His parents returned

"Come home first. I'm old, not stupid. What would my grandson fool me for? Won't you know everything once you're back? Honestly, I've never seen anyone run down their own son like this. I'm hanging up." Grandpa ended the call with an unmistakable air of authority.

That left Ye Huan's parents holding their groceries, utterly flustered in the wind...

"The old man didn't say anything else, did he?" Ye Huan's father asked.

"Let's go back. The old man wasn't clear about anything this time. What vegetables could sell for thirty yuan a jin?" With that, Ye Huan's mother hurried off at a run.

"Hey~ wait for me!! The groceries, the groceries~ you forgot the groceries!" Ye Huan's father ran after her.

What Ye Huan didn't know was that, after Grandpa gave his parents a talking-to, they had packed overnight and boarded a high-speed train home in the small hours. Even when coming home for New Year in the past, they had never been willing to splurge on a high-speed train.

At six the next morning, while Ye Huan was picking vegetables in the plot at the foot of the back mountain, his parents arrived home.

"You're really selling vegetables? You're not working anymore?" Those were his father's first words.

"Yeah~" Ye Huan looked up at his parents. Their temples were already covered in white hair. "You're back just in time. Come help pick vegetables. We need two hundred jin."

Ye Huan's mother talked tough, but in truth, she doted on her son most. She put down her luggage and came straight over to pick vegetables without even changing out of her work clothes.

Two hundred jin wasn't all that much. They soon finished picking and loaded everything into Grandpa's electric tricycle. "Dad, I'll take you along to deliver the vegetables. I'll leave this job to you from now on."

Ye Huan wheeled out his little electric scooter and followed his father's tricycle toward the county town. His mother stayed home to sleep; she had only caught a brief nap on the train overnight.

"Manager Du, this is my father. He'll be delivering the vegetables from now on. I need to stay home to farm," Ye Huan introduced him to Manager Du, who had come to collect the vegetables.

"Hello, Uncle. Sorry for the trouble!" Manager Du was very polite.

"No trouble, no trouble~" Now Ye Huan's father believed his son. He really had returned to their hometown to grow vegetables, and had even found a buyer.

"How much do they weigh?" "Manager, two hundred and six jin!"

"That's 6,180. I'll transfer it to you!" Manager Du said.

"No need. Just make it an even six thousand. I'll put in a little extra every day, in case any get damaged," Ye Huan said. Manager Du looked at him, said nothing more, and nodded before transferring six thousand yuan.

Ye Huan and his father took their leave as well.

"Son, they really sell for thirty yuan a jin?" Ye Huan's father asked, his voice trembling.

"Didn't you see for yourself? I originally asked for fifty a jin, but she said that was too expensive. So I'll sell them at thirty for six months, then set a new price after New Year!" Ye Huan nodded and admitted it, no longer keeping up any pretense.

"Good heavens, what kind of vegetables are these? Even those radishes are thirty a jin?"

"Our vegetables aren't priced by variety. They're all thirty a jin," Ye Huan explained.

They rode home, but Ye Huan's father still hadn't recovered. It really was too much to digest. With a bellyful of questions, he sat in the courtyard and watched his son cook.

In the end, the roe deer meat hadn't been cured. Before going out that morning, Ye Huan had put another leg on to stew, and it was now bubbling away on the charcoal stove. He cooked a large pot of rice and steamed two lengths of cured sausage made during New Year inside it.

He went to the backyard to pick some vegetables too. By noon, his mother had gotten up, just in time for lunch.

Grandpa came over carrying a small bottle of tiger bone liquor, with Saihu in tow. Why had Ye Huan cooked so much rice? Any less wouldn't have been enough. There were four people in the family, plus Saihu and the little white wolf, and now there was another pregnant mouth to feed: Saihu's wife, Little Flower.

Little Flower now followed Saihu over every day to mooch a meal. After all, the food at Ye Huan's house was good.

