Xiaomei also looked at Qin Suian with eager anticipation. She wanted to learn properly too.
Naturally, Qin Suian held nothing back in teaching them.
From what she had observed over the past two days, Xiaomei was intelligent and quick-witted. She could understand many things after only a brief explanation.
Xiaojuan, on the other hand, was more straightforward and less academically sharp than Xiaomei, but she often came up with unusual ideas and viewed things from angles different from ordinary people.
In her previous life, Qin Suian had read countless parenting books in order to teach Xiao Hu well.
Although her two daughters had attended elementary school for a few years, it had been during an era when education wasn’t highly valued. They only attended half-day classes and barely learned much.
The schools mostly taught a few common characters and basic arithmetic from one to one hundred—just enough so children wouldn’t grow up illiterate.
And because both daughters had died young, even Qin Suian herself had never truly gotten to know them deeply.
But from what she could see now, Xiaomei was smarter than she had imagined and clearly had talent for studying.
Xiaojuan, meanwhile, was a child with strong independent thinking and a lot of courage.
Tomorrow, she decided, she would go to the scrap collection station and search for elementary and middle school textbooks so the girls could study properly.
The next morning, Qin Suian and Xiaojuan once again carried their shoulder poles to the farmers’ market to buy vegetables.
As soon as they arrived, they ran into Xie Kaihua driving her horse cart.
“Master Xie, are you here to sell vegetables too?” Qin Suian asked when she saw the cart piled high with seasonal produce—bok choy, spinach, celtuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, and more.
“I grew these myself. I’m selling them wholesale to vegetable vendors,” Xie Kaihua replied.
Since she only had small quantities of each kind, it wasn’t worth spending the whole day at the market. She usually sold directly to familiar vendors.
“Then could you sell them to me instead? I’ll take all the celtuce and cucumbers,” Qin Suian said.
“Sure! I wholesale them for four cents a jin. There are about thirty jin each of the celtuce and cucumbers,” Xie Kaihua agreed readily.
Hearing the price immediately got Qin Suian thinking.
If Xie Kaihua could supply this much cucumber and celtuce every day, wouldn’t that save her several mao in costs?
Buying at the market cost five cents per jin.
Even buying in bulk only saved a few cents at most.
“Master Xie, do you grow a lot of celtuce and cucumbers?” Qin Suian asked.
“I didn’t plant too much this year. But my cousin planted a lot, and my third aunt has quite a bit too,” Xie Kaihua answered quickly.
She understood immediately that Qin Suian’s pickle business needed large quantities of vegetables every day.
And if her relatives didn’t have enough, there were still plenty of others in the village. If one village wasn’t enough, there were neighboring villages too.
“Could you supply around a hundred jin a day?” Qin Suian asked.
If Master Xie could deliver directly to her house, it would save her even more trouble.
“Yes. Definitely,” Xie Kaihua answered immediately.
“Then from now on, could you deliver a hundred jin of celtuce and cucumbers to me every day? I’ll also need chili peppers and garlic. I’ll tell you the exact amounts in advance. And later, once green beans come into season, I’ll want those too,” Qin Suian said.
It was a pity greenhouse vegetables weren’t widespread yet. Otherwise she would have already started using napa cabbage, radishes, and green beans—those were the real staple ingredients for pickles.
Unfortunately, those vegetables were already mostly out of season. Even if any remained, they were old stock from last year and the quality wasn’t good.
“No problem at all. I guarantee everything will be fresh, good quality, and delivered right to your door,” Xie Kaihua promised confidently.
She already had calculations running through her mind.
The villagers actually grew plenty of vegetables in their private plots, but usually only small amounts of each kind.
If there was too much to eat, it wasn’t really worth taking them out to sell.
After all, not every family owned a horse cart or donkey cart like hers.
Making a trip to town to sell only a few dozen jin of vegetables often earned less money than the transportation cost itself. And many times the vegetables wouldn’t even sell completely—or at all.
So most villagers rarely bothered selling vegetables regularly, only bringing a little along during market days.
But if she bought vegetables from villagers and then, once Old Zhang’s leg healed, had him accompany the cart to the farmers’ market to sell them, she could continue earning money.
Two people earning money was always faster than one.
And with the family still carrying debt, Old Zhang definitely wanted to repay it as soon as possible too.
“Great. Starting tomorrow, deliver them directly to my place. Today’s amount still isn’t enough, so I’ll have to buy some more elsewhere,” Qin Suian said as they exchanged money and goods.
“Guaranteed delivery!” Xie Kaihua grinned broadly.
She realized now that she had been too narrow-minded before. She had been so focused on figuring out how to continue driving carts that she’d never thought about making money from vegetables.
If she couldn’t be “Master Xie” anymore, then she’d become Boss Xie instead!
With Xie Kaihua supplying her vegetables, Qin Suian saved both money and time, making her even happier.
Although Qin Suian had told Xiaomei she wouldn’t recklessly increase production too quickly, she still bought several more jars and prepared to increase daily pickling volume to around one hundred jin.
She had noticed that many dock workers did heavy manual labor, and quite a few were outsiders who preferred strong flavors and very spicy food.
She could capitalize on that customer base.
Sure enough, when they arrived at the market, the extra-spicy cucumber pickles Qin Suian had specially prepared the day before sold extremely well.
Especially after noon, once the dock workers heard there was a spicy version, they rushed to buy it.
“Now this is more like it! Still not spicy enough, but it goes great with rice,” the worker who loved spicy food said approvingly after taking a bite on the spot.
“In the afternoon I’m buying another twenty cents’ worth. Sister Qin, save some for me, okay? I want to bring some home for my family to try,” she added.
She had already become a regular customer.
“I only made one jar today as an experiment. There probably won’t be any left by the afternoon,” Qin Suian said apologetically.
There really wasn’t much remaining.
“Aww, but I won’t get home until tonight. If I buy it now, I’m afraid I won’t be able to resist eating it all before then,” Zhu Yang said as she looked into the jar and saw there was indeed very little left.
“I’ll pickle more today. Tomorrow there’ll definitely be enough,” Qin Suian assured her while simultaneously serving another customer.
“Alright then,” Zhu Yang nodded.
She knew how to make pickles herself, but she could never recreate Qin Suian’s flavor.
All she knew how to do was add more chili peppers and garlic. It certainly made the flavor heavier, but nowhere near as addictive as Qin Suian’s version.
Ever since she started eating these pickles daily, she even felt more energetic while carrying sand in the afternoons.
After closing the stall at noon, Qin Suian ate lunch, took a half-hour nap, then got back up and continued making pickles.
Washing, peeling, slicing—the three of them worked together smoothly and methodically.
In the middle of it all, Qin Suian specifically made time to visit the scrap collection station to look for a complete set of elementary and middle school textbooks.
Unfortunately, after searching for quite a while, she still couldn’t find a full set—only a few scattered books.
She even asked the owner to keep an eye out for more.
Ever since the college entrance examination had been reinstated a few years ago, textbooks had suddenly become valuable again instead of being sold as scrap. Complete sets were especially difficult to gather now.
High school textbooks, in particular, were almost impossible to find because nobody was willing to throw them away anymore.
When Qin Suian brought the books home, Xiaomei and Xiaojuan curiously flipped through them.
“Mom, why did you buy these?” Xiaojuan asked.
She hadn’t looked at books in so long that she was almost starting to forget how to recognize some characters.