Chapter 29
Even when they had arrived at Easter Bazar and Zhao’er had set up her temporary stall, Jiang Wu was still somewhat confused.

There were nearly all of kinds of clothes on Zhao’er’s stall, both for men and women, the young and the old. What’s more, Zhao’er hung several clothes to attract people on one of the side of the cart with simplified hangers.

That had fully arisen the curiosity of the passers-by. At this time, Zhao’er hawked with her clear voice, “Sell off! High-quality clothes with lowest prices you will ever never have! Not for ONE nor TWO deal of silver, but sixty cents for one! 150 cents for Three!”

Attracted by the hawking of Zhao’er, nearly all of the people in the Easter Bazar paid their attention to her stall. They could see the clothes sold were pretty diversified both in terms of the style and the colors. Only one glance, people could see whether the clothes were good or not, just like whether a person was beautiful or not could be seen within a quick eye.

All of the clothes had been properly dyed. The red was rosy, the green was fresh, and the blue was so pure. The quality of the cloth felt luxuriantly thick. And the clothes hung on the cart were carefully designed with diversified and latest styles.

Sixty cents? What could be down with sixty cents? Just several feet of cloth, NOT the ready-made clothes!

At once crowed several women.

“Oh, boy. Every one of these clothes is sold for sixty cents?”

Zhao’er nodded, and replied with smile, “Yes. All of these coats are sold for sixty cents each. Each pair of underwear for sixty cents, too. As for the winter coats, the prices are slightly higher of course. Each winter coat for 150 cents. But you see, the quality, the style! It’s really a good deal!”

Agreed with what Zhao’er said, some bright-eyed and quick-mind women took up the clothes they liked swiftly to view in detail.

Some were superbly satisfied with the uncovered clothes, while some signed for they found that the clothes they had chosen were not for women. It was so far that they could merely see the fascinating colors of the clothes, but only to found these clothes were for men.

However, in general, most of the clothes were for females, and few of these women would get what they really wanted.

Anyway, even if the clothes were for men, it would not be too bad. Most of these women had married, and the clothes would be needed for their husbands as well.

With clothes in one hand, these women started to explore more clothes with the other hand.

Took out and view carefully. If the one was not very good, they just threw away the clothes as quickly as possible. If the one was not bad, then they held the clothes tightly in their hands.

What’s more, some women even wanted the same clothes. Those who had failed in this fierce competition could not help but wait for a chance when the winners found better clothes.

Shopping was no doubt inspiring and exciting, for you would never know what would be the next in the chocolate box. Driven by curiosity, joy, wish, even agitation, some women even got anxious.

Influenced by them, more people crowed, most of whom were women. As long as they came near and saw what Zhao’er was selling, they couldn’t move anymore as if they had entered the paradise.

“This one is good.”

“This is perfect for my husband!” Women talked with each other excitingly.

Zhao’er said to Jiang Wu, “Could you please give me a hand? I have to greet guests, and may not be able to spare my attention to the other side.”

Jiang Wu nodded, and both of the two were busy.

Not for a while, some had chosen the clothes and went to Zhao’er to pay the bill, saying, “Boy, may you please offer me lower prices?”

Zhao’er shook her head, seemed pretty awkward. She replied, “Madame, you must understand the values of the clothes you’ve chosen. The clothes are really at reasonable prices with excellent quality. There is no need to say more, since they have been sold at lowest prices already. Or I cannot afford the losses.”

“You have exaggerated your losses. You must be able to profits even with lower prices.” Refuted by this woman.

At this time, another woman got a word in, and said, “Absolutely right. You lower your prices, and we buy more clothes. You will profit more. “

She winked at the other women beside her. Even though they were not acquainted with each other, they seemed to have formed a union and stood at the same side.

“Yes, that’s right. We’ve bought so much. It is reasonable for you to offer us more favorable prices.”

