuh Restaurant directly sent people to listen to the stories, and after they finished, they ran back to their antique soup shop to retell the story of “Dream of the Red Chamber.”

Essentially, the chapter Jiang Yanyi had just finished telling that day would be heard at Laifuh Antique Soup Shop the next day.

In terms of excitement, of course, the old scholar at Jiang Yanyi’s side told the stories better, and he always had the latest plot developments.

However, because Jiang Yanyi’s shop was overflowing with diners and the entrance was crowded, those who were eager to hear the stories but couldn’t get in had no choice but to go to Laifuh Antique Soup Shop to listen.