Chapter 18: Sudden Wealth
“Well, well!”
The boss looked down and was pleasantly surprised.
Because this half-bucket of dried fruit was quite a lot! He quickly found a piece of cardboard to spread on the ground. “Come, come, pour it out, and let’s sort it out. Different fruits have different prices.”
Huai Yu responded and quickly flipped the red bucket over.
With a pleasant clatter, Boss Tang, whose pudgy body was already struggling to squat, began sorting:
“This peanut looks quite plump… but it’s a little too little. It probably doesn’t even weigh a pound—one whole pound! I’ll give you 12 points for it.”
“Apricot kernels are good!” He shook the dried apricot kernels, hearing the clattering sound inside, clearly very full. He smiled and took a few to weigh:
“Oh! Two pounds, three ounces, 38 points. How about that?”
Then there were a few chestnuts, but unfortunately, they were all worm-eaten. Boss Tang could only regretfully set them aside: “These I won’t take.”
Finally, there were mostly pine nuts, the same size as the ones he had just eaten, plump and full. He weighed them—
21 pounds, four ounces!
Boss Tang grinned and then looked at Huai Yu, whose skin was fair and delicate, and whose hands were soft. After a moment’s hesitation, he gritted his teeth and offered a bold price:
“25 points per pound! How about that?”
Before Huai Yu could reply, he quickly explained:
“Little lady, if you ask around the market, no one will offer a higher price than mine! Mainly because pine nuts are just a snack.”
“When people run out of money, they can’t afford them. The rich nowadays treat them as a luxury… But even though we sell luxury goods in my store, we barely open half the year, and when we do, it’s just for a few months… so offering 25 points is a bit of a risk on my part.”
Huai Yu’s face remained serious, but in reality, she was delighted!
She nodded. “Okay.”
After a pause, she added, “I’ll come back next time.”
“Alright!” Boss Tang was waiting for this: “My name is Tang Hongji. What’s your surname, little lady?”
Huai Yu smiled. “I’m Huai Yu. The ‘Yu’ of the elm tree.”
“Alright, Xiao Yu!” Boss Tang was very understanding. “Here, where’s your transaction bracelet? I’ll transfer the points to you right now.”
Transaction bracelet?
Huai Yu quietly took out the temporary transfer card issued by the official, and in response to Boss Tang’s puzzled look, shyly said:
“I haven’t been out much before, and my brother said… um, well, I only have this temporary transfer card.”
“Oh!”
Boss Tang instantly understood: No wonder the little lady seemed so soft and fragile—she had been well-protected by her family. In this world, someone so sheltered without even a bracelet… Her two brothers must be pretty powerful!
He immediately warmed up to her and even pulled out a box from under the counter.
“Here, this transaction bracelet is more convenient than the temporary transfer card. With the transfer card, you have to go to the official bank window to transfer the points into your name. It’s inconvenient for private transactions.”
“This bracelet isn’t expensive, either. It’s free if you have over 300 points. Xiao Yu, you don’t have points, right?”
“Here, take one! I’ll give it to you.”
“Really?” Huai Yu smiled like an innocent young girl. “Boss, you’re so smart. I don’t have any points.”
She happily began picking out the different colored bracelets from the box—
Suddenly, she asked: “Can this bracelet send messages?”
“No, it can’t.” Boss Tang replied. “After the world changed, the officials temporarily modified it. It can only transfer points, sending messages still requires a phone.”
“I have phones here, but they’re expensive… Didn’t your family buy you one?”
Huai Yu shook her head with a little sorrow: “My brother said the news outside is all chaotic…”
She didn’t say anything else, afraid she’d say too much, but this vague answer made Boss Tang believe her even more.
A princess in an ivory tower!
Such people existed both before and after the disaster.
Huai Yu quickly picked a transaction bracelet, and under Boss Tang’s guidance, she linked it to her identity card, doing a fingerprint scan…
Then, she casually asked, “By the way, Boss, do you know where I can sell wild vegetables? They should have around 11 mutation value. My brother said he found them in the mountains…”
Wild vegetables…
To be honest, they didn’t quite fit with Boss Tang’s store. But with a mutation value of 11, he had many wealthy customers. Who knows? Maybe someone would want a taste of the spring flavors?
Boss Tang nodded: “If it were anyone else, I wouldn’t take them, but since you asked, Xiao Yu, I’ll take them for sure! But the price won’t be the same as the retail market…”
“How about this: If they really have a mutation value of 11, I’ll take them for 8 points per pound. How does that sound?”
“Wild vegetables can’t be stored for too long. It’s risky for me to take too many all at once.”
Huai Yu remembered the pile of mutation value 12, special-priced leek she saw earlier. Of course, she could sell it for a higher price, but she was short on time! So, she decisively nodded:
“Okay.”
Boss Tang then casually asked:
“Xiao Yu, your brother must have brought a lot of things. Did he go into the mountains? Or is he in the wilderness?”
Huai Yu hesitated: “He probably went into the mountains. My brother doesn’t talk much…”
Hiss! Boss Tang took a deep breath.
“Impressive! No wonder your family has the strength to protect you so well. Going into the mountains is dangerous, even more so than the wilderness!”
“Huh?”
Huai Yu frowned. “Is it that dangerous?”
It shouldn’t be. She found the mountains quite ordinary. And unless she used all her effort, those flowers and plants never bothered her.
Only the rose corridor was always well-behaved… of course, she still had to give it a little push when necessary.
“How could it not be dangerous!” Boss Tang sighed:
“Do you know why our city is so safe? It’s because the wild rose mutated under the old wall of the Sanqing Palace.”
“The mutation was so intense that Wu Yue, a guard from the Mutated Plant Defense Army, risked everything, almost dying, to domesticate and cultivate the rose corridor, successfully protecting the city.”
“By doing so, they blocked off the most dangerous Sanqing Mountain and the vast wilderness below.”
“Imagine, that mountain is full of plants, and if they mutated, the entire city wouldn’t stand a chance!”
“Now, the rose corridor is fine as long as people don’t go into the mountains.”
“This gave us some breathing space and allowed us to take better care of the city’s suburbs…”
“But while the city is safe, if you go into the mountains…”
“Sigh.”
Boss Tang lamented and veered off-topic. “In the early days, the Mutated Plant Defense Army had to clear those mutated plants in the mountains, and many lives were sacrificed…”
Huai Yu fell silent.
A while later, the cheerful sound of the calculator broke the silence:
She put on the bracelet and watched as Boss Tang calculated: “793 points, Xiao Yu. If you have the wild vegetables, bring them over soon!”
“If you have other good things, bring them here as well.”
Huai Yu touched the smart bracelet, looking at the 793 points inside, and felt like she had suddenly become rich overnight.
But then, thinking about how a multifunctional shovel cost 350 points, she immediately felt downcast.
Points really don’t last long!
The scene was lightly set up, but the issues were not big.
As said, farming is about farming, and high-level matters have nothing to do with farming.
