THUD!
THUD!
She dropped to her knees with a THUMP and kowtowed deeply to Granny Qin, her forehead hitting the ground twice.
“…”
Granny Qin, the young owner of the scrapyard, and everyone else present were stunned.
All eyes locked onto her.
It was unheard of for anyone to kneel in gratitude these days.
Talk about a rare sight!
Several people casually drifted over to watch the spectacle.
“Oh my!” Granny Qin snapped out of her daze and hurriedly helped her up.
“Child, why on earth are you kowtowing?
Get up, quickly!”
The young scrapyard owner asked in surprise, “Granny Qin, who is this girl?
Why is she kowtowing to you?
Is her…” He pointed at his head, wondering if there was something wrong with her mind.
“Nonsense!” Granny Qin glared at him.
The young owner shrugged and offered an awkward smile.
Granny Qin turned to Yun Zhen with a helpless sigh.
“Yun Zhen, you mustn’t just drop to your knees over every little thing.
You really gave me a fright.
I’ve lived my whole life and no one has ever kneeled to me before.
What time do you start work?”
“Twelve o’clock.” Yun Zhen hadn’t fully grasped the concept of twelve o’clock yet; she only knew it was time for the midday meal.
Granny Qin did some quick mental math.
“That’s in about ten minutes.
Where do you work?
I’ll give you a ride.”
Old Yang’s Private Kitchen.
Granny Qin parked her electric tricycle, and Yun Zhen hopped off to say goodbye.
“Thank you for the ride, Granny.”
“You’re welcome!” Terrified that the girl might drop to her knees again, Granny Qin cranked the throttle and zoomed off.
Yun Zhen seemed to realize that her way of showing gratitude was frightening people.
Inside the restaurant, the owner, Mr.
Yang Lin, and his wife were busy prepping ingredients.
Once the local workforce went on their lunch break, customers would swarm the place, so they needed plenty of food ready to go.
At the moment, there were only a handful of patrons in the dining area.
CLANG!
CLANG!
The chefs were already busy stir-frying in the back.
In total, the restaurant employed two chefs and five full-time servers alongside Mr.
Yang and his wife.
“Mr.
Yang, I’m here to work,” Yun Zhen announced from the doorway, taking in the medley of aromas wafting through the air.
It smelled like delicious food.
She clutched her stomach—truth be told, she was already hungry.
Mr.
Yang spotted her and came over to assign her duties.
“You’re here.
Your job is to clear the dirty dishes after customers finish eating and take them to the dishwasher in the back.
Wipe the tables completely clean, making sure there’s no mess left behind.
Whenever new customers come in, hand them a menu, and once they’ve ordered, bring the menu back to me.”
The tasks weren’t difficult, and Yun Zhen understood perfectly.
The moment twelve o’clock struck, the previously quiet restaurant was instantly packed.
Even the spare tables outside the entrance were occupied.
Yun Zhen had never seen so many people in one place.
Mr.
and Mrs.
Yang joined the cooking line, and alongside the two chefs, the couple kept their woks CLANGING non-stop.
Business was almost too good.
“I need a bowl of egg fried rice!”
“One clay pot instant noodles!”
“Sweet and sour pork ribs over rice!”
Most people just ordered a single rice dish, with only a few asking for a menu to order specific entrees.
Table after table turned over in rapid succession.
Yun Zhen followed the other servers, weaving through the bustling crowd, spinning like a top.
This work was far more exhausting than sorting vegetables.
After two solid hours, she was drenched in sweat and panting heavily.
By the time her shift ended, the restaurant had mostly emptied out.
“You must be worn out from your first day.
Here, have a bowl of chicken noodle soup.” The restaurant didn’t usually provide meals for its part-time staff, but Mr.
Yang took pity on Yun Zhen and decided to feed her for the day.
A steaming, glistening bowl of shredded chicken noodles was placed before her, making her mouth water.
Yun Zhen gulped hard.
“Thank you, Mr.
Yang.”
She was starving, so she didn’t politely refuse.
She devoured every last bite, wiping the bowl clean.
“It smells so good.”
The noodles were perfectly chewy and the chicken broth was rich and savory.
After polishing off the meal, she was so full she burped.
“Here are your wages,” Mr.
Yang said, handing her a fifty-yuan bill.
There was nothing more thrilling than getting paid!
Yun Zhen accepted the green banknote with both hands, her heart soaring with unimaginable joy.
She could buy food again.
After leaving the restaurant, she wandered around the produce market.
She now had ninety-five yuan and fifty cents in hand.
That was enough to buy ninety-five catties of polished white rice.
