When Jiang He and Madam Qian heard Su Tang say that she would continue to fulfill her end of their contract, they both breathed a sigh of relief and began to babble, “Thank you! Thank you, Miss Su.”
Su Tang sat quietly opposite the two people as they became obviously elated and happy, couldn’t help but say: “However, after the contract time of one year has elapsed, I will not provide any more fish balls.”
“Big Brother Jiang, sister-in-law, you two must have already seen that I have my own shop to run now, and I also have some other things I need to handle, so I no longer have time to get up early every day to fish up fish from the river and make fish balls for your shop.”
“Of course, because I have signed a one-year contract, I will honor it until the end. However, I’m afraid there’s nothing more I can do after that. “
Su Tang had arrived in this era around the end of July during the previous year, so the contract had been signed in early autumn, in August. Now, there was only around half a year left until August arrived again, so Su Tang decided to explain things to these two in advance. That way, she felt she would be giving them enough buffer time to come up with their own measures.
Jiang He and Madam Qian immediately understood what Su Tang was getting at. After all, even outsiders like them could tell that Su Tang’s Dessert Cafe was raking in money every day and business was extremely good. With a shop like that, it was natural that Su Tang no longer needed to sell her fish balls for a pittance anymore.
“We understand. It’s clear Miss Su is different kinds of people from us.” Jiang He sighed. They were both doing business, but the difference was really too big. At the beginning, he and his wife had already opened their noodle stall and, while their life couldn’t have been said to be rich, they were at least always doing okay. At that time, Su Tang had still been like any other peasant girl, with ragged clothes full of patches and looking very poor.
But now, less than half a year later, although their noodle stall had managed to improve their business a lot thanks to Su Tang’s fish balls and they had also made a somewhat decent sum of money, but by comparison, that poor girl covered in patches was already dressed in fine clothes and ordering the slaves she bought around.
Their starting points were obviously very different, but Su Tang could still so easily rise high up above them. Thus, it could only be said that they were different kinds of people with different kinds of talent from the beginning.
When Su Tang heard that she could only give her own thoughts noncommittally. “Anyway, I’ve made everything clear to you two in advance, so you should both be prepared. In fact, my fish balls don’t have any unique seasonings or method of preparation, they’re just made with a bit more care than usual. Big Brother Jiang, sister-in-law, I believe you two could do it too.”
In fact, this was her way of telling them that they could also make their own fishballs instead of relying on her. However, when Jiang He and Madam Qian heard that, they could only sigh. It wasn’t like they had never made their own fishballs before. However, not even mentioning the problem of carefully picking out all the tiny bones, the bigger problem was the problem of taste. They were all people who were living near the Qing River so, obviously, they knew how to catch and prepare fish.
But the thing was that the taste of the fishballs they made was not nearly as good as the ones made by Su Tang. Even if she said nothing was added, it was undeniable that her fishballs just seemed to taste better.
Could it be that the fish Su Tang caught were just tastier to eat?
Jiang He and Madam Qian had wracked their brains and tried various ways but, in the end, they found that their own fishballs just couldn’t compare. Thus, they could only hope that Su Tang would continue to provide her fishballs.
But now it seemed that even though Su Tang was still willing to help, there was ultimately a time limit. Of course, they also felt that Su Tang was very polite to have said everything out so clearly like this, so they didn’t feel disgruntled. After all, the original contract was indeed for one year, and it wasn’t like they could try to forcibly extend it.
Su Tang could somewhat see through the thoughts of the two people opposite her as their expressions flickered. But all she could say was, whether it was in business or in life, at the end of the day people could only rely on themselves.
Of course, she could understand their hesitance. After all, probably back at the beginning, Jiang He and Madam Qian hadn’t ever imagined that Su Tang would end up developing so fast. Probably they had thought that it would be fine to cooperate for a few more years, or even all the way until the end. How could they have known that things would end up changing to what they were now?
“When the Qing River thaws, I’ll start supplying you with fishballs again. I’ll just need you to come and get them yourself from now on.” Su Tang felt she had said everything she needed to say, so she finally got to the main point.
Jiang He and Madam Qian finally received the reply they had been wanting to hear, so they felt a little relieved, but at the same time, they still knew that this was only temporary. Anyway, there was nothing they could do about it, so they just nodded and agreed.
“Then excuse me.” Seeing that it was almost time for the students’ lunch break, Su Tang stood up and said good-bye so she could return to her cafe.
Jiang He and Madam Qian also had to go back to take care of their noodle stall, so the three of them all stood up and left the stuffed steamed bun shop together.
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tl begging corner:
