When Aunt Ye and Jiang Yuniang arrived, Qi Jiao was in the kitchen boiling oyster sauce.
They saw her sitting beside a small stove, constantly stirring the gray soup in the pot.
"Sister Jiao, what delicious thing are you making?"
Aunt Ye smelled the seafood aroma in the air and knew that Jiao must be cooking something delicious again.
Hearing their arrival, Qi Jiao greeted them loudly, "Mother and Sister Yuniang are here. I can't stop my hands for now. Come and sit in the kitchen."
There were not so many formalities in the countryside. Aunt Ye and Jiang Yuniang smiled and entered the kitchen. They pulled over stools and sat down.
Seeing their confusion, Qi Jiao smiled and said, "I'm making oyster sauce. It'll be ready when the water boils away."
As she spoke, she handed them the roasted sunflower seeds at hand.
Cracking the seeds, Jiang Yuniang pursed her lips and smiled, "The garlic-baked oysters you sent last time were really delicious. Is this oyster sauce made from oyster meat?"
Qi Jiao nodded. "We take the juice after boiling the oyster meat, and the essence after boiling is the oyster sauce. Just add one or two drops when cooking, and it can enhance the flavor and freshness."
Aunt Ye didn't want Qi Jiao to be too tired, so she rolled up her sleeves and came over to take over for her.
Qi Jiao said sweetly that her mother was the best, and then told Aunt Ye all about making oyster sauce.
She planned to make a batch of oyster sauce before the Chinese New Year.
It was impossible for her alone or the Pei family to finish making this batch of oyster sauce easily. She would surely need to ask others for help.
She could teach her godmother how to make it first.
Making oyster sauce was not a complicated process, but it was time - consuming, labor - intensive and required patience.
If the sauce burned while boiling, it would all be wasted.
Qi Jiao explained it in detail, Aunt Ye listened attentively, and even Jiang Yuniang wanted to have a try.
The three of them made a jar of dark oyster sauce while chatting.
Qi Jiao also boiled rock sugar and spice water to process the oyster sauce a second time to remove the fishy smell, making it look cleaner and more beautiful.
The oyster sauce was ready, and Aunt Ye and Jiang Yuniang were both curious about its taste.
Oyster sauce was made from extremely delicious oysters. It was best to keep it simple. Blanching could better highlight the fragrance and freshness of the oyster sauce.
Seeing the newly - grown big - leaf vegetables in the back yard, Qi Jiao picked two handfuls of tender vegetable hearts. After washing them, she put them into a boiling water pot and cooked them while pressing.
A little oil and sugar were added to the boiling water to keep the vegetable hearts crisp and colorful.
After they were cooked and fished out, Qi Jiao made a light sauce with scallions, garlic and oyster sauce using the water for boiling the vegetable hearts, and then evenly poured it on the vegetable hearts.
Aunt Ye and Jiang Yuniang picked up their chopsticks and took a taste. The vegetable hearts were tender and slippery in the mouth.
Aunt Ye never indulged in food, but she couldn't help but pick up chopful after chopful.
Not to mention Jiang Yuniang, who was pregnant and had a poor appetite. She suddenly felt her appetite whetted and thought she could eat three large plates of Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce.
Seeing them enjoy the food, Qi Jiao asked with a smile, "Mother and Sister Yuniang, tell me honestly. Can I sell this oyster sauce I made?"
Aunt Ye was an extremely reasonable elder.
She put down her chopsticks. After weighing the pros and cons in her mind, she said, "We harvest a lot of seafood in Yinwan every year, but it can't be stored for a long time. It's okay in winter, but when spring comes and the weather gets hot, the seafood can't be preserved at all. A lot of it rots on the way, and even the locals can't consume it all... I think your method will work!"
Qi Jiao smiled. "If so, Mother, will you help me?"
Aunt Ye had always made fishing nets for fishing boats or repaired fishing gear, earning hard - earned money.
Qi Jiao intended to ask Aunt Ye not to do these things anymore and instead help her. She would pay her a salary.
