"Second, there can't be any potatoes that are broken or sprouted mixed in. Size doesn't matter, as long as the skin isn't broken, there can't be any bad ones."
"Don't worry about that. I'll definitely find you some good ones. They're all my relatives, from the same village. If they really did something like that, we wouldn't be able to hold our heads up in the village anymore, and our children wouldn't be able to go to school with any face either."
Aunt Chen's words reassured Jiang Xiaoman quite a bit.
People in the mountains may not care about other things, but those who are willing to send their children to school are doing so with a "let's give it a try" mentality. If the child really has a talent for studying, the parents would rather sell their blood to support their child's education, college entrance exam, and escape from the mountains... Thinking of his father's relationship with Principal Jiang Baichuan, Jiang Xiaoman immediately understood why Aunt Chen was so enthusiastic about his situation.
Oh, how pitiful are the hearts of parents everywhere!
Chen Sao took over the task of purchasing potatoes, and Jiang Xiaoman wasn't idle either—he wanted to see if the mashed potatoes made from their potatoes were really delicious.
Thanks to the internet's advanced technology, you can find recipes for any dish online. Jiang Xiaoman found a recipe for mashed potatoes, which didn't seem too difficult, but there were a few ingredients he didn't have at home: butter, milk, black pepper, oyster sauce... These were all expensive seasonings that he wouldn't even look at when he went to the supermarket!
Moreover, the names of the ingredients, such as butter and black pepper, sound very sophisticated, and he was certain that the local grocery stores would never have them.
"Looks like I'll have to go with Uncle Baichuan to Shuangwan Town to get a new phone," Jiang Xiaoman murmured.
While he's at it, he'll pop into the big supermarket in Shuangwan Town to check out some seasonings he doesn't usually use. After all, he's practically a food blogger now, so how can he just add salt and chicken bouillon to the pot all the time? That would be too unrefined, wouldn't it?
The next morning, the construction team arrived at his house early to work. Jiang Xiaoman helped his father cook a big pot of potato and cured pork rice, and also stewed a pot of braised silver carp and tofu separately. He picked a basket of broom shoots from the tea garden, blanched and cut them into sections, and made a cold dish with dried bean curd. A simple and filling lunch was ready.
After quickly eating a bowl of potato and cured pork rice with some cold broom sprouts, Jiang Xiaoman hurriedly carried his basket down the mountain. He was still very busy today. He had to go to Chen Sao's village to see how the new potatoes were doing this year. He would stay at the school tonight and spend the night with his uncle. Tomorrow, he would accompany his uncle, a 2G network user, to get a new mobile phone!
Just as Jiang Xiaoman was trudging down the muddy mountain path, news of his plan to help his fellow villagers sell potatoes had already spread throughout Jiangwan Village, where Aunt Chen lived.
"Years ago, I heard from the older generation that when Jiang Youliang brought Jiang Xiaoman back, the old shaman divined that Xiaoman was a benefactor of Langshan!"
"How could the old shaman be wrong? Xiaoman has been different from others since she was little!"
"Have you heard? Xiaoman seems to have told his dad that after graduating from university, he's not staying in the city. He's going back to Langshan to start a business with the villagers."
"How come I haven't heard about it? My great-aunt's youngest son lives in town. I heard that Xiaoman went to Banligou to stay with relatives and even found a big boss to invest in our Langshan!"
"Wow~ Does that mean we're going to get rich right away, just like Chestnut Valley?"
"In short, you can't go wrong by following Xiaoman! She's a college graduate and has seen the world."
The villagers of Jiangwan Village were talking excitedly, their faces beaming with pride and joy, as if they could already see the wonderful life they would lead, earning 100,000 yuan a year with Jiang Xiaoman and building small villas like those in Banligou.
As soon as Jiang Xiaoman entered the village, he was warmly welcomed by everyone. One family invited him to their home for a meal, another invited him in for tea and snacks, and it was incredibly lively.
"Make way! Xiaoman has important business with me. If you want to treat me to a meal, please line up first!" Aunt Chen came running over, sweating profusely, and grabbed Jiang Xiaoman, pulling her away.
This is the first God of Wealth she discovered! You bunch of blind fools, get out of my way! Don't even think about stealing my God of Wealth!
