CHAPTER 409: CHAPTER 105: JINGXI AGRICULTURAL MARKET

Where to buy sweet potatoes, Zhuo Feng knew well: for freshness and cheapness, one would go to the vegetable market; for convenience and cleanliness, one would opt for the supermarket.

But selling the few hundred kilograms of sweet potatoes freshly harvested was a big problem.

Feng Xing wasn’t sure what to do either; back in his hometown, the Fuji apples they grew were all transported and sold collectively by the village. They only needed to grow them, not worrying about the sales.

"Let’s go check out Jingxi Agricultural Market," since coming from Yanqing, the nearest was Jingxi Agricultural Market.

When it came to buying and selling, women from the wife’s family always had sharper tongues than men. After discussing with Xiao Xian, Zhuo Feng decided to take the freshly dug sweet potatoes to Jingxi Agricultural Market the next day.

Their small Alto car was fine for carrying people, but utterly useless for transporting sweet potatoes. So, Zhuo Feng rented a truck from a nearby farming household, spending fifty yuan plus two bags of dirt-covered sweet potatoes.

The next day, just as the dawn began to break, the truck driver uncle came knocking at their door; Zhuo Feng and Xiao Xian, sleepy-eyed and yawning continuously, loaded the sweet potatoes onto the truck with them.

The truck’s cab only had two seats. The aunt and nephew duo jostled each other before finally sitting together in the back of the truck. This scene couldn’t help but remind Xiao Xian of the days back in Ge Village when dozens of villagers squeezed into Uncle San Gouzi’s truck bed.

The early morning breeze brushed against their faces, carrying a slight chill, quite refreshing.

Zhuo Feng’s sleepiness began to subside. Looking down at the sweet potatoes under her feet, she exclaimed, "Xiao Xian, this won’t do. We must clean the sweet potatoes before selling them. Look how dirty they are; who would want to buy them?"

Yesterday evening, the sweet potatoes they hastily dug out, apart from those few eaten, were all muddy and unwashed, some even had vines attached. By the looks alone, they really couldn’t compare to the neatly bagged ones Zhuo Feng had seen in the supermarket.

Upon hearing this, Xiao Xian wanted to laugh but feared hurting Zhuo Feng’s feelings, so she pursed her lips and suppressed her laughter at the tip of her tongue, "Aunt, if we want the sweet potatoes to last longer, we can’t wash them. Not just sweet potatoes, but any vegetables or fruits, once they touch water, they spoil and become less fresh. Besides, isn’t the trend now for original flavor? Back in Ge Village, the pear tree behind our house produced hundreds of fruits a year. Those we couldn’t eat, we’d transport down the mountain. Do you know which pears sold the best?"

Zhuo Feng thought for a moment; if it was up to her, she would say, "The large ones, with unblemished skin, the ones that look beautiful."

"Wrong, that’s a beginner’s way of picking pears. Those who really know how to buy pears prefer to pick medium-sized ones with fresh leaves. The ones that don’t look great on the outside are the ones that taste truly sweet to the core. Grandpa used to say, it’s like being a person; after all, those who have both external and internal beauty are in the minority. So, it’s okay if our sweet potatoes are a little ugly, getting a feel of the market is what’s most important." Listening to Xiao Xian’s well-thought-out words, Zhuo Feng hummed in agreement, feeling a wave of embarrassment. It seemed that becoming a farmer, and an economically savvy one at that, wasn’t something that could be achieved in a day or two.

The journey took about an hour, and as the sky turned from gray-white to bright white, they approached Jingxi Agricultural Market. Only then did the small alleys’ breakfast shops start to emit the warm fragrance.

Rushed out of the house, Xiao Xian and Zhuo Feng were still hungry. They bought two baskets of vegetable and meat buns, gave one to the driver uncle, and sat under a makeshift food stall to enjoy their tofu brain and buns.

With a few buns and tofu brain in their stomachs, they felt re-energized.

The agricultural market was different from the regular composite market; it had all kinds of goods being sold, and not everyone there was a farmer with fields or agricultural products—some were individual traders.

Only when Zhuo Feng indulged in a satisfying meal, following the surging crowd into the market, did she realize that the driver uncle was right in rushing them out early.

They were neither too early nor too late, but all the better spots were already taken by shrewd traders familiar with the layout. Zhuo Feng searched through the crowd and could only find some awkwardly located spots.

A spot was better than none, and Zhuo Feng thought it remarkable to even find a place to park their truck and sell sweet potatoes in such a bustling spot. They parked the truck in one of the spots with the driver uncle.