CH 70

Until Xu Zhao and Da Zhuang’s father pulled the ox cart of vegetables out of South Bay Village, none of the villagers believed it. Vegetables that should only be grown during spring, summer, or fall were actually able to be grown during the winter. Moreover, it was Xu Zhao who grew them, and he only used one big greenhouse to do it.

Magical!

It really was amazing!

A group of people couldn’t help but discuss this. Most of them were praising Xu Zhao. With every sentence of praise, Xu Zuocheng’s expression became even uglier, his heart feeling very dissatisfied and unhappy. Afterward, he tried changing the topic by saying that the city people were not accustomed to eating spring and summer vegetables in the winter. Moreover, they all ate meat to celebrate the new year. Who would want to eat vegetables? His meaning was that Xu Zhao definitely wouldn’t be able to sell his vegetables.

The villagers were half doubting his words. Not to mention that they have never left the county town before, they had also only left South Bay Village a limited amount of times, so they tended to trust Xu Zuocheng, who had more worldly experience.

Mother Xu was also worried about this. Ever since exiting the old courtyard and seeing Xu Zuocheng and the others walk on the dirt road while talking about how the vegetables wouldn’t be able to be sold, Mother Xu’s heart became even more uneasy. She was worried they wouldn’t be able to sell the vegetables. She was so worried that she didn’t even spare a thought to make breakfast.

“What’s wrong?” Father Xu asked after cleaning up the courtyard.

“I’m worried,” Mother Xu said.

“Worried about what?”

“Worried that the vegetables won’t sell.”

“Why wouldn’t it sell? Don’t they usually sell very well?” Father Xu said.

Mother Xu frowned and said, “There usually aren’t this many vegetables.”

Father Xu retorted, “It isn’t usually new years either.”

Mother Xu stopped talking, her face full of worry.

Father Xu sighed and said, “Don’t worry for no reason. Let’s go make breakfast. Once Baobao wakes up and doesn’t see Xu Zhao, and if there’s no food, he’ll definitely cry. Let’s go. I’ll carry the bamboo basket to get some bean straw to light the fire. We should make it quickly. We can’t let Baobao go hungry.”

Thinking that Xu Fan would want to eat breakfast, Mother Xu finally followed Father Xu into the kitchen to start cooking.

Xu Fan, who was in the west wing, just so happened to wake up. He rubbed his watery eyes and looked around. Not seeing Xu Zhao, his milky voice called out to daddy twice. When there was no reply, he wasn’t anxious. He reached out his hand to grab his toy car from the head of the bed and played on the bed by himself.

He then looked up to the side door and didn’t see anyone enter. He didn’t know where Daddy was either, so he got up by himself. He grabbed the socks on the bed and put the socks on by himself.

After trying to wear it for a while, he was huffing from tiredness, yet he wasn’t able to put it on properly. He directly decided not to wear it and threw the socks on the bed. His chubby body climbed from the bed and slid down the bed. He didn’t even wear his shoes as he wobbly ran out of the west wing. His milky voice thick as he yelled, “Daddy! Daddy! I’m awake! Daddy, where are you!”

Mother Xu immediately poked her head out of the kitchen. Seeing Xu Fan wearing long pants and underwear, she immediately shouted in shock, “Oh! Oh! Little Sanwa! Why did you get off the bed!”

Mother Xu quickly ran over and picked up Xu Fan as she ran back to the west ring. She stuffed Xu Fan into the blankets and sternly said, “Silly head! Aren’t you cold? What if you get frostbite?”

Xu Fan raised his small head and said, “I’m looking for Daddy.”

Mother Xu said, “Your daddy went to sell vegetables. He’ll be back soon.”

Xu Fan sat inside the blankets and asked, “Why didn’t Daddy bring me along?”

“You were asleep.”

Xu Fan then said, “I-I-I can’t be woken up if I’m asleep.”

Mother Xu smiled and said, “As long as you know. Your daddy couldn’t wake you up so he left to sell vegetables first. Come, I’ll put your clothes on. Get up and eat while we wait for you daddy to come home.”

“Okay, I won’t cry.”

“Yes, our Sanwa is so well-behaved!”

“Mn.” Xu Fan stood and let Mother Xu dress him.

Xu Fan obediently waited for a short while since Xu Zhao specifically said that the Great Sage the Equal of Heaven didn’t cry when he woke up. Therefore, he wouldn’t cry either. However, after getting up from the bed, washing up to be nice and fresh, and eating breakfast, Xu Fan started to ask, “Why isn’t Daddy back yet?”

“He’ll be back soon,” Mother Xu replied.

Xu Fan unhappily said, “Grandma, you always say ‘soon, soon.’ It’s annoying.”

“…” Mother Xu smiled and said, “How could Grandma take you to find Da Zhuang to play?”

“Don’t wanna play with Da Zhuang.”

“Why not? Don’t you love playing with Da Zhuang?”

“Daddy hasn’t eaten yet.” Moreover, Da Zhuang was waiting to eat and didn’t want to play with him. He looked at Mother Xu and said, “I want my daddy.”

There was no one to play with the child and the child loved to stick with the adult. Mother Xu was worried about Xu Zhao. She quickly washed the dishes, had Father Xu stay at home to watch the big greenhouse, and brought Xu Fan to the village entrance to see if Xu Zhao had returned yet. In the end, they didn’t see Xu Zhao, but they did see Xu Zuocheng.

Xu Zuocheng was happily returning from the county town. He carried a lot of food and clothes in his hands as he chatted with someone at the village entrance. They were currently talking about Xu Zhao, saying that Xu Zhao and Da Zhuang’s father had pulled the ox cart to the vegetable market early in the morning and sold one Yuan worth of vegetables. Moreover, it was an old woman who bought it. Most people didn’t buy Xu Zhao’s vegetables.

