Chapter 42: Spices, White Steamed Buns, and Fatty Pork

Chapter 42: Chapter 42: Spices, White Steamed Buns, and Fatty Pork

After much thought, Yun Zhen decided to gift two pounds of pork to each of the kindhearted people who had helped her. It wouldn’t be so much that they would feel embarrassed to accept it, nor would it be so little that it seemed stingy. She thought of everyone she knew.

Sister Huang was the first person she had met in this world and the first to show her kindness. She had even found her a good place to stay; without her, Yun Zhen wouldn’t be where she was today.

Sister Lin and Brother Zhao had also busied themselves running around to help her.

Mr. Gao was a respectable and good teacher who unreservedly imparted his knowledge to her, answering every one of her questions with great patience.

Sister-in-law Liu and Brother Yang—one saved all the vegetable leaves for her, and the other made an exception to include her in the staff meals.

Granny Qin had given her another source of income.

Then there was the security guard; although he was following Granny Qin’s instructions, she still needed his nod of approval every time she entered the residential complex. She heard he also had a partner.

And finally, the three cafeteria ladies, who always gave her heaping portions of food. Whenever there was meat, they would add a little extra to her plate, and when she felt too shy to take fruit, they would stuff a bunch into her hands.

That made exactly twelve people! Twelve people, two pounds of meat each, meant twenty-four pounds in total. That left her with one hundred and seventy-six pounds.

She packed the pork meant for the kindhearted folks into clean plastic bags, planning to take the rest back to the village.

After heading downstairs, she bought another hundred pounds of rice as usual.

Halfway through her shopping, Yun Zhen suddenly caught a whiff of a peculiar, fragrant aroma. Following the scent, she stumbled upon a spice shop.

Seeing a customer enter, the owner smiled and asked, "Looking for seasonings, miss? I have spices for any dish you want to cook. They’re at wholesale prices, much cheaper than anywhere else."

She realized that "seasonings for cooking" simply meant spices. The terminology was just different between the two worlds. She couldn’t fully recognize the words on the packaging, so she asked, "Sir, do you have any spices for making braised pork?"

The owner briskly handed her several palm-sized packets and explained, "It’s one dollar a pack. How many do you want? A large pack is ten dollars and has twelve small bags inside; it’s a better deal."

Normally, in her world, spices were incredibly expensive—even costlier than meat. A pound cost at least fifty or sixty cents. Farming families would only buy coarse salt and vinegar, and if they were feeling extravagant, they might buy a pound of soy sauce. Because of this, their dishes tended to be rather bland.

She hadn’t expected the spices here to be so much cheaper than back home. Overjoyed, she squeezed the spice packets and noticed the contents were liquid.

The owner took out two loose spice packets. "If you buy a large pack, I’ll throw in two regular meat-boiling spice packs for free."

"I’ll take a large pack," Yun Zhen said.

No matter how she calculated it, the large pack was the better bargain. Aside from the two free packets the owner was offering, if she only used one small packet of braised pork spice for enough meat to feed the entire village, no one would probably even taste it.

The owner pulled off a plastic bag. "Alright, I’ll pack this up for you. Do you need anything else?"

"No, thank you."

Yun Zhen walked out with her pile of spices. In the blink of an eye, she spotted a steamed bun shop. The owner called out, "Miss, want to buy some steamed buns? There’s a discount if you buy a lot. These big buns are fresh out of the steamer and still hot."

GRUMBLE.

Yun Zhen had been so busy that she almost forgot she had gone to the supermarket with Li Mei that afternoon. She hadn’t made it back to the cafeteria in time for dinner, and now her stomach was growling with hunger.

"How much for a hundred and thirty buns?" she asked.

"You want that many?" the owner exclaimed in surprise. She had only meant to tempt the girl into buying a few; she never expected her to instantly become a massive customer.

The owner thought for a moment. "They’re usually fifty cents a piece. Since you want over a hundred, I’ll charge you thirty cents each. Consider it a closing-time special."

The owner started poking and pressing buttons on a small device. Yun Zhen knew this contraption could do calculations and even speak; it was probably this world’s version of an abacus.

"That’ll be thirty-nine dollars in total," the owner finalized.

Last time, she had spent forty dollars on steamed buns. This time, it was a dollar cheaper. She had snagged a deal. Yun Zhen counted out forty dollars, and the owner handed back one dollar in change.

