The most appalling thing was that Chen Ju added, “Is Second Sister-in-law thinking of getting remarried? Her husband has died and even if she wants to get remarried when she goes to the town, we can’t do much to stop her.”
Old Mr. Xiao leaned on his walking stick, standing outside of the earth house of the second household and shouted at Li Hongmei who was packing things up inside the room. “You nasty thing, as my son died you’re now trying to take my grandchildren away. You treat me as a dead man as well? You think I can’t discipline you? I tell you what, either you’re taking me with you or you beat me up until I can’t discipline you at all, but don’t even think about sneaking off to town like this!”
Li Hongmei was so furious that tears began rolling down her face.
Ye Xiaoxian could not possibly stop her as Li Hongmei had already rushed outside. She was accusing and crying with fury. “Pa, what’s going on now is that little Ye has rented a shop to open up a restaurant in town, so how does this make me nasty? How am I taking your grandchildren away? And how is it that I don’t care if you’re alive or dead? Why should I beat you up? If I did, I’d be punished by heaven, wouldn’t I?”
“I have indeed done something like serving people before but I know the morality of behaving myself. You’ve seen with your own eyes how much work I’ve done for this family. Your son had been sick for so many years and didn’t I clean his toilet and do all the other filthy work for him? Ever since I married him I seldom talk to other men. I’ve gone to such lengths to bring up my own children and now my son and my daughter-in-law have grown up to be promising, what’s so wrong about me going to town to give them a hand?”
Old Mr. Xiao did not care what Li Hongmei said and only urged, “If you don’t beat me up you’ll have to bring me with you to town and let me experience living as a town dweller. I’d like to eat pancakes for breakfast and take a walk with a pet bird sometimes.”
“We’re going to town to work and we’ll be busy all day long. How can we spare the time to take care of you? You’re bound to cause trouble for us if you go with us, right?” Li Hongmei was trying to reason with him.
“I am your father-in-law and you ought to take care of me with filial obedience. How can you say I’ll cause trouble for you? You just don’t want to look after me; not this old man who’s still hanging in there, am I right?”
Ye Xiaoxian finally could not bear to hear it anymore.
She walked out too and stood in front of Li Hongmei. “Grandpa, you also want to go to town?”
“That’s right. It just depends on whether you want me to go or not,” said Old Mr. Xiao.
Ye Xiaoxian smiled to him. “My ma has made it clear that we’re going to make a living in town, not to keep a pet dog or a pet bird. If you’re going with us, Grandpa, you have to work also. As we’re opening a restaurant, we’ve got servers, cooks and assistants to look after the kitchen fire. Which would you like to do?”
Old Mr. Xiao was furious. “I am the head of this family and I’m going to town to enjoy my life, not to work as a slave.”
“As Grandpa, you’re the head of the family, what do you think this means? You’re supposed to lead the whole family to strive to make a living and have every household become prosperous. Grandpa, since you’re not willing to serve people or tend the kitchen fire, why don’t you come up with a plan of how to open up this restaurant? And what kind of dishes should we make everyday, how many assistants should we hire and do you care to pay their salaries as well?”
After she had finished, Ye Xiaoxian turned to Li Hongmei. “Ma, it seems that we don’t have to mind the restaurant. Let’s leave it to Grandpa to handle it.”
Li Hongmei wiped away her tears and nodded. “Good, Pa, if you want to go to town, let’s go there together and we’ll be glad that we can sit back and relax.”
Once Old Mr. Xiao thought about being in charge of a restaurant he began to feel uncertain. “You, you’re asking me to lead you in running the restaurant?”
Li Hongmei reminded him. “Running a restaurant is not like opening up a food stand. The rent is three taels of silver per month and you have to buy food ingredients and cook them too. Pa, if you can manage all of this, then go ahead but you’d better not lose so much that you can’t even hold up to five hundred coins in filial piety fees every month.”
Old Mr. Xiao lost his confidence completely.
Three tales of silver per month? Having to buy food ingredients everyday? What if they were losing money by then?
Old Mr. Xiao was so stingy and only pursued short-term interests, so how could he possibly let so much money slip through his fingers?
Old Mr. Xiao thought about it and finally he compromised. “Well, well, if this is the condition, I’m not going with you but you have to pay me more in filial piety fees every month. It was five hundred coins before but you’ll have to make it eight hundred coins.”
Li Hongmei felt so hard done by that she was going to argue with him again but Ye Xiaoxian managed to stop her.
Ye Xiaoxian said, “Fine, eight hundred coins it is.”
After they were done packing their luggage they used the handcart to push things out of the village and only by then did Li Hongmei breath a sigh of relief. Still, aside from the relief, Li Hongmei felt somewhat sentimental.
She had been living in that low house made of earth for twenty something years during which she had been made to silently swallow insults and humiliation all the time, but now she finally could have the taste of a carefree life.
Their life to follow was not guaranteed to be carefree but they at least did not have to live on other’s favor. Still, they certainly would have to live on their customer’s favor, which was nevertheless mutually beneficial. As long as the customers were satisfied with their service then they would spend money to eat there, which made her feel completely different.
“Xiaoxian, say, are we able to run our restaurant well? We don’t have to return to live in this house, do we?” asked Li Hongmei.
Ye Xiaoxian was pushing the cart behind and she smiled involuntarily after hearing what Li Hongmei said. “Ma, it’s up to you. If you don’t like living here we can always live somewhere else and if you like it, well, that’ll be another story.”
