Little Miss Fortune: I Will Bring Prosperity to My Tang Family!-Chapter 57: Special - : The Chubby kid and snow

Special Chapter

The Chubby kid and snow

Xiaolin nestled in a thick blanket, her chubby cheeks the only part visible as she sat in front of the fireplace, a favorite spot of hers and her uncle’s during snowfall. She yawned so widely that tears came to her eyes, looking around for a big pillow to lie down on and be lazy as usual.

“Xiaolin”

“Xiaolin, Xiaolin”

Just as she was about to settle down, a voice called from the front of the house. She blinked sleepily before getting up to head towards the front, wrapped in her thick blanket.

“Xiaolin, Xiao Hai and Xiao Han are here to see you.”

Tianrong called his daughter from the front of the house. Now that the snow had stopped, he was outside clearing it away when he saw two little brown bundles standing at the doorstep, so he called them in to get warm.

“Yawn, mmh, why are you out, Xiao Hai and Xiao Han? Aren’t you cold?” Xiaolin yawned again, sleepily gazing at the two little bundles waving lazily from the porch.

Seeing her condition, Ling Han couldn’t help but laugh joyfully. The little ones made their way towards their friend because the path was quite slippery. They were bundled up in several layers by their mother, complete with tiny gloves she had sewn for them, and thick hats that, though not made of animal fur, were warmer than in past winters.

“Xiaolin, let’s play in the snow!” Ling Han smiled so broadly his eyes shut. This year, he wasn’t afraid of the snow like in previous years. Since his family’s situation had improved, the harsh winter had turned into a season of fun for him.

Xiaolin gave a dry smile, looking at the snow piled up all over the yard and feeling the cold air and the wind that made her cheeks almost freeze solid. What were these two little ones thinking, wanting to play in the snow when it was so bitterly cold?

“It’s really cold, Xiao Han. Aren’t you cold at all?” Xiaolin, standing until her legs stiffened, sat down on the doorstep, watching her young friends happily playing with the snow.

"It is, but I want to play," Ling Han, ever cheerful and bright, turned to reply to his friend. His little hands shaped the snow into round balls, following his imagination. Ling Hai, seeing his younger brother having fun, walked over to join him.

Xiaolin sighed deeply, wishing she could play in the snow too. This was her second winter here, yet she couldn’t bring herself to go out and play in the snow because it was too cold to even move.

However, she eventually went back into her room to put on more clothes, including gloves and a hat sewn by her mother. Upon coming out, she heard the laughter of the chubby-cheeked, nearly six-month-old baby from her mother’s room.

After playing with her younger brother for a while, she came outside to find the Ling siblings had already made a large pile of snow. Xiaolin walked around the lopsided, misshapen piles three times before looking up at the brothers, who were smiling broadly.

"What are you guys making, Brother Hai?"

"Xiao Han said he wanted to make a pig."

"A pig?" Xiaolin looked down at the so-called pig with confusion. Ling Han, seeing his friend’s puzzled face, laughed happily.

"This definitely looks like Xiao Zhong’s poop. Come on, I’ll show you how to build it!!" Xiaolin said determinedly. She led them to a large pile of snow her father had gathered, sat down, and began to sculpt immediately.

"Let’s make a pig lying down, it’ll be easier to shape," the chubby-cheeked girl suggested. Her cheeks were rosy from the cold, and she eagerly gathered snow to start her sculpture.

"I want to make Xiao Zhong too," Ling Han said, sitting down beside his friend.

"Let’s take it one at a time."

Ling Hai stood watching the two little bundles sitting together. Seeing the kids playing happily, he decided not to disturb them and let the children play by themselves. Meanwhile, he went to grab a snow shovel to help Tianrong, who was clearing snow in one corner. Even though Tianrong told him to play with the others, the boy insisted on helping with the work.

"Tell your father to come see me at our house tomorrow. I have something to discuss with him," Tianrong told the diligently shoveling boy.

