Chapter 777
The rough and hoarse voice that seemed to be broken in the loud speaker was still shouting rhythmically: "Son of a bastard Director He! Son of a bastard Director He! Eating, drinking, whoring, gambling, eating, drinking, whoring, gambling!
Thirty-five million was taken away, thirty-five million was taken away! He ran away with his sister-in-law! Run away!
We have no other choice but to use the clothes as payment for our wages! Offset salary!
Clothes that originally cost over one hundred, two hundred, or three hundred are now all 39, 49, all 39, 49…”
The young people who had just returned from working at the Jiangnan Garment Factory listened to what was being shouted on the loudspeaker. They could understand each word individually, but why couldn't they understand what was said when it was put together?
When did their garment factory close down? Wouldn’t it be these two days? Their factory director ran away with 35 million? My good dragon, dong! Thirty-five million! This bastard Director He...wait, that’s not right, isn’t their director’s last name He? However, the director of the Jiangnan Leather Factory next door to them is called He or something.
They couldn't help but approach the stall of Jiang Bai and Tong Jingang.
This street is full of all kinds of stalls. People are not allowed to set up stalls in front of ordinary people’s doors, but Jiang Bai’s clothing stall is set up in front of Aunt Jiang’s house.
Aunt Jiang's family runs a fruit shop and also sells some New Year's goods. Nowadays, people still tend to go to the supply and marketing cooperatives to buy New Year's goods, thinking that they are cheaper, of better quality and not a rip-off. But with the reform and opening up, more and more self-employed vendors have emerged, and many people come to private homes to buy things. As long as you don't rip people off, your old customers will be willing to come to your store to buy.
At this time, the door of Aunt Jiang's house was crowded with people, all of whom were attracted by the sound of Jiang Bai's loudspeaker. Some people couldn't squeeze in, so they went to Aunt Jiang's shop first to see if there were any suitable New Year's goods to buy.
Aunt Jiang's parents-in-law were a little unhappy when they saw Jiang Bai coming over to his house to use the power strip. They looked stern, but Aunt Jiang acted as if she didn't see anything and greeted her little nephew with a smile on her face: "Where did you get so many clothes? You sell them so cheaply, is there any money to be made?"
She found a power strip for her nephew and pulled the cord for him. Seeing that he also brought an electric iron, she said, "How do you know how to iron clothes? Give it to me, I'll do it."
"No, no, auntie, just do your thing, I can iron it!"
During the New Year, every business in Shuibu Town is very busy. Aunt Jiang has been busy since morning and has not rested yet. It is still early, and after Tong Jingang and Jiang Bai had a day off last night, they decided to drag the clothes to Shuibu Town to sell together.
Tong Jingang's brain was more active than Jiang Bai's. Seeing that he made too little profit from selling clothes, he spontaneously learned to raise the price, raising the price of a piece of clothing by ten yuan.
But this price is still more than half cheaper than the clothes in the shops in Shuibu Town. Down jackets and the like are priced at one hundred and fifty or sixty yuan each in the shops. If you meet someone who doesn't know how to bargain, they will buy it for twenty or thirty yuan. The merchants will make a lot of money from each piece. If you meet someone who knows how to bargain, they will just cut the price in half and sell it to you for seventy or eighty yuan. They can still make twenty or thirty yuan from each piece and still make a lot of money.
At this time, there was a shop where everything was only sold for thirty-nine or forty-nine. Many young people and men who didn't know how to bargain came over and surrounded the door of Aunt Jiang's shop. As a result, Aunt Jiang's business improved a lot, and Aunt Jiang's mother-in-law was grinning from ear to ear.
Aunt Jiang couldn't leave by herself, so she called her children to come down and help.
Aunt Jiang's two children were only thirteen or fourteen years old. When they saw so many people gathered at the door, they opened their mouths in surprise: "So many people? How can I squeeze in?"
Tong Jingang was still shouting inside: "Don't push, don't push, there's room for everyone! There's room for everyone! We'll still be here tomorrow!"
Aunt Jiang's son is only twelve years old, but he is already over 1.6 meters tall. He yelled like a little adult, "Don't push! It's no use pushing! Come one by one!"
Aunt Jiang's daughter also clapped her hands and shouted: "If you can't squeeze in, don't squeeze in. Come to the store first to look at the New Year's goods. The clothes can't run away!"
There were indeed quite a few that couldn't fit in. I heard there were still a lot of clothes, so I went shopping in Aunt Jiang's store to buy New Year's goods. After buying the New Year's goods, I asked Aunt Jiang: "Can I leave my things here for a while? I'll go buy two clothes first and come back to get the things later."
Aunt Jiang's house was a two-story house they built themselves. There were two main rooms upstairs. Her parents-in-law lived in one, and before, she and her husband lived in one with their two children. Now that the children have grown up, they pulled a curtain in the middle of the room to divide it into two rooms. The sister lives in a separate room, and the brother sleeps on the floor in Aunt Jiang and Uncle Jiang's room.
