Song Tan’s Chronicle - Chapter 32

The $23,000 small pickup truck roared with power, smoothly navigating the winding mountain roads. The truck bed was filled with wild vegetables, and the cab carried the family of four.

Wu Lan, sitting in the back seat, watched her daughter skillfully drive to town. She no longer felt the sting of the $23,000 spent on the truck. Instead, she felt proud:

“Spending big money wisely is the way to go. Look how convenient it is for us now! We don’t need to spend $200 on car rentals to get to the city anymore. What a waste that was!”

Song Sancheng immediately retorted: “You didn’t agree at first, so how is it that you now claim it was your idea? And you keep saying you’ll get a driver’s license, but you haven’t studied for the test these past few days!”

Wu Lan sneered: “You study every day, but your mock test score is probably lower than mine! I got 81, what did you get?”

Song Sancheng fell silent.

His memory wasn’t great, and the test questions were tough. He only scored 75.

Song Tan wisely stayed out of the argument, while Qiao Qiao suddenly asked: “Mom, where’s my Piggy Mom?”

Song Tan burst out laughing, unable to hold it in.

She knew what Qiao Qiao meant—tomorrow Wu Lan planned to bring home the piglets, something Qiao Qiao had been eagerly anticipating. His mind was filled with thoughts of his pink pig family.

In the rearview mirror, Wu Lan’s face darkened, and she replied irritably: “Just wait! I’ll bring them tomorrow! You can sleep with your Piggy Mom!”

Qiao Qiao cheered: “Yay! I want to give Peppa a bath!”

Song Sancheng chuckled: “Alright, Dad connected a water pipe to the back hill. You can clean the pigsty when it gets hot and have fun.”

Wu Lan: …

So, she’s the only one annoyed, huh?

…

The car turned into town. While the family bought meat at the butcher shop, Song Tan went to the courier station.

Dr. Zhang and the savior each got ten jins of wild vegetables, which required careful packing. The young man at the station, seeing the large pile of neatly packed vegetables, hesitated:

“Do you really need to add the air columns and foam box with ice packs? That’ll cost a lot. Actually, even without the ice packs, most cities can get next-day delivery.”

“These vegetables look fresh, and it’s not hot now. If we pack them in foam boxes and ship them tonight, they’ll arrive in good condition.”

Wild vegetables weren’t worth much, and using ice packs would make them disproportionately expensive. In the hills, wild vegetables were abundant. You could even find them in the capital.

Song Tan sighed. She didn’t want to spend extra, but fresh, vibrant vegetables made a difference.

Since she was already charging a high price, she needed to ensure top quality.

She took out a business card: “If I need to ship a lot of orders with ice packs in the future, can you give me a discount?”

“Also, do you offer pickup service?”

The young man was stunned. No nearby villages or towns had pickup services, but it wasn’t impossible: “Where are you from?”

“Yunqiao Village.”

His face turned sour: “That’s a tough place to reach… How about this, if you have at least fifty orders, I’ll come pick them up.”

“For more than twenty orders, I’ll give you the lowest price.”

Their courier service was known for speed and door-to-door delivery, but it was expensive, and not many orders came from small towns.

However, the station was his own franchise. If he could secure a big account, he was willing to put in the effort.

“But I don’t have disposable ice packs. I need to leave by 2 PM to deliver these to the city. If you trust me, pay a deposit, and I’ll pack them in the city.”

“I’ll bill you later.”

Song Tan thought for a moment and transferred $500: “I’ll definitely have more shipments. We’ll settle the difference later.”

“If there are more orders, we can switch to monthly billing.”

The young man didn’t see the potential for monthly billing with these wild vegetables, but he agreed anyway.

By the time the shipments were arranged, Song Sancheng and Qiao Qiao were waiting with large bags of meat.

Qiao Qiao clutched his pocket. Song Tan laughed: “What did you buy?”

He grinned and pulled out two small plastic tubes resembling paint tubes, each with two plastic straws attached.

Qiao Qiao’s pride was evident. His soft, dark hair made his bright eyes and fair skin stand out:

“Bubbles!”

Song Tan recognized them as the bubble-blowing toys popular during her school days. It was surprising they were still around after so many years.

Now, there were bubble machines, but Qiao Qiao’s five yuan couldn’t buy one.

Intrigued, she started the car and asked:

“Blow some for me later?”

Qiao Qiao nodded eagerly: “Two tubes, one for each of us!”

Wu Lan and Song Sancheng watched the siblings laugh and chat, suddenly feeling that maybe it wasn’t so bad for Tan Tan to stay in the village.

Except for one thing—finding a partner in the village would be tough!

Wu Lan started worrying again, while Song Sancheng remained cheerfully unconcerned, which only made Wu Lan more anxious.

However, no one could solve Wu Lan’s worries. Meanwhile, Tan Tan’s eighty-year-old grandmother was overjoyed to see the siblings:

“Tan Tan’s back?”

“Qiao Qiao is here too!”

The siblings quickly went inside with their grandmother.

The tidy courtyard greeted them first. Their grandfather, with white hair and wrinkles, sat in a wheelchair under the veranda, his eyes filled with joy.

On the other side of the courtyard was their uncle Wu Chengtao’s house, a two-story building. During the off-season, he was at a neighbor’s house playing cards, leaving only their enthusiastic aunt at home:

“Tan Tan’s back? You’re getting prettier, like a star… Wow, Qiao Qiao is even more handsome!”

Noticing the meat in their hands, she smiled:

“Why did you bring meat? We have plenty in the fridge.”

Wu Lan handed over the meat and called Qiao Qiao to help with the vegetables, laughing loudly: “Chengtao’s wife, Tan Tan isn’t working in Ning City anymore. She’s back for agricultural planting.”

“These are the latest wild vegetables, selling for twenty yuan a jin and in high demand! But Tan Tan saved the last batch for her grandmother and you all.”

This statement carried a lot of weight. Chengtao’s wife took a moment to digest the information—

Their pretty and smart college graduate niece left her good job in the provincial city to return to farming!