31

In the evening, everyone who was going to school or work had returned, and the cars, electric bikes, and pedestrians at the entrance of the Yulan Community had become a chaotic mix.

Zhang Ji’s vegetable shop had reached its peak business time. Sun Ling stood behind the counter, so busy that she couldn’t even check her phone, constantly ringing up customers and collecting money. The sound of payments coming through on her phone echoed from time to time.

“The purple eggplants today are good, buy a few.”

“Boss, no more winter melon!”

“Hey, coming right up, I’ll cut it immediately.”

“Mom, I want a hamburger.”

“What hamburger? I’ll make you steamed fish when we get home.”

“Boss lady, do you have any fish stew seasoning?”

In the small 20-square-meter shop, a variety of customers were picking out their desired ingredients, mixed with the noise of children and the nagging of elderly people. The shops outside the vegetable store were also busy, with some small food stalls setting up, each calling out with loudspeakers.

Gao He had just finished work at the TV station. As soon as she got into the car, she took off her 8-centimeter high heels. After standing all day, her ankles still hurt, making her walk slowly.

The road leading into the community was blocked, so she simply parked her car by the side of the road. She remembered her mother had called and asked her to buy some vegetables. Gao He walked toward the vegetable store across from the community. Her mother hadn’t specified what to buy, and since she wasn’t very hungry, she thought she would just grab some tomatoes and leafy greens and cook them when she got home.

She picked a few tomatoes, then paused when she saw the bok choy. It looked too clean, and when she looked at the price, Gao He hesitated. However, after a moment, she firmly picked up a bunch of bok choy. Whatever, even if they had been sprayed with pesticides, she could just soak them in water at home for a while. After a busy day at work, she simply didn’t have the energy to go to another shop.

After buying the vegetables, Gao He waited another thirty minutes before moving her car to the garage. When she reached the ground floor, she found that the elevator was out of order. She cursed under her breath and resigned herself to climbing the stairs.

By the time she climbed seven flights, she was panting heavily.

Gao He’s mother had just finished playing Mahjong and came home. Seeing her daughter exhausted, she started nagging: “Look at your physical condition, it’s much worse than mine. I told you to get up early and jog with your dad, but you wouldn’t do it. You can’t even climb a flight of stairs?”

Gao He didn’t even have the energy to roll her eyes. She was gasping for breath like her lungs were going to burst.

Her father handed her a glass of warm water while taking the tomatoes and bok choy from her hands: “What, still on a diet tonight?”

After getting a confirming reply from Gao He, her mother couldn’t help but say, “Staying up late every day, eating takeout for lunch, and only eating this little for dinner. No wonder you’re not in good shape. Did you watch the video I sent you? They say takeout is made with gutter oil and rat meat…”

Despite scolding her daughter, Gao He’s mother still took the tomatoes and bok choy into the kitchen.

The Gao family prepared two different meals: one for Father Gao and mother, and one for Gao He’s diet dinner. Mother Gao washed the tomatoes, picked out the largest and reddest one, and cut it up. That was for her daughter’s dinner.

The remaining tomatoes were quickly turned into a tomato and scrambled egg dish. Then, noodles were cooked, and a handful of bok choy was thrown in.

Gao He and her father sat in the living room watching TV. After Gao He recovered a bit, she grabbed a bottle of zero-calorie soda from the fridge and happily drank it while watching TV.

Her mother was busy in the kitchen and began mumbling halfway through.

“Today’s food smells really good…”

Not only did it smell good, but it also looked great. When the tomato was cut open, the inside was a vibrant red, and when stir-fried with eggs, the red tomato juice enveloped the eggs, making it look delicious. Mother Gao couldn’t resist sneaking a piece from her daughter’s diet meal and took a bite…

The tomato had a rich flavor with a stronger acidity than the ones sold in stores, but it wasn’t overpowering at all. Mother Gao kept eating several pieces, and finally, when she saw there were only a few pitiful bits left in the dish, she stopped. She turned and cut the last tomato from the fridge and added it to the pan, finally making the dish look less sparse.

