Chapter 13 Sold for a total of twenty-six dollars

After the woman left, Jiang Peiyu continued calling out loudly to attract more customers.
“Fresh melons here! Sweet and juicy melons, only 0.3 yuan per jin, 0.5 yuan for two!”

“Buy a jin for your parents, show a little gratitude for raising you! Buy a jin for your friends and family, strengthen your bond! Buy a jin for your mother-in-law, she’ll say you’re better than her own son!”

“Come take a look, come buy some! Three mao per jin, you can’t go wrong—”

Before she could finish her chant, a middle-aged man walked over.

“Little girl, how about cheaper? Two mao per jin, I’ll take ten jin.”

Jiang Peiyu smiled but didn’t respond to him directly. She continued her pitch.

“No haggling, no bargaining! Bargain and it’s cheating! You get what you pay for, and every customer comes back for more. Don’t buy today and you’ll regret it—your wife will smack your leg when you get home!”

Off to the side, Jiang Yanwen was getting anxious. Ten jin was a big order, and even at two mao per jin, they’d still make a profit. He was just about to step in and tell his sister to accept the lower price when the middle-aged man laughed and said,

“You’re quite something, little girl. Young, but with a sharp tongue! Fine, give me ten jin.”

“Great, brother! I’ll weigh them right up for you. These melons are homegrown, guaranteed sweet—if they’re not, you can come back and find me!”

Jiang Yanwen quickly weighed out ten jin and handed over the bag. Jiang Peiyu took the money, then grabbed two extra melons and stuffed them into the bag.

With a cheerful voice, she said, “Brother, here’s two more for you, just to round things out. If they’re tasty, come back for more! My brother and I sell melons here every day!”

The man didn’t say anything more. He nodded and walked off with the big bag of melons.

And just like that—where there’s one customer, others follow. One, two, three, four, five more… With Jiang Peiyu’s loud and lively marketing, the two large baskets of melons were sold out within an hour and a half.

Jiang Yanwen was overjoyed, praising his sister non-stop.
“Little sis, you’re amazing! Before, if I sold one basket in a whole day, that was already a good day.”

“Second Brother, you can’t be shy when doing business. You have to call out and attract people.”

“When customers come near, you need to greet them with energy. If you just stand there silently, how would anyone even know you’re selling melons?”

“Yes, yes, you’re absolutely right. Now that we’ve got money, you must be hungry. Let me treat you to a bowl of wontons across the street.”

“Sure! Thanks, Second Brother. I’m really hungry.”

After eating, the two of them headed home on the ox cart, unaware that not far behind, a pair of vicious eyes had been watching their every move.

“Jiang Peiyu, you stole twenty-two years of my life. Don’t think you’ll get away with it…”

“You should’ve ended up like me in my previous life—married to that old man, stuck in a joyless marriage.”

“When you’re old, those two ungrateful brats will abuse you to death.”

“Haha…”

Watching them from the shadows was none other than Xia Lizhu, who was out shopping with Wang Shengjie for their upcoming wedding next month.

Wang Shengjie had just stepped into a public restroom. When he came out, he saw Xia Lizhu staring off into the distance.

“Lizhu, what are you looking at? Let’s head back once we’re done shopping.”

“Nothing… Nothing important… Shengjie, I want to take another look at the furniture store.”

“My mom said your family needs to buy me a new furniture set for the wedding.”

She didn’t want Wang Shengjie to know she had been staring at Jiang Peiyu. They were about to get married, and she didn’t want anything to ruin it. After all, she had no idea how deep his feelings for Jiang Peiyu went. And she had to admit—Jiang Peiyu was prettier and more educated than her.

Thinking of that made Xia Lizhu’s eyes turn even more venomous. Just wait. You stole the life that should’ve been mine. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t be living like this.

I’ll make you pay…

Hearing her say she wanted to look at furniture, a trace of impatience flickered in Wang Shengjie’s eyes—but he quickly hid it.

“Alright, let’s go.”

“Mm, thank you, Shengjie. You’re so good to me.”

Lost in her thoughts about a blissful future, Xia Lizhu didn’t notice anything unusual. She lowered her head, smiling sweetly like a shy bride-to-be, believing that once she married Wang Shengjie, her life would finally be full of happiness, luxury, and love.

Poor Xia Lizhu—she had no idea that the man beside her, who appeared so gentle and considerate, was hiding an insidious and vicious heart. Perhaps this is fate: no matter how many times she lives again, a poisonous person still doesn’t deserve happiness.

Meanwhile, back at home, Jiang Peiyu and Jiang Yanwen didn’t even get a sip of water before closing the door and excitedly counting their earnings.

“One yuan, two yuan, three yuan… twenty-four, twenty-five, twenty-six…”

“Little sis, you’re amazing! We made twenty-six yuan!”

Jiang Yanwen was overjoyed. Selling out two full baskets of melons in one morning and making twenty-six yuan—that was equivalent to half a month’s salary for a city worker.

Jiang Peiyu, however, didn’t react much. Twenty-six yuan didn’t impress her—her mind was already filled with ideas on how to make serious money.

In her past life, her family didn’t need her to earn anything, so to keep her parents at ease, she lived carefree, like a pampered daughter.
But she had never been as clueless as she appeared. After all, she had been accepted into a top 985 university.

Now that her family was poor, it was her time to shine…

“Second Brother, how many more melons do we have?”

Jiang Yanwen thought for a moment. “A lot.”

“How much is ‘a lot’?”

“I’m not sure exactly. Want me to show you?”

“Sure.”

He took her to the courtyard behind their house, where two plots of melons were growing. Then he led her to the back mountain.

“This mountain land was allocated to our family. I cleared out a few patches to plant melons.”

“At first, I just wanted to see if they’d grow. Didn’t expect them to turn out so well—we really hit the jackpot.”

“There are also a few more plots on the other side of the mountain. I planted a bunch of watermelons there. They’ll need about ten more days to ripen. We can sell those too.”

Looking at the entire melon patch, Jiang Peiyu estimated there had to be at least 2,000 jin. Thanks to the abundant sunshine and fertile soil, the skins were bright green and the fruits looked large and round.

“Second Brother, let’s keep selling tomorrow. Once we sell all the muskmelons, we can move on to the watermelons.”

“Alright, little sis. You’ve got the brains—I’ll follow your lead. You take care of selling. As for picking, hauling, and carting melons to the city, leave all the heavy work to me.”

That’s exactly how Jiang Yanwen thought of it. Since his little sister had taken the initiative, why wouldn’t he agree? When he first planted these melons, it was just a gamble—if they grew, great. If not, they only lost a few coins’ worth of seeds.