Her Cultivation Diary-Chapter 23 - . The shepherd's purse is a bit old_1

Chapter 23: 23. The shepherd’s purse is a bit old_1

By the time Zhao Yang brought the rice to the table, the dish was almost empty.

Qinqin finally caught her breath after which, feeling slightly embarrassed that she and her son hadn’t started eating yet, picked up two chopsticks-full of vegetables:

“Mom, Zhao Yang, try this, the vegetables are really good!”

The mother and son both laughed and took a bite—

Wow!!!

Zhao Yang looked at the almost empty plate and then at his wife who clearly wanted more, at that moment she looked at him with anticipation, “Buy more tomorrow, okay?”

...

…

The same scene unfolded in another neighborhood.

Li Xiufen, with her fashionably dyed red curly hair, ladled a big bowl of dumplings for her granddaughter, “Yuanyuan, eat up! These shepherd’s purse dumplings are really fresh! Just as delicious as the ones from this morning.”

The daughter-in-law couldn’t help but laugh and cry at the sight:

“Mom, I told you, Yuanyuan is picky, she can’t finish so many.”

While speaking, she pushed her own bowl forward, “Come on, Yuanyuan, give some to Mom if you can’t finish.”

Unexpectedly, the little girl turned her head with the bowl, and “Ahwu” down went a whole dumpling, as she mumbled, “Yummy! I can eat it all!”

Yuanyuan’s mom was stunned.

“Is it that delicious?”

This picky eater had always had a weak stomach, refusing this, wanting to throw up that; even in kindergarten, she looked less robust than the nursery kids, which was really worrying.

Now her special small bowl had over a dozen dumplings in it! Looking at her child gobble down dumpling after dumpling without even lifting her head, you couldn’t say it wasn’t fragrant!

As a grandmother, she finally felt a sense of accomplishment. At that moment, she began to instruct imperiously, “You see, you pamper her too much usually. This imported, that organic… all this fuss, and look how thin the child is?”

“Take another look. This morning at the market, wild vegetables were twenty yuan a pound. I made shepherd’s purse soup for Yuanyuan’s noodles this morning, and she ate a big bowl of it in one go, didn’t even want to leave for kindergarten.”

She even told me at the kindergarten door, “Grandma, make more delicious food like this tonight, okay?”

Aiyo wei!

At that moment, Li Xiufen’s heart melted.

So off she rushed to the market, and thank heavens, she managed to grab the last three bunches of watercress.

The three bunches of vegetables were now in the fridge for later, while the shepherd’s purse snatched that morning was quickly turned into dumplings.

Talking about her victory, Li Xiufen was quite proud:

“You don’t know, I was just in time. A young couple was picking vegetables ahead of me, complaining about twenty yuan a pound being expensive—”

Li Xiufen let out a disdainful snort, “Not to brag, but do you young people even know what vegetables to buy? These fresh and tender wild vegetables were clearly grown in the wild!”

“Besides, this time of year, the supermarket has everything, cucumbers are sixteen yuan a pound, but do they taste any good?”

“I was lucky to get some.”

But as she spoke, no one chimed in.

She looked down to see her son and daughter-in-law already holding their bowls, with the dumplings nearly all eaten.

Her son was even blushing slightly, “Mom, are there any left?”

Li Xiufen recalled the silly and endearing grandchild that morning and became even more irritated: how come all the boys in her family grew up so well! She replied grumpily, “It was just a pound of shepherd’s purse, how many dumplings can that make?”

“Then, then buy a few more pounds tomorrow!” her son begged, his craving apparent. A small bowl of dumplings was far from filling his stomach. Weren’t there other vegetables in the fridge…

Li Xiufen grew even more annoyed!

“Eat, eat, eat; that’s all you know! You say buy more as if it’s so easy? Just buying a few pounds would cost over a hundred, how are you not heartbroken over the money?”

Her son looked wronged.

Weren’t you the one who just said twenty yuan a pound wasn’t expensive, Mom?

Just then, Yuanyuan put down her bowl, “Grandma, I want to eat this again tomorrow!”

