Chapter 438 - 433: Can’t Sell

"I think her romance with Jasper Shaw is hilarious too. They talked for half an hour yesterday, and it was so awkward I almost died. And they call themselves an old married couple? Please, they’re just faking it!"

For some reason, the tone of the comment section suddenly shifted.

Simon Lawson also noticed this.

But the guests were still in the middle of a task, so after some hesitation, he decided to wait and see.

Meanwhile, Chloe Sinclair was squatting by the pond, a blue cloth in her hand, washing one radish after another. Compared to the others’ clumsiness, Chloe had already washed two full baskets.

The winter water was bone-chillingly cold, yet Chloe Sinclair seemed not to feel it, even though the backs of her hands were bright red.

Gabriel Sinclair’s heart ached seeing this.

"Chloe, aren’t your hands cold?"

Chloe Sinclair faltered for a moment, subconsciously glancing at her hands before shaking her head. "They’re not cold."

Winter in Y Province was cold. Although it didn’t snow every day like in the north, the weather was damp and chilly, and plunging one’s hands into the water could only be described as bone-chilling.

But she had been washing radishes for nearly half an hour. Though her hands were red from the cold, they were actually warm.

Fearing Gabriel Sinclair wouldn’t believe her, she held out a hand. "Here, feel for yourself if you don’t believe me."

Gabriel Sinclair was a bit skeptical.

After all, his own hands were so cold they were nearly stiff.

So, he reached out and gingerly touched his little sister’s fingertips.

They were surprisingly warm.

Gabriel Sinclair’s eyes lit up. The next second, he gripped both of Chloe Sinclair’s hands and said in disbelief, "They really are warm!"

"After you finish washing the radishes, your hands will warm up soon enough too."

With that, she stood up and stretched her back.

Her legs had gone a bit numb from squatting for so long.

The production team had only brought three stools, so everyone unanimously gave them to the three older members.

Otherwise, after a few hours of squatting, forget about selling vegetables—the three of them would probably collapse before they even finished washing the radishes.

It took the seven of them two and a half hours to wash an entire cart full of radishes.

After they finished, everyone let out a long sigh of relief.

Seeing the cart full of fresh radishes, Frank Hayes couldn’t help but remark, "When I was a kid, farm work felt so easy. I can’t believe how hard it is just to get out of bed now."

Chloe Sinclair subconsciously glanced at Gabriel Sinclair and, for some reason, found it rather amusing.

Just then, Simon Lawson popped up out of nowhere, holding a brand-new white megaphone.

Seeing the director, all seven of them turned to look.

"Director, you’re not here to pull some new stunt, are you?"

Gabriel Sinclair said bluntly.

Simon Lawson already felt a bit guilty looking at Gabriel Sinclair, and his words made him nearly lose his footing.

On the livestream, everyone could tell the camera had jerked. It was obviously startled.

"Stunt? What stunt could there be?"

His face flushed red from the public embarrassment. Simon Lawson raised the megaphone. "Next, I will announce today’s task."

"In a moment, you will draw lots to form two teams. We’ll see which team sells the most. Finally, the audience in the livestream will vote, and the one with the most votes will win a free dinner tonight."

With that, Simon Lawson turned and left, shouting as he went, "Get to it!"

After Simon Lawson left, they loaded the radishes onto the cart and headed to the vegetable market.

The seven of them split into two different locations, with the teams decided by drawing lots.

Chloe Sinclair, Yara Garrison, and Jessica Ford were in one group.

The remaining members formed the other group.

Gabriel Sinclair wasn’t exactly thrilled after drawing his lot, but he respected the result.

The two teams were selling their vegetables quite far apart, and they had to unload the radishes from the cart themselves.

The group with three men was fine. After all, men are generally stronger, and with Nina Sinclair being the only woman on their team, there was no need for her to lift a finger.

Chloe Sinclair’s team, on the other hand, was composed entirely of women. Furthermore, two of them were older, so even if they wanted to help, they didn’t have the strength.

The only one on the team who could do the heavy lifting was Chloe Sinclair.

"Maybe we should ask someone to help us carry these."

Yara Garrison and Jessica Ford were already struggling to lift one basket between the two of them.

But there were still ten baskets left in the cart, and seeing this, both women grew worried.

Chloe Sinclair glanced over, fell silent for a moment, and then said, "You two ladies can rest. I’ll take care of the rest."

???

Both women froze, looking at each other strangely.

But in the next second, Chloe Sinclair swiftly hopped onto the cart. Her eyes scanned the area, not just locking onto the basket of radishes in front of her, and then she bent down.

A basket of radishes weighing over a hundred jin was lifted with ease.

Yara Garrison and Jessica Ford: "..."

’Whoa, so badass!’

The two of them stared with their mouths agape, their eyes wide as saucers. The sheer shock on their faces showed just how stunned they were by Chloe Sinclair’s action.

But that wasn’t all. After lifting the basket of radishes, she hopped off the cart just as nimbly, and upon landing on the concrete, walked to their stall with effortless ease.

A dozen or so seconds later, she returned to move the rest.

