Chef Hua
Chapter 426: Episode 235: Swallow it down for me

Chapter 426: Episode 235: Swallow it down for me

Under the blazing sun, the chili fields near the threshing ground were a fiery red. If you walked closer, a spicy scent filled your nostrils.

Taking advantage of the good weather, the ripe chilis needed to be harvested early. Great Saint of Zhenwei Garden, not needing to be asked, voluntarily came to help. The owner of Qiao’s Paper Shop, Qiao Xiong, whose family had a lot of farmland, had already agreed with Hua Xiaomai for fifty jin of chili seeds, so he also sent a few apprentices to lend a hand and neatly collected all the bright red fruits from the field.

The chilis brought in from the fields were spread out on the threshing ground, forming a vast expanse of red that dazzled under the sunlight. Next to it was a large scale, and as baskets of red fruits were loaded onto it, a man loudly called out the weights, adding up to a total of two thousand six hundred jin plus some odd amounts.

Such a quantity of chilis couldn’t possibly be taken back home, so Hua Xiaomai had the restaurant and Zhenwei Garden’s workers each take some back, and the rest were left on the threshing ground. If anyone wanted to buy, they could simply come over.

After being busy for two days, she still felt genuinely tired even though she didn’t have to do it herself. Perhaps it was the sun exposure or maybe standing for too long that made her legs weak and her head dizzy, feeling unwell all over. She turned to find Meng Yuhuai and whispered to him.

"Not feeling well?" Meng Yuhuai glanced at her face and saw that she did look somewhat pale, which made him frown again, "You might as well go home and rest, no need to push yourself. My mother and I are both here, it would be hard for anything to go wrong."

"I’ll stay a bit longer." Hua Xiaomai looked around, saying, "I just feel like Grandpa Liu is going to come, and it would be better if I’m with you..."

She hadn’t finished speaking when she heard a shouting behind her. Although it wasn’t directed at her, the old and familiar voice was unmistakable.

"Yuhuai, you young man, it’s getting harder to see you these days!"

Hua Xiaomai and Meng Yuhuai both turned around in response and saw Grandpa Liu hurrying their way with a bounce in his step.

Speak of the devil, and he shall appear. This old man was hard to get hold of when you needed his help, but he was always the first to benefit.

Hua Xiaomai cursed him bitterly in her heart and not wanting to speak to him, hid behind Meng Yuhuai. She opened her eyes wide and strained her ears to listen.

Grandpa Liu, looking rather displeased, hadn’t yet arrived before his loud voice already rang out, "I’m asking how much you plan to sell these chilis for. I remember you being a generous child since you were young, how come you’ve become so unwilling to let people benefit now?"

As he spoke, his eyes darted to Hua Xiaomai hiding behind Meng Yuhuai.

There it was again... this tactic of indirectly scolding one person by talking about another, a trick that never failed, masterfully used by all the village elders. Indeed, it was quite a skill!

Meng Yuhuai smiled gently, "I announced the price of the chili seeds to everyone in the village early on. It’s fifty wen per jin. I neither overcharged everyone nor forced anyone to buy. Grandpa, I truly don’t understand what you mean by your words."

"Charging, and you still say you didn’t overcharge everyone?" Grandpa Liu lifted his eyelids, wrinkling his face as craggy as a walnut, "No matter which shop sells seeds, they sell the inside seeds separately from the fruit. But you, you weigh them together with the fruit. Your heart is truly dark! Have you no restless nights from earning such money?"

His words were harsh, and he spoke so loudly that in an instant, he attracted many onlookers, and quite a few people hurried over, quickly forming a circle around them—of course, whether these were "assistants" he purposefully called for was anyone’s guess.

Meng’s mother had been in the distance, but upon glancing back and seeing a crowd gathering, she narrowed her eyes and stormed over swiftly. Seeing her, Hua Xiaomai felt much more at ease and tugged on Meng Yuhuai’s sleeve to signal him to keep quiet, then she looked at Grandpa Liu and raised her eyebrows, "Grandpa, how could you say such things? Please take back the same way what you just said. We cannot bear the accusation of having a black heart!"

While speaking, she turned to the surrounding crowd and raised her voice, "Since there are many people here, I might as well clear things up once and for all. Everyone knows that my family doesn’t specialize in selling seeds and doesn’t rely on this for a living. The reason we weighed the chili fruits together was to give the village people a chance to try using the chilis for cooking, letting them take them home to use at their discretion. If you all only want to buy the seeds inside, that’s also possible. I can take the effort to dry them and remove the seeds, but let me say this upfront, the price will then be different, and we won’t sell by the jin but by the liang (tael)."