CHAPTER 47: 046: FLEXIBILITY

Initially, Si Daochen stopped, and Wang Shubo, who was walking home with him after school, was unhappy seeing it. Now, seeing the two of them talking, she squeezed forward, raising her eyebrows at Ye Ling.

"I heard from my dad that your family had an urgent matter and sent a telegram, how come you came back so quickly?"

She was an eyesore, better if she never comes back.

Ye Ling could easily see through Wang Shubo’s intentions, ignored her, and nodded to Si Daochen in gratitude, "My grandma is still alone at home, so I’ll trouble you with that."

Si Daochen nodded, watching Ye Ling turn around and leave. He bypassed Wang Shubo, took two steps forward, and shouted, "I’ll jot down the places the teacher says to review more often and deliver them to your home."

Ye Ling already knew what the middle school entrance exam would test, so she didn’t take Si Daochen’s words to heart. Without turning her head, she waved her hand at him and left, not knowing that Si Daochen really took this matter to heart. Every day after school, he would bring the types of questions that needed more review to Ye Ling. Ye Ling was wholeheartedly taking care of her grandmother while thinking about ways to make money. The village had a small platform, and the only thing she could think of to make money from there was the train, but it only stopped for five minutes. Selling on the train was impossible, so she could only sell outside. In such a short time, she didn’t even know if anyone would come to buy.

For now, she could only try it first. Ye Ling shared her idea with her grandmother, who was already recovering, "Grandma, let’s make some dry food to sell at the platform. Wild greens are growing now, we can make wild greens balls with cornmeal and wild vegetables. You know when we take the train, the stuff sold on the train doesn’t fill you up. If there are wild greens balls, I think people would prefer to buy those."

Wild greens balls are made with wild vegetables as filling and cornmeal as the outer layer, rounded into buns. Steamed like this, they have both dough and filling, saving the trouble of cooking dishes. Now in spring, there are no vegetables, but with some stored grains at home, they occasionally improve their meals with wild greens balls.

Old Mrs. Ye didn’t stop her, "That’s fine. Your parents don’t want you to study, so let’s set an example and not rely on them. We still have some corn divided at home. I’ll take it to the team to grind into meal tomorrow. You focus on going to school, leave these tasks to me."

"I’ve taken leave from school. The middle school exams are only a few months away now. At school, the teachers don’t lecture much, it’s mainly self-study. That way, going back and forth to school wastes time. It’s better for me to study at home, and when I have free time, I can help you with some work without delay." Ye Ling’s previous life after divorce was also poor, living frugally, excelling in making wild greens balls. Even though she uses simple ingredients, the ones she makes are delicious. "Grandma, don’t we still have some ingredients at home? Let’s ferment the cornmeal tonight. By tomorrow, we can steam and try selling them at the platform. At first, we see if anyone buys them, if they do, we’ll make more later."

Old Mrs. Ye knew her granddaughter was an impatient one, and smiled, "Okay, I’ll go ferment the dough now."

"Grandma, you sit down, I’ll do it. Didn’t I dig a basket of wild greens this morning? It’ll be just right for tomorrow," with the prospect of earning money, Ye Ling was full of enthusiasm. "Now, eggs are ten cents each, the cheaper ones are nine cents. I think we can sell our wild greens balls for just ten cents each. That’s one cent cheaper than the train’s twisted bread. We’ll make the filling bigger. After all, the wildflowers are abundant and free. One wild greens ball can fill you up, I’m sure our wild greens balls will sell."

"Exactly, a twisted bread is twenty cents, just that one piece, who would want to spend those twenty cents buying it?" Thinking of the twisted bread and buns, Old Mrs. Ye also thought they were too expensive.

Ye Ling still had her concerns, if they really started making money, the villagers would notice, and someone would definitely copy. In that case, the price might drop as well. She knew it was useless to think about it now. Ye Ling prepared the dough, and at night, with her grandmother, they used hot water to mix the leftover cracked grain porridge from yesterday, and ate it with some fermented soybean paste. To save money, Ye Ling didn’t read books at night and went to bed early with her grandmother once it got dark.

Lying on the heated kang, Ye Ling pondered about the future, "Now the team is busy with spring sowing, every family is sending their kids to dig wild greens. Once the spring sowing is over, and there’s free time, everyone will have time to dig wild greens. By then, the greens might just get snatched up, so I plan to dig more these days, make some wild greens balls, and pickle some in the ceramic jar. Grandma, do you think that’s okay?"

If people have no long-term concerns, they must have immediate worries.

Once spring sowing is over, and during the lean times, even the potatoes that families have will run out. By then, there’ll be more people digging wild greens for meals. Ye Ling knew this business couldn’t last long, but making what she could was better than having no income at all.

"Sounds good." Now that every family is struggling, Old Mrs. Ye understood this too. "Our family is small, so we didn’t get much grain, but we don’t eat a lot. If we sell wild greens balls, we might not have enough for ourselves. We still have some potatoes at home, they can last us a while. I think we should plant only corn on our private plot this year. By autumn, between what the team allocates and what we keep, we could sell the rest and get some income."

Besides the collective land of the production team, each household could have four long strips of land as a private plot, and whatever they grew and harvested from it belonged to them. Over the years, Old Mrs. Ye planted more cabbage and potatoes there, as the grain from the production team was enough for the two of them. Now, with her granddaughter’s school fees becoming an issue, Old Mrs. Ye was focusing her thoughts on this.

Ye Ling nodded, "Grandma, I’m young and can handle it, so I’ll eat potatoes from now on. Let’s not sell all the grain, keep some for yourself. And don’t try to talk me out of it. If you really love me, listen to me and take good care of your health. If anything happens to you, who else will take care of me?"

Thinking about how her grandmother passed away early in her past life, Ye Ling couldn’t help but feel a pang of sadness when she brought it up.

[Girls, the new novel will be launched on December 1st, please support with lots of votes! If we pass 500 votes on the first day, I will guarantee daily updates of 10,000 words in December, and if we’re in the top three for monthly votes, I’ll continue with daily 10,000-word updates in January.]