That old man sat behind his vegetable booth, dispirited and downcast, clearly in a gloomy mood due to not being able to sell his goods. For Huo Zaiyuan, he couldn't help but be enticed by the low price, eventually walking over.
"Old grandfather, besides Chinese cabbage, do you have other vegetables?" Squatting down in front of the booth, he reaches out his hand to flip a green and fresh leaf.
Although he had never set foot in a food market during his past life, there was a small marketplace below the apartment he rented. There, he often hears the haggling and random conversations from mature, married women who were purchasing their goods. Thus, he knows that vegetables that have been bitten by insects mean there's no excessive pesticide used to spray the crops, and is safer to consume than those with no insect bites.
Even if he doesn't know if what he overheard is true, from what is before his eyes right now, the leaves of the cabbages in this old man's booth have several insect-bitten areas. When he flipped the top leaves over, there are even a few live insects dropping out.
If the insects are still hoping about energetically, that these goods are safe to consume for sure!
"Have, have! Of course, I have. Not only do I have these cabbages at home, I even have grains and other greens…this little boss, you…" This veggie-selling elderly is evidently a simple and honest individual, causing Huo Zaiyuan's two eyes to shine with repressed emotions.
"I will take all the Chinese cabbages you have here." Listening to the old grandfather's words, Huo Zaiyuan nodded his head, pleased, before asking curiously. "That's right, old grandfather, your vegetables are not bad, but why are you selling them at half the price of others?"
Hearing Huo Zaiyuan announces he will buy all his vegetables, the elderly's heart is so moved that his eyes redden. He promptly begins to calculate the total of all his vegetables, however, when he hears Huo Zaiyuan's casual inquiry, his old tear ducts begin to water.
While Huo Zaiyuan helps to load the cabbages into a bamboo woven basket, he listens as the elderly begin to explain the reason.
As it turns out, the village where the old man resides in is one of V City's northern fringe's mountain village. Ten days ago, a torrential rainfall that passed through the city caused the mountains on both sides of the mountain road to experience landslide. Mud, rocks and boulders immediately buried the small road, essentially blocking the path and preventing trucks that usually come into the village to pick up fruits and vegetable from entering. No one in the village could exit, and no one could go in. Only this old man managed to bring a cart of cabbages out due to several villagers assisting in carrying it past the mountains. He thought, by lowering the price and selling off his goods, he can employ a company's excavation team to remove the debris from the road.
Who knew that because he set the price too low, people didn't dare buy and resulted in Huo Zaiyuan picking up a large bargain. Afterwards, he manages to glean more information from the elderly, whose village not only plants vegetables, but also different nuts, maize, potatoes, melons, etc. This delights Huo Zaiyuan immensely.
He decides to on the spot place this elderly and his village in charge of fulfilling his fruit and vegetable order. Buying this entire basket of cabbages merely cost five hundred plus dollars. If the old man wants to hire an excavation team, he needs to sell at least a few baskets of cabbages in order to afford it. Hence, Huo Zaiyuan goes to find someone to draw up a business contract, telling the elderly he plans to purchase a large quantity of fruits and vegetables. He will first give the elderly five thousand dollars as down payment and ten days later, the old man will have to bring him into the village.
One signs his name while the other stamps his thumbprint[1]. Once he receives five thousand dollars from Huo Zaiyuan, the other man's tears overflow. After leaving the address of his village behind, the old man walks away.
Having taken care of fruits and vegetables, Huo Zaiyuan hurriedly takes the public transport to the agriculture district to purchase seeds before heading over to the slaughterhouse to buy a large bulk of various meat - chicken, ducks, goose, mutton, beef, etc. Then it's off to the aquatic marketplace for seafood - crab, prawns, carps and various marine vegetables like kelp and seaweed.
This took the entire day. When it hit four in the afternoon, Huo Zaiyuan is already half-dead from exhaustion. Once again boarding the public transport, he returns to the warehouse to see several trucks carrying rice and wheat flour arriving. It takes another hour for everything to be unloaded and stored in the warehouse. Quickly settling his account, the few trucks left.
Entering the warehouse, he draws close the horizontal roller shutter-door, placing all the delivered rice and flour into his space. At that moment, an old man's voice sounded from outside. It is that vegetable booth's elderly. Rolling up the door, he is met with the sight of the old man accompanied by another tall and large person, who is pulling a large cart filled with the cabbages he (HZY) purchased earlier. Obviously, the money he gave the elderly managed to get the road cleared.
"Little boss, the vegetables are here. Ten days from now, at noon, I will be waiting for you at the mountain road's crossing."
"Good."
Under the elderly's command, that large person brought the heavy cart forward, storing it in the warehouse, then left together with the old man.
Footnotes :
[1] In the olden days - even up until the late 20th century - illiterates who don't know how to write their name typically stamp their thumbprints in place of a signature