Chapter 1224: Chapter 1220: Mrs. Bai and Cheng Dagang Are Stunned (Fourth Update)

"From now on, I won’t just be buying everyone’s snails at one copper coin a catty. As long as I get the right chance, I’ll also teach you more ways to make money. I’m going to make sure the women of our Er Gui Village can live well-off lives too!"

Mu Shuangshuang’s words instantly moved these women who had no status at all in their own homes.

On normal days the women were all cooped up at home, either cooking for their menfolk, or going to the fields to help when it was time for spring planting and summer harvest.

Or they just stayed at home, earning a bit of Copper Coin by weaving cloth and making handkerchiefs to help out with household expenses!

These chores, this bit of money, maybe in other people’s eyes could still count as a sum, but once it was put on their men’s heads, it really wasn’t worth mentioning at all!

"Shuangshuang, since you say so, we’ll work hard too, try to earn more money. Whether it’s for household use or to buy little things for the kids, it’s all a good thing!"

"Exactly, we’ll work hard together and bring some honor to the women of our village!"

The women’s enthusiasm got pulled right up.

A few of the more capable ones picked up a whole bucket in just a few moves.

Mu Shuangshuang took out the scale she’d prepared beforehand and weighed the snails for the women.

A wooden bucket of snails was immediately exchanged for a little over twenty copper coins for them.

With that money paid out, all the worries in everyone’s hearts were completely swept away.

By the time it got dark, Mu Shuangshuang had collected ten buckets of snails.

Lu Yuanfeng and Xing Beichen came back from the training ground and were both a bit dumbfounded when they saw the ten buckets of snails.

Lu Yuanfeng had eaten snails twice last year, and that taste was still fresh in his memory even now.

The two of them looked left, looked right, and finally Xing Beichen spoke up: "Shuangshuang, you really plan to make this pitch-black stuff the signature dish of the restaurant? Won’t that scare people away?"

Xing Beichen had eaten countless delicacies in his life, but with these little black things from the fields, he truly couldn’t see what was so special about them.

"That’s not how you put it. Just because you haven’t eaten it doesn’t mean it’s not good! And you can’t accept it doesn’t mean other people can’t!

You’ve eaten bear paw, right? Monkey brain, right? I think those things are nothing special to you people in the Capital, but we country folk would never eat that kind of thing!"

Mu Shuangshuang said.

After hearing this, Xing Beichen found it made sense as well, but he still reminded Mu Shuangshuang.

"If this dish becomes the signature dish, that’s great; if it doesn’t, then you’re going to lose quite a bit of money here!

And on the way back, I heard the women saying that they’ll be heading out to the fields and ditches at first light tomorrow to look for snails!"

Mu Shuangshuang laughed. "That’s a good thing, Beichen. Give it three days. Three days from now, I’ll definitely make you believe I can pull this off!"

Freshly caught snails had to be put into a big wooden tub and soaked in water for three days.

During those three days, you didn’t need to feed the snails anything, and you had to change them into clean water every single day.

After three days, the snails would spit out all the mud and sand in their bellies, so they wouldn’t bother people when they ate them.

After listening to Mu Shuangshuang, Xing Beichen couldn’t help starting to look forward to it as well.

Three days later—

The snails that had been soaked and purged for three days were partly sent by Mu Shuangshuang to Qingshan Town, to Chengfeng Restaurant.

The rest were kept at the third branch.

Today was the day she’d promised Xing Beichen she would cook snails, so Mu Shuangshuang started preparing early.

There were mainly two ways of doing snails: one used big snails, stir-fried over high heat with dried chili.

The other used small snails, to make sucking snails. In Mu Shuangshuang’s eyes, apart from crayfish, the thing modern people accepted the most widely was sucking snails.

No need to say much about crayfish—they’d practically been eaten to extinction by the people of the country, and in the end basically could only be bred through artificial farming.

Snails had even disappeared from the borders of paddy fields.

Mu Shuangshuang had every reason to believe that these two dishes would add a lot of points to Chengfeng Restaurant in the future!

Once the stir-fried snails and sucking snails were done, Mu Shuangshuang went to call Xing Beichen, Lu Yuanfeng, and Cheng Dagang back for the midday meal.

Cheng Dagang knew Mu Shuangshuang was about to go big, so he’d gotten up early and arranged training for Lu Yuanfeng and Xing Beichen. The moment Mu Shuangshuang showed up, he immediately announced dismissal!

He practically ran all the way to the Third Branch of the Mu Family.

As soon as he entered the courtyard, he saw Mu Dashan and Yu Si Niang setting out bowls. Tonight, they were eating in the courtyard!

This was Mu Shuangshuang’s idea. She felt that in her last life, people always ate snails and crayfish at night-snack stalls, so this time she wanted to chase that same unrestrained feeling.

On the table were three small iron pots. Those were what Mu Shuangshuang usually used to make mandarin duck hotpot; now they were used to hold the snails.

Cheng Dagang was the first to come back, so naturally Mu Dashan and Yu Si Niang asked him about the situation.

"Uncle Cheng, where are Shuangshuang and Fengzi and Beichen? Why haven’t we seen them?" 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

"Well..." Cheng Dagang was a bit embarrassed. The reason he rushed back so fast was because he wanted to eat the good food.

But he couldn’t say that in front of Mu Dashan. After all, Dashan was his junior; losing face in front of a junior was not a fun thing.

Mrs. Bai knew her man liked to save face, so she gave Cheng Dagang a way out. "Did they want to practice a bit more at the training ground, and you were afraid you’d affect them, so you came back first?"

As soon as Mrs. Bai finished speaking, Cheng Dagang nodded again and again.

"That’s exactly it. That crazy kid and Beichen are so diligent with their training, they still don’t want to come back even now!

Oh right, what is this stuff? And what’s with those bamboo skewers? And these ingredients—I’ve never eaten them before!"

Whether it was the stir-fried snails or the shell-on sucking snails, the aroma was rich and full.

The fragrance was so strong it hit you right in the nose; you could smell it from far away!

"We don’t know either; better let Shuangshuang explain!" Yu Si Niang said.

Yu Si Niang felt this was something her girl had made, so naturally the girl should be the one to explain it.

Otherwise, if they just babbled nonsense, they might ruin the charm of it.

Taking advantage of the moment when Mu Dashan and Yu Si Niang went to the kitchen, Cheng Dagang secretly popped a piece of stir-fried snail into his mouth.

The flavor of the snail had barely entered his mouth when Cheng Dagang cried out in excitement.

"Th-this taste..."

"What’s wrong with the taste?" Mrs. Bai wouldn’t sneak food, but seeing her man’s expression, plus the smell from the snails in front of her, she was getting tempted too.

"Just try it and you’ll know!" Cheng Dagang deliberately played mysterious. He picked up a piece of snail meat with his chopsticks and stuffed it into Mrs. Bai’s mouth.

Almost at the same moment, Mrs. Bai’s reaction was exactly the same as Cheng Dagang’s.

"How can this stuff be so delicious? I’ve never eaten anything like it!" Mrs. Bai said.

"Me neither. If I’d known there was something this tasty in the world, why would I ever have left the Capital back then!"

Overjoyed, Cheng Dagang shook out that little secret from his heart.

All his life, Cheng Dagang loved martial arts, but he loved good food even more.

Back when he was a General, the Emperor had rewarded him by granting him a whole bunch of cooks!