When Jiang Xiaoman arrived at Chen's house, she saw a small mountain of potatoes piled up in front of her door. Two women wearing headscarves were helping to sort the potatoes, packing the best ones into woven mesh bags. Jiang Xiaoman glanced at them and noticed that although the potatoes varied in size, they were all this year's new potatoes, and she secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
Five thousand catties of potatoes—if he had to sort them bag by bag, he wouldn't need to do anything else; he could just spend all his time picking potatoes. The fact that Aunt Chen personally supervised and helped him sort the potatoes saved him a lot of trouble.
He took out his phone and took two videos of the already packed potatoes and the large pile on the ground, then sent them to Tang Xinlan. He had arranged for her to send a truck to pick up the potatoes the next afternoon. Perfect timing, he and his uncle went to town in the morning to buy a phone and do some shopping, so he could hitch a ride back in the potato truck in the afternoon.
"Xiaoman, come on! Have a potato cake!" Aunt Chen brought out a brazier from the kitchen, with a thin wire mesh on top. Potato cakes were sizzling and dripping oil as they were baking on the mesh.
These potato cakes are a common snack here. First, boil the potatoes, peel them, and mash them into mashed potatoes. Then, add crushed dried chili peppers, minced garlic, and salt, mix well, shape them into small round cakes, brush them with oil, and bake them on a fire pit until both sides are slightly golden brown. The outer layer is crispy and sweet, while the mashed potatoes inside are hot, soft, and delicious.
Aunt Chen also brought a few dishes of her homemade side dishes for him. Jiang Xiaoman didn't stand on ceremony with her. He took two potato cakes, added fermented tofu, pickled chili peppers and sliced ham sausage in the middle, and took a bite. He was very satisfied! He had loved eating this kind of starch-based ham sausage since he was a child. Even though he ate pure meat sausages outside after he grew up, he still thought that starch-based ham sausage was the best.
Seeing him eating with such satisfaction, Aunt Chen was quite happy. She took a small stool and sat down next to him, busying herself picking out potatoes while introducing him to the two other women who had come to help.
"This is my second sister from my maternal family, named Shan Qiaoqiao. Her family planted eight mu of potatoes this year, all of which are red-fleshed."
“She’s from our village. Her name is Jiang Wumei. Her husband lost an arm working in a mine a few years ago. No one wanted to hire him, so the two of them cleared a lot of land on the mountain to grow potatoes and raise pigs. They do everything! Wumei doesn’t know how to embroider, but her family grows a lot of potatoes. Xiaoman, if you can sell them next time, could you help her family sell more?”
"Wait! Sister Chen, your second sister's surname is Shan, so why is your surname Chen?" Jiang Xiaoman looked at her, completely bewildered.
The main problem is that the surname Chen is really rare in Langshan.
“Oh dear! My dad was an adopted son-in-law. He came from outside the mountains, and things weren’t going well here. My mom happened to be looking for a son-in-law, and seeing that my dad was quick and easy to fool, she kept him at home.” Aunt Chen pointed to her head. “Actually, my dad sometimes gets confused and doesn’t remember who he is, but he’s very good to my mom and us siblings. My mom felt sorry for him, so she decided that my third brother and I would take my dad’s surname.”
So that's how it is!
Jiang Xiaoman was aware of this. In their area, many families only had daughters and no sons, so they would have to find a son-in-law to marry into the family. Logically speaking, in this day and age, such old customs should no longer exist, but they couldn't do anything about it. The older generation's ideas were too rigid, as if without a son, they would starve to death in the afterlife without incense offerings.
Jiang Xiaoman almost rolled her eyes at these words. In a few years, even the factories that print paper money will probably go out of business. Where will they get incense to burn? Besides, sons and daughters are the same. Can't the paper money burned by daughters be used? Or will the paper money burned by daughters be devalued in the underworld?
Chapter 41
Hearing that Jiang Xiaoman was going to Shuangwan Town to buy a mobile phone, Tang Xinlan asked him to call her after he finished his business.
"I'm going to town tomorrow morning too. Perfect timing, I can introduce you to a new client," Tang Xinlan instructed over the phone.
Soon, Jiang Xiaoman found out who this new customer was.
"President Zhang? Well, not many people in our rural area are willing to do traditional embroidery. How can we supply goods to President Zhang's garment factory?" Jiang Xiaoman became nervous after hearing Tang Xinlan's words.