"Will do, Uncle,"

Tianrong planned to open a restaurant to sell pickled vegetable soup, which he had discussed with his daughter before winter came. His dried food store also closed down when the snow fell, as they only had tofu puffs left to sell. The supply of dried seafood and noodles had run out, and there was no sun to dry any more. His plump daughter mentioned that it could be dried indoors, but since they hadn’t tried it yet, they decided to close the shop temporarily. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

Today, Tianrong intended to talk to his employees about making tofu and tofu puffs. He planned to use these to cook and sell at his restaurant and also to supply the dried food store, in case people wanted to buy them. Indeed, during the past two months when it snowed almost daily, locals who couldn’t afford much were running out of food. The Tang family’s dried goods store, which sold affordable items, had been closed for a while. If people heard it was reopening, they would surely hurry to buy from them.

Xiaolin and Ling Han played in the snow for almost half an hour until Tianrong had to chase them back inside to warm up by the fire, as their cheeks were as red as ripe guavas. The two plump kids only realized how cold they were when they sat shivering in front of the stove, their small mouths quivering and their teeth chattering. Zhang Ruo came over with blankets to wrap them up, leaving only their eyes and round cheeks visible.

"Here, some hot seaweed soup for you two rascals to warm up your bellies," Zhang Ruo said, handing them cups of soup, which the kids eagerly took and blew on to warm up.

"Where’s Uncle today, Grandma? I haven’t seen him at all,"

"Your uncle is busy in the sprout room. It seems Tianrong will be opening his restaurant soon and will need a lot of vegetables. Your uncles have also been in there since this morning."

Xiaolin nodded understandingly, then lifted her hand to touch her cracked lips painfully, having been too preoccupied with thoughts of food to remember to make any skin or lip balm for the winter. She wondered if her grandma had any beeswax.

"Grandma, do you have any beeswax?"

"Yes, I do. What do you need it for?"

"I want to make some lip balm."

"Lip balm?" Zhang Ruo looked at her granddaughter, puzzled.

The plump girl enlisted her grandmother’s help to chop coconuts and grind them, then filtered out the coconut milk with Ling Han’s assistance. Besides coconut milk, they also mixed rice with water, ground it, and filtered it to obtain rice milk.

The coconut milk was left in a wooden tub to separate the fat layer. Once they had the coconut fat, the plump girl and her grandmother gently heated the rice milk, mixing in the coconut fat until they had about half a small cup of thick, clear rice milk.

Xiaolin watched the result with a satisfied expression. She lifted the cup to smell the gentle aroma of rice and coconut. She regretted not having aloe vera, tomatoes, or other fruits that could add vitamins.

"What are you planning to do with that, hm, you troublemaker?" Zhang Ruo looked at her granddaughter holding a small cup of thick rice milk.

"I’m going to use it as body lotion. It’s a pity we don’t have any fresh fruits. I wanted to mix some in."

"Why mix them in? Are you going to eat it? We have plenty of vegetables in the storage room, including bean sprouts and wheat sprouts."

"Wheat sprouts!" Xiaolin exclaimed before Zhang Ruo could finish, leaving her to watch the little girl’s back as she scurried out of the kitchen.

"Where’s Xiaolin going, Grandma?" Ling Han asked, seeing his friend rush off. He had been too focused on the fragrant rice milk to hear what she said.

"I’m not sure myself."

Xiaolin quickly scooped up two small cups of wheat sprouts from the dry food storage room. She cleaned them thoroughly and then asked her grandmother to help grind them into wheat sprout milk.

She remembered that wheat could be used for skincare creams, benefiting both body and facial skin. She decided to try making it. If it worked, she planned to create a rice milk skin care formula mixed with vitamins from other fruits to sell in the future.

With that thought, her little hands clenched tightly, and her face showed determination, leaving Zhang Ruo and Ling Han exchanging puzzled glances.

After obtaining thick wheat sprout milk, Xiaolin tested it on her hands. She felt her dry, cracked skin from the cold air become slightly softer and more moisturized, which was better than leaving it untreated.

