Although she felt embarrassed to admit it, Lin Shengxia still blushed and said, “Auntie Guiying, I… I’m scared of these things.”
Li Guiying laughed when she heard that. Looking at Lin Shengxia’s flushed face, her gaze softened.
This young girl had always acted with a calmness and maturity far beyond her age. Sometimes, it made the neighbors forget that she was only in her early twenties.
“Give me two bags. I’ll divide them up for you, so you don’t have to touch them!”
Hearing this, Lin Shengxia hurriedly handed over the bags she had bought in bulk.
Li Guiying moved quickly, grabbing six or seven eels from the fishing net and placing them on the electronic scale.
“Old Zhang, is this enough?”
“Enough, more than enough! I’m planning to have my wife make a pot of gluten soup with them. This is plenty!”
With a cheerful smile, Zhang Guangming reached for his money. Then, suddenly remembering something, he slapped his forehead.
“Oh! We were so busy dividing up the eels that we forgot to ask Shengxia how much she’s selling them for!”
Only then did Li Guiying realize what had felt missing.
Hearing the two of them, Lin Shengxia found herself in a difficult position. She had no idea what price she should charge.
After thinking for a moment, Li Guiying said, “The last time I went to the farmers’ market in Beicheng, I bought wild eels there. They weren’t as big as Shengxia’s, and their patterns weren’t nearly as nice either. They were forty-five yuan per jin at the time. For Shengxia’s eels, I’ll pay fifty-five yuan per jin!”
Zhang Guangming let out a relieved breath.
“Fine, we’ll go with your price. Mine weighs six jin, so that’s 330 yuan. Here you go, girl. Take the money.”
Still somewhat dazed, Lin Shengxia accepted the money Zhang Guangming handed her.
Meanwhile, Li Guiying had already placed the remaining eels on the scale.
They weighed a full eight jin!
“Shengxia, mine comes to 440 yuan. Here you go!”
Li Guiying handed her 450 yuan and refused to take any change. She casually grabbed a handful of wild vegetables and tossed them into her basket as well.
By the time the two of them left, Lin Shengxia’s stall had been completely cleared out.
She packed up her things and entered the steamed-bun shop.
Cui Shizhen hadn’t arrived yet, but Cui Shijin had already been there for a while.
Seeing that Lin Shengxia had finished with her stall, Cui Shijin asked Xiao Fan to weigh all the wild violets stored in the storeroom right in front of her.
Just like yesterday, there were 160 jin.
Xiao Fan skillfully counted out the money, then left with the wild violets.
Cui Shijin, however, wasn’t in any hurry to leave.
She was curious to see what kind of makeup look her younger sister planned to teach Shengxia.
Smiling, Lin Shengxia brought out the Eight-Treasure Cakes her mother had made and placed them on the table. Then she lifted the bamboo cover.
Cui Shizhen happened to walk through the door at that exact moment.
The moment she smelled the rich, sweet fragrance, she sniffed curiously.
“What kind of pastry is that? It smells amazing!”
Lin Shengxia hadn’t expected Cui Shizhen to arrive at such perfect timing. She quickly smiled.
“These are Eight-Treasure Cakes my mother made. Mom said that since Sister Shizhen is willing to teach me how to do makeup, I couldn’t come empty-handed when formally accepting you as my teacher. It’s just that my family’s circumstances right now… so we could only prepare some homemade food. I hope you and Auntie won’t mind.”
Cui Shizhen froze for a moment.
When she had offered to teach Lin Shengxia yesterday, she had only thought of it as a small favor. She hadn’t expected the girl to take it so seriously that she would even prepare a formal gift for her teacher.
She walked over and gently picked up one of the cakes.
The Eight-Treasure Cake was still slightly warm.
As she brought it closer, she could even smell the distinctive fragrance of beans within the pastry.
She gently took a bite.
The cake practically melted in her mouth, leaving behind a soft, delicate sweetness that lingered on her tongue and made her crave another bite.
By the time Cui Shizhen came back to her senses, she had already finished the entire cake!
