As soon as Chun Qin Nuan opened her eyes, it was already around 2 o’clock in the middle of the night.
"Uh..." Qin Xiangyang rubbed his eyes, groggily climbing down from the heated brick bed, and half-squinting, he reached under the blankets, grabbed some clothes, and started to dress Qin Xiangnuan.
"Does Nuannuan need to pee? Brother will take you."
Black lines slid down Qin Xiangnuan’s forehead.
She was old enough not to need anyone to take her to the bathroom.
"Brother," she shook Qin Xiangyang, "Hurry up, let’s go make pancakes and earn some money."
"Earn money?" Qin Xiangyang sat up startled, "Earn money, how?"
Qin Xiangnuan had already climbed down from the heated brick bed and found her shoes, quickly putting them on. Qin Xiangyang also hurriedly jumped down and slipped on his shoes in haste.
In the kitchen, Qin Xiangyang helped light the fire while Qin Xiangnuan made the scallion pancakes. She had prepared the dough the night before. This dough was used to make Conghua thousand-layer pancakes, which were quite similar to scallion pancakes except that, being leavened, they had a certain thickness.
She planned to sell two kinds at once, baking one of the thousand-layer pancakes, which could be cut into several pieces. This way, she could make several cents at once, saving time.
She finely chopped the washed scallions, ready to use, adding a pinch of salt to them, and from the leavened dough, she tore off a piece, sprinkling some dry flour on both sides to prevent sticking, and rolling it out with a rolling pin into a large, thin sheet of dough. She evenly spread a layer of oil on the surface of the dough sheet, then sprinkled the chopped scallions, rolled the scallion-covered sheet into a long strip, then coiled it into a round lump, and carefully rolled it out again with the rolling pin to make it bigger and thinner.
She still used the method of frying the scallion pancake, not baking. Frying made the pancakes crispy and flaky with a nice color. After the pancake was done, she sprinkled a layer of sesame seeds evenly on one side. She cut one pancake into four pieces. Inside the big pot stove were scallion pancakes, and on the stove were Conghua thousand-layer pancakes. She thought that if business was good today, she would have to add another stove.
She had her brother borrow a tricycle from Aunt Hua, paying Aunt Hua two cents a day for the use.
Aunt Hua didn’t want it, but no matter what, no one likes to be always taken advantage of, not even the closest kin, let alone them who were actually unrelated. Aunt Hua took care of them, which she appreciated, but she couldn’t always ride on Aunt Hua’s coattails.
"Brother, let’s go." Qin Xiangnuan pushed the cart from behind while Qin Xiangyang rode on the tricycle, preparing to head towards the station.
Actually, Qin Xiangyang was still in a fog, having been dug out of his blankets in the dead of night by his sister, made to light a fire and cook pancakes, and now riding on a tricycle, he was clueless as to what his younger sister was planning to do.
When they arrived at the station, they parked the bike by the roadside. Qin Xiangnuan and Qin Xiangyang unloaded several boxes.
"Hey, young lady, you’re finally here."
A lady rushed over as soon as she saw Qin Xiangnuan setting up her stall.
"I’ve been waiting for several days, I thought you weren’t going to come?"
Embarrassed, Qin Xiangnuan arranged her items and revealed a shy smile, "Auntie, I’m sorry, there was a little issue at home, so I didn’t set up the stall for a few days."
"Right, Auntie," Qin Xiangnuan opened another box, taking out the pre-cut pancake strips she had prepared.