The Spirited Daughter-in-law and the Mountain Man

“Four cents per jin… that’s expensive…” The woman hurriedly waved her hand, “Too expensive, vegetables only cost one or two cents per jin. I don’t want to buy it anymore…”

“Even if it’s one or two cents per jin for raw vegetables, wouldn’t it become two cents after frying with oil, salt, and seasonings?” Su Qingyue explained with a pleasant smile, “Big sister, the oil and salt used in my ferns are not expensive, but the process of removing the astringent taste is expensive. Cooked vegetables are only four cents per jin, saving you the time of washing and frying vegetables. Oil, salt, ginger, and garlic all cost money, and you can enjoy delicious food right away. It’s not expensive.”

She had weighed it, four cents per jin was almost close to the price of fish at five cents per jin. This pricing was slightly high but it won in others not removing the astringency of the ferns.

Others couldn’t, but she could.

That’s where the advantage lay.

She continued, “Ferns will soon be out of season. In a few days, you won’t be able to eat them even if you want to. How long will you have to wait until next year? Big sister, you’re dressed up, and you definitely don’t look like someone who can’t afford it.”

Upon hearing this, the woman’s vanity was satisfied, “That’s right! It’s only four cents per jin, give me three jin.”

“No problem.” Su Qingyue hurriedly placed a large leaf on the scale, weighed it, and then added an extra chopstick of fern when wrapping the vegetables in the leaf. She tied the vegetable bundle with long grass, “This chopstick of fern makes up for the weight of the leaf.”

“You are a fair and honest businesswoman.” The woman happily took a package of stir-fried ferns and walked away cheerfully.

With one person buying, more customers became interested, “Is the fern clean?

It’s in a basket…”

“The vegetables are absolutely clean.” Su Qingyue assured, “This basket is for holding cooked vegetables. I soaked it for a day and washed it thirty times, not to mention,” she pointed her chopsticks at the farthest ends of the ferns in the basket, “before putting the vegetables in, I lined the basket with large tree leaves. We farmers sell vegetables honestly and can’t let customers eat unclean things. Even the tree leaves and grass used for packaging were washed for a while. ”

She only washed the basket twice and didn’t actually soak it for a day, but saying she did all those things was just to help sell the ferns.

“Alright, give me two jin.” The customer nodded after hearing her words.

Several more people tried and bought some after that.

As more people bought and praised the good, non-astringent taste, everyone hadn’t eaten this kind of fern before. So, Su Qingyue’s basket of tasty stir-fried ferns sold out in just over an hour.

It was just past nine in the morning by then, and the morning market was almost over.

Su Qingyue held an empty basket with her heavy sleeve-pocket full of copper coins. With her good memory, she knew she sold seventy-two jin of stir-fried ferns today.

At four cents per jin, she made two hundred and eighty-eight cents.

After paying the three cents car fare with the previous twenty-six cents, she had twenty-three cents left.

It was still early, so she wandered the streets for an hour and asked the prices of various items in town. Seeing her wearing a worn-out, patched-up dress, no one tried to charge her high prices, so they mostly gave her the actual prices.

As for pharmacies, she first went to one and asked about the prices of several kinds of medicine. The store owner saw that she only asked but didn’t buy, so they became impatient and stopped telling her the prices.

So, she went to another pharmacy and stood outside its door for a while in a spot that didn’t block the business. She listened to the customers going in to buy medicine, what kind of medicine they bought, how much they bought, and what the store owner charged, secretly remembering everything in her heart..