After three days of recuperation, Wei Dongling bounced out of bed. She made a long list for Cui Huan and asked her to buy a bunch of ingredients.
Luo Xunlong took Cui Huan to the market and carried back all kinds of fruits, candies, and tea. He asked Cui Huan in great confusion, "Lang and the others haven't come back yet. When will the few of us finish eating all these?"
Cui Huan smiled and said, "These aren't for us to eat. Miss Wei said she's going to figure out how to make something called bubble milk tea!"
Luo Xunlong was extremely astonished. "What's bubble milk tea? I've never heard of it."
Cui Huan's eyes curved into a smile. "It's right that you haven't heard of it. I haven't either."
Luo Xunlong burst into laughter.
So, Wei Dongling spent the whole day in the kitchen with Cui Huan. After wasting countless ingredients, she finally came out with a pot of tea. She poured a cup for Ruan Niang and Luo Xunlong respectively.
The two took a sip and couldn't help but praise repeatedly. "It's delicious!"
Ruan Niang looked at the few granules at the bottom of the cup and asked, "What's this?"
"This is tapioca pearls."
Ruan Niang stared blankly and asked, "Shouldn't pearls be white and round? Can they be used to make tea?"
"No, these tapioca pearls are edible." Wei Dongling was very satisfied with the finished product. Then she turned around and went back into the kitchen to tinker with taro balls.
At night, Wei Dongling made a mess in the kitchen. Finally, she managed to make fairly satisfactory taro balls.
Cui Huan looked at Wei Dongling, whose face was smeared with white and black stains, shouting and jumping around. She couldn't help but bend her eyebrows with laughter.
Wei Dongling hugged Cui Huan excitedly and said, "I've been craving bubble milk tea for years. Now I can finally drink it. Wuwuwu..."
There was a new teahouse called "Night Rain on the Bashan Mountain" diagonally opposite the Listening-to-the-Wind Teahouse. Although the prices were quite high, it had been packed with customers in the past few days.
Cui Huan leaned against the window and looked at that teahouse several times from afar. Her eyes were red with envy.
Wei Dongling was lying on the table, planning the varieties and prices. She waved at Cui Huan and said, "Don't envy them. We'll win by quantity. We're definitely going to rake in a fortune."
Then she asked Luo Xunlong and Yu Haiming to go to the bamboo forest in the outskirts to buy a large number of bamboo tubes and reed stalks and transport them back to the capital.
Three days later, the Listening-to-the-Wind Teahouse took down the sign of being closed and opened for business.
Wei Dongling invited a troupe to play gongs and drums and sing for a whole morning. She also asked Cui Huan, who was neatly and refreshingly dressed, to come forward from time to time to promote and explain their newly launched milk tea.
There were bubble milk tea, taro ball milk tea, red bean milk tea, honey pomelo tea, jasmine tea, longan and red date tea, peach gum and tremella tea... Cui Huan introduced them with full emotion according to the promotional slogans designed by Wei Dongling, which attracted a large crowd. The Listening-to-the-Wind Teahouse was almost instantly packed with customers.
Ruan Niang and the others had never seen such a scene before. They were busy collecting silver and serving milk tea of various flavors to the guests.
In the kitchen, Wei Dongling led Luo Xunlong and Yu Haiming to fill the cups and scoop the tapioca pearls. They had prepared eight big barrels of milk tea, and all of them were sold out in the morning.
Ruan Niang and Cui Huan kept bowing and apologizing to the people at the door who wanted to buy milk tea. "We're really sorry. We didn't prepare enough. Please come again tomorrow! There will be a 30% discount for everyone tomorrow!"
Everyone was exhausted after a morning of hard work, but when they counted the silver, they were surprised to find that the income was much more than the total income of the Listening-to-the-Wind Teahouse during its opening days.
Wei Dongling was so excited that she danced with joy. Everyone was also overjoyed.
Ruan Niang quickly went out to buy raw materials. Luo Xunlong and Yu Haiming drove the carriage to the outskirts and ordered a large number of bamboo tubes to hold the milk tea.
