Overspending

When they arrived at the county city, Xiaoguo couldn’t take it anymore. When she lifted the curtain suddenly, she gave Zhuang Zhuang a fright. His emotions were brewing, and he was trying to yell again when he saw Xiaoguo, and that caused his voice to be stuck in his throat.

“Shut up.”

“…”

Zhuang Zhuang reluctantly shut his mouth.

Xiaoguo looked around in satisfaction. When she saw that there were no officials around, she was relieved.

There were usually officials in the county. If he attracted the attention of any officials, she would have difficulty explaining herself.

After a peaceful journey, they arrived at Mr. Kong’s house safely. Xiaoguo couldn’t wait to throw him in. She greeted the Kong’s and quickly left without staying for too long.

Zhuang Zhuang, who was left at the door, looked at the heartless Xiaoguo with teary eyes. When Xiaoguo disappeared from sight, Mrs. Kong brought him back into the house.

On the way home, Xiaoguo was in a very good mood. Without Zhuang Zhuang creating a ruckus, her ears were filled with the gentle sound of the wind and the chirping of birds. The breeze gently brushed past her face and lifted her hair. She couldn’t help but inhale the refreshing air and sigh in joy. “This is nice.”

The weather was at its best at this time of year. It wasn’t as cold as winter and there was an added element of vitality due to the spring season. The heat from summer was still some time away.

If only the weather was like this all year round.

It was rare that she had some time for herself today, so there was no hurry to go back. No one was waiting for her to get back home to cook, so Xiaoguo put down the donkey rope and leaned against the carriage frame, leisurely admiring the beautiful scenery.

Previously, she had not noticed it, and did not know why Peach Blossom Village was called Peach Blossom Village. Now, she really understood.

As soon as spring arrived, Peach Blossom Village looked like it was surrounded by peach blossoms. It was like a land of idyllic beauty. Peach trees filled the mountains and plains. At some point in time, green sprouts had quietly sprouted from the peach trees. After being ruffled by the warm spring breeze, the pink peach blossoms all bloomed overnight. All she could see was a sea of pink in different tones.

Xiaoguo really hated herself for her poor painting skills. Otherwise, she could have drawn this beautiful scenery on paper.

It was noon when she got home. Xiaoguo was in a daze as she cooked. She couldn’t help but think about the beautiful scenery she had just seen. Then, she looked at the bare courtyard in disappointment. An idea slowly came to her.

Nobody said that she could only plant vegetables at home. It would be wonderful to plant some flowers. Not only would they smell good, but the sight of them would make her happy.

The courtyard at home was huge. Apart from where the livestock were, there were many empty spaces for planting.

Xiaoguo quickly ate two mouthfuls of rice. She didn’t even wash the bowls and chopsticks before coming out to see where she could plant some flowers.

The vegetable plot was not suitable as she still had to plant vegetables in the coming months. Xiaoguo left the plot and came to the side of the chicken and duck pens. She looked around, then looked up at the sun. Finally, she nodded. “This will do!”

At this corner, there was plenty of sunlight but it wasn’t too hot. Next to the vegetable plot, it was still some distance from the chickens and ducks. The geographical location was very good!

Xiaoguo picked up the hoe and began to loosen the soil. As she had never planted anything here before, the soil was very hard. It took her a lot of effort to loosen the soil. She didn’t need much space to plant flowers. All she needed was a small area. A flower plot would be pleasing to the eye and could add color to the courtyard.

When she went to the county previously, she had come across vendors that sold seeds. However, she didn’t know if those were flower seeds or vegetable seeds. Coincidentally, tomorrow was market day, so she would wake up early and make a trip there.

The next day, before dawn, Xiaoguo had already woken up and finished her breakfast.

After packing up, she drove off to the market.

In addition to planting seeds, she was also going to buy some vegetables, meat, rice, oil, salt, and some miscellaneous stuff. Those items were running low on supply at home, so she would need to purchase them in bulk today.

As Xiaoguo approached the county fair, she kept her money close to her. There were many people here, so it was better to be careful.

As soon as she entered the market, there were people selling seeds. After getting out of the car and asking around, she found out that these were vegetable seeds.