The plump girl applied the mixture thoroughly over her arms, legs, and face. Ling Han, thinking his friend was having fun, decided to try it too. The boy felt his dry, flaky skin, which resembled fish scales, improve significantly, making it look more like normal human skin.

"Xiaolin! This is really good. I’d like to take some for my parents, my big brother, and my sister to use too," Ling Han exclaimed excitedly.

"Yeah! I plan to make some for my family to use and share with others too. Try it, Grandma."

Zhang Ruo examined the arms of the two children and was amazed to see that their previously dry, cracked skin had become much softer. Initially, she thought Xiaolin wanted to have fun and was worried she might get bored, so she went along with it. However, it turned out that her granddaughter’s suggestion was intended to improve the family’s skin condition.

Zhang Ruo hugged her granddaughter tightly, making the plump girl giggle. After trying her granddaughter’s rice milk, she appreciated how it not only made the skin softer but also had a gentle rice fragrance. Zhang Ruo and Xiaolin then spent about half an hour making more of it together.

In addition to the rice milk, they also made a lip balm from coconut fat and beeswax by gently heating the mixture until it blended well and then letting it solidify. Xiaolin applied warm water with a cloth to her dry, cracked lips until they became soft, then gently scrubbed off the dead skin. After that, she used her finger to spread the lip balm over her lips until they were glossy.

"That’s it, Grandma. My lips won’t be dry anymore," Xiaolin said, puckering her lips.

"Hah, you plump child, let’s share some with several other families too. Look at what we’ve made," Zhang Ruo said, looking at the nearly full tub of rice milk and two small cups of lip balm.

"Do we have containers to put these in, Grandma?"

"Yes, we have some bamboo pots your grandfather made. I’ll clean them up and then we can fill them," Zhang Ruo said as she went to fetch the containers, cleaned them, and dried them in front of the fireplace. They managed to fill five pots with rice milk and eight small containers with lip balm.

"One pot for each of the Ling, Liu, and Shi families, and two lip balm containers for each. Let’s see if it really improves their skin before making more," Zhang Ruo instructed, handing a set to Ling Han. The little boy held the pots in the hall with a wide smile, his lips as shiny as his chubby friend’s.

After about five days, Xiaolin’s skin nourishing rice milk and lip balm sold so well that there was a demand for more, as the cold weather required applying the rice milk three or four times a day, which quickly depleted the supply. The chubby uncle of Xiaolin, hearing the news, came to sit glumly in front of the kitchen, causing Zhang Ruo a headache. They agreed to make more but had to compensate for the used wheat. They were willing to pay and even helped chop and grind the coconuts.

The baby brother, Xiaolin’s plump sibling, also liked the rice milk his sister made. Tianyu felt much more comfortable when his mother applied the thick rice milk on him. His smile showed small bumps indicating his teeth were about to emerge, and his chubby cheeks became soft and supple under his mother’s gentle care.

Xiaolin, escaping the chaos at home, went to inspect the workshop behind the house that had been idle for nearly three months. Four days ago, Tang family’s workers helped clean it and began working the next morning. The first tasks were making tofu skins, which needed to be dried, and tofu blocks, which required pressing into shape. Another task was making noodles from sweet potato flour, starting today.

"You’re opening the restaurant tomorrow, right, dad?" Xiaolin tugged at her father’s sleeve as he was busy with tofu-making. Most of the workers were only experienced with making noodles from various flours and were still not proficient in tofu-making.

"Yes, have you decided what you’ll be selling?"

"I was thinking of making pickled vegetable broth with tofu and bean sprouts, noodles with pickled vegetables and sweet potato strands, stir-fried bean sprouts, and do we still have dried clams and squids?"

"We should have about two hundred jin of each left."

"Then, we can add those to the sweet potato noodles. Also, how about selling rice with broth, tofu milk, and deep-fried bean snacks? Do we have enough pork fat?"

