Chapter 51: Which way does it “supplement”?
Huai Yu didn’t believe him at all!
“But your ginseng is so tiny, with such a high mutation value — it’s worse than a carrot. Does it even have any medicinal effect?”
“If it’s meant to be nourishing, what exactly does it nourish?”
“What if it ends up nourishing the mutation value?”
These three consecutive questions left Uncle Date (Zaozi Shu) utterly defeated. No matter how hard he thought about it, he couldn’t come up with a definite answer.
If it were someone else asking, he could have bluffed his way through. It would’ve just been a battle of words.
Even though Huai Yu looked young and innocent, the dates she ate earlier had hardened her heart — now her words were sharp too:
“Well… well, I don’t know either! I’m just someone who sells dates — ahem, I mean ginseng. How would I know?”
“Girl, if you’re not gonna buy anything, don’t waste my time.”
Huai Yu didn’t say anything but silently squatted down next to him. After a while, seeing that no customers came by, her curiosity grew:
“Uncle Date… okay, fine, Uncle. Isn’t there a fee to set up a stall nowadays? Why do you keep selling things that won’t sell?”
Uncle Date glared at her: “What do you mean ‘keep selling stuff that won’t sell’… Things I can sell already have buyers before they even reach the market.”
“But this ginseng, well, it is good stuff. The mutation value is really high too. It’s stuck in this awkward middle ground, like a chicken rib. I’m just being stubborn, trying to find them a home.”
“And another thing,” he raised his eyebrows proudly, “You think I’m like you, young girls who can’t hold onto points? Let me tell you — before the Cataclysm, I owned three supermarkets on this street! I have a Special Contribution Card. No one charges me stall fees!”
“I’m just doing this to kill time. You know the feeling of collecting rent?”
After showing off, he suddenly thought of something and carefully asked Huai Yu, “Uh… your family… finished with the Wasteland mission yet?”
“Finished.” Huai Yu kept a straight face. “They even brought me back a flower.”
“Oh, oh, good.” Uncle Date relaxed, then peeked into her basket again: “I knew it. You’re here spending money like this; you don’t look like someone dealing with family trouble… Tsk tsk, look at that duvet cover. What color even is that? Girl, has the Cataclysm delayed your sense of aesthetics?”
Huai Yu: …
Is it aesthetic that’s been delayed? It’s clearly poverty.
She snorted and asked, “Uncle Date, if you taste this ginseng, I’ll take a quarter of a bag.”
No matter how small, it’s still ginseng. If she purified it later, it might still fetch a good price when needed.
Uncle Date blew up: “Told you already, no tasting! And besides! How could you buy this much for a quarter? It’s twenty points!”
“Oh.” Huai Yu counted her savings, then decisively stood up: “Forget it then. I need to save my points to buy a bed.”
Whether her hundred-something points would even be enough was another matter entirely.
Unexpectedly, Uncle Date’s eyes lit up immediately.
“Buying a bed? Tell me what kind you want! There’s no good stuff in this market — either overpriced or used secondhand goods.”
Huai Yu was skeptical: “Really? I want a folding camp bed. Do you have one?”
“Easy peasy!”
Uncle Date instantly lost his earlier timidness and said confidently, “These things have been in high demand ever since the Cataclysm started. You should’ve said so earlier! I have them!”
Huai Yu hesitated: “How many points?”
Uncle Date acted like a know-it-all: “Gonna give it to your family? Honestly, you don’t need to — official supplies are much better quality… but it’s your intention that counts.”
“Alright, I’ve got an ultra-light folding camp bed, which weighs only 12 pounds.”
“If you want it…”
He huffed and puffed: “160 points! I’ll even throw in the ginseng! Eight roots! You could stew an old hen eight or nine times with that much!”
Though he didn’t know who would stew chicken with this hard-to-eat stuff, he didn’t know. Just looking at Huai Yu’s fair little hands, he figured she must’ve never been short on points.
In that case, buying a camp bed for her family shows her thoughtfulness, and buying ginseng for nourishment — well, that’s also thoughtful!
160 points?!
Huai Yu was immediately tempted.
The reason she was loitering around was that earlier, she saw a 12-pound folding camp bed in a shop, but it cost 210 points.
There was also a secondhand one, weighing 16 pounds, that cost 160 points.
Because of the price, she hesitated and wandered the street. But now Uncle Date was offering a better deal and throwing in ginseng…
Buy it!
She decided instantly: “Where’s the bed? I need to check if the quality’s okay.”
Uncle Date grinned, gathered up the eight little ginseng roots into a sack, and swaggered with Huai Yu into the furniture store across the street. He pointed at a folding camp bed priced at 210 points:
“There it is. Try it out. If you’re happy with it, take it.”
Huai Yu: ???
She stared at Uncle Date in shock. He patted his pants and said:
“What are you looking at me for? If you like it, just take it. The store owner is my wife.”
Huai Yu: …
If she had known earlier, she wouldn’t have needed to sneak around with pickled fiddlehead ferns and dried onion stalks, planning to give them to Captain Zhou in hopes of asking about a cheap bed…
On the return trip, the bus was just as crowded. It wasn’t until the stop at Jinyuan Community that enough people got off for Huai Yu to find a seat — seriously, how many people lived there?!
She got off the bus with her 12-pound camp bed and felt like her legs were numb.
But when she thought about today’s haul, she felt completely satisfied!
Let’s go! Time to head home!
There was still a lot of work waiting for her at home!
The warm sun bathed her body, and even the breeze felt cozy. She had set out a little after 8 a.m., and now it was only a little past noon.
Full of energy, Huai Yu casually drank a bowl of salt and sugar water, then got to work!
First, she flipped the quilt that had been baking soft and fluffy in the sun, then spread the sheet on top.
The hay drying on the ground wasn’t needed for now, but she flipped that too.
The sunlight dappled inside the house, heating up the dampness. It was still a bit humid, but that was fine — it was just moisture from the soil underneath. A couple more days of sunshine would dry the house out completely.
Huai Yu squatted down, dismantled the green bricks she had used to frame her old bed, and repurposed them to build a small platform around the treehouse. Now she had more space to organize her belongings.
Once everything was ready — the camp bed set up, and her new little purchases neatly arranged — she pulled out the pickled fiddlehead ferns and dried onion stalks she had prepared for Captain Zhou and tucked them away again.
— Now that there was no urgent need, she would save those for next time.
Next time, she’d deliver them separately to stay low-key.