But she was afraid it would be too abrupt. With Aunt Ye's personality, she would definitely not take the money she offered, which would be counterproductive.
Now that there was this oyster - sauce business, it would be much easier to ask Aunt Ye for help and then share the profits with her.
Qi Jiao discussed it with Aunt Ye in detail along this topic. She asked her to find a dozen reliable women to collect oysters and complete the first step of making oyster sauce.
The remaining refined processing could only be done by Qi Jiao and the people she trusted.
Jiang Yuniang signed up first. Seeing the hesitation on Qi Jiao's face, she stroked her belly and said with a smile, "It's already been five months. The doctor said the fetus is stable. I'll just sit there and do some easy work. It won't matter."
Seeing that Aunt Ye didn't object, Qi Jiao said, "Okay. Sister, you just stay at home and boil the oyster sauce. Don't do those tiring and troublesome things. I'll pay you according to the quantity you make."
Jiang Yuniang said she didn't want the salary at all. "If I can eat the dishes you cook from time to time, I'll be satisfied."
Qi Jiao's lips curved. "That won't do. Family is family, and money is money. It's settled. It's too late today. We'll start officially tomorrow."
When Pei Xia came back, Qi Jiao had already estimated the costs of hiring people, packaging and selling. Pei Xia helped her add a little more.
Early the next morning, the two went to the county town to order a hundred narrow - mouthed bottles and fifty more beautiful and high - class small white porcelain jars.
Qi Jiao also ordered two hundred pastry boxes, including round hand - baskets and multi - compartment boxes, with the words "Handmade by Jiao" printed on them.
Since Qi Jiao had deliberately taught Pei Jin how to make pastries, and Pei Jin was willing to work hard and was smart and diligent, now Pei Jin could make at least twenty kinds of pastries.
Qi Jiao and Pei Jin could make hundreds of pastries together in a day.
In the next few days, smoke rose continuously from the Pei family's small courtyard. While the cold wind howled sharply outside, it was warm and lively inside, filled with the laughter and chatter of women.
The women Aunt Ye found, whether young or old, were all quick - witted workers.
From prying open oysters, boiling oysters, to filtering and boiling the paste, everyone was diligent and worked very hard.
The women were grateful to Qi Jiao for finding them a job. They could earn money to supplement their family income, and the work was relatively easy. So they all did their jobs seriously.
Every day, as soon as Tang Guiniang finished her work in the fields, she came back to join them.
Qi Jiao also gave her a task, which was to supervise and record - how much each woman made every day was recorded in detail.
Although Tang Guiniang was illiterate, she was very smart. She asked Qi Jiao to write down each woman's name on a wooden board, and then she used a charcoal stick to count in "positive" characters behind each name.
In this way, there were no mistakes at all in a few days.
The women also thought it was very fair, more work, more pay.
The hundred narrow - mouthed bottles and fifty porcelain jars were soon filled with the newly - made oyster sauce, and the previous batch of salted duck eggs were also ready.
Qi Jiao took out two porcelain jars of oyster sauce and two boxes of newly - opened salted duck eggs. She put instructions for consumption in the gift boxes and asked Ye Yun to take them to the Guo and Shu families in the county town respectively for them to taste.
On the other hand, she, Pei Xia and Tang Guiniang went out to find a market. They first went to the Zhu family in the town.
The Zhu family ran a grain store, and they had dealt with them before. Qi Jiao thought of them first.
Tang Guiniang grew crops in the fields. At the end of each year, when there was more than enough food, she often sold the surplus to the Zhu family.
Qi Jiao only asked Tang Guiniang to keep the soybeans and the amount of grain her family needed, and sell the rest of the rice and flour.
The mistress of the Zhu family was very capable. She managed the accounts of the store and also had to look after the store every day.
She was bowing her head to calculate on the abacus. When she looked up and saw Qi Jiao and the others, she quickly welcomed them warmly, "What brings you here! It's been a long time!"