She took another bite of the scrambled eggs with tomato. In the past, Mother Gao always added two spoonfuls of ketchup to her tomato and eggs dish—she couldn’t do it without. But nowadays, most tomatoes were greenhouse-grown and lacked any real tomato flavor. However, today, Mother Gao was glad she didn’t add any ketchup. If she had, the dish wouldn’t have tasted the same.

The tomato juice was sweet and sour, the tender yellow eggs were fluffy, and after soaking in the soup, they became even softer and more flavorful. The sourness was appetizing, and Mother Gao found herself getting hungrier with every bite.

In order to avoid finishing the entire dish herself, she quickly started serving the food.

By the time the family of three sat at the dinner table, Gao He saw her mother place two bowls of noodles, one large and one small, with the large one in front of herself and the small one in front of her father.

Father Gao and Gao He: …

Mother Gao: “What are you staring at? Eat up! If you don’t want to eat, just push it over to me.”

Seeing her mother preparing to take from his bowl, Father Gao quickly protected his food: “Who says I don’t want to eat?”

He had already smelled the food from the living room and wondered if his wife had been taking culinary classes lately. Tonight’s meal smelled especially good.

Father Gao picked up a piece of noodle, mixed with a few fresh, crisp bok choy leaves. Mother Gao topped the noodles with the scrambled eggs and tomato, and the sauce looked even thicker.

After just one bite, Father Gao’s eyes lit up, and he couldn’t help but speed up his eating.

Mother Gao gave a slight regretful glance at her husband’s small bowl. Sigh, if she had known, she would’ve used an even smaller bowl.

Gao He ate her tomato, watching her parents devour their meals like it was a competition.

Although the tomato in her own bowl was also delicious, Gao He was really impressed by it.

But seeing her parents eat so heartily, the fragrance of the stir-fried dish just kept wafting into her nose…

Mother Gao finished off a large bowl of noodles in one go. While she had found the tomatoes delicious earlier, it was when she ate the noodles that she realized how good the bok choy was—sweet and refreshing.

Father Gao had already finished his small bowl of noodles and went to the kitchen to scrape the last bits of noodles and vegetables from the pot, even pouring a spoonful of soup into his bowl and drinking it all.

After finishing, he said, still wanting more, “Tonight’s dinner wasn’t enough.”

Gao He wanted to say, her father usually ate about the same amount! Their family believed in eating lightly at night, and their parents’ dinners were usually just a small bowl.

Mother Gao: “I also think it was too little. I’m still hungry.”

Father Gao: “…So what should we do? Is there any food left in the fridge? Should we cook more?”

Mother Gao: “There’s some bok choy left, but no more tomatoes.”

Father Gao: “Bok choy is fine. There’s leftover rice from lunch. We can make some vegetable fried rice.”

Before Gao He could stop them, she watched as her parents happily went to the kitchen to cook again.

Mother Gao stuck her head out and asked her, “Xiao He, the vegetables you bought today are good. Did you get them from the stall at the entrance of the neighborhood? Remember to buy more tomorrow when you come back… Forget it, your dad and I will go out for a walk and buy some ourselves.”

Not only did Gao’s parents get the bok choy, but they also found a piece of sausage left in the fridge. They cooked it until the fat became translucent, mixing the grease with the rice and scrambled eggs. They added finely chopped bok choy and lightly stirred it before taking the dish off the heat.

The sausage was stir-fried until the fat turned transparent, the grease blending with the rice. The vibrant green bok choy, the red sausage slices, and the yellow eggs created a colorful dish, making it even more tempting.

Gao He grabbed a bowl and brought it to the stove. Forget about dieting, she’d deal with it tomorrow!

She knew that if she didn’t eat this fried rice tonight, she definitely wouldn’t be able to sleep.

