Proofread by Claire.KK
“Yes and we may have to start to sell something else,” said Ye Xiaoxian, “It’s still summer so our cold jelly are a hit but it must not sell well when summer has passed. As we have many regular customers now, we’d better promote our pancakes at an early stage and maintain our popularity.”
It took quite a while for Li Hongmei and Xiao Baozhu to digest what Ye Xiaoxian said but after they understood it, they could not help but feel this was such a good idea.
After a while Li Hongmei again asked with puzzle, “But there are so many pancake stalls in town already. Can we outclass them? And I never saw you make pancakes before, right?”
Ye Xiaoxian smiled, “Ma, I may be yet to make it, but I have tasted it. We have tried different pancakes sold here several times. I know which one is good and which is bad. I can also tell what kind of ingredients they use. I can improve the flavour as well and try my best to make them tastier than the pancakes sold by others.”
“Do you think you can make it as tasty as the one sold in front of the government office?”
“Certainly. I can also make my pancakes with different styles in case some come up and accuse us of being a rival of them,” said Ye Xiaoxian confidently.
But Li Hongmei thought that Ye Xiaoxian was being too confident that she just assumed it as a matter of course.
Though Ye Xiaoxian made really delicious dishes recently, Li Hongmei found making pancakes very hard. Qinghe was a village in South China and people here were not very good at making flour-related food and most of those pancakes sellers were northerners.
…
When they sauntered around the town that day, the most excited one among them was Xiao Baozhu.
They only came to Qinghe for a handful of times long time ago when her pa was still alive. Her pa was not in good health and handicapped as well so they didn’t get much time to wander around; moreover, they were too broke to buy anything back then.
When Xiao Baozhu was young, she went to the town and saw various of snacks and goodies and girls in colourful clothes and she admired and envied them very much.
She wanted to buy some new clothes this time as well. When they were selling cold jelly before, she looked rather self-conscious because her clothes were not only too small for her but with patches all over. She was afraid of being despised but those customers who came to buy cold jelly.
While they were wandering, Ye Xiaoxian suddenly pointed at a cloth shop beside. “Ma, Baozhu, let’s take a look inside.”
“Little Ye, do you want to buy some clothes?” asked Li Hongmei.
Something occurred to her and she then said again, “Little Ye, you do need to buy some clothes. You were after all a newly-married bride, but I, as your mother-in-law, didn’t prepare anything for you. Alas, you’ve made all the money and you deserve to buy some cloths and make some outfits.”
Ye Xiaoxian only smiled. “Ma, if I buy something, I’ll buy one for each of us. Let’s go and have a look inside and then talk.”
In this era, there were few shops selling ready-made clothes. Generally, people always bought cloths and go home to make clothes themselves. Once Ye Xiaoxian went in, she laid her eyes upon a light yellow cloth. This kind of cloth was made of cotton and linen which was considered as coarse material and much cheaper than silk.
Few village girls wore silk as only rich people could afford it. Besides, clothes made of cotton and linen were actually more comfortable and breathable to wear. Apart from that they may be easy to be wrinkled, there were no other flaws and they were handy to wear while working.
“Ma, Baozhu, come and choose some as well. Let’s get the one you fancy and make clothes back home.”
“And, and for me, too?” asked Baozhu surprisedly.
In this family, she was the one who was inclined to be ignored. At times, she had no choice but work in silence and was the last one who got a chance to enjoy something good.
