Chapter 25: Got the Dolantin:

After visiting her grandma and explaining to her grandaunt how to cook rice with sausages, Xiaomei dragged her younger brother, who wanted to stay, back home.

Right on time, Xiaohua, Qiuhua, and the younger girl came over carrying items. It was obvious their Navy father had been working on the vegetables since yesterday afternoon, and their second uncle must’ve instructed the two daughters to help. Today, the little girl’s family brought two big bags of vegetables—one of which was carried by Qiuhua for her.

After weighing and paying, Grandma Wang told the Xiaohua sisters to hurry home. Their aunt and uncle had left little Si with a neighbor today.

She gave the sisters a few biscuits and told them to take their little sister home once they got back.

Xiaomei’s tasks today were selling vegetables, getting Dolantin (a strong painkiller), and buying locks.

She also wanted to go to the supermarket to buy some more brown sugar. This, paired with biscuits, would be great for visiting patients or women who had just given birth.

At noon, when Grandma Wang dropped the salted meat sausage, the plastic bag tore open. With no other choice, Xiaomei carried it in a woven basket today. In her hands, she also carried a bamboo basket filled with eggs. In the morning, she had already carried four chickens—too heavy to bring the eggs at that time.

Xiaomei first went to the lunchbox store. Zhou Huifang hadn’t arrived yet, so Xiaomei left the vegetables there and went to the supermarket to buy brown sugar.

She bought a lot this time—10 jin (~5kg).

Why not buy wholesale? Because Xiaomei had decided that when she goes to the wholesale market, she’ll get things like sausages and salted meats there instead. Those are heavy. Today, except for the locks, Dolantin wouldn’t weigh much. So she thought she might as well buy more brown sugar while she could.

But then came the joy of shopping without limits: after buying the brown sugar, she saw pens and paper—remembering she’d be going back to school soon, she couldn’t help buying some. Then socks—the models on the package were so pretty and handsome she ended up buying two pairs for each family member. Then umbrellas—they only had one old oil-paper umbrella at home, so she bought two more. Raincoats—for her parents who would need them at work, so she bought two sets. Then soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste…

By the time she got to the checkout counter and saw the two big, heavy bags of goods, Xiaomei finally sobered up.

But… she felt like everything she bought was necessary.

The clerk smiled at the conflicted young girl and gently persuaded her to buy a shopping cart.

The cart was very basic—the kind old people usually didn’t even want—but it was large, so Xiaomei was actually quite pleased with it.

She packed everything in and easily pulled the cart to the market.

She bought three bananas and two water pears this time.

At the small goods stall next to Sister Xiang Lingling’s place, she bought six locks of various sizes. The stall owner was confused: “Why so many locks?”

Xiaomei lied for the nth time: “My neighbors asked me to buy them.”

Then she said goodbye to Sister Xiang and exited the market.

Once shopping starts, it’s hard to stop.

Outside the market, she bought some ready-made food: marinated beef, a quarter of a saltwater goose. Then went to the bun shop and bought 20 meat buns. In her opinion, no filling beats meat.

She pulled her fully loaded cart back to the lunchbox shop, where Zhou Xing and others joked that the “little old lady” had arrived.

Xiaomei didn’t mind and took the vegetables to the stall.

Today, the older folks’ gossip topic was Su City’s newly opened museum—free, filled with exhibits, and directly accessible by subway. Everyone wanted to visit.

Hearing their pride made Xiaomei dazed and envious. She messed up weighing vegetables several times—thank goodness Grandpa Zhou was there to help.

There were about 2 jin of Malan heads (a type of herb) left, which Xiaomei gave to Grandpa Zhou before rushing back to the lunchbox shop.

Aunt Zhou Huifang had already arrived. Xiaomei gratefully accepted the cup of water she handed her and gulped it down, then wiped her mouth shyly. “Sorry, Auntie. I left in such a hurry, I forgot to bring water.”

Zhou Huifang felt sorry for the little girl. “You’re still so young, waking early and working late at the stall—it’s really tiring. If it’s too hard, you can wholesale the goods to others. You’ll make less, but life will be much easier. Talk to your family about it.”

Xiaomei now understood what wholesaling meant, and her heart was a little tempted. She thought she’d discuss it with Grandma later.

“Thank you, Aunt Zhou. I think that’s a good idea. I’ll talk it over with my grandma.”

“That’s better. Your studies should still be your main focus. Kids your age must go to school no matter what you plan to do in the future. Without education, life will be hard.”

With that, Zhou Huifang handed over two boxes: “These are two boxes of Dolantin, 12 ampoules per box—24 in total. I’ve spoken to my friend. If we need more, I’ll ask him again.”

She also handed over a stack of cash: “This is the extra money. Give it to the adults in your family.”

Xiaomei counted it and was surprised: “There’s still so much left?”

“Dolantin itself isn’t expensive—it’s just tightly controlled by hospitals, so it was a bit tricky to get.”

Xiaomei shyly held Aunt Zhou’s hand. “Auntie, I feel like I can’t do anything besides say thank you… You’re truly a lifesaver for our family.”

Then she pointed to a basket of eggs under the table. “These eggs are for you.”

“My house can’t eat so many eggs,” Zhou Huifang smiled. “Besides, I’m an adult—I can’t take advantage of a kid. Same as always: 3 yuan per egg.”

She counted the eggs and still gave Xiaomei money at 3 yuan each.

This made Xiaomei feel even more embarrassed. She repeatedly thanked her and thought, Grandma and I have to find a way to properly thank Aunt Zhou—and her friend too.

Xiaomei left the lunchbox shop and pulled her little cart easily.

Her heart was full of gratitude toward Aunt Zhou. She walked along thinking she must find a way to thank her properly.

Then she suddenly thought of someone else she must thank—Great Grandpa Gu.

If he hadn’t gifted her the rose plant, she never would’ve ended up here. She wouldn’t have met so many kindhearted people, and her family wouldn’t be on such a prosperous path now.

Thinking of this, Xiaomei turned around and headed back to the market.

Actually, Xiaomei had long noticed that there were at least two fruit stores on her route from the park to the lunchbox shop. She didn’t know if they were cheaper than Sister Xiang Lingling’s, but they certainly had more variety.

Still, Xiaomei had made up her mind: if she was buying fruit, she’d buy it from Sister Xiang.

This time, her goal was clear—to buy fruit for Great Grandpa Gu. She chose apples, the most common and universally liked fruit—easy to store, too.

Sister Xiang Lingling’s stall didn’t have a wide variety, but it did have four kinds of apples. Based on her recommendation, Xiaomei bought ten. Her plan was to give one to each family member, and five to Grandpa Gu, along with half a jin of biscuits and two sausages from Grandma.

To her delight, Sister Xiang Lingling also gave her two more apples of a different variety for free. Their skins were wrinkled and they didn’t look fresh, but they weren’t spoiled—still edible.

Xiaomei happily thanked her and asked if she could bring in one jin of water chestnuts when restocking, so she could buy them in three days when she came for bananas.

Her grandma loved them, and if not, her other grandma could eat them.