Su Qingluan still didn't grasp the hidden meaning in Wu Dani's words, and just sighed: "Life was really hard for everyone in the past."
Then she thought again, it was a good thing that she came here in early summer, so there were still a lot of wild ingredients that could be used. What's more, there was a water source passing through Huaxi Village, so there were fish and shrimps ready, which made it convenient for her to show off her skills.
Otherwise, there is a saying that goes: "A good cook cannot cook without rice." If she happened to travel back to the cold winter when all things have disappeared, she would probably have to eat what is available at home - no matter how good her cooking skills are, it is impossible to make a full banquet out of grass roots and tree bark!
Su Qingluan's mind was filled with a multitude of random thoughts, and she couldn't help but become distracted. Wu Dani, who was standing next to her, couldn't help but wave her hand in front of her face: "You were just walking, why are you so dazed?"
"Oh... nothing..." Su Qingluan couldn't admit what she was really thinking, so she just made up an excuse, "I was just thinking, it's really not easy for everyone, life is so hard."
"But things are much better now," Wu Erni said to Su Qingluan while greeting the neighbors from Huaxi Village. "Almost every family has a little spare money this year. Look, everyone is coming to town to buy autumn vegetables, hoping to pickle them and eat them when the mountains are closed due to the heavy snow in winter."
"The mountain is closed due to heavy snow?!" Su Qingluan was shocked. "Does this happen every year?"
Wu Dani hadn't expected Su Qingluan to react so strongly, but she nodded anyway. "Although it doesn't happen every year, there are very few times when the mountain isn't closed, so we have to be prepared every year. The longest time I know was when I was about your age, before I got married. That year, the mountain was closed for almost a month."
After a pause, Wu Dani added: "That year, my father saw that his family was about to starve to death, so he went out hunting in the heavy snow, and then..." Then, the thinly dressed hunter became the prey of nature and never came back.
For a moment, neither of them spoke.
Wu Dani didn't know what to say next, and Su Qingluan felt like she was on edge. Nothing she said would be appropriate, and everything she said would seem like hindsight.
What's more, he sent his own brother to jail.
Thinking of this, Su Qingluan felt even more uneasy.
This restlessness did not mean that she regretted it - in that situation, whether for public or private reasons, Su Qingluan felt that there was no problem with her reporting it to the police.
But in this situation, Su Qingluan still felt an inexplicable sense of guilt - not towards that idiot Wu Erman, but towards the remaining two members of the Wu family, Old Lady Wu and Wu Dani.
Perhaps seeing what Su Qingluan was thinking, Wu Dani smiled warmly and said to Su Qingluan, who suddenly became uneasy, "You don't have to feel sorry for me and my mother. When my brother dared to put all sorts of messes into the jam that was meant for people to eat, he didn't think about his sister and mother."
This is true. No matter what Wu Erman put into the fruit jam, whether it was the magic powder or the croton that he wanted to put in at the beginning, as long as those powerful people had problems after eating it, they would probably punish all the people involved in the production without any hesitation.
The laws of this era lack any fairness or human rights. Sometimes, if rich and powerful people want to buy out the life of a poor person, even his life, it is possible - they can even avoid punishment by paying more money.
Is it unfair? Of course it is unfair. Who would talk to you about fairness these days?
Therefore, even if Wu Erman was not caught red-handed by Su Qingluan and Liu Yunniang, he would most likely be blamed for his "participation in the production of jam" and retaliate, and even Wu Dani would not be spared from being implicated.
And this is not something that can be solved by just going to jail - from this perspective, Su Qingluan and Liu Yunniang even saved Wu Erman's life.
However, this is what happened, but it's hard to say it out loud, otherwise it always feels like poking at someone's scars, so Su Qingluan used a turn that was more abrupt than a sudden drift to lead the topic to another side: "Everyone seems to be pickling kimchi. It feels like the roads in the village are full of sour and stinky smells."
She had wanted to say this before - everyone was pickling vegetables, and as Su Qingluan walked by, she felt like she was about to be pickled to the fullest.
Wu Dani sighed, "It's better than having to pay rent with all the harvest for the whole year, and then having to save grain for next year's planting, and then having to wait for the winter to starve with a few crooked melons and cracked dates. In previous years, even pickled vegetables were hard to come by."
Because there is no surplus food and no spare money, naturally there is no energy to pickle autumn vegetables.
"Thank you." Wu Dani suddenly turned her head. "I don't know what others think, but because of you, I made more money this year than in previous years. I also received a second round of benefits. I bought winter clothes for myself, my mother, my husband, and our children. This winter is finally not so difficult for my family."
Su Qingluan actually knew that many people in the village had lived a lot better because of her - because this was the idea she had in mind when she first offered the fruit jam to Xie Zian.
But she never thought about getting any praise or honor in person - if there was any reason, it might be because of her heart that was so broken that she couldn't bear to see her relatives and friends starve to death before her eyes?
But she also knew that she did this only to satisfy the "unbearable" feeling in her heart.
However, now, someone actually said "thank you" to her seriously in front of her, and even said that this winter would be much better because of her. This made Su Qingluan suddenly feel at a loss.
It was clearly not an embarrassing statement, and the other party was clearly expressing gratitude, but Su Qingluan still felt the embarrassment of digging her toes into the ground and wanting to immediately carry the train and roll off the earth.
Suddenly, she felt as if her tongue was tied: "No...that...is..."
After a long pause, Su Qingluan didn't know what to say. Finally, she whispered, "I... I also made a lot of money..."
This is not modesty. There are not many people in the capital who are stupid and rich and just want a taste of delicious food. Su Qingluan looked at how happy Xie Deshun was to give the silver note, and even doubted whether the price she had originally set was too cheap.
Even if she gave all the workers better wages than elsewhere, and even provided them with various "benefits", after deducting the costs of various labor and materials, Su Qingluan could still make a net profit of 40% to 50% - this was already very considerable in Su Qingluan's eyes.
After all, at the beginning, she had no intention of making any profit.
...In the final analysis, there are too many rich people in the capital, and Su Qingluan has no intuitive concept of the extent of the "rich and powerful families" in this era.
Thinking of this, Su Qingluan suddenly became eager to open a store in the capital.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
