Chapter 141: Farmhouse Meal Package
Hu Ming and Little Hu Liu returned to the village, feeling a mix of excitement and frustration.
The exciting part was: “Sister Xiaxia’s manor is doing amazing! Everyone inside is wearing ancient costumes! They even speak like people from the past!”
The villagers came to a sudden realization. “No wonder she wouldn’t let us up there to help. Turns out she already had everything arranged.”
The frustrating part, however, was: “Sister Xiaxia hired someone else to help, and she even brought her younger brother over.”
The villagers were surprised. “Her younger brother? The one born after her father remarried?”
Hu Ming didn’t know.
Little Hu Liu shook his head. “Probably not. That kid is even older than Hu Ming.”
Hu Ming had never even seen Jian Xingxia before, so it was highly unlikely to be a child born after Jian Xingxia’s parents divorced.
But the villagers hadn’t had much contact with Jian Xingxia either. It was only during the process of looking for her that they heard her father had remarried and started a new family, and that Jian Xingxia had a younger brother and sister. However, they weren’t entirely sure if these half-siblings were biological children from her father’s second marriage, or if they were children the woman had brought into the marriage.
As a result, the villagers felt even more heartbroken for Jian Xingxia. “Sigh, Xiaxia is far too honest a child. Her father actually had the heart to let her live all by herself in the mountains, yet she still took the initiative to bring her younger brother over for the summer holiday.”
Hu Da, however, was highly perplexed. “When did Xiaxia pick up her younger brother? How come I didn’t know about it?”
The other villagers didn’t know either. Ever since Xiaxia returned, people had been frequently entering and leaving the mountains. First it was the electricians, then Xiaxia’s classmates and friends, followed by people buying chestnuts, delivering goods, installing equipment, and paving the road…
Not to mention anything else, more than ten cars had rolled in this morning alone, and quite a few of those people knew Xiaxia.
“It’s possible he was brought in by an acquaintance in one of those cars.”
After all, the villagers couldn’t inspect every single car. At most, the driver would roll down the window to ask for directions; who knew how many people were sitting in the back seat?
Deep down, the villagers felt protective of her. They had been close to Jian Xingxia’s grandmother and considered themselves her maternal family; they couldn’t bear to see Jian Xingxia sad or bullied.
Ultimately, it was Hu Da who stepped forward as a village cadre to halt everyone’s runaway speculation. “Although Xiaxia is kind-hearted, she isn’t a fool. She managed to clean up the old house by herself and call so many people up to help, which shows she has a solid plan in mind.”
“We have no right to meddle in how her father treats her, but since Xiaxia called her younger brother over, it means she felt it was appropriate to do so.”
Shifting to the perspective of Lu’an Village’s poverty alleviation work, Hu Da added, “It doesn’t matter what we think. Xiaxia is the very first person in our village to successfully open an agritainment spot. Many of our old ideas failed to take off, but she made it happen. So we should just listen to her and cooperate with her.”
Hu Da warned the villagers, “Everyone has good intentions, but don’t take matters into your own hands. Ask Xiaxia first before doing anything.”
“You all heard what Hu Ming and Little Hu Liu just said. Xiaxia didn’t call us up because she has her own arrangements, not because she’s distancing herself from the village. Don’t go overthinking things!”
The villagers nodded repeatedly. “Right, we’ll just do whatever Xiaxia says and avoid causing trouble.”
“Exactly. Anyway, Xiaxia opening an agritainment spot is going much better than what we did before. My family’s orange-picking orchard is still there; if Xiaxia makes a success of this, I’ll be able to benefit too.”
“Stop overanalyzing. Xiaxia only said he’s her younger brother. What if he isn’t her biological brother, but a cousin, an adoptive brother, or the brother of an acquaintance? I think you guys are truly overthinking it!”
The villagers gathered at the village entrance, thoroughly debating the matter.
Their final conclusion was—A-Feng was likely the younger brother of an acquaintance, brought into the mountains by car, and the villagers simply hadn’t spotted him.
And their ultimate conclusion was—Lu’an Village hadn’t been able to establish an agritainment farmhouse or a pick-your-own orchard for so many years, yet Xiaxia had pulled it off. This proved that Xiaxia was a university student with creative ideas and a clear strategy, so the villagers should primarily focus on cooperating with her.
Just like that, without Jian Xingxia’s knowledge, the villagers reached a unified consensus.
Meanwhile, Jian Xingxia and Lin Sanniang were currently working alongside the plump auntie to prepare the farmhouse lunch.
While Jian Xingxia was leading the group for the picking activity, Lin Sanniang had received quite a few more people.