Yara Garrison and Jessica Ford exchanged a look and couldn’t help but ask, "Isn’t it heavy?"

Chloe Sinclair turned back, and on camera, her eyes were clearly filled with confusion.

"It’s fine. Not heavy."

Yara Garrison was skeptical.

After all, that basket of radishes had looked as light as a cloud in Chloe Sinclair’s hands.

"Are you sure it’s not heavy?"

"Mhm."

Hearing this, Yara Garrison didn’t waste a second and decided to try lifting it herself.

However, she found that forget lifting it, the basket in front of her wouldn’t even budge.

Chloe Sinclair finally understood what they were getting at and quickly explained, "I have a habit of working out. I lift weights often."

The two women: "!!!"

"A young girl like you lifts weights!"

’Is lifting weights something a young girl should be doing?’

They subconsciously looked at her slender arms and legs. Her clothes hid any muscle definition, but they could still see that she had a slim and willowy figure.

Jessica Ford was thirty-eight this year but maintained her looks very well, appearing as if she were only in her early thirties. Aside from some dark circles under her eyes, she still possessed the charm of a beauty.

She watched Chloe Sinclair with an inscrutable expression for a long while before finally walking over, patting the young woman’s shoulder, and saying earnestly, "Sweetie, promise me you’ll stop lifting weights. If your fans find out, they’ll cry their eyes out."

In the comment section—

When the fans found out their idol actually liked to lift weights, they practically drowned in a sea of tears.

The comment section was filled with the sound of sobbing.

Some even posted voice messages.

"Why does my idol like to lift weights?"

"Baby, promise Mama, no more weightlifting. I don’t want to see you become a muscle Barbie!"

"Sob—Sis, I’m begging you, for exercise, just go running or do some boxing. Please don’t lift weights."

"A girl who likes to lift weights... Holy crap!"

"I’m in utter despair."

"No wonder she could lift a hundred jin so easily. Turns out she was lifting weights behind our backs."

"My coach said it was totally normal for a young woman to lift weights, but when I showed him a picture of Chloe, he told me to tell Chloe Sinclair to please, never lift weights!"

She could be a perfect little fairy, so why does she have to be a muscle Barbie?

Chloe Sinclair had no idea her fans were collectively weeping in the comment section.

Although she lifted weights, it wasn’t something she did frequently.

It was just that she was naturally much stronger than the average person, and she didn’t want anyone to get suspicious.

As for the comments online...

’This too shall pass.’

Ten minutes later, all the radishes had been unloaded from the cart.

The market was very busy today. The production team had prepared a stall for them in advance, and it happened to be in the area with the most foot traffic.

They had barely been there for a moment when people started coming over to ask about the price.

After Chloe Sinclair briskly quoted a price, an auntie who was shopping looked at the radishes with some disdain. "These are all cracked, and you’re still selling them for fifty cents a jin? I just asked elsewhere, and they were only forty cents."

Yara Garrison was stunned.

She couldn’t believe that the several thousand jin of radishes the seven of them had worked so hard to dig up yesterday were selling for only fifty cents a jin.

And on top of that, people were haggling the price down.

She was about the same age as the shopper and couldn’t help but add, "But look, we got up early this morning specifically to wash all the radishes."

The shopper looked and saw that the radishes were indeed much cleaner than the ones at other stalls, at least not covered in mud.

So, she didn’t argue further and just said, "Alright then."

With that, she picked out a few undamaged radishes.

Chloe Sinclair knew how to use the scale, so this job fell to her.

"Hello, that’ll be three-fifty."

The shopper paid without fuss and left.

After the person left, Yara Garrison finally said, "Only fifty cents a jin? How are we supposed to make any money?"

At this rate, will we even make five hundred yuan?

Chloe Sinclair sighed. "In previous years, we probably could have sold them for one yuan a jin, but I just asked around, and everyone’s selling at this price. The market really is bad this year."

The director’s team actually had a rule: they stipulated that the guests’ radishes could not be sold for less than thirty cents a jin.

Chloe Sinclair starting the bidding at fifty cents surprised Simon Lawson, who was watching from the control room.

"That girl’s got some nerve. The other stalls are at forty cents, but she dares to ask for fifty."

What Simon Lawson didn’t know was that Chloe Sinclair had quoted that price because many of their radishes were damaged from being dug up. If they didn’t start with a higher price, they’d get haggled down even more severely.

Fortunately, many people at the market noticed the cameras, and a lot of young people recognized Chloe Sinclair and the others, so making sales wasn’t too difficult.

In less than three hours, they had sold ninety percent of the thousand-plus jin of radishes.

Before they came, the production team had given them a small, worn leather pouch specifically for collecting money.

Jessica Ford was in charge of collecting the money. Watching the pouch gradually fill with cash, she felt a deep sense of satisfaction.

Even though it was filled with nothing but one- and five-yuan bills, the thought that they had earned it all through their own labor was incredibly gratifying.

In short, she was very content.

It was just that looking at the three remaining baskets of damaged radishes on the ground made her a little worried.