"We have five large jars. It should be more than enough since your deep-fried bean snacks don’t use much oil." Tianrong looked affectionately at the little head nodding vigorously, her plump cheeks, which had been dry and cracked, now looked much healthier since she started making her own rice milk skin care.

"Do we have enough soybeans?"

"I stocked up about a hundred sacks before winter. It should last until the end of the cold season," he said confidently, knowing that the fishing season would resume soon after the winter ends.

The little entrepreneur spent the day overseeing the work with her father before returning home exhausted.

The next morning, wrapped in blankets with only her round eyes peeking out, Xiaolin rode in the cart with her father. Following them was another cart driven by Ling Heng, transporting tofu and tofu skins and picking up the seafood restaurant’s workers on the way. The workers were glad for the additional income. Despite earning more this year from working for the Tang family, they didn’t want to spend without earning. They all eagerly awaited the end of the snowfall to start working.

Arriving at the dried goods store, the father and daughter pair saw a few villagers waiting in front of the shop. Tianrong then asked them about what was happening, learning that they had been waiting to purchase dried goods for days now.

“We are completely out of dried goods. Apologies for the inconvenience. I thought my supplies would last throughout the winter but unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. I didn’t expect there to be so many demands.” Tianrong explained, causing the villagers to look visibly sad.

"Why didn’t you go into the city instead?"

"We can’t afford it, little miss. The prices in the city during the winter are too high for us poor villagers to afford,"

Hearing this, Xiaolin began to ponder. Her home had about fifty large jars of pickled cauliflower specifically for making soup to sell, and another twenty jars of pickled green onions for personal consumption. After thinking for a moment, she looked up at her father.

"Father, can we sell some of our pickled onions to these uncles and aunties? And maybe sell some tofu at a low price to them as well?" She asked her father, knowing the goods they brought were not enough and that they would need to fetch more from home.

"What do you all think?"

"We would like to buy, sir. Even just a small jar of pickled vegetables each would be great. And what exactly is this tofu you mentioned?" One of the villagers asked excitedly.

Tianrong then showed them the tofu at the back of the cart. Seeing it, they expressed their desire to buy and asked about the prices in a flurry. Tianrong sold it to them at a very low price, feeling sorry for them, thinking they had only a few brass coins to spare. One villager asked shyly if it was possible to buy a jin of rice, as they knew besides the dried goods store, Tianrong owned several eateries and thought he might have rice to sell as well.

"I bought the rice at fifteen brass coins per jin. I’ll sell it to you at the cost. For the pickled vegetables, it’s fifteen brass coins too. I’ll throw in a little tofu for everyone. But you’ll have to wait because I need to go back home and fetch more supplies."

"Thank you, sir. Thank you, little miss," the villagers bowed deeply, tears in their eyes. They had been waiting for several days, thinking if the Tang family’s shop didn’t open today, they would have to go back home and endure with just boiled rice water until the winter ends. The money they had could only buy two jin of rice from the city.

After receiving the rice orders, Tianrong and Ling Heng went back to the village to fetch more supplies. Xiaolin invited the waiting villagers into the seafood restaurant, where the workers were busy cleaning.

Xiaolin informed the villagers that the dry goods store currently had no stock for sale, but she intended to sell bean sprouts and tofu skins first. If anyone wanted to buy, they could come later. The villagers, upon hearing this, firmly agreed without complaints or making any trouble that would inconvenience the Tang family.

Moved by the kindness of the father and daughter, the villagers got up and started wiping the tables in the restaurant to help the workers. Even though Xiaolin had tried to stop them, they persisted. The plump child sighed deeply, but a small smile adorned her face. She decided that when her father returned, she would share some of the bean sprouts with the villagers so they could take some home to eat, just a little bit each.

Later in the morning, the Tang family’s restaurant opened for business. The market on the opposite side also had some vendors selling goods, and a few townspeople were seen shopping. Seeing the Tang family’s restaurant open, they began to spread the word throughout the city, which reached the regular customers. The restaurant had been open for less than two hours when familiar customers started coming in.

