Travel back to ancient times and open a Sichuan restaurant

Chapter 298

"Cui Cui, your cousin hasn't come back yet?" Zhong Ruyi turned sideways and asked Cuicui who was squatting with her cutting chicken food.

Zhang Mingzhu, who has been back for four or five days, has not returned yet. Her clothes are still in the room where she used to sleep. It doesn't look like she will not come back.

Cuicui shook her head. She felt a little uncomfortable that her cousin had not come back. After all, she had lived with her for several months. Now that her cousin had gone back, she missed her a little.

Anyway, he was going back to his own home, and nothing could possibly happen, so Zhong Ruyi just put the matter aside.

The next day after she asked, Zhang Mingzhu came back. She looked a little listless, but spoke normally.

Zhong Ruyi didn't ask any more questions. After all, this person couldn't keep secrets.

Sure enough, at night, she came and knocked on the door, holding a pillow in her arms without a quilt.

"Go get the quilt too. It's too cold at night and I don't want to fight with you for the quilt."

Zhang Mingzhu's sleeping posture was terrible. Every time she came to sleep with him, he would snatch away or kick over the quilt that she was covering herself with.

When the person came back with the quilt, Zhong Ruyi saw that she was still depressed and waited for her to talk.

"...Mingzhen got married."

"I know. Didn't you go back just for this?" Zhong Ruyi glanced at her and continued to sort out the restaurant's account book with her head down.

Although the restaurant is small, her daily income and expenditure must be recorded, and she has to check them every month.

He also had to remember the dividends from Manxianglou and Lao Wu Tavern, the expenses for materials in the workshop, and the quantities requested by the Yu and Fang families each time.

Seeing that she was busy, Zhang Mingzhu puffed out her cheeks and waited, afraid of disturbing her.

After she finally finished calculating the accounts, he continued, "My mother arranged a marriage for my brother right after Mingzhen got married."

When Zhong Ruyi heard this, she immediately looked at Zhang Mingzhu, "Did you use cousin Mingzhen's betrothal gift?"

"...right."

Zhang Mingzhen's betrothal gift was sixteen taels of silver, but Zhang Mingcong needed more than that to marry a wife. The betrothal gift and the wedding banquet would also require money, so after she returned home, Zhong Mei also said that she would arrange a marriage for her.

When the time comes, she will use her betrothal gift to help Zhang Mingcong start a small business so that the couple can live a better life.

She couldn’t remember the expression on her face when she heard her mother say this, but she would always remember that after she finished saying this, she saw Zhang Mingcong smile smugly.

Later, he told his mother, "Find a better family for Mingzhu, so that the bride price can be higher."

His mother gave him a reproachful look and said, "Of course, we don't even look down on those with low gifts."

It turns out that finding a better family was not for the two sisters to live a good life after marriage, but for Zhang Mingcong's own good.

The man's family is well-off, and the Zhang family asks for a high bride price. If Zhang Mingcong's life becomes difficult in the future, he can ask his two younger sisters to get things from their in-laws' family to support him.

Their marriage was carefully planned by their mother to prepare the way for Zhang Mingcong's future life.

I stayed at home for a few days. I don’t know why I felt it was okay and I could still get by.

But suddenly I felt a little suffocated.

Her mother asked her if her uncle gave her money to spend since she was living in his house.

She could only shake her head, turned around and secretly gave the 750 coins she brought back to her sister, asking her to buy something she liked.

This time, Zhang Mingzhen married a man who lived in the alley behind them. His family was in the sesame oil business. People from several nearby streets went to his place to buy oil. His family conditions were pretty good.

She secretly asked her sister and learned that she was satisfied with the marriage, and she felt reluctantly relieved.

Seeing her expression changing from time to time, Zhong Ruyi asked tentatively, "Why? Did your mother urge you to do that after you went back?"

After all, her younger sister, who is one year younger than her, is already married, so Zhang Mingzhu, as the elder sister, will naturally be urged to get married.

"...right."

Zhang Mingzhu looked at her sadly, thinking, how come you guessed everything? What else can I say?

"So what do you think? Listen to your mother's arrangements? Find someone she likes and then you marry her?"

