Transmigrated to Ancient Times with System

Chapter 26 Pickling Eggs

Once Li Yao finished preparing the meat sauce, She started picking eggs with family.

Wang Da Zhaung, rolled up his sleeves and set out the ingredients: fresh eggs, vinegar, garlic, and a selection of spices.

Li Yao began instructed them. "San, prepare the jars. Ensure they are sterilized thoroughly. Xiao, arrange the eggs in layers without overcrowding."

Wang Saner and Wang Xiao prepared jars and cleaned the eggs, while her daughter-in-law, He Xiaoyu, prepared the brine.

Li Yao demonstrated the process. "First, we need to boil the eggs until they're hard. Once they're cool, we'll peel them and prepare them for pickling."

The family worked efficiently together, boiling and peeling the eggs while He Xiaoyu prepared the brine. The brine was a blend of vinegar, garlic, star anise, and other spices.

She poured it into the jars, adding the peeled eggs and making sure they were fully submerged.

As they worked, Li Yao chatted with her family. "You know, pickled eggs are a great way to preserve food and add variety to our diet."

Wang Da Zhaung looked up from his work and said, "They do sound like a good idea."

After filling and sealing the jars, Li Yao placed them in a cool, dark storage area and reminded everyone, "We need to let them pickle for at least two weeks to develop their flavor."

By the end of the day, the family had worked together seamlessly, enjoying each other's company while preparing the pickled eggs.

"Mother." After dinner, Wang Da Zhaung shared the day's earnings. "We sold 500 servings today, earning 3,050 wen—3,000 wen from pork belly and lean meat and 1,500 wen from the meat sauce."

The children were stunned into silence by the impressive earnings.

With nearly 7 taels of silver earned in one day, they could finally build a house.

...

In the following two days, the braised food and meat sauce from River Bay Village gained fame. Not only did Autumn Restaurant's business soar, but even the braised food stand regained popularity.

Despite buying all the pigs they could find, they still couldn't keep up with demand.

Da Zhuang and his brothers were full of energy, and also had to braise food, so they got up earlier than chickens and slept later than dogs every day.

They needed to prepare almost 88 kilograms of food daily. With only Qian Er and Yan Zi helping, it wasn't enough, and Li Yao didn't want to be solely responsible for food preparation and dishwashing. She also preferred not to hire anyone from the Old Wang family.

So, Li Yao approached the Village Head.

"Recruit workers from the village?" The Village Head was puzzled, wondering why they didn't use their own family for the task.

"I have my reasons," Li Yao explained. "The main tasks are cleaning pigs, washing dishes, and cutting meat. The pay is 10 wen per person per day, and wages should be paid promptly."

"Alright, I'll spread the word."

The Village Head climbed a tree and announced the job openings loudly. After the previous bidding incident, villagers' opinions of Li Yao had improved. They hurried over in groups, including Shen Shi, who was eager to secure a job after losing the previous bid.
In her anxiousness, Shen Shi went straight to Li Yao, "Sister-in-law, please let me have this. Don't worry, I will do a good job."

Asking Village head to help recruit workers was so that Li Yao could avoid people getting the job through "backdoors". So she said, "It's up to village cheif to decide who to hire."

"For your family's matters, how could it be all up to him... We're all family..."

"You go sign up then."

Seeing that Li Yao didn't give her any face at all, Shen Shi was furious. But afraid that signing up late would ruin her chances, she hurriedly went to look for Village head.

In the end, over seventy people signed up, some even offering to work for less than 5 wen a day.

Village Head knew the villagers all too well, and quickly picked two honest women in their thirties who could work steadily.

Loudmouths like Shen Shi were directly eliminated, angering her so much that she stamped her feet and went to tattle to her mother-in-law.

"Village head, we already offered to lower the pay, how could you still pick them?"

"That's right, why not use the cheaper labor? Isn't that losing money?"

"Listen to me!" Village Head shouted, "Li Yao said it won't be long before she needs more people. Those who weren't picked, just wait for now."

"You must pick me next time!"

...

After the crowd dispersed, the selected Liu Sister-in-law and Hu Sister-in-law came to Li Yao's home.

The two honest women had never dared provoke Li Yao before. Now having to work for her family, they were still a little apprehensive. If they unwittingly displeased her, who knew if they would be scolded terribly or have their wages docked...

So the two kept their heads down working, washing the pigs and cleaning the dishes until they were spotless. After Li Yao inspected and saw no issues, she paid them on the spot.

"Come back tomorrow afternoon again."

On the way home, both were a little dizzy.

No matter how carefully one worked for others, no matter how easygoing the homeowners were, there would normally still be some petty fault found to nitpick and deduct wages. But this shrew Li Yao was actually so reasonable.

This definitely wasn't the Li Yao they knew!

Having two more people working made things much easier for Li Yao. She no longer needed to stay up all night, and was a lot more relaxed.

The five braised food stands earned 3,300 wen in profit each day, while the braised pork belly and lean meat made 3,000 wen and the meat sauce 5,000 wen. After covering daily expenses, the family netted 8,300 to 8,500 wen per day.

From the past two days, Li Yao's savings had reached 82 taels of silver, surpassing most commoners of this time.

The next day, Li Yao spent half the day circling the marketplace but only saw a few chickens, ducks, and goose.

The ongoing drought had led many people to stop raising chickens, ducks, and pigs. Li Yao planned to start raising goose.

After spending the whole day cycling through the market without finding any goslings, Li Yao decided to buy two hundred goose eggs instead.