She Only Cares About Cultivation -
Chapter 53: 【053】90s cook 53
Chapter 53: 【053】90s cook 53
Despite the fact that the small traders and peddlers at the food market often sprayed fresh vegetables with water bottles or beverage bottles to maintain their freshness, by evening, if they couldn’t sell out, the vegetables would still wilt. Generally speaking, the market closed around eight or nine at night, and that was exactly when Gong Mingxia arrived, just as the market was about to close.
So, whenever there were special deals, she would buy them. Leafy greens were never cheap in this era or the next, costing about fifty to sixty cents per jin. Before closing time, they were sold by the pile, and with two yuan, she bought a large bag of bok choy, a large bag of Amaranth, because tomorrow she planned to make an Amaranth soup and Stir-fried Green Vegetables with Shrimp.
These two large bags were enough for her to cook and still have leftovers for her and her daughter to eat. Buying any more wouldn’t be reasonable, and she’d rather come back tomorrow to buy more. From now on, she would make it a habit to visit the market every evening.
Tonight, in addition to green vegetables, she also bought several not-so-fresh, half-sections of lotus root, leftover green beans that others had picked over, tomatoes with some black spots, wilted or split bell peppers, bumpy zucchinis, and pieces of broccoli. Although these vegetables had flaws, the problems were minor, and they were still edible. She spent around twenty to thirty yuan in total to secure the next day’s vegetables.
Tomorrow morning, she would buy some fresh meat, vegetables, and soy products, and then she would have everything she needed. By her calculations, she could save at least twenty to thirty yuan in costs without a problem.
She didn’t at all feel that what she was doing was immoral. First of all, these vegetables weren’t rotten or spoiled; they were just slightly blemished and had been left over by others from the day’s sale. Among the others who came to look for bargains were many cooks from canteens and factories. What she got was but a drop in the bucket to them, but they, seeing her coming with her child to pick out cheap vegetables, could tell she was someone pressured by life, so they generally didn’t charge her a high price.
During small talk, they found out she was a woman struggling to sell boxed lunches while raising a child. Two older sisters and one older woman even told her to come to them in the evening, and they would keep something aside for her. This made Gong Mingxia sigh once again that there were still many good people out there, especially among these hard-working traders at the market. Perhaps everyone could understand each other’s difficulties, which is why there was much empathy.
By the time she got home it was already nine o’clock. After bathing with her daughter and practicing their bedtime yoga, by about ten o’clock, the mother and daughter went to bed promptly.
However, just as they were lying down, a heart-wrenching female scream suddenly came from the courtyard, causing Gong Mingxia to shudder. Then, the loud arguments of a man and a woman followed, as well as the pitiful crying of a child.
"Mom, what’s happening?" Xiao Xiao asked.
Gong Mingxia gently patted Xiao Xiao’s shoulder, "Honey, you lie down and don’t move. I’ll go check it out."
Gong Mingxia quickly put on her clothes. Not expecting that, as soon as she pulled open the door, the neighbor across the hallway, Cao Yuan, also came out. Their eyes met for an instant as they looked up, then quickly shifted away.
Cao Yuan coughed lightly, "You were woken up by the noise too?"
"Yeah, I don’t know what happened. Let’s go have a look!"
When they stepped outside, they found that many neighbors had already come out. A woman with disheveled hair was sitting on the ground at the side of the road, holding an infant of a few months old in her arms. The man, clearly annoyed, stood beside her trying to pull her up, but the woman fiercely shook him off.
Seeing more and more people gathering, the man gave the woman a brutal kick in the chest, "You slut, if you’re not ashamed, then just keep wailing here!"
With that, he left without another look at the thinly clad woman or the child in her arms, who was nearly suffocating from crying.
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