Chef Hua
Chapter 302: Issue 175 December

Chapter 302: Issue 175 December

Zhou Yunyun had been beaten and scolded by her good-for-nothing, drunken father for years, which left her very timid and frightened. Hearing the name "Zhenwei Garden," she simply praised it without much thought, not expecting that Hua Xiaomai would actually come to ask her opinion seriously. She panicked, twisting her fingers and pressing her voice very low, "I... actually, I don’t know much about it, Master, if you think it’s not good..."

Hua Xiaomai shook her head internally, thinking that with this timid nature, it wasn’t clear when she would change. Not wanting to trouble her anymore, she turned to Wen Huaren, who was full of expectation, and said with a smile, "I also think it’s quite good. We’ll ask Yuhuai and others for their opinions later. If everyone agrees, we’ll settle on it early."

Busy with tasks at the small restaurant, she stood at the door to speak a few more words with the pedantic scholar, asking him to come for a drink at the shop if he had time in the evening. Then, she took Zhou Yunyun back to the east side of the village. She had Chun Xi and La Mei spread the word that the newly opened Sauce Garden was hiring workers, and if the villagers wanted to earn money, they should come to find her at the small restaurant.

After not even a couple of days, Pan Ping’an had become somewhat impatient, showing up again.

Not being a fool, he understood that once Hua Xiaomai’s Sauce Garden started, it meant a change in status. Just getting a mouthful to eat was already not easy, and if he tried to take too much, he feared it would all be for naught. So, the moment he walked through the doors of the restaurant, he claimed he would only want twenty percent of the profit from the garden business.

"The master from Wu Family is the one putting in the money, and I will help with the errands. Once the sauces are transported to the Provincial City, don’t worry about the rest, I’ll arrange everything perfectly for you," he said, eyeing Hua Xiaomai’s expression with a chuckle, "Without the master’s two hundred taels of silver, this business would not be possible. But without me to brainstorm the selling with you, I fear the business would also be difficult to manage."

Seeing Hua Xiaomai raise her eyebrows and the hint of an ambiguous smile on her lips, he paused, then laughed and said, "Of course, of course, ultimately, it’s because your sauce-making skills are good. Otherwise, even if the Boss Wu has money and I have connections, it would all be in vain, right?"

While the man was somewhat cunning, he at least had no malicious intentions, and to be fair, if it weren’t for him, Hua Xiaomai’s sauce business would’ve been difficult to get off the ground. Moreover, her auntie and Jing Taihe had always been on good terms with Pan Ping’an’s family next door, so Hua Xiaomai didn’t want to be too hard on him. After some thought, she nodded and agreed to the twenty percent profit share, and added, "I’ve thought it over, in the next month or two, let’s not send any sauces to the Provincial City. Uncle Ping’an, you can start spreading the word, saying that we’re preparing to open the Sauce Garden. After the New Year, we’ll have a variety of sauces to deliver."

Pan Ping’an let out a huge sigh of relief, beaming with joy and nodding repeatedly, "That works, that works! The sauces you’re making now are so popular in the Provincial City, several eateries have said openly that they wouldn’t bother using sauces if not for yours! These two months, let’s simply leave them hanging. Once they run out of sauce to use, they’ll have to buy from others. With the comparison, they’ll then understand what truly good quality products are!"

Elated, he couldn’t help but chat more with Hua Xiaomai before happily taking his leave. In the following days, Hua Xiaomai was kept busy attending to both the restaurant and the Sauce Garden. In the blink of an eye, the twelfth lunar month had arrived.

On the third day of the month, Hua Xiaomai, as usual, helped Qiao’s Paper Shop prepare a reunion dinner. Now as a shop owner herself, she no longer needed to work in someone else’s shop, but simply prepared a table of dishes in her own kitchen, which the workers from the paper shop could carry back, earning her some money easily.

The restaurant was scheduled to close on the twenty-second of the twelfth lunar month, and, with plans to reopen the Sauce Garden after the New Year, business began to slow down due to fewer people traveling on the official road in anticipation of the holidays.

This kind of slowdown happened every year at the end, not due to any issue with the food, so Hua Xiaomai wasn’t anxious. Having nothing else to do, she gathered Chun Xi, La Mei, and Zhou Yunyun to make a lot of salted meat and sausages, as well as pickled cabbage and radishes with mustard. Pork was also essential. She planned to share some with each of them, while the rest would be taken home for New Year provisions.