"Last time I bought five jin to take back," the old woman continued, "my family only ate two jin, and the other three were snatched up and divided by my brothers back home. They liked it a lot, so they asked me to buy some more, as gifts for them. By the way, you mentioned dripping some sesame oil on it before eating, I tried it, and wow, it really is delicious. My old man even scolded me for not telling him about this method earlier."
"Hehe..." An Jing also laughed, "I didn’t think of it at the time, but after I remembered, I told you first since you’ve been so supportive of my business."
Listening to An Jing’s words, the old woman felt quite content and heartily said, "This time, weigh me ten jin, four jin for my family, and two each for the three brothers back home. Divide it into four portions accordingly."
An Quangui had seen An Jing sell thirty jin of fermented bean curd in less than two hours, so hearing the old woman ask for ten jin didn’t surprise him much.
However, Shi Xiaolan and An Fu had not witnessed it themselves, and although they had heard about it from An Quangui, the experience wasn’t quite real for them. Now, seeing someone demand ten jin of fermented bean curd without even blinking an eye—ten jin worth a hundred coins—they both opened their eyes wide in astonishment.
An Jing caught sight of Shi Xiaolan and An Fu’s dumbstruck expressions out of the corner of her eye, which she found amusing, but she said nothing to them and instead gestured to Xiao Changyi to weigh the fermented bean curd.
Changyi was already in the process of weighing the fermented bean curd.
An Jing was very pleased with her husband’s initiative, and her smile grew wider, "Madam, please wait a moment, my husband will have it weighed and ready soon."
The old woman counted out a hundred coins from her purse and handed them to An Jing.
As An Jing took the money, she thought: The madam’s family must be living quite comfortably, certainly better off than the average farmer’s family, otherwise who would be willing to buy fermented bean curd so often?
"Madam, take care," An Jing politely said.
The old woman had already put the fermented bean curd in her basket and was turning to leave when she heard An Jing. She looked back with a smile, "Girl, I will come back to buy more!"
"Of course, Madam~" An Jing flashed an extra-big smile. These were the kinds of customers she loved the most.
"I’d also like one jin."
"Half a jin for me will do."
Following this, both returning customers and new buyers kept arriving at the stall ceaselessly, purchasing fermented bean curd from An Jing and Xiao Changyi. The popularity of the fermented bean curd continued to grow, compared to previous occasions.
An Jing even heard one woman say, "I actually made a special trip to West Market to try my luck and see if I could get some. I live in East Market and usually shop there, but everyone’s been saying how delicious your fermented bean curd is, so I wanted to try it. I didn’t expect to be able to get it as soon as I came over today; my luck is really good."
Had news of their delicious fermented bean curd spread throughout the entire Sixteen Town? Even people from as far as West Market were coming to buy it?
At that moment, An Jing felt that she might really be able to buy her husband a cow in the near future!
Due to the high demand, the forty jin of fermented bean curd sold out quickly.
Some women who hadn’t been able to buy any were reluctant to leave and pointed at the four unopened small jars in the basket: "Aren’t there still some left? Why aren’t you selling those? Are you picking and choosing who to sell to?"
"Big sister, please don’t misunderstand. Those four jars are reserved for Hundred Dishes Restaurant; they’ve already paid a deposit. We’re going to deliver them shortly. Since we don’t live in town, it’s quite troublesome to fetch them from our village, so we brought them all at once," An Jing explained.