The two rooms below are used as shops. The one that belongs to my parents-in-law belongs to them, selling chickens, ducks, and fish. The one next to Aunt Jiang sells cigarettes, alcohol, milk, red dates, cereals, fruits, etc. They each run their own business, and there is a yard and a small kitchen at the back that are shared by all.
Seeing someone was going to put something here, Aunt Jiang led the person to the backyard, put the things on the corridor of the yard, and said: "You can put the things here, but you have to take care of them yourself. I'm very busy with business and can't help you watch them. You have to pay attention to it yourself!"
The person who put the things on his shoulders tied the mouth of the snakeskin bag with a hemp rope and said, "Don't worry, I will buy the clothes at your doorstep. I won't go far. I will watch over it myself!"
After saying that, he suddenly squeezed into the crowd and said, "Boss! Can you give me a discount for two pieces?"
"No bargaining, all prices are the lowest. If you want to bargain, go to the center of the street!" Tong Jingang was so busy that he was sweating and kept collecting and making change. Jiang Bai originally wanted to iron each piece of clothing flat, but who knew that these people didn't care whether the clothes were flat or not. They only cared about the quality of the material, whether the clothes were warm, and whether they were resistant to dirt.
Many of these people were big men in their thirties or forties, with rough and strong hands. They touched the materials and pulled them, finding them strong and warm. When they couldn't bargain down to a price, they simply paid for two pieces and left quickly.
During the Chinese New Year, they wanted to buy two new clothes for their wife and children. They went to a store in the center of the street and asked, and were told that each piece of clothing cost 120 or 130 yuan. Even if they bargained hard, it would still be 100 yuan per piece. How could they afford that?
They didn't expect that when they came downstairs with their loads on their shoulders, they would hear people saying, 'Down jackets, cotton-padded jackets, all 39, 49'. When they heard the price, the first thing they heard in their minds were the numbers starting with 39 or 49 for cotton-padded jackets, not 40 or 50. When compared with those clothes and cotton-padded jackets that cost more than 100 yuan after they had returned them for a long time, 39 or 49, to them, it sounded more than half cheaper.
The only thing they were worried about was the quality, but when they heard the loudspeaker saying that the Jiangnan Garment Factory had gone bankrupt and that the original prices of the clothes were all good quality clothes costing more than one hundred, two hundred or three hundred yuan, they immediately felt like they had picked up a bargain. When they came in, touched and saw the clothes, they discovered that the material was indeed strong, wear-resistant and warm, so they quickly paid for the clothes.
It’s good that you don’t have to bargain, it won’t cheat you. Clothes that require bargaining are too cheating. Even if you successfully bargain and the other party sells it to you happily, you will still feel unhappy and think that you paid too much.
Now, everyone gets the same price and there is no bargaining. For the price of one coat, you can now buy two coats. The wife and son can each get one. The men feel very happy when they think about their wife and son wearing the new clothes they bought when they go back and their wife praising them for buying the clothes cheaply.
There are also young guys who don’t think about anyone else at all and only want to buy clothes for themselves.
They work outside all year round, and are reluctant to eat or buy anything, and only buy new clothes during the Chinese New Year to show off. Now that they see such cheap clothes in Shuibu Town, they pinch the money in their pockets, think of their parents at home, and can't help but squeeze in. When they see leather shoes, they ask how they sell them.
The employees of Jiangnan Garment Factory finally squeezed in, hoping to expose the swindler. However, after squeezing in, they were so fascinated by the leather shoes priced at thirty-nine and forty-nine yuan on the stall that they could not walk.
And they looked at the clothes on the stalls and found that they were indeed cheap.
Even if they are employees of a garment factory, all they can get are defective clothes. They cannot get the really good clothes. Even if they search hard and bring back something from the factory, it is only big rolls of thread and scraps of cloth that the factory doesn't want. Such good clothes, even for their internal employees, would cost about the same price.
They can make their own clothes, but they don’t know how to buy clothes. They just spent money to buy a pair of shoes.
While buying, he carefully opened the seams of the shoes to check the quality. After confirming that there was no problem, he asked Jiang Bai: "Which Jiangnan Garment Factory are you from? I'm from the second factory. Why haven't I heard that any Jiangnan Garment Factory went bankrupt? Which Director He ran away with his sister-in-law?"
The people of Wucheng speak Mandarin, and cannot distinguish between flat and retroflex consonants, nl, front and back nasal sounds. Plus, the sound from the loudspeakers and tape recorders of that era was not high definition and there was a lot of noise. The employees of the Jiangnan Garment Factory could not tell whether Tong Jingang was calling "Director He", "Director He" or "Director He", or even whether he was saying "Jiangnan Garment Factory", "Jianglan Garment Factory" or "Jianglan Garment Factory". Some people even heard it as "Jianglang Garment Factory".
Tong Jingang and Jiang Bo did not expect that they would meet the real employees of Jiangnan Garment Factory, but Jiang Bo and Tong Jingang were convinced that Wang Yong was from Jiangnan Garment Factory and asked them: "Which Jiangnan Garment Factory are you from?"