The eight big wooden barrels they had originally prepared were increased to twelve, and two more big pots were added to the kitchen.
For three whole days, the business of the Listening-to-the-Wind Teahouse was extremely booming. Everyone was busy running around. In contrast, the "Night Rain on the Bashan Mountain" teahouse opposite was almost deserted.
Wei Dongling's injuries were gradually getting better. She was lying there happily, counting the money until her hands cramped. Her appearance made Ruan Niang and Cui Huan burst into laughter.
Cui Huan pursed her lips and smiled. "Miss Wei, it seems that the 'Night Rain on the Bashan Mountain' teahouse opposite has completely closed down after just a few days of business."
After counting the money, Wei Dongling calculated the profit with an abacus. She was beaming with joy. She waved at Cui Huan and said, "There must be some powerful forces behind their teahouse. We can't offend them. Their teahouse mainly offers various high - end teas, while our milk tea is mainly aimed at female customers. In fact, there's no conflict. Everyone just makes money by their own abilities."
The next day, the carriage of the Prince's Mansion passed by the door. Pin Hao took two bamboo tubes of milk tea and got back into the carriage to hand them to his master.
Shangguan Yun looked at the brown milk tea in the green bamboo tube with a reed stalk inserted in it. He frowned slightly and asked, "What's this?"
Pin Hao inserted the reed stalk and took a big sip. He replied, "Milk tea. It's sweet."
"I don't want it. Take it away."
Pin Hao looked up at the Young Master Yun and said softly with a smile, "This milk tea was created by Miss Wei. It's the most popular drink in the capital at the moment, without a doubt."
Hearing this, Shangguan Yun raised his handsome eyebrows slightly. He couldn't help but take a sip and praised, "The taste is actually quite good. Did she really make it?" Then he lifted the curtain and looked towards the Listening - to - the - Wind Teahouse. He saw that the entrance was already bustling with noise and activity.
Shangguan Yun was unconsciously lost in thought.
After selling all the milk tea, Wei Dongling closed the teahouse early and went to rest. She specifically left a small pot of milk tea and asked Cui Huan to send it to the girls in the Fragrant Night Pavilion. After Cui Huan filled the bamboo tubes and sent them in at the back door of the Fragrant Night Pavilion, the girls all praised it and couldn't put it down.
Just like this, when the epidemic in Xingshan was finally under control and Uncle Li and the others returned in triumph, they were stunned by the scene of the Listening - to - the - Wind Teahouse in front of them.
Lin Baiwan was dumbfounded looking at the few people who were as busy as spinning tops. When he went back and opened the ledger, he was even more shocked. He clapped his hands and laughed, "My girl is really good at doing business. She has my style back then!"
Uncle Li and the others scolded with a laugh, "Brother Lin, do you still have any sense of shame?"
Since Uncle Li and the others came back, Wei Dongling had much less to do. Lin Baiwan took her place to collect the silver. The tapioca pearls and taro balls that she used to make by herself were now made by A Cheng and the others.
She could finally sleep in again. Her injuries had also recovered quite well.
One day, Ruan Niang ran over happily and told Wei Dongling that Old Su's eye disease showed signs of improvement under her careful treatment.
"Really? Ruan Niang, you're amazing!" Wei Dongling was extremely excited when she heard this. She kept shouting, "We really should do more good deeds. Even God is blessing us!"
Cui Huan deeply agreed.
The few of them unanimously decided to go to the Lan Mountain Temple to burn incense and pray for Old Su.
So, early in the morning on the first day of August, Yu Zixi drove the carriage and took the female guests straight to the Lan Mountain Temple.
Ruan Niang looked at Luo Xunlong who insisted on squeezing into the carriage and joked, "Are the two of you in love deliberately showing off your affection in front of me?"
Wei Dongling laughed so hard that she was shaking. She hugged Ruan Niang's waist and waved her hand boldly. "Ruan Niang, tell us. Do you have someone you like? If you do, no matter how far away he is, we'll go and tie him back for you!"
Ruan Niang blushed and pretended to be angry. "You naughty girl. Now you can tease me, right?"
This made everyone burst into laughter.