"Saihu, who would've thought? You really know how to look after your wife. Little Flower didn't choose wrong with you. Here, this is your reward!" Ye Huan mixed a washbasinful of rice for Saihu and his wife, using the broth from the stewed roe deer, with plenty of tender meat scraps in it.

The little white wolf had its own small food bowl now too, and was thoroughly enjoying its meal.

"Grandpa, Mom, Dad, time to eat!" Once everything was ready, Ye Huan called everyone to the table.

He poured Grandpa a cup of liquor but didn't drink any himself. He had nothing else to do that afternoon, but someone from the town's construction crew would be coming shortly, and he still needed to receive them.

Ye Huan's father didn't drink either. After a tiring night and then delivering vegetables with his son upon getting home, he was already sleepy. He quickly finished a bowl of rice and went to bed.

Ye Huan's mother asked the question she had kept in her heart all night. "You really aren't going back out to work?"

"No. I decided that long ago. Being home means I can keep Grandpa company too. We're not short of money now, so there's no point going out there to be treated like somebody's grandson." Ye Huan nodded.

"There's really nothing wrong with these vegetables?" His mother still couldn't understand. What sensible person bought vegetables for thirty yuan a jin?

"Don't worry. But now that you'll be home, you must remember: don't spray any pesticides on the grain or vegetables. I'm growing all-natural, pollution-free organic vegetables. Spray them even once, and the whole batch will be ruined." Ye Huan still gave them a reminder, so their good intentions wouldn't lead to a mess.

"Oh~ understood. Aren't you worried about bugs eating the vegetables?"

"I have a secret formula. Don't worry about that. Picking and delivering the vegetables every day is a bit of a hassle, but ask me about anything else," Ye Huan said. Because of the Spirit Spring Water, there were more bugs than before, but he let the chickens and ducks into the vegetable plots, and those bugs filled the chickens' bellies.

"All right, then." His mother stopped asking. Her son had made something of himself.

Ye Huan's grandfather nodded. That was the attitude a family ought to have, rather than endlessly belittling and distrusting one another.

"Grandpa, do you know a white-bearded old man at that medical clinic in the county town?" Ye Huan asked.

"Yes, we go way back. When I used to head into the mountains, I sold him all the better things I found. Did you meet him?" Grandpa nodded.

"Yes. I dug up a wild ginseng root in the mountains a while ago, so when I went there yesterday, I sold it while I was at it," Ye Huan said.

Grandpa didn't realize it was wild ginseng over a hundred years old either. After all, such things were far too rare. "Mm, ten or twenty years old? How much did he give you? Those aren't worth much."

"A hundred and forty years old. Four and a half million yuan. When I said you were my grandfather, he offered that price. He said he knew you very well," Ye Huan said.

"How old?" That was Grandpa. "How much?" That was Ye Huan's mother.

Ye Huan held back his laughter. Heh, I thought you didn't care. You're not thinking about going away to work now, are you?

"Yes, a hundred and forty years old. He gave me four and a half million!"

Grandpa coughed twice first. "The price was fine, but you sold something that good to that old bastard? He got himself a bargain."

"It's fine, Grandpa. I can go look for more later. Besides, didn't he say you have an even better one? He said he's been begging you for decades, but you still won't sell it to him," Ye Huan said with a smile.

"That's the family heirloom I'm keeping for you. Why would I sell it? If I wanted money, I have plenty of other things. No matter what, I wouldn't sell that one. It can save a life. You must keep it safe in the future too. Don't sell it," Grandpa cautioned.

"Of course not. I only sold mine because I knew you had one. I needed to get some money, or my parents would still have to go away to work."

"You really sold it for four and a half... million?" Ye Huan's mother had been shocked twice in one day.

"Yes~ I'll transfer some to you in a bit. Keep it to spend. Our family won't be short of money anymore." Ye Huan nodded.

"All right, I'll save it for you to get married. Speaking of which, if you've quit your job, what about your girlfriend? Did you break up too?" Ye Huan's mother asked.