Chapter 114: 114. Locust Flowers on the Back Mountain_1
All morning, Auntie and Sun Yanyan didn’t get any positive results. Even though they wanted to restrain themselves, their faces were still sullen and quite unpleasing.
The aunt and grandma were sitting there picking vegetables, a whole basin of tender Milk Vetch picked over by them, giving the mother and daughter a lot to talk about:
“Twenty bucks a pound, we’re eating well today.”
“Exactly, twenty! If you ask , we should’ve sold it. Mom, don’t you have lettuce in your garden? Pull up a few of those and it’s the sa thing.”
“Right, I think so too. Lettuce is so much cheaper, isn’t it? One to stew with at, one to stir-fry simply, it’s all good.”
“Sigh, Tantan and my brother are just the sa, both too honest, no business sense!”
“That’s true, Sancheng has always been honest since he was little.”
Wu Lan was bustling around with the wok in the kitchen, listening to their chat and feeling rather pleased.
She thought to herself, Song Sancheng’s honesty aside for now, their family’s Tantan, now that’s soone who knows how to do business.
Looking again at the disheartened expressions on her sister-in-law and her daughter-in-law, her mood improved even more.
Just then, Qiaoqiao’s voice could be heard from afar at the doorway:
“Mom, today Uncle Zhang taught
how to make compost.”
“Is that so?”
Wu Lan also raised her voice in response, “Then you must learn it well, our garden will rely on you in the future!”
Qiaoqiao proudly ran into the yard, “I will definitely learn well, I am so busy with tasks now!”
Then seeing the people in the yard, his smile grew even brighter:
“Aunt, I didn’t finish the snow cake you gave
last ti, I shared half with Big White.”
Turning his head and seeing Auntie from the hardware store and the annoying sister-in-law, he snorted and pretended not to see them.
Mao Li and Sun Yanyan beca even more irritated, “Tsk, how is this child raised? Doesn’t even know how to greet people.”
Qiaoqiao humd, “Because I’m stupid.”
“Pfft!”
Song Tan couldn’t help it and burst out laughing.
She hurriedly chid in, “That’s right, Auntie, at your age, why bother with kids?”
Her words ca out like a double whammy, echoing the sentints of “it’s a holiday” and “just a child”!
Thus Auntie’s face turned a shade greener, and seeing Uncle Song walk in from outside, she snorted coldly:
“You really take your ti. The al is almost ready and you’re just getting back.”
Uncle Song, clueless to the situation, was puzzled, “Sister-in-law is cooking, you’re going to eat readymade at ho. What’s the hurry?”
Mao Li: …
If it weren’t for her age, she’d really want to tear into an argunt and go straight back to the city.
But sitting there was truly suffocating, watching the old gentlen already sitting there, smoking and drinking the ordinary large-leaf tea from the mountains, chatting and relaxing comfortably.
What about them? They hadn’t had a smooth morning at all.
So with a feeling of discontent she said:
“Tantan, you’re even buying a car for the family this ti, aren’t you? That’s a hefty investnt. It will take a good while to earn that much from selling vegetables, won’t it?”
“I heard from your mom that you also bought so dogs? Why didn’t you go through your sister-in-law, she has lots of connections and could’ve gotten you a much better deal.”
“Exactly!” The sister-in-law quickly agreed, “I just heard from Auntie that it cost you three thousand. Ah, I say, definitely overpriced!”
Just at that mont, the person responsible for plowing the field, who was being offered a al for the first ti today, walked in from the yard and spontaneously added, “That’s not expensive at all! I’ve heard about it on the street. The dogs your family bought have eaten a tiger—wow, that’s an incredible bargain.”
What in the world, dogs that have eaten a tiger?!
They must be man-eaters!
Uncle and Aunt were also shockingly looking over, not to ntion the mother and daughter-in-law pair.
Song Tan, however, neither agreed nor denied, but answered another question, “It’s fine, it didn’t cost anything, a friend couldn’t afford to keep it and gave it to .”
