The ins & outs of the world here, translated…
It’d rained, real hard, these past couple of days, the leafy greens are not only small and ugly, the prices also had, skyrocketed, my husband who was born and raised in Hsintien, followed his grandmother around in the marketplaces, which places has the best deals for what, nobody knows better than he does.
Because my coworker is coming over, we’d gone, early, to the marketplace to shop for groceries, and the shop owners who knew us well are used to seeing my husband, by the stands, picking and choosing the produces, they’d raised up those butcher knives, as they’d chopped the meats and fishes to smaller pieces, and said hi to me, who’s hiding far off.
Seeing how agile they are, at what they were doing, I couldn’t help, but imagine up a reality show, where all the vendors would, enter into competition, to see who chops one whole chicken up the best; mmmmmmmmmmmmm, I’m thinking, it would take, NO longer than just thirty seconds then, and, the competition would definitely be on that’s for sure.
But this time, my husband had, gone overboard, it’s just six people being served total, and it’s, as if, he’s moving the ENTIRE marketplace back home, he bought a ton of meats, veggies, fruits, as well as fish, but he didn’t find the shrimps, he’d become, dissatisfied, said he was turning around, to get some crabs, and, he’d shopped to the point, that I was, about to become, furious.
On the way back, we’d passed through this elderly woman’s stand, my husband saw, that it had the green bell peppers he’d liked, he’d immediately, turned the car back, to ask how much it’d cost. The elderly woman asked my husband, if he’d lived on so-and-so street? My husband told her, that that, was where we used to live, the elderly woman said, “no wonder you looked familiar!” at which time, there was, a well-dressed middle-aged woman who came to buy some carrots, she’d struck up a conversation with me; she said, the elderly woman is in the dusk years of her life, and her sons are all very well achieved, they’d all tried persuading her, to head out to travel more, and some had even thought, that the elderly woman made a TON of money, selling her vegetables, actually she’d sold her items, way too cheap, and sometimes, she wouldn’t even, break even………as my husband her, he’d laughed and said, that she must be selling the vegetables, to keep her mind and body fit! Whilst we were engaging in conversation, the elderly woman hauled a HUGE bag of chili peppers, garlic, unshelled peanuts, a gigantic pumpkin, and six large bags of oranges onto our car.
Wow, I’m about, to get PISSED off here! Why the HECK did you have to buy that much?
My husband had the innocent look on his face, told me, he’d only bought fifty dollars N.T.’s worth of chili peppers, the rest, were, free, from the elderly woman. How’s that possible, it won’t do at all! I’d gone off the car, stuffed the money into the elderly woman’s hand, but, she refused to take the money from me no matter what, and, in the end, I’d admitted to defeat. After I got in the car, I found, that tears, were coming out from my husband’s eyes.
We were both, stunned by how passionate the elderly woman was. My husband told me, that he didn’t know if it was because the elderly woman knew his grandmother, or that she mistook him for someone else, because she’d acted, as though she’d met the man who once saved her life, and, felt compelled, to give back what she can, to him. I looked over at the filled up backseat worth of vegetables, fruits, and that large pumpkin, I felt, a mixture of feelings, and, not knowing how to respond, we felt stumped, and, we were both, crying, from everything happening so fast. What moved us though, was not the enormous amount of fruits and vegetables that the elderly woman stuffed toward us, but the values of the last generations, of how when you were shown kindness from someone, you shall, show twice the kindness to the person back.
After we got home, I’d, immediately made some pumpkin soup, it tasted, especially savory, and, that warmth from inside of both of us, lasted, longer, than the sweetness of the squash in our mouths!
And so, this, is what’s happening, at the local marketplaces here, because the elderly generations are very well connected to the society, they interacted with each other every single day, and so, the vendors and the shoppers became like friends, and, this, usually happens, in the traditional Chinese marketplaces, you can’t find this sort of interaction in supermarkets.
from the papers…
Life, the Obstacle Course 