Li Xiufen’s face instantly changed to one of joy and openness, “Tomorrow morning let’s cook noodles, we’re out of dumplings——but Grandma joined the group today, and I’ll ask her in a while if they’re still selling tomorrow, next time we’ll buy ten pounds, make dumplings and freeze them up!”

The son and daughter-in-law exchanged glances, feeling as if they no longer had any status within the family.

…

Song Tan’s customer group of 17 people was unusually lively tonight.

[Girl, when are you selling wild vegetables again?]

[Boss, can I make a reservation? I want ten pounds of shepherd’s purse.]

[Young lady, I have to go dancing in the park in the morning recently, can I give you the money now and have you save the vegetables for me?]

Song Tan, in high spirits, simply replied:

[The weather is cold now, and the wild vegetables haven’t grown yet. What we have is a part that grows in the hollows of the mountain, without pesticides or fertilizers, so there isn’t much wild vegetation. Therefore, there won’t be any for sale tomorrow, nor will we accept reservations to hold vegetables.

We tentatively plan to be at the market at seven o’clock the day after tomorrow. It’ll still be just the two of us siblings selling. The next sale will be three days later; we have to give the wild vegetables a chance to grow.]

She then posted a little video taken while picking wild vegetables that day:

The greenery on the mountain was sparse, spring had not yet arrived, but there was a patch of lush wild greens on the hillside, growing unrestrained and exuberant.

Unexpected clumps of green appeared around field ridges, cracks, and pond edges, enough to prove that these were indeed naturally grown wild vegetables.

Just then, someone in the group spoke up:

“Young lady, the wild vegetables from that plot have no cost, why do you sell them so expensively? They should be cheaper. And it’s not enough, it’s only eight ounces to a bunch, and the taste is just so-so.”

Song Tan’s eyebrows raised—not enough weight?

When binding, they were two ounces per pound per bunch, and with the weather like this, there was no evaporation of water content. The vegetable leaves were crisp and briskly fresh, not to mention how tender they were.

This morning she randomly picked and weighed a few bunches, and the weight hardly changed.

As for a mediocre taste? Didn’t she know the taste of her own harvest?

This was underestimating her century-old experience in farming.

And in a group of just over a dozen people, someone was picking faults?

Song Tan wasn’t going to pamper them.

So she replied politely, “Hello, the weight was off and it didn’t taste good, right? The morning after next, please come over and I will give you a refund.”

The boss is so easy to talk to?

After a while, someone in the group tentatively said, “Actually, that shepherd’s purse I got is a bit old…”

What month was it? The shepherd’s purse hadn’t even grown big, how could it be old?

But if there was a deal to be had, why not take it?

Song Tan also replied uniformly, “That’s fine, as long as you think the taste is not good, I will give everyone a refund the morning after next.”

This chapt𝒆r is updated by frёewebηovel.cѳm.

If the taste is not good, then maybe it’s better not to eat it in the future.

She was selling vegetables, she was selling Spiritual Energy, she cared about making money but also about being happy, there’s no need to deal with these kinds of people. With a century of experience, Song Tan rarely got angry—because she usually resolved matters before she had the chance to get upset.

However, while some were trying to take advantage, others were speaking frankly:

[Do you find it amusing to say such things? You can tell whether the vegetables are old or not, can’t you?]

[Exactly, boss, don’t indulge them. If it’s that hard to eat, let’s see them take the vegetables back for a refund!]

[Girl, your wild vegetables are very good! They’re also clean. I went through them yesterday and hardly found a few old leaves; they’re not those fake ones…]

[That’s right, if they don’t want them, leave them for me!]

Although Song Tan wanted to make money, she preferred a comfortable life. So she edited the group announcement:

[1. Pure ecological, pollution-free wild vegetables, not sorted by variety, uniformly 20 yuan per pound. Each bundle is sorted at two ounces per pound, and customers are welcome to weigh them at home, with excess refunded and shortages supplemented.

2. If the wild vegetables are not fresh, or are old, please bring the uneaten (cooked or raw both are fine) vegetables from our farm to the market, I will provide a full refund.

3. Farm’s own product, limited production, each sale will be notified in advance through the group, thank you for your support.]