Her Cultivation Diary

Chapter 80: 80. A thousand yuan is almost 1

In the Lao Sun household, this was the situation—

Lao Sun’s daughter-in-law sent her granddaughter to school every morning, and then joined a few aunties to participate in free “health care” projects.

She had maintained this hobby for many years, starting from the Sun God phase to later on with Quanjian, and now she was involved with something called Xiang Mei Zhi Nei.

Lao Sun went from initially indulging her hobbies, to gradually becoming vigilant, and then to letting things take their own course, all because no matter what Lao Sun’s daughter-in-law did, she managed to be that miraculous woman who didn’t spend a penny amongst thousands!

However, this led to her spending a lot of time on these activities, so the responsibility of buying groceries at home had been Lao Sun’s for many years.

He started with just buying vegetables and, because he didn’t know how to bargain, would come home to be nagged relentlessly, but over time he learned to tell the quality of pork and whether the shelled edamame was tender or not.

But you know, being a man, he had a tendency to be careless with money. If it wasn’t for his daughter-in-law controlling his grocery budget every day, he would have tried anything that looked fresh, making him quite the trendy old fellow.

That’s right, he saw a girl selling wild vegetables one day and noticed a bunch of people his age queuing up, so he spent twenty yuan on a whim to join the excitement.

From then on, he couldn’t stop!

From scanning a code to join a group to actively responding and then waiting every day at the designated time, these vegetables had become indispensable at home.

Because of these vegetables, Lao Sun had become a die-hard fan. The day Song Tan posted about tea leaves in the group, he immediately felt a rush of excitement and spent a fortune to bring home this tael.

Of course, at night, tossing and turning, he was not without regret, but as a big man, the money had been spent; could he still go back on it?

This regret dissipated the next day at the market with just a sniff from beneath the barely unfolded paper and immediately turned into sheer joy.

After all, the serendipity and destiny involved here were too intricate to explain in detail.

But aside from all that, the tea leaves being a thousand yuan per tael was an indisputable fact. Now, faced with his daughter-in-law’s seemingly casual question, Lao Sun’s face immediately soured.

At that moment, an old buddy sitting on the couch spoke up:

“I mean… ah, this…”

He held his cup steady with one hand, standing up:

“Little sister-in-law, don’t bother anymore. I just remembered I have something to take care of at home tonight, I need to get going now.”

Then he looked at the tea in his hand as if it were an afterthought: “The tea leaves are pretty fragrant, it’s a waste leaving them here since they’ve been brewed… I’ll take them with me! I’ll bring the cup back to you later.”

While speaking, he quickly made his way to the door. His other hand carefully protected the mouth of the cup to prevent any dust from getting in.

With him setting the example, the few remaining people looked left and right and quickly stood up, then said courteously:

“Sister-in-law, about that… I mean… something at home… that is… you know, I should get going too.”

In the blink of an eye, the whole crowd was gone, and all the teacups at home were taken along with them.

What was left for Lao Sun were only the cup of tea in front of him and the accumulated water used for rinsing the tea leaves.

Lao Sun’s daughter-in-law had been all smiles, but as soon as the door closed, her face immediately drooped.

“Look at you! If you’re buying tea, just buy it. Why all the secrecy?”

“I complained for a year and you really took it to heart? Go ahead and enjoy it. How much tea can you drink in a year, after all?”

She rolled her eyes: “At most, three to five hundred yuan per jin; wouldn’t I allow even that?”

Upon hearing these words, Lao Sun first felt elated, but then he became depressed.

At that moment, the tea leaves before him were fresh and tender, the liquor clear and bright, the fragrance lingering.

But for him, the surprise and anticipation of drinking fine tea had completely vanished.

He sat there with listless eyes, stammering:

“This… this… I have some taste in tea, always drinking cheap ones doesn’t quite cut it…”

The more he said this, the more uneasy Lao Sun’s daughter-in-law felt in her heart.

Staring at him intensely, she burst out, “You didn’t go overboard and buy it for a thousand yuan per jin, did you?”

Old Sun let out a sigh of relief and immediately nodded in haste, “About right… about a thousand yuan.”

A thousand yuan.

Old Sun’s wife obviously felt a pang of heartache.

She walked over, holding the cup of tea, sniffed it again, and in the end, nodded her head:

“That’s true, you get what you pay for. If the tea is this quality, a thousand yuan isn’t out of the question.”

Then she blew on it, took a small sip, and her eyes lit up without hesitation; she took the teacup away!

“Delicious! I’ll try this cup—and hey, don’t just keep such good tea for yourself. Pack some for me tomorrow; I will let my old sisters have a taste. They took me to get a pedicure today.”

Old Sun had a look of despair, now holding the cup of tea meant for rinsing, as if he could already see his tea “flying away.”

Downstairs, a few men holding teacups looked at each other. Taking in the tea’s fragrance once more and feeling the wild spring breeze outside, they hesitated:

“Or… shall we just drink this cup now? We can take some home later.”

The group each blew on their cups and then without any hesitation—drank.

“Mmm!”

…

Late at night.

Perhaps because of the tea, Old Sun tossed and turned, sleepless and spirited.

Glancing at his wife lying motionless in bed, he thought of the little tea that he still had to share, he felt so anguished that he quietly got up, and in the dead of night, he started rummaging through the freezer in the kitchen.

He took out that small packet of tea, found a bag in the kitchen, and started to divide it little by little, the more he divided, the more heartbroken he felt.

In the end, after much thought, he couldn’t bear it and poured half of the divided tea back into the packet.

But upon closer inspection, doing so meant there was only a little left to give his wife to take out tomorrow—they would surely laugh at her.

So, he began dividing it again.

Just as he was struggling with this, his phone suddenly rang.

He checked it and saw an old buddy had sent a message in the group:

“Old Sun, where did you buy that tea? Man, it’s keeping me awake at night; I feel like I could scale a mountain!”

With that, four or five people in the group all chimed in.

But being older and it being late at night made typing difficult, so most of them sent voice messages:

“You guys can’t sleep either? Ah, this tea is so strong. I’ve been drinking for many years and am usually unaffected.”

“Exactly! Old Sun, where did you buy that tea? Hurry up and take us there!”

Old Sun instantly felt proud and replied with a voice message:

“Of course! It’s a thousand yuan for fifty grams. Would I be so generous if it wasn’t good tea?”

“Let me tell you guys, I was saying that there’s a market stall selling tasty veggies and you didn’t believe me. If you’d stayed last night, I guarantee you’d have been unable to put down your bowls!”

Towards the end, his tone became somewhat impassioned.

But upon careful listening, no other sound came from the room, and he immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

Just then!

A figure emerged from the backlight of the living room:

“Old Sun, is this tea a thousand yuan for fifty grams, or for a kilogram?”