Chapter 14

The old director could see it too. Just from the way Tao Yan and Huo Baichuan insisted on fine food and exquisite preparation, casually making something so delicious, and remained unmoved upon hearing they could earn two or three thousand yuan in pocket money in two months, it was clear that the two children came from fairly well-off families. At the very least, they were not short of money.

The old director could not imagine what kind of family could raise children like Tao Yan and Huo Baichuan. She only felt that such a good opportunity would be a real pity to waste. If the two children truly did not want to do it, the aunties at their orphanage could learn the recipe and make it themselves.

She just did not know whether the children would be willing.

"What's there to be unwilling about?" Tao Yan immediately laughed. If the volunteer aunties at the orphanage were all willing to improve their cooking skills, then he would not have to go into the kitchen every day to cook.

In weather this hot, who wanted to stand over a blazing stove and cook with firewood?

Tao Yan did enjoy cooking, but that was when he was making meals for one or two people in an air-conditioned kitchen with top-of-the-line cookware. He could clear his mind while cooking, enjoy his private space, wait for a delicious meal to come out of the pot, then slowly savor it. Not make huge pots of food that could feed everyone in the orphanage while standing in sauna-like heat, tending the flames in the stove and using primitive, clumsy iron pots and spatulas.

Once or twice could count as a change of pace, a chance to experience something different. But Tao Yan definitely could not keep it up for long.

Faced with their first bucket of gold after transmigrating, the two young people who had come from thirty years in the future backed down because they feared hardship and exhaustion. Meanwhile, a group of older aunties living thirty years in the past were eagerly fired up with entrepreneurial spirit.

Even Aunt Zhao, who had kept muttering about how deep-frying pork knuckles wasted oil and braising them wasted ingredients, stopped feeling stingy. At three o'clock the next morning, she got up early and took two other volunteer aunties to the morning market to buy groceries.

At three in the morning, the sky was only beginning to lighten. Dawn was approaching, and roosters were crowing. There were hardly any pedestrians on the streets. Only sanitation workers pushed garbage carts and diligently swept with large brooms. Here and there, a few people rode tricycles toward the market. They were all small vendors hurrying to set up their morning stalls.

The three volunteer aunties carried large cloth bags they had sewn themselves, weaving through the growing crowd of vendors as they picked out the freshest ingredients and haggled fiercely over prices—

"Give us a little more of a discount. You know we're from the Red Heart Orphanage next door. Our budget is tight. We're buying these potatoes to set up a stall and earn some living expenses for the children. Don't charge us so much, all right?"

"Ma'am, this is already cheap enough. I sell them to others for fifty cents a pound, but I'm giving you three pounds for one yuan—"

"But we're buying a lot! And we're setting up a stall, so we'll need to buy them every day from now on. Give us a better price, and I'll keep stocking up from you. Every morning, you can haul the potatoes over to our orphanage—"

"You want them even cheaper, and you want me to deliver them too? Ma'am, you really know how to calculate." The vendor could not help complaining. "I really can't go any lower. If I do, I won't make any money!"

"How could you not make money? You'd just make a little less! Besides, we're buying so much, you should have given us a wholesale price to begin with. And I still had to ask for it. Let me tell you, young man, you can't do business like that." As Aunt Zhao spoke, she got up as if to leave. "No choice, then. I'll go look elsewhere. I refuse to believe that, with an order this big, no one will give me a discount."

"Hey! Wait! Don't leave in such a hurry, ma'am! Let's talk! Let's talk it over!" The vendor hurriedly called after them. With such a large customer who needed a stable and substantial quantity every day, he truly could not bear to let them go.

"What is there to discuss? You're not being sincere at all." Another auntie chimed in. "If we ask elsewhere, we can at least negotiate four pounds for one yuan. And the potatoes are bigger than yours."

"Then I'll sell them to you at four pounds for one yuan too." Seeing that the aunties were determined to leave, the vendor wiped the sweat from his forehead and finally gave in. As he wiped himself with the towel around his neck, he complained, "I'm telling you, I really won't be making any money. I'm selling them to you at cost."

"Then let's make this clear first. If we buy your potatoes, you have to deliver them to the orphanage. And the potatoes have to be as big as the ones on this stall. If you try anything and send us bad goods, I won't accept them."

"Not only will we refuse them, we'll also help spread the word among the neighbors. We'll tell everyone that you're dishonest and that you take advantage of people from our orphanage."

"No, no! Don't worry! I'll definitely deliver the best ones." Wiping his sweat, the vendor pointed at an unopened sack of potatoes and asked, "How about this sack? There aren't many people around yet, so I can ride my tricycle over and deliver it right now?"

Aunt Zhao had the vendor open the sack and pour out all the potatoes for inspection. She picked out two bad ones and tossed them aside, then grabbed several large, round potatoes from the stall and threw them back in. Satisfied, she clapped her hands and brushed the dirt off them. "This one will do! How much?"

The vendor moved the potatoes onto the scale. "One hundred and three pounds."

Aunt Zhao took out her wallet. "Let's call it one hundred pounds. Here's your money!"

Another auntie smacked her lips in distress. "Oh dear, one hundred pounds of potatoes costs twenty-five yuan. I wonder if those Tiger-Tooth Potatoes will even sell. It's so hot in the summer. If they don't sell and are left at home, they'll sprout."

"Shouldn't we buy less? Try it first?" the third auntie suggested.

"They won't fail to sell. There's a movie the night after tomorrow, and all the neighbors in Lotus District will come, dragging their whole families along. If every family buys one serving, these hundred pounds will be sold."

"Besides, we can eat them for two days!" Aunt Zhao said optimistically. "Don't worry. These hundred pounds of potatoes definitely won't go bad."

At six-thirty in the morning, Tao Yan had just gotten up and washed when Aunt Zhao dragged him into the kitchen. Looking at the mountain of potatoes piled in the corner and the volunteer aunties rolling up their sleeves to learn cooking, Tao Yan belatedly realized, "So for the next three days, we can only eat potatoes?"

Chapter 14

Worried that one hundred pounds of potatoes would spoil if they could not be sold, and afraid of wasting food, the aunties unanimously decided that potatoes would be the main staple of the orphanage's meals for the next three days.