Xiaoguo looked around and couldn’t tell what seeds they were. She asked, “Uncle, do you have any flower seeds here?”

“What?”

The stall owner was old and could not hear clearly. He pricked up his ears and asked.

“Do you have any flower seeds?”

Xiaoguo raised her voice and asked again.

“No.” The old man heard her this time and waved his hand.

Xiaoguo nodded and prepared to move along and check out other stalls.

There weren’t many people in the market today, and it was easy to drive the donkey cart, so Xiaoguo didn’t stop. She looked around and came to a familiar stall to buy some pork. Now that the weather was slowly turning hot, fresh meat couldn’t be stored for long anymore, so there wasn’t much pork available at the stall.

“Boss, can I have some pork.”

When the boss saw that Xiaoguo looked familiar, he immediately went up to her. He sharpened his knife and asked, “How much do you want?”

“Five catties of pork belly and three catties of tenderloin. I want all the pork ribs. Do you have pork knuckles?”

Xiaoguo looked at the meat displayed at the stall and methodically told him the amount she needed.

“There’s pork knuckles and a whole set of pork trotters,” the boss replied as he cut the meat for Xiaoguo.

“How many are there?”

“Well… there’s only one pair left.” The boss looked with uncertainty at the basket behind him and confirmed before saying.

“Then I want a pair.”

“Okay…” The shop owner was happy to see Xiaoguo. She didn’t come often, but when she came, she always bought a lot.

“Sister, do you own a restaurant?”

As she was just one of his regular customers, the boss had never asked her before. It was just his own guess. After all, other than those who were chefs in restaurants or those who had big families, who would buy so much meat? The weather was turning hot and the meat would not keep well for long.

“You must be running a restaurant or there are many people in your house.”

Xiaoguo smiled and gave a random reason.

When the boss heard this, he nodded in understanding. He was right. She must be running a restaurant or she must be a chef.

“By the way, Sister, I still have some pig offal. Do you want it?”

After putting the meat into the donkey cart, he suddenly remembered that this girl liked to eat that, so he asked.

“Yes!”

Xiaoguo nodded eagerly and got out of the donkey cart happily. She walked back again. Pig offal is good!

“Here, that’s all.” The boss brought the basket to Xiaoguo so that she could see for herself.

Xiaoguo took a closer look and resisted the stench of feces. There were large intestines, two pieces of pig liver, a pair of pig lungs, and a pig’s head.

“Brother, are you selling all these?”

Xiaoguo had taken a fancy to these things. Pig lungs and pig liver as a cold dish. The fragrance of cooked pig head meat was running through her mind. These were all hard to come by.

“You want the pig head too?” The boss looked at Xiaoguo strangely. The Tomb Sweeping Festival had already passed. Why would she need this? It wasn’t like she had to worship the heavens.

“I’ll take them all.”

Xiaoguo nodded. She was almost drooling. It had been a long time since she had eaten pig head meat.

Feeling puzzled, the boss loaded everything into the car for her and charged Xiaoguo a very low price for everything.

After making payment, Xiaoguo carried on shopping with her purse in hand.

On the way, she came across other stalls selling other types of meat. She did not even look at them. It was mainly because she had overspent today. She had not planned to buy so much meat, but when she saw them, her mouth worked faster than her heart, so she ended up spending beyond her expectations.

As expected, women couldn’t stop when they were shopping.

She also bought some vegetables, but she didn’t buy too much. After some time, she would have to plant more vegetables. By then, she would have enough at home.

Along the way, Xiaoguo didn’t bump into anyone selling flower seeds. However, there were quite a number of people selling vegetable seeds. There was no hurry to buy those now, so Xiaoguo didn’t buy any. She continued walking along the road.

She went to buy a lot of other things and filled the cart to its brim. When they left the market, the donkey cart could barely move forward.

At this moment, the old man selling vegetables at the entrance of the market saw Xiaoguo and asked.

“Did you get the flower seeds?”

“No.”

Xiaoguo shook her head and spoke loudly.

Unexpectedly, the old man smiled. “They’re not for sale now! They’ll be available at the big fair!”

After reminding Xiaoguo kindly, he packed up his stall and prepared to go home.