The Gao family was fairly quick to act. By the time they finished a large pot of fried rice and rushed to the vegetable stall, there were still plenty of tomatoes and piles of bok choy at Zhang Ji’s stall.

Father Gao and mother, with big gestures, directly bought a basket of tomatoes and a large bag of bok choy.

After dinner, when there shouldn’t have been many people left, Zhang Ji’s vegetable stall still had a steady stream of customers. By eight or nine o’clock, the tomatoes and bok choy were almost sold out, and even the spring onions and chives were gone. Those who came late regretted it.

Someone even chased after Zhang Ming asking, “Boss, will you have tomatoes and bok choy tomorrow? Spring onions and chives are fine too.”

“I start work early. Could you set aside two kilograms for me? I’ll transfer the money to you.”

“No, make it five kilograms. I need to send some to my mother-in-law’s house too.”

Zhang Ming looked confused, but when the other person quickly scanned the code and the sound of coins dropping into the cash register rang, he suddenly realized.

His wife’s cheeks were flushed with excitement, not sure if it was because of tonight’s sales or because her brother had finally done something worthwhile.

“I told you, Xiao Qing is smart! You go to the market every day to buy vegetables, but I’ve never seen you bring back such good ones, right?”

His wife, Sun Ling, stood proudly with her hands on her hips.

Zhang Ming rubbed his cheek, took a small tomato from the shelf that had been accidentally squished, and carefully sliced it in half with a fruit knife. He took a careful bite.

Seeing her husband quietly chewing the tomato, Sun Ling quickly grabbed the remaining tomato and stuffed it into her mouth.

She gasped and, after a moment, her eyes lit up.

“Old Zhang, our family is going to make it.”

After closing the shop, Sun Ling quickly called her brother. Sun Qing, who was playing games at an internet cafe, impatiently rode his electric bike to the shop, thinking, “Sis, what’s the matter?”

Couldn’t she have said it over the phone? Why did she call him so late? Was something urgent?

In the past, Sun Qing would’ve made an excuse not to come. After all, his monthly salary was barely enough, so why should he work from early morning till late at night?

But today, his sister had urgently asked him to come, and…

Sun Qing felt a bit guilty.

Although he boasted about the vegetables he had bought today, after the incident where he had pocketed some of the vegetable money and his brother-in-law had called him out on it, he was worried there might have been a problem with today’s vegetables.

It couldn’t be that the vegetables bought have pesticide residue and would make someone sick, could it?

Sun Qing’s heart kept pounding.

When his sister excitedly explained everything, Sun Qing immediately relaxed and began to boast about his hard work and wisdom.

“Of course it’s good! I was at the market this morning when they unloaded the goods. They said they were from out of town and were supplying to big supermarkets. This is the first time they’ve come to our county. Because it’s the first time, their prices were high, and no one dared to accept them. But I acted fast and got the deal…”

Zhang Ming, keenly sensing something, asked, “You said they were from a big city? Where from? Lu City, or somewhere else?”

Sun Qing casually lied, “From Lu City. You don’t know, their truck was huge, with a big cargo space…”

Zhang Ming asked, “But didn’t you say earlier that you bought all their stock? You bought the entire truck?”

Sun Qing hesitated, “…They were supplying us with Huihe Fresh’s goods, so we got a good deal on the stock.”

Huihe Fresh is the largest and most complete fresh supermarket in the county, often selling expensive ingredients that the wealthier people in the area usually buy.

Before Zhang Ming could ask more, his wife, Sun Ling, shot him a glare.

Sun Ling thought that since her brother had bought good vegetables, why keep asking so many questions?

“Xiao Qing, don’t listen to your brother-in-law. Come on, tell me, do you remember what the truck looked like?”

“Actually, your brother-in-law and I were thinking, since our shop is small and can’t compare to Huihe, maybe we could work something out. We could ask them to leave behind some of the stock Huihe doesn’t need and sell it here. The profit doesn’t matter much at first, but it would boost our store’s popularity.”