However, she didn’t buy the rice right away.
Her experience from yesterday told her that prices in this world defied all logic.
Things that were outrageously expensive in her world might be incredibly cheap here.
The rice she had brought back last night would only last the village another day or two if they stretched it out as watery porridge.
Yun Zhen went from stall to stall, asking for prices in an attempt to find the cheapest, most filling food available.
“Sir, how much is a bag of flour?”
“Are you looking for a ten-catty or twenty-catty bag?
We have fifty and a hundred-catty ones, too.
The cheapest is twenty yuan for a ten-catty bag.
The more expensive ones run about one or two hundred yuan for a hundred catties.”
Another vendor spotted her and called out, “Hey there, little lady!
Check out these potatoes.
Clearance sale, just fifty cents a catty!
A large hundred-catty sack is only fifty yuan.”
It was Yun Zhen’s first time seeing such massive, perfectly round “beans.” The sign called them “earth beans.” Did that mean they were beans that grew in the earth?
They looked enormous, and she wondered what they tasted like.
Fifty cents a catty was probably cheap, but she wasn’t in a hurry to buy just yet.
She wanted to get a feel for the market prices first; she could always buy them after she finished her afternoon work.
Besides, she needed staple grains, and beans weren’t filling enough.
At a nearby stall, a young man named Xiao Zhong was shouting at the top of his lungs, “Sweet potatoes!
Fifty cents a catty—cheaper than wholesale!
The boss is going out of business, so we’re clearing stock.
Sweet, soft, and delicious!
If you’re on a diet, you can eat them as a full meal!”
As a full meal?
Yun Zhen muttered to herself.
What kind of thing could replace a full meal of rice?
He had to be lying, right?
Still, she couldn’t resist stepping closer to ask, “Sir, can these sweet potatoes really be eaten as a meal?”
Spit flew from the vendor’s mouth as he pitched.
“You want some sweet potatoes, miss?
Fifty cents a catty!
The wholesale price alone is seventy or eighty cents!
If my family’s house hadn’t been slated for demolition, forcing me to pack up and head back to my hometown, I would never sell such top-tier sweet potatoes for just fifty cents.
Buy a few!
If you’re ever in a rush and don’t have time to cook, just boil one of these.
It’ll fill you up better than a bowl of rice!”
Fill you up better than rice?
Yun Zhen was a little skeptical.
How could these long, odd-looking sweet potatoes compare to actual rice?
The vendor continued his aggressive sales pitch.
“Blink and you’ll miss this deal!
Go ahead and ask around—who else is selling sweet potatoes for fifty cents?
I’m taking a massive loss here!
My sweet potatoes are huge and long.
These are the real deal!
“Boil them, and they come out incredibly sweet and soft.
You can’t go wrong!
“For people trying to lose weight, just one slice is enough to keep you full!”
Hearing the unbelievably low price, quite a few people hurried over to pick through the pile.
Behind the vendor sat a large truck absolutely brimming with sweet potatoes.
She quietly asked an older woman picking out potatoes next to her, “Ma’am, do these really keep you full?”
“Oh, absolutely!
When I was a kid and we had no rice or flour at home, we survived on sweet potatoes to keep from starving,” the older woman replied matter-of-factly.
The vendor was still shouting himself hoarse about how just one slice would fill your stomach.
They really were that miraculous.
More and more people flocked to buy the sweet potatoes.
Yun Zhen was swept up in the frenzy, watching people buy them by the hundred-catty sack.
In a moment of impulse, she shouted, “Sir, I’ll take a hundred catties of sweet potatoes!”
The vendor hefted down a large sack.
“You got it!
Do you have a car, miss?”
“No.”
“Is someone coming to pick you up?”
“No.”
“Then how are you going to get this back?
Sweet potatoes are incredibly heavy.
A little girl like you can’t possibly carry this.”
Yun Zhen didn’t say a word.
She simply grabbed the sack and hoisted it onto her shoulder with a single fluid motion.
“It’s not that heavy.”
The vendor was dumbfounded.
This girl looked as skinny as a rail.
Where on earth did she get the strength to shoulder a hundred-catty sack of sweet potatoes?
She handed her money to the paralyzed vendor.
“Here’s your payment.”
The fifty yuan she had just earned at the restaurant all went toward the sweet potatoes.
Yun Zhen assured herself—it was a steal!
From the other customers, she had learned that these were considered a staple crop.
Whether or not they were as miraculous as the vendor claimed, they were definitely food that could fill a hungry stomach.
She would take them back, have her father boil them, and distribute them to the villagers.