"Of course not!" Zhang Mingzhu immediately retorted, "She doesn't like me, so when I marry, I'll naturally marry someone I like!"

"So what kind of person do you want to find? Rich? Treat you well? Or something else?"

Zhang Mingzhu thought about it and described it bit by bit.

He must be handsome, love his wife, come from a well-off family, and obey her.

Zhong Ruyi had a strange look on her face. "It's hard to find someone who meets all these requirements. You might not be able to find one even when you're 70 or 80 years old."

Sudden.

Zhang Mingzhu stammered, "Actually, I liked Chen Dongzhi at first... I was happy just by looking at him because he was so handsome."

As a result, Chen Dongzhi was engaged to his cousin early on. He didn't know it at the time and foolishly wanted to attract his attention.

? ?

Like Chen Dongzhi?

Zhong Ruyi glared at her, "You are such a good fellow, Zhang Mingzhu! No wonder Brother Dongzhi always told me that you rolled your eyes at him. It turns out that you were not rolling your eyes, but flirting with him?"

Roll your eyes?

Zhang Mingzhu also glared, "What kind of person is that! It's fine if he can't understand my expression, but why do you say I'm rolling my eyes?"

The two stared at each other for a long time.

Finally, Zhong Ruyi couldn't help but burst out laughing, "Anyway, that's what he told me. He thought you had some opinion about him."

Zhang Mingzhu shook her head, opened her mouth but no words came out, and turned over on the bed in frustration.

"I don't want to marry the person my mother picked for me. I just want to find someone I truly love."

Seeing her troubled look, Zhong Ruyi reached out and patted her shoulder, "Just let it go. What if you meet someone someday?"

Alas, it would be great if I could just let things take their course and meet someone I like who also likes me. Zhang Mingzhu sighed dejectedly, then pulled over the quilt and went to sleep.

*

The wedding date is ten days away, but Zhong Ruyi doesn't feel any nervousness as a bride-to-be should.

On the contrary, Chen Dongzhi, who had just started his honeymoon leave, felt a little anxious and had lost some weight.

Time passed in the blink of an eye, and on the wedding day, the Zhong family got up early.

Originally, Zhong Ruyi thought it would be as complicated as what was shown on TV, but in fact it was indeed quite complicated.

The Chen family had already invited people over to start slaughtering chickens, ducks and fish, and many people from the escort agency came to help.

Escort Master Duan and a few young men were slaughtering pigs and sheep, while Escort Master Hu and a few others were slaughtering deer. These two deer were hunted by Chen Dongzhi after he had been hiding for six or seven days before his wedding. They were left alive on purpose in order to slaughter them on the wedding day.

Seeing this scene, the villagers who came to help started drooling.

The Chen family's wedding banquet was too sumptuous. Not only were there chickens, ducks, and fish, but there was even venison.

You have to know that they don't have the ability to hunt for venison. Even if they are lucky enough to hunt one, they will sell it for money. They have never eaten such expensive things.

And this sheep was bought by asking people over several hills. The Chen family actually spent so much money to buy a sheep, which was really generous.

But when I thought about marrying Zhong Ruyi, I felt normal.

The future daughter-in-law can earn that much money a month. If they were in his shoes, they would also be willing to spend that money.

The chef was borrowed from Manxianglou, and Sun Tao and Aunt Zhao helped out.

There were about twenty aunts and sisters-in-law in the workshop who usually made canned food and did odd jobs preparing all kinds of vegetables and meat that would be used, frying what needed to be fried and roasting what needed to be roasted.

They start preparing at midnight before daybreak, and can just put the food into the pot before the meal starts. It is very convenient.

Although it was still late at night and the weather was gradually getting colder, the women did not feel cold at all. Instead, they worked very hard.

Most of them work in the workshop. In the past, Zhong Ruyi would always ask Li Guihua to take home some leftover scraps, which were usually some broken pork jerky or burnt meat floss.

It is also cheaper to buy canned food in the workshop because they have employee prices that others don’t have.

The salary is high and the apartment is close to home, with two days off per month.

These aunts are happy with their work, so naturally they are happy to come and help.