When the pears are green

Song Li and Jiang Qingzhou continued walking south along the street where they had sold vegetables before. About half a quarter of an hour later, an east-west street intersected with the north-south street they were walking on.

Although it is not a market day in Heihe Town today, it is still bustling with people and very lively.

The two-story Hu Ji Restaurant is located at the southeast corner of the intersection. A large black plaque hangs on the door lintel of the restaurant, with red silk hanging on the top and the four big characters "Hu Ji Restaurant" below the red silk. A green wine sign hangs by the window on the second floor, fluttering in the wind.

At the entrance of the restaurant there is a gatehouse decorated with colorful silk, and on the left stands a half-person-high Taishan stone with the words "Taishan Shi Gan Dang" written on it.

There was a piece of red paper posted on the right, and four or five people were standing around watching.

Song Li and Jiang Qingzhou walked through the crowd and walked over quickly. A boy wearing a blue shirt and a bun was smiling and saying to everyone, "Last winter, my boss received a bunch of dried vegetables from a friend, who said they were brought from Yuezhou. My boss missed it all the time, but Yuezhou is thousands of miles away, and it's not worth sending people there for a bunch of dried vegetables. My boss once asked a friend in the caravan to bring some, but they changed their itinerary at the last minute and went to Jiangning Prefecture. My boss was disappointed, but thought that since they were both dried vegetables, the drying methods should not be much different, so he thought about buying some to see if he could find something similar."

After everyone discussed for a while, they dispersed one after another, leaving only Jiang Qingzhou, Song Li and the boy.

Song Li carefully identified the contents on the red paper. It said: Buying dried vegetables, ranging from twenty to thirty cents per pound.

Seeing that Song Li was reading it seriously, the boy thought that Song Li was illiterate, so he hurriedly said to her, "Young lady, it says that we are buying dried vegetables at 20 cents per pound."

Song Li came back to her senses and said to the boy with a smile, "Thank you. Do you buy the dried vegetables whole or chopped?"

The boy was stumped by Song Li's question. He scratched his head and said to Song Li embarrassedly, "Young lady, please wait a moment. I'll go ask." After that, the boy hurried into the restaurant.

Jiang Qingzhou asked Song Li softly: "Xiao Li, is there any difference between a whole tree and chopped pieces?" Song Li turned around and said to him with a smile: "There is no difference, it just depends on the restaurant owner's preference."

After a while, the boy ran out and said to Song Li, "Young lady, our boss said it was a whole tree."

Song Li thanked the boy, then left with Jiang Qingzhou.

After Song Li left, the boy hurried up to the second floor and said to the young man standing by the window, "Boss, this young lady asked that question just now."

After the boy finished speaking, he pointed to Song Li and Jiang Qingzhou who had just walked to the opposite side of the restaurant.

"Well, what did they say again?" asked the young man, putting his hand on the window.

The boy shook his head and said, "The young lady just thanked me and left with her husband."

The young man nodded absentmindedly, thinking that this might just be a casual question from the young lady. He didn't expect to gain anything, he just wanted to find an excuse to kill time.

After returning home, Song Li, who was resting on a stool, looked at Jiang Qingzhou who was teaching Jiang Qingye to write and said, "Qingzhou, I calculated in my mind that generally ten catties of green vegetables can be dried into one catty of dried vegetables. One catty of green vegetables costs one cent, and one catty of dried vegetables costs ten cents, not counting the cost of water, wood, labor and time. I think it's not cost-effective to sell it at twenty cents per catty. Why don't we make one catty first and try to see how much we can sell it for."

"Sister-in-law, aren't dried vegetables just vegetables that are dried under the sun? Why do you need so many green vegetables to make one pound of dried vegetables?" Jiang Qingye asked in confusion.

Jiang Qingzhou also nodded, indicating that he had the same question.

Song Li thought for a moment, then smiled and said to the two brothers, "The dried vegetables the restaurant people mentioned are not made this way. If it could be made so simply, why would they offer twenty cents for it?"

After Jiang Qingzhou heard this, he glanced at Song Li, and then said to Jiang Qingye: "Qingye, go and see if Xiaoli's bean sprouts need watering."

After Jiang Qingzhou sent Jiang Qingye away, he walked over to Song Li and asked softly, "Is Xiaoli from Yuezhou?"

Song Li was stunned for a moment, then shook her head.

"Where is Xiaoli from?" Jiang Qingzhou finally mustered up the courage to ask the question that had been in his heart for a long time.

Song Li was silent for a while, she didn't know how to answer this question.

Jiang Qingzhou squatted in front of Song Li, then held Song Li's hand and asked, "Xiao Li, don't you want to tell me?"

Song Li looked at Jiang Qingzhou's sincere eyes, she sighed and said: "It's not that I don't want to tell you, I just don't know how to tell you. Qingzhou, is it really that important where I'm from? I can't go back, are you still afraid that I'll run away?"

Song Li's words made Jiang Qingzhou laugh. He scratched Song Li's nose with his hand and said, "Of course I'm afraid that Xiao Li will run away, but even if you run to the ends of the earth, I can find you. Xiao Li, since you are not from Yuezhou, how do you know how to make dried vegetables?"

Song Li stretched out her right middle finger and quickly stroked Jiang Qingzhou's left palm. Then she smiled and said to Jiang Qingzhou, "That's how I know."

Jiang Qingzhou looked at Song Li's movements in surprise, then tried it a few more times himself and became more and more confused.

Song Li reached out and touched Jiang Qingzhou's frowning eyebrows. She whispered, "Qingzhou, there is not only a geographical gap between you and me, but also a thousand years of time between us. You only know that I borrowed Song Li's body, but you don't know that I should be a person a thousand years later, so I can't answer your question just now."

Jiang Qingzhou was stunned after hearing Song Li's words. He stood up, squatted down, stood up again, and finally hugged Song Li tightly.

Jiang Qingye, who had just finished watering the bean sprouts, happened to see this scene. He quickly covered his eyes, quietly hid back in the kitchen, then lay down by the kitchen window and secretly looked into the yard.

"Are you scared, Qingzhou? Do you think I'm a monster?" Song Li asked.

Jiang Qingzhou shook his head and whispered, "I'm not afraid. Xiaoli is not a monster. Yesterday I was thinking that Xiaoli didn't open up to me, and I felt that there was an invisible wall between you and me. It turns out that it was the thousand-year time torrent you mentioned."

"Qingzhou, it's not that I don't want to open up to you, I'm just afraid that you won't be able to understand what I say. After all, there is such a long time gap, and our consciousness and experiences are very different. You and I are like winter snowflakes meeting summer cicadas. We look beautiful to each other, but we can't imagine each other's living environment at all. I will tolerate you, will you tolerate me?" Song Li asked Jiang Qingzhou softly.

Jiang Qingzhou let go of Song Li, he looked down into her eyes and said, "Yes, I will."

Song Li blinked and said with a smile: "Qingzhou must keep his word. I'm going to cook. After dinner, let's go make dried vegetables."

Jiang Qingzhou followed Song Li and threw Jiang Qingye, who was hiding in the kitchen, out of the kitchen.