Zhao’er put a miserable expression on her face, and said, “Madame, I do not dare to tell you about the secrete of this small business. These clothes are not sold as the ready-made clothes in the cloth shops, but are collected from pawnshop. There is no room to store these clothes in the pawnshop. That is the reason why these clothes are sold at so low prices. You see, we have to spend some money recycling these clothes, and also have to spend money in having these clothes washed and reproduced. Besides, the fees of transportation are not a little. The prices cannot be lowered anymore.”

“Ha, I have been wondering why these clothes are so cheap.” A woman spilled the beans carelessly.

Zhao’er immediately said, “Madame, you are absolutely with tastes! The clothes that can be send into pawnshop are not cheap! You can see the quality, the texture, and the colors. There is no necessary to say more, since you must know all about the values.”

During that period of time, people were not concerned about whether the clothes were second-hand or not. For most of people, especially those resident in small towns and rural regions, the clothes not patched would be decent enough, let alone the clothes sold by Zhao’er. Few of people had ever been able to wear such excellent quality clothes. Since the prices were so low, it would be a good option for them to buy, so that they could wear these good clothes in festivals.

Thinking in this way, some people had already come to pay.

“You’re eloquent and articulate. Well, I’ll take the two pieces of clothes.” One woman said.

“Thanks, Madame. How about take one more? Each one for sixty cents, two for 120 cents, while three for 150 cents! The fifty cents for a good quality clothes! I sincerely suggest.”

“Hey, you’re right. Let me see for another one.”

Like this woman, most of the other guests also bought three pieces of clothes at one time. That was the humanity. The bargain seemed to be for free, while the truth was not really so.

Soon, the clothes of Zhao’er were sold out except for several pieces of clothes. There were people beside her and asking her whether there were other clothes left.

“Of course. Wait me for a minute.”

Zhao’er took the big baggage out, while most of the good clothes had been sold during the past two hours. Under this condition, she didn’t continue selling the rest of less good clothes here, but got on the cart and left with Jiang Wu.

“Why quit selling?” Asked by Jiang Wu.

“The rest of the clothes are not to be sold here. They have been taken here to highlight the high quality of those clothes that are planned to sold here. The village is where they will be sold.” Answered by Zhao’er.

Jiang Wu didn’t make the sense, while got the point of Zhao’er soon.

It is based on the simple but strong principle that the beauty of flowers should be highlighted by the ordinary of the leaves.

“How could you be brought up such clever?” Jiang Wu exclaimed without twice thinking.

Zhao’er replied with bright smile, “Brought up by mother and father.”

Suddenly, the topic about parents seemed have shadowed the bright smile on her face. Jiang Wu realized that and asked her where she would go next to change the topic of the conversation.

They went to the villages where they always purchased vegetables in large scale. Since they had been pretty acquainted with the villagers, they were not expelled when driving into the village.

In general, there were the thrashing floors for wheat in such kind of villages. And most of these thrashing floors were located at the entrance or the center of the villages.

Therefore, they pulled over at the thrashing floor for wheat at the center of the village.

Zhao’er had prepared in advance, and straightly set up her stall as soon as they arrived at the thrashing floor for wheat. She took a worn copper gong from the cart, and started striking the gong to attract people’s attention.

Not for a while, many villagers went to the stall of Zhao’er to see what was happening. They recognized Zhao’er and some of the villagers were even pretty acquainted with her. Zhao’er disguised herself in the suit of men’s clothes, and named herself as Zhao’cai, the alias name of her.

Some asked Zhao’er full with doubts, “Little Zhao’cai, what’s going on? You don’t purchase vegetable today, do you?”

Smiling, Zhao’er said, “I do want to purchase vegetables from you, while you must have at the first.”

Hearing this, many villagers couldn’t help but break into laughter. In fact, at this time, the weather was cold, and the fresh vegetables were not able to grow due to the temperature. Many families even didn’t have enough fresh vegetables, except for the pickled vegetables reserved last autumn. It was not until the temperature increased high enough when the villagers could have enough vegetables for sell.

