"Really," the uncle nodded emphatically, "I’ve been asked so many times, but unfortunately, I don’t know when you would come, so I couldn’t give them a definite answer."
An Jing then said, "Making fermented bean curd takes time, at least seven or eight days to produce, so we can’t come to sell every day, Uncle. If someone asks you in the future, you can tell them that."
As she spoke, An Jing wrapped up four pieces of fermented bean curd and handed them to the uncle: "Thank you, Uncle!"
"No, no, no," the uncle refused to take the fermented bean curd, "It’s just a word’s worth of help; how could I take your fermented bean curd? It’s so expensive, and you should sell it for money, seeing that your life isn’t easy."
"These few pieces aren’t worth much, Uncle. Just take them. We know each other now. If you refuse, it’s like refusing to give us face."
Seeing that An Jing insisted, the uncle finally accepted but grabbed a handful of scallions from his vegetable stall to give to An Jing: "You take these too, or I’d feel uneasy."
"Alright, thank you then, Uncle." An Jing did not refuse the straightforward uncle.
An Jing wanted to ask for the uncle’s surname but before she could speak, she saw the old woman who had been the first to buy her family’s fermented bean curd, rushing towards her excitedly: "Girl, I’ve finally waited for you to come! Come, quickly give me five jin of fermented bean curd!"
An Jing was taken aback and asked, "Grandma, are you sure you want five jin?" She suspected she had heard wrong.
"Sure, sure," the old woman smiled and nodded repeatedly, "I’ve been waiting for you for many days. The one jin I bought last time wasn’t enough for my family, we have more than ten people, and they all love it. It was all gone before even three days, and I wanted to buy more, but you never came back to sell. Today, I finally caught up with you, of course, I will buy more. Didn’t you say it wouldn’t spoil for ten days to half a month? I will buy it and eat it slowly."
Only then did An Jing motion to Xiao Changyi to weigh five jin of fermented bean curd for the old woman and explained, "Grandma, making fermented bean curd takes time, so we cannot come to sell every day. We will probably come once every seven or eight days."
The old woman cheerfully handed her fifty coins.
As An Jing took the money, she once again smiled and said, "Grandma, when you eat the fermented bean curd, you can add a few drops of sesame oil on top; it will taste even better."
The old woman’s eyes lit up, "Alright, I’ll try it when I get back!"
Quite a crowd had gathered around the stall; most were people who had bought her fermented bean curd before. There were so many returning customers, which showed the allure of the fermented bean curd, and An Jing was very happy.
Apart from the old woman, the other returning customers each bought one jin, while the new woman customers, attracted by the ones who had tried the fermented bean curd and found it good, decided to buy as well.
However, everyone bought it in jin or half jin quantities.
But the problem was the large number of people. While there were hardly any customers at other vegetable stalls, An Jing’s fermented bean curd stall was increasingly surrounded by more and more people. An Jing was grateful to the returning customers for giving her a good start that day, otherwise, she might not have attracted so many people to buy her fermented bean curd.
As long as someone has bought it and finds it delicious and wants to come back to buy more, the word-of-mouth spreads, and the number of people coming to buy fermented bean curd will also increase.
Greatly exceeding An Jing and Xiao Changyi’s expectations, this time, without even using half an hour, all three jars of fermented bean curd sold out.
Even more so, there were quite a few women who had gathered around for a long time without being able to buy any fermented bean curd; clearly seeing that it was all sold out, they still did not leave.
Obviously, they were not content with not being able to buy any fermented bean curd.