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Aunt Xu was startled. "Xiao Yan, why would you need to buy me vegetables? You need to cook for yourself too, silly child. Your parents... You have to take good care of yourself. Make sure you learn to cook. Don't eat out all the time, and don't live on snacks and instant noodles every day. Kids your age are still growing—you should eat proper meals."

"You misunderstood, Auntie. These vegetables were a gift from a classmate. I still have loads at home, far more than I can finish. Otherwise, they'll just go in the trash." As he spoke, he made as if to toss them into the garbage bin. Aunt Xu's heart ached at the sight, and she cried out, "Don't!"

Su Yan chuckled and successfully handed the vegetables to Aunt Xu. Amid her stream of thanks, he returned home.

The next day, Su Yan hurried to that market at six in the morning. This time, he had brought two large sacks of vegetables. As he had hoped, he secured a spot slightly better than yesterday's. Sitting on a small stool, he happily ate the soy milk and fried dough sticks he had bought on the way. The old woman beside him smiled and asked, "You're so young—why are you selling vegetables? Are you helping your mother watch the stall?"

Su Yan gulped down the last of his soy milk, let out a breath, and said, "Not at all. I just want to run a little business and earn some living expenses. My parents got divorced and went their separate ways."

"What? Neither of your parents wanted you?" The old woman's expression changed at once, her brows twitching with anger.

"That's about it. My dad wanted to make it big in business and needed someone powerful to rely on. My mom was young and pretty, chasing her second spring. A child as grown as me would be hard to bring along when she remarried."

"People these days are becoming more and more outrageous. If my son and daughter-in-law ever abandoned my grandson, I'd beat them to death!" The old woman was indignant. When she looked at Su Yan again, her gaze was full of affection and sympathy. He was about the same age as her grandson, handsome, sensible, and unafraid of hardship. Selling vegetables might not seem like much, but plenty of young people nowadays could not do it. Her grandson refused to watch the stall, always saying it was embarrassing to sell vegetables and that his classmates would laugh at him.

As Su Yan chatted with the old woman for half the day, he picked up on something interesting. It turned out that she did not need to spend a single cent on her stock. She neither grew the vegetables herself nor bought them wholesale from the produce market. Instead, she got up in the middle of every night and hurried to the wholesale market, then secretly "picked up vegetables" whenever goods were being loaded and unloaded from the big trucks—half picking, half stealing. The wholesale market handled huge amounts of produce, and during the busiest hours in the morning, there really were loopholes to exploit. Many poor families nearby worked hard to get there and pick up discarded vegetables to save money on groceries. Though this old woman was advanced in years, she was shrewd. She had found herself a good spot. Every day, she went to the market to pick up bargains, sorted the vegetables carefully, sprinkled them with water, and laid them out for sale. What difference was there? The quantity might be smaller, but they cost nothing. Anything she sold was pure profit. Bit by bit, it became a modest income. Besides selling vegetables, the old woman also scavenged around for bottles, cans, and old goods to sell.

"I'm old, illiterate, and don't have much strength. If I don't find ways to earn a little money myself, who's going to treat me kindly? My son and daughter-in-law have it hard too. Just staying alive is difficult." The old woman hugged her arms and shook her head with a sigh.

Su Yan gave a soft laugh. "It'll get better in a couple of years." In two years, this whole area would undergo massive development. Anyone with a house and household registration would strike it rich from relocation compensation.

As they chatted, time passed. Su Yan welcomed his first customer of the day, a stranger. His memory had improved greatly lately; he would not forget anyone he had seen once. So he remembered everyone who had bought vegetables from him yesterday. He wanted to see how high his return-customer rate would be today.

The customer squatted down and pinched a few vegetables, then praised them softly. "They're so big that I thought they'd be old, but they're surprisingly tender." Satisfied, she put five tomatoes, a large handful of peppers, two cucumbers, and three eggplants into a plastic bag.

Su Yan quickly weighed the vegetables, took the money, and saw off his first customer. Today, his prices were about the same as everyone else's, and he had stopped giving away extras with purchases.

Once business began, the old woman hardly spoke with Su Yan anymore. As the sun climbed higher and the crowd swelled, the vegetable vendors on both sides of him did very good business. Both had quite a few returning customers. Su Yan was not in a hurry. He quietly watched people stream past, calling out now and then. His eyesight was exceptionally sharp now, and he noticed that whether it was the old woman, the other vendors, or even the licensed sellers at the vegetable stands, they all had the same flaw: they cheated on the weight. Nearly every scale was off to some extent.

Su Yan rubbed his nose and spotted one of yesterday's regular customers from afar. He quietly watched her. She looked around through the crowd, paying special attention to the corner where Su Yan had set up yesterday. Seeing that he was not there, she seemed disappointed. Just as she was about to look elsewhere, Su Yan called out loudly, "Vegetables for sale! Vegetables for sale! Fresh vegetables—come take a look!"

Hearing him, the customer hurried over and squatted before Su Yan with a cheerful smile. "Handsome, I trust that your vegetables are homegrown. They taste so good. The cucumbers and eggplants I bought yesterday made even my son eat an extra big bowl of rice. He's an extremely picky eater and never likes vegetables. That was a first. My husband told me to buy more today, haha."

Su Yan nodded and humbly said as he helped the woman bag the vegetables, "Vegetables are just ingredients. Whether the dish tastes good depends on the cook. Your cooking must be excellent, ma'am."