The woman with the child was clearly well-off; she seemed to really like the grasshoppers on the ground and asked Wei Xiaohui, who was standing in front of the stall, for a chat.
"Little girl, how much is this?"
Wei Xiaohui was taken aback, not expecting that her creation would be the first to be purchased. She hesitated, unsure of how much it would cost, and then looked at her mother and younger brother.
"Little brother, how much does this cost?"
It didn't matter that Wei Xiaohui didn't know how much this thing cost, but she had a younger brother.
However, this item is not available for sale right now. Wei Mo saw that his mother was silent, thought for a moment, and then spoke to the woman in front of him.
"Auntie, this costs two cents."
What could you buy with two cents in the 1960s? You could buy more than a pound of pork!
The woman seemed to hesitate for a moment, but then she looked at her daughter.
"Mommy, Mommy, please buy it for me, okay? I really like it."
Seeing that her daughter really liked it, she thought about it and realized that she should buy her a toy for the New Year.
Thinking of this, she took out a wad of small bills from her pocket, took out two mao (0.2 yuan) from the bills and handed it to Wei Xiaohui.
"Little girl, here's some money, but you have to pick out a good one for me."
Wei Xiaohui happily accepted the money and thanked the woman in front of her. She had never done a transaction before and thought that she needed to thank the other party for giving her money. She looked at Wei Mo beside her and wanted to laugh.
"Thank you, Auntie. I'll pick the best one for this little girl."
Then he took a grasshopper woven from straw from her stall and handed it to the little girl.
"Here you go, little sister, what do you think of this one?"
The little girl was overjoyed to receive the large grasshopper.
"Big grasshopper, big grasshopper, I love it, thank you sister."
Wei Xiaohui thus completed her first transaction.
After the mother and daughter left, Wei Xiaohui was overjoyed, looking at the two cents in her hand. She was so happy that she could earn money herself!
Meanwhile, Wei Ma, Qian Manman, and Wang Ling prepared some straw mats and Ula straw sandals, since their family had been weaving these things recently and they had plenty of them at home.
They sold their wares for even lower prices than the supply and marketing cooperatives, and their craftsmanship was unparalleled. The best-selling items at the supply and marketing cooperatives were the knitted items made by these few people, so their stall quickly attracted a large number of customers.
Their stall was surrounded by a group of middle-aged women who kept asking them questions.
"Hey girl, how much are these Ula straw sandals? They're so well woven!"
With Wei's mother standing to the side, Wang Zhenhua, who had never done business before, looked at Qian Manman, who was also dumbfounded. Who would dare to do business these days? Helpless, in the end, only Wei Mo could step forward.
"Auntie, these straw sandals are only six cents, much cheaper than at the supply and marketing cooperative. Besides, we're the ones who supply those places. You can take a look!"
When the old lady heard the price, she thought it was six cents, while the supply and marketing cooperative charged eight cents. Wasn't this two cents cheaper? And the style was indeed the same as the one from the supply and marketing cooperative.
The old woman deftly took out two yuan and handed it to Wang Zhenhua.
"Hey girl, give me three pairs, can you give me a discount?"
How could a few people who had never done business before handle bargaining? Wei Mo thought for a moment and then spoke to the old lady.
"Auntie, if you want three pairs, I'll give you a discount of one yuan and fifty cents. How about that? I'll give you a discount of one mao per pair, so that's fifty cents."
The old lady was very happy to hear Wei Mo's logical explanation, after all, she had benefited from it.
"Alright, alright, you're a really smart little kid."
When Wang Zhenhua heard that three pairs of straw sandals cost one yuan and fifty cents, he searched his bag for a long time and managed to scrape together fifty cents in bills, which he handed to the woman. Then he picked out three pairs of straw sandals for her at the stall.
After that first customer, everyone else gathered around.
"Little one, can I have two pairs too? It'll be 50 cents that way too?"
Wei Mo nodded to the side. Seeing that the woman in front of him was obviously very young, and that he himself was still a child, he did not call her "comrade".
"Okay, sister, you can choose for yourself."
The other person was a girl of about sixteen or seventeen, probably not married yet. She was happy to hear Wei Mo address her, and then she started picking up straw sandals from the ground.
After the first person did it, people gathered around when they heard that the straw sandals were so cheap, and the sales of the straw sandals began to improve. Wei Xiaomin squatted to the side and sold her products.
Her stall was filled with all sorts of strange and wonderful things: spears made by Wei Mo, fishing rods made by Wei Mo, and spinning tops made by Wei Mo.
She brought almost all the little things Wei Mo had given her, and quite a few people actually inquired about and looked at them.
Most of them were elderly men or people with boys.
"Little girl, what is this thing? How do you use it?"
The man beside her pointed to the spear on the ground and asked Wei Xiaomin a question. Wei Xiaomin happily picked up the spear and spoke to the man.
"Uncle, this is a spear. Once you see a frog, you can hit it with one thrust! In the summer, I can catch five or six pounds every day on each trip! My younger brother gave this to me, and I'm a little reluctant to sell it."
The man's eyes lit up when he heard Wei Xiaomin's words. Although it seemed easy to make the spear, the skewers on it were not so easy to buy.
"Unless we find a bicycle, but there are so few bicycles, where can we find one?" The man thought for a moment and then said to Wei Xiaomin.
"How much does this cost?"
Wei Xiaomin blinked her big eyes, thought for a moment, and then spoke to the man.
"It costs five cents."
The man seemed somewhat surprised; it was so expensive! Just as he was about to leave, Wei Xiaomin continued.
"With this, I can catch more than ten pounds of frogs every day in the summer. I only need five cents, which is very little."
Seeing how shrewd she was at business, Wei Mo couldn't help but laugh. He never expected his sister to have such a talent.
The man pondered this question with his son, and it seemed that what the little girl said made sense. If he gave his son 50 cents to catch frogs in the summer, wouldn't he be able to eat frogs every day?
Thinking of this, the man seemed to want to negotiate the price, and turned to Wei Xiaomin to say,
"Could you make it cheaper?"
Wei Xiaomin shook her head and did not agree.
"No way, this is my own. I don't want to sell it, and I'm even more reluctant to sell it now."
Finally, the man gritted his teeth, took out fifty cents from his pocket, and handed it to Wei Xiaomin.
Wei Xiaomin happily took the money and then handed the spear to the man.
That spear-making technique was so simple; the cost was just three barbecue skewers and a broken wooden stick, yet it could still be sold for 50 cents.
It has to be said that Wei Xiaomin was clever; she took the money and showed it off to her family.
"Mom and Grandpa, look, I've earned some money too! I'm going to buy some delicious food in a little while."
The family smiled and continued selling their wares at their stall.
Li Xiuxiu was not short of money and did not bring anything to sell. The old man was the same, and Wei Mo, who was standing next to her, had not thought about what to sell either.
Seeing his family members busy at work, Wei Mo glanced at Li Xiuxiu and then spoke to her.
"Aunt Xiuxiu, let's go out and see if we can find anything good."
Li Xiuxiu nodded and picked up Wei Mo, since there were many people in town now, and she didn't want to lose Wei Mo.
Although this little brat is incredibly clever, we still need to be on the safe side.
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