Chapter 80: 80. A thousand yuan is almost 1
In the Lao Sun household, this was the situation—
Lao Sun’s daughter-in-law sent her granddaughter to school every morning, and then joined a few aunties to participate in free “health care” projects.
She had maintained this hobby for many years, starting from the Sun God phase to later on with Quanjian, and now she was involved with sothing called Xiang i Zhi Nei.
Lao Sun went from initially indulging her hobbies, to gradually becoming vigilant, and then to letting things take their own course, all because no matter what Lao Sun’s daughter-in-law did, she managed to be that miraculous woman who didn’t spend a penny amongst thousands!
However, this led to her spending a lot of ti on these activities, so the responsibility of buying groceries at ho had been Lao Sun’s for many years.
He started with just buying vegetables and, because he didn’t know how to bargain, would co ho to be nagged relentlessly, but over ti he learned to tell the quality of pork and whether the shelled edama was tender or not.
...
But you know, being a man, he had a tendency to be careless with money. If it wasn’t for his daughter-in-law controlling his grocery budget every day, he would have tried anything that looked fresh, making him quite the trendy old fellow.
That’s right, he saw a girl selling wild vegetables one day and noticed a bunch of people his age queuing up, so he spent twenty yuan on a whim to join the excitent.
From then on, he couldn’t stop!
From scanning a code to join a group to actively responding and then waiting every day at the designated ti, these vegetables had beco indispensable at ho.
Because of these vegetables, Lao Sun had beco a die-hard fan. The day Song Tan posted about tea leaves in the group, he imdiately felt a rush of excitent and spent a fortune to bring ho this tael.
Of course, at night, tossing and turning, he was not without regret, but as a big man, the money had been spent; could he still go back on it?
This regret dissipated the next day at the market with just a sniff from beneath the barely unfolded paper and imdiately turned into sheer joy.
After all, the serendipity and destiny involved here were too intricate to explain in detail.
But aside from all that, the tea leaves being a thousand yuan per tael was an indisputable fact. Now, faced with his daughter-in-law’s seemingly casual question, Lao Sun’s face imdiately soured.
At that mont, an old buddy sitting on the couch spoke up:
“I an… ah, this…”
He held his cup steady with one hand, standing up:
“Little sister-in-law, don’t bother anymore. I just rembered I have sothing to take care of at ho tonight, I need to get going now.”
Then he looked at the tea in his hand as if it were an afterthought: “The tea leaves are pretty fragrant, it’s a waste leaving them here since they’ve been brewed… I’ll take them with ! I’ll bring the cup back to you later.”
While speaking, he quickly made his way to the door. His other hand carefully protected the mouth of the cup to prevent any dust from getting in.
With him setting the example, the few remaining people looked left and right and quickly stood up, then said courteously:
“Sister-in-law, about that… I an… sothing at ho… that is… you know, I should get going too.”
In the blink of an eye, the whole crowd was gone, and all the teacups at ho were taken along with them.
What was left for Lao Sun were only the cup of tea in front of him and the accumulated water used for rinsing the tea leaves.
Lao Sun’s daughter-in-law had been all smiles, but as soon as the door closed, her face imdiately drooped.
“Look at you! If you’re buying tea, just buy it. Why all the secrecy?”
“I complained for a year and you really took it to heart? Go ahead and enjoy it. How much tea can you drink in a year, after all?”
She rolled her eyes: “At most, three to five hundred yuan per jin; wouldn’t I allow even that?”
Upon hearing these words, Lao Sun first felt elated, but then he beca depressed.
At that mont, the tea leaves before him were fresh and tender, the liquor clear and bright, the fragrance lingering.
But for him, the surprise and anticipation of drinking fine tea had completely vanished.
He sat there with listless eyes, stamring:
“This… this… I have so taste in tea, always drinking cheap ones doesn’t quite cut it…”
The more he said this, the more uneasy Lao Sun’s daughter-in-law felt in her heart.
Staring at him intensely, she burst out, “You didn’t go overboard and buy it for a thousand yuan per jin, did you?”
Old Sun let out a sigh of relief and imdiately nodded in haste, “About right… about a thousand yuan.”
A thousand yuan.
Old Sun’s wife obviously felt a pang of heartache.
She walked over, holding the cup of tea, sniffed it again, and in the end, nodded her head:
“That’s true, you get what you pay for. If the tea is this quality, a thousand yuan isn’t out of the question.”
Then she blew on it, took a small sip, and her eyes lit up without hesitation; she took the teacup away!
“Delicious! I’ll try this cup—and hey, don’t just keep such good tea for yourself. Pack so for
tomorrow; I will let my old sisters have a taste. They took
to get a pedicure today.”
Old Sun had a look of despair, now holding the cup of tea ant for rinsing, as if he could already see his tea “flying away.”
Downstairs, a few n holding teacups looked at each other. Taking in the tea’s fragrance once more and feeling the wild spring breeze outside, they hesitated:
“Or… shall we just drink this cup now? We can take so ho later.”
The group each blew on their cups and then without any hesitation—drank.
“Mmm!”
…
Late at night.
Perhaps because of the tea, Old Sun tossed and turned, sleepless and spirited.
Glancing at his wife lying motionless in bed, he thought of the little tea that he still had to share, he felt so anguished that he quietly got up, and in the dead of night, he started rummaging through the freezer in the kitchen.
He took out that small packet of tea, found a bag in the kitchen, and started to divide it little by little, the more he divided, the more heartbroken he felt.
In the end, after much thought, he couldn’t bear it and poured half of the divided tea back into the packet.
But upon closer inspection, doing so ant there was only a little left to give his wife to take out tomorrow—they would surely laugh at her.
So, he began dividing it again.
Just as he was struggling with this, his phone suddenly rang.
He checked it and saw an old buddy had sent a ssage in the group:
“Old Sun, where did you buy that tea? Man, it’s keeping
awake at night; I feel like I could scale a mountain!”
With that, four or five people in the group all chid in.
But being older and it being late at night made typing difficult, so most of them sent voice ssages:
“You guys can’t sleep either? Ah, this tea is so strong. I’ve been drinking for many years and am usually unaffected.”
“Exactly! Old Sun, where did you buy that tea? Hurry up and take us there!”
Old Sun instantly felt proud and replied with a voice ssage:
“Of course! It’s a thousand yuan for fifty grams. Would I be so generous if it wasn’t good tea?”
“Let
tell you guys, I was saying that there’s a market stall selling tasty veggies and you didn’t believe . If you’d stayed last night, I guarantee you’d have been unable to put down your bowls!”
Towards the end, his tone beca sowhat impassioned.
But upon careful listening, no other sound ca from the room, and he imdiately breathed a sigh of relief.
Just then!
A figure erged from the backlight of the living room:
“Old Sun, is this tea a thousand yuan for fifty grams, or for a kilogram?”
Reviews
All reviews (0)