Chapter 106 Buy It All
Ye Mingzhu originally wanted to buy these sweet potatoes, so she nodded and said, "Okay, if you wipe off all the dirt, I'll buy them. The premise is that you can't break the skin. You said it yourself that it's difficult to preserve if the skin is broken."
The old man nodded without objection, and lowered his head to carefully wipe off the dry dirt on the outside of the sweet potatoes on the ground.
Yu Jiaming took a sweet potato with the skin visible and looked it up and down. When Ye Mingzhu thought he recognized it, he said, "This thing looks like the rhizome of something. Is it really edible?"
"Yes, you can eat it." The old man nodded quickly.
Ye Mingzhu did not refute, but only said: "Why don't you take it back and try it? Just think of it as an extra snack."
The old man wiped off as much dirt as possible from the sweet potatoes on the ground, then swept the dirt to the side with a broom and moved a bamboo basket down from a cart next to him.
Ye Mingzhu watched the old man take the sweet potatoes out, her heart pounding: "What's in here?"
The old man nodded, with a look of uneasiness in his eyes: "Girl, you just said you wanted all of them. I moved all of these here today."
The woman selling vegetables nearby had her eyes widened: "My goodness, you old man are such a rip-off. You actually want me to buy this bag of dirt. You are so mean."
She shook her head as she spoke, and even wanted to call the people around to come and see, but Ye Mingzhu quickly grabbed her and said, "Auntie, these vegetables are good. How are they sold? I have a large family, and I want to buy some vegetables to take back this time."
The old lady happily began to promote her vegetables. Ye Mingzhu winked at Jiang Hongyu, asking him to buy the old lady's vegetables, and then whispered to the old man that they should go outside the market to talk.
The old man looked at Ye Mingzhu who was squatting down to buy vegetables again. Although he was worried that she was not telling the truth, she was the only person in the market who asked about the price, so he could only choose to believe her.
But he asked Ye Mingzhu to pay for the 15 kilograms of sweet potatoes he had just weighed. Ye Mingzhu didn't say much, gave the other party 60 cents, and asked for the basket that the other party had used to put the sweet potatoes.
The old man carefully put the sweet potatoes in, looked at Ye Mingzhu again, and then slowly walked out of the market.
The lady selling vegetables was trying her best to promote her vegetables and didn't notice the old man leaving at all.
On the way here, they saw many aunties and grandmas selling vegetables. Knowing that the price they asked for was not high, they bought a basket directly. The grandmas were so happy that they gave the basket to them directly.
Jiang Hongyu put the basket of sweet potatoes on his back, and signaled Yu Jiaming to pick up the basket, and the three of them quickly walked out of the market.
When they arrived at the market entrance, they happened to meet the old man. When the old man saw them, the wrinkles on his face were squeezed into a ball and he looked extremely excited.
"Girl, let's weigh them here?" The old man had already picked up the scale, eager to sell all the sweet potatoes immediately.
Ye Mingzhu didn't ask them to weigh them immediately. She first looked at the sweet potatoes in the basket. Like the previous sweet potatoes, they were covered with dirt.
"Uncle, don't bother knocking off all this dirt. Let's just go with three cents per pound. It'll save both of us, okay?"
The main reason was that she had some other ideas, so she wanted to buy things early and make arrangements early.
The old man agreed after only a moment's thought. He had already calculated it when he came here. Three cents per pound was not a loss.
Everything went much more smoothly after that. The old man took out all the sweet potatoes, weighed them, and put them back into the basket.
"That's fifty-four pounds in all, three cents a pound, a total of one hundred and sixty-two cents. I'll give you one hundred and seventy cents. Can you give me the basket as well?"
Ye Mingzhu took out her purse and started counting the money as soon as the other party agreed.
The old man was so happy that he didn't know what to do. These things he dug up could actually be sold for 230 coins. He could buy so much food that he could have enough to eat this winter.
He nodded quickly, "Sold, all sold."
Ye Mingzhu smiled and counted out one hundred and seventy coins to him. The old man took the coins tremblingly, put them in his clothes, and covered his chest tightly.
Ye Mingzhu smiled and discussed with him: "Uncle, these things weigh several dozen kilograms. My husband and his brothers are not well. Could you please help us put these two baskets on the ox cart? Our ox cart is at the inn not far ahead."
The two newly minted brothers looked at each other, and Yu Jiaming turned his head to look away.
Although Jiang Hongyu didn't know why, he already understood Ye Mingzhu's intention to get closer to the old man. He rubbed his shoulders and looked very tired.
The old man was a little hesitant, and Jiang Hongyu said tentatively: "I wonder if you still have these things at home. If we eat them later and they taste good, we will buy some more."
The old man immediately helped Jiang Hongyu move the basket onto the cart: "It's not far anyway, I'll take it over to you."
Yu Jiaming turned around, feeling a bit overwhelmed, but that didn't stop him from putting the basket of vegetables in his hand onto the cart.
Ye Mingzhu took the opportunity to whisper something in Jiang Hongyu's ear, and Jiang Hongyu nodded slightly to show that he understood.
In the following time, Jiang Hongyu helped the old man push the cart. The two talked about the "lumps of earth" on the cart, this year's harvest, and the old man's son. When they arrived at the inn, the old man took the initiative to help move things onto the ox cart.
Jiang Hongyu asked the old man if he wanted to go home. The old man covered his chest and looked around: "I'd better go home first."
His behavior left the three of them speechless. It was obvious that there was something wrong with him.
Jiang Hongyu and Ye Mingzhu glanced at each other, and Jiang Hongyu took the initiative to say, "Uncle, is your home far from the county town? Otherwise, we can take you back. It's safer with more people around. We can also go and find your home, and then go directly to your house to buy this thing."
The old man didn't doubt the purpose of the men. Someone who could take out more than a hundred coins at once would not think of robbing him. Anyway, his home was not far from the county town. If they sent him home, it would be a good opportunity to see if he could sell all the "lumps of earth" in his home.
His son and grandson have had enough, so now he and his wife eat it.
If it can be replaced with grain, who would still eat this? Eating too much of this will cause heartburn.
Yu Jiaming next to him was dumbfounded. Why did he have to send someone home after buying something? Did this old man have some special identity? But when he looked around, he found that he was just an ordinary old man.
As soon as the old man agreed, Ye Mingzhu immediately said to Jiang Hongyu: "Don't go with us. Wait in the city and tell everyone that we are going to see the old man off and will be back at noon. If we can't come back, you can go back with them first."
Yu Jiaming glared: "You drove the ox cart away, how are we going to get back?"
Ye Mingzhu thought for a moment: "It's still more than an hour before noon. We will definitely come back. Isn't that what I'm talking about in case of emergency?"
Yu Jiaming wanted to object, but Jiang Hongyu and Ye Mingzhu refused to listen. Jiang Hongyu directly helped the old man onto the ox cart, bought a rope from the innkeeper, tied the cart to the back, and repeated Ye Mingzhu's words.
The key point is that he didn't come back by noon, so he was asked to go back with the people in the farm.
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