Oh my, what sort of dog that has eaten a tiger could that be?
Sun Yanyan and Mao Li called a truce, and now they didn’t ntion anything about the dog—joking, even if you gave her thirty thousand, she couldn’t get her hands on a dog that has eaten a tiger!
After so thought, the great-aunt simply gave up on any further topics and took advantage of the crowd to speak directly to Wang Lifan:
“Mom, what other vegetables do you have in your garden? Vegetables are so expensive in the city now, I’m going to dig so up before I leave.”
As it happened, there was indeed a part of Wang Lifan’s garden left untouched.
In this season, what could there be? Isn’t it just Chinese cabbage, garlic sprouts, and lettuce?
The rest were the little Chinese cabbage seedlings raised for Song Tan, which hadn’t yet grown up, so they were definitely not edible.
Nowadays, Song Youde and Wang Lifan followed Song Tan’s family every day, feasting on fish, at, and vegetables without shortage—who would even rember those few stalks of lettuce?
So, Wang Lifan was quite magnanimous:
“Go ahead and pull. It’s fine even if you pull everything out.”
Mao Li almost laughed out loud—Milk Vetch was twenty yuan per jin, who knows how much the lettuce could be worth?
Now she looked at Song Tan: “Tantan, that Milk Vetch you had last ti was pretty tasty, which field did it grow in? I’ll go dig so more—you won’t begrudge it, will you?”
Song Tan almost laughed out loud.
Her great-aunt was truly amusing, wanting to dig but beating around the bush all morning, and getting all worked up before getting to the point.
She also sighed with apparent regret, “Aye, great-aunt, why didn’t you say so earlier?”
“Just last night, all those pieces of land were plowed over, and in a couple of days, I’m going to plant rice.”
She pointed to the bowl, “Didn’t I just say it’s all gone? That’s all that’s left.”
Mao Li was instantly left breathless—having just said there was none left, she thought this stuff grows everywhere in the field, how could it truly be gone?!
Today they ca back, and just yesterday the field happened to be plowed; wasn’t this like the heavens were against her?
The oldest aunt also looked regretful, “Isn’t this a missed opportunity to make money? Why plow it over?”
Song Tan sighed, “No way around it, aunt, people have beco picky these days, they must have grown tired of eating it for so long.”
Suddenly, the purchasing army in the group chat went silent: …We’re not tired yet.
That’s also true.
The oldest aunt reminisced regretfully for a mont, and then turned to Mao Li, without any pretense:
“Sis-in-law, since you’re free now, why don’t you go ahead and pull up all the lettuce and garlic sprouts from our mom’s garden? Share half with
later.”
What could Mao Li say?
She was the mother’s own daughter, could she refuse to share her mother’s produce?
But they had just finished choosing vegetables, why must they go to work again?
And yet when she looked around, the entire yard full of people was watching her, and the great-uncle seed to lose face.
“The vegetable market is right at our doorstep, why do you have to take our mom’s vegetables? Is it easy for the old couple to grow things?”
It was rather embarrassing as if he couldn’t get food to eat in the city.
But now that the words were spoken, could he really say he didn’t want them? Wouldn’t that be even more awkward?
The great-aunt continued to grimace.
The lettuce in the granny’s field actually hadn’t been blessed with Spiritual Energy by Song Tan; at most, they brushed against the Chinese cabbage seedlings.
But even if they just brushed against them, the taste should still be pretty good, so Song Tan was not pleased to let them off so cheaply to the great-aunt.
Thus, she clapped her hands, “Ah!”
“Oldest aunt, my granny’s land doesn’t yield produce as tasty as mine. I have two ancient locust trees on the mountain behind our house that are just budding, don’t bother with the lettuce. After we eat, I’ll ask Qiaoqiao to go up the mountain and fetch you so locust flowers.”
The two won, who were just taking baskets from the car, had their eyes light up.
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