Baozi Xishi's Struggle

Chapter 294 Two Dying Seedlings

Shen Yu was not used to walking in high wooden clogs, so he simply brought an extra pair of shoes in his cloth bag. He walked to the door of the spice shop, changed into clean shoes, and then walked in.

There were no customers in the shop. There were only the shopkeeper Chen from the South and the shop owner. They were sitting at a small table under the shop window, checking the accounts and making occasional entries in the account book with a pen.

The clerk who came in the morning was leaning against the counter, staring at the rain outside in a daze. When he saw Shen Yu coming in, he hurried out to greet her and took her to see the store owner.

When the shopkeeper Chen saw Shen Yu, he greeted her with a smile: "Miss Shen, I brought you the chili peppers you asked for. They are alive."

As he said that, he asked his servant to move over the two potted flower trees that were placed in the corner of the warehouse, along with a small cloth bag that was placed together with the flower trees.

The waiter responded and went. After a while, he came in carrying a small bamboo basket in one hand and a small cloth bag in the other.

Shen Yu was originally full of expectations, thinking that he would see two potted pepper plants full of small peppers.

My heart sank when I saw the guy coming over with such a small bamboo basket.

When the waiter put the bamboo basket on the table, Shen Yu leaned over to take a look and was about to cry.

The so-called pepper trees are only two very short ones, planted in an earthenware pot.

Each tree is less than a foot tall, thin and small, with wilted leaves, as if it is about to die.

There are three small peppers hanging pitifully on the branches. Although they are red, the skin is a little wrinkled.

Shen Yu touched the leaves with his hand. The leaves were already dry. Even if he took them back, he probably wouldn't be able to keep them alive.

The only thing that comforted Shen Yu was that this hot pepper was the chili pepper she had been longing for.

Shen Yu couldn't help feeling disappointed, and pursed his lips, not knowing what to say for a moment.

Boiled pork slices, Maoxuewang, spicy chicken, and Mapo tofu.

All those delicious spicy foods that had been spinning in my mind since morning, like beautiful soap bubbles, burst mercilessly with a "pop" when I saw these three peppers.

The shop owner looked at Shen Yu's joy when he entered the store, and then his disappointment after seeing the flower trees, and he couldn't help but feel a surge of justice.

He felt that he was a middleman and had the responsibility to be responsible to both parties in the contract, so he asked Shopkeeper Chen: "Can this be called a flower tree? Is your flower tree only this tall?"

"Manager Chen, we have been working together for many years. I trust you, so I acted as a guarantor. It is unreasonable for you to use these two dying seedlings to fool Miss Shen."

Shopkeeper Chen knew he was in the wrong, so he just smiled and quickly handed over the small cloth bag at hand: "Miss Shen, don't be disappointed, take a look at what's inside first, and then listen to my explanation."

Shen Yu dejectedly took the small cloth bag handed over by Manager Chen, opened it and saw that it was filled with half a bag of dried chilies.

Each dried chili is small, with wrinkled skin and dryness. Some are dark red, and some are withered yellow. Judging from their shapes, they are the same variety as the chili pepper in the pot.

Thinking that the chili bonsai I was growing had died, I picked all the chili peppers on it, whether red or green, and dried them.

Shen Yu roughly counted them and found there were about twenty or thirty of them. He picked up one and broke it with a little force. The round and small pepper seeds inside were exposed and fell into the cloth bag.

Shen Yu was delighted. Even if he didn't have living chili plants, seeds would be fine.

I just don’t know if these pepper seeds are ripe and whether they can survive being grown here.

Shopkeeper Chen talked about his experience of buying chili peppers in the south.

It turned out that when Manager Chen arrived in the south, the weather was very hot.

When he had purchased the goods he needed and was ready to leave, he rushed to the ship to buy two pepper trees.

As a result, the people on the boat told him that the weather here was too hot and most of the pepper trees could not survive. There were only three pots left, which was not very good.

If Shopkeeper Chen wanted it, he could just pay fifty cents and take it away. It would also save them the trouble of cleaning up the empty flower pots, and he could just consider it the price of a clay flower pot.

Shopkeeper Chen looked at the few surviving pepper trees.

Each tree is less than a foot tall, with a few green chili fruits hanging on it. They are thin and small, and it is unknown how long they can live.

Shopkeeper Chen was hesitant, worried that these pots of pepper trees would not last for a few more days. He looked at the dozen or so pots of pepper trees next to him that had been dried into firewood and asked if he could pick the pepper fruits.

The people on the boat said that there were plenty of these pepper flowers in their hometown, and there was no use in keeping them. If Manager Chen liked them, he could just pick them all.

Shopkeeper Chen thought that there were seeds inside the pepper fruits, so he collected some dried pepper fruits. If these pots of pepper flowers died on the way, he could bring the seeds back, which would also be an explanation to Miss Shen.

Shopkeeper Chen bought the three pots of chili peppers and put them on the truck along with other goods. After a bumpy ride, only these two were left.

When Manager Chen said this, he naturally concealed the fact that he only used fifty silver coins to buy three potted flower trees.

He laughed dryly and said, "Miss Shen, although this pepper tree is a little smaller, it is still alive after all."

"Look, I worked so hard to bring it back to you. Even if I don't get any credit, I still worked hard."

"What's more, I brought you a bag of seeds. If they grow well, you'll have a jalapeno tree. I've fulfilled my promise and brought you two jalapeno trees."

For a moment, Shen Yu felt that what he said made sense.

As long as you have the seeds, you can plant them, and then you can achieve freedom for the peppers.

I originally asked Manager Chen to bring the pepper trees here because I wanted to grow peppers.

But in modern times, when we go to farmhouses, we are used to seeing large pepper plants full of peppers planted in vegetable gardens, but we didn’t expect that the pepper flower that Manager Chen brought back was so small.

Fortunately, there are still twenty or thirty dried chilies. If I peel out the seeds, there should be quite a few left.

Shen Yu pondered secretly and did not answer for a while.

Seeing that Shen Yu didn't say anything, the shop owner thought that Miss Shen was dissatisfied with the small size of the tree and felt sorry for the deposit she paid, so he tried to smooth things over and said, "Shopkeeper Chen, how about this? I'll be the middleman and say something fair."

"Although you brought back the chili pepper trees, the leaves of these two trees are so wilted that they can't survive."

"You promised to bring back two pots of living pepper trees, lush and full of fruit."

"With two trees like this, how are you going to ask Miss Shen to pay you the rest of the money?"

"You did bring back dried chili peppers, but no one has ever grown these foreign flower seeds, and no one can guarantee whether they will survive."

"How about this? The seeds and the pot of flowers will be counted as the price of one plant. I'll let Miss Shen pay you another five taels of silver. How do you think?"

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