I Awakened to a Farming TALENT

## Chapter 58: The Little Girl Selling Osmanthus

After her friend left, Jiang Tingyun felt a little lost. But she quickly pulled herself together.

Qionghua Eatery had to keep running. Her lazy money-making business had to continue.

Even though there weren't many extra expenses in the countryside, everyone at Qionghua Sect was a big eater. She had to make money to feed them.

After a moment's thought, she pulled out her phone and posted a message in the WeChat group.

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**【Qionghua Eatery - Chef Jiang: We're reopening for business tomorrow!】**

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Soon, messages started pinging nonstop.

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**【Wanzi Loves Junjun: Boss, you're finally open! I haven't eaten your food for days—I miss it so much.]**

**【Bro Jie: Boss Jiang, after disappearing for so many days, you should at least make some serious dishes to make it up to us.]**

**【Yue: Boss, you're finally reopening!!! I thought you'd quit.]**

**【Qionghua Eatery - Chef Jiang: Why would I quit?]**

**【Yue: Like, because your cooking is so good that a Michelin-starred restaurant in the big city poached you to make big money!]**

**【Qionghua Eatery - Chef Jiang: You flatter me. I'm just an ordinary little farmhouse restaurant owner. Smiley face.]**

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Even though she'd been away for a few days, seeing how everyone in the group was looking forward to new dishes made her genuinely happy.

Running a small restaurant was indeed busy and tiring, but luckily, her awakened talent was incredibly useful. Her vegetables grew well, her cooking tasted good, and it always attracted customers.

She loved this kind of peaceful, ordinary life.

...

What to cook and sell tomorrow?

Jiang Tingyun looked at the piles of pumpkins, sweet potatoes, chestnuts, and acorns all over the floor.

These things stored well. Letting them sit for a while to let the starch settle would only make them taste better.

The acorns, though, she could dry out early. Later, she could remove the shells, grind them into powder, and make acorn jelly.

She spread the acorns out to dry. Since it was still early, she decided to go to the market and see if there were any seasonal ingredients she could cook and sell tomorrow.

Jiang Tingyun drove her little tricycle to the town market.

The Fenghuang Town market had a morning session and an evening session. Besides the indoor market, many farmers sold their produce outside, forming a fairly large indoor-outdoor market.

Jiang Tingyun parked her tricycle and was about to walk in when she noticed the entrance was unusually lively.

Several farmers—some carrying shoulder poles, others holding oilcloth bags or bamboo baskets—were gathered there.

Before she even got close, she smelled the strong fragrance of osmanthus.

"Twelve yuan per catty! Twelve yuan per catty for fresh osmanthus!" a man with a heavy Cantonese accent called out loudly.

So they were selling osmanthus!

Thanks to the local climate, the osmanthus here was just as famous as that from Suzhou or Zhejiang Province. It turned out that out-of-province merchants came here to buy it too.

Jiang Tingyun watched with interest. She also wanted to buy some osmanthus.

Even though many people grew the trees, and they were common along the roadsides, picking, collecting, and sorting the flowers was quite troublesome.

But maybe because she looked young and unfamiliar, no one paid her any attention as she walked around.

The Cantonese merchant weighed and paid quickly. After a few rounds, his pickup truck was piled with several bags of osmanthus, and the crowd around him dispersed.

He had finished buying.

Disappointed, Jiang Tingyun was about to leave when she saw a little girl clutching a basket, running over as fast as she could.

She struggled to communicate with the Cantonese merchant for a bit, but he shook his head and drove off in his pickup.

The little girl crouched down, looking disappointed.

"Are you selling these osmanthus flowers?" Jiang Tingyun walked over to her.

The little girl's basket contained some osmanthus—not a large amount, but the flowers were plump, golden in color, and quite clean.

The little girl looked up in surprise, revealing a pair of bright, beautiful eyes. "Yes! I'm selling these!"

Then she lowered her gaze slightly. "There's just not much. That boss didn't want it."

"Then sell it all to me. I can use it for cooking," Jiang Tingyun said with a smile.

The little girl's eyes lit up like flames. "Okay! I'm only selling for ten yuan per catty. There's about two catties here. Just give me twenty yuan."

Jiang Tingyun handed her a large bill, then pulled a big plastic bag out of her pocket, poured the osmanthus in, and tied a simple slipknot.

She stood up, but the little girl was holding the money with a troubled look. "Miss, I can't make change."

Jiang Tingyun guessed the little girl was probably no more than ten years old. In this slightly cool October weather, she was wearing a thin T-shirt that had been washed almost to white, and cracked summer sandals on her feet.

She didn't want to take the change, but she also didn't want to hurt the girl's precious pride.

So she said softly, "I don't have small change. Keep the money as a deposit. If you have more osmanthus later, I'll buy it."

The little girl immediately broke into a big smile. "Really? There's still a lot left on the tree in our yard, but it's too high for me to reach."

Jiang Tingyun had put herself in a bind. She had wanted to help this girl out, but she didn't actually need this much osmanthus.

She was afraid that if she left now, the little girl would take her seriously and come out with more osmanthus to find her. She was so young—it wouldn't be safe.

Jiang Tingyun thought for a moment and asked, "Where do you live?"

The little girl pointed to an alley inside the market, where there were some old houses.

"The second door down that way is our house."

"Is anyone home? I'll bring my friend to your house to collect osmanthus," Jiang Tingyun said, making up her mind to just buy all the osmanthus from her family.

She could make osmanthus honey, osmanthus cakes, osmanthus-glazed lotus root, osmanthus ribs, osmanthus pork—countless osmanthus-based dishes flashed through her mind.

That way, she could sell dishes and also help the girl.

The little girl jumped up happily. "Yes! My grandmother is home!"

Jiang Tingyun quickly called Jin Feifan. Knowing he was at a nearby scrap yard looking for odds and ends, she told him to bring some oilcloth and a large steelyard scale and meet her at the market.

Jin Feifan arrived quickly.

He handed over the items, completely confused. "Sect Master, what do you need all this for?"

Jiang Tingyun scratched her head and smiled sheepishly. "I'm buying some osmanthus for cooking. Let's go—follow this little sister to her house and knock down some osmanthus."

The little girl skipped ahead, leading the way. Just a few dozen meters away, they turned a corner and entered a small alley.

The road was narrow, lined with old, shabby single-story houses, each with a not-very-large yard.

The little girl pushed open one of the yard gates and called out loudly, "Grandma!! I sold the osmanthus! And there's a sister here to buy some too!"

A moment later, a woman who looked to be in her fifties came out of the house. Her face wasn't particularly old, but her legs were extremely unsteady. She leaned forward, took tiny steps, and wobbled with every movement.

She had placed a bamboo-backed chair in front of her and was using it for support, her hands gripping the back of the chair as she shuffled along.

But the bamboo chair was too light and awkward, making her progress difficult.

"Xiao Qiu, come here first."

The woman waved the little girl over and looked warily at Jiang Tingyun and Jin Feifan.

Jiang Tingyun quickly and awkwardly raised the steelyard scale in her hand and explained, "Hello, we're here to buy some osmanthus."

The woman was silent for a moment. Then she pointed to the osmanthus tree in the yard and said, "My legs aren't good. Get a stick and knock it down yourselves."