Siheyuan: Walking the Path of Qin Huairu

The custodian was not grateful for the favor, so she was asked to pick two pieces of defective cloth, but she had to pay according to the regulations. Han Qingqiu picked and chose, and finally chose a gray piece and a navy blue piece. After paying the full amount, she found that so much cloth was too heavy and she couldn't take it back herself.

The custodian was very considerate and found a tricycle for her, saying that it would be delivered to her home for 30 cents. Han Qingqiu asked the driver to pull the cloth directly to Xu Huizhen's home.

When Xu Huizhen got home from get off work, Hu Yingzi had already prepared dinner, and Han Qingqiu was still there, waiting for her to come back. Xu Huizhen asked Han Qingqiu to stay for dinner.

Han Qingqiu was not polite either. She could see that Xu Huizhen's family had no shortage of food, so it was no problem for her to have a meal.

After dinner, Xu Huizhen looked at the embroidery cloth she had bought. Although it was not ideal, it was usable.

Han Qingqiu: "I also bought two pieces of defective cloth. They don't require cloth coupons and are cheap. I can't use that much by myself. If you need it, I'll give it to you."

Hu Yingzi had already examined the cloth carefully. She said, "Sister Huizhen, Auntie Han bought it for 7 cents a meter, and she didn't even ask for a cloth coupon. I've checked it. It has some minor flaws, but it won't affect its use. You can patch up the defective parts or embroider some flowers or something."

Xu Huizhen: "Okay, Aunt Han, you pick first. Give us the rest, they will always be useful. Yingzi, ask Jianmei if she wants some, but you have to pay Aunt Han."

Han Qingqiu: "No, it's not much. I just thought it was a good deal, so I bought a little more. I originally wanted to give it to everyone."

Xu Huizhen: "That won't work. These are two pieces of cloth, which cost several dozen yuan, which is not a small amount. But Aunt Han, you have established this relationship, so we can buy cloth when we need it in the future. It's quite cost-effective."

The three of them chattered for a while, and Xu Huizhen began to teach them how to embroider cross stitch, starting with the simplest one. She thought for a moment and decided to embroider a red word "happiness", which only had one color, was simple and suitable for practice.

Hu Yingzi was so excited at this time that she seemed to be injected with chicken blood. Her brother Jianshe had a job. If she wanted to work shoulder to shoulder with him, she also needed a job urgently.

Xu Huizhen painted a big picture for her: as long as she practiced her skills well, when the embroidery factory was built in the future, she could become a technician and a mainstay of the factory.

Xu Huizhen started with the most basic needlework and threading, explaining to the two people while embroidering. Han Qingqiu had a basic knowledge of Suzhou embroidery and was able to master it almost immediately. Hu Yingzi also studied very hard.

After giving a general introduction, Xu Huizhen let Hu Yingzi practice acupuncture by herself. Practice makes perfect and practice brings true knowledge.

Then she said to Han Qingqiu, "Auntie Han, draw a pattern for me and I'll embroider it. We need to embroider a few samples."

Han Qingqiu: "What do you want to embroider?"

Xu Huizhen thought for a moment and said, "We don't have many colors of embroidery thread now, and we don't have the conditions for something too complicated. I will embroider a sunflower and write something in the upper right corner, a red heart facing the sun."

Han Qingqiu: "Then what should I embroider?"

Xu Huizhen: "My grandfather has a painting of a galloping horse by Xu Beihong. Can you embroider it? There aren't many colors."

Han Qingqiu nodded: "Okay, let's give it a try."

Seeing that it was getting late, Xu Huizhen said, "Let's take our time. There's no rush. Aunt Han, you should go home and rest early. You're exhausted today."

After Han Qingqiu said goodbye and left, Hu Yingzi was still in high spirits and continued to study late into the night, while Xu Huizhen went to bed to rest.

Cai Quanwu has been running around these days to buy soybeans for Xu Jianmei. He first went to the surrounding villages and only received 100 to 180 kilograms. He also spread the word that the Daqianmen Tavern was buying soybeans and asked the villagers to sell them to him when they harvested them in the fall, but distant water could not quench immediate thirst.

Cai Quanwu used to carry large bags at the grain station and knew the director of the grain station. He bought two bottles of good wine and some dried seafood, and went to Director Ma's house in the evening. He told him that the tavern needed soybeans to make tofu. Director Ma promised to find a way to divert some of the supply from other units, which solved the urgent problem.

Now that we have soybeans, we can start making tofu. Xu Jianmei and Cai Quanwu came to find Xu Huizhen and asked if we could start.

Xu Huizhen said, "I just don't know how you want to operate it. One way is for you to work in the tavern, of course your main job is to make tofu, which is considered a temporary job, and you get paid monthly. Another way is for you to make tofu yourself, and the tavern is responsible for selling it, and the profits are divided between the two parties."

Cai Quanwu said: "I am in favor of splitting the profits. This way Jianmei will have more freedom, and I can also help her out in my spare time without having to do housework or take care of the old man."

Xu Jianmei nodded: "I heard nothing."

Xu Huizhen: "How about your family taking 70% of the net profit and the tavern taking 30%? This is just my personal idea. I still need to discuss it with Manager Gongfang."

Cai Quanwu expressed his opinion: "Huizhen, you decide. We trust you. Besides, the things we have decided are not set in stone. If they are unreasonable, we can adjust them later."

Xu Huizhen now has a lot of prestige in the tavern. Basically everyone agrees with her proposals because they know that they will not suffer any loss by following Manager Xu. Manager Cao also fully supports her work.

In this way, Xu Jianmei's tofu business officially began. On the first day, she soaked 15 kilograms of soybeans to try it out. One kilogram of soybeans can produce about four kilograms of tofu.

Cai Quanwu ground the soy milk for him in advance, and Xu Jianmei made it at home in the morning. The old man could also help her light the fire and deliver it to the canteen before noon.

Tofu dregs are also sold in the canteen. If they cannot be sold, the remaining ones are shared among everyone. In these days, nothing edible can be wasted.

On this day, Hu Yingzi was embroidering cross-stitch at home. She was tired and wanted to give her eyes a rest, so she took Li'er and four eggs and went to Jianmei's house.

"Sister Jianmei, I'll trade my eggs for some tofu dregs to feed the chickens at home."

Xu Jianmei said: "If you want tofu dregs, just take them. Tofu dregs are not valuable, so why take eggs?"

Hu Yingzi: "My chickens are well taken care of. They lay eggs every day. I'll give some to the old man as a side dish."

Mr. Li said, "Well, I eat tofu every day, and I'm tired of it. I want to eat eggs."

Xu Jianmei smiled and said, "Grandpa, you once said that you just loved tofu, because it was so soft that you didn't even need to chew it."

The old man said: "We can't eat it every day! Why don't we raise two hens? We have tofu dregs to feed the chickens anyway."

Xu Jianmei: "Grandpa, you are right. Why didn't I think of that? I will ask Quan Wu to buy some tomorrow. You can just wait to eat eggs every day."

The old man laughed and said, "That's great."

Li'er is now able to eat complementary food. When she saw the tofu, she stretched out her little hands, indicating that she wanted to eat it. Jianmei took a bowl and a spoon, crushed the tofu for her, and fed it to her.

She holds her little mouth and eats with such relish.