Chapter 1469: Wicker Baskets

May Day.

At five o'clock in the morning, while the sky was still dim, Secretary Xiao Zhu nimbly climbed out of bed, hopped on her electric scooter, and rode a full circle around the village.

Although the woodpiles at some people's doorways weren't stacked neatly, the vegetable patches in front of others were a bit messy, and the houses of some families looked old and dirty... all in all, it didn't lose that rustic, rural simplicity.

Of course, it was a "New Countryside" now; it was rare to see thatched cottages or old tile-roofed houses, but the space was ample, and every household had room to park a few cars at their entrance.

Some families even raised chickens, ducks, and geese...

Oh my!

Secretary Xiao Zhu thought to herself that she still had to find an opportunity to strive for it; next year, she would see if they could find a place in the village to raise pigs. With such good mountains and waters, raising a pig—if there were many tourists during the holidays, slaughtering one to liven things up would be such a great opportunity!

However, for now, she should stay calm and wait to see the tourists' reactions and spending power this year. That "Vegetable Basket" vision plan would take a year or two to build, after all.

As for the tourists who had come for their reputation, they were even more expectant this time.

Most of them had never been here before; they had simply seen the promotional images online and driven straight over.

—At worst, it would just be a wasted trip! Every slightly famous scenic spot nearby was packed with people during the holiday anyway. Since they were going to be stuck in traffic regardless, they might as well pick a remote place to take a look.

Among them, a small handful of people were secretly touching their wallets in anticipation.

For example, Xiao Cai.

For example, Chen Yunyun.

Cars on the road were driving forward one by one. Only the two of them stopped their cars simultaneously when they saw an old man on the side of the road selling a pile of bamboo baskets of various sizes.

After getting out of the car, both sides were stunned.

Xiao Cai was here with her mother and two neighbor aunts from their courtyard, and they were currently staring at the wicker baskets, discussing buying a few more large ones. Xiao Cai had a headache while trying to stop them: "Buying one or two is enough to show our support; my trunk can't fit ones that big."

"Oh my!" Xiao Cai's mother wasn't happy: "You have such a big car, how can you say it won't fit before we've even bought the baskets? If it doesn't fit, we'll think of a way; wouldn't tying them to the roof work too?"

They had to buy them anyway; what if there were people selling fish later?

That's right, they were the lucky customers who had rushed over last summer when the Song family cleared their pond to sell fish for the first time.

At that time, Xiao Cai hadn't been able to hold back; in a fit of passion, she had bought 8,000 yuan worth of fish. That was worth two months of her salary!

She had regretted it on the way back.

But they had already bought the freezer and the fish, so the mother and daughter had no choice but to bite the bullet and clean them all night.

However, all that regret and the secret warnings to herself not to be so impulsive next time vanished the next morning with the fresh fish fillet porridge.

Xiao Cai's mother didn't just make fresh fish fillet porridge; she even learned on Tremolo how to use the small bag of shrimp heads they had picked up yesterday to boil oil and pour it in!

That taste—it was truly fresh!

Xiao Cai ate until her belly was round and went to work burping. She couldn't remember what she did at work at all; she only thought about what to eat for lunch.

Looking at that freezer stuffed to the brim with fish, the mother and daughter held their bowls, eating fish jelly while sighing:

"We already bought them; if we had known, we should have bought another 2,000 yuan worth."

If they didn't eat them themselves, they could give them to their brothers, sisters, relatives, and friends—what good stuff it was!

It wouldn't work now; they were even reluctant to eat their fill of this 8,000 yuan worth of fish themselves...

Next time for sure!

This time, Xiao Cai's mother was full of confidence: "If we encounter good vegetables and fish this time, we must buy more and send some to your aunts and cousins."

Xiao Cai didn't say anything; she agreed too.

At this moment, she was truly grateful that her mother was good at managing the household; her own salary was for pure spending, while her parents' salaries were for pure saving. Only now, when taking them out to handle such big events, did it not feel like they were being held back.

On the other side, the people who got out of the car were also sizing up the wicker baskets: "Buy a few more large ones. I see watermelons on the market, and I saw in the videos filmed online that there seem to be melon vines on the mountain. If there are early melons, we can buy a few back."

The silver-haired old lady on the side wasn't very satisfied: "Don't spend money blindly; money should be spent where it counts. Those melons aren't the kind we ate before; buying them won't be satisfying either."

Speaking of this, the family really wanted to sigh.

Chen Yunyun was quite willing to spend money on food, so last year, by some stroke of luck, she bought two large watermelons—the price was truly expensive!

When she bought them, she thought to herself, I must taste why they are so expensive!

As a result, the whole family couldn't stop eating. Grandma's blood sugar almost went up again, but she still couldn't stop thinking about them.

But they hadn't been able to grab any since. The vegetable vendor, Zhao, knew the news and they were almost all snatched up. The family had been thinking about them for a year. They had bought many expensive substitutes in between, but none of them had that taste.

Now, looking at the promotional videos of this countryside online, on one hand, the family wanted to come out for a stroll; on the other hand, they also wanted to see if they could find these original, unpolluted, good melons and fruits.

Now that the two sides had met, the two young girls smiled at each other, and a bridge of friendship was built.

Xiao Cai asked enthusiastically: "Are you guys also going to buy fish?"

"Ah?" Chen Yunyun was dazed: "No, my grandma wants to eat watermelon. My dad said the videos filmed here show melon vines, so we're seeing if we can buy a few early melons."

"Oh my!" Xiao Cai's mother had something to say: "Then you must seize the opportunity to ask carefully. If the families in this village are willing to sell fish, you must buy some no matter what. Don't complain about the price; let me tell you, eating that fish is truly not a loss!"

They had wanted to buy more later, but the people's fish had all been cleared from the pond and sold out; they couldn't conjure any more.

It had been a year now; even if they weren't as big or tasty as last year's, the ones raised in good water and soil shouldn't be too different, right?

Chen's mother also sighed: "Oh my! You say we people from Yuncheng just love to eat! I've been to other cities, and none of them are as willing to spend money on food as we are."

"Our old lady is the same! Last year, eating those 20-yuan-a-jin watermelons—my god, I dream about them! We've been asking everywhere for a year and haven't found any. We thought since this is a mountain village, maybe there are good melons here."

"Is that so?" Xiao Cai's mother only remembered the fish here and didn't know they also sold melons. At this moment, thinking they were talking about someone else's business, she quickly joined in to support them: "Then ask later; if the taste of those melons is good, tell me too, and I'll buy a few."

"Okay."

The people from both sides who were buying melons and fish hadn't even reached their destination yet, but they had already bought the old man's pile of wicker baskets clean in this mountain hollow.

Don't say, these baskets were woven exquisitely and densely; they took a secret look, and they were quite sturdy. Moreover, besides two large baskets in the old style, the rest were actually exquisite square baskets, which were especially suitable for stacking in the trunk.

The two families discussed it together; since they were already here and the price wasn't expensive, they impulsively bought four or five each.

The people in the cars behind saw the people in the front car buy baskets before leaving, and couldn't help but be stunned: "Why did they buy baskets? Did the guide say anything? Should we buy one too?"