Chapter 111

The eldest aunt looked at Sun Sun Yanyan in surprise: "Didn't she send five jin? That's not a small amount! You young people just spoil the children. How old is Song Ziyi? Wouldn't she get sick if she ate it all in one meal?"

"You can't eat like that next time. Good things must be savored slowly, you can't just..."

She said earnestly:

"Like a cow chewing on a peony."

Sun Sun Yanyan's face went numb.

Just then, Mao Li also got into the car, and upon hearing this, she said with a forced smile: "Big sister-in-law, you don't know, Tan Tan's vegetable selling is incredible now!"

"That Chinese milk vetch from last time, something we didn't even value in the fields when we were young, she actually sells for twenty yuan a jin."

"Sun Yanyan and I discussed going to the market to support our relative's business, but I didn't expect her not to lower the price by even a penny, and she even made me lose face..."

"If you ask me, we're all poor relatives now, we can't afford to eat such expensive things of hers!"

"What?!"

The eldest aunt's voice rose suddenly: "The kind she sent over last time, twenty yuan a jin?!"

Beside her, the eldest uncle, Zhu Jun, was also full of shock, thinking that the Chinese milk vetch stir-fried with pork belly was really delicious. He and his son's family of three had finished it in two meals; it was too reckless!

Mao Li felt their shock and secretly let out a breath.

She thought: Finally, someone knows Song Tan's arrogant face now! This child gets cocky as soon as she earns a little money, showing no respect for her elders at all. It's only right to have her aunt go back and play the villain to teach her a lesson.

But she didn't expect the eldest aunt to look full of regret at this moment:

"Oh my! Tan Tan, this child, why is she so honest?! What kind of green vegetables can't you buy at the market? Why did she have to send such good things!"

"These vegetables are so expensive, why not sell them for money? How much can you buy with twenty yuan? This child, she's just too generous!"

She clutched her chest. Thinking of how her family had polished off a hundred yuan worth of vegetables in one or two meals, her heart was bleeding, and she couldn't even bother to ponder the meaning behind Mao Li's words.

Mao Li:...

She was instantly filled with frustration again.

The car drove forward in this awkward atmosphere. Halfway there, Uncle Song stopped the car, and he and the eldest aunt went to buy some yellow paper and such.

Mao Li sat in the car thinking for a long time, deciding that they couldn't just let things get so tense. After all, there was a huge plastic crate in the trunk; if they were to load vegetables, they could surely fit thirty or fifty jin, right?

If the child's aunt didn't take any and only she took some, that would look so ugly. It would be as if they were living in the city now and still coming back to the village to freeload.

Just as she was pondering, the eldest aunt had already opened the car door and sat back in, holding two stacks of yellow paper and a black plastic bag, in a very good mood.

Sun Sun Yanyan was worthy of being Mao Li's daughter-in-law; she opened the conversation with a sense of mutual understanding: "For the holiday, yellow paper isn't cheap either. Prices are rising fast these days."

"That's for sure!" The eldest aunt said with dissatisfaction, speaking to Uncle Song in the driver's seat: "If you ask me, it's because you, big brother, weren't attentive. I called you earlier and told you to buy it early—it hadn't risen in price then!"

"You kept saying there was no rush, no rush. Now it's good, they know we have to spend the money, so they won't lower the price by a penny."

It made it seem like her bargaining skills were very poor.

But turning back to Mao Li, she became proud again: "But his asking price was too unreasonable. So, I bargained with him for a long time, and finally added five yuan, and managed to get a bag of gold ingots and a stack of US dollars—each of these would cost five yuan if sold separately. It'll let our grandparents play abroad in the underworld."

Well then.

Sun Sun Yanyan's full draft of words was instantly knotted and came to an abrupt end.

She sat there feeling stifled, but fortunately, her mother-in-law was there.

At this moment, Mao Li also put on a show and praised: "Song Hongmei, you really know how to negotiate. Everything is expensive now, and life in the city is hard too. Prices are rising fast, and buying vegetables is so expensive..."

If this topic continued, wouldn't it be logical for them to bring back more vegetables when they returned to the village?

But the eldest aunt picked up the thread, yet didn't quite catch it completely.

She also looked in agreement: "That's right. The price of eggs has risen so high. My pancake stall uses flour, eggs, green onions, and even wraps in ham sausages. I can't even earn much from four or five yuan anymore."

"Big sister-in-law, it's not that I'm lecturing you, but the children are under a lot of pressure now, and you should think about how to save more."

"When I went to your house last time, it was tidied up quite cleanly, but you didn't utilize such a large balcony!"

When it came to saving money, no one was better at it than the eldest aunt: "I'll teach you. You find a few empty oil jugs, dig up some soil in the residential area, and plant garlic sprouts and green onions. It's beautiful!"

"The green onions for my egg pancakes are mostly grown by myself."

"No one manages our old residential area. If you don't have room at home, just line up a few oil jugs along the corridor downstairs! If the neighbors want to eat some, letting them pinch a couple is fine, and you can save some money yourself, right? Onion bulbs don't cost much..."

Mao Li:...

Mao Li no longer had any desire to continue the conversation.

The group arrived back at their hometown in silence, rushing all the way, and it was already past nine or ten o'clock. Wu Lan and Wang Wang Lifen were busy tidying up vegetables at home.

After all, there were eleven people eating now, and with their two families added, the appetite of twenty people was not small, and it wasn't an easy job.

Uncle Song's car parked smoothly at the courtyard gate. Sun Sun Yanyan got out of the car and found that her uncle's house was still the same as before; it didn't seem like anything had improved because of earning money.

The courtyard seemed to have changed, yet it seemed like nothing had. The only extra things were three tiger-headed, tiger-brained little local dogs.

"Oh my," she called out, feigning surprise:

"Aunt, why are you raising these local dogs?"

Wu Lan smiled and welcomed them in, saying casually: "Song Qiao Song Qiao picked them up on the side of the road. It's just right, the house needs a guard dog, so we're raising them."

Sun Sun Yanyan then laughed: "Aunt, Song Qiao Song Qiao doesn't know any better. These kinds of little local dogs, who knows what kind of mixed breed they are, and how big they'll grow is another matter."

"If you really want to raise one, spend some money and buy a purebred dog. Those wolfhounds or something aren't expensive either. I have an acquaintance who sells them, and you can get one for five or six hundred yuan..."

Wu Lan laughed out loud: "You young people just talk about breeds. Tan Tan also insisted that these little dogs were useless and went to spend three thousand yuan to buy a few more..."

A few...

Although she didn't know what kind they were, to suddenly be willing to spend money and raise so many dogs, was the family really becoming wealthy?

Sun Sun Yanyan felt uncomfortable.

Uncle Song and the eldest uncle went to the old courtyard with the meat and oil they had bought, while Mao Li wandered around the courtyard here.

Seeing several large iron basins by the kitchen filled with bundles of green vegetables and lettuce, she couldn't help but be surprised:

"Oh my, we're our own family, why go to such trouble to get so many vegetables? You're too polite!"

At the same time, she quickly moved closer to Wang Wang Lifen: "Mom, at your age, you should be enjoying life at home. Why are you still coming here to work?"

---Side note---

It seems I still owe two daily ten-thousand-word updates this month...

Alright, I'll try tomorrow.

It's the end of the month, everyone, please give me more monthly tickets!

Still three updates today! Coming right up!

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