Chapter 76: The Chestnut Business
A big brother arrived on an electric scooter.
With a sharp screech, he skidded to a halt right in front of the tricycle, took off his sunglasses, and pointed a hand adorned with several gold and jade thumb rings gruffly at Jian Xingxia.
“You selling chestnuts? Were you the one here a few days ago?”
Jian Xingxia felt a little apprehensive, but her hands didn’t stop weighing and bagging the chestnuts. “Big Brother, yes, it was me. Did you buy chestnuts that day too? Is there some kind of problem?”
The big brother swiped a hand across his forehead. “A massive problem!”
Jian Xingxia secretly thought, Oh no. Had her street vending landed her in some kind of trouble? Looking at this big brother’s thick gold chain, his small watch, his sunglasses, his thumb rings, and his loudly patterned jacket—oh wait, loudly patterned T-shirt—he looked like someone you really didn’t want to cross.
Just as Jian Xingxia was debating whether to swallow her pride to stay safe or stand her ground according to the law, the big brother leaped off his electric scooter with a heavy thud.
“Oh, my goodness! I’ve finally found you!”
The big brother had a massive face but tiny eyes, and his voice boomed like a bronze bell. “A few days ago, my wife bought a catty of chestnuts at the gate. I hadn’t even reached home before she finished them all. She didn’t want to walk down the stairs, so she called me, absolutely insisting that I bring two more catties back when I off work.”
The big brother had originally intended to stay a bit longer to overlook the shop. As a result, his wife called three times within half an hour. She was pregnant, so walking down the stairs was inconvenient, and it was rare for her to actually crave and manage to keep food down.
Left with no choice, the big brother left the customers in the shop to his employees and hurriedly drove back. In the end, just as he reached the compound gate and before he could even park his car properly, he saw Jian Xingxia riding away on her empty little tricycle.
At the time, the big brother didn’t think much of it. It’s just a catty of chestnuts, right? If we can’t eat them today, we’ll buy them tomorrow!
Saying it was one thing, but the big brother still went to the snack shops, convenience stores, and mini-marts by the compound entrance, buying a whole bag of various chestnuts. There was no helping it—the chestnuts could wait until tomorrow, but his wife’s little fists wouldn’t wait.
A whole bulging sack of chestnuts. Raw ones, cooked ones, frozen ones, shelled ones, unshelled ones, stir-fried ones, boiled ones, roasted ones, baked ones… a massive pile. He was terrified of failing to buy the ones his wife loved.
Yet the big brother still received a beating from his wife.
Of course, it didn’t actually hurt; his wife hadn’t struck him harshly. But his wife wept.
“I told you several times, it’s the stall on the tricycle at the compound gate! The original flavor frozen chestnuts—I just want to eat those!” His wife wept, her eyes blurry with tears. “All day long, you just fool me! You just insist on making me angry. Clearly buying from that stall at the gate would do, yet you insist on buying a massive pile of random garbage I don’t care to eat…”
The big brother felt terribly wronged. “I hadn’t even parked the car before the chestnut seller left!”
His wife wailed loudly, “All day long, you just drive that trashy BMW of yours! Can’t you ride a little electric scooter?”
“If you rode a little scooter, you definitely would have bought them!”
The big brother didn’t dare argue back—his shop was right on the commercial street on the other side of the compound. Driving required looping around the main road to make a U-turn. If he had ridden an electric scooter, it would have been a matter of a few minutes, and he might truly have bought them.
The big brother held his tongue, and his wife wept even harder.
They tore open bag after bag of chestnuts, but none tasted good.
“This one is too sweet, how much sugar did they put in?!” “This one is like a radish, completely tasteless!” “Ugh, why does this chestnut meat smell so moldy?” “This one clearly has a ton of additives!” “I just want to eat an original flavor frozen chestnut with no additives that tastes ice-cold in the summer—is that so hard?!”
“It’s not hard, it’s not hard,” the big brother scratched his head. “I’ll buy them for you tomorrow, guaranteed!”
But the big brother’s guarantee was useless. Because the next day, Jian Xingxia didn’t show up. Not just the next day—Jian Xingxia didn’t show up for several days in a row.
His wife’s morning sickness grew even more severe. She refused to eat meals and only pined for the chestnuts from that day. The big brother staked out the area every single day, asking friends, employees, and clients to make inquiries. Yet he just couldn’t find the person.
The big brother’s heart was breaking—Who is this person? Either don’t sell them, or be a bit more professional and look after your returning customers, okay? It felt as though she had specifically come to torture him. She materialized with a whoosh and vanished with a whoosh.
