Translator: 549690339
âFour cents per jin⦠thatâs expensiveâ¦â The woman hurriedly waved her hand, âToo expensive, vegetables only cost one or two cents per jin. I donât want to buy it anymoreâ¦â
âEven if itâs one or two cents per jin for raw vegetables, wouldnât it become two cents after frying with oil, salt, and seasonings?â Su Qingyue explained with a pleasant smile, âBig 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. Itâs not expensive.â
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 couldnât, but she could.
Thatâs where the advantage lay.
She continued, âFerns will soon be out of season. In a few days, you wonât be able to eat them even if you want to. How long will you have to wait until next year? Big sister, youâre dressed up, and you definitely donât look like someone who canât afford it.â
Upon hearing this, the womanâs vanity was satisfied, âThatâs right! Itâs only four cents per jin, give me three jin.â
âNo problem.â 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, âThis chopstick of fern makes up for the weight of the leaf.â
âYou are a fair and honest businesswoman.â The woman happily took a package of stir-fried ferns and walked away cheerfully.
With one person buying, more customers became interested, âIs the fern clean?
Itâs in a basketâ¦â
âThe vegetables are absolutely clean.â Su Qingyue assured, âThis basket is for holding cooked vegetables. I soaked it for a day and washed it thirty times, not to mention,â she pointed her chopsticks at the farthest ends of the ferns in the basket, âbefore putting the vegetables in, I lined the basket with large tree leaves. We farmers sell vegetables honestly and canât let customers eat unclean things. Even the tree leaves and grass used for packaging were washed for a while. â
She only washed the basket twice and didnât actually soak it for a day, but saying she did all those things was just to help sell the ferns.
âAlright, give me two jin.â 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 hadnât eaten this kind of fern before. So, Su Qingyueâs 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 didnât 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 didnât 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..