Chapter 6 To Buy Seeds

Lin Luoran throws her dirty clothes into the garbage truck and jumps onto a bus, heading to her destination. Compared with busy streets, the air is stuffier in the crowded bus. Lin Luoran gets on the bus without hesitation since she has got the bead. She doesn’t notice any foul air, but the atmosphere is strange. Why is everybody looking at her? With the plan of making a fortune in her mind, Lin Luoran completely forgets that her appearance has changed. Even though her clothes are still cheap and plain, her delicate cheeks and bright eyes make her stand out. Lin Luoran is beautiful but shabby. If it happened to other girls like her, they might be harassed on this crowded bus. However, Lin Luoran has the bead, and with her cleansed bone marrow and cleared meridians, she is no longer an ordinary woman. She wears a gentle expression together with noble righteous temperament. Normal people won’t even dare to look right at her. R City is the capital of S Province. As the well-known center of leisure, it has a large population. Pedestrians and cars fill the broad street, so the bus has to drive slowly. Lin Luoran transfers between buses two times and finally arrives at her destination. It is the outlet store of a large seed company in R City. There are two small shops in which façades are painted green. Lin Luoran used to buy rice and vegetable seeds for her family and fellow villagers. The price of seeds here is reasonable, and the quality is pretty good, so she is willing to come a long way here to buy seeds. Seed is not people’s daily necessities. It is natural that the store only has a good turnover in planting seasons. Now, there is no one shopping in neither of the two shops. A plump lady in uniform is texting under the counter. Standing one meter away from the counter, Lin Luoran clears her throat to draw the sales lady’s attention. The lady immediately puts down her phone and puts on a professional smile. She is shocked as she looks up and sees Lin Luoran. “This girl is so pretty. Her skin and temperament are so much better than mine.” The sales lady thinks to herself. However, she doesn’t feel jealous as she does when seeing other pretty girls. It certainly has something to do with Lin Luoran’s noble temperament. “Belle, do you want some seeds? Do you need my recommendation?” The sales lady calls Lin Luoran “belle”. This is not a compliment. People in R City are passionate, and workers in the service industry will call every female customer “belle” and male customer “handsome”. Lin Luoran has prepared for this. She smiles and replies, “Do you have small tomato seeds?” “You mean cherry tomatoes?” The sales lady asks for confirmation. “Ah. Yeah, yes!” Baojia has corrected her a million times that it was called “cherry tomato”. Still, Lin Luoran can’t get rid of her habit of calling it small tomatoes… The sales lady understands what Lin Luoran wants, and she takes out a little bag of cherry tomato seeds after rummaging through the shelf. In recent years, business has been bad. The seed company used to despise this kind of small purchase, but it has started to make smaller bags of seeds. “How much area does this bag of seeds cover?” Although Lin Luoran comes from the countryside and she used to help her family do farm work when she was a child, she is not an expert, for she does spend most of her time studying. “It seems to be a little bag, but the seeds can cover more than a half-acre of land.” The sales lady is patient because explaining to the customers is also a part of her job. Half-acre…It’s more than enough. Even if she demolishes that little cabin, there will only be half-acre of land in that space. If she plants cherry tomatoes for such a large patch, there will not be any more land for other vegetables. Nevertheless, all of this is just her disguise. She then asks for a dozen of more seeds of cabbage, celtuce, and spinach, etc. All the seeds only cost her about 100 yuan. Indeed, she doesn’t buy a lot. The sales lady packs the seeds and finds this pretty customer still wandering in front of the counter. She asks, “Do you need anything else? We are a big seed company. Though the store is small, we do have a good variety of seeds.” “Do you have wild ginseng seeds?” Lin Luoran pretends to be embarrassed, but she is looking forward to getting a positive reply from the saleslady. Right. Lin Luoran never intends to make a fortune by growing vegetables. She doesn’t see herself as a protagonist, and it would be a big problem to explain the source of the vegetables. It is not the first time for the sales lady to meet such an amateur customer. However, because