If they had one or two varieties each time, customers wouldn’t just buy one or two items, right? They might also pick up some dried goods or other vegetables, which would raise the store’s sales significantly.

Sun Qing raised an eyebrow, immediately realizing this was an opportunity.

“Sis, to be honest, I actually got their phone number. The driver’s my classmate from elementary school.”

“They said Huihe offered them too little, so they won’t be supplying Huihe anymore. If you want, I can contact them. It shouldn’t be a problem.”

Sun Ling couldn’t have imagined such a surprise and immediately agreed.

Zhang Ming was also quite surprised.

Sun Qing took advantage of the moment and added, “But sis, the vegetables aren’t cheap.”

Sun Ling thought for a moment, “It’s not a big deal. As long as the vegetables are good, we’ll mark a few as ‘star vegetables.’ Even if they’re expensive, people will buy them.”

The Yulan neighborhood across from their shop is one of the more expensive areas in the county. Just by seeing how many people came to buy vegetables tonight, it was clear that the residents didn’t mind paying a little extra. Besides, they weren’t relying solely on those few items to make money—they were after the foot traffic.

“We’ll pack the vegetables when they arrive. We can’t let one person buy everything. If we do it like this, the business will definitely do well in the long run.”

While Sun Qing thought his sister and brother-in-law were exaggerating, and wondered how much better the vegetables could really be, he also thought it wasn’t such a bad thing that his sister was a little obsessed.

“Alright, sis, I’ll go to the city tomorrow to meet my classmate and see if I can buy some vegetables. By the way, brother-in-law, can I use the car at the shop?”

The vegetable shop has a Jinbei van used for picking up goods.

Although Zhang Ming felt something was off, with his wife keeping an eye on things and seeing that the vegetables his brother-in-law bought were really good, he had no choice but to agree.

“Okay, I’ll give you the car keys.”

“Then brother-in-law, what about the money for the vegetables…”

Zhang Ming wanted to go with him, but he knew it wasn’t the right time to say anything. His brother-in-law was getting the goods through his connections, and if Zhang Ming went along, his wife might think he was deliberately trying to push his brother-in-law away.

“Let your sister transfer two thousand to you. Try to buy more tomatoes tomorrow.”

“Got it, brother-in-law!”

Sun Qing happily walked off with the money. He had heard from the vegetable vendor today that the vegetables were bought from Fangping Town on Yanxia Mountain.

It wasn’t hard. Tomorrow, he would go early to Fangping Town, buy the vegetables, and then have some fun on the way back down.

The next day, when Yao Jiu, carrying large bundles of small cabbage, came to sell vegetables again, she noticed something seemed different compared to yesterday.

Yao Yun had arrived early and walked over to Yao Jiu with a warm greeting.

“Xiao Jiu, what vegetables did you bring today? Do you have leeks?”

Yao Yun couldn’t believe what Lin You had said was actually true. She had mentioned that the villagers had grown some decent vegetables, but she didn’t expect them to be this good.

Although they were still not as good as Lin You’s vegetables, there were more varieties than what Lin You had.

Yao Yun hadn’t even tasted Lin You’s tomatoes yet, but the tomatoes from the village had already amazed her.

Yesterday, the kindergarten served tomato soup, dumplings with leek and egg filling, a big scallion omelet, and marinated chicken legs.

She thought the chicken legs would be the most popular, but to her surprise, the soup, dumplings, and omelet were all snatched up, and the chicken legs were left with dozens still remaining.

Yao Yun couldn’t stop talking, “The kindergarten teachers all asked if they could have dumplings again today. If not, they’d settle for soup. You don’t know, I got so many complaints yesterday. The leftover chicken legs were given to the teachers, and they complained non-stop… Xiao Jiu, give me some leeks first, I’m going to make leek pies. Oh, and there are cucumbers today? Give me some cucumbers…”

Yao Yun didn’t expect things to go so smoothly today. After failing to sell at a good price yesterday, she divided the money when she got back and honestly told the villagers, which made them hesitant to overcharge for the vegetables today. So she only brought two baskets of leafy greens and a few baskets of cucumbers, spring onions, and leeks.

