Flowers in full bloom

Chapter 213 Selling Fish

It can be used in the other two farms of the family, especially by farmers who go to school and learn to read and count. Aunt Song and Ping'an also find it good, so they started to use goose feather pens when keeping accounts.

The rest were sold in his own bookstore, and some were also sold in Hua Qianbian Shop. They were not expensive, only 20 wen each, which was 30 wen cheaper than the cheapest brush in his own bookstore.

Many accountants of restaurants and inns buy quill pens. After all, they are cheap, easy to use, and can write quickly. Although the words written by the pen are less sharp than those written by a brush, and not as beautiful, I am just an accountant in a restaurant to make a living, not to participate in the imperial examination. Why should I care whether the handwriting is beautiful? As long as the handwriting is clear, it is fine. So the quill pen became popular for a few days.

However, few students who took the imperial examinations bought goose feather pens, and some even sneered at them. The flower buds didn't matter, if they could be sold, they would be sold, and if they couldn't be sold, there was no need to worry. Anyway, the goose feathers were from their own farm, so they didn't need to spend money to buy the raw materials. They could just spend some time and labor, and the goose feathers would be used as waste.

As for the production of the goose feather fan, Hua Lei only participated in the first half, because he felt that the sales volume of a single-color goose feather fan would not be very large, so Hua Lei unexpectedly went to the fields to find many plants that could be used for coloring, and dyed the goose feathers into many colors.

In addition to keeping the original white goose feather fan, Hualei also dyed a lot of red, green, and cyan goose feathers, and also used a variety of color combinations to make a lot of rainbow goose feather fans.

As for styles, the rough-lined Uncle Zhao actually made a rich variety of goose feather fans in different shapes, including fairy peach shape, herringbone shape, chicken heart shape, slight arc shape, full moon shape, and golden melon shape. Each style shows a different aesthetic appeal. Zhao Xiaohua also hung a beautiful fan pendant on the end of the fan handle.

The ordinary goose feathers, after Hualei's ingenious dyeing and Uncle Zhao's ingenious ideas, showed infinite charm. Once they were launched on the market, they were welcomed by many people, especially by many young ladies from aristocratic families. As the weather got hotter day by day, the sales of goose feather fans also became better day by day.

Rong Jin's ankle finally healed. Although he still couldn't take archery classes, he had no problem sitting in the classroom and listening to the lectures. So he continued to go to the Imperial College for classes.

It was early April, and Hualei's crucian carp was finally ready for the market. In addition to supplying several restaurants, Hua Qianbian's shop also placed several large wooden barrels at the door to sell fish. In order to sell more, even the steamed bun shop in Qingyun Lane placed wooden barrels at the door to sell fish.

At the end of March, Hualei took the fresh fish to the Imperial College and asked Lü Dianzhuan for help. As expected, Lü Dianzhuan refused her because it was not convenient to eat fish in the school cafeteria, as fish bones could easily get stuck in the throat.

There was no way, Hualei could only return empty-handed. However, this did not bother Hualei. If you don't like fish bones, then I can just remove them for you, right?

Hua Lei specially picked a few farmers with better knife skills from the slaughtering group, slaughtered and scaled the fresh crucian carp, dug out the gills and internal organs, cleaned it, and then peeled it. She also went to the blacksmith shop to order a few small rakes with iron teeth, scraped the fish meat from the fish, chopped it into fish paste, added rice wine to remove the fishy smell, eggs to enhance the flavor, and then added green onions and ginger to enhance the freshness. Finally, she stirred in one direction, squeezed out fish balls from the tiger's mouth with her hands, put them into the fish soup made from fish heads and bones, and boiled the fish balls in the soup for two or three minutes to set them, then scooped them out in a bamboo basket and drained them.

In order to add different flavors, in addition to the original fish balls, Hualei also added fresh mushrooms to the fish balls to make mushroom fish balls. Fresh chopped celery stems and leaves were added to make celery fish balls.

Feeling that it was still not enough, she made another portion of fish balls and fried them in boiling lard. The freshness and fragrance were overwhelming. Well, if she still couldn't conquer Lu Dianzhuan this time, Hua Lei decided to write her last name backwards.

Just like that, ten days after being rejected by Lu Dianzhuan, Hua Lei went to the Imperial College with a few wooden barrels to find Lu Dianzhuan. Although Hua Lei was very confident and felt that she could definitely win over Lu Dianzhuan this time.

But she still brought along Aunt Song, who was a good cook, and borrowed the stove from the Imperial College canteen. In less than half an hour, Aunt Song's fierce cooking resulted in freshly prepared mushroom, fish ball and tofu soup, celery, fish ball and egg skin soup, and fried fish ball and vegetable soup. She also made a dish of assorted fish balls fried with mushrooms.

Lu Dianzhuan, who was originally perfunctory, was drooling over the one dish and three soups on the table. After trying them one by one with a spoon, he was full of praise! He immediately agreed to add fish balls to the ingredient purchase list.

Lv Dianzhuan from Class D was conquered, and how could Feng Dianzhuan from Class A refuse such a delicacy? Therefore, fish ball soup was also served on the table of the students in Class A. Yes, the food delivery of Class A was also won by Hualei after the New Year holiday.

The fish balls were delivered to the dining hall of the Imperial College and also to restaurants. Hua Lei, who had always been worried about not being able to sell all the fish, was now worried about running out of fish. The fish buckets at the door of the steamed bun shop were put away, and soon the fish buckets at the door of Hua Qianbian's shop were also put away. However, the supply of fish balls was still a little behind.

As a substitute for fish balls, pork balls were introduced, and soon, the sales of pork balls surpassed those of fish balls. Therefore, Hualei set up a meatball production team to make various kinds of fish balls and pork balls for delivery to the Imperial College and restaurants.

The number of pigs slaughtered was twice as much as before, the number of pig bristles was twice as much, the number of toothbrushes made of pig bristles was twice as much, the number of braised food was twice as much, and Hua Lei's wallet was quietly bulging a little bit.

The bun shop also launched fish ball soup with buns and siomai. The vegetable soup and tofu soup provided free of charge to customers occasionally contain fish balls and pork balls in addition to the oil residue. The bun shop's business is even better.

Hua Lei also recruited a few women from the families of disabled soldiers to help out in the bun shop, which strengthened the cohesion between the bun shop and the farm.

The fish bones and fish head buds used in making soup were not wasted. The fish soup was mixed into pig feed, and the fish bones and heads were dried, ground into powder, and fed to chickens, ducks, and geese to supplement their nutrition. The chickens and ducks laid eggs more diligently, and Tian Xiaolian's workload increased a lot, and she made more pickled duck eggs.

Then Aunt Zhao from Baihua Manor was no longer available, so the flower cakes were still being baked every day, and the egg yolk pastries were also being baked every day. Hualei did not open a pastry shop, but she set up a reservation point at Huaqianbian Shop and Baozi Shop. The minimum order for the egg yolk pastries was 500 coins, and the minimum order for the flower cakes was 12, also 500 coins.