CHAPTER 586: CHAPTER 311: BEGGAR (PART 5)

After signing the contract, the farmer’s wife finally dared to bring the children out, curiously looking over the new tenants of the house.

As soon as the wife stuck her head out, Qin Huai was stunned.

He recognized the farmer’s wife!

He had seen her in Luo Jun’s memories!

This was the farmer who rented their house in Shu to Jiang Weiming for a private home-style restaurant, cleaning the yard every day so Luo Jun could read the newspaper there.

Her son was the one who always sneaked into the kitchen from the back door to eat and drink for free, calling Jiang Weiming "Ming Ming." Though he was from Shu, he had been led astray by Jiang Weiming and spoke with a Beijing accent.

Qin Huai instinctively looked at the farmer’s three children, trying to find the chubby boy.

Couldn’t tell.

The farmer had two sons and a daughter; except for the young daughter, the two sons looked about the same age, and just by looking at their faces, Qin Huai couldn’t identify them.

When An Youyou saw the farmer’s wife, her eyes lit up instinctively. She wanted to kneel and beg for food, but Jiang Weiguo stopped her with a single glance.

No choice, her professional instincts were too strong.

Since they were very satisfied with the house (many rooms and beds), An Youyou paid six months’ rent very happily, a total of 18 silver coins, rapidly depleting her small savings.

As soon as they left the yard, An Youyou eagerly wanted to return to the broken temple to move.

Although there weren’t many belongings, there was a box of matches, two bags of coarse salt, and several clay jars. An Youyou had already lost 18 silver coins and couldn’t bear to lose these possessions too.

Jiang Weiguo had to rush to work in the city and didn’t have time to accompany An Youyou to move, so he reminded her not to forget to go into town to purchase some supplies after moving. Woolen blankets and clothes could wait, but they needed to buy two grass mats. Four people sleeping in one room might not be enough space, some might have to sleep on the floor.

After hearing this, An Youyou was shocked again and thought renting a house wasn’t good. Originally, sleeping on the floor with some straw was fine, but now if they slept on the floor they needed to buy grass mats, which was truly costly.

But An Youyou still nodded and then eagerly started moving.

While moving, she happened to encounter a woman doing laundry in the yard, who smiled and told An Youyou there was plenty of firewood in the kitchen. If she wanted to cook with wood today, she could use the firewood in the kitchen first. The wood seller came early every morning; it was 2 copper coins for a bundle, she could buy wood or collect it from the woods herself.

An Youyou noted this and decided to arrange for the younger brothers to check the woods starting tomorrow.

Previously, living in the broken temple made collecting wood from the nearby woods convenient. Now, that wasn’t possible, so she had to assign someone to handle these tasks.

After moving, An Youyou first admired the house she had rented for the hefty price of 18 silver coins and then went into town to shop.

Grass mats, new clothes (for herself), new bowls (for herself), candied haws (as a reward for herself), fatty meat, white flour, sorghum rice, millet, polished rice, and various beans.

She didn’t buy cabbage. She had arranged with the woman in the yard to have a few younger brothers help fetch water in the evening, and the woman would give her a few heads of cabbage.

With so many purchases, An Youyou had to make several trips, yet after buying the last batch of stuff, she had spent just over one silver coin.

Thinking about the 18 silver coins she had paid that morning, An Youyou felt a chest pain that made it hard to breathe.

In the evening, An Youyou returned to the broken temple, waiting for the younger brothers to gather, then led them all to the river to wash themselves and their clothes, roasting by a campfire until their clothes were half-dry before energetically heading to their new home.

Throughout the journey, An Youyou repeatedly stressed the new house’s rules to the younger brothers: keep clean, collect firewood, help fetch water, no stealing, and emphasized that they were different now—they were no ordinary beggars but high-class beggars who could afford to live in a blue stone brick house.

High-class beggars must do high-class things.

Like waiting until Jiang Weiguo came back in the evening to make meat buns for everyone.

Upon hearing they’d have meat buns, several younger brothers arrived at the new home swallowing their saliva along the way.

Beggars who had never entered a brick house before were amazed by such a high-class house. They froze as they entered the yard and saw the rooms, like Granny Liu visiting Daguan Garden, afraid to touch or move anything, only daring to stare straight ahead. Afraid that a glance would be missed, worried after two seconds that the boss would tell them, "Sorry, wrong place; our home is the mud house next door."