When he visited Banligou before, he heard many stories about Shuangwan Town. Besides Tang Xinlan, the name Zhang Jiahui was also frequently mentioned by the villagers.
I heard that this Ms. Zhang's family was very poor when she was a child, and she was even almost sold by her mother to pay for her brother's dowry. However, later on, Ms. Zhang seemed to have a cheat code. First, she went to university on her own merit, and then she started her own clothing factory. It is said that she now owns two companies and has also invested in some of Tang Xinlan's businesses. Her annual turnover alone is over 100 million yuan, making her a true rich woman.
Most importantly, even he, a college student, had heard of Zhang Jiahui's online store. When they were seniors, many female classmates were preparing for job interviews, and many people recommended Zhang Jiahui's live stream and online store. He even helped by clicking "like" on her posts because it earned him a discount coupon...
He knew that Tang Xinlan wanted to help him, but wasn't this leap in grades a bit too big?
"Dream on! You're still a long way from becoming a supplier for Sister Hui! It's her group of wealthy female clients who sometimes need some unique, personalized customizations. I think the Langshan embroidery you're doing now is quite interesting. Didn't you take a lot of video materials? Show them to her later, maybe it'll be an opportunity?"
Tang Xinlan didn't completely rule it out. She just felt that Jiang Xiaoman had a tough time, even more so than when she returned to her hometown to start a business, and she couldn't help but want to help him more.
"Hehe~ Thank you, Sister Lan!" Jiang Xiaoman knew that this was an opportunity that Tang Xinlan had secured for him. After hanging up the phone, he hurriedly organized some videos and pictures he had taken before, packaged them, and uploaded them to the cloud drive, planning to send them all to Zhang Jiahui later.
He wasn't worried that Zhang Jia Hui would skip him and go directly to the women in the village who knew how to embroider. Anyway, he wasn't thinking about making a lot of money doing this. He just wanted to give these women who stayed in the countryside for their children another way to earn money so they could buy their children more new clothes and more meat.
If Zhang Jia Hui could really lead them to wealth through embroidery, he would be more than happy to accept it.
He spent half a day wandering around Jiangwan Village, his basket filled with all sorts of treats given to him by the village aunties and sisters-in-law. When he arrived at the school with his things, Jiang Baichuan and the others hadn't returned from their home visits. It makes you think about how pitiful it is to be a teacher these days; the teaching load is already heavy, and then they have to do home visits during winter and summer vacations!
It's better in the city, since transportation is convenient. But here, the mountains are high and the roads are long. Sometimes you can only visit two homes a day, and you're exhausted. When you get back, you still have to write home visit reports. Luckily, two student teachers came this summer. Otherwise, with only Jiang Baichuan, he would have been working himself to the bone!
The school gate was locked, but that didn't stop Jiang Xiaoman. This time, he didn't climb the wall. Instead, he went around to the back of the mountain, walked through the newly cleared potato field to the school, and saw that it was almost time. He quickly grabbed a vegetable basket to pick vegetables and prepare dinner.
The only edible vegetables in the garden this season are bok choy, red amaranth, and celery. Seeing that the celery was growing well, Jiang Xiaoman picked a bunch to stir-fry with shredded pork. She also picked some bok choy and amaranth. When she went into the kitchen, sure enough, with the students not in class, there wasn't a single shred of meat to be found. It was truly pitiful for the two student teachers; they came to the mountains full of enthusiasm to teach, and before they even started teaching, they were already eating vegetarian food with the principal…
Luckily, he was prepared. He took a piece of salted pork and half a pickled fish from home. He shredded the salted pork and stir-fried it with celery. He steamed the pickled fish with pickled chili peppers. He would stir-fry the greens and amaranth just before eating so they would taste better. Thinking that there were four of them, he realized that this amount of food was not enough. So Jiang Xiaoman secretly took some eggs that his uncle had bought and picked more than a dozen newly grown green peppers from the vegetable garden. He planned to make a plate of tiger-skin green peppers and eggs. This stuff is really good with rice!
"Jiang Xiaoman, have you ruined my eggs again?" Jiang Baichuan smelled the scrambled eggs as soon as he opened the door, and couldn't help but feel a pang of heartache.
