1847
After obtaining the rent contract from the Chief Registrar at the Yamen, Xiao Ruo sent Chow Yun to the Servant Agency in the nearby city to buy a few skilled cooks, who were brought back to Anxi City several days later.
Xiao Ruo chose to purchase people from elsewhere because she was worried that someone with ulterior motives might plant spies around her. Buying people from outside gave her peace of mind.
After meeting the purchased cooks, Xiao Ruo selected two to learn how to make bean curd sheets, while the others each learned two to three snack recipes.
Xiao Ruo used two of the rented shops to create eateries, one specializing in bean curd sheets, dried black fungus, dried shiitake mushrooms, dried fish, cured meat, and dried bamboo shoots. It could be considered a dry goods store, though it had far fewer varieties than those in Xilin Country.
