Pork lard dumplings are a local traditional snack that originated in the Song and Yuan dynasties and has a history of more than 700 years.

The pork fat glutinous rice ball stall that Li Xiangdong found was very famous throughout the county.

According to the owner, his family has been making glutinous rice balls with lard for eight generations. The skin of his glutinous rice balls is made from the local high-quality glutinous rice flour, and the filling is made from fine and pure granulated sugar, black sesame seeds and high-quality pork lard.

His family's glutinous rice balls are fragrant, sweet, fresh, smooth, and glutinous. When you bite into the skin, the aroma of oil fills the air. They are glutinous but not sticky, and fresh and delicious.

Since Li Xiangdong came here, he has made a point of eating a bowl of glutinous rice balls with lard every now and then.

He greeted the owner familiarly, ordered four bowls of lard-filled glutinous rice balls, and placed the yellow croaker noodles, taro, crystal oil buns, and Shaoxing wine chicken he had just bought on the table before inviting Feng Yucai and Fang Shilan to sit down.

That's right, the familiar figure that Li Xiangdong just saw was Feng Yucai, who had returned to the city many years ago.

He just didn't expect that Fang Shilan would be with Feng Yucai, and it seemed that the two had a very close relationship.

Li Xiangdong and Fang Shilan got to know each other because of Zhou Hongmei. There were many things involved, and explaining it didn't have a good impact on Fang Shilan.

So when Feng Yucai introduced the two, Li Xiangdong pretended to be a complete stranger and shook hands with her.

Fang Shilan bit her lip, a struggle flashing across her face, but in the end she still said, "It's nice to meet you all!"

Zhou Hongsong smiled and said, "It's a pleasure to meet you."

Hearing this, Fang Shilan felt much more relaxed.

Feng Yucai was so engrossed in the joy of reuniting with Li Xiangdong that he failed to notice the undercurrents of emotion in those around him.

The owner brought out the glutinous rice balls one after another. The white porcelain bowls contained thick white soup, with five round, white glutinous rice balls floating in them.

"Be careful not to burn your mouth when you eat it! The filling is very hot!"

After giving a brief instruction, the owner went on to attend to other customers.

Recently, many people from other places have flocked to their small county to buy five-needle pine bonsai, and his business is booming. His hands are so swollen from making glutinous rice balls.

Feng Yucai and Fang Shilan initially ate their food in small, reserved bites, but they ate faster and faster, and soon devoured a whole Shaoxing chicken and two bowls of yellow croaker noodles.

Fang Shilan let out an embarrassed burp, and Feng Yucai wiped his mouth and picked up a spoon to eat the glutinous rice balls.

Li Xiangdong couldn't stand it anymore. "Eat slowly, no one's going to take it from you. Why are you eating like a starving ghost reincarnated?"

However, this guy just loves to eat.

Back then, he was juggling three relationships for a piece of pig's head meat. When his scheme was exposed, he was almost beaten to death.

Feng Yucai took a bite of the glutinous rice ball and grimaced as the lard filling inside burned his mouth. Fang Shilan quickly handed him some cold water.

After drinking the cold water, Feng Yucai finally caught his breath. "You're a well-fed man who doesn't know the hunger of an starving man. Shilan and I haven't had a proper meal for days!"

Li Xiangdong was speechless. "Didn't I just see you bidding against someone else, trying to snatch up a five-needle pine?"

Zhou Hongsong nodded, "You bid five thousand and eighty!"

Feng Yucai looked distressed. "That money was all for buying bonsai trees. How could we possibly use it for eating and drinking?"

Li Xiangdong found it strange, "You can't even take care of eating and drinking, yet you still have the leisure to buy bonsai trees to look at and enjoy?"

"What do you mean 'just for fun'? We're doing this to make money, okay!"

Feng Yucai put down his spoon. "But the price of five-needle pines has skyrocketed. We originally planned to buy three or four pots with the money we pooled together, but we didn't expect the price to have gone crazy just from taking a bus to get here!"

Fang Shilan was also very worried, her delicate eyebrows furrowed slightly, "But if we can't buy five-needle pine now, we'll not only have to lose some of our travel expenses, but we also won't be able to pay the interest!"

Oh, so the money was borrowed after all!

However, it's easy to imagine that Feng Yucai couldn't have earned that much money in the past few years, and he didn't have any parents to support him!

Where do you two live?

Feng Yucai was a little embarrassed, "I'm staying at the train station."

He glanced at Fang Shilan, then reached out and took her hand. "It's just that Shilan has suffered because of me."

Li Xiangdong sighed, "You two come with me!"

On the way back, Feng Yucai kept talking.

"Xiangdong, did you also hear that five-needle pine bonsai are valuable now, which is why you came here?"

"But you're incredibly well-informed! How did you know this place is so far from Huichuan County!"

First, praise Li Xiangdong, then get to the point: "I just saw that this gentleman's five-needle pine bonsai is of very good quality. Where did you get it from? Do you have any special channels?"

Li Xiangdong just kept walking without saying a word.

It wasn't that Li Xiangdong didn't want to talk to Feng Yucai; it was just that he had just eaten glutinous rice balls with lard, and now that he was walking back against the wind, he was afraid of getting a stomachache.

Seeing that Li Xiangdong remained silent, Feng Yucai felt a little disappointed, but thinking of his grandmother in Shanghai and Fang Shilan, he shamelessly approached him again.

"Xiangdong, I don't have as much capital as you. I just want to make a quick buck. I won't compete with you for business in the future! My family really needs the money urgently, otherwise I wouldn't have taken the risk of borrowing money at exorbitant interest rates!"

"If you have any connections, could you spare me two pots... no, just one! Just one pot will do! Consider it a favor since I helped you fix your combine harvester back then!"

Speaking of this, Feng Yucai was a little embarrassed.

Li Xiangdong had paid him handsomely when he repaired the tractor, so bringing it up again now seems like he's taking advantage of the situation.

Li Xiangdong suddenly spoke up, "What did you just say?"

Feng Yucai was taken aback. "Huh? I, I mean, just consider our past relationship..."

"That's not it!"

"Can you spare me a bonsai tree?"

"The sentence before that!"

"Oh, I said I wouldn't steal your business..."

Li Xiangdong interrupted him, his voice rising slightly, "You said your family urgently needed money and even borrowed from loan sharks?!"

Feng Yucai's handsome face flushed slightly. "There's really no other way."

It turned out that Feng Yucai had returned to Shanghai, but he was unemployed and had not been admitted to university, so he had been living with his grandmother ever since.

His aunt was not someone to be trifled with. She used every trick in the book to squeeze every last penny out of Feng Yucai before kicking him and his grandmother out of the house.

She said it nicely, "We've taken care of Mom for so long, now it's time for Yu Cai to show his filial piety."

Having no other choice, Feng Yucai rented an attic with his grandmother and went out to do odd jobs every day to earn money.

She endured all kinds of hardships, from cleaning fish tanks and doing odd jobs to working as a caregiver and selling vegetables.

It was during this process that he reunited with Fang Shilan, his junior high school classmate who had also returned to the city.

He never expected that Fang Shilan's situation was even worse than his!