Little Miss Fortune: I Will Bring Prosperity to My Tang Family!-Chapter 25: The Young Vendor with a Clear Voice

Chapter 24

The Young Vendor with a Clear Voice

"Freshly picked vegetables from the garden. Come this way, hurry up and buy before they run out!" The clear voice of a plump little girl was effective at attracting the attention of passersby.

The young girl eagerly gestured to invite customers, charming many into approaching her vegetable stall with her claims of excellent produce.

"What do you have, little vendor?" A middle-aged woman, dressed nicely, approached with a gentle voice, intrigued by the cute appearance of the young girl.

"Right this way, beautiful auntie. Today, I have fresh cabbage, big cauliflower, and plump turnips. Just harvested this morning, guaranteed fresh and delicious, not wilted at all. And all for the very reasonable price of ten brass coins per jin!" Xiaolin proclaimed loudly for her grandparents to hear too. How could such big vegetables be sold for just five brass coins per jin? Judging by the woman’s attire, people in this town must be quite wealthy.

The young vendor’s enthusiastic promotion made the adults smile, admiring her talkativeness. Many stepped forward to check the fresh vegetables she boasted about.

Upon seeing the large bulbs as advertised, they hurriedly made their purchases, especially the beautiful aunt who was the first to approach, who ended up asking her servant to buy as much as ten catties.

Thanks to the praise for calling her beautiful auntie, indeed.

"And will you have fresh vegetables to sell again, little vendor?" The elegantly dressed woman asked after generously buying more than ten jin of vegetables.

"We’re only selling today and tomorrow, then that’s it. But, at my home, we still have a lot of big sweet potatoes. If you all are interested, I can bring them to sell. It’s not expensive at all, only fifty brass coins per jin," Xiaolin replied with a grin, making dozens of onlookers stare with their mouths nearly agape. Her grandparents barely had time to rest as they were too busy selling vegetables.

The crowd, hearing this, lit up with excitement. Sweet potatoes weren’t commonly sold in Jiangnan, and when they were, they were only small bulbs sold at a high price of sixty brass coins per jin. Given the young vendor’s success with growing large, shiny vegetables, it was likely she could grow similarly large sweet potatoes.

"Really? Then bring them to sell, little vendor. I’ll buy them to store for the winter."

"Me too. I’ll also buy your sweet potatoes. Your vegetables are as fresh and large as you say."

"I’ll come and wait to buy too."

"Thank you to all the beautiful aunties and sisters for supporting my  small vegetable stall," Xiaolin bowed in gratitude, flashing another sweet smile that made the aunties swoon.

After the vegetables were sold out, everyone dispersed, leaving the little vendor exhausted from shouting, resting against her grandfather’s chest.

Zhang Ruo looked at her petite granddaughter in awe. In just a short time, the young girl had sold out the vegetables brought in two carts, a stark contrast to the past years where they sat selling for days with some vegetables wilting or rotting away.

"Drink some water first, child," Hui Song handed a drink to his granddaughter. Xiaolin took it, drank, and then leaned against her grandfather, completely drained.

"Well done, you’re very good at selling," Zhang Ruo stroked her granddaughter’s head. It seemed she wouldn’t have to worry about the young girl’s future interest in small business endeavors.

"How did everything sell out so quickly?" Hong Chuan came out to see why the lively shouting of the young girl had ceased.

"The customers bought several jin each."

"Oh, good job, little vendor!" Hong Chuan looked down at the little vendor, now nearly asleep from exhaustion.

"Then, we’ll be heading back now. Thank you for letting us use the space. We might need to bother you again tomorrow."

"No problem at all. Your vegetables looked really fresh and tasty. Bring some for me first thing tomorrow; I’ll buy more."

"Will do."

After saying their goodbyes, the couple packed up and wheeled their cart away from the pharmacy. Hui Song laid a cloth over the cart and placed his plump granddaughter on it. Xiaolin, exhausted from the day’s work, had fallen asleep as soon as they finished.

"She’s really talented, isn’t she?" Zhang Ruo said to her husband as they walked back to the village.

"Indeed. I never thought such a little one could come up with so many persuasive words to attract customers," he reminisced about how the little niece sweetly enticed customers to buy.

"Besides selling vegetables, she even managed to secure customers for the sweet potatoes in advance."

"She’s better than both of us combined, A’Ruo," her husband concluded, making Zhang Ruo burst into laughter.

"Let’s hurry back and share the good news with A’Ning Hui and A’Rong. Who knows, the twenty mu of sweet potatoes might not even be enough," the couple excitedly wheeled their cart home.

Little did they know that their playful remark would soon become a reality two days later..

Tianrong had urgently hired the owner of the cart they had used for delivery two months ago and his three friends to help transport the sweet potatoes to the city for sale.

He hadn’t considered buying ox and a cart yet, as it would require building additional storage and preparing feed. Thus, hiring others was more convenient for the time being.

Four carts lined up in front of the Hong’s pharmacy, ready to be quickly unloaded as the sweet potatoes already had buyers. Customers were already waiting because the daughter and father-in-law had brought some sweet potatoes for a trial sale the previous day, which led to several pre-orders.

The new customers, seeing the large sweet potatoes, were eager to place their orders, each wanting several jin. With Liu Hao coming along to help manage the customer list (since they had to get the pharmacy employees to take down names the day before), the scene was quite orderly.

"The sweet potatoes are here!"