As the restaurant began to fill with customers, the villagers who had been waiting earlier to buy goods requested to leave for home, their smiles wide as they carried their goods home. Besides getting rice to take back in several jin, they also received tofu and vegetables. Thinking of their children and elderly parents waiting at home, they hurriedly made their way back.

"Please come in, uncles," Xiaolin greeted the regular customers with a broad smile as they entered one after another.

"Aren’t you the little tycoon? Has your family started sailing again now that you’ve reopened the shop?" A middle-aged man who often came to bid for giant shrimp and crabs greeted her.

"It’s the handsome uncle! Hehe, we can’t sail yet, but today I’m selling pickled vegetable soup. We only have pickled vegetable soup, pickled vegetable noodles, stir-fried bean sprouts, stir-fried rice with pickled vegetables, and plain rice,"

"Are these made with the pickled green onions you were selling?"

"No, uncle. It’s made from Tang family’s special recipe of pickled white cabbage. In the soup, I also add bean sprouts and soft tofu."

"Bean sprouts?" Several customers became interested. Initially sitting separately with their friends, they all stood up to listen attentively when they heard the young girl’s explanation.

"Yes, uncle. It’s a vegetable grown using a secret method at home. It’s called bean sprouts because it only takes a few days to sprout and hasn’t grown into green leafy vegetables yet."

"I can’t quite picture it. Can you make some now? I’d like to try whatever dishes you have."

"Yes, yes, make some now, little shopkeeper!"

Upon receiving the order, Xiaolin quickly scurried to instruct the kitchen staff inside the restaurant. After that, she went to Uncle Wu Zhe to ask him to put some wheat sprouts in a pot, add hot water, and then serve it to the customers. Normally, her shop didn’t serve tea to customers anyway. If she had more time, she would find other things to make tea to entertain customers with a variety of options.

"What is this? It has such a faint, unfamiliar aroma," one customer inquired.

"It’s made from wheat,"

"Wheat?" Several customers turned to each other in surprise. Then, Xiaolin saw two workers carrying a table out to the front of the shop and followed them.

"Is the tofu milk ready, Uncle?" Xiaolin asked her uncle, who was a friend of Wu Zhe’s.

"It’s ready. Are you going to set up a frying station out front as well?"

"Yes, uncle. Please don’t sell it too expensive. One brass coin per cup for the tofu milk and two pieces for a brass coin for the snacks. After all, we already have a lot of residues."

"Alright, Xiaolin, go inside and keep warm. We’ll handle this."

Xiaolin didn’t head back inside; instead, she looked across to the meat market and saw three people huddling together in front of it. They looked very thin and were wearing thin, pitiable clothes. Xiaolin told the two uncles before dashing off, with one of the young men chasing after her, fearing she might slip and fall.

Xiaolin ran up to the thin family, who looked up at the chubby-cheeked girl who had stopped to observe them. They thought she had come over to stare because of their condition, resembling dry leaves ready to be swept away, similar to previous scoldings they had received.

"Uncle Xie, please bring three cups of tofu milk for them and also six pieces of snacks," Xiaolin looked up and requested from Uncle Xie, who had followed her. Understanding the young girl’s intention to help the family of three, Uncle Xie nodded and hurried back to fulfill the girl’s request.

The family of their looked up at the round-cheeked girl smiling at them, tears welling up in gratitude for the little girl’s kindness, their voices hoarse from sitting in the cold wind since yesterday and having nothing to eat for nearly two days, leaving them without the strength to speak.

"Here it is," Tu Xie returned with a tray for his young master.

Xiaolin handed out the tofu milk cups to the three without disdain for their emaciated and dirty condition from lying in dirt and snow. Following was a plate of fried snacks that smelled amazing, causing their stomachs to audibly rumble in embarrassment.

