While the farm was intensely busy with the early spring planting work, the general store and Emily were also busy preparing things for Abigail and Haley, who were far away in Kalos.
They had originally agreed to hand the items over to Ron yesterday, but because a crop in the greenhouse hadn't ripened yet, Caroline had postponed it to today.
It just so happened to be early spring, right in the middle of the busy farming season. Having everyone come to the general store for a meal now would conveniently save Ron some time.
After picking the fresh fruits and vegetables, Caroline was bustling about in the kitchen.
Pierre, on the other hand, was settling last year's accounts, reviewing the general store's income and expenses for the year.
"It's already been a month." Pierre clicked the calculator noisily. "Should we send Abigail some more money?"
When traveling, having some spare cash on hand is the best, especially since Abigail was a girl.
"Give her a little more?" Caroline poked her head out when she heard this. She glanced at Pierre, and seeing him frowning deeply at the ledger, she couldn't help but ask, "Were the profits bad last year?"
"It was alright," Pierre replied.
Although profits had indeed dropped significantly because of the Pokémon Center, thanks to Pierre's diligent management and the fact that he set up a stall during every festival to sell specific seasonal items, they hadn't actually taken a loss.
Hearing this, Caroline breathed a sigh of relief. "I was going to say, if it's not enough, we can take some money from me to give her."
Besides, Caroline didn't really have many places to spend money anyway.
Pierre waved his hand, took out a checkbook, thought for a moment, and wrote down 30,000g.
"If it's not enough next time, we can just ask Joy to wire it to her," Pierre said as he tore the check off, setting it aside to hand to Ron when he came over in the evening.
With everything prepared, he went inside and started bustling about with Caroline.
Because they had promised to host all the farm's Pokémon, aside from the things to take to Abigail, Caroline was already preparing for the evening feast.
On top of that, there were the two people hired to help out on the farm. Although she hadn't spoken to them much, Caroline had quietly peeked at the two of them during the Feast of the Winter Star.
Their appetites were astonishingly large.
Fortunately, the general store had no shortage of ingredients, so she wasn't too worried about them eating her into bankruptcy in one sitting.
And so, the two of them buried themselves in their work.
On the other side, Emily.
Rushing against the clock, Clint had managed to polish all the gems Emily needed by today.
Emily hurriedly took the gems from Clint. Just as she was about to turn around, Clint stopped her.
"Um—Emily."
Clint had just tried to find a topic to extend this rare moment alone with her, but Emily looked at him with an apologetic face, as if she had just remembered something.
"Oh, sorry, I forgot."
"What?" Clint froze for a moment. He immediately thought of his bitter birthday and was just about to wave his hand at Emily, telling her he didn't mind, when Emily shoved a handful of money into his hand.
"This is the crafting fee! Keep the change! The extra money is on me for a drink!" Emily said. Cradling the gems, she slammed the door shut and hurried off to get back to work.
Clint stared blankly at the tightly closed door in front of him. After a long while, he gave a bitter smile and headed to the Saloon.
It wasn't normally business hours at this time, but because he had gone to the Community Center early that morning to celebrate its reconstruction, Gus had given up on catching up on his sleep and was wiping down the tables by the counter.
Seeing Clint walk in, he smiled at him.
"Morning. What can I get you?"
"A beer." Clint sat opposite Gus. With a reluctant expression, he took out the money in his pocket. Just as he was about to hand it over, he paused, pulled out his wallet, and swapped it for his own cash.
"Drinking beer first thing in the morning? Did something unhappy happen?" Gus asked as he took out a glass and poured a beer.
"—Nothing." Clint took a deep breath. "What do you think of me, Gus?"
"You?" Gus rested his chin on his hand and thought. "You're great, in every aspect. Plus, you're the only blacksmith in town."
This description made Clint frown.
"And you're our Saloon's best customer!" Gus added. "If it weren't for you, my Saloon might have gone under already!"
Originally, both he and Pam had been the Saloon's best customers, but after Pam quit drinking, only Clint was left.
Gus thanked him from the bottom of his heart. Anyone who had been in the alcohol business knew just how profitable the stuff was!
"—" Clint took a heavy swig and changed his question. "What about Ron? What do you think of him?"
"Ron? Why bring him up?" Gus thought for a moment. "Oh, I get it. You must have gone to the Community Center this morning too and saw Lewis present him with the Stardew Valley Hero Trophy, right?"
Clint, who had pulled an all-nighter to finish Emily's order, widened his bloodshot eyes.
"He really is a flawless guy!" Gus said. "Not only does he provide the Saloon with half-price vegetables, but he also helped repair the Community Center, Pam's bus, and Penny family's new house—it seems like everyone in town has received his help!"
"—" Clint fell silent for a moment. He raised his glass and downed the beer in one gulp. Seeing that Gus was still going on and on about Ron's glorious deeds, Clint couldn't help but push his glass over to Gus. "Another one."
"Oh, sure, sure." Gus held the glass and poured it to the brim. "Are you sure it's okay to be drinking like this first thing in the morning?"
"Just finished a job." Clint gave a bitter smile. "Just celebrating. Once I'm done drinking, I'll close up the shop and rest."
"I see." Gus continued to recount Ron's achievements.
The farm work, rare for them, continued non-stop until the sun went down before everything that needed to be done today was finally finished.
Because they had agreed to go eat at the general store, everyone lined up in a single file at the door.
Team Rocket stood at the end of the line, rubbing their growling stomachs.
The laid-back work during the winter had caused them to completely underestimate today's workload. Jessie felt like she was hungry enough to eat a Snorlax right now.
"Alright, quiet down, Jessie." Meowth covered its ears, looking at Jessie's loudly growling stomach. "Your stomach is bothering my ears, meow."
"?" Jessie immediately punched Meowth on the head. "You think I want this? Hmph, I suspect you guys didn't even put in any real effort! If you had worked honestly, you'd be just as hungry as I am right now."
Before she could even finish her sentence, all of their stomachs growled in unison.
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