Chapter 38: Cooking For Milady
Translator: Fan Translation Studio
Proofread by Claire.KK
The chubby manger was a foodie and he had tried various of flatbread and pancakes in town. Most of them were simply added spring onions and eggs and it was the first time that he saw a flatbread with so many ingredients in it.
This flatbread was fried with golden-yellow on both sides which looked crispy and nice; plus, he had already tried Ye Xiaoxian’s cold jelly, so he judged that the taste of this flatbread must not be bad, so he bought two of them.
Once he tried, he raised his thumb and bought five more, saying that he would take them away back home for his wife and children.
All the shopkeepers saw the chubby manager enjoy the flatbread; besides, it was just about time to eat breakfast and as the in-town residents were used to buying something outside and taking them back home as breakfast, so in this case, there were several others coming over and buying the flatbread.
“This flatbread is nice. It’s actually meaty. That’s how you do business!”
“The sesames are great too. They taste great and crispy.”
“…”
Not before long, Li Hongmei and Xiao Baozhu had come as well.
Their business grew better after Li Hongmei came as she knew how to taut her goods and showed passion about it. Every time she spotted a passerby, she would greet them, calling them to come over and buy flatbread and cold jelly and she didn’t care even if she was rejected.
Though some of them were just here to buy cold jelly, Li Hongmei would promote their flatbread anyways. As she was so hospitable, others would feel the urge of not turning her down and it was just another two coins so they might as well buy a flatbread.
With the help of someone like Li Hongmei, Ye Xiaoxian felt that she could just concentrate on cooking nice food and leave promotion and stuff to Li Hongmei.
It was approaching to midday when the housekeeper of the wealthy family came over again.
The housekeeper was in his forties. Although his clothes were also made of coarse cloth, they were neat and tidy. A jade pendant was tied on his belt, which showed that the master he worked for had a well-off family background.
“Huh, you even sell flatbread today? You made this yourselves?” asked the housekeeper.
“Yes, yes. My daughter-in-law made them all and she was very good at cooking. Do you care for trying one? I’ll sell it for free if it isn’t tasty.” Li Hongmei wrapped one quickly with oil paper and passed it to him.
The housekeeper didn’t refuse but took it directly to his mouth. He didn’t show much emotion at the beginning but the more he bit, the more he felt satisfied and at last he took several big bites and finished it all.
“What do you think?” asked Li Hongmei.
“Nice!” the housekeeper looked at Ye Xiaoxian, “Young lady, have you learned this skill somewhere else before?”
Ye Xiaoxian smiled and replied, “I haven’t really. I just taught myself and cooked randomly.”
…
“Apart from cold jelly and flatbread, what else can you cook?” asked the housekeeper again, “like porridges or dishes?”
“Certainly!” replied Ye Xiaoxian.
The housekeeper then stopped asking and just bought half bucket of the cold jelly as usual with ten-something flatbread and left.
Ye Xiaoxian didn’t take it to heart but she did not expect that just at noon, the housekeeper came back again in a high spirit.
The housekeeper looked more excited than usual.
“Young lady, may I trouble you with something?”
“Trouble?” asked Ye Xiaoxian confusedly.
The housekeeper was still excited and said, “Well, my young lady is very picky about food, especially recently when she is not in good health and doesn’t want to eat anything. She only eats your cold jelly and she almost lives on your cold jelly recently, but one can’t rely on eating cold jelly, can she? Our master tries his best to let her eat food and have hired quite a few chefs, but she just refused to eat anything.”
The housekeeper sighed. “What a coincidence. I just took some of your flatbread and coaxed her to take a bite but she actually ate the whole thing so my master was thinking could it be that she only eats what you cook. So I’m here to invite you to go to our house to cook a meal for milady. If you can make milady eat, you’ll be heavily rewarded.”
“Well…”
Ye Xiaoxian listened curiously and exchanged glances with Li Hongmei.