Every day the big brother went back, watching his wife sit around sniffing the empty bag that had held the chestnuts that day, and his heart practically broke to pieces. He waited and waited.
Just as the big brother was about to lose hope—wishing he could issue a wanted poster—someone in the compound homeowners’ WeChat group suddenly posted a picture.
“The chestnut seller from last time is back! At Gate Two!”
The big brother stood up with a bounds, ignoring everything else. He hurriedly apologized to the client in front of him, “My apologies, Brother Li. My wife is pregnant and feeling unwell, I have to head back.”
Brother Li had been through it before and quickly indicated it was no problem. “Go ahead, go ahead. It’s fine, Little Yang can look after me.”
The big brother sprinted off. This time he didn’t dare drive; he hopped onto his little electric scooter and shot straight toward Gate Two of the compound.
Little Yang poked his head out to look, feeling a lingering fear. “Thank goodness the chestnut seller finally showed up. If she hadn’t, our boss was going to suffer a complete breakdown.”
Brother Li grew curious. “What chestnuts?”
While waiting in line, the big brother recounted the rough, twisting trials of the past few days. It truly was a tale that brought sorrow to those who heard it and tears to those who witnessed it.
The crowd split open one after another, urging the big brother to buy first. “You go first, you go first.”
But the big brother refused. “It’s fine, I’ll wait in line.”
The surrounding residents even praised him, “So civilized and polite.”
Then, when it was finally the big brother’s turn, he waved a hand. “Wrap all of these up for me.”
“Huh?” — This came from Jian Xingxia. “Huh? Huh?” — This came from the compound homeowners queuing behind the big brother.
The big brother felt terribly embarrassed, but his stance was exceptionally firm. “I stood in line fair and square. There’s no helping it, my wife is pregnant, and whatever she eats, she throws up. She only craves this single bite. I must trouble my brothers and sisters to yield to me.”
The neighbors were dumbfounded. Good grief, turns out he was waiting for them right here!
The crowd instantly began clamoring, “It’s a hardship that your wife is pregnant, but she can’t keep down this much either. At most, you buy ten catties!”
The big brother shook his head. “Who is ten catties enough to feed? My wife is eating for two now!” Saying this, he stubbornly insisted that Jian Xingxia sell him all the chestnuts on the tricycle.
The customers behind him disagreed. Seeing that they couldn’t win an argument against the big brother, they all turned to Jian Xingxia to mete out justice.
Hearing this, Jian Xingxia instantly felt that her sales target for today was secured. But she still had the [Income Doubling Card] to consider.
In a flash of inspiration, Jian Xingxia first handed two bags to the big brother. “Big Brother, everyone has been queuing for a long time. It definitely wouldn’t be proper for you to buy everything by yourself. I’ll give these two bags to Sister-in-law as a treat.”
The big brother grew anxious. “I stood in line properly too. Since it’s my turn, I can buy as much as I want. What, you have a purchase limit here?”
Of course not! Jian Xingxia was short of money right now, so how could she possibly set a purchase limit?
Jian Xingxia said, “Calm down, Big Brother, I didn’t mean it that way. What I mean is, I’ll first sell the chestnuts currently on the tricycle to everyone according to the queue.”
Staring into the big brother’s worried frown and glaring eyes, Jian Xingxia quickened her pace: “Since you want a large amount, I still have more at home. Once I finish selling this batch… I estimate it’ll be around six o’clock, and I’ll head back home to fetch the rest.”
Jian Xingxia asked him for an address. “I’ll deliver them directly to your house in a bit.”
Hearing that Jian Xingxia had more at home, the big brother finally calmed down. However, he refused to wait that long. “Lu’an Village? That’s in the mountains, right? With this little tricycle of yours, who knows how long it’ll take you to ride there and back.”
“Tell you what, you keep selling. I’ll come find you at six o’clock, drive you back, and haul the chestnuts back myself.”
“Uh, then what about my tricycle?” She still needed to use it tomorrow during the day! With the 24-hour limit, she didn’t want to only work for half a day.
The big brother was easygoing. “What’s there to fear? I have a truck. I’ll drive the truck over in a bit!”
With that, Jian Xingxia felt at ease.
Clutching the two bags of chestnuts gifted by Jian Xingxia, the big brother hurried home to present his treasure. The customers queuing around the tricycle were also deeply satisfied—they could finally successfully buy the wild chestnuts.
However, the big brother’s appearance had introduced a psychological threat to them. Everyone instinctively and quietly increased the amount they intended to purchase.
