Chapter 42 – The Appearance of the Trend

Xia Tian arrived early at the house rented by Xia Yang and the others. Xia Yue was in the backyard, preparing braised pork belly, braised pig intestines, and pig head meat, all laid out in bowls to air dry.

The braised whole chicken for Shengshi Restaurant had also been prepared.

Now that the weather had gotten hot, Xia Yang and the others had to start braising in the middle of the night, as braising too early might result in less freshness.

Xia Tian looked around and saw that everything seemed fine, but something about the expressions of the group felt off. Was something wrong? Why did they look so tense?

“What’s wrong? You all look so unhappy,” she asked, confused.

Xia Yang hesitated and didn’t know how to explain.

“Sister-in-law, you tell her,” Xia Tian said, turning to Sun Maimiao.

“It’s just that yesterday your brother saw two other stalls selling braised meat on the street, and he’s worried our business might be affected,” Sun Maimiao explained.

“Ah, so it’s this! There’s no need to worry. I thought of this already. If others see our success, they’ll naturally want to follow suit, but the taste they make won’t be the same as ours. As long as we keep the flavor consistent, we won’t have to worry about losing customers.”

Hearing Xia Tian’s words, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. As long as Fourth Sister said it would be fine, then it would be fine.

“What if they sell cheaper than we do? Should we lower our prices?” Xia Yue raised her concern.

“No need. We’ll stick to our prices. As long as we keep our flavor right and don’t skimp on the quality, we’ll be fine.”

“Alright, we’ll trust you.”

Although they weren’t worried about losing business, the town was small, and resources were limited, so they had to be careful not to run out of ingredients.

Thinking about this, Xia Tian quickly called Xia Yang over. “Brother, let’s go to those three meat stalls and sign an agreement.”

“An agreement for what?”

“Supply agreement. I’m worried someone might try to snatch the ingredients from us.”

“Alright, let’s go.”

With that, Xia Tian took Xia Yang to the three meat stalls where they had cooperation, and after signing the supply agreements, she felt reassured.

This way, they wouldn’t have to worry about malicious competition or someone cutting off their supply.

If those stalls violated the contract, they would have to pay her ten times the amount as compensation.

Today, Xia Yue and their mother stayed at home while Xia Tian, Xia Yang, and Sun Maimiao went to the street to sell.

As expected, business was affected. There were fewer customers today. Xia Tian walked around the street and found that in addition to their stall, five others were also selling braised meat, and each stall had a fair number of people in front of it.

Xia Tian bought a bit from each of the other stalls and tasted the flavors. She now had a good sense of how things were going.

She shared what she had bought with Xia Yang and his wife, and after tasting it, they both relaxed. The flavors of the other stalls couldn’t compare to theirs.

With that, they had nothing to worry about and started calling out to potential customers.

After a while, Xia Yang went back to deliver some orders, and Xia Tian and Sun Maimiao stayed to manage the stall.

Though sales were slower this morning, by noon, everything had sold out.

The two of them packed up and returned home.

When they got home, Xia Tian gathered everyone for a meeting.

“I went to the street today and saw that there were five stalls selling braised meat. Although their flavors can’t compare to ours, we still need to be cautious of others trying to mess with us. For example, they might try to gather information from you about how we do things or offer you money to get our recipe. They might even incite trouble with our family, especially the grandparents, to get them to force us to share our recipe,” Xia Tian said, glancing at her father.

Xia Zheng’an looked uncomfortable under her gaze. “Don’t worry, Fourth Daughter. I won’t do that.” Why didn’t she trust him?

Recently, Xia Zheng’an had nearly recovered and was helping with the work. “I’m just giving a hypothetical. Just be careful. If anyone leaks the secret recipe, we’ll all be begging for food together!”

Everyone quickly assured her that they would keep their mouths shut and not let anyone trick them.

Xia Tian then discussed with Xia Yang that from now on, their small workshop would only supply Yunlai Restaurant and Shengshi Restaurant with their braised goods. All ingredients would be sourced from the three meat stalls they had signed agreements with, and no additional stock would be purchased.

If someone ordered pig head meat or pig intestines, they would only supply based on their agreement, not taking any extra orders.

“Let’s build up our reputation first. When the conditions are right, we can expand to the county. Right now, Qingquan Town is just a small town, and the consumption here is limited. We don’t want to attract too much attention and risk being sabotaged,” Xia Tian said.

With their current situation, their daily sales were about 60-70 taels. Families with more money probably wouldn’t even be interested in their goods.

Xia Yang nodded, agreeing that Fourth Sister’s long-term considerations made sense.

In the next few days, some old customers returned, and the speed of selling and delivery gradually returned to normal. Orders for braised chicken from Shengshi Restaurant even increased to 80 chickens—10 in the morning and 30 in the afternoon. Xia Tian set the price at 70 wen per chicken.

Now, Xia Zheng’an and his wife Chen Shi mainly handled slaughtering the chickens and removing the feathers. Xia Tian gave her father a monthly wage of 10 wen.

The small workshop had stabilized, so Xia Tian no longer needed to monitor it every day. She came every couple of days instead.

She also sent Xia Shiji to the local school in the town and gave him lessons on recognizing and writing characters.

Time passed quickly, and by June, it was time to harvest the wheat.

During this period, she was invited to be the main cook at a wedding in the village for a day, earning 10 wen.

It wasn’t that she wanted to go, but after her cooking skills were seen at Aunt’s house, her reputation had spread beyond the village. Several families came to invite her. At first, the local chefs in the village made sarcastic remarks, but Xia Tian didn’t want to steal their business.

To avoid causing resentment, she refused most of the invitations, but since she was familiar with this family, she couldn’t refuse, so she raised her price. The family agreed, and she had no choice but to go.

To make delivery more convenient, Xia Tian bought a donkey cart for Xia Yang to drive.

At home, they had only two acres of land. Xia Tian watched over things for two days in the town while Xia Yang went back to Xiajia Village to harvest the wheat.

Now that Xia Yang was earning money, he had become more flexible in his thinking. He hired three people, with whom he had a good relationship, to help with the harvest. The four of them finished the job in less than a day.

Xia Tian didn’t let her father, Xia Zheng’an, return home, afraid that the other family members would see him back to full health and try to pressure him into doing more work.

Xia Zheng’an was now quite intimidated by Fourth Daughter. He wasn’t sure where she had gotten all this authority from.

At home, when she spoke, everyone listened to her.

This sometimes made him feel a bit bitter, but also guilty.

After all, it was his own inability that had caused trouble for the children.

Once the wheat was harvested, Xia Tian returned to Liujia Village.

In the backyard, various vegetables were growing well.

She harvested some for her family and brought some to Xia Yang’s place.

She preserved extra vegetables, drying them for winter.

The long beans were blanched and hung to dry, perfect for stews with chicken or pork ribs in winter.

Eggplants, peppers, green beans, and bitter melons were sliced and dried, to be enjoyed in the winter.

Cucumbers and tomatoes, when ripe, could be eaten as fruit. Xia Tian stored all of them in the space she had created.

In winter, when fresh vegetables weren’t available, she could secretly satisfy her cravings.

On the 10th of July, the Ghost Festival, Xia Tian prepared eight dishes, bought incense and paper money, and took wine to the tomb to pay respects to Mu Yang with Shen Nian and Mu Feng. The next morning, when she woke up, she didn’t see Mu Feng and asked Shen Nian, “Brother Shen, where’s Mu Feng?”