Who in the whole village, besides Jiang Xiaoman, would dare to enter his kitchen and touch his eggs?
"Uncle! Just because you're willing to suffer doesn't mean you can drag two teachers down with you! Even the poorest students in our university used to eat better than you!"
Jiang Xiaoman wasn't exaggerating. The teachers' college he attended had incredibly generous welfare benefits for impoverished students. Worried that they might be reluctant to spend money on meat dishes, they gave each student an extra eight meat dish vouchers every month. These vouchers couldn't be exchanged for cash or redeemed for real money; they could only be used to buy a meat dish at the cafeteria window. This ensured that impoverished students could eat meat at least twice a week… truly thoughtful!
"Nonsense! We just had meat the day before yesterday, and yesterday we ate your pickled fish!" Jiang Baichuan peeked into the trash can and couldn't help but slap him twice. "You spendthrift! You used five of my eggs to stir-fry a few peppers? I was going to save those eggs for the students! Are you a student?"
“I’m not a student, but I can make money for the school!” Jiang Xiaoman said confidently, opening her phone and showing her uncle the backend earnings of the school’s account. “Look! Our new video’s earnings skyrocketed yesterday, nearly a thousand yuan a day, enough to buy twenty boxes of eggs for our school.”
Jiang Baichuan was speechless, choked by his words.
Fang Xingchen and Chu Mengluan were also trying hard to suppress their laughter.
They had to respect the principal, but it was hilarious to see him speechless after being roasted by Xiaoman.
"Alright, Uncle, it's all done. Do you expect me to put these eggs back together for you?" Jiang Xiaoman called Fang Xingchen and Chu Mengluan over to help carry the food to the small dining table in the kitchen.
Jiang Baichuan, that stingy guy, thought it was a waste of electricity to leave the corridor lights on at night. So they would cook dinner and eat directly in the kitchen, where there was a small dining table with four sides, just enough for one person on each side.
Even though they used the same ingredients and Jiang Xiaoman's dishes were just ordinary home-style cooking, Fang Xingchen and Chu Mengluan ate without even looking up. The way they shoveled rice into their mouths showed that they were really starving. Even Chu Mengluan, the refined and elegant college student they met at first, ate two bowls of potato rice in one go...
The thought that Jiang Xiaoman could only stay here for one night made the two student teachers look desperate and sad: before they came, they had imagined countless hardships of teaching in the deep mountains, but they never expected that the hardest thing would be not having meat to eat!
The cruel and stingy principal not only couldn't bear to buy meat, but he was also reluctant to eat pork cracklings. Every time he cooked, he would put a few pieces of pork cracklings in a big pot of vegetables to add some flavor!
Chu Mengluan used to hate braised pork, but now she vowed that when she went back to school, she would order a large portion of oily braised pork, a bowl of rice mixed with lard, and a whole fried chicken cutlet! She would eat meat to her heart's content!
After lunch, Jiang Baichuan took the two intern teachers to the office to summarize the home visit materials for the day. Jiang Xiaoman tidied up the kitchen and then went to the vegetable garden with a flashlight to pick half a basket of chives. They would have to catch the 6:30 am bus tomorrow and would definitely not have time to make breakfast. Since they had nothing to do in the evening, they made some chive pancakes. They could heat them up and take them with them for breakfast in the morning. The rest could be left for the two junior teachers to make lunch.
Otherwise, if they both leave, with the cooking skills of two intern teachers, I don't know if they can even light a fire. They might have to eat potatoes all day long, which would be too pitiful!
Wash and chop the chives. Heat oil in a pan, crack a few eggs into small pieces, and mix them with the chives. Add a spoonful of soybean oil, sauté the prepared minced garlic and dried chili flakes until fragrant, and then pour them into the chives. This method is said to lock in the tender texture of the chives. Finally, add salt, and you can start making chive dumplings.
They don't actually eat chive boxes much here, for a simple reason: they use too much oil! However, Jiang Youliang likes to eat them, so Jiang Xiaoman learned to make them by following instructions on his phone. Whenever he goes home, he always makes them for his dad, and now he's quite skilled at it.
However, considering her uncle's heart condition, Jiang Xiaoman ultimately didn't dare pour in two pounds of oil to fry directly, even though it would taste better that way. Instead, she brushed a layer of oil on the bottom of the pan and slowly fried them over low heat until both sides were golden brown...
