Baozi Xishi's Struggle

The man driving the cart stopped the cart, looked at the bun stall, and asked in a loud voice: "Madam, do you need clean water?"

Li was busy and looked up when she heard the voice. It turned out that Zhang Wu, who was mentioned yesterday as the person who supplied clean water to the market, had arrived.

A large bucket of water cost five cents. The waterwheel was tall, and the entire body of the waterwheel was a sealed wooden box with a lid. There was a bamboo tube plugged with a stopper at the bottom of the box. Put the wooden barrel on the ground, pull out the stopper, and clear water would flow out.

There was a large bucket of water, which was enough for steaming the buns. Shen Yu was very satisfied. It was heavy and inconvenient to get a large bucket of water from home. It was more convenient to just buy water directly at the market entrance.

Zhang Wu waited until the bucket was full, then he lifted the wooden bucket and poured the water into the bucket prepared by Shen Yu's family. He smiled naively and said, "My wife, this water is from a deep well. It's very sweet. Just use it. All the food stalls in the market use my water."

Li agreed and took out five cents and handed it over.

After Zhang Wu left, Li shook her head and said, "This is the bad thing about this county town. Even drinking water costs money. When the firewood and grass in the house are used up, it will cost money too. It's another expense."

Shen Yu whispered, "Mom, think about it. If you bring water from home every day, it's heavy and unstable. You have to draw a big bucket of water from the well and deliver it to your stall. You just need to pick up the bucket and receive it. It's much more convenient. Selling water requires getting up earlier, which is time-consuming and laborious. The mules pulling the cart also need to eat grass. It's a waste of money."

After hearing this, Li stopped talking.

The fillings for today have been adjusted. There are four more baskets of meat filling, only one basket of vegetable and mushroom filling, and the red bean paste and candied date filling is the same as yesterday.

The business was better than expected, especially the meat buns, which sold the best. Many customers came for these big, cheap and delicious meat buns. If Shen Yu hadn't specially reserved five meat buns for the old man in advance, there would probably be none left when the stall closed.

Today, we have repeat customers at the stall. Several of them own shops. They enjoyed the food yesterday and came back again today. They bought even more and said they wanted to take the food home. It will be a good meal with some soup at noon.

A customer was not in a hurry to leave after buying the buns. She stood aside and complained to Shen Yu: "Girl, your buns are delicious, but it's a pity that they can only be bought in the morning. It would be better if they could be bought at noon."

Before Shen Yu could answer, he continued, "Hot buns with a bowl of fried tea soup are delicious and filling. Shop owners here cannot leave once they open their doors in the morning. Once they open, they do business all day. Breakfast and lunch are mostly eaten in the shops. The food stalls around here sell nothing but Hu pancakes, noodle soups, and chicken and duck skewers. I get tired of eating them every day. Although the food in the restaurant is good, it is far away and the price is not cheap. It is not something that small businessmen like us can afford to eat every day."

Shen Yu smiled apologetically and said to the customer, "My buns have just started to be sold. For now, I can only set up the stall in the morning. I have to close the stall at the time specified by the government."

The customer shook his head with some regret, and seeing that it was getting late, he said, "There are many people eating out at noon. If I set up a stall, I'm sure someone will buy."

He turned around, picked up the packaged buns, and walked towards the street outside the market.

Although the customer's words were unintentional, Shen Yu took them to heart and started thinking about it while selling buns.

Because this food stall is located at the entrance of the market, it must be closed and moved to another location at 3:15 am to leave a space at the entrance free so that the caravans have room to park when they arrive.

The vendors could move to a spot under a tree a little further away from the market, but the space under the trees was much smaller and there were fixed stalls there every day. Even if she wanted to continue selling for a while longer, there was no space left.

If the shops around the market, as well as the mobile caravans and stalls in the market, buy food nearby for lunch, they will also be a good group of regular customers.

She thought about coming back at lunch time after closing her stall today to see how the shop owners on the street and the stall owners in the market solved their lunch problems and where they ate.

The customer's words made Shen Yu see a new business opportunity. She thought that if she could sell another batch at noon, her daily income would increase a lot. She couldn't help but curl up the corners of her mouth and be sweeter to the customer, which made Li next to her confused. She didn't know why this girl was suddenly so happy.

The sun had just risen and it was not too hot yet. Just after noon, Shen Yu's buns were sold out and they had to close the stall early.

The family loaded all their belongings into the cart. Shen Yu pushed the cart to the entrance of Liushu Lane, took a bag of buns covered with a thick cloth in a winnowing basket from the cart, said something to Li, and went to Hulu Lane in front.

There is an alley between Hulu Lane and Liushu Lane. Shen Yu walked over and saw that the entrance of the alley was indeed narrow, like the mouth of a gourd. She had passed by here many times but had never paid attention to it.

Walking into the third house, the black-painted wooden door was open, and on the wall next to it was nailed a small, polished wooden sign with the word "Yang" written in complex strokes.

Shen Yu stood at the door and looked inside, and saw the old man Yang from yesterday, standing in the yard watering the flowers with a small watering can.

She knocked on the gate and raised her voice to greet him, "Uncle Yang, I'm here to bring you some buns."

The people in the yard turned around when they heard the voice and saw that it was the girl selling buns. They smiled widely and quickly put down the water scoop in their hands and greeted her, "Girl, come in quickly."

The entrance to Hulu Lane is narrow, and the gate also has two narrow doors, but the courtyard is much more spacious.

There are many flowers and plants planted in an orderly manner, and several mallows are in full bloom. There is also a bamboo chair and a square table in the middle, which I think the owner usually uses for drinking tea and cooling off.

Shen Yu walked in quickly, raised the lotus leaf bun in her hand, smiled sweetly and said, "Uncle Yang, this is the bun you ordered yesterday. I have been wrapping it with a thick cloth. The bun is still hot."

Mr. Yang was not wearing a long gown today. He was wearing a clean, half-new, light grey jacket and shorts, a loose, homely outfit.

He pointed to the square table in the middle of the courtyard, spread his hands and said with a smile: "Miss, please put them on the square table so I can wash my hands."

Shen Yu put the lotus leaf bag away and was about to leave, but Old Man Yang spoke first: "Miss, is there anything urgent? If not, can you help me?"

Shen Yu didn't have anything important to do at the moment, so he asked, "Uncle Yang, what's the matter?"

Mr. Yang said a little embarrassedly, "My wife is old and has sprained her waist these days, so she can't move around easily. Miss, you came at the right time today. Can you help me move these two pots of flowers? These flowers can't be exposed to the sun for too long. In July, they need to be moved to another place."

Shen Yu looked at the two pots of flowers and trees that the old man pointed to. They had lush branches and leaves, and were trimmed neatly and looked very beautiful.

The flowerpot wasn't too big, but it was a bit difficult for an elderly person to move it by himself. Shen Yu walked over and tried to move it. He could move it, so he asked, "Uncle Yang, where are you going to move it to?"

Mr. Yang held the other side of the flower pot with his hand and gestured to the south, saying: Just two steps south, the girl and I will move together. "

The two of them worked together to hold the edge of the flower pot, gently lifted it up and moved it two steps to the south, and then moved the other pot two steps to the south.

Although Shen Yu was much stronger than when he first arrived, he was still thin. After moving two pots of flowers, his face turned red and there was a hint of sweat on his forehead.