Flowers in full bloom

Chapter 457: Replacement of Buns

If one person drinks it, others will follow suit. Slowly, the mint water in a wooden barrel was empty. Uncle Fu replaced it with a full bucket of mint water without complaint.

Hualei sat under the shade of the tree, watching the people drinking mint water carefully, and felt a little sad. Even though Shangjing City was already the richest capital of the Great Sheng Dynasty, there were still people living in dire straits.

At 3 p.m., Hualei stopped to rest again. After being scorched by the scorching sun for most of the day, the pioneers had consumed even more energy.

Therefore, as soon as Hualei stopped, many people lined up in front of the free vegetable bucket. The vegetable soup tasted really good, and it had a certain amount of salt and lard, which was better than the vegetable soup made at home.

At this time, they were even more hungry, and their mouths were steaming. The vegetable soup with the aroma of oil residue was too hard to resist. So, several large buckets of vegetable soup were empty.

While they were drinking the vegetable soup, Hualei asked Uncle Fu to start selling them his own steamed buns, saying that if they didn't want to spend money to buy the steamed buns, they could exchange them.

As long as tomorrow, everyone brings a handful of soybeans or mung beans from home, they can exchange them for two black-flour steamed buns, or one mixed-flour steamed bun. The vegetable soup will still be free. Starting from today, just register your name.

When everyone heard this, they began to calculate in their minds that a handful of soybeans would be about one and a half taels. If sold outside now, soybeans would be thirteen cents per pound, which would mean less than two cents. Mung beans would be about the same price.

I could exchange it for two warm, non-stale black-faced steamed buns, and there was also free vegetable soup, which was a good deal no matter how you calculated it. My family was reluctant to spend money, but a handful or two of soybeans could be exchanged for a day's food, which was still very cost-effective.

After thinking it over in his mind, as he had only brought one steamed bun with him today and had already eaten in the morning, he began to get restless.

"Uncle, can I really exchange it for a handful of soybeans? Can I do it today?" asked a starving man.

"Really? Our young lady is the owner of Yuanying Manor. Things can always be exchanged in Yuanying Manor. The people nearby know about it. You can go and ask around.

Don't worry, our lady won't cheat you. You can try it today. If you feel that you are at a disadvantage, you don't have to change it next time. It's just a handful of soybeans. " Uncle Fu said in a loud voice.

When they heard that it was the owner of Yuanying Manor, many people stood up. They didn't know Hua Lei, but they knew about the replacement of Yuanying Manor.

Many families or relatives of people at the scene have also gone to Yuanying Village to exchange tofu, dried tofu, toilet paper and other items. Yuanying Village has always been very fair, and there has never been any forced buying or selling.

So, one by one, they started to sign up, ready to exchange soybeans tomorrow. Soon, more than 150 steamed buns were sold out on credit. And Uncle Fu also filled several pages with notes.

The next day, the pioneers who bought on credit brought a handful of soybeans, some more and some less. Hua Lei told Uncle Fu not to worry about it, as long as it was about right. Then he gave the remaining black bun to the other person and put a tick behind the man's name.

Soon, all the 500 steamed buns brought today were exchanged. Many people who came with a handful of soybeans to give it a try were a little skeptical when they saw Uncle Fu really exchange the hot steamed buns with them.

They thought that if they took a handful of dried soybeans, they would not go bad even if they did not exchange them, and they could just take them home at night. However, when they really ate the hot and fresh steamed buns and the delicious vegetable soup, they finally believed it.

In the future, as long as they bring a handful or two of soybeans, they can solve the whole day's meals. It's so convenient. Moreover, they also saw that even if some people like to take advantage of small things, a handful of soybeans is a little small, this Uncle Fu doesn't seem to care much, and he didn't say anything, and directly gave the steamed buns. Moreover, the steamed buns were very solid, not smaller than the ones they brought.

So, in the days that followed, more and more people came to the basin with a handful of soybeans every day, and the business of exchanging flower buds for steamed buns became better and better.

A few days later, the people who were reclaiming wasteland in the basin nearby also started exchanging their own soybeans for Hualei's steamed buns. The free vegetable soup provided by Hualei also changed every day.

The vegetables that can be put into the soup are rotated. Sometimes a handful of sweet potato vermicelli is added to make cabbage vermicelli soup. Sometimes a few eggs are occasionally beaten into it to make vegetable egg drop soup.

Sometimes there is shrimp and seaweed soup, which is relatively rare in Beijing. Sometimes you can also eat two-color soup made of tofu, blood tofu and green onions. There are many varieties.

When they were lucky, the pioneers could also eat fish head and tofu soup made from fish heads. These were the leftover fish heads and fish skeletons when making fish balls on the farm. Hua Lei also asked Mrs. Luo to clean these fish heads and make them into soup.

Some tofu from their own tofu shop was added, although the amount was not much, sometimes each person could only get two or three pieces of tofu the size of a finger, but the taste was very good, which made the pioneers very grateful.

The mint soup that has always been provided for free is sometimes replaced with chrysanthemum tea, winter melon tea, and sometimes mung bean soup with a little yellow and white sugar added. Although the sweetness is not very strong, the taste is very good.

These chrysanthemums were made by Aunt Zheng from Baihua Village, who picked the chrysanthemums from the hillside. The winter melons were picked directly from Yuanying Village. The raw materials used were very cheap, but the taste was always good.

In winter, these teas were replaced by other hot soups. Therefore, after the twenty-day corvée period, the people who performed corvée changed one after another, but the business of exchanging flower buds for steamed buns was still going strong.

During the Imperial College's rest period, Hualei would take Xiaoyuan to the basin and personally scoop soup and hand out steamed buns to the people, so that Xiaoyuan could personally experience the suffering of the people and feel the difficulty of life. Before long, Rong Jue would often do these things with Xiaoyuan.

Ten days later, Uncle Fu and Mrs. Luo roughly calculated the business of exchanging steamed buns and found that they had basically made no losses, but of course no profits either.

After talking to Hua Lei, she just smiled and asked them to continue with the execution. Even if they lost a little money, Hua Lei could afford it.

However, Hualei didn't care about these efforts, but some people thought that Hualei abused her power to make a lot of money. Hualei's steamed bun replacement business had just been going on for about half a month when she was called over by Yu Mushi.