"Jiang Xiaoman!" Smelling the fried food, Jiang Baichuan's expression changed, and he rushed over in three steps. Seeing that he was actually frying chive pancakes late at night, with a lot of eggshells in the trash can next to him, he was immediately furious. "You little brat! Are you trying to eat the school out of house and home?"
"No way~ We have to catch the early bus tomorrow, so we definitely won't have time to make breakfast. Anyway, we're free tonight, so I'll make some chive dumplings for us to eat tomorrow morning. That way, the two teachers won't have to make breakfast themselves."
After thinking for a moment, Jiang Xiaoman lowered her voice and "threatened" her uncle: "Uncle, think about it, these two teachers probably don't even know how to use a wood-fired stove. Are you really comfortable letting them cook for themselves? What if they burn down your kitchen? The loss won't just be a few eggs and two pounds of cooking oil..."
Jiang Baichuan was startled and nodded involuntarily. Realizing what he meant, he gave him two hard taps on the head: "You still can't make chive pancakes! You ate a whole week's worth of soybean oil in one meal! Can't you just steam a pot of potato cakes?"
Jiang Xiaoman: "..." When I have money, I will definitely buy you 10,000 catties of soybean oil!
The next day was a bright and sunny day. Fog rose in the mountains in the morning, and the early bus was moving at a snail's pace for fear of accidents on the road. It set off at 6:30, changed buses once, and finally arrived in Shuangwan Town at almost 11 o'clock. With the time to meet Tang Xinlan fast approaching, Jiang Xiaoman didn't dare to delay. She immediately hailed a tuk-tuk and sped to the store where she had bought the phone before. After comparing the prices of the plans, Jiang Baichuan reluctantly signed up for a plan with a minimum monthly charge of 88 yuan, and got a decent brand phone for free.
"Uncle, let's go to Sister Lan's friend's company to discuss some things first, then go to the supermarket to buy some things, and then go back with the truck that Sister Lan and the others called in the afternoon." Jiang Xiaoman had filled up her schedule for the day, but Jiang Baichuan shook his head.
"You go ahead with your work, I'll just wander around town and buy some necessities for the kids," Jiang Baichuan sighed. "It's already the change of seasons, and many students are still wearing thermal underwear. I'll see if there are any cheaper clothes around here..."
"Wait, Uncle! Even if it's cheap here, it's still not as cheap as online special offers for wholesale!" Jiang Xiaoman grabbed his uncle and opened the platform where he used to go to the night market to buy wholesale goods when he was in school. He searched for keywords and immediately found many factory overstock or defective clothes and shoes suitable for setting up a stall.
"Even if the shops in town are offering the lowest prices, can they be this cheap? Besides, clothes and shoes are good as long as they're not torn. These so-called flaws are basically just a little stain or crooked stitching. I can sell them at the night market for thirty-five for two pieces and still make double the profit!"
Jiang Baichuan leaned closer to take a look and immediately fell silent.
The thought of all the money he had wasted on buying clothes for his students in the past made Principal Jiang's heart bleed...
Chapter 42
Since there was no need to go shopping for clothes, Jiang Baichuan simply went with his nephew. Besides being the principal, he was also Jiang Xiaoman's elder. Although he didn't understand many of the things young people were into these days, as an elder, he could still help out.
Tang Xinlan arrived at Zhang Jiahui's place early in the morning. She also had some shares in both factories, but as a lazy bum who was determined to win without lifting a finger, she hardly cared about anything there. She just waited for her good friend to give her dividends every year. She came so early today because she hadn't eaten Zhang Jiahui's cooking in a long time.
"You're so lazy!" Zhang Jiahui complained, but her hands were honest as she shredded the radish she had just bought, preparing to fry some radish balls. This season is not the season for radishes, but thanks to the people who invented greenhouses, now as long as you are willing to spend money, you can eat any off-season vegetables.
"I really don't want to stay at home anymore, I want to come over and have some peace and quiet." Tang Xinlan threw herself onto the sofa with a look of despair.
"I told you before, you can't mess with men! Once you do, they're like chewing gum, you can't shake them off! Do you believe me now?"
"I admit I was wrong, okay? Then tell me what to do now?"