Chapter 23: The Wild Shill

Making wolf-tooth potatoes is quite different from selling chestnuts. For example, sugar-roasted chestnuts require quartz sand, while wolf-tooth potatoes only need oil.

Besides oil, just prepare a wooden basin for mixing the potatoes.

Yesterday's wooden bucket used for storing cold rabbit meat now holds venison, and the bucket previously used for sifting quartz sand was cleaned thoroughly by Lin Ruanruan and filled with her venison mixture.

There wasn't much venison mix, and she planned to sell it at twenty coins per portion, expecting to sell five or six portions.

While the oil heated in the pot, she used an earthen bowl to divide the venison into portions. This portion of venison was much larger than the single portion of cold rabbit meat from yesterday.

She planned to sell it for eighty coins per portion.

Including the earthen bowl, eighty coins was reasonable.

Everyone knew she sold chestnuts, so they gathered around when she approached.

But today, instead of preparing hot sand for roasting chestnuts, she poured a large amount of oil into the pot.

The way she poured the oil made everyone's hearts ache.

Typically, people use just a little oil to grease the pot when cooking. If they used a bit more oil, no matter what they were cooking, even mixed rice, there wouldn't be any leftovers.

Now, this young stutterer poured half a pot of oil. That would last for months!

Lin Ruanruan didn't know what people were thinking and just focused on her task.

"This stutterer is so wasteful. You don't need that much oil to roast chestnuts."

"Exactly, this wasteful woman. Whoever marries her will see their family fortune squandered."

"With this much oil, I could cook for half a year at home."

The people murmured, their voices loud enough for Lin Ruanruan to hear clearly.

She raised her eyebrows helplessly and didn't bother explaining.

Using charcoal to heat the oil was slow, but she wasn't in a rush. She leisurely put all the venison into the earthen bowls and then prepared to fry the potatoes.

The potatoes were pre-cut and processed, with no signs of discoloration.

She put some potatoes into the pot to fry and had time to prepare the seasoning.

"What are you frying? Sweet potatoes?" someone nearby asked.

"Po... Potatoes." This question needed answering, so Lin Ruanruan replied in her childish, stuttering voice.

"Potatoes? What kind of bean is that?" The person asked even more curiously.

Lin Ruanruan anticipated this question. She slowly bent down and took an unpeeled potato, with some dirt still on its grey-brown skin, from the big barrel.

She handed the potato to the onlookers and continued frying.

The potato was passed around and eventually returned to Lin Ruanruan.

Before she could put it back, a loud voice caught her attention.

"Hot sugar-roasted chestnuts for sale! Freshly roasted sugar chestnuts, only eight coins per portion!"

Lin Ruanruan's brow twitched. Someone was trying to steal her business.

But they miscalculated; she wasn't selling chestnuts today. Selling them at eight coins per portion was a loss.

"Hey, they're selling sugar-roasted chestnuts over there," someone in the crowd said, attracted by the shouting.

"Are you not selling chestnuts today?" the person who asked about the frying asked again.

Lin Ruanruan smiled lightly and shook her head, revealing two small tiger teeth in a playful grin.

"I came here just for your sugar-roasted chestnuts. If you're not selling, I'll go buy from them.

The person mumbled, seemingly dissatisfied.

Since she wasn't selling chestnuts, Lin Ruanruan didn't stop him. Instead, she felt a bit sorry he came specifically for chestnuts, and she hadn't made any.

He quickly went to the other stall and soon returned with a bag of roasted chestnuts.

Lin Ruanruan glanced at him and smiled again.

At this moment, Lin Ruanruan had already taken the fried potatoes out of the pot and drained the oil.

The man watched as she quickly poured the potatoes into a wooden basin and mixed them with various seasonings, making the originally golden potatoes look even more enticing.

Lin Ruanruan tasted a piece to check the seasoning and then generously packed a small portion and handed it to the man.

"Is this thing any good? I didn't say I wanted to buy it. Why are you so eager to give it to me?" The man opened the bag of sugar-roasted chestnuts and slowly peeled one as he spoke.

"It's... it's a gift," Lin Ruanruan said with a smile, waving the potatoes in her hand.

The oil in the pot was heating up again, so she shoved the potatoes into the man's hand and went back to frying more potatoes.

"Ptui, ptui, ptui!" The man spat loudly with a look of disgust on his face.

Lin Ruanruan was puzzled. What was he doing?

He hadn't even tasted the potatoes yet. Wasn't this reaction a bit much?

Maybe the freshly mixed potatoes were too hot and burned him?

Thinking this, she took a spoon and picked up a piece of potato to taste. It was fine; the wind had cooled them, and after mixing for so long, the potatoes were just a bit warm.

"She kindly gave you something, why are you acting so grossed out?" The drunkard who bought rabbit meat yesterday had somehow slipped back into the crowd with his wine jug and couldn't help but defend Lin Ruanruan.

Grateful, Lin Ruanruan gave the drunkard a thankful glance.

"Who spat at this little mute?" The man holding the potatoes angrily threw the chestnuts he had bought on the ground and stomped on them.

"I spat at these chestnuts. What a piece of junk, costing me eight coins."

The man's face was as red as a liver, and he stomped on the chestnuts as if he wanted to drag the chestnut seller over and stomp on him too.

Lin Ruanruan glanced at the chestnuts scattered on the ground and understood the situation.

The chestnut shells were burnt black, and the inside was scorched as well. Without tasting, she knew these chestnuts would be bitter.

The kind of bitter taste that comes from burnt sugar—unspeakably unpleasant.

With such poor quality, how dare they set up a stall? Aren't they afraid of getting beaten up?

The man seemed satisfied after venting his anger but still had a bitter taste in his mouth. He opened the packet of wolf-tooth potatoes Lin Ruanruan had given him and picked one up with a bamboo stick.

"Mm, this potato thing is much better than those crappy chestnuts."

After eating the first piece, he couldn't stop, praising the potatoes while continuously putting them into his mouth.

Lin Ruanruan's mouth twitched. Heaven and earth be my witness, this man was not a shill she hired!

His exaggerated praise and expressions would make it hard to believe he wasn't a shill if she weren't the one who made the potatoes...