Although the wild violets Lin Shengxia had brought were fresh, drying them was no problem for Cui Shijin.
Besides, she ran a traditional Chinese medicine wellness center, and not everything she used had to be dried medicinal herbs. Fresh wild violets like these, for example, could be directly processed into a health drink as long as their safety was confirmed.
The more Cui Shijin thought about it, the more excited she became. She looked eagerly at Lin Shengxia.
“Little sister, how much are you planning to sell these medicinal herbs for?”
Lin Shengxia hadn’t expected Cui Shijin to actually be willing to buy them. She honestly shook her head.
“I don’t know how much they’re worth. I only knew they were medicinal herbs, so I picked some and brought them here to try my luck.”
Hearing the implication in her words, Cui Shijin raised an eyebrow.
“You mean there’s more where these came from?”
Lin Shengxia didn’t know why she was asking, but she still nodded.
“When I went to gather wild vegetables this morning, I happened to find a whole patch of wild violets. There should still be enough to make another five or six batches about the same size as this one.”
Cui Shijin immediately began making plans. She took out her phone and called her assistant.
“Xiao Fan, come to my mom’s shop. Yes… I found something. Take it directly to Dr. Fu’s laboratory for testing. All right, I’ll wait for you here.”
After hanging up, Cui Shijin smiled and invited Lin Shengxia to sit down.
“Don’t worry, little sister. Since my mom introduced you to me, I certainly won’t give you an unfair price. How about I buy them for twenty-five yuan per jin?”
Lin Shengxia hadn’t expected Cui Shijin to offer such a high price. She immediately nodded enthusiastically.
“Of course, Sister! Thank you so much!”
Originally, she had thought it would already be wonderful if these medicinal herbs could sell for the same price as her wild vegetables. Who would have thought she would receive such a pleasant surprise?
When Xiao Fan hurried over, she helped Cui Shijin weigh the herbs before taking them away.
Cui Shijin wasn’t in a hurry to leave. Instead, she sat with Lin Shengxia and calculated the payment.
“That was thirty-five jin of wild violets altogether, which comes to…”
As she spoke, she was about to take out her phone and use the calculator when Lin Shengxia immediately answered,
“That’s 875 yuan. You can just give me 850.”
Lin Shengxia hadn’t spent the past two days here for nothing. She had already learned quite a few common expressions and customs used by people in this era.
For example, whenever she sold vegetables, the elderly customers loved saying things like, “I’m already a regular customer and I buy so much from you. Just round the price down a little and everyone will be happy.”
Most of the time, Lin Shengxia agreed.
However, she didn’t know what Li Xiangqin had later said to those regular customers from the neighborhood. Afterward, they began looking at her with obvious sympathy and concern.
From then on, no one tried to bargain with her anymore.
That was also one of the reasons Lin Shengxia had always kept Li Xiangqin’s kindness firmly in her heart.
When she had known nothing about this unfamiliar new world and had been completely lost, it was Li Xiangqin who had helped her build a foundation for understanding and surviving in it.
Cui Shijin hadn’t expected the young girl to be so quick with numbers. She also guessed that Lin Shengxia’s family was probably poor, so she had no intention of taking advantage of her for a mere twenty-five yuan.
After thinking for a moment, she called out,
“Mom, bring me 875 yuan!”
Li Xiangqin rolled her eyes at her daughter, but said nothing. She simply went to the register, took out the money, and handed it directly to Lin Shengxia.
Including the money she had earned from selling wild vegetables earlier, Lin Shengxia had made more than a thousand yuan today!
She silently calculated the amount in her head, and even her breathing quickened with excitement.
Buy meat!
Later, she would buy a nice piece of pork belly with plenty of fat and meat so her family could finally enjoy something rich and nourishing!
Once everything was settled, Cui Shijin hurriedly prepared to leave. It was obvious that she really had squeezed this visit into her busy schedule.
