Vegetable-selling uncle who is content with what He has

Vegetable-Selling Uncle, whose family name was Lin, accompanying his parents growing and selling vegetables since childhood, which not only made him very familiar with all the things on vegetables., but also cultivated him hard-working spirit. He got up 3:00am everyday, bought goods by bulk in a wholesale market, worked till 3:00 or 4:00pm. His stall was so big that it took him plenty of time open and close it.

     Mr. Lin studied mold making in school, spent his school age half working. He gave up apprenticeship because of tough house work. Clearly, the apprenticeship depended on others for a living but he could have his own say over selling vegetables. His family used to grow vegetables for others, only pityingly to find that the numerous and pretty vegetables could limitedly make a little money, therefore they decided to do that by themselves and no longer grew any more.  The three brothers in Mr. Lin's family were all selling vegetables right now, for they considered "vegetables" necessities and profitable. Mr. Lin said that his salary was probably NT$12,000 in his school age, but now they could earn $30,000 altogether in only three days.

      Mr. Lin said he could sell a large quantity of cheap vegetables, but not as profitable as expensive ones. It was so competitive that buying goods in the wholesale market seemed like robbing. Contrarily, when it came to the situation that vegetables were too much to sell out, the shop man would figure out a way, for example, he would mention that " you have bought vegetables, cabbages attached for free", since cabbages were not dear. You had to deal, considering their income. After typhoon, he had to buy vegetables in a rush for restaurant orders and business men, regardless of the prices. Fearing of price rising, he always bought a couple of days’ share. He sometimes disliked this profession for every day’s life was similar, but sometimes did for he could make money every day. What upset him most was that when he had vegetables picked, packed and discounted, the customer refused to deal. They may come back again but he would let them do it themselves. He liked polite and unfussy customers very much, so that he would do them a favor by discounting or offering some onions, hot peppers and parsley.

     Mr. Lin was so optimistic and humorous, that he appeared not of his age. He remarked he used to weigh things in a steelyard in his childhood, when money was counted in “jiao” and valued a great deal, but NT$1 was equivalent to  NT$100 nowadays. When business was booming, they could sell NT$30 more or less; if not, NT$20. He said that customers were fairly better in the past, because they would not haggle and kill prices. Having growing vegetables in childhood, he knew it’s necessary to use pesticides for harvest due to the weather in Luchou, except some special species of vegetables. He had a famous saying that southerners used to believe  Taipei  residents are afraid of insects instead of pesticides, as southerners are afraid of pesticides instead of insects.”

    Account for scattered markets, he felt that nowadays’ business, occupied by  Taipei’s market, were not as goods as before.