Chapter 27: Delivering Steamed Buns and Watching the Show

Since she appeared to be penniless and couldn’t just take out things that looked out of place, she decided to make some simple steamed buns with hot water dough to give to people. She had prepared the ingredients in advance, buying stone-ground whole wheat flour from a platform vendor. The flour still had the bran, so it wasn’t perfectly white, but it was good enough.

She’d say the eggs were from wild ducks she’d found by the sea, the chives were given to her by Grandpa Zhao, and the clams were everywhere. Even without meat, the clam, chive, and egg buns were delicious.

She scrambled the eggs, chopped the chives, mixed the filling, made a hot-water dough, rolled out thin wrappers, pinched the pleats to look like wheat stalks, and put them in the steamer.

The small steamed buns, with their translucent skins and vibrant green filling, looked like exquisite works of art carved from a single mold. Giving too many was not realistic, so she wrapped fifteen for each family in clean corn husks.

Zeng Yan took care of her own chores first, then went into the village to deliver the buns after work was done for the day. Although the brigade’s hilly land also grew wheat, the harvest wasn’t great. Each family only got a little, and no one was willing to eat it on a regular basis; they saved it for entertaining guests during festivals.

Auntie Ailian, the brigade leader’s wife, called her a spendthrift. “Silly child, you can’t live like that. Ten jin of wheat doesn’t even make that much flour, and you sifted it so clean. You used up more than half of it at once. What will you do for the festival?”

Zeng Yan smiled. “The Mid-Autumn Festival is still a long way off. The rest will be enough for me.”

Auntie Ailian felt she couldn’t refuse the girl’s kind gesture. She took the buns and told Yan not to rush off. “Your Uncle Fuhao asked me to look for some little chicks for you. When the weather gets hot, chickens get sick easily, so ducklings are easier to raise. I got two from my mother’s family. It’s a good thing you came today, or I would have taken them to Old Zhao.”

This was perfect timing! Without raising her own poultry, it would be hard to explain where her eggs came from. Zeng Yan was already thinking about buying ducklings from the platform. The brigade leader and his wife truly cared about the people, which made them wonderful people.

Zeng Yan’s face lit up. “Thank you, Auntie. I’ll pay you back with duck eggs later.”

“Keep the duck eggs for yourself. Auntie doesn’t need them,” Zhang Ailian said. She didn’t give her any more instructions about raising ducks. Zeng Yan had raised the Zeng family’s ducks before, and the girl was good at everything she put her mind to. Just look at how she pleated the buns; Auntie Ailian herself couldn’t make such a beautiful wheat-stalk pattern.

The buns were so perfectly shaped that after sending Zeng Yan off, Zhang Ailian couldn’t resist picking one up to eat. Oh, my goodness, it was so fresh, it could make her eyebrows fall off! She wondered why the ingredients she had tasted so differently.

Grandma Yu’s house was close to the brigade leader’s, in Team Three. The old woman also gave her a return gift. Grandma Yu’s granddaughter, Zheng Min, worked at the supply and marketing cooperative and could buy flawed fabric without coupons. She had made a lot of clothes and gave Zeng Yan two of her outgrown outfits.

Zeng Yan didn’t refuse and gladly accepted them. The clothes she was wearing now had eight patches, and she didn’t dare to put them in the washing machine for fear of them getting holes. Zheng Min’s khaki pants were very durable, and she was happy to have them. She wouldn’t take the clothes for free; she would do her best to help the old woman if she ever needed anything.

The livestock shed was also nearby. Grandpa Zhao was delighted to receive the buns and gave her a large bundle of fresh long beans in return.

After leaving Liu Xiuhong and the Third Grandpas’ houses, Zeng Yan’s hands were full with a jar of shrimp paste and some dried “hairy-button” fish. She could tell that the Third Granny loved to make all kinds of dried fish; she had given her a few dried mackerel when she moved in. She would have to make some fried mackerel with cornmeal cakes sometime soon.

These two families lived in the same team as the Zeng family, just two rows of houses away. As she passed through the Zeng family’s alley, Zeng Yan stumbled upon quite a scene.

Liu Xiu, who had been fooled by Zeng Yan, went home and pestered his parents, insisting on getting married and that he would only marry Zeng Fuzhen. Liu Wang and his wife spoiled their son, giving him whatever he wanted, which was why Liu Xiu was so fat. But marriage was different from eating meat. As parents, they knew their son’s condition. While the Zeng family had a bad reputation and Zeng Fuzhen was said to be lazy, she was still a normal young woman. They had originally planned to find a wife with a disability for their simple-minded son—being mute or deaf was fine, as long as she wasn’t crazy. But they couldn’t stand their son’s two-day tantrum, during which he even refused to eat his favorite pig’s head meat.