Clearly understanding the situations faced by the villagers, Zhao’er changed the topic, and said, “Well, today I’m not here to purchase, but to sell. Look, I’ve collected these high quality clothes in the town for you. The clothes of this kind are sold 30 cents for each one. And the clothes of this kind are sold for 20 cents for each one. As for the winter coats, 80 cents for each on. Take the chance, and hurry up. I have to go to the next village as soon as possible.”

“You sell clothes? You really match your name.” Some men in this village played jokes with Zhao’er. Her alias name meant to gain wealth and money. Zhao’er was sophisticated enough and talked with these men freely.

At the same time, the women in the village started to pick up the clothes and took a view of these clothes carefully.

These clothes would not be chosen by the people in town, while would be valued by the people in rural regions.

In fact, the people in rural regions always wore the coarse and plain clothes all the year. Even the cotton coats would be regarded as the best clothes for people in rural regions, let alone the clothes made of silk. No matter whether these silky clothes were worn or not, they were not patched!

“20 cents for a piece of clothes may be too expensive. You can sell them with lower prices.”

“Don’t dicker with me. You will not suffer any losses. I never cheat, and never will I ever fool my fellow villagers.”

“It is just spring. We don’t have to enough agriculture products to exchange for money. Can we exchange these clothes with stuff?” Some asked.

“I’ll not agree with such requirement of others. But for my fellow villagers, I’ll say, yes. Of course you can. But no living stuff. The eggs, grains will be OK. You can exchange for the clothes in accordance with the usual prices of the stuff.”

Hearing this, many women were so happy and hurried up home to get the stuff to exchange for the clothes. Soon, they came back with grains or eggs. In accordance with the specific types of the grains, the exchange prices would be settled.

As for eggs, each one would be sold for two cents if the villagers sold in town. If the eggs were purchased in the village, each one would be sold for one cent, or sometimes two for three cents. Zhao’er also had purchased eggs in villages, for which she knew the prices clearly.

Merely one hour later, Zhao’er and Jiang Wu drove to the next village with two big bags of grains and eggs and the stuff same-like. When the sun sunk, all of the clothes had been sold out, while the Zhao’er and Jiang Wu drove back with packaged cart and earned money.

Parking a mule cart parking in the village road, Zhao’er sit in the cart and started to count the gains. She was illiterate, nor had she learned math. Even though she could calculate within 100, she couldn’t calculate the amount over 100 anyway.

Disappointed as she was after several failures in counting these money, she pulled away the money, and said, “I give up. I cannot count them. They are too much.?

Jiang Wu laughed, and said, “I may count for you later.”

“Can you count? I doubt it.” Zhao’er joked.

Jiang Wu covered his embarrassment with cough at once.

Viewing this, Zhao’er seemed to recover from the disappointment. She piled up the money and divided the money into two equivalent smaller piles.

“Well, this pile of money is yours. The half of the grains and eggs are yours as well.” Said by Zhao’er.

“As agreed at the first beginning, I will take the 20% of the gains, not 50% percent. You exclude the eggs and grains?”

“The eggs and grains are excluded of course. They are the gifts for Daqing. By the way, could you please keep the rest of the grains and eggs in your house? I have to sell them in the town tomorrow. Oh, yes, it occurred to me that I may have to go to the township again.” Zhao’er said.

“Then I pick you up tomorrow morning.” Jiang Wu replied.

“Fine.”

Suddenly, Zhao’er saw the city walls of Huyang Township from long distance. She said with radiant eyes, “Let’s return the township again. I want to send some eggs for Tingxiang.:

Jiang Wu’s heart missed one beat, tightening the rein. But he put on smile immediately and said, “Ok, it’s early and we have enough time.”

Thereupon, after a busy afternoon, Xue Tingxiang received a backed of eggs in the same day from the same girl.