Chapter 15: Let You Open a Food Shop, You Open for Business at 3 AM

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Protagonist:

Lu Feng

Lu Feng ordered some takeout.

The rental house he rented was just a small single room, without a kitchen.

The area was only a dozen square meters, one room and one bathroom, one thousand yuan per month.

He originally rented it because it was close to the company.

Now that the company went bankrupt, this rental house has no advantage for him at all.

Once this week's mission is completed, he might as well rent a bigger house near Food Street.

Lu Feng ate takeout while thinking.

He doesn't plan to buy a house for the time being.

Jiang City, as a second-tier city, has always had high housing prices.

Especially in recent years, housing prices have risen year after year.

Commercial housing in the city center has already risen to fifty or sixty thousand per square meter.

Even if he completes the mission and gets one million, it's only enough to buy a small house of around twenty square meters, not much bigger than the rental house he lives in now.

If he wants to buy a bigger one, he'll have to take out a loan.

Lu Feng feels he's still young and doesn't want to be a house slave yet.

After finishing the takeout, Lu Feng went out and came to a nearby farmers' market, preparing to buy some ingredients.

Although ingredients can be bought directly from the System Mall, they're too expensive.

Except for some things that aren't easy to buy, like top-grade premium pork and such, other ingredients can all be bought himself.

And he can't keep going to open a business empty-handed; over time, people will inevitably find it abnormal.

Never seen you buy ingredients, how are your things made?

You can't make people believe ingredients appear out of thin air, right.

Surface effort at least still needs to be done.

Lu Feng believes that with the Full-Level Culinary Arts bonus, even the most ordinary ingredients, he can completely make delicious food.

The farmers' market was bustling with noise and excitement; even at noon, there were still many people buying vegetables.

Outside there were also quite a few mobile vendors selling vegetables, but at this moment they were being driven away by the Market Manager.

This farmers' market is a relatively large one locally, with considerable daily foot traffic.

Relatively speaking, the stall fees inside aren't cheap either, and they're all charged by the year; the stall fee alone is several thousand yuan a year.

Those mobile vendors who are stingy with the stall fee choose to set up stalls near the farmers' market.

Exposed to sun and rain every day, they also have to frequently face the Market Manager's scolding.

Making money isn't easy these days; in order to save the stall fee, they can only silently endure.

Lu Feng slowly strolled around inside the farmers' market, picked a stall that looked relatively fresh, and bought some ginger and garlic.

Since he bought a lot, the female vendor auntie was overjoyed and even rounded down the change for him.

Carrying the vegetables out of the farmers' market, Lu Feng saw those vendors who had just been driven away had come back again.

"What your spot, I set up here first so it's mine! You hurry up and leave, don't delay my business!"

A female vendor auntie who looked somewhat fierce was angrily shouting at an old man.

The old man looked like a simple and honest farmer, and at this moment he seemed at a loss.

"Sister, don't be angry, I've been at this spot since early morning, you don't believe you can ask the people nearby."

The old man looked hopefully at the people around, hoping someone could vouch for him.

But the other vendors around seemed used to this scene, not a single person was willing to meddle.

Seeing no one spoke, the vegetable-selling auntie suddenly gained confidence, and said with a cold laugh.

"Look, no one can prove it, so whoever grabs this spot first owns it! You're already this old, don't make things difficult for yourself, hurry up and leave, hurry up and leave!"

Seeing no one helped, disappointment was written all over the old man's cloudy eyes.

Finally he had no choice but to shoulder his large sack and walk toward the distance, trembling.

Actually, the spot they were arguing over wasn't that great; it just had a shade shed, so setting up a stall there was slightly cooler.

The old man shouldered the sack and with difficulty moved to the spot at the end of the roadside.

He placed the green onions from the sack onto the spread-out burlap, then slowly sat on the ground, catching his breath slightly.

That spot had very little foot traffic; it looked like even if the old man set up until dark, his green onions wouldn't sell much.

Lu Feng looked at the old man's tired back in the distance, and a trace of pity flashed through his heart.

He walked toward the old man's spot; the old man, seeing a customer, hurriedly propped himself up with both hands and stood up, a glimmer of light appearing in his cloudy eyes.

"Old man, how do you sell these green onions?"

Lu Feng squatted down and asked, casually picking up a bunch of green onions to look at carefully.

These green onions had white parts as white as jade, green leaves, felt very firm to the touch, and looked very fresh.

And there was almost no dirt on the onion roots; it looked like the old man had washed them very seriously.

"Young man, these green onions were just pulled from the field by me this morning, very fresh! One yuan per jin, okay?"

The old man smiled very simply and honestly, showing teeth that were almost all gone.

But Lu Feng didn't look uncomfortable at all; instead, he felt the old man was very kind.

"One yuan per jin, that's very cheap."

"The cheapest at the agricultural market are two yuan per jin, and they don't look as fresh as Hu Daye's."

Lu Feng wasn't in a hurry to buy; instead, he started chatting with Hu Daye.

Hu Daye didn't show a trace of impatience because he wasn't buying anything, and happily talked about the past with Lu Feng.

After a bout of conversation, Lu Feng learned that Hu Daye goes to the fields to pick green onions every morning before dawn.

Because he lives in a distant suburb far from the urban area, he carries over thirty jin of green onions on his back, walks over twenty li to reach the bus stop, then takes the bus here to sell vegetables.

Hu Daye's surname is Hu; he originally had a son, but a few years ago his son and daughter-in-law both passed away in a car accident.

His old partner couldn't withstand the blow, fell ill and never recovered, and passed away not long after.

Only Hu Daye and his granddaughter were left to depend on each other.

To support his granddaughter's schooling, Hu Daye has done hard labor and collected scrap over the years.

His granddaughter is also quite promising; she has studied especially hard since childhood.

When the college entrance exam results came out, her score had already surpassed the admission line for a top-tier university outside the province.

To be able to stay closer to Hu Daye, she ultimately chose the local Jiangcheng University.

After his granddaughter entered university, Hu Daye realized he was truly old; work he could do before, he can no longer manage now.

But for his granddaughter's few hundred yuan of monthly living expenses, Hu Daye still persists in coming out to sell vegetables every day.

Listening to Hu Daye recount his experiences, Lu Feng felt his nose turn a bit sour.

He thought of his own grandfather currently living alone in the countryside.

It seems it's been a long time since he went back to see him.

He used to be constantly busy with work and simply had no time to return to his hometown.

He had also thought about bringing his grandfather over, but his grandfather was unwilling to leave the countryside where he had lived a lifetime.

This Hu Daye before his eyes looks to be about the same age as his grandfather, an age when he should be enjoying his twilight years.

If not for difficult livelihood, who would come out to sell vegetables in the scorching heat at such an advanced age?

"Hu Daye, how much have you sold today?" Lu Feng asked with a smile, forcibly suppressing his surging emotions.

"Can't sell any, won't use a mobile phone to collect money." Hu Daye shook his head repeatedly, his eye rims turning a bit red.

No wonder Hu Daye's green onions look so fresh, yet no one inquires about them.

With the development of technology, while young people enjoy the convenience brought by the progress of the times.

They never expected that the older generation cannot adapt to these changes, gradually becoming marginalized figures in society.

Lu Feng touched his pocket; coincidentally, he had two hundred yuan in his pocket when he went out today.

He stood up, pointing at the green onions in front of Hu Daye and said.

"Hu Daye, I want all of your green onions here."