By eleven o’clock, 43 people had already booked lunch. After all, when visiting an agritainment spot, eating farmhouse dishes was the main event. Almost everyone booked a meal, save for a few who had eaten beforehand and arrived late, or those who had purchased a camping package and couldn’t pack away lunch.
Jian Xingxia told the auntie, “Let’s prepare food based on a fifty-person portion. Two meat dishes, one vegetable dish, and one soup. It’s best to prepare three varieties of meat dishes so we have spicy, mild, and non-spicy options.”
The auntie brandished her spatula. “Easy!” As a professional cook, she had already mapped out the arrangements long ago.
“The soup is already simmering—shiitake chicken soup, stewed in three large clay pots. Mistress Lin said our guesthouse doesn’t serve soup in large communal bowls but provides a small bowl per person, so three pots will be more than enough.”
Jian Xingxia gave Lin Sanniang a big thumbs-up. As expected, choosing Sanniang to be the manager lady was the absolute best decision. Even when she wasn’t around, Sanniang could arrange things perfectly.
The three of them discussed it briefly in the kitchen. Although the pots on the rural earthen hearths were massive, a single pot still couldn’t stir-fry enough food for fifty people. Since they had to split the stir-frying into multiple batches anyway, they might as well add a few quick-cook dishes. This would give the guests more choices and allow her to collect a wider variety of menu feedback. Since it was currently a trial run, everything was open to adjustment.
Jian Xingxia looked at the preparations the auntie had already made—the soup was simmering, the pork was rendered, and the meat slices were cut. She quickly made a decision.
“How about this: Sanniang and I will make two cold dishes—one chilled cucumber salad and one chilled shredded potato salad.”
“Then we’ll take charge of two vegetable dishes—stir-fried cabbage with pork cracklings and stir-fried minced meat with pickled cowpeas.”
“Along with two egg-and-meat dishes—stir-fried tomatoes with eggs and stir-fried green peppers with eggs.”
“I’ll handle the staple food; today we’ll provide rice and coarse grains.”
“Auntie, you decide on the heavy meat dishes. It’s best to have three.”
The auntie thought for a moment. “That’s simple. I’ll make three heavy meat dishes and add one light meat dish.”
The three heavy meat dishes were Sichuan poached meat slices made with pork, tea-oil duck, and velvet chicken slices. The light meat dish was stir-fried pork slices with celtuce.
The auntie said, “These few dishes don’t take much effort. Making enough for about a dozen people per batch should allow us to serve right at the noon hour.”
The tea-oil duck mainly involved braising and stewing, while the velvet chicken slices and poached meat slices were somewhat similar—one spicy and one non-spicy, both poached and finished with hot oil. Therefore, the auntie suggested adding a light meat dish to pair with the egg-and-meat dishes. This spread would offer three heavy meat dishes, three light meat dishes, two vegetable dishes, two cold dishes, and one soup.
Jian Xingxia felt reassured. For an agritainment farmhouse, a spread of this caliber was considered exceptionally decent.
Just as she was about to let out a sigh of relief and grab a sip of water, Lin Sanniang pulled her back.
“Miss, we don’t have enough bowls and plates!”
“Huh?”
As the opening date drew near, Jian Xingxia only had a little over a hundred yuan left in cash, but she was still missing many items. Left with no alternative, someone who had never used any post-payment schemes before braced herself to activate a “buy now, pay later” service. Although she had been poor in the past, she had never carried debt. Now, she seemingly had a massive estate but was actually penniless and had to borrow money to shop.
Jian Xingxia had purchased over two hundred pieces of bowls and tableware all at once, originally thinking that since the guesthouse only had six rooms, there wouldn’t be many people even if it was fully booked. Yet forty to fifty people had arrived in a single morning. They had even sold over a dozen breakfasts.
Lin Sanniang did the math. According to the individual plating system for lunch, a person would need at least one rice bowl, three food bowls, and one soup bowl. Even if the cold dishes were served on small plates, a single person would still require five bowls.
Lin Sanniang said, “Even if we wash the bowls from breakfast, we only have two hundred bowls in total, which isn’t enough for fifty people… How about we use plates to serve one of the dishes instead?”
“No,” Jian Xingxia shook her head. “Our trial run follows an individual plating system, and the portions are allocated per person. If we arrange them on a large plate, it’ll easily make the portions look incredibly small.”
She could guarantee that the portions she provided were absolutely enough to satisfy the appetite, but visual perception was the primary impression. The moment a meal was served with tiny portions placed on a massive plate, it would depart from the original intention of rustic, filling farmhouse food served in hearty bowls, easily triggering bad reviews.
Jian Xingxia mulled it over for a moment, gritted her teeth, and dialed Auntie Lu’s number.
