In front of the walnut stall, Dong Xuebin craned his neck and watched quietly.
The vendor called out, "This year's Big Chicken Hearts are pretty good. Why not gamble on a pair?"
Someone picked out a pair. "I'll take these two."
"Sure." The Boss Lady beside him, speaking with a northeastern accent, took the 200 yuan and tossed it into a plastic basket. Then she skillfully scraped at them with a knife, quickly shaving off most of the flesh from the green-skinned walnuts. Finally, she rinsed a brush in a white plastic bucket and cleaned the remaining pulp from the walnut crevices. After measuring them with calipers, the Boss Lady said regretfully, "A little hidden skin. One's 37, the other's 39. They don't match." Those sizes were fairly average; they needed to be at least 42mm to be passable. Hidden skin was a flaw. Walnuts with hidden skin or other defects lost much of their value even if they were larger.
Hearing that, the buyer turned around and left speechlessly.
Later, someone else bought a pair of Lion's Head green-skinned walnuts. They turned out to be 39mm and 41mm respectively, which was not ideal either.
The next pair came out at 36mm and 38mm.
The pair after that was 40mm and 39mm, which could barely be considered a match.
Seeing this, Dong Xuebin immediately gave up on gambling on walnuts himself. No good. So many green-skinned walnuts had been opened, yet not a single one over 42mm had appeared. The odds of finding a 46mm one were even lower. Even if the goddess of luck possessed him, he probably would not have a chance. It would just be wasting money.
But if he gave up just like that, he was unwilling to accept it.
Ten minutes...
Half an hour...
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