The night passed without incident. Early the next morning, Li Yi got up and helped his third sister make liangpi and pancakes!
Although the cold noodle business wouldn’t last much longer, they couldn’t just stop doing it overnight.
Besides, they’d been delivering cold noodles to the state-run restaurant all this time; they couldn’t just suddenly stop—that wouldn’t make sense.
So, Li Yi decided to make a trip to the county seat today—partly to deliver the goods, and partly to have a chat with Liu Jingshan!
Besides the cold noodles, the mushroom business was likely coming to an end as well. He needed to let Liu Jingshan know in advance so they wouldn’t be caught off guard!
After a quick meal, Li Yi and Third Sister loaded all the mushrooms they were going to deliver, along with their market stall supplies, onto the big red mule cart, and then the two of them set off.
The reason they were using only one cart was mainly because the cart pulled by the big black horse had been requisitioned by the production brigade!
After all, it was harvest season, and mules and horses were essential laborers!
In fact, a single capable mule or horse was worth far more than five strong laborers during the busy farming season.
Under these circumstances, Uncle Feng simply discussed it with Dad and decided to lend the big black horse to the production team for the time being.
Of course, the team wasn’t using it for free; once the harvest was over, they’d bring a few cartloads of buckwheat straw to the Li family to serve as winter hay for the big black horse and the big red mule!
Naturally, Old Man Li had no objections to this!
What Li Yi hadn’t expected, however, was that they ran into an acquaintance halfway there!
When he saw Li Gang and Liang Yukui getting out of the little 212 jeep, Li Yi was somewhat surprised.
“What are you two up to this early in the morning?”
Li Gang immediately replied with a smile, “What else could we be doing, heading this way?”
“What, you guys aren’t heading to Nianzishan Village to find me, are you?” Li Yi asked curiously.
“Yeah, we’ve been asked to come invite you out for a meal!” Liang Yukui said.
“Who?”
“Shall we talk about it in the car?”
Li Yi glanced at the bright red mule cart and said, “Forget it. You two drive ahead and wait for me at the entrance to the State-Run Restaurant. I’ll be right over!”
“Alright!”
Li Gang then turned the cart around and drove back into town with Liang Yukui!
Meanwhile, Li Yi drove the bright red mule cart, with his third older sister, Li Na, riding along, right behind them!
By the time the bright red mule cart arrived at the State-Run Restaurant, Li Gang and Liang Yukuai had already been waiting at the entrance for quite some time—and there was even an extra person standing nearby: Liu Jingshan!
As soon as he saw Li Yi, Liu Jingshan walked over with a smile and said, “You’re finally back, kid!”
“I’m back. How have you been, Brother Liu?”
“Not bad, but it’s getting cold, and the liangpi business isn’t doing so well!” Liu Jingshan said with a smile.
“Hmm, that’s exactly why I came to talk to you today, Brother Liu!”
“Alright!”
Li Yi then had his third sister handle the handover of goods with the staff at the state-run restaurant. After exchanging greetings with Li Gang and Liang Yukuai, he followed Liu Jingshan to his office.
Once inside, Li Yi got straight to the point: “Brother Liu, as the weather gets colder, fewer and fewer people are eating liangpi, so I plan to shut down the liangpi business in a couple of days!”
“Shutting it down completely?”
“Yep!”
“It’s fine if you stop, but what about us here? Even though fewer people order liangpi every day than before, we still sell several dozen portions. If you stop, we won’t be able to explain it to our customers!” Liu Jingshan said.
“I’ve already thought that through. I’ll teach the chefs here how to make liangpi, so you’ll be able to make it yourselves in the future!” Li Yi replied.
“This… this is amazing. Actually, Brother Li Yi, you really didn’t have to go this far…”
Liu Jingshan was so overwhelmed with emotion that he was stuttering and didn’t even know what he was saying.
It was no wonder Liu Jingshan was so excited; he knew just how booming the liangpi business was during the summer.
At its peak, Li’s siblings could sell five or six hundred servings of liangpi a day—it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call this business a cash cow.
