Mustard greens

The vegetable stall owner watched the two leave, but in the end, she still could not bear to sell at that price.

Su Yuhe made a circuit of the market, bought a few jin of meat and some rice and flour, then passed the vegetable stall on her way toward the ox cart. The stall owner hurriedly called out to her, "Ten wen it is, then."

She stopped and looked them over again and again, leaving the stall owner's heart hanging in suspense.

"All right."

The stall owner hurriedly handed over the seedlings. She took them at her leisure and put them in the basket on Lu Mingyi's back.

Second Sister Li put their baskets at the very back of the ox cart and glanced at them twice. "Why did you buy so many wild greens, miss? The hills are full of them."

Su Yuhe brushed the straw off the two newly acquired stationery boxes. "Buying them is more convenient."

They were fresh and cheap, too.

A whole large basket cost only a dozen or so wen. Gathering them herself took time and effort, and she could earn more money in that time.

Second Sister Li clicked her tongue twice and muttered, "Scholars really are different."

She had received four and a half taels in payment today, along with a two-tael deposit. After buying the vegetables, she had a little over fifteen taels left. Once she earned some more money, she would build two more rooms.

The bedroom beside the kitchen was uninhabitable in summer. Whenever a fire was lit for cooking, the heated brick bed next door grew hot.

The main room only had one large bed, which could not fit four people. Three could squeeze in, but once the weather grew hot in a few months, she had no desire to crowd together with anyone.

"If you want more wild greens, miss, you can come to me. I'll have those boys of mine go up the hill and pick them. Guaranteed fresh."

Su Yuhe had seen Second Sister Li's four children, all boys. They looked filthy, with snot perpetually hanging beneath their noses, and raced around the courtyard like unruly monkeys while neither adult in the household did anything about it.

She felt a little put off, but could hardly show it. "I only buy wild greens because they're cheap, not because I particularly like eating them. Do you grow mustard greens?"

Second Sister Li turned back in delighted surprise. "Yes, yes! How much do you want, miss?"

"Not much. Ten jin will be enough."

"All right, we'll go by the market price, then. Three wen a jin, thirty wen altogether. I'll bring them over to your house later."

"All right."

Earning extra money while out driving the cart left Second Sister Li grinning from ear to ear, and she grew a little more talkative. "For making pickles, right?"

"Yes. I pickle some every year. Too little won't last, but too much is a nuisance to deal with."

Second Sister Li felt much the same. "Exactly. I grow mustard greens every year. Everyone with land grows them. You can sell them for money, and if you keep them to pickle for yourself, you never have enough jars."

Su Yuhe offered a couple of casual murmurs of agreement, then fell silent. Second Sister Li asked in puzzlement, "Aren't you close to that Li Yun on the east side of the village? Why not buy some from him?"

"He didn't plant any this year."

"Oh, oh. Must have pickled too much last year and still hasn't finished it."

Lu Mingyi glanced at his wife without betraying anything. She even knew exactly what Li Yun planted. They were more than just ordinarily close.

The ox cart rolled slowly along until they passed Second Sister Li's field. She jumped down from the cart. "I'll go pull some greens now and save myself another trip. It won't take long. My husband's out in the field, too."

Su Yuhe had no objection and waited on the cart. Before long, Second Sister Li and her husband came over with armfuls of greens. There was no way to weigh them on the cart, so Second Sister Li counted out forty plants before stopping, then drove the ox cart toward her own house.

Her four boys were just as dirty as Su Yuhe remembered. The oldest finally no longer had snot hanging from his nose, but he was still leading his three younger brothers in a wild chase around the courtyard. One of the little ones had even climbed a tree.

After entering, Second Sister Li rolled her eyes at each of the four. "These four unruly monkeys don't help with a thing at home. The girl next door is so thoughtful. Too bad my husband can't do better."

Her resentment was plainly deep, for her to complain about this to a guest like Su Yuhe.

"There are eleven jin here. The extra is on me, miss. If you want any vegetables in the future, ask whether we have them. Anything we have, I'll sell to you cheap, so you won't have to go all the way to town just to bring back a few vegetables."

Su Yuhe did not refuse and readily accepted the extra jin of mustard greens. "All right."

It was not as though she had never considered buying vegetables from the villagers who farmed. Practically every household worked the land and had surplus vegetables, taking whatever they could not finish to sell at the market in town. Buying from villagers would also save her the travel fare.

But back when she had been a completely blank sheet of paper, she had run into a black-hearted fellow villager who took advantage of her ignorance of market prices and sold her cabbage for eight wen a jin, in winter, no less.

Winter cabbage cost as little as one wen a jin, with prices generally ranging from one to three wen. Five wen was already very expensive, let alone eight.

Besides charging an exorbitant price, that black-hearted person had tried to morally blackmail her, prattling on about how she ought to help the poor.

What a joke. Back then, she had not even had a blue-brick, tiled-roof house to live in. She had lived in a dilapidated thatched hut.

After that incident, she kept the villagers at a respectful distance. It had not taken two years of living there to discover what they were like-two months had been enough. They were gossipy, stingy, and petty, with especially vicious tongues. Even when they had no leg to stand on, their mouths could carve flowers out of shit.

She could neither outtalk nor outfight them, so she avoided contact whenever possible. After two years, she still did not know those people, yet behind her back they could spin tales about her that would leave even her own mother unable to recognize her.

The few villagers she interacted with were Second Sister Li, who owned an ox cart, and Little He. Little He had no land either, or she would have bought vegetables from him.