The neighbor on the left was his brother-in-law, who sold the kind of floral-padded jackets and tops that old ladies and men wore.
“Sis-in-law, those two girls selling wild vegetables from yesterday are back. Want some?”
“Of course I do! The wild vegetables are delicious, you know that. Your brother-in-law’s got high blood pressure, high blood sugar, high cholesterol—he should be eating more wild greens.”
Cheng Chunyun immediately pulled open her drawer to get money. Yesterday, when her sister-in-law had come by to drop off the vegetables, they’d chatted quite a bit, so she knew the story well. Those two girls definitely didn’t look like they’d have cell phones.
“There should be about one and a half kilos left. Give them small bills—they won’t be able to make change.” Seeing her pull out a fresh hundred-yuan note, Yuan Zhiqiang quickly stopped her.
“Got it.” Cheng Chunyun put the crisp hundred back and took out four tens instead.
Xiao Gu stood at the shop entrance, poking her sister. “Sis, look at that outfit. She has one too. She only wears it on holidays—she’s always showing off.”
Lin Xiaohe followed her sister’s gaze to a dark red jacket.
The old ladies in the village usually wore navy or dusty gray. A dark red jacket meant you could strut right through the village like you owned the place.
It had given Qian Sancao years of pride.
She teased her sister with a smile: “Oh, you want one? Once we save up enough, I’ll buy you one.”
“No way! I’d be mad just wearing the same thing as her.”
Xiao Gu’s lips practically curled to the back of her head, clearly annoyed. “Hehe, but she sure got what was coming to her today. I hope she’s so mad she ends up bedridden and can’t stir up any more trouble.”
“That’s wishful thinking. She knows how to enjoy life—she’s probably in good health. She’s not going down that easily.” From what she remembered, that old woman never shortchanged herself. She always gave herself and the old man the biggest portions at mealtimes.
“Little girls, you’re the ones selling wild vegetables, right? Come, come, put them all in this bag and I’ll weigh them.”
Cheng Chunyun had already walked halfway over when she realized the kids hadn’t brought any bags. She had to go back and grab one.
Normally, a seller showing up completely unprepared might annoy a buyer—but it had the opposite effect here.
The fact that they came so unprepared clearly showed they weren’t regular vendors, which meant these wild vegetables were the real deal—no tricks, no fuss.
That made them feel much safer eating them. These days, people weren’t afraid of much, but they were terrified of putting something bad into their mouths.
“Right, little girl—do you have shepherd’s purse where you live? If you do, bring me a couple of kilos next time you come.
Shepherd’s purse dumplings are so fresh and tasty. Last time I went to a farm stay, they were amazing. But when I bought shepherd’s purse and made them at home, they didn’t taste right. I think it must’ve been the greens.
Your purslane has a special flavor, so I bet the shepherd’s purse where you live is just as fresh.”
Lin Xiaohe scratched her head. “Auntie, I can’t promise. If I find any, I’ll definitely bring some next time.”
Around their area, the only wild greens they’d seen so far were purslane. She hadn’t spotted any shepherd’s purse.
But if purslane grew there, shepherd’s purse probably did too.
“Alright, if you find any, don’t forget to bring me some.”
Then she’d buy a kilo of free-range pork and roll out some dumpling wrappers herself—it’d be absolutely delicious.
They’d made even more money today than yesterday, and now they knew where to set up a stall to sell wild vegetables. Lin Xiaohe was so excited her hands were shaking.
“Come on, let’s go buy medicine first, then get some salt. If there’s anything left over, we’ll buy some grain. And if we can get some fatty pork, even better.
We can render the fat into oil and keep it—add a little to the porridge every day to help Mom and Dad recover.”
Just the thought of lard made them both involuntarily lick their lips. When your body was starved of oil and fat, you just couldn’t resist the taste of lard—even thinking about it made you drool.
“Sis, look across the street—what are they selling? There’s so much stuff!”
Xiao Gu’s eyes sparkled as she looked at the shop across the street. It wasn’t big—there was a large counter on each side and a bunch of stuff piled in the middle, making the space feel quite cramped.
“We can go take a look.” With money in hand, Lin Xiaohe felt more confident about everything. She took her sister’s hand and crossed over to check it out.
“What are you kids looking for?”
The shopkeeper was a plump middle-aged woman who broke into a warm smile as soon as she saw customers.
“We’re just looking first.”
Lin Xiaohe gripped the money tightly in her hand.
“Alright, take your time. Look around all you want.”
In the middle of the shop was a long table with many small boxes containing items neither of them recognized.
“Sis, do you know what any of this stuff is? I only recognize the chili peppers in that first box. I don’t know the rest.”
Xiao Gu kept her voice low, a little embarrassed.
“I don’t know either.” Lin Xiaohe shook her head. She hadn’t seen much more than her sister had.
The shopkeeper watched them walk around without picking up a single thing and asked again, “Kids, what are you looking to buy?”
“Salt. We want to buy some salt.”
“Salt? It’s tucked away in this corner over here. No wonder you didn’t spot it.”
The shopkeeper pulled out a cardboard box from the very bottom of the left shelf. “This kind is one yuan a pack, and this other kind is two-fifty. Which one do you want?”
Lin Xiaohe naturally went for the one-yuan packs.
As they walked out of the shop, she was still in a daze. It’s that cheap? One pack of salt would last their family a long time!
“Sis, salt is so cheap here. If we buy a few more packs, won’t we have enough salt for years to come?” Xiao Gu was so happy she was practically bouncing with each step.
“Yeah, I just bought two packs. We’ll come back tomorrow and get two more.”
Lin Xiaohe regretted not buying more—she should’ve gotten at least two more packs right then.
They headed back to the pharmacy they’d visited yesterday.
Xiao Gu crouched by the door again, still hoping for another miracle drumstick to drop from the sky.
Lin Xiaohe went inside and told the shopkeeper what she needed.
“Anti-inflammatory and fever-reducing medicine? Hold on, I’ll get them for you.”
One box of fever medicine and two boxes of anti-inflammatories came to a total of 50 yuan. The anti-inflammatories were cheaper, but each box had fewer pills—two boxes combined barely equaled one box of the fever medicine.
Lin Xiaohe felt the remaining money in her pocket and silently hoped they could sell more wild vegetables tomorrow!
When she came out, she saw her little sister pouting with a terribly disappointed look.
“What’s wrong? Why the long face?”
Xiao Gu fidgeted with the hem of her clothes. “It’s nothing really… I was just hoping another big drumstick might fall from the sky.”
“Stop daydreaming. In a couple of days, after we stock up on more medicine for Mom and Dad,
if we have any money left over, we’ll buy some meat.”
She wondered what meat cost around here. Hopefully it wasn’t too expensive.
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