Chapter 5

Confusing Money

In the morning, Manfah had breakfast happily with Aunt Kwan's delicious cooking. Afterwards, she waited for Uncle Phin to send Mafueang and Mafai to school. Uncle Phin came back later to pick her up. The two of us went into town to take care of business at the electricity office. Uncle Phin took her to get everything done. After that, we returned to her house, along with the staff who came to install and lay the electrical wires.

It was noon by the time everything was finished. Manfah cooked lunch for everyone.

After the staff left, Manfah sat blissfully in front of the fan.

Uncle Phin shook his head. "Look at that! You seem happier with the fan than with me now."

"That's not true at all. I still love you the same, Uncle Phin. Hee hee. I'll go get the seedlings to plant now."

"Do you want Uncle to help, dear? I can come and do it for you this evening.”

"No need. You already helped me half the day, Uncle Phin. I don't want to trouble you more."

"You're such a good kid. I'll get going then. Take good care of yourself, little Man."

"Okieeee."

Manfah took the tangerine, peach, apple, lemon and avocado saplings out to plant.

She didn't expect that avocado saplings would have already been imported in this era when electricity was just introduced. Meeting them like this, she was done for.

Manfah dug holes and planted the saplings, arranging them in long rows like yesterday. It took her two whole hours.

Did she buy too many? Her back and legs were sore all over!

Next, she took the fruit saplings from the dimension and planted them in rows like she did yesterday.

She drank the magical holy spring water that was available in the game. At first, she thought it was just a decorative prop.

But when she checked the description, it was excellent, truly amazing.

This spring water can cure diseases and restore vitality. Importantly, her skin kept getting better.

Manfah was thinking about watering the trees when a watering can icon appeared.

Upon clicking it, she entered the watering mode. She then commanded the dimension to water the entire garden.

Water from the dimension poured down from the sky like rain.

Wow! So amazing.

Alright, she was free now. She should take a bath first. Her body was all sticky.

After bathing, she gestured for the dimension to sow some Chinese kale and white cabbage seeds, then had it water them as usual.

She couldn't sell all the vegetables every day, so she decided to take just the sun-dried pork to sell. There were many processing factories for pork in the dimension. She chose to take out some sun-dried pork to sell.

Manfah waited for the dimension to produce the sun-dried pork, which took thirty minutes.

While waiting, she sat eating bananas and enjoying the fan.

Manfah complained inwardly—life without the internet was so quiet and lonely, especially during waiting periods. After thirty minutes, fifty packs of sun-dried pork were ready.

Manfah placed a large wooden basket on the rear rack of her bicycle. She tied it tightly with ropes, then put the sun-dried pork packs inside the basket. She then cycled to the town market. Along the way, villagers greeted her periodically.

Most asked what she was taking to sell. When they found out it was sun-dried pork, some wanted to buy it to eat at home. She sold it for just twenty baht. Although at first the villagers said it was expensive, after seeing the large pork slices in each pack, they changed their minds to it being cheap. What's with the money here?

Manfah then cycled past the school and met her former teachers. They also helped support her business. At first, they said it was expensive because they hadn't seen the pork she brought.

As soon as the teachers saw it, they said the same thing as the aunties earlier—that it was cheap.

The teachers realized she was confused about the cost of living right now, so they explained simply:

Most teachers and government officials have a minimum salary of two hundred baht per month. Private company employees have a minimum salary of about two hundred and fifty baht per month. If you work with foreigners, you can earn quite a bit more because those people are very rich. Their currency is quite high.

For example, 1 British pound = 50 baht

Uncle Pai trades with foreigners so she earns significant profits.

I have to thank Uncle Phin for having Uncle Pai buy my agricultural produce.

"I sell the fruits and vegetables from my garden to foreigners. I earn good profits."

"That's good all the teachers and friends have been worried about you, Manfah, wondering if you won't come back to school for real."

"I won't. I have to work. If I split my time to go to school, I won't be able to fully focus. But Mafueang will help me study. Don't worry, Teacher Pen."

"Hearing this makes me feel a little better."

"Ah, Manfah! How did you get here?!" Mafueang yelled from afar with her mouth wide open.

"Not now, Mafueang. You're not behaving like a lady at all. Where are your manners? Don't run and yell like that. It's not proper."

Mafueang smiled dryly. "Sorry, Teacher Pen."

"Why did you come, Man?"

"I was going to take some sun-dried pork to sell at the market. Before I could even get to the market, it was all sold out. Hehe."

"Such good, expensive stuff. Did you make it yourself?"

"Yes, I did."

"You're rich now. How much per pack?"

"Twenty baht."

"So expensiveee!!"

Mafueang's voice was very loud and long, making Teacher Pen glare at her disapprovingly.  

"I got a little carried away. But it is very expensive."

Teacher Pen showed Mafueang the sun-dried pork pack. "It's not expensive. Look, you can eat for a whole month. The slices are big too. It's quite worth it."

"I have some for you too. I'll give you five packs."

"Should I really? Go sell them."

"Alright. Uncle Phin helped me a lot. Go ahead and eat them. There were exactly five packs left that I saved for you."

"Thanks, Manfah. When I get home, I'll have mom serve them on a plate to eat today."

"Hmm, do tell me if they're delicious or not."

"Sure!" Mafueang replied eagerly.

"What about Mafai?"

"That guy is cleaning the classroom right now. It's his duty shift."

"Oh, I see." Manfah responded.

"Well, I'm off to the market first. I said I'd go wander around to find some food."

"I really want to go too but I have to wait for dad first."

"Then on Saturday, should we go together?"

"Sounds good."

"Alright, I'll get going first then, Mafueang. Teacher Pen, I'll take my leave."

"Yes, ride safely."

"See you, Mafueang."

"Yes."