Chapter 48: Overconfidence

Fortunately, communication in buying and selling means asking for prices, bargaining, and then recording quantities.

Anyway, if someone bargains, he just shakes his head and disagrees.

Prices and quantities are just numbers, and he has no problem with one, two, three, four, and five.

At most, he can bring paper and pen to write Arabic numerals.

Fang Mingche nodded, and the matter was settled.

Song Quan said: "I know you are a righteous person. But our leader said that we can't let you help for free. I heard that it costs more to hire a translator. But we don't have money, so we will let you get a 5% commission from the goods you sell. Do you think it's okay?"

Fang Mingche thought to himself: Your leader is quite sensible. This kind of person can get along and cooperate for a long time.

"Okay, no problem!"

"Thank you!"

Fang Mingche frowned. It seems that if he wants to keep this persona, he has to find time to learn English.

Originally, the English score in the college entrance examination was only for reference, and he didn't plan to learn it now.

But now it's not too troublesome to take half an hour to memorize words every day.

He asked Uncle Gu, "Uncle, I saw you have a radio. Can I borrow it? When I have more money in a while, I will buy a new one and return it to you."

Radios are very big nowadays. They are as big as a TV and longer. Therefore, they are easy to be seen.

To buy one, you need a radio ticket. And domestic ones cost dozens of dollars, while imported ones start at more than a hundred.

Uncle Gu said, "When have you seen me listen to it? It's broken. If you can fix it, you can fix it and use it."

"Do you have any tools?"

"I have some, but I don't know if they are suitable."

Uncle Gu found the repair tools, and Fang Mingche took it apart and tinkered with it.

Just remember how you took it apart and put the screws away. If you can't fix it, you can put it back as it is.

As a man, you have some hands-on ability in these things.

Take it apart first and see, maybe one of the wires is broken. Then try to peel off a little plastic, tie it again, and then stick it with tape.

Uncle Gu said, "Why, do you want to listen to the enemy station?"

He heard what Song Quan said just now. And at that moment, I saw that Xiao Fang looked a little guilty.

I guess his English is not as good as Xiao Song thought.

But this kid is really bold and daring! He actually agreed.

Fang Mingche said: "What enemy station? There is no such term now. We have officially established diplomatic relations with the United States on New Year's Day this year. Britain recognized the new China as early as 1950. There are no eternal friends or eternal enemies between countries. Just wait and see, English will become more and more important in the future. Besides, BBC is a shortwave radio station, which cannot be heard in China now. I want to listen to China Radio International."

This is the radio station that China broadcasts to the world. It was founded in 1941.

It has not yet reached the height of crazy attention in later generations. High school did not offer this course directly.

Because there is no teaching staff! The first batch of foreign language department students have not graduated yet.

Otherwise, he could ask Lao Gao to introduce an English teacher.

As for the university English teacher, he does not have the network to know.

Uncle Gu said: "Then if you agree to it, aren't you afraid of messing up the matter for others?"

You still collect commissions.

Fang Mingche fiddled with his hand while saying, "Arabic numerals are used all over the world. It's just for price and quantity, there's no mistake."

In later generations, when Chengdu held the Universiade, those foreign athletes went to visit the lotus pond.

With an electronic calculator, they could communicate with the shopkeepers and buy things.

They even pressed the plus and minus keys to bargain.

After fiddling with it for more than a quarter of an hour, Fang Mingche put it back. Then he looked at the desktop and there was nothing extra.

Uncle Gu found a battery. He installed it and turned it on, and there was sound!

"It's done."

"Then take it home and listen to it at night. When you go to the stall, bring it to me so I can listen to the news too."

"Okay, thank you!"

Fang Mingche carried the baby back and saw several children jumping around in the open space of the compound. There should be grids drawn on the ground.

He stood in the courtyard and shouted, "Yanyan, it's time to go home--"

Yanyan said goodbye to the children and ran back with a red face.

"What were you playing?"

"Hopscotch. What is this?"

"Radio, it's a tweeter that can sing and tell stories. Let's find a channel that tells stories later."

Yanyan nodded vigorously, "Okay!"

She likes to listen to tweeters. When she lived in the village school, she would sit under the eaves on a small stool every day to listen.

It didn't matter whether she could understand it or not, she just liked it.

Tonight Fang Mingche arranged for her to listen while soaking her feet. He found a channel that tells bedtime stories.

After running around, taking off her clothes and tucking into the quilt, the little girl was still listening happily.

After a while, Fang Mingche put down the exercises in his hand and looked back. Only then did he see that she had fallen asleep.

So he changed the radio to the English channel, played it as the background, and continued to do the exercises in his hand.

The next day, the people from the handicraft cooperative came with their tools.

Paper cutting was the simplest, with a pair of scissors and a stack of red paper.

The one who was doing paper-turning used a straw stick like the one used to stick candied haws, and stuck several different styles of paper on it.

Seeing Yanyan watching with interest, he gave her one. He taught her how to turn it over and over again, and it was another style.

Fang Mingche saw that he had to help sell more paper-turning to make it justified.

Then there were people performing shadow puppets, making dough figurines, making revolving lanterns, and making Chinese knots and laces.

I don't know if it's called a Chinese knot now, but it's this thing anyway.

There was also Song Quan's bamboo weaving. He brought a set of the twelve zodiac animals, and he was still weaving them with his hands.

Originally, he made a cross-shaped wooden stake to hang it. Fang Mingche took it down for him and put them all on the small table.

Today, he specially bought two more sets of teapots, three more tables and bowls, and two more tables.

In the morning, he borrowed a tricycle from the slum and asked Song Quan to drive him over.

Song Quan asked, "What are you doing?"

"The cross has a special meaning in Christianity, so put it away."

Song Quan thought about it and remembered that there was such a thing in the church. He slapped his forehead and said, "I forgot about it. Fortunately, you thought of it."

It doesn't take up much space, and it is set in a circle next to the tea stall.

Song Quan's leader Lao Wang also came and gave Fang Mingche cigarettes.

"Xiao Fang, you will be hard at work in a while. Don't worry, we will take care of your stall."

He brought a few logistics staff over to help make tea and refill water.

In this way, they are not considered hired workers, and the working people help each other.

The cost of the translator is not considered hired workers. Hiring workers is exploitation, and hiring a translator is very high-end and has nothing to do with it.

Fang Mingche nodded, "Okay!"

Just like in the past, business came quickly.

And because there were people from the handicraft cooperative showing their skills here, there were a lot of people watching. Naturally, more people came to drink tea.

Fang Mingche held a notebook with the unit price of all the items in it seriously.

A foreign tourist pointed at the flower flipping and asked, "How much?"

He watched Yanyan flipping the flower flipping and found it was different, and he was very interested.

(End of this chapter)