Travel back to ancient times and open a Sichuan restaurant

Chapter 214

Zhong Ruyi and Chen Dongzhi pulled a cart full of watermelons to the door of Manxianglou.

The guy saw it and came out quickly, "Miss Zhong, you're back?"

He smiled and said, "Miss Zhong, you came at the right time. Our shopkeeper just came back from the restaurant."

Zhong Ruyi didn't expect that after so many days back, Manager Ding would come to see her probably about the dividend.

She asked Chen Dongzhi to pull the cart to the side and said, "Put it here first. Cover it with straw so that others can't see what's inside."

The waiter stepped forward and said, "Miss Zhong, we have a back door. If you're worried about losing your stuff, you can pull it in through our back door and put it in the backyard first."

"It's okay, just leave it here." She shook her head and took a watermelon out of the cart.

The waiter led the two to the small room that belonged to Shopkeeper Ding. Shopkeeper Ding was drinking tea inside. When he saw Zhong Ruyi, he smiled and said, "It's not easy! You're finally back!"

Seeing that she was holding a melon in her hand, she was a little confused, "What is this?"

Zhong Ruyi put down the watermelon in her hand, then reached out to take the teacup handed to her by Shopkeeper Ding, and said with a smile, "Shopkeeper Ding, this is the watermelon we grew ourselves. I passed by Manxianglou and brought one for you to try."

Chen Dongzhi played with the teacup in his hand without saying anything. He didn't know how to do business. If he could decide on a price, that would be fine. But he wasn't good at bargaining as he was very tongue-tied.

"Water melon?" Shopkeeper Ding thought he had misheard and almost reached out to pick his ears without caring about his image, but when he saw Zhong Ruyi nodded seriously, he stopped and his eyes unconsciously looked at the oval melon.

Afraid that he couldn't see clearly, Chen Dongzhi picked him up and held it in front of him so that he could look carefully.

After Shopkeeper Ding smiled and praised the man's arm strength, he couldn't take his eyes off the water melon.

After looking at it for a long time, I couldn't tell how it was the same as the watermelons I had eaten before, except for the same shape. However, the color looked very different!

Would it taste good? He was a little skeptical.

Seeing the disbelief on Manager Ding's face, Zhong Ruyi called out to a waiter who happened to be passing by the door and asked him to help send the watermelon to the kitchen to have it cut and sent over.

The guy took the watermelon and left happily.

Zhong Ruyi turned to look at Shopkeeper Ding and blinked, "It's like this, Shopkeeper Ding, I see that your Manxianglou business is quite big, I wonder if you would like some fruits and snacks?"

“…” Shopkeeper Ding.

So you want to close the deal before even letting me taste the melon?

Shopkeeper Ding rolled his eyes at her in annoyance and said, "What kind of fruit snacks are these? If they can satisfy me, then of course I need them."

"Don't worry! Uncle Ding! I will definitely satisfy you!" Zhong Ruyi smiled. He had just called him Shopkeeper Ding, but now he immediately changed his name.

The guy who went downstairs with the watermelon came back soon with a serving tray in his hand. On the tray was a semicircular watermelon and the other half of the watermelon cut into pieces.

The guy's face was still a little red. After delivering the watermelon, he didn't go downstairs. He just found a corner in the room and stood there.

He just went to the kitchen to find a chef to help him cut watermelon, but the chef was not available, so he had to do it himself.

So after cutting it, he secretly ate a small piece of the fallen pieces when no one was paying attention.

That taste!

Sweeter than any candy he had ever tasted!

He stared at Shopkeeper Ding, who was only busy talking and didn't even touch the melon on the table, and he could only feel anxious.

However, soon under his expectant gaze, Shopkeeper Ding took a piece of melon and started eating it.

So sweet!

Shopkeeper Ding's originally nonchalant expression suddenly changed. When the melon was brought to him, he thought the flesh was just a little redder than before.

But when he put it in his mouth, he realized that it was not only redder, but also very sweet!

Every year our restaurant spends a lot of money to buy a lot of water melons from those people who come back by boat. Not only does it cost a lot of money, but the water melons they buy are often half-cooked.

The flesh when cut is white with a slight hint of red, and it has a bland sweetness when eaten.

Unlike the melon now, it is sweet and juicy with a thin skin, and the flesh is crispy, sweet and delicious. It is simply a magic weapon to relieve heat in this hot weather!

After finishing the piece of melon in his hand, Shopkeeper Ding took out the handkerchief in his arms and wiped his mouth and hands with a look of reluctance.

"Did you really grow this melon at home?" Although the melon was delicious, he had never heard of anyone growing water melon here.

I have heard before that some people planted watermelon seeds, but either they didn't grow or they sprouted but withered soon after.

"Uncle Ding, if you don't believe me, come back to our village with me tomorrow and you'll know!" Zhong Ruyi directly invited him to go back to the village to see for himself.

She went on to say, "My family grows a lot of watermelons, while other families in the village don't grow much. But next year we should have more than this year. This year we're just trying it out. Uncle Ding, I remember your restaurant needs some too. What do you think? Do you want to buy from us? That way you don't have to go to the dock and compete with other restaurants for them."

Shopkeeper Ding was indeed very tempted, even though the price of the water melons he bought at the dock was already very high, not to mention the high-quality ones.

The water melons from Xinghua Village taste much better than those from the pier. I just wonder if the price will be as good as the taste.

He coughed twice and said, "It's good, but I don't know what the price is."

Zhong Ruyi gave Chen Dongzhi a look that said "It's done" and said with a smile, "I can't make the decision for the villagers, but we grow them ourselves, so the big ones are 200 coins each and the small ones are 100 coins each. Uncle Ding, do you think this price is appropriate?"

suitable!

Shopkeeper Ding almost couldn't control the expression on his face.

What a bargain!

Regardless of the size, each one brought back by the boatmen cost one or two taels of silver, and many of them had white meat inside when they were opened, without any sweetness at all.

The price that Zhong Ruyi mentioned is really tempting!

But he still asked, "Can you guarantee that every melon is of this quality? What if they don't turn out well?"

"Uncle Ding, in order to avoid quality problems with the melons, you can send someone to our fields every day to pick the melons until you are satisfied. However, my family has only planted more than one acre of melons. If another restaurant gets there first, then I..." She didn't finish her words, but Shopkeeper Ding understood the rest of her meaning.

"Then I'll do it tomorrow. No! Let's do it today. I'll go back with you to see how the melons you planted are growing." Shopkeeper Ding made the final decision.

The waiter and the purchasing agent sent by Shiwei Pavilion walked for half a day and finally arrived at Taohua Village. However, when they asked around, they found that people there didn't know what watermelon was.

After asking the people, the two stood there looking at each other.

Finally, the buyer scolded the clerk, "Isn't this the Taohua Village you mentioned? Which village is it? If this isn't done well, neither you nor I will have a good ending when we return!"

The boy almost cried. He remembered it was Taohua Village! That should be it, right?

He wasn't sure now.