"Why are you sitting here? Didn’t the governor distribute rice to everyone?" Xiaolin squatted down and asked. Her Uncle Zhou distributed fifty jin of rice per household each month. Although it wasn’t much, it should have been enough to eat sparingly. But given their emaciated condition, they seemed to have been without food for a long time.

"Well..." The woman, hugging her young son, started, glancing at her husband with a grim face beside her. Seeing he remained silent, she reluctantly spoke up,

"My husband asked to be separated from me. We were not treated well. Once he said he wanted to leave, he took the rice and dried food we got. We intended to...walk through the winter cold to the city gates, hoping someone would maybe give out some food," she ended, sobbing into her son’s shoulder, who was happily holding a cup of tofu milk.

Xiaolin looked at the woman’s husband, who was biting his lip to the point of bleeding, likely feeling guilty towards his wife and son. However, they were still his parents. Given the culture of the time, it wasn’t easy to demand rights, and even if they could separate, if the other side demanded support in food or money, they had to comply. For them, gratitude always came first.

"Soldier brother" Xiaolin stood up and waved to a familiar soldier patrolling the market as usual. Upon seeing the young girl call out, he hurried over with a broad smile.

"What can I do for you, young lady?"

"Do you maybe have spare rooms behind the market? Before winter, you complained about not having enough cowherds. I thought I might hire them," Xiaolin glanced at the hungry family of three eating their snacks.

The young officer looked where the girl pointed. He had seen the family sitting in front of the market since yesterday and, feeling pity, hadn’t chased them away. Initially fearing the young girl might have complaints, he was surprised to find her offering the family jobs instead.

"We do! Shall I take them now, young lady?" The officer asked joyously.

"Yes, please. I’m trusting them with you. Since not many are leaving carts for storage these days, let them start by clearing snow from the paths. Oh!" Xiaolin glanced at the trio before remembering something. She pulled out her purse and handed two silver coins to the officer.

"If you could also please buy bedding, blankets, and winter clothes for them."

The officer, the family, and even Tu Xie were stunned by the money. Once the officer collected his thoughts, he eagerly accepted the coins, pleased for the family receiving the young lady’s kindness. The three quickly stopped eating and bowed deeply, tears streaming down their faces. Xiaolin protested, urging them to stop hurting themselves in such cold weather. How could they not hurt their bones doing so?

After ensuring the officer took care of the tasks, Xiaolin didn’t forget to remind the guard to also pick up tofu milk and snacks. Xiaolin and Tu Xie crossed the street back to the restaurant, Xiaolin feeling relieved that the three stopped bowing to her—it almost gave her a heart attack.

"Phew! You startled me," Xiaolin plopped down on a chair near the snack table where An Cheng was frying snacks. Tu Xie, following her, laughed brightly.

"You gave them quite a bit," the young man spoke to the little girl before hurrying to help his friend with the sales. At this time, there were three or four villagers buying things.

"But I didn’t think they would go to such lengths, Sigh"

"What’s the matter?" An Cheng asked while continuing to fry snacks.

"Thank you. Come back again."

"It’s that chubby kid again. She went to help that family of three and even gave them two silver taels," Tu Xie explained to the last customer buying snacks before turning to answer his friend. Some customers who were at the restaurant because they wanted to drink warm tofu milk kept their voices down to not disturb others.

"Oh!"

"She screamed so loud when they bowed to her, ha ha ha"

"If it were me back then, I’d probably do the same. Two silver taels, that’s a lot."

Xiaolin slumped over the table, exhausted, watching the two young men tirelessly selling the tofu milk and fried bean snacks.

As the sun began to shine a little by midday, Xiaolin encouraged the two who had finished selling tofu milk and snacks to come out and help build a large snowman in front of the restaurant, using dry twigs and leaves for its arms and face.

Passersby turned their attention to the snowman decorations on both sides of Tang’s family restaurant, sparking interest. Several children ran over to watch and chat, boosting the sale of food. Many asked about seafood dishes, but upon learning they were not available, they ordered pickled vegetable dishes instead. Seeing fresh stir-fried vegetables excited everyone to place orders.

