Chapter 142 - 134: Earth Melon

Chapter 142: Chapter 134: Earth Melon

Hu Changlin nodded eagerly. "Alright, let’s go to the main house up front to talk."

As the two left, Zhao Lan made sure to grab the new clothes that were drying. She knew Liu’s character all too well; if she left the dress hanging there, Liu would undoubtedly snatch it the second she was gone.

Liu watched as the beautiful dress vanished from her sight. It was obvious Zhao Lan was wary of her, showing no respect for her or her mother-in-law. Seething with anger, she strode forward and kicked over the clothes-drying pole outside the house.

Old Mrs. Bai glared viciously at Zhao Lan’s receding figure, gritting her teeth. "You bitch! We’ll see about this. Let’s see how free and easy your life is after leaving our Bai Family. When the time comes, don’t you come crying and begging to come back."

***

Bai Zhi and Hu Feng arrived at the town market. Today’s market seemed even more bustling than when they had come the other day.

"What’s the occasion today? Why are there so many people?" Bai Zhi asked Hu Feng beside her.

Hu Feng shook his head. "I don’t know." Although he had been to town more often than Bai Zhi and occasionally sold some of his game at the market, this was the first time he had ever seen it so crowded.

"Make way, make way!" Two men carrying game on their backs squeezed in from the outside. They didn’t care how many people were in front of them; they just pushed their way through.

They ended up knocking over an old woman carrying baskets of vegetables, but they paid her no mind. Without so much as a glance back, they swaggered away.

Bai Zhi hurried forward to help the old woman up. Hu Feng picked up the vegetables that had scattered across the ground.

"Ma’am, are you alright?" Bai Zhi asked as she helped her to her feet.

The old woman quickly shook her head. "I’m fine, I’m fine. It wasn’t a bad fall."

Bai Zhi helped her carry the two baskets of vegetables to a less crowded corner. "Ma’am, you’re getting on in years, you can’t be pushing through the crowd with them. It’s packed today, but you can sell just as well from here."

The old woman thanked her profusely. "Thank you so much. Here, these are from my home garden. Take a couple to try."

The old woman took two round objects from her basket and pressed them into Bai Zhi’s hand.

Bai Zhi looked down and, to her surprise, saw they were the very potatoes she had been looking for.

Only then did she notice that the old woman’s baskets were filled with potatoes—two baskets packed to the brim.

"Grandma, how much are you selling these potatoes for per pound?"

The old woman paused for a moment, then smiled. "These aren’t called potatoes, they’re called earth-melons. Two copper coins per pound."

’Earth-melons? The name is quite descriptive.’

"Two copper coins a pound? Why so cheap? Can you even make a profit?" Bai Zhi asked.

The old woman sighed. "Profit? I’d be lucky not to lose money. Two copper coins a pound is cheap, but I can sit here all day and barely anyone buys them. I’ve been trying to sell these two baskets of earth-melons for three days and have only sold a few pounds."

"How could that be? Potatoes are so delicious, why wouldn’t anyone buy them?" Bai Zhi was completely baffled.

The old woman said, "It’s all because someone had an accident from eating earth-melons. A family of five, and two of them died. After the incident blew up, no one was willing to buy earth-melons anymore."

"But my family eats earth-melons every day, and we’ve never been poisoned. I really don’t know what’s going on. SIGH—we shouldn’t have planted these this year. How are we going to get through the rest of the year?"

Bai Zhi crouched down, rummaged through the basket for a moment, and pulled out two sprouted potatoes from the bottom. She held the potatoes up for the old woman to see.