Chapter 8:  A Booming First Day (Part 2)

“There’s no way it tastes good. Pfft, how good can something be if it’s given away for free?”

But just as this person finished speaking, the two young gentlemen who had tried the samples said, “Boss, we’ll take a bowl of each dish.” They pulled out fifty copper coins from their sleeves and handed them to Madam Wang.

Seeing the first sale come through, Madam Wang grinned from ear to ear and quickly, though a bit clumsily, wrapped the cold dish and marinated meat in lotus leaves and handed them over.

Xu Nuo also handed the men two cups of lemon water to quench their thirst. The food had already impressed them, but they hadn’t expected the drink to be just as delightful. The tangy lemon cut through the greasiness of the marinated meat, and after drinking it, they felt instantly refreshed.

“Boss, even your drink has some magic! If only I could drink this every day in this heat,” one of them exclaimed.

The other was clearly impatient. “Boss, do you sell this water? I’ll pay twenty coins to fill a gourd—how about it?”

Xu Nuo had thought about lemon water as a potential way to make money but hadn’t gotten around to promoting it herself. Now the opportunity had come knocking.

Only a fool turns down easy money. Still, Xu Nuo didn’t set the price too high. Ten coins per jug of water felt just right charging too much would feel uneasy and undeserved.

The two customers left satisfied, even asking if the stall would be set up again tomorrow and if they could pre-order.

Seeing this, more bystanders swarmed the stall to try the samples, and some even made blind purchases without tasting. Xu Nuo and Madam Wang were overwhelmed with orders.

With everyone shouting out their orders at once, Xu Nuo could no longer keep track of who wanted what. After all, she had never run a stall before and wasn’t used to this kind of workflow. To speed things up, she summoned all her energy and shouted:

“Everyone, line up! One at a time!”

At first, no one took her seriously, but when both Xu Nuo and Madam Wang stopped what they were doing, people started to line up in an orderly fashion.

Meanwhile, Shangguan was being dragged out of the academy gate by Zhang Yan, followed by a group of colleagues carrying their own bowls. As they walked, Zhang Yan muttered under his breath:

“Big Ice Cube, how could you leave your wife out here in the sun? If you’d brought her inside, I would’ve already gotten my food!”

“Hurry up, Big Ice Cube!” he added. But when they arrived at the “Top Scholar Snack Stall,” they were stunned to see a massive line—at least a dozen people, maybe more.

Zhang Yan couldn’t help but curse aloud. Even Shangguan was stunned. He’d only been gone for a quarter of an hour—how had things changed so dramatically?

Zhang Yan didn’t care about keeping up appearances anymore. All he knew was that if he didn’t hurry, he might not even get a taste. Holding his rice bowl, he charged toward Xu Nuo and Madam Wang.

He ignored the line and shoved his bowl in front of Madam Wang, shouting, “Godmother! My dearest godmother! I missed you so much! I know Sister-in-law made two dishes today—give me some of both!”

Madam Wang laughed at Zhang Yan’s antics. How did her quiet son end up with such a wild friend? The two were complete opposites in personality!