The Eldest Daughter of a Rural Family
Chapter 257 The Eldest Sister is so Capricious (3)_1

Chapter 257: Chapter 257 The Eldest Sister is so Capricious (3)_1

Pei Yuan gave her a glare, telling her to stop complaining. She could see that her eldest sister didn’t think much of Feng Bo, so there wasn’t much of a chance there anyway.

Pei Qin always based her relationships on first impressions. For instance, she didn’t like the look of Feng Bo; since he was a distant cousin, giving him a hand was no big deal. Then there was Fang Liuming, who, despite his bookishness, was barely palatable to her. When he insisted on learning martial arts, she found him a bit more tolerable, so she didn’t hesitate to give him some pointers.

While Pei Qian was complaining, Pei Qin was already busy preparing festival foods for the fifteenth day of the eighth month.

Mooncakes—Chang’s house had given them two pounds, the Wang family had also given them two pounds, and there were other pastries. Pei Qin saw some being sold in the store and bought another two pounds. With several pounds of mooncakes, they had plenty to eat.

The next day was the fifteenth of the eighth month, and it was market day in Taiping Town.

Pei Qin ground all the cooked sweet potatoes into a paste, mixed them with sugar and sifted flour, then, pushing out her stove to the front of the noodle shop, she set up her stall to sell fried sweet potato balls.

During the Mid-Autumn Festival, every household would buy mooncakes and meat for the celebration. Even the poorest families would find a way to have a decent reunion meal.

The children were especially happy, as they could eat mooncakes for the festival.

The freshly fried, fragrant and sweet potato balls were affordable, attracting many people to try them. They found the taste unusual, like dough balls but not quite, both chewy and sweet.

Pei Qin just sold them without any explanation.

These unusually soft, sweet, and chewy sweet potato balls quickly became a favorite among both adults and children. For just a few copper coins, one could buy a large paper bag full. By the end of the market day, two buckets of sweet potato paste were sold out, all turned into fried balls.

Pei Qian, counting the money, said, "Eldest sister, let’s sell sweet potato balls from now on!"

"Hmm! How many hands do you have?" Pei Qin asked her.

"We can sell them in the noodle shop!" Pei Qian, knowing they were too busy to handle extra work, suggested selling them at the noodle shop on the side. "After we’ve delivered to those few households, we don’t have much sweet potato left anyway. If we sell a little bit every day, it will be just in time for the new harvest in November."

Pei Qin just gave her a look, "We’ll sell when we feel like it, and won’t bother when we don’t!"

Pei Qian was taken aback, suddenly feeling that her eldest sister was so capricious!

Pei Yuan and Pei Wendong felt the same way. But since opening the noodle shop, they had to stay busy roasting peanuts and working in the fields. Indeed, it was exhausting, and although selling sweet potato balls could earn them extra money, they couldn’t overexert themselves to death. They weren’t so desperate for that bit of money that they’d risk getting sick from the effort.

Meanwhile, Pei Qin was thinking about closing the noodle shop. She had planted so many soybeans, they had to be put to use sometime. It had been almost a year since her transmigration, and she hadn’t tasted even a drop of soy sauce. Without chili oil, the fried meat was bland and pale. She longed to make red-braised pork and cook other dishes that just weren’t possible without sauce!

Producing soy sauce took a long time, yielding a batch only once a year. She wanted to start the process now, so she could have soy sauce ready by next year.

After walking around the fields, Pei Qin called over Sun Quanliang to mark off a few acres beside the road and clear them for her use. Then she looked for Sun Dashun, asking for his help in building a workshop.

Sun Dashun had taken some work in another village and wasn’t in a rush. Hearing that Pei Qin’s project was urgent, he said he would discuss things with his other clients and prioritize building her workshop first.

Only after Chang Yonglin had finished celebrating the fifteenth day of the eighth month did he come over and bring a pile of food and necessities.

Every household was busy shucking corn.

Pei Qin took a blueprint to Sun Tiezhu for a hand-cranked, standing corn sheller.

Since Sun Tiezhu’s family owned no land, Zou Xing went home to help with the corn while he worked alone, rushing to finish orders. Seeing Pei Qin’s design for a hand-cranked, vertical corn sheller, he immediately took her to the Zou family.

As Zou Xing was pulling corn, he spotted Pei Qin jumping down from the donkey cart and felt a surge of joy and excitement. He grinned, unable to help himself, and said, "Pei Qin! What brings you here?" He didn’t even notice Sun Tiezhu.