As none of them could tell the difference between 'Nan, Lan, Lan, and Lang', they listened for a long time but it was like talking to a deaf person, and they had no idea which garment factory the other person was from.
Jiang Bai and Tong Jingang were really busy. Before they could say a few words, Tong Jingang became impatient and said, "Brother, I'm still busy here. Let's talk about it later!"
There is a crossroads in the middle of Shuibu Town. The crossroads is connected to the roads to the neighboring city and Tanshan and the cement factory on the left and right, and to the ferry and Wucheng on the top and bottom. It can be said to be well-connected and a transportation fortress, especially the main road and the network of small roads from the crossroads to the ferry, which are full of people. The four streets connected to the crossroads are all doing booming business.
Aunt Jiang's house is at the intersection and the street facing the neighboring city, near the end. Originally, the flow of people here was not as heavy as the streets in the center of the intersection. But today, because of Jiang Bai and Tong Jingang's stalls, a large number of people from the center of the street were attracted here.
Grandpa Jiang had no idea that although he didn't see his little grandson when he got off the car, he heard the familiar rhythmic words "gg" and Tong Jingang's voice, and he knew that his little grandson was inside.
Arriving at Shuibu Town, it was just like returning home. Grandpa Jiang was no longer in a hurry and went through the back door to Aunt Jiang's house.
In the Jiang family, Grandpa Jiang is the one who truly treats his children equally. He takes great pains to plan for each of his children.
Uncle Jiang learned the craft of a bricklayer. Father Jiang was willing to study and was able to concentrate on it, so he was allowed to study. Aunt Jiang was the youngest and only went to elementary school. She knew a few words and was not a blind person. But when she reached the age to get engaged and married, she took the trouble to ask someone to introduce her to the town and she found her current uncle.
It can be said that the children were all well arranged. Uncle Jiang married Aunt Jiang from Lin County, who had a gentle and honest temper. Father Jiang was mild-tempered and married the daughter of the captain of the Tanshan team. Although Mother Jiang has a hot-tempered temper now, she was a good girl who took care of everything at home and outside when she was young, and raised several younger brothers and sisters.
Not to mention the little girl. Although her parents-in-law are powerful, they only have this one son. Her uncle is not a foolish filial son and is hardworking. The couple separated early and lived separately. They can take charge of their own lives. They don't have to work in the fields, and don't have to be exposed to the wind, sun and rain. Even if they are busy with business, it is many times better than living in the countryside.
When Aunt Jiang heard that Grandpa Jiang was coming, she couldn't stop smiling: "Dad, Ningning, you are here, come and sit down, I'll go get you some snacks." She couldn't leave the store, so she took the money and gave it to her eldest daughter: "Mingyue, pour a glass of water for Grandpa and sister, and go to your aunt's house to get some snacks!"
In Shuibu Town, breakfast is called dim sum, and picking up dim sum one by one on the plate with chopsticks is called "picking".
Except in the off-season, Aunt Jiang's family basically never cooks breakfast. They just buy breakfast from the breakfast shop.
Seeing that his little daughter was doing well, Grandpa Jiang smiled and said with relief, "You go ahead and do your thing. Ning Ningzi and I have already had breakfast in the neighborhood. I'll just sit here and wait for Bai Zi."
"Baizi got a lot of clothes from the Jiangnan Garment Factory and sold them at the door. The business was so good that I asked Mingliang to help but he was too busy to handle it." Aunt Jiang poured water for Grandpa Jiang and Jiang Ning, waved her hand and asked her daughter to buy food, and said with a sigh: "The director of the garment factory was so wicked that he took so much money and ran away. The workers in the factory were left without any salary and the factory closed down. It was really a sin."
Grandpa Jiang listened with a smile, and soon Mingyue came back with a plate of snacks including pot stickers, dumplings, buns, fried dough sticks, glutinous rice cakes, etc. Aunt Jiang asked Grandpa Jiang and Jiang Ning to eat.
Grandpa Jiang ate a bun and didn't want to eat anymore. Jiang Ning ate two dumplings. Aunt Jiang wrapped two fried dough sticks in a plastic bag, squeezed to the door, and stuffed one fried dough stick each for Jiang Bai and Tong Jingang.
Jiang Bai and Tong Jingang came from Wucheng early in the morning. They only ate two big buns on the way. They were selling clothes at Aunt Jiang's door until now. They were exhausted and thirsty. When they saw food, they ate fried dough sticks quickly. Tong Jingang even shouted in a very familiar way: "Aunt, do you have any water?"
Zhou Mingliang didn't even have breakfast. He was so hungry that his face turned pale. He said coquettishly, "Mom, I want to eat and drink too."
Aunt Jiang smiled very good-naturedly and said, "Okay, I'll get it for you."
We were busy until lunchtime, when the flow of people decreased a little. Aunt Jiang went back upstairs and brought down a large plastic bag. She handed it to Grandpa Jiang and said, "I wanted to give it to you and mom on the second day of the Chinese New