"They’re as big as you said!"

People crowded in front of the pharmacy, prompting Tianrong to call out for those who had pre-ordered to come forward and line up according to the list, read by Liu Hao at the side.

"Master Guan, 200 jin...

Master Wang, 350 jin...

Master..."

By the time they finished, Tianrong and Liu Hao’s voices were hoarse. Many people were still waiting, having come to place orders for sweet potatoes in advance after hearing about them from friends and neighbors. They came to see for themselves today.

"Anyone who wants to order sweet potatoes, please come here to sign up."

The new customers, who were waiting, crowded in to place their orders, creating quite a chaos. By the time Tianrong and Liu Hao managed to organize everything and finish up, they were drenched in sweat.

"We’ve got orders for tomorrow up to six thousand catties, Brother Rong. We’ll need to get more carts," Liu Hao remarked. A cart could only carry up to a thousand catties of sweet potatoes because of the weight. Today, they had transported as much as four thousand catties.

"Does Uncle Deng have two more friends with carts for hire?" Tianrong turned to ask the man of similar age to his father-in-law, whom he had hired for this round of sweet potato transport.

"Yes, I’ll let them know."

"Meet us at our house, then."

"Sure."

Tianrong paid the cart owners fifty brass coins each for their heavy lifting. All four men, pleased with their earnings, left smiling broadly. Just one round of transporting sweet potatoes had earned them so much; typically, they would consider twenty brass coins a high payment for transporting heavy goods.

Sitting in front of the pharmacy, Tianrong’s face was all smiles, his hand constantly touching the money pouch, heavy with the two hundred taels of silver earned from four thousand jin of sweet potatoes.

"Let’s take a break before we go buy tanghulu for Xiaolin, Liu Hao."

"Alright."

Meanwhile, the plump little girl was unaware of her father’s broad smiles. She was busy instructing her uncle to soak duck eggs in vinegar. After about ten minutes, she asked him to take them out and gently clean them.

"Then coat them with salt."

"That’ll use a lot of salt, won’t it, Xiaolin?" Tianchen frowned.

"What are you afraid of, Uncle? We have a big jar full of salt."

"Right, we can make our own salt," the young man realized, diligently following his niece’s precise instructions.

Twenty duck eggs were coated in salt and stored in a small jar, sealed tightly. In ten days, they would check the results. Now, only pickled vegetables were left. She had asked her beautiful mother to prepare the ingredients during her absence selling vegetables. Now, her mother was washing the salt-soaked vegetables.

"We have peppers, fish sauce, boiled tapioca flour, chopped ginger, garlic, onions, wild onions, and radishes," Xiaolin recounted her ingredients list dispiritedly.

Her kimchi seemed pitiful indeed...

"Hopefully, the tapioca flour can substitute for sticky rice flour. We only have a little sugar, so let’s skip it."

The chubby girl sighed again before calling her young uncle over once more. Tianchen looked at his niece’s pickling ingredients with trepidation.

"Isn’t it going to be too spicy?" He swallowed nervously, eyeing the heap of red chili peppers. It was bound to upset the stomach for sure.

"Uncle, the chili I use isn’t spicy, Xiaolin. It might look a bit scary because of its color, but it’s definitely not spicy."

Tianchen, hearing this, nodded in agreement. He helped add the ingredients into the mixture, with Hui Ning stirring everything together.

"Add the sliced radish and spring onions. Mix well. After that, apply the pickling liquid to the prepared Chinese cabbage, making sure to get it into the leaves as well," Xiaolin instructed. Originally, she planned to make dried salted radishes, but because the vegetables sold too well, only a few were left.

The plump girl watched her mother follow the instructions perfectly, while the other person still looked a bit scared. Xiaolin then dipped her finger into the bright red pickling liquid and thrust it into her uncle’s mouth.

"Is it spicy?"

"Not at all. It’s rather sweet," Tianchen replied after tasting. He then cheerfully began applying the pickling liquid to the Chinese cabbage.

After pickling the vegetables and storing them in a large jar, there was still some pickling liquid left. Xiaolin instructed them to slice some radishes thinly and mix them with the remaining liquid, also pickling some spring onions.

"How long do we need to pickle these for, sweetie?" Hui Ning, who had just finished washing her hands, asked her daughter, who was enjoying roasted sweet potatoes with her uncle.

"You can eat it right away, mother. But if you prefer it a bit sour, you can leave it for three to four days."

"Then we’ll try some at lunch. But why did you pickle so few eggs? Won’t they last?"

"They can be stored for a long time, mother. After pickling for about ten days, you can boil them and keep them for a long time. But I didn’t make a lot because I’m not sure if it will work out," Xiaolin explained as she prepared another roasted sweet potato to eat.

"If it turns out well, I’ll get more eggs for you, Sister-in-law. Those ducks lay eggs all over the lakeshore."

"Try to catch one if you see it. Others might be tired of pork by now."

"Alright, but I’ve never seen one," the young man frowned, recalling his egg collection attempt earlier without spotting a single duck.

"Try going in the early morning, Uncle. They’re probably foraging in the lotus pond at that time," the plump-cheeked girl suggested while munching on her sweet potato.

"Right, my smart niece," Tianchen looked at her plump cheeks lovingly. He bit into his sweet potato fiercely, unable to pinch her cheeks as he wished.

If he did bruise her cheeks, he was sure his brother would give him a bump on the head...

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