Chapter 22: Wholesale Salted Meat

Seeing that it was about time, Xiaomei said goodbye to Xiang Lingling and headed to the boxed lunch shop.

Zhou Huifang was cleaning the glass display window. When she saw Xiaomei, she quickly came over. “Xiaomei, you’re here so early?”

“Auntie, I came early today and already sold out all my vegetables. I stayed at the market for a while, too.” Xiaomei said while putting down the bag she was carrying. “These are four chickens, slaughtered early this morning. Grandma said from now on we’ll just bring two each time—four is too heavy.” She smiled sheepishly.

“No problem,” Zhou Huifang said cheerfully. “Xiaomei, I made arrangements with a friend—we’re going to pick up the Dolantin this afternoon. You’ll be coming by later, right? After you finish selling vegetables, come by the shop. I’ll give you the syringes then.”

“Really? That’s great!” Xiaomei bowed. “Thank you so much, Auntie.”

“It’s the least I can do—no need to thank me.” Zhou Huifang picked up the bag for her. “Come in, I’ll pay you for the chickens.”

“Auntie, let’s use the chicken money to buy the medicine. No need to pay me.”

“Dolantin itself isn’t that expensive—it’s just tightly regulated, so getting it is a bit tricky. I still have 300 yuan from last time. You take the money for the four chickens first—we’ll adjust later if needed.”

Zhou Huifang set the chickens aside and took out her wallet from a bag hanging on the wall. She counted out 1,200 yuan and handed it to Xiaomei. “I just withdrew this yesterday afternoon—20,000 yuan total—so I can buy good things from your family.”

Xiaomei took out 200 yuan. “Auntie, I feel bad.” She smiled. “Take this 200 yuan and see if your friend can get more Dolantin? I’m worried about Grandma’s health.”

Zhou Huifang sighed and accepted the money. “Alright, I understand. Don’t worry—good people are blessed.” She reminded Xiaomei, “Go home quickly and keep your money safe. Come back in the afternoon.”

In Zhou Huifang’s mind, Xiaomei must’ve hitched a ride from someone in the village to get to Sucheng.

But no one would have guessed the young girl traveled through time.

Xiaomei carefully tucked away the 1,000 yuan, greeted the people in the shop, and headed north.

At the end of the street, heading west led to the small park—that was the way home. Going east for 500 meters led to an elementary school, and in front of the school was a bus to the wholesale food market.

Xiaomei boarded the bus and asked the driver, “Uncle, how many stops to the wholesale market? How much is the fare?”

The driver glanced at the girl. “Eight stops. This is an air-conditioned bus—two yuan.”

Xiaomei took out two coins and dropped them in the fare box under the driver’s guidance.

Now that vegetables were sold by weight, Xiaomei had started receiving some small change.

The driver told her, “Go to the back and find an empty seat. We’ll announce when your stop comes.”

“Thank you, Uncle!” Xiaomei said politely and went to the back to find a seat.

It was already past the morning rush hour, so the bus wasn’t very full.

Xiaomei felt so comfortable on the ride—the air-conditioned bus was clean, and the scenery outside was beautiful. Heaven above, Suzhou and Hangzhou below—as the saying goes. Sucheng was now even more developed.

Unknowingly, Xiaomei fell asleep.

The poor kid had gotten up early. With the gentle rocking of the bus, it was no wonder she dozed off.

She was woken by a gentle nudge—a passenger helped wake her up at the driver’s request. Seeing the sleepy girl, other passengers chuckled kindly.

“Little girl, the wholesale market is here,” the driver called from the front.

Xiaomei quickly responded, grabbed her scale, plastic bags, and money pouch, and got off. Her small stool was left at Zhou Huifang’s shop.

Only after getting off did she fully wake up.

This time, Xiaomei had a clear goal: to buy preserved foods.

She still remembered the specific area, so she walked unhurriedly in that direction.

As she walked, her eyes lit up—so many types of cookies! Big, small, round, square, crispy, chewy, sweet, salty, spicy—an endless variety.

And the prices were much cheaper than in the supermarket.

Unable to resist, Xiaomei asked to buy two jin (about 1 kg) of a kind she had bought at the supermarket before—small, round, thin, crispy, and sweet.

But the vendor refused, saying the minimum purchase was ten jin.

Xiaomei was annoyed. She wanted to do business but was met with arrogance.

Of course, Xiaomei didn’t realize this was typical of a wholesale market.

Still, she didn’t give up easily. After much pleading, the vendor finally gave in, seeing how young she was. “Fine, but next time it’s ten jin minimum, understood?”

Xiaomei nodded seriously. “Promise.” She took the cookies and waved as she walked on.

She finally reached the preserved food section—tons of meat. It was overwhelming.

The clever girl recalled how her family cured salted pork for New Year and decided to buy the same kind of pork they used.

Her grandma would clean the pork, dry it, rub it with salt, then layer it in a crock or jar, sprinkling salt in between, and weigh it down with a stone.

The cured meat would eventually have a white salt crust from sun drying.

So, she avoided anything marinated in soy sauce or smoked.

She began asking around for prices and picked three stalls with moderate prices.

Time to haggle.

At one stall, the vendor ignored her completely. “Go away—can’t you see I’m busy?”

At the second stall, the vendor asked how much she wanted. Xiaomei said a lot. “How much is a lot?” he asked. She said ten jin.

The vendor rolled his eyes and walked away.

Xiaomei was very frustrated. Why did everyone keep asking how much she wanted to buy?

At the third stall—a woman vendor—Xiaomei thought it might be easier to deal with a woman. She sweetly called out “Auntie” and said she wanted to buy some salted meat.

And her instinct was right.

This vendor, surnamed Wei, didn’t take advantage of her being a child and was very friendly. Xiaomei got ten jin of cured meat she liked at a good price.

The meat was said to be from Jinggangshan, mostly lean, priced at 14.96 yuan per jin. The fattier kind was 10.74 yuan per jin.

Of course, Xiaomei chose the fattier one. She bargained and promised to always buy from her in the future. In the end, ten jin cost her 98 yuan.

Xiaomei thought to herself: I even have money left for the bus ride home.

Aunt Wei also recommended sausages—Xiaomei had seen them in the supermarket, very expensive, but they looked so tasty.

She couldn’t resist and bought two jin—one of Cantonese flavor, one Sichuan flavor.

The vendor explained that Cantonese sausages are great sliced and steamed over rice, giving a rich aroma. Sichuan sausages are spicy and stimulate the appetite.

Xiaomei was practically drooling. She forgot to haggle and ended up buying both without thinking.

Vendor Wei was very kind, evenly dividing the 14 jin of goods into two bags and placing them into thicker, sturdier bags she provided. She even had an assistant carry them to the bus stop—earning Xiaomei’s full gratitude.

From then on, whenever Xiaomei bought preserved foods, she would go straight to Vendor Wei.

Xiaomei went home feeling very content. With over 1,000 yuan in her money pouch and two big fragrant bags of salted meat, sausages, and cookies slung across her shoulders and chest—“abundance” was the only word to describe it.