Chapter 47: Eldest Aunt Song Hongmei

Chapter 47: Aunt Song Hongmei

"The hardware store, I hate them!"

Qiaoqiao climbed into the car huffily.

Song Tan smiled and rubbed his head. "Be good. Big sister thinks they aren't great either. We'll try to come here less often in the future."

Qiaoqiao touched the QR code on his chest aggrievedly and accused, "He wouldn't give me the money."

"It's okay. Look how delicious our vegetables are; once she eats them, she'll definitely want more—next time, Qiaoqiao, try to work harder and pick up the pace, and we won't sell to her!"

This wasn't just to coax a child; Song Tan purely felt that someone like the eldest sister-in-law would likely broadcast it to the whole world even if she specifically set vegetables aside—

"Twenty yuan a jin! If it weren't for looking after relatives, I wouldn't dream of spending that kind of money!"

Moreover, seeing the way her eldest uncle and the others acted today, they didn't believe the vegetables were twenty yuan a jin at all. If they came back to buy vegetables and were embarrassed in front of everyone...

Wait, why did thinking about it feel a little satisfying?

Song Tan internally condemned her own unstable Daoist heart, but Qiaoqiao was already beaming: "Right! Don't sell! Don't let her eat!"

Then his dark, bright eyes looked at her: "Are we going home?"

Song Tan snapped back to reality: "We're going to deliver vegetables to Uncle, but we also have to deliver some to Aunt, right? We have to be fair."

Qiaoqiao's brow furrowed even deeper: "Uncle... a little bit isn't good."

He turned to look at the small basket of vegetables in the backseat, then became conflicted: "We have to give some to Aunt. Aunt is better than the hardware store."

...

In the 1980s, Song Tan's aunt had married a city worker as a village girl. Aside from her beauty, the man valued her virtue and her ability to manage a household.

She was truly virtuous, and she truly knew how to run a home.

Just by the fact that the couple could provide an apartment in the city center for their only child while one sold breakfast and the other worked a job, one could tell how capable she was!

Despite this, however, the old couple still lived in an old employee residential compound.

The small pickup truck was parked precisely in a small space within the compound, avoiding the possibility of a traffic ticket. Just as Song Tan and Qiaoqiao stepped out of the car, she heard someone nearby ask hesitantly, "Are you... relatives of Hongmei?"

Song Tan paused, then saw the group of aunts asking—they seemed to be returning from buying groceries as well, carrying plastic bags with scallions, garlic, and green vegetables visible inside.

She nodded. "Yes, my aunt is Song Hongmei. We grew some vegetables back in our hometown, so I brought some for my aunt to have while they're fresh."

Upon hearing this, the aunts smiled broadly. "I remembered you from when you visited during the New Year—I was thinking, whose children are these, how are both siblings so good-looking? Later I asked and found out you're Hongmei's relatives!"

Mainly, there were no secrets in the residential compound; everyone knew Hongmei had a beautiful, silly nephew.

And although Qiaoqiao looked like an adult, his eyes were different—most importantly, he had a pink Peppa Pig sticker on his face!

Looking at the vegetables in the basket: "Oh my, what kind of vegetables are these? So fresh... Hongmei is truly blessed to have such beautiful niece and nephew. Young lady, are you seeing anyone?"

Song Tan:...

After a few rounds of polite small talk, she finally managed to escape the overly enthusiastic aunts. As Song Tan walked toward the unit entrance, she could still hear the aunts whispering

"Hongmei's niece and nephew are truly good-looking."

"They're probably good at managing a life too. Look at her, coming to visit her aunt with just a basket of vegetables..."

"What kind of talk is that? You can't eat yourself into poverty or dress yourself into poverty, but you can certainly calculate yourself into a lifetime of poverty. Hongmei might be a bit stingy, but she's a good person. She's a good match for her husband..."

Walking up the stairs, Song Tan couldn't help but laugh.

It seemed her aunt's reputation for being stingy was known to everyone!

...

Aunt Song Hongmei had indeed just returned from the market.

She had a pancake cart near the residential compound and had been selling pancakes for twenty years. One couldn't say she was famous far and wide, but one could say everyone was used to eating them.

Every time the cart packed up at ten o'clock, she would tidy up and head to the market at eleven. Her time management was incredibly precise!

Most importantly, by eleven, the market was basically winding down. The remaining vegetables were either sold cheaply or weren't very fresh. This allowed Aunt to sweep through the market like a whirlwind, fighting for the lowest possible price!

If she couldn't haggle the price down, she wouldn't buy.

Not having to scavenge for rotten leaves every day was already Aunt's ultimate luxury and dignity.

It was now 11:30. Some families might have already started cooking, but Aunt's family certainly wouldn't.

Song Tan knocked on the door.

Aunt's husband was still two years away from retirement, and their son was also at work. When Aunt opened the door, she was quite surprised

"Tandan? Why are you here? Aren't you at work? Oh, don't take time off, it's a huge loss to have your salary deducted!"

She turned to greet Qiaoqiao: "My big nephew has grown even more handsome! Come, come inside, Aunt will get you some biscuits."

Aunt indeed brought out biscuits—two packs of Want Want snow biscuits, one for each sibling.

Song Tan didn't know whether to laugh or cry; this truly was Aunt's greatest display of sincerity!

Qiaoqiao had already skillfully started tearing open the bag, saying, "Aunt, we brought you vegetables."

When Aunt looked, she found five bunches of Melilot in the small basket. She didn't find them lacking at all; instead, she was overjoyed

"Oh my! These vegetables are so fresh! We have vegetables for lunch, but we won't stir-fry them yet! One meal tonight, two meals tomorrow—lunch and dinner—and we can even have two more the day after! That's three days of green vegetable money saved! I'll just make an extra meat dish!"

Aunt was overjoyed and quickly made her arrangements.

Only after arranging everything did she remember: "Tandan, are you staying for lunch? If you are, I'll stir-fry these vegetables now."

Song Tan quickly reassured her: "No, Aunt, my mom is waiting for me at home. I just wanted to ask if you knew where to buy ducklings? I'm planning to raise some ducks back home."

Song Hongmei thought for a moment. "There actually is a place. Wait here, it's not far, I'll take you!"

"But Aunt, aren't you going to cook..."

"It's fine, it's really not far, I'll take you! You young people never haggle when buying things; I'll go negotiate the price for you!"

With that, she changed her shoes and hurriedly grabbed her keys to head out.

Song Tan:...

It was truly lightning speed; Qiaoqiao hadn't even finished one snow biscuit.

However, Aunt wasn't lying; it really wasn't far.

After turning from the residential compound into an inner alley, passing through an iron gate that looked locked but wasn't, and ducking into a small lane, they finally arrived at a patch of dilapidated, low-rise old courtyards.

Aunt knocked on the door of one of the houses

"Old Zhang, do you still have ducklings?"

"I don't sell wholesale like they do at the school gate! These aren't pet ducks!" the man inside shouted.

Aunt was already losing patience: "When have I ever brought anyone to buy pet ducks? Hurry up, I brought my relatives to buy. Give me a firm price so you don't waste my time with nonsense. I have to go home and cook once I buy them..."

The man inside opened the door, looking aggrieved. "Sister, sometimes I'd rather you didn't buy anything at all."