"In a few days, I’ll bring some vegetables to sell, but I won’t be able to sell much since they’re hard to grow," Xiaolin cheerfully informed the customers.

"That’s fine, young miss. Even a jin of vegetables would be great."

"Yes, yes. Last winter, we only ate pickled vegetables and dried food at my house. It was tough to digest. Having some fresh vegetables would at least make our stomachs feel better."

"You lunatic! Who talks about bowel movements in a food restaurant?"

"Heh heh."

Xiaolin gave a dry smile, watching the customers teasing each other, unsure how to intervene.

The pickled vegetable noodles, pickled vegetable soup, and stir-fried bean sprouts were very popular. Initially thinking the winter might slow business, the flow of customers remained steady for days. While it wasn’t as busy as when selling seafood, it was still good. Xiaolin even noticed employees from city restaurants sneaking glances occasionally.

Seeing the steady stream of customers despite the limited menu, the little boss decided to add a tofu dish with toppings to the menu. She also introduced fried tofu with chili oil, stir-fried tofu with bean sprouts, and a mild tofu soup.

Customers who tried it were hooked and even requested to buy dried tofu to take home. Many had seen dried tofu for sale before winter set in but hadn’t been interested because they hadn’t tasted it. Now, the order volume overwhelmed the workers at home, leaving them no time to rest.

"Step right up! Tang’s bean sprouts are ready for sale today. Come take a look and see for yourselves. They’re not expensive at all."

The chubby girl stood in front of the seafood restaurant with her Uncle Heng, with a long table set up right in front of the restaurant on the right side. On the left side was the table where Tu Xie and An Cheng had been selling tofu milk and fried bean dregs since the restaurant opened.

The fried bean dregs and delicious yet affordable tofu milk were popular among passersby and market vendors. People would stand in line in the morning to buy them as breakfast, with large fried bean dregs pieces being a filling and long-lasting meal.

"Little tycoon, your vegetables are so fresh, but why are they so tiny?" An elderly man with a white beard approached the girl advertising loudly in the morning, curious about her tiny vegetables that were smaller than his palm.

"Great-grandfather, these are bean sprouts from my home. Growing vegetables in winter is extremely tough, they can’t fully develop. But using our ancestral methods, we got these bean sprouts. They might be small but are delicious. Since they’re so tiny, I’m not selling them at an expensive price. They’re called ’bean sprouts’ precisely because they’re undeveloped, hehe," the little girl chuckled, causing the old man to laugh along.

"And how do you sell these?"

"These are mung bean sprouts, made from green and soybeans. I’m selling them for twenty brass coins per jin. And these are water spinach and pea sprouts, selling for thirty brass coins per jin. It’s not expensive for winter vegetables, right?"

"Hmm, not expensive indeed," the elderly man nodded, his hand stroking his long beard as he eyed the fresh, appetizing bean sprouts.

"In that case, how many jin would you like, sir?" The elder looked into the bright eyes of the young girl and chuckled softly.

"I’ll take everything, ten jin of each."

"Oh! Right away, sir! Uncle Heng, quickly!" Xiaolin ran around the table full of vegetables to her Uncle Heng.

Uncle Heng and his niece prepared the vegetables into baskets provided by the elder’s attendants, took the money with a sweet thank you, and waved goodbye as the day’s first customer disappeared from their view.

"Hehe, we’ve made a silver tael, Uncle," the money-hungry child bounced around, her eyes glued to the coin in her hand.

Seeing her jubilant expression, Uncle Heng couldn’t help but laugh, and the two of them continued selling vegetables relentlessly as customers kept flogging in. Thanks to her Uncle Heng’s thorough preparations. The expanded storage room held up to thirty tubs of bean sprouts, allowing her to rake in a considerable sum from the sales. The popularity of these bean sprouts soared, even as winter ended.

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