“Sis, where did you go? I just woke up and you were already gone.”
“I went to Granny Zhao’s to trade for some pickled vegetables. Is the congee ready? Let’s eat and then head out to dig for wild greens.
We’ll go a bit further today and look for that wild garlic shoot Aunt Chen was asking about.”
“Okay, let me go check.” Xiaogu rubbed her messy, bird’s-nest hair. “I think I need a haircut—it’s all over the place.”
“Do you want to cut it or tie it up? If you want it cut, I’ll borrow some scissors tomorrow. If you want to tie it up, we can go buy a couple of hair ties.”
Xiaogu’s eyes lit up—just the thought of pretty hair ties made her bubble with excitement. “I want to tie it up! Let’s go buy hair ties.”
“Alright, after we sell the greens today, I’ll take you.”
They finished eating and quickly grabbed their baskets and sacks to head over to the other side to dig for wild greens. Time waited for no one, and neither did the customers.
They trudged along the pool, pressing forward.
“Sis, did it rain last night? My feet feel heavier with every step.”
Xiaogu yanked her foot out of the ground like pulling a carrot out of dry soil.
The mud caked on her soles was thicker than her shoes—no wonder she felt weighed down.
“It must have. The leaves are still a little damp.” Lin Xiaohe nodded, reaching down to touch the grass. “The rain wasn’t heavy though—the grass is already dry.”
“Sigh—Sis, wait up. Let me find something to scrape this mud off. I can barely walk.”
“Sure, go ahead. I’ll look around nearby.” Lin Xiaohe had already wiped the mud off her own feet onto the grassy patches as she walked, so she didn’t have much stuck to her. She wandered around the area a bit.
There was nothing but grass and trees.
She circled around but didn’t spot anything interesting.
Just as she was about to keep moving forward, something tripped her.
She lost her balance and pitched forward, catching herself on a nearby tree just in time to avoid face-planting.
“You okay?” Xiaogu ran over anxiously. “Did you fall?”
“I’m fine, I’m fine—just tripped on something.” Lin Xiaohe waved it off and crouched down to see what had caught her foot.
“This looks like a wild yam root!”
Judging from the little bit sticking out, it sure seemed like it.
“Yam? Let’s dig it up! It can be used as food!” Xiaogu immediately crouched down and started digging. This counted as grain too.
“Be careful—don’t get the sap on your hands. If you touch it, it’ll itch for hours.”
“Hehe, I know—I’ll be careful.”
They worked hard to dig it up, but they didn’t have any tools—just a small stick they’d found. Luckily, last night’s rain had softened the ground.
Soon enough, they unearthed a long, twisted wild yam, though the very bottom broke off.
The part they’d dug up was as long as an arm stretched out—who knew how much was still broken off underground.
“Okay, let’s hurry and gather the greens, or we’ll miss the market.”
Lin Xiaohe broke the wild yam into two or three sections, stuffed them into her basket, grabbed her sister, and ran forward.
Without shovels or hoes, it was too hard to dig more. They’d pull up one more to confirm it was yam, then leave the rest for the afternoon.
This was a gentle slope with no trees at all—bare ground in some spots.
But as far as the eye could see, it seemed like wild garlic shoots had taken over.
They were everywhere.
“Wow! That’s way too many! Last year we found a patch on the back mountain and thought it was a lot—but compared to this, that was nothing!”
Xiaogu started pulling them up noisily. Since it had rained last night, the ground was moist and they came up easily.
The downside was that the mud on the roots wouldn’t just fall off with a tap—it was all caked on.
“Sis, this looks kind of messy. Will we be able to sell it?”
“It’s fine. Let’s take it over and try. If it doesn’t work, we’ll figure something else out.”
“Alright, I’ll keep pulling these. Sis, you dig up some shepherd’s purse and purslane nearby.”
“Okay. Be careful—don’t roll down the slope.” It wasn’t steep, but it was still a hillside.
Better to be safe!
“Of course I know—falling hurts! I’ll be careful.”
After they’d gathered enough greens, the two rushed over to the market as fast as they could.
They were still a little late—only spots at the very back were left, and the stalls next to them had already sold most of their produce.
“Sis, looks like we need to get up even earlier tomorrow.”
Xiaogu scratched her head awkwardly.
“No, we can’t. Any earlier and we’d be going into the woods in the dark. We’re not mountain folk—that’s not safe.”
Safety came first. Selling a little less each day was fine—at least they weren’t going hungry. No need to take risks.
The earliest they could go was after daylight.
But by the time it was light enough, they had to dig the greens, then hike all the way to the market—by then it was usually past 8 o’clock.
They’d already missed the peak buying rush of old folks around 7 a.m.
“Alright!” Xiaogu was happy to accept things as they were. She immediately started hollering, “Wild greens for sale! Fresh wild greens—picked this morning! We’ve got wild garlic shoots, shepherd’s purse, and purslane!”
“How much are they?”
“10 yuan a bundle—each bundle is a full jin. If it’s not a jin, it’s free.”
Lin Xiaohe patted her chest in guarantee.
“Alright, give me two bundles of shepherd’s purse. Can you split the wild garlic shoots? They don’t keep well—I only want about two liang, to steam with some eggs.”
Lin Xiaohe scratched her head hesitantly. “Grandma, we don’t have a scale. It’s hard to sell it split up.”
“Hmm…” The old lady looked around. “Tell you what—split a bundle for me, let me pick a bit out, and I’ll go weigh it at another stall. Then I’ll come back and pay you. Sound good?”
“Sure, sure!” Lin Xiaohe agreed readily. Why not?
“Oh, and we only take cash—we can’t do mobile payments. We don’t have phones.”
“No problem—I’ve got cash on me.”
“Xiaohe, you kids run so fast! I saw you by the shop entrance just now and tried to call out, but you were already gone.
Here are the bags your uncle picked up yesterday—he forgot to give them to you. And this is an old scale we retired from the shop—it still works.
It’s just a bit worn and dirty. See if you can use it.”
This scale had seen a lot of use—even though it was from a grain and oil shop, it had gotten pretty grimy.
After they bought a new one, the old one had been sitting in storage. She wouldn’t have even remembered it if she hadn’t gone in to get the bags today.
Lin Xiaohe’s eyes lit up. “Really, it’s free?!”
“Really free. You’ve shopped at our store—you’ve seen the one we use, right? Look at all this dust—it’s clearly been sitting unused for a long time.”
Chen Fang was afraid the child would be too polite to accept, so she’d purposely brought it over without even wiping off the dust.
Leave a Reply