And she wasn’t the only one.
Li Xiangqin and Cui Shijin also failed to resist the tempting aroma. Each picked up a cake and took a bite.
Their eyes immediately lit up.
The fragrance of these Eight-Treasure Cakes was rich and natural, completely different from anything produced with artificial flavorings or food additives.
This was what a true Eight-Treasure Cake should taste like—filled with the unique fragrance of natural ingredients.
The flavor instantly won over Li Xiangqin and her two daughters.
Cui Shizhen even felt that the city’s most famous trendy pastry shop couldn’t compare to the Eight-Treasure Cakes Lin Shengxia had brought.
Unable to resist showing them off, she took a picture of the remaining cakes and posted it on her social feed.
“Picked up a little apprentice during my vacation and even received a formal apprenticeship gift!”
Having worked as a makeup artist for years, Cui Shizhen naturally had many friends in the industry.
Not long after she posted the photo, her messages exploded with notifications!
Any makeup artist who had managed to establish themselves in the industry was rarely short of money.
Cui Shizhen might currently earn only a little over ten thousand yuan a month, but that was mainly because she was still relatively inexperienced.
By next year, her salary could nearly double.
While Cui Shizhen busied herself replying to her friends, Lin Shengxia realized that she probably wouldn’t have time for her just yet.
Instead of becoming impatient, she took out the black fruit she had discovered in the cave that morning and handed it to Cui Shijin.
“Sister Shijin, I happened to enter a cave this morning and found this fruit inside. Could you take a look and see if you recognize it?”
At first, Cui Shijin’s attention had been entirely focused on the Eight-Treasure Cakes.
She had even been wondering whether she could work out an arrangement with Lin Shengxia to supply these cakes to her traditional Chinese medicine wellness center every day.
But the moment her eyes landed on the fruit in Lin Shengxia’s hand, she shot to her feet!
Screech!
The stool scraped sharply against the floor as she shoved it backward.
Cui Shijin paid no attention to the noise. Breathing rapidly, she carefully took the fruit from Lin Shengxia’s hand and examined it from every angle.
Only after confirming it several times did she finally say,
“This is wild Wuling ginseng! And it’s a top-grade specimen with exceptionally fine markings!”
Lin Shengxia didn’t completely understand what she meant, but at least she now knew the fruit’s name.
More importantly, she clearly understood the words “top-grade.”
She secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
After all, this fruit was the reason she had been delayed today. Judging from Cui Shijin’s reaction, at least that delay had been worthwhile.
However…
“Sister Shijin, would you be willing to buy it?”
At her question, Cui Shijin stared intensely at her as though she were looking at some priceless treasure.
Her gaze was so intense that Lin Shengxia’s face began turning red.
Cui Shizhen had just finished replying to her messages. Seeing her young apprentice’s flushed cheeks, she couldn’t resist giving her older sister a shove.
“Come on, Sis! You’re staring so hard that Shengxia’s getting embarrassed. Tone it down a little, or I’m going to start questioning your preferences!”
Lin Shengxia didn’t quite understand what Cui Shizhen meant, but she clearly noticed that Cui Shijin’s intense gaze finally eased.
She secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
Seeing her reaction, Cui Shijin couldn’t help asking once more,
“Are you really willing to sell it?”
Wild Wuling ginseng of this quality was something one could search for years without ever finding.
Cui Shijin wanted to buy it and preserve it properly at her traditional Chinese medicine wellness center. Simply having such a rare specimen on display would greatly enhance her clients’ confidence in the center’s professionalism.
But to Lin Shengxia, her most important goal was ensuring that her family could live a good life.
Keeping such a valuable medicinal treasure for herself would be the real waste.
“Sister Shijin, I’ve thought it through. I really want to sell it!”
Seeing that she had made up her mind, Cui Shijin finally took out her phone and called Xiao Fan, telling her to prepare 100,000 yuan and bring it over.
When Lin Shengxia heard the amount, she almost thought she had imagined it.
“Sister Shijin, are you saying… this dark-looking fruit is worth 100,000 yuan?!”