Chapter 138: Lunch Preparations
“Huh?”
Jian Xingxia was stunned. “Is there something you’re unsatisfied with?”
The burly man tried his best to swallow the strawberry in his mouth and said loudly, “There are plenty of things!”
The burly man held up his small bamboo basket. “The very first thing I’m unsatisfied with is this basket. My goodness! The fruit at your place is so delicious, yet you only give us this tiny bamboo basket for picking. Who on earth is that supposed to satisfy?!”
The people behind the burly man nodded vigorously.
At first, when everyone received these small bamboo baskets, they didn’t think much of it, as they were about the size of two palms, just like the baskets at ordinary pick-your-own greenhouses.
But once they stepped inside and tasted the fruit, everyone instantly regretted it.
It was no exaggeration to say that this fruit was simply flawless—bursting with juice, with a texture that was either perfectly tender and soft or crisp and sweet. Every single type of fruit was a premium masterpiece among its kind. If these were sold in a boutique fruit shop, they wouldn’t go for anything less than a hundred and eighty yuan, even during a promotion.
The burly man offered his critique, “You should have told us earlier that your fruit is this delicious, and prepared a few large baskets for us… no, large crates would be more like it!”
The man continued, “Most people look at a frame like mine and assume I must love drinking alcohol and eating meat. In truth, they’re dead wrong. I just love eating fruit, and this fruit of yours is simply too delicious… That’s why I want to complain!”
“Huh?”
Tears welled up in the burly man’s eyes. “Fruit this delicious happens to be in such a remote place. What am I supposed to do in the future? Do I have to drive into the mountains every time I crave fruit?”
“You even set a time limit and a purchase limit. This is highly unfriendly to us fruit lovers!”
When Jian Xingxia had stated the guidelines earlier, she mentioned a purchase limit of five catties per person, but no one had taken it seriously.
An elderly auntie in the group who was fond of calculating meticulously whispered to her daughter who had brought her along, “We’ll just eat, we won’t buy! That way, she won’t make a single cent off us!”
The daughter felt helpless inside—her mother was terrified of spending money and refused to travel out of town. It had been no easy feat to find a specialty guesthouse locally, so she had brought her mother along, only for her mother to sum everything up with a single phrase: Don’t spend money!
The daughter had been frantically searching on her phone, formulating a hundred different ways to convince her mother to enjoy life, preparing to have a proper debate with her in a little while.
But once they entered the greenhouse, not a single one of her arguments was needed.
Because the moment the auntie tasted the tomatoes, her entire demeanor completely transformed. Tears actually began to stream down her face as she ate.
“Back then, our family was poor. Other people ate apples, but I couldn’t afford them. Your grandmother would go to the field, pick a tomato for me, and say it was an apple.”
“I was young and ignorant back then. I cried and said your grandmother was lying to me, that it wasn’t an apple—it looked similar, but the taste was completely wrong.”
“Your grandmother then plucked a cucumber, told me to sniff the tomato and cucumber together, and eat them at the same time. It really tasted just like an apple…”
The elderly auntie’s eyes brimmed with tears. “After your grandmother passed away, I never tasted that kind of ‘apple’ again. Today, the taste of this tomato and cucumber is exactly the same as back then…”
A purchase limit of five catties per person?
To the elderly auntie, that rule practically didn’t exist. She harvested a full bag—fortunately, because she always worried that bags outside would cost money, she maintained a habit of bringing her own bags wherever she went.
Thus, when the auntie’s daughter stepped out, she could only look at Jian Xingxia with a face full of apologies. “I’m so sorry, my mother harvested too much. Could you please weigh it? I’ll buy up the excess as well.”
Jian Xingxia looked at the red-eyed elderly auntie. Just as she was about to agree, she noticed the people at the back of the line looking eager to try, carrying an aura that suggested the moment Jian Xingxia agreed, they would immediately charge back into the greenhouse to lift their own purchase limits.
Regrettably, the picking time had already expired. The facial recognition wouldn’t scan successfully, making re-entry into the greenhouse impossible.
Jian Xingxia secretly rejoiced—not only were the temporary workers provided by the system highly effective, but the greenhouse supplied by the system was excellent too.
Seeing that Jian Xingxia hadn’t answered for a long moment, the auntie’s daughter suggested, “How about I buy the excess at the original price?!”
Only then did Jian Xingxia agree, allowing the others in the line to feel a trace of fairness.
Only the burly man stared with wide eyes. “Then I still want to complain—why didn’t you say earlier that we could buy excess at the original price without limits!”
Jian Xingxia secretly wiped away her sweat. “…”
Running a business was truly no easy feat; opening an agritainment farmhouse brought all kinds of unpredictable scenarios. Fortunately, with a bit of effort, they could handle everything.
