Chapter 8.1 “Flirtatious”

Zhuang Jie went to Yanggou Village in the afternoon to inspect the yams. She spoke to a nearby farmer when she arrived. The farmer told her that someone planned to buy these yams previously, but the price was too high since there would be no machines here, and they would have to be harvested one by one manually.

     At present, three hundred meters a day is too strenuous and young people can’t even do it. Even those with experience and physical strength are all in their 40s and 50s, producing up to 200 meters a day. The price for the yams was too low to even factor in the labor cost. The purchaser was certain that the harvest period would soon come, so the price is tightly set and cannot go up.

     A yam is 1.5-2 meters long, so the hole has to be dug as deep as it is long. The middle of the yam cannot be broken, if it breaks, it is worthless. When digging yams, you basically kneel down all the way, and I have to pull them out carefully, so it takes a lot of energy.

     Zhuang Jie asked about the harvest time, and the farmer said that the harvest would be best in November after the first frost.

     After listening, Zhuang Jie left, took a closer look at the terrain of Yanggou Village, and led her sister directly to Xingshan Mountain. When she was a child, she used to dig wild yams. The digging process was very hard, and it took 20 to 30 minutes at the fastest.

     She had dug a piece of wild yam on Xingshan Mountain, although it was broken into several sections, she steamed it at home, it was very sweet and glutinous, and the rest was made into shredded yam, which was used as a snack for He Youyou.

     Zhuang Jie has a wide network of contacts, including several in the medical equipment group and the pharmaceutical generation group. She also met two yam purchasers and a yam product factory in the group before, so found their contact information, and then sent them the materials she made.

     When she asked about the origin of the yams, they said that there was either a long-term cooperative agreement somewhere, or that they had already ordered for this year.  More directly: the place where her yams came from was not good. The company only wants yams from loamy or sandy soil planting areas.

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     Just then, Grandma Chen came out of the kitchen and said that Zhuang Jie was her invited guest. She met Zhuang Jie at the roast chicken restaurant in the afternoon, and knowing that she was going back to Shanghai soon, she invited her to eat dumplings. The dumplings she made were excellent.

     Grandma Chen had never had a daughter or granddaughter, and she wanted to see Zhuang Jie very much, and unconsciously wanted to talk to her. Zhuang Jie wanted to help her roll the dumpling skins, but Grandma Chen kicked her out, saying that she would feel uncomfortable standing on her legs for a long time.

     Chen Maidong took a shower and changed his home clothes, and asked her what kind of tea she would like to drink.

     Zhuang Jie asked back, “What kind of tea does your family have?”

     Chen Maidong didn’t respond, nor did he come back until he had made the tea. He decided to make her a cup of Babaogai tea on his own initiative. The tea is a specialty of the Northwest region, which contains rock sugar, red dates, wolfberry, raisins, longan and so on. It is a kind of tea that Grandma Chen often drinks.

     He served tea to Zhuang Jie, and sat on the other side to play his phone games.

     Zhuang Jie praised him, “A very caring and good ‘Fifth Youth’.”

     Chen Maidong just played games and didn’t reply to her.

     Zhuang Jie asked, “Do you have to take a shower every time you come back home?”

     It took a while for Chen Maidong to put away the phone, and replied, “Sometimes I shower at the funeral parlor.” and then added  “When are you going back to Shanghai?”

     “On the 14th. Tomorrow there is a purchase and I want to see the yams.” Then she explained to him about her trip to Qinhuangdao to sell yams. Of course, she had a lot of exaggerations.

     They didn’t want it originally, but they had already ordered it from the factory. But relying on her gift in the art of convincing,  she said that he was the hope of the whole village, which could  turn their world around. After speaking, she drank a big mouthful of tea as if she was dying of thirst.

     Chen Maidong glanced at her, “Have you signed the contract?”

     “Are you an idiot? Who would talk about it one day and come over to buy it tomorrow?” Zhuang Jie said.

     “That means it hasn’t happened yet?”

     Zhuang Jie found it difficult to talk to him, so she pointed to the cup and said, “Add more tea, more tea.”

     Chen Maidong brought her some more tea, and Zhuang Jie said, “It’s basically the same. I took pictures of the planting area for him, and we talked about the price. If it is no show, then they would not have bothered to reach out in the first place.”

     “When he comes, I will be sure to win it, and the purchase contract will be signed. It won’t take too much to convince him.” She still had this confidence. If it didn’t work out, she’d spent years in senior sales for nothing. She knew exactly what territory she was stepping onto. Her creed in life is: There is no unsellable product, only unsellable sales.

     Grandma Chen brought the dumplings, Chen Maidong mixed the chili oil, Zhuang Jie dipped it in and ate it, praising the level of the chili oil.

     Chen Maidong took away the chili oil and dipped it in himself. Zhuang Jie tried to secretly dip into it again, to no avail, so she scolded him and ate it dry with dumplings.

     Grandma Chen chatted with her while eating.  She explained that she had given birth to a baby girl when she was young, but she was covered in bruises when she was born. She didn’t know if it was due to lack of oxygen or what happened, but the baby had died within two days of being born. 

She also mentioned some other things like household chores, and she became more monotone and distant the more she talked. She stopped, thought hard for a while, then put down her chopsticks, and said she was going to the street to ask Dongzi to eat. Dongzi has been not learning well recently, skipping classes all day long and running to the game hall.

     Zhuang Jie yelled at Chen Maidong in the kitchen, Chen Maidong came out after wiping his hands, and followed his grandma out. The two of them followed Grandma Chen to search in the Internet cafes. She looked inside one by one. When she turned around and saw Chen Maidong behind her, she beat him on the back and said that next time he came to the Internet cafe, she would break his leg.

     Chen Maidong immediately admitted his mistake and promised not to play next time. Grandma Chen calmed down and took him by the hand to go home.

     Zhuang Jie asked him in a low voice: “Your Grandma… Is this…” Grandma Chen turned around and looked at her and said, “Oh, what a coincidence.”