Yan Fei said he was going to sell vegetables in the city, facing such weather and roads, and having to haul a cart of vegetables over 100 kilometers. It’s no wonder everyone couldn’t bear to watch him risking his life —if he didn’t have the ability to fly, it would be akin to risking his life.
Upon hearing their shouts, Yan Fei laughed: "Don’t underestimate yourselves. If you think you can keep up with me on the main road, I’ll pull you along..."
With that, he started to jog while pulling the cart.
Even Ma Chao, an honest man, was agitated by Yan Fei’s words and started to run after him in the snow. Everyone was going back to the cattle farm anyway, except for Old Cheng who stayed to look after the greenhouse, so the rest followed for the entertainment.
It was cold, and the snow hadn’t melted yet, so the road was relatively easy to walk on. Of course, running with big strides would be impossible, given the thick layer of snow. The terrain underneath was also unknown, making it unsafe.
Even so, they didn’t get far before they were tired. Running on snowy roads was much more exhausting than running three to five kilometers on normal terrain. In the end, only the mute and Gao Rui could keep up with Yan Fei’s speed.
However, after running three kilometers in the snow to the main road, their faces were full of helplessness. Whether it was uphill or downhill, Yan Fei never slowed down. If you know, moving that cart of goods in the snow isn’t easy. It’s hard enough to pull, let alone run.
Watching Yan Fei’s figure disappear into the snow, the two sighed and decided to wait in the snowy weather for Heizi and Ma Chao.
By the time everyone had gathered and returned to the cattle farm, their understanding of their young boss had deepened—who else but him could achieve wealth if not him? It’s simply unjust if he didn’t become a nouveau riche!
As it turned out, as soon as Yan Fei pulled his cart onto the provincial road, he saw large vehicles bravely making their way through the snow. With tire tracks visible on the road, he walked a distance and then disappeared with his cart when he saw no one around.
And then it was the same old routine, with a flap of his wings he reached the city.
It had been a while since he had seen the Xiang brothers, Xiang Changqing and Xiang Changsong. They barely recognized him because Yan Fei had grown taller and stronger.
They hurriedly welcomed Yan Fei into the house, poured him some hot tea, placed a stove beside him, and started to look at the vegetables.
There was an abundance which had significantly increased from when they had left Sancha River. The baskets of vegetables were originally not packed very full because of the long-distance they had to travel. They were afraid of the vegetables becoming damaged during the bumpy journey.
Upon reaching the city, Yan Fei had also picked up a lot more vegetables off Vegetable Garden Island. They were small though, and didn’t look much different from the ones grown in the greenhouse. Because the vegetables were grown in different places and had different maturity and environmental conditions, their colors were different. He unpacked the vegetables from the baskets, mixed them together, and repacked them.
The Xiang brothers understood vegetable prices very well. They never hid the price they sold for from Yan Fei, and did the same this time. They were transparent about how much they could sell for and how much they would pay Yan Fei.
Seeing that it was snowing heavily and no one else would deliver vegetables, they slightly increased the price of the vegetables for Yan Fei, only keeping a small profit for themselves.
Regardless, the Xiang brothers didn’t take all of Yan Fei’s vegetables. They suggested to him, "The weather is perfect today, don’t hurry back this morning. Take some and sell them at the entrance of the neighborhood. You can hike up the price in this weather. You can even sell at one and a half times my selling price, and they’ll sell out in half a day."
"In this marketplace, we usually deal with regular customers, so it’s inappropriate to arbitrarily inflate prices. But for you, it doesn’t matter. You’re bringing the produce right up to their doorstep, saving them the hassle of going out in the snow. Even if the price is a bit high, it won’t be a problem. Farming isn’t easy, especially lugging your produce here in this weather. I’d have trouble sleeping if it felt like I was taking too much off your hands. You’ve already endured the long journey to get here, do you think the hard work of selling the vegetables will scare you?"
The brothers also mentioned a few neighborhoods like the petroleum machinery factory’s family yard and the municipal government’s family yard, well-known affluent areas.
It seems that there are more good people in this world.
Exactly as the Xiang brothers had said, these residential areas normally did not allow vegetable sellers to enter. However, with today’s weather, there was no need to worry. Yan Fei was even hauling off-season vegetables. He just showed them to the security guard and was allowed to enter.
The security guard at the machinery factory even rubbed a green cucumber clean and began eating it. He didn’t forget to pay, and Yan Fei couldn’t refuse it: "Usually, I just take one and eat one. You’ve brought these vegetables all the way from the countryside in this weather; I should pay. Otherwise, if people found out, they’d criticize me!"
Once he entered the residential area and yelled a few times, people came pouring from the buildings in droves. Before he knew it, most of the vegetables were gone.
By the time Yan Fei entered the second community, he began to doubt the Xiang brothers’ advice.
This was a military industrial area, there were soldiers standing at the gate!
While hesitating about whether or not to enter, some locals started questioning him. It was snowing heavily and he was carrying off-the-season vegetables. Someone randomly struck up a conversation, turned around and explained something to the soldier at the gate, then motioned him in.
The Xiang brothers had initially suggested several communities, but once Yan Fei arrived at the second one and began to sell, people started to complain: "Why didn’t you bring more? That small amount would hardly feed a few households."
Yan Fei replied: "I just went to the machinery factory’s residential area and sold quite a few."
Then, to everyone’s surprise, the topic escalated to job discrimination: "Why did you go to their community first? Why are the petroleum workers higher ranked than us tank manufacturers? Our area has military factories. Next time, you should come here first..."
Yan Fei was both amused and baffled.
He could only promise that he would come to this community first next time. There was even a kind-hearted individual who accompanied him to the gate and told the soldier: "This young man has it hard, we have so few people who dare to grow greenhouse vegetables now. Next time he comes, don’t stop him. Let everyone know, he’s one of us. He’s just selling vegetables, there’s nothing to worry about."
Yan Fei left still not understanding the most crucial point: no wonder the state is strongly promoting the "vegetable basket" project. With just his cart of vegetables, he managed to open the doors of the family yard of the military factories. Normally, not only are vendors not allowed to enter, but even relatives visiting have to register and go through a lengthy process!
As he left, the soldier at the gate saluted him: "Hardworking brother farmer!"
With the money from selling vegetables in his pocket, Yan Fei happily turned around and said: "Hardworking brother soldier!"
Laughing, he pulled his cart and headed back.