Chapter Fifteen: Selling Meatballs Made by Herself

  At night when lying in bed sleeping, Mrs. Qiu again carefully told Mr. Qiu what the girl said in the afternoon about making tofu to sell.

  Qiu's mother thought it was easy, the tools were readily available, and all they needed to do was take some soybeans from their own home, work a bit hard, and the tofu would definitely be made. But after making it, who would go sell it?

  Qiu's father and mother are both working, Qiu's father's job is such that even if he's not there, it doesn't make a difference, but he still can't just leave his post whenever he wants. If others find out that he's leaving his post during work hours to sell tofu, that would be asking for trouble.

  Qiu dad thought for a moment and said: This method is worth trying. We can make more tofu in the morning, you usually get off work around 10 o'clock, right? Then you can push the tricycle to Central Street at 10 o'clock, passing by the 4th floor district on the way, and also sell some tofu to exchange for beans. You can't be late until Central Street, and you should arrive before lunch break. It's just that my wife has to work hard, this busy work will last until afternoon, and it won't be possible to return until after 12 o'clock when the market is over.

  Qiu's mother listened seriously to her husband's words, hearing him say he was afraid she would work hard, and she quickly expressed: I'm not afraid of hardship, as long as I can earn money, let the two children have a good life, and in the future, there will be money for education, no matter how bitter or tired I am.

  She was really moved by the girl's words today, and in the future, the money for the two children to go to school and get married is not a small amount. If it were just relying on the dead salary of the two people, it would be really not enough. There are no rich relatives at home, and the brothers and sisters back home don't bother them, so there's basically no hope. So she should take advantage of her youth to work hard, even if it means being a merchant that everyone looks down on, as long as the children live well, that's all that matters.

  Qiu Dad was silent for a while before saying: "Then let's give it a try, my daughter is so young and dares to try, what are we afraid of trying? I'll go borrow a pushcart from Old Liu tomorrow, if we really make it work, we can weld one ourselves. I'll come back at noon to cook for the kids, then go pick you up on the way home, your lunch will have to be late."

  Qiu's father also decided to give it a try, what's the big deal about selling some soybeans? Even if they can't sell them all, the girls have already thought of ways to make up for it, so they won't lose out.

  It's just a bit late, it won't be too long, can you not sleep at noon? I'll be back in the afternoon and can rest then. You still have to go to work, every day getting up at 3 am, no rest at noon, after a long time your body will suffer. Mrs. Qiu started worrying about her husband's health, every morning at 3 am he would go with her to the tofu workshop to make tofu, usually just taking a nap in the afternoon was fine, but if he did it as he said, he wouldn't have time to rest.

  Nothing, I'm just idle at the unit every day, just a gatekeeper, in the afternoon I can take a nap anywhere in the unit. The nature of Qiu's work is to be a gatekeeper, it's just that this door is a bit special, so it was given a good name, cold storage administrator.

  "Then let's try?" Qiu Ma asked uncertainly.

  Let's give it a try. Qiu Dad said firmly.

  The next morning, Qiu Ye woke up early and saw her brother finishing breakfast and rushing to school with his backpack. It was only then that she remembered a question - hadn't her brother done any homework since he came back from school yesterday afternoon? He's about to enter fifth grade, the teacher can't not assign homework, right?

  Qiu Ye finally figured it out, Qiu Feng went to school so early just to copy homework. Qiu Feng has always had a dream in his heart, which is to become a soldier. He has been considering whether to follow his mother's example and join the army after graduating from elementary school, or to follow his father's example and join the army with culture after graduating from junior high school. He doesn't like studying very much, so he is very conflicted.

  As soon as Qiu Ye entered the kitchen, she saw a large bowl of tofu dregs and a thermos on the stove. She knew it was her father who had brought them back for her. Last night before going to bed, she had asked her father to bring back the tofu dregs and soy milk when he came back to cook in the morning, so as not to waste time running to fetch them. Her father was strong and could carry more back.

  Qiu Ye saw that there was no sign of her father in the kitchen, and on the dining table outside, there was only her own breakfast. She knew that her father had already gone to deliver breakfast to her mother and would then go directly to work.

  When she was alone at home, she started rummaging through the kitchen to see what seasonings they had. She found only salt, MSG, soy sauce, vinegar, and a bit of sugar. Looking at these things in front of her, she sighed that it's really "a good cook can't make a meal without rice".

  Finally, she gritted her teeth and closed her eyes, taking the risk of being beaten by her mother, used a small bowl of oil at home to scoop up a plate of peanuts, and then found an iron box that was originally used to hold dried persimmons in the corner of the warehouse. The dried persimmons inside had been eaten long ago, but there were still some crumbs left under the box, which must have been forgotten by her siblings, otherwise these crumbs would have also gone into their stomachs.

  Qiu Ye mixed peanuts and rice crust together, crushed them with a rolling pin, then rolled them into fine crumbs. Then she added more salt and less MSG to it. Adding more salt is mainly to make the dipping sauce a bit salty. The cost of this seasoning is quite high, so we can't give too much to the meatballs, or we'll lose money.

  Then she felt like something was still missing, oh yeah, add some chili powder, that's when it has flavor.

  She put all the seasoned dipping sauce in the original box of the fruit oven.

  After a glance at the time, it was still early. It wasn't until then that she remembered she had been busy since getting up in the morning and had forgotten to eat. She rubbed her growling stomach and ate the cooled-down breakfast with hot soy milk.

  Then I learned from Qiu's father last night, adding some flour and radish shreds to the tofu dregs, boiling a pot of water, and making boiled dumplings.

  However, learning and doing are still different. Qiu Ye's first few meatballs all fell apart, she stopped her actions and thought carefully about her father's method. Since she was also a cooking master in her past life, after a little contemplation, she understood where she went wrong.

  Qiu's father had great strength, when he pinched the dough, one hand could pinch it into a solid ball. She was only an 8-year-old child and tried to pinch the dough with one hand as well, but how could she possibly make it solid?

  Afterwards, Qiu Ye used both hands to squeeze the pills with force, although it was a bit laborious, but indeed they didn't scatter again.

  Qiu Ye kneaded until around 10 am, and then cooked all the dumplings. She counted them, and there were 234 in total, each roughly one circle smaller than a ping-pong ball. More than 200 of them filled two big bowls.

  Qiu Ye looked at the time and thought it was about right, so she packed everything up neatly, including herself. Especially her hands, which she washed repeatedly. After all, she's in the food industry now, so of course she had to be clean, and also give people a sense of security.

  She wanted to find a white coat at home to wear, which would make her look cleaner. However, after searching around, she couldn't find one and had to take out a cotton-padded white shirt with floral patterns from her mother's closet. She put it on, which reached down to her knees, although it looked a bit mismatched, but still clean. She decided to wear this to sell the rice balls. Then, she found a pair of white gloves in her father's labor insurance package in the cabinet. She took out a pair and wore them with a hat, carrying things and setting off.