Chapter 44 : Hemp ropes always break at the thinnest part, and misfortune always strikes at the suffering people

After Zhou learned that Mother Xiao was planning to set up a stall for business, she looked confused.

She didn’t understand what was wrong with her mother. Mother Xiao often said things that didn’t seem true to Zhou.

It wasn’t Zhou’s fault. She was simply a conservative person. She was a stable and predictable player, with some savings that she could keep until her death. She never thought about doing business because it involved too many risks. If you weren’t careful, you could lose everything.

“Mom, you want to do business, but I don’t have any money to give you.”

She really didn’t have money. After all, the little money she had was meant for her children’s secret recipe studies.

She thought Mother Xiao had told her this so she could provide capital or something.

Mother Xiao felt helpless about this and patiently explained that Zhou didn’t need to pay a penny for the business. She just needed to help with the work and would be paid every month in the future. When they made money, Mother Xiao promised to take her to see a doctor in the county.

When Zhou heard that she wouldn’t need to pay and would be paid instead, and that the money would be used for a doctor’s visit, she felt her blood boil with excitement.

Mother Xiao was always true to her word. Even though taking her to see the doctor might just be talk, she was sure that Mother Xiao would follow through on paying her wages.

Zhou was very happy when she thought about the steady income she would have in the future, so she agreed immediately and was willing to work with them.

Thus, the four of them quietly began their business venture.

Jiang Sui was the leader, after all, it was her idea that sparked this, so she was in charge of making things happen.

First, they needed to buy a large number of sweet potatoes and extract enough sweet potato starch.

The next step was to customize a mold. Jiang Sui needed an iron colander with round holes because hot and sour noodles must be round to be classic.

The method she used before, boiling the potato skin and cutting it into noodles was too troublesome, so she decided to use a colander to filter out the noodles one by one, then let them dry and tie them into bundles. When they wanted to eat, they could soak the noodles in water and cook them any time.

Of course, she also needed a mold for boiling the sweet potato skin because she wanted to sell mixed sweet potato skin as well.

For the mixed sweet potato skin, they would add sesame paste or peanut butter, a spoonful of chili oil, cucumber and carrot shreds, coriander, and peanuts. It tasted better than cold noodles.

Now that the weather was getting hot, this cold potato skin would definitely sell well.

Sweet potatoes were easy to find, and every household in the village had some in stock.

A pound of sweet potatoes cost only five cents, so she bought five hundred pounds all at once, spending two and a half taels.

The villagers didn’t know what the Xiao family was going to do with all those sweet potatoes, but as long as it meant making money, they didn’t care.

Jiang Sui asked Xiao Yi to go to town and hire a blacksmith to make a few colanders for her. Since she couldn’t describe them properly, she drew two sketches and asked Xiao Yi to take them.

The blacksmith looked at the blueprint and said that it wasn’t difficult to make, but iron products would cost some money, and smelting iron at that time wasn’t easy.

Three colanders cost only one ounce of silver, and the blacksmith said they could be picked up in seven days.

As for the mold for the hot potato skin, it was very simple. Xiao Yi could make it himself using two pieces of wood.

When he heard that the women in his family were trying to start a business, he didn’t find it funny, but instead was very supportive.

He also genuinely believed that the business could succeed.

With the sweet potatoes and molds ready, the next step was the seasoning. Jiang Sui took some time to go to town with Mother Xiao to buy the necessary spices.

They bought spices like cumin, cinnamon, star anise, bay leaves, and peppercorns, as well as a large bag of sesame seeds, a large bag of peanuts, and a large bag of chili powder.

They also bought some lard because when making spicy oil, the lard was the key ingredient.

Coincidentally, she came to town, and Mother Xiao wanted to make up for what she owed her children.

She promised her daughter that she would buy embroidered shoes for the second and third daughters-in-law, and the fourth daughter-in-law must also get some cloth to make two sets of her own clothes. Otherwise, what would it mean for her to wear the old clothes she had altered every day?

So after buying all the various seasonings, Mother Xiao went to the cloth shop again. She asked Jiang Sui to choose two colors of cloth herself, and she would make the clothes for her once they returned.

Jiang Sui didn’t hesitate and went straight to choose because they had agreed on this early in the morning, and there was nothing to refuse.

The fabrics chosen were very basic cotton and linen, with Jiang Sui picking green and light purple.

These two colors were more suitable for her age.

Cotton and linen fabric cost thirty cents per foot, and with her size, she would need at least ten feet of cloth to make two sets of clothes.

Three hundred coins were gone in a flash, and so the country folk usually don’t make new clothes. If clothes are torn, they simply patch them up as long as they are wearable because making clothes is really expensive.

After finishing the shopping, the mother and daughter returned home with a lot of bags.

Ermazi saw that they had bought so many things this time, in large and small bags, and was very curious, wondering if the family had made a small fortune.

Not only had he been working hard lately, but he had also been buying a lot of sweet potatoes from all over the village.

Sweet potatoes were a food that everyone was tired of eating, so Ermazi didn’t understand why they were buying so many.

He didn’t ask about it directly, but the story soon spread around the village, saying that the Xiao family had quietly made a small fortune.

Ermazi helped pick up the old doctor from the town and take him to the Xiao family’s house. So, he knew that someone was staying at Xiao’s house and was injured, but no one knew who the person was.

The Xiao family told others that a distant relative had come and broken his leg on the way, so he was temporarily staying at their home for care.

As a result, everyone speculated that this distant relative of the Xiao family was a wealthy person, staying at their home to recuperate, and paying a lot of money for food and accommodation.

Once these rumors spread, many people came to the Xiao family to inquire about the news, just to join in the gossip.

The Xiao family had been busy grinding sweet potato starch these past few days. They needed to grind, precipitate, and dry 500 kilograms of sweet potato starch, which would take several days.

As a result, the wives from various families in the village would visit from time to time, making it hard for them to focus on their work.

This money-making skill had to be kept a secret. What if someone accidentally found out about it?

They all came to inquire about their relative, Su Yanqing.

However, Su Yanqing couldn’t move around easily, so he stayed in his room with Mr. Zeng chatting with him to alleviate his boredom.

Mr. Zeng knew that the Xiao family had been planning to set up a stall to sell hot and sour noodles recently. He saw that the women in the Xiao family were all very proactive, so he told Su Yanqing about it and asked him if the business could succeed.

The answer was of course yes, because God would not mistreat any hardworking and diligent person.

Su Yanqing could now half lean on his back and had been staying at the Xiao family for half a month. The Xiao family had taken very good care of him and never treated him poorly in terms of food.

He had also learned a little about the Xiao family’s situation through Mr. Zeng.

After learning about Xiao Hechuan’s story, Xiao Lanlan’s embarrassment, and Xiao’s second daughter-in-law’s distress over not getting pregnant for a long time, he could only sigh. Why does misfortune always strike the weakest, and why do hardships fall on those who are already suffering?

In Jeju, his grandfather had learned of his situation and written back, saying that he would go to Huaxi County to recuperate as soon as he was able to move.

But Su Yanqing didn’t want to leave for the time being because he wanted to do something for the Xiao family before he left.