Now that Li Yi was going to teach them how to make liangpi, Liu Jingshan felt both flattered and overwhelmed.
“Brother Liu, I, Li Yi, always mean what I say. I’d rather not say anything at all than make a promise I can’t keep!” Li Yi said.
“Hahaha, good brother, I certainly won’t let you lose out!” Liu Jingshan said happily.
“By the way, Brother Liu, the weather’s turning cooler these days, and mushrooms won’t be able to grow in the wild much longer. So in a few days, the mushroom business will be over—just letting you know in advance!” Li Yi added.
“Yeah, we’ve had a feeling this was coming!” Liu Jingshan replied.
“Brother Liu, if possible, try to stock up on some dried mushrooms while you still can. Prices for these things might go up this year!” Li Yi advised.
“They’re usually around 80 cents a pound every year—how much higher could they possibly go?” Liu Jingshan said with a laugh.
“Heh, you never know. Anyway, if you trust your brother, you should stock up!”
“Alright, I’ll have the warehouse stock up on them. We’ll need them anyway!” Liu Jingshan said.
“Mm-hmm!”
Just as he finished speaking, a staff member from the store walked in with a receipt and handed it to Liu Jingshan.
Liu Jingshan immediately turned to Li Yi and said, “Today we have 120 sheets of liangpi, 872 jin of mushrooms, plus 37 jin of wood ear mushrooms… That comes to 609 yuan and 4 jiao. Let’s round it up to 610!”
“Let’s round it up to 600!” Li Yi said.
“Alright, as you say!”
Liu Jingshan then had the cashier settle the bill with Li Yi right away.
Li Yi, remembering that Li Gang and Liang Yukuai were still waiting for him outside, didn’t linger at the state-run restaurant. He took the money and left.
Watching Li Yi’s retreating figure, Liu Jingshan couldn’t help but feel a surge of admiration. This was a man capable of great things—a kind of boldness he could never hope to emulate in his lifetime!
In truth, he had no idea that Li Yi had his own reasons for acting this way.
For one thing, Li Yi was well aware that the liangpi business was seasonal. While the entry barrier was low, the ceiling was also limited. Relying on this to make ends meet was no problem, but achieving great wealth and prestige would be difficult.
Besides, he didn’t want to make the daily trip to the county seat just for a few dozen servings of liangpi a day—it simply wasn’t worth it.
However, if he didn’t do it, it would inevitably affect the state-run restaurant’s business—and that wouldn’t be right.
After all, since they got along so well, it would be better to simply teach them the method so they could make it themselves.
Secondly, the method for making liangpi isn’t exactly rocket science!
The reason no one in Qing Shan County knew how to make it was mainly due to a lack of information.
In fact, decades later, most people would be able to make liangpi at home—especially the locals in Qin Province and the Hetao region. It would be embarrassing to call yourself a local if your family didn’t know how to make it.
So, this isn’t some closely guarded secret—there’s no need to act so stingy about it!
Of course, there’s an even more important reason: Li Yi was simply returning the favor.
He was well aware that in the mushroom business, he had benefited from the state-run restaurant.
Under normal circumstances, a pound of fresh mushrooms would fetch at most 40 to 50 cents; 20 to 30 cents was quite common.
Even with his ingenious secondary cleaning process and careful selection, they still weren’t worth 60 cents.
Not to mention that Liu Jingshan later raised the price to 70 cents—this was clearly a deliberate gesture to do him a favor.
Although he knew all this, Li Yi was short on cash at the time and had no choice but to accept his kindness.
As the saying goes, “He who takes a hand is bound by it, and he who eats from a mouth is softened by it.” Once you’ve received a favor, you have to repay it!
So whether he was teaching the chefs at the state-run restaurant how to make chilled lamb, modern-style grilled meat, or liangpi, Li Yi was simply repaying Liu Jingshan’s favor.
As for whether he was getting the short end of the stick, that wasn’t even a consideration for Li Yi!
After all, one should repay even the smallest kindness with great gratitude, and the timely help in a time of crisis was priceless—not to mention that he would never be selling liangpi from a street stall again.