After An Youyou let the younger brothers choose their own rooms, they cheered, as happy as celebrating the New Year.

Oh, not quite right—beggars don’t celebrate the New Year, so they were even happier than celebrating the New Year.

Just like yesterday, Jiang Weiguo came back very late.

When Jiang Weiguo returned, the younger brothers had already chosen their rooms, each cherishing their own space. Whether sleeping on the bed or the ground, they were particularly happy because they had seldom slept on either grass mats or beds.

The woman had given An Youyou five fresh heads of cabbage, more than enough for bun filling.

An Youyou excitedly dragged Jiang Weiguo into the kitchen, wanting to watch Jiang Weiguo make buns.

This was a command from the top; Jiang Weiguo, being the 13th younger brother, couldn’t refuse. Although sometimes An Youyou squatting near the stove was quite in the way, always blocking Jiang Weiguo from tending the fire, he had to multitask, chopping filling, kneading dough, wrapping buns, stoking the fire all at once.

Surprisingly, the efficiency was quite high.

What Jiang Weiguo called meat buns were actually cabbage buns commonly sold at many breakfast shops. Fresh cabbage finely chopped and seasoned; to give the cabbage buns some fat and prevent them from tasting too bland, many breakfast shops also chop some fatty meat inside for extra flavor.

Jiang Weiguo had excellent knife skills.

Qin Huai had been practicing knife skills lately, and the first thing he noticed when chefs cooked was their knife skills. Whether it was the speed of chopping, the grip on the knife, or the angle of slicing, Jiang Weiguo was clearly professionally trained, a skill acquired from childhood.

In this era, childhood training was either apprenticing from a young age or a family tradition, whatever it was, it indicated that Jiang Weiguo’s family background was quite good before.

Although being a chef couldn’t make someone aristocracy in this time, it was still a decent occupation.

Compared to his knife skills, Jiang Weiguo’s kneading definitely wasn’t as good. The white mixed sorghum flour was already hard to knead, not to mention in this era, neither the white flour nor the sorghum flour bought by An Youyou was of good quality. The white flour was actually not white, it was gray, not white at all.

Watching Jiang Weiguo knead, Qin Huai could easily point out 2 to 3 major mistakes and seven or eight minor errors.

But none of that mattered.

Because Qin Huai could tell, Jiang Weiguo was a standard meat chef, his pastry was just casually practiced.

Regarding An Youyou, it didn’t matter either.

Because she couldn’t see any problems, just thinking Jiang Weiguo was really amazing, he could actually knead dough.

Jiang Weiguo was the only high-level person An Youyou knew who could knead dough. Previously, An Youyou always thought buns were very high-end food, as they cost money and weren’t cheap; it was hard to get them while begging.

An Youyou watched Jiang Weiguo kneading dough, chopping filling, mixing filling, wrapping buns, stoking the fire, and steaming buns, practically with glowing eyes.

Quite rare for her to remain silent throughout the whole process since her mind was entirely on the buns in the pot.

Finally, the buns were ready.

The color was not attractive.

Well, buns made from mixed sorghum flour wouldn’t look good.

An Youyou couldn’t wait any longer.

She scooped a ladle of water from the bucket, washed her hands again, and then impatiently reached into the pot to grab a bun.

Took a big bite.

The strong biting force was astonishing.

"Oh my, this is too delicious!" An Youyou exclaimed, "With skills like these, why would you work miscellaneous jobs at Fu Ji? You should sell buns!"

Jiang Weiguo: ...

"This money was well spent, renting a house is great, renting a house means buns every day!"

"Tomorrow I need to beg properly, remember to come back early, I want buns again tomorrow!"

Jiang Weiguo: "Do you really have to beg?"

"Of course, begging is the most promising job in the world, oh dear, I told you, you wouldn’t understand."

"Right, when I was begging at the teahouse entrance, I heard the storyteller inside say that moving requires a good meal... called what... some Qiao..."

"Housewarming meal, also called warming pot meal, warming house meal."

"Yes, yes, that’s it. Next time I move, I want to eat these buns again!"

"It’s just so delicious!"

Qin Huai left the dream.