HLnovel Chapter 240 I guess there is no commission
Chapter 240 I guess there is no commission
When the waiter heard that the people were fleeing famine and settling in Kyoto, he guessed that the person staying with them must be a scholar or a juren, otherwise he would have gone to the inn across the street.
He immediately greeted, "Sir, please come in!"
Shen Zhiqiu waved his hands quickly: "I am a scholar, but I am not worthy of being your master."
In the Daqing Dynasty, people were not considered servants of the family. Generally, only after becoming a juren could they be addressed as "master" by outsiders.
But the scholar is not qualified yet.
Seeing this, the waiter immediately changed his tone: "So it's the scholar, please come in, who's behind this?"
Shen Zhiqiu pointed at the hesitant crowd and said, "They are all my family. We have booked eight large bunk beds. I don't know if we can get to the back hall. What we have..."
The waiter understood but replied embarrassedly: "Sir, please come in. If you go around, you have to go out of the yard and use the back door. It will rain all the way."
Shen Zhiqiu asked, "Where should we put the carriages and luggage?"
The waiter was even more embarrassed: "You have to go through the back door too."
Well, we have to go to the back door anyway, so there's no need to make a mess in the lobby. Their feet and legs are covered with mud.
The rain boots are worn like big toe shoes. I guess if you walk through the lobby, the mud you sweep up is enough to build a mud-brick house.
Another stick of incense later, Shen Zhiqiu and his companions had settled the animals and put away their luggage.
The innkeeper heard from the waiter that they refused to enter the lobby because he was afraid that their footprints would be all over the lobby and affect other guests, so he deliberately went through the back door.
The innkeeper opened an empty woodshed and let them store their things for free. He also asked them: "Do you have a lock on your things? Try to lock it yourself."
It is obvious that they are asked to pick up the lock themselves, and they feel relieved, and others will not take any responsibility.
After putting away the things and getting the room ready, everyone started to wipe themselves, changed into dry clothes, and hurried to boil water. They had to wash themselves anyway, as there was still mud in their hair.
There was really no chance to stand, and the adults started to prepare to go to the kitchen to boil water.
Even the young boys went to fetch water, leaving only girls like Shen Youyou and the old man staying in the room to look after the children.
The shopkeeper was really kind-hearted. Seeing how miserable they looked like, all soaked to the skin, he didn't despise them and gave them a woodshed to store their things for free.
He also called the waiter: "Go make some brown sugar ginger water for them. I see there are elderly people and children here, let them cool down a bit."
The waiter muttered, "The price of brown sugar has gone up."
But he still went as instructed, and when he was boiling ginger water, he happened to meet Shen Zhiqiu and others who came out to boil water.
The waiter greeted, "Sir, you caught a cold before, so just wait inside. We will bring hot water in a while. There is always hot water in the kitchen."
How could Shen Zhiqiu feel comfortable doing this? There are so many of them. How much hot water would the post station need?
He quickly said, "Let's do it ourselves. There are many of us. We all want to wash. But we can't go out to collect firewood. We have to use yours first."
The waiter smiled and waved his hands: "Since you are staying at the hotel, it is only natural for us to provide hot water. Besides, it's just a few pieces of firewood. Our shopkeeper asked me to make brown sugar ginger water for you. I see your clothes were soaked before you came in."
Seeing the other person's good attitude, Shen Zhiqiu also smiled and said, "The wind was blowing on the road, and the rainwater has poured into my raincoat."
In fact, the inn was about to close, and the chefs in the kitchen were cleaning the kitchen and preparing to go to bed.
Shen Zhiqiu and the others came at a really bad time, so even though they were extremely hungry, they just asked the girls to take out some of the remaining dry food and feed them to Grandpa Shen and the kids.
Just now, a few old ladies were saying to Li Jingshu and the others, "The shopkeeper is so kind that he took care of us and even gave us a free firewood room to store our things. Let's not trouble him too much. Wait until the kitchen staff is done, then we'll go in and cook, and clean up after we're done."
So no one told the waiter about the meal. When he said he would make them brown sugar ginger water, they were very grateful. Some old men were even polite: "No need to add brown sugar, we kids can drink ginger water too."
Mainly, I'm sorry, how expensive is brown sugar?
But after the shopkeeper closed the front hall, he came over again, worried: "Sir, have you not eaten yet at this time?"
Mrs. Hua said cheerfully, "I haven't eaten it yet, but we can steam it ourselves, so you guys can take a break."
If it were somewhere else, Mrs. Hua would definitely not say this.
If it were any other post station, in a situation like today, even if the daughters-in-law wanted to steam their own dry food, the old ladies would not let them do so.
You have to know how to live but you can't be so reckless. I'm really exhausted today.
But the shopkeeper had already taken good care of them, and they didn't want to trouble them anymore, after all, there were so many of them.
Moreover, they charged 300 wen for a large bunk bed, which was already the lowest price at the post station, and they didn't ask for more at all, after all, there were many people living there.
On weekdays, the inn is better, and one or two more people can squeeze in, but the post station usually charges one person for one berth.
There were more than 200 of them, and they could sleep more than 30 adults and children on the kang or floor.
Don’t say that the merchant inn only charges 200 wen. That’s the merchant inn. Even in their hometown, the merchant inn charges about the same price.
They were also grateful to the previous innkeeper. After all, there were more than just one or two people crowded around. As the saying goes, they met only good people along the way.
Of course, our grandfather’s recommendation doesn’t count.
After all, it's not that we are reluctant to spend more money to let others steam dry food, but they are really embarrassed.
The innkeeper waved his hand and said, "It's late now. You can eat noodles whenever you want. Hot noodles come with soup. They're filling and warm. They're not expensive. If you don't want to eat them, I'll ask the waiter to make you some buckwheat noodles."
Buckwheat, also known as triangular wheat, is known as one of the "eight ancient grains".
As its nickname suggests, buckwheat has triangular leaves and triangular fruits that are smooth and dark brown.
Buckwheat blooms from May to September each year, with most flowers being light pink, and a few being white. Its petals are slender, and each flower usually has five petals, tightly clustered together.
The most common buckwheat varieties are also divided into sweet buckwheat and bitter buckwheat.
The shopkeeper was talking about sweet buckwheat.
Shen Zhiqiu thought it was fine: "Then let's order some white noodles and buckwheat noodles. There are so many of us, so we'll probably need quite a few bowls."
The main thing is that I can eat it, and I’m really hungry.
The shopkeeper smiled and waved his hand, asking the waiter to inform the kitchen staff: "Don't clean up downstairs yet!"
But before the waiter entered the kitchen, he heard a loud bang in the kitchen.
It was obvious that someone in the kitchen was unhappy and had almost cleaned up the food, so they had to cook it all over again. There were nearly three hundred people coming at once. How many bowls did they have if each person got one bowl?
What's more, one bowl may not be enough for one person, and people may not eat the same kind of noodles.
Everyone fell silent immediately. Shen Zhiqiu smiled awkwardly: "How about we do it ourselves?"
He could understand this, saying that people were about to get off work, they were tired after a busy day, the kitchen had been cleaned, and they had to make noodles for so many people, hundreds of bowls at a time, so they were indeed not happy.
What's more, the kitchen staff probably don't get any commission! Who would be willing to work harder if they only get a fixed salary?