After a fair amount of bustling, it was eleven o’clock by the time the greenhouse picking activity completely wrapped up.
Originally, the fifteen people were strictly limited to a total of 75 catties of fruits and vegetables, but once everything was weighed at the end, three people had exceeded their limits, resulting in a total of 103 catties sold.
The balance on Jian Xingxia’s phone surged upward.
However, she didn’t even have time to look at it. After bidding farewell to the picking group who dispersed for free activities, she hurriedly sprinted back to the old house, wanting to check if the plump auntie had arrived.
With this formal worker, although the salary wasn’t high, she could easily afford it. However, the worker retained the freedom to come and go as she pleased—meaning even though she had summoned the auntie, the auntie reserved the right to refuse.
If the lunch on the very first day of the guesthouse’s opening ended up falling through, Jian Xingxia would truly break down.
Fortunately, before Jian Xingxia even reached the old house, she spotted wisps of cooking smoke drifting from the kitchen chimney.
Rushing into the kitchen, she was met by the sturdy silhouette of the auntie working before the piping hot hearth. Both stoves were blazing simultaneously—one pot was boiling while the other was stir-frying, with two large ladles dancing up and down in her hands.
The tears practically welled in Jian Xingxia’s eyes. “Auntie! You are truly my lifesaver!”
Today, she, A-Feng, and Lin Sanniang had been run completely off their feet, wishing they could literally split themselves into multiple people. If the auntie hadn’t come, they wouldn’t have been able to prepare meals for so many people even if they had thrown the three of them into a stew.
Jian Xingxia hurried to her room, unboxed the electric fan she had purchased online, and carried it over. It had originally been bought under a “buy now, pay later” scheme to deal with the immediate needs of the guesthouse guests, but it came in perfectly handy right now.
Jian Xingxia plugged the fan in and flicked the switch.
Instantly, a blast of cool air blew toward the auntie, who was currently stir-frying at full tilt.
A wave of immense relief washed over the auntie’s body. She turned around to look, exclaiming in surprise, “My goodness, what on earth is this gadget? The wind is so powerful!”
Jian Xingxia, carrying a pair of wide, twinkling eyes, leaned closer to the hearth. “This is an electric fan. The kitchen is so hot; you’ve worked incredibly hard, Auntie.”
The auntie chuckled heartily. “How can this count as hard work? Our family has always been cooks; we aren’t afraid of this little bit of heat. But still…”
The auntie looked at the massive, round, black contraption encased in a wire mesh, feeling both curious and astonished. “Young Lady Owner, don’t go talking nonsense. How could this object be a fan? We certainly don’t have this kind of fan on our end.”
How could there be a fan that spun around and fanned all by itself without a person working it? Furthermore, as a cook, she wasn’t entirely without experience regarding wealthy households. Even if they hired three servant girls to stand in a line and fan the air, the wind wouldn’t be this intense!
The auntie carried a face completely written with “you’re fooling me,” refusing to believe it was a fan.
Just as Jian Xingxia was agonizing over whether she should explain the concept of electricity to the auntie at this critical juncture, Lin Sanniang happened to step in to check on the progress of the meal.
Hearing the exchange, she chimed in with a smile, leaning close to the auntie’s ear to whisper a few words.
The auntie’s expression instantly shifted from “disbelief” to “reverence.”
The auntie scrutinized Jian Xingxia up and down, then nodded, seemingly in full agreement with Lin Sanniang’s explanation. “My goodness, that explains it. So you’re a celestial maiden from the Lightning Mother’s household; no wonder you possess these kinds of divine powers.”
Jian Xingxia: “???”
Lin Sanniang winked at Jian Xingxia—never mind the logic of the explanation; as long as it set the workers’ minds at ease and maintained their respect for Owner Xiaxia, that was all that mattered.
Time was pressing, so Jian Xingxia set that matter aside, though she still harbored a question. “Sanniang, when did Auntie arrive? And how did you two manage to prepare so many dishes?”
The auntie had already turned back to her stir-frying—now that it wasn’t as hot, she could perform much better.
Lin Sanniang, however, let out a wry smile, pointing toward the kitchen wall. “Miss, how could we possibly manage all of this on our own! This was delivered by a half-grown lad from down the mountain named Hu Liu. He said an auntie surnamed Lu told him to bring it over.”
Only then did Jian Xingxia notice that several baskets were arranged along the kitchen corner, packed with pre-plucked green beans, cabbages, and water spinach, alongside bags of chopped chicken, duck, and fish. There was even a small plastic bucket filled entirely with neatly shredded potato strips.
It had all been prepared and sent over by Auntie Lu.
