Xinyan noticed Uncle had mistaken her for a bad person, so she smiled and said, "Uncle, donât you recognize me? I bought two jujube saplings from your stall at the town market in Shangâan Town before."
The old uncle listened but still couldnât remember, although he did sell jujube saplings at the town market. It seemed he truly was old, unable to recall things.
Xinyan realized the old uncle still didnât recognize her, and she was suddenly aware that she was made up, so it was quite normal for him not to recognize her.
However, she wasnât bothered by this. Anyway, the old uncle brought a lot of jujube saplings that day. Next time, if she could meet him in her usual appearance, it wouldnât affect their conversation.
Now, the old uncle wasnât as wary of Xinyan as before, "Getting older, memories fade away. Miss, do you need anything?"
Xinyan smiled and said, "I overheard you talking about setting up a stall, so I wanted to see if thereâs anything I need."
The expressions of the grandfather and grandson lightened a lot upon hearing this, and they quickly got busy.
The little boy named Gousheng was very clever, "Sister, look, theyâre all here. See if thereâs anything you need."
Xinyan glanced and noticed most of the items taken out were seeds and some kudzu root which hadnât been processed.
She glanced into the basket and found many plants she didnât recognize, so she casually asked, "Whatâs in the basket?"
Gousheng turned his head to look at his grandfather; he was too young and still didnât understand these.
Master Gousheng looked at the basket, "Just some worthless herbs."
As he spoke, he pulled the basket over and pointed things out to Xinyan, "This is the rhizome, it aids digestion, and this is astragalus, it can boost energy."
Xinyan hadnât expected the old uncle to recognize herbs, "Uncle, you know herbs, thatâs impressive."
Master Gousheng shook his head, fiddling with the herbs, "I donât understand these things; years ago, I went into the mountains with the village barefoot doctor and recognized a few types; I learned some phrases with them. After that, whenever I came across them, I just picked them up casually."
When they got to the end, Master Gousheng stopped his hand and pointed to two herbs inside, "These are ginseng seedlings, they havenât grown fully, what a pity."
Xinyanâs eyes lit up immediately as she listened, and her voice became somewhat shaky, "Uncle, you say these are ginseng seedlings, the ones we call ginseng?"
Master Gousheng looked up at Xinyan, "Yes, my son-in-law brought them down from the mountain while digging for kudzu root. He couldnât recognize them, but the village barefoot doctor happened to be visiting my house and said these are ginseng seedlings. However, they are wasted here; they wonât survive this season. Donât know who tossed them in."
As he spoke, he intended to throw them out.
Xinyan quickly reached out to catch them, "Donât throw them away, donât throw them away, Iâll take them back and try to plant them."
Master Gousheng saw the sparkle in Xinyanâs eyes and didnât want to dampen her spirits, "If you like them, take them."
Xinyan looked at the seeds; she had all the basic vegetable seeds, "Uncle, I want all these seeds and herbs. How much are they?"
Master Gousheng couldnât quite believe it and confirmed with Xinyan several times, "You want all of them?"
Xinyan nodded, "Yes, see how much it costs."
Master Gousheng glanced at the seeds on the ground and the herbs in the basket, feeling a bit embarrassed, "If you want them all, Iâd ask for eighty cents."
Xinyan genuinely thought eighty cents wasnât much, and was about to reply when Gousheng said, "Sister, eighty cents isnât much. Grandpa wants to sell them quickly so he can buy medicine for Grandma. If it gets too late, weâll miss Uncle Liangâs mule cart in the village."