Before leaving, however, she said to Lin Shengxia,
“My assistant has taken your medicinal herbs to the laboratory we regularly work with for testing. If there aren’t any problems with them, I’ll contact you about buying the rest. Is that okay?”
Although Cui Shijin could already tell how good Lin Shengxia’s wild violets were, in this era, having laboratory results to back them up could save her from a great deal of unnecessary trouble.
Naturally, Lin Shengxia had no objections. She told Cui Shijin that whenever she needed more, she could simply call Auntie Li. Lin Shengxia came to set up her stall every morning anyway, so she could gather more whenever necessary.
Seeing how obedient and sensible she was, Cui Shijin couldn’t help gently pinching her thin cheek.
“You really are such a sweet girl. Much better behaved than my own younger sister. Come and keep your Auntie Li company more often, all right? Her younger daughter and I are both busy, so we rarely have time to visit…”
Naturally, Lin Shengxia had even less reason to refuse such a request. She quickly nodded and agreed.
After seeing Cui Shijin off, Lin Shengxia happily picked up the clothes Xiao Zhang had given her. She said goodbye to Li Xiangqin and Xiao Zhang, then headed straight for the butcher shop.
She chose a piece of pork belly with a perfect balance of fat and lean meat.
It cost exactly one hundred yuan!
Looking at the fatty pork in her hands, the smile on Lin Shengxia’s face grew even brighter.
Not daring to waste any more time, she stopped by a general store and bought two more iron shovels before hurrying back to the ruined temple.
Fortunately, it had rained throughout the previous night, leaving the mountain paths muddy and difficult to travel. The people who had come looking for trouble yesterday did not appear again.
Lin Shengxia had been rather worried about the courtyard wall they had recently built, but with a single glance, she saw that all the crooked and damaged sections had already been repaired by Lin Qizheng.
Not only that, there was also a large new pile of clay in the courtyard.
Clearly, Lin Qizheng hadn’t been idle all morning either.
Ever since Lin Shengxia returned, Dong Wanqiu’s attention had been completely focused on her.
When she noticed that her daughter was wearing clothes she had never seen before, she couldn’t help asking curiously,
“Were such nice clothes something you could buy fifty years in the future too?”
“Sister Xiao Zhang, who helps out at Auntie Li’s shop, gave me some old clothes she doesn’t wear anymore. Look, Mom. There are more here!”
As she spoke, Lin Shengxia smiled and handed the neatly folded clothes to Dong Wanqiu.
Dong Wanqiu hadn’t expected such nice clothes to be things someone else no longer wanted. The thought made her heart ache so badly that she almost cried.
“Back when we lived in the capital, when did you ever have to wear someone else’s old clothes…”
Although she didn’t finish the rest of her sentence, Lin Shengxia understood exactly what she meant.
Smiling, she unfolded the clothes Xiao Zhang had given her so Dong Wanqiu could examine them more closely.
“Look, Mom. They may be secondhand, but Sister Xiao Zhang carefully chose them for me. She gave them to me out of kindness, so there’s no reason for us to refuse. Besides, when I’m in 2026, I really do need proper clothes that I can wear outside.”
It wasn’t that Lin Shengxia disliked the clothes she currently had.
Rather, she understood that if she wanted to live more conveniently in 2026, she needed to blend into that world as much as possible.
Of course, she knew that Dong Wanqiu only felt this way because she loved and worried about her daughter.
So Lin Shengxia quickly took out the pork belly she had bought, along with a large bag of soybean sprouts, and placed them in front of her mother.
“Look, Mom! I earned quite a lot of money today. Since no one seems to be coming up the mountain today, why don’t we stew some pork?”
Lin Handong had been helping with work in the courtyard. The moment he heard they were having meat for lunch, he immediately dropped his tools and rushed over to Lin Shengxia.
Staring at the beautiful piece of pork belly, with its alternating layers of fat and lean meat, he couldn’t help swallowing hungrily.
Dong Wanqiu looked at the eager expressions on her children’s faces.
In the end, she finally nodded.