She had earned nine hundred and twelve dollars today. Buying cotton cost six hundred dollars, rice was a hundred, spices were ten, and the buns were thirty-nine. In total, she had spent seven hundred and forty-nine dollars, leaving her with one hundred and sixty-three.

Oh... she still had fifty cents left unspent from before. That meant she had exactly one hundred and sixty-three dollars and fifty cents on her.

Carrying her numerous bags, she returned to the dormitory and silently chanted, "Return."

After Yun Zhen left, none of the villagers had returned to their homes. Following her instructions, they waited in the thatched hut, sitting around and chatting idly. They alternated between crying and laughing uproariously. They wept because the heavens refused to give them a way to survive, the heavy snow falling endlessly. Yet, they laughed because their village had produced a Goddess, finally giving them all a lifeline.

THUMP THUMP THUMP!

The commotion this time was much louder than when the cotton had smashed onto the ground earlier. The villagers stood up instinctively.

Indeed, the Goddess had appeared. She stepped out from a halo of pure, holy white light.

"The Goddess has returned!" everyone cheered, overjoyed to see her.

Yun Zhen’s parents puffed up with immense pride; their daughter was the savior of the entire village.

A sharp-eyed villager exclaimed in delight, "What did the Goddess bring? Are my eyes playing tricks on me? Big white steamed buns?"

"They really are! Oh my heavens, I’m still dreaming about the white buns we had last time! They were as white as snow and as soft as Yun Duo. They tasted far more delicious than the ones sold in town, and they even had a hint of sweetness to them!"

"After eating that bun last time, I had such a good night’s sleep. With food in my belly, I could finally sleep soundly."

Yun Zhen took one bun for herself and handed the rest to the village chief. "Mr. Village Chief, please distribute the buns to everyone. Just like last time, one for each person."

The village chief accepted them with both hands. "Yes, Goddess."

The crowd grew increasingly excited.

"Thank you for your grace, Goddess! You bought us big white buns again!"

"The Goddess has such a merciful heart!"

Regardless of age or gender, everyone emotionally expressed their gratitude to Yun Zhen. Infected by their enthusiasm, Yun Zhen felt a warm glow in her heart.

She then brought up the pork. "I have more good news."

The Goddess was speaking again. Everyone forced their eyes away from the big white buns and turned their attention back to Yun Zhen.

"I won a prize from a shop in the Immortal Realm."

"Two hundred pounds of pork!"

BOOM—

The declaration struck them like a deafening thunderbolt. The villagers were collectively dumbfounded. The big white steamed buns were instantly tossed to the back of their minds. Only one sentence echoed through their heads.

"Two hundred pounds of pork!!!"

"Ah!" someone shrieked, losing their voice to sheer excitement.

The entire village erupted into wild ecstasy! No one could remain calm in that moment.

The village chief trembled with excitement but still managed to rein in the villagers. "Keep your voices down! Do not startle the Goddess!"

The crowd immediately fell silent, but their overwhelming excitement had nowhere to go. They shook all over, their eyes burning with fanatic zeal. The corners of their mouths twitched upward uncontrollably, painting a picture of absolute, delightful shock.

Yun Zhen said gently, "Mr. Village Chief, don’t hold everyone back. This is indeed something worth getting excited about. We are all from Taoyuan Village, and most of us here are from impoverished families who haven’t tasted a speck of meat in three to five years. Even for the more well-off families before the snow disaster, eating meat wasn’t a frequent occurrence. When I got my hands on these two hundred pounds of pork, I wasn’t much calmer than you all are right now."

Yun Xiu crouched down and rummaged through a few of the bags, noticing that they contained both meat and bones. "This meat is prime stuff. Why didn’t you sell it to the people of the Immortal Realm? Two hundred pounds of meat would cost five or six taels of Silver in our mortal world. Since prices are low and incomes are high in the Immortal Realm, you probably could’ve sold this for quite a bit of money."

"Dad, you don’t understand. The Immortal Realm lacks neither food nor drink, and that includes meat. They don’t actually like eating meat all that much."

Yun Zhen proceeded to tell the villagers about Li Mei. The villagers were both shocked and utterly baffled.

"But fatty pork is so much richer and oilier than a bare pig’s trotter!"

"To think that the people of the Immortal Realm actually prefer to eat dry, bony pig trotters?"