When Yao Yun heard that Yao Jiu could consistently supply vegetables, she was so happy that she didn’t know what to do.

“Then I’ll just take this much for today. Xiao Jiu, remember to save some vegetables for me tomorrow.”

As Yao Yun rushed off, Yao Jiu still hadn’t reacted and, still half asleep, asked Lin You, “Do you think Yao Yun was possessed by someone?”

She hadn’t seen her so enthusiastic before.

Also, Yao Yun’s old habit was to always take a bit of garlic and onions, but this time she was so easy-going, taking whatever was offered without any fuss.

Lin You woke up early in the morning and was happily eating a bowl of tofu pudding. The tofu pudding in town is made using traditional steam basket methods.

The large pot is covered with a bamboo basket, and the tofu pudding is steamed in small bowls, separated by water. It is delicate and smooth, without the strong bean taste. After it’s done, a spoonful of diced chicken and marinated sauce is poured over it, along with chopped pickled mustard and a spoonful of soft, braised soybeans. Finally, some cilantro and shrimp flakes are added.

The tofu pudding, as delicate as a steamed egg custard, slid down her throat, and the seasonings enhanced the flavor, making it even more delicious.

Lin You squinted her eyes in enjoyment. Hearing Yao Jiu’s remark, she casually said, “See? I told you, the vegetables in our village are definitely good.”

That was true, and Yao Jiu immediately became happy.

Yao Yun took one-third of the vegetables, leaving the rest, two-thirds, behind.

But the remaining two-thirds didn’t worry Yao Jiu for long. Soon, a young man came over.

“How much are these vegetables?”

Yao Jiu quoted a price, and the young man’s expression brightened. “Alright, I’ll take them all.”

The total value of the vegetables was only a little over two hundred yuan.

She had made a profit!

Sun Qing was extremely pleased after collecting all the vegetables.

He never expected to find such a fast source of goods.

It was understandable though, considering how fresh the vegetables were, he immediately recognized their quality.

After collecting the vegetables, Sun Qing didn’t leave right away. He made sure to ask if the vegetable stall belonged to Yao Jiu and insisted on talking to her privately.

Before long, Yao Jiu returned.

“What happened?”

Yao Jiu said, “It’s nothing much. He just said he wants to buy all of our vegetables.”

If this had happened a few years ago, Yao Jiu would have agreed without hesitation. Like every young person returning to their hometown, she thought the villagers weren’t very smart. Why not gather all the vegetables grown in the village and sell them to the supermarkets in the towns below?

But over time, Yao Jiu understood why it wasn’t that simple. Yanxia Mountain was too vast, and the villages were spread out. The amount of vegetables grown on the mountain wasn’t that much.

The cost of driving up the mountain for such a small amount of vegetables didn’t even make sense when compared to buying from the vegetable market.

To make matters worse, the neighboring province was a major vegetable production base, responsible for half of the country’s vegetable supply. They had large-scale planting, and the vegetables were fresh and cheap.

Lin You asked, “So, did you agree?”

Yao Jiu hesitated. “I’m not sure. I said I would think about it. But he said he could come to our village to collect the vegetables, and the prices would be the same as in the market, plus we wouldn’t have to pay for the shipping. The payment would be settled on the spot.”

The offer was too good to pass up, so Yao Jiu couldn’t help but agree.

Lin You patted her. “This is good too. It’ll save you the trouble of coming out to set up your stall early in the morning.”

Waking up so early every day was really tough.

Yao Jiu nodded and then awkwardly said, “But… what about the kindergarten?”

For the hundredth time, she thought how sad it was that steamed tofu pudding hasn’t made it out of Henan. It’s so delicious, isn’t it!