this one is pretty and unpretentious, she smiles and explains, “Belle, wild ginseng is worth a lot, but its seeds are cheap. Few people except researchers will collect them. Also, you can’t call cultivated ginseng wild. But we do have ginseng seeds of a species called “prospect”. It costs 720 yuan per kilogram. The “prospect” ginseng is very much similar to wild ginseng. Do you want some?” Lin Luoran is ashamed that she just made a fool of herself, but she is aware that there is a considerable price difference between cultivated ginseng and wild ginseng. Should she take the second-best option? “Can I have a look at the seeds? Someone else asked me to buy some, so I’d better check out the quality first.” Lin Luoran leaves herself a way out. The sales lady rummages through the shelf for quite a long time and finally finds the ginseng seeds. These seeds are put aside since few people might come asking for them. Lin Luoran grasps some seeds and concentrates on them. She is disappointed. There is only a thin wisp of green smoke insides of these seeds, indicating their lack of spirit. Lin Luoran is not sure whether these ginsengs can be sold as wild ginseng even if she cultivates these in that space. She looks around, and a small plastic bag of seeds on the counter catches her attention. It is a zipper bag with a few seeds in it. Those seeds are emitting thick green smoke but look very similar to the ginseng seeds in her hands… Lin Luoran’s heartbeat races. Those must be good stuff! “Are those ginseng seeds?” Lin Luoran points at the zipper bag and asks, pretending to be careless. With her excellent eyesight, Lin Luoran can count clearly that there are seven seeds in the bag. The plump sales lady turns back and glances at the bag. She says without much thinking, “Those are also ‘prospect’ ginseng. They are probably the sample some customers asked for then forgot to take away. You can bring those back to your friend to have a look if needed.” The sales staff of the seed company deal with seeds every day so they can recognize the species of seeds that look very alike in the eyes of amateurs. Therefore, the sales lady can immediately tell that those are ginseng seeds that are similar to “prospect” ginseng seeds. Lin Luoran’s plan works out. She holds back the pleasure and leaves the store with all the vegetable seeds as well as that small bag of ginseng seeds. She passes by a tall guy as getting out of the door. Lin Luoran doesn’t pay any attention to him, but the tall guy can’t help having a second look at her. He thinks to himself, “it is true that people always say there are lots of beautiful girls in R City. Maybe it is not so bad to be banished to this place!” Lin Luoran has got the seeds she wants. Unprecedentedly, she calls for a taxi as soon as she gets out of the store, rather than taking the crowded bus. In less than a minute, the tall guy comes out in a hurry. All he can see is the heavy traffic. There is not even a shadow of Lin Luoran. “She leaves so fast! Damn it.” The tall guy stamps his feet in front of the store. The plump sales lady also comes out with anxiety on her face. “General Manager, I … I really don’t know those are seeds of wild ginseng…” She flushes bright red. She makes such a big mistake when she even doesn’t get a clear picture of the new manager. What can she do? The tall guy almost pass out! “They are just not ordinary wild ginseng seeds! Those are the seeds of 500-year-old wild ginseng! Wild ginseng seeds are rare, let alone seeds of 500-year-old ginseng… There is no point in telling you this now. They are already gone!” Hearing this, the sales lady forgets about her knowledge that cultivated wild ginseng is not “wild”. Guilt and fear fill her mind, nearly making her cry. Seeing that the sales lady is about to cry, the tall guy’s headache gets worse, “Forget it. It’s my fault. Just go back to work…” He asks the sales lady to go back, but the bad look on his face does ruin his good appearance. “I shouldn’t have gone after that lady and ask for her number… God! Does it mean I have to stay here longer? Who on earth takes away my ginseng seeds? Ahh!” The tall guy laments in regret. A sparrow is astonished by him, so is the passengers. People all dodge him, which makes him look worse. ****** In the meantime, Lin Luoran sneezes out of no reason. Country people always say that sneezing out of no reason means that someone is talking about you behind your back. Lin Luoran can’t figure this out. Are her parents back at home missing her? Lin Luoran thinks that she should visit her parents after a while. She smiles and feels satisfied with the seeds in her pocket.