“Of course I don’t like living here!” Li Hongmei felt sick when she thought about Old Mr. Xiao.
“Then we shall never come back,” said Ye Xiaoxian. “The land is so big under heaven so we’ll surely find a place to live. If we can’t run the restaurant well we might as well wander across the world selling cold jelly!”
“Good idea!” Li Hongmei approved immediately.
She had long wanted to leave with her children but what stood in her way was that she had no skills or talents, but now she had Ye Xiaoxian and Li Hongmei she felt it was a blessing from God.
XS was the one feeling worried as she thought about Scholar Wong. She did not want to wander around the world but to stay with Scholar Wong. Ideally she could marry him.
After Ye Xiaoxian and others settled down they began busying themselves right away. The first thing to do was to arrange the menu.
This town belonged to the southern area of China and people’s tastes varied. Some liked eating light and some preferred Mala flavor (slight lemony overtones and creates a tingly numbness in the mouth). With abundant rivers there were all kinds of aquatic products, so Ye Xiaoxian decided to make boiled fish with Sichuan pickles as her signature dish.
Naturally she had included tiny, fried fish, deep-fried fish and other appetizers. She also went to the chicken supplier in the market and asked the staff to save the feet and wings for her so that she could make chicken feet with pickled peppers.
Chili was still scarce in the local area and Ye Xiaoxian had gone to many places and finally bought some. As well as these she also had desserts to go with the customer’s main courses such as honey lemon tea, rose plum soup and of course cold jelly. The desserts were free so all the customers could have one on the house.
Dim sum was also required, including little pumpkin buns, fired taro cakes and soup-filled buns. She could manage them perfectly so long as she prepared the dough first thing in the morning.
The Xiaos’ Cuisine was formally opened for business after the menu had been set.
The day before the opening day, Ye Xiaoxian went specially to Lord Liu’s and informed them that her restaurant was opening and that they could come to dine there when they were free.
Lord Liu and Liu Qianqian were hungry for Ye Xiaoxian’s cooking and said they would of course come.
Liu Qianqian’s anorexia had already been cured and, moreover, she had almost become a little foodie. She had gained quite a few pounds and recovered back to her earlier plump figure.
Hearing that Ye Xiaoxian’s restaurant had opened she felt very happy for Ye Xiaoxian. She even rode in her family’s horse-drawn carriage with grandeur to the gate of Ye Xiaoxian’s restaurant and then made a few circuits around it, and only after that did she enter the restaurant.
She meant to make a big fuss about it so that everyone would know that she, a wealthy young lady, had come here to dine in.
As expected, after young lady Liu took a stroll outside the restaurant it became surrounded by people who were all chattering and wondering what was the background of this “The Xiaos’ Cuisine”.
“Even Lord Liu comes here. Is the owner of the restaurant a relative of Lord Liu’s?”
“I should think so or why would Lord Liu come with his daughter?”
“It may not be the case. Isn’t Lord Liu’s nephew also opening up a restaurant in the west district? And Lord Liu never goes there.”
“…”
Ye Xiaoxian’s restaurant already had two long-term hired hands. One was called Little Five, who was witty so he was doing the serving work. The other was called Little Six, who was a quiet and honest fellow so Ye Xiaoxian arranged for him to wash the dishes.
Ye Xiaoxian found the two of them at the town gate where there was a kind of labor market. One could find both long-term or short-term hired hands there and occasionally there were people with a boards which said, “Selling myself to bury my father.”
Little Five and Little Six were brothers around seventeen or eighteen years old. They were from a poor family, wearing shabby clothes and looking like tramps. They had been squatting at the city gate for days but could not find any work to do.
Ye Xiaoxian, however, decided to hire them at first sight. She found the two brothers very honest guys and if she took time to teach them they would become skillful and loyal hands.
Li Hongmei was responsible for bringing customers in and XS was assisting Ye Xiaoxian as well as doing the serving.
Ye Xiaoxian was thinking of teaching her cooking skills to Xiao Baozhu. She did not say so openly as she wanted to see how well she could pick it up. If Xiao Baozhu realised the great kindness she was offering, she would devote herself to learning cookery.
Outside of the restaurant Li Hongmei had made full use of her particular strength: passion!
“Everyone, come here and have a look of our newly-opened inn. All the dishes are half price for today with free desserts as well. Don’t miss this rare opportunity everyone, and we won’t charge you if the dishes don’t suit your taste.”
“Sir, would you like to come inside and taste our food? We have boiled fish with Sichuan pickles, sweet and sour pork and chicken feet with pickled peppers.”
“Everybody, come and have a look at our restaurant which Lord Liu fancies. We won’t charge you if the dishes are not to your taste.”
“…”
Some people then asked her, “Do you mean it? We can eat here for free? Are you joking or what?”
Ye Xiaoxian then said, “Sir, why don’t you go in and find it out? All dishes are half price for today with additional free desserts.”
Some who would like to gain petty advantages were itching to try it.
Anyway, it is free of charge if the dishes don’t taste good.
Still, there were not so many thick-skinned people around, and besides, it was impossible for what Ye Xiaoxian cooked to not be tasty, so they did not have the cheek to dine for free.
Furthermore, Lord Liu was still there and the owner of this restaurant must be someone with some background or how else would she know Lord Liu? If they ate food without paying, would they not be afraid of beaten to death by Lord Liu?