One Yuan!

Xu Zuocheng laughed and said, “They’ve been selling all morning and only made one Yuan. When I came back, the two were still standing there stupidly. I said they definitely wouldn’t be able to sell it all yet they didn’t believe me and still planted that much. Yesterday, I told him to come work with me, but he was unwilling. I can’t do anything either.”

Xu Zuocheng’s face was full of happiness and even looked at Mother Xu as if saying “Who told you to give all your money to your birth son. Just wait and stave to death!”

Mother Xu’s face immediately paled. Especially hearing the other villagers say that Xu Zhao hadn’t sold the vegetables, her heart immediately chilled. The big greenhouse was full of vegetables, and they had only harvested less than 5%. If they couldn’t even sell this 5%, wouldn’t they lose money? Moreover, they would lose a lot of money!

What to do?

What to do?!

Mother Xu was in a full on panic. It felt like she was placed in an ice cellar, her entire body was chilled. Especially when she saw Xu Zuocheng’s triumphant expression, she felt annoyed, angry, and sad. At this time, Father Xu’s voice came from behind her.

“Jinhua1, Jinhua!” Father Xu huffed as he ran over. It was unknown if he was tired or excited, but his face was a bit flushed.

Mother Xu looked over to Father Xu, her face full of loss and anxiety.

Father Xu didn’t look at Mother Xu, gasping as he urgently said, “Return home now!”

Mother Xu asked, “Return home and do what?” She didn’t want to return home one bit. She wanted to go find Xu Zhao. Xu Zhao had to be very sad.

“Going home to harvest vegetables!” Father Xu said.

“What for?” Mother Xu asked.

“To sell. What else?”

“We can’t even sell what we have. How would we sell more?” Mother Xu said.

Father Xu shouted, “Why can’t we sell what we have? Everything has already been sold! Xu Zhao just called, telling us to quickly harvest more vegetables. Da Zhuang’s father is returning soon to pull the ox cart back to the county town to sell them. Why are you standing here saying that we can’t sell them?”

“What?” Xu Mu’s face was shocked.

“Not enough to sell!” Father Xu said.

Not enough to sell?!

Mother Xu felt that she had heard wrong. She shook her head before saying, “No. Didn’t… Didn’t they say we couldn’t sell them…”

When Mother Xu said this, she couldn’t help but turn to Xu Zuocheng.

Xu Zuocheng didn’t seem to be affected by the “not enough to sell” and continued to smile. He then said to Father Xu, “Dad, you don’t have to help Xu Zhao save face. If he couldn’t sell them, then he couldn’t sell them. Why don’t you just say that? It’s nothing shameful. It’s not like Xu Zhao hasn’t made many mistakes in the past already, no? This won’t make a difference. We just returned from the county town, and Xu Zhao didn’t sell any vegetables. What are you pretending for?”

“Who’s pretending?” Father Xu snapped, very unhappily. “Who am I pretending for?”

“If you’re not pretending, then what do you mean by not enough to sell? What a joke,” Xu Zuocheng said with a smile.

Joke?

Xu Zuocheng said that he was a joke? Father Xu was angered to death by Xu Zuocheng’s haughty expression. He pointed at Xu Zuocheng, and before he could say anything, he heard a rough voice calling in the distance.

“Uncle Xu! Auntie Xu! ”

Father Xu turned around to find Da Zhuang’s father.

Da Zhuang’s father ran over from the dirt road, his face full of sweat as he urgently called, “Uncle Xu! Auntie Xu!”

Mother Xu quickly rushed over and asked, “Da Zhuang’s father, why are you back already?”

Da Zhuang’s father’s face was full of excitement as he said, “Auntie Xu, I’m back to take another ox cart full of vegetables to sell in the county town!”

“Another ox cart?” Mother Xu asked in amazement. “Why?”

Da Zhuang’s father wiped the sweat off his forehead and said, “Didn’t Xu Zhao give you a call? We don’t have enough vegetables to sell. Xu Zhao had me rush back, and while there were still a lot of people, to pull another ox cart back to sell.

Mother Xu asked in shock, “There really isn’t enough to sell?”

“Yep.” Da Zhuang’s father continued to wipe his sweat. He had run all the way back. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

Mother Xu couldn’t help but confirm again, “Didn’t they say that you guys only sold one Yuan worth of vegetables this morning?”

Da Zhuang’s father said, “That’s right. This morning was because we arrived too early. The people of the county town and all the villages hadn’t arrived at the vegetable market yet, so of course we couldn’t sell any. Once there were people in the vegetable market, they started grabbing our vegetables up! Cui Qingfeng and his dad are helping out as well. They’re waiting for us to deliver another ox cart full of vegetables.”

Grabbed them up— Deliver another ox cart over—

Mother Xu froze. It was true. They really sold them! They really sold them! Mother Xu’s eyes lit up with excitement.

Father Xu’s face was full of smiles.

The smile on Xu Zuocheng’s face didn’t fade, but froze instead. The arrogance from just now immediately disappeared as his color turned green then white. It was very brilliant. Adding on the fact that all the villagers were watching him, he was even more ashamed and unable to show his face. After holding his breath for what seemed like forever, he finally said, “You can’t sell those vegetables for much anyway! You can’t make any money!”

However, Mother and Father Xu, and Da Zhuang’s father didn’t pay any mind to Xu Zuocheng. Their joy was hard to hide. Mother Xu couldn’t even help but mutter “we made money, Xu Fan made money.” Afterward, she turned and strode away with Father Xu and Da Zhuang’s father to the big greenhouse. Xu Fan followed behind, his small feet padding along as he said, “My daddy made money. My daddy made money!”