Qiao Mei knew that for ordinary people, it was much easier to nurture flowers than growing them from seeds.
It was all the same to her though. However, those mature flowers had already been blooming for 10 years and it would be difficult to explain it if they suddenly mutated in her hands. It was a different thing if she grew them from seeds. Whatever bloomed from the seeds would have nothing to do with her.
The old man stood in front of a small shelf and looked carefully at the words written on the bags. As he was old, his eyesight was blurry and he moved much slower than young people.
Qiao Mei’s eyes lit up when she saw a label on the shelf. “These are wild camellias!”
The old man glanced in the direction where Qiao Mei was looking and said, “Oh, I almost forgot about them. I bought those seeds from an old farmer in the south. I want to use them to cultivate new breeds.”
Most new varieties were created by hybridizing wild seeds and seeds of existing varieties. After many tries, eventually there would be a likelihood for new varieties to emerge.
“But I want this!” Qiao Mei said.
The old man could not bear to part with these seeds. It had not been easy to buy them from that old farmer in the south back then, and yet this young girl wanted him to sell them to her.
“I can only give you a handful of seeds at most! One seed is 50 cents!” the old man said angrily.
He decided to sell this young girl a handful since she was so beautiful.
This bag contained camellia seeds of different sizes, but they were all much bigger than the other camellia seeds. There were not many seeds in a handful, probably only about 15 to 16.
“It’s enough, it’s enough. Thank you, old mister,” Qiao Mei said happily as she held on to the seeds.
When the old man saw how Qiao Mei treated the seeds, he was relieved. He had been worried that the young lady did not know anything and would just waste the seeds. Looking at her now, the way she cherished these seeds so much made her look like an expert.
“You’ve grown flowers before?” asked the old man.
“My family is from the countryside. I’ve planted vegetables before. Growing flowers and growing vegetables are probably quite similar,” Qiao Mei said laughingly.
When the old man heard this, he regretted what he just said. She was no expert, she was more like his enemy!
What a waste of those seeds!
After taking the seeds, Qiao Mei looked at the rows of other types of seeds on the shelf and did not feel like leaving.
“Old mister, are you selling those seeds!” Qiao Mei said.
The old man said in exasperation, “No!”
She was not here to buy flowers, she was here to cause trouble!
“Then do you buy flowers?” Qiao Mei asked.
At this point, the old man became interested. Could it be that he had made a mistake?
“I have a few pots of very nice flowers at home that I don’t have space for anymore. I’m thinking of selling them to you since it would be a pity to throw them away. Do you think you would want to buy them?” Qiao Mei asked as she looked at the old man expectantly.
The old man thought for a moment and said, “No, I don’t want to buy. We only sell them here.”
Qiao Mei immediately felt a little dejected. She had thought that this could be another way to make money, and that when these camellias matured and bloomed, she could come back and sell them to him. One camellia plant was worth 100 dollars! It was much more profitable than growing bean sprouts!
Sigh, it was too difficult to live in this era where there was no free market. The commoners could not buy and sell things privately, so it was really too difficult to earn money.
Looking at Qiao Mei’s dejected expression, the old man did not want to be too harsh. He said softly, “If the quality of your plant is good, you can leave it here with me. Whether you sell it or not is up to you. If someone wants to buy it, you can discuss it among yourselves.”
Qiao Mei immediately felt as if there was a beam of light shining on the old man.
He was like her God of Fortune! He was willing to sell them on consignment without taking any fee! Where else could she find such a good deal!
The thing was if the nursery charged her a fee, they might get into trouble.
The old man coughed twice and said, “Let me put it across bluntly upfront. The quality of your flowers and plants must be about the same as the quality of those in my nursery. They can’t be too lousy, otherwise I won’t be able to help you.”
“Thank you, old mister!” Qiao Mei said excitedly.
He was famous for being obsessed with flowers. Whenever he heard that someone had nice flowers at home, he would think of ways to go and take a look and learn from others.
If Qiao Mei really had some quality flowers, he was willing to buy them himself. If they were lousy, he would ask her to take them back and not leave them in front of him like an eyesore. If they were not too bad, he would put them in a corner to see if there were any people who were fated with them.