Since their son was of marrying age, Liu Wang’s wife was the first to give in. She discussed it with her husband. “Why don’t we ask Third Auntie He to be the matchmaker? We won’t shortchange their family. We’ll offer a bride price of 300 yuan. Even the hardest-working family in the brigade can’t earn 300 yuan in a year. Hu Feng loves money so much; she’ll probably agree.”

“Let’s give it a try then?” Liu Wang was also tempted.

Third Auntie He had a silver tongue and worked as a matchmaker in her spare time. Although she didn’t have high hopes for the match, Liu Wang’s family had promised her two yuan if the marriage succeeded. It would be foolish to turn down the money, so as soon as she finished work, she headed straight to Old Zeng’s house. The Zeng family hadn’t been lazy at work today, so they were home early. Hu Feng heard Third Auntie He’s intentions and chased her out of the yard with a hoe.

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“Get out, get out!” Hu Feng yelled. “You shameless old hag, chasing a few pennies. You have the audacity to propose my Fuzhen to a lunatic? My Fuzhen is a lotus flower from the mountaintop. How could that idiot Liu possibly be worthy? Go back to your daydreams!”

Third Auntie He, after being hit on the back with a hoe, was furious. “Your family doesn’t have a mirror, but you have pee. Tell that lazy girl of yours to take a good look at herself. A lotus flower? Hah! She’s more like a dung beetle.”

“You shameless hussy, who are you calling a dung beetle!”

The two women cursed and fought all the way to the alley entrance. Zeng Yan stood at the back of the crowd, unable to hold back her laughter. How badly did that big idiot Liu Xiu want a wife? He actually listened and went to propose. Watching the Zeng family’s spectacle was good for the soul.

Humming a tune, she returned home and first settled the two ducklings, giving them some millet and a little water in a basin before covering them with a basket and placing them under the eaves. The two fuzzy, yellow ducklings looked adorable, and the cold stone house felt a little more lively with them there.

Her body craved fatty foods. For dinner, Zeng Yan made herself some crispy pork chops, which were soft and tender on the inside, and paired them with the leftover steamed buns. It was a perfect, delicious dinner.

Finding a balance between work and rest was important. She wasn’t going to do any work tonight. After dinner, she happily curled up on her couch and counted her earnings. Zeng Yan hadn’t gone foraging for firewood that afternoon, but she had collected all the sea urchins and abalones she could find near her house. She kept some for herself and didn’t list them all, but the money she earned was still substantial. With the money she hadn’t spent from yesterday, her account balance was almost at 100,000 yuan after just three days of selling her goods.

The clams and razor clams were mainly a way to thank her fans, so they were priced at no more than ten yuan per jin, and she wouldn’t make much from them. Zeng Yan knew that once the sea urchins and abalones were gone, her money-making speed wouldn’t be as fast.

She checked her backend data and noticed that one delivery address had a very high order frequency. It looked familiar. Hey? Isn’t this the address of the platform’s headquarters?

Could it be that the platform’s employees were getting the seafood first since they had an advantage? No wonder so many people couldn’t get any. Who could compete with people who had cheat codes? Zeng Yan didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

She didn’t forget to post a video, a mischievous look on her face, and included the two men who might be characters from the novel. The handsome men had a massive impact, bringing out many fans who valued looks.

“HOLY CRAP, EYE CANDY! The boss’s view is from below, so the guys are at least 1.8 meters tall. With their broad shoulders, long legs, and handsome faces, I like both of them! It’s so hard to choose!”

“Their clothes look like the ’65-style Air Force uniform. The Air Force has the strictest selection process. Even though they’re not wearing shoulder boards, you can tell they are a cut above the rest. They’re definitely officers of at least lieutenant rank.”

“I want to time travel and fall in love with a handsome man in uniform! I’m so jealous of the big boss!”

“With my experience of countless men, the cold-faced one has a stronger presence. His family background and status must be much better than the smiling one.”

Another person retorted: “You’re a fan who only worships power. Is it really that interesting to be so focused on status?”

With so many fans, all kinds of people showed up, including those with rude mouths.

“Speaking of looks, we still haven’t seen what the boss looks like. Can’t she show us? Or is she not willing to?”

“Looking at the boss’s skinny, dark little hands, I’m guessing she’s not willing.”

“I bet ten jin of clams that the boss is an ugly person.”

“How pretty can a country girl who works with firewood be? I’ll add ten jin to that bet.”

“The boss is so skillful. It doesn’t matter if she’s a little ugly. I’ll add twenty jin.”

“I just can’t forget those two masters who passed away… I’ll add thirty jin.”

Zeng Yan: “…”

I am so mad!

When a big boss gets mad, the consequences are severe. Her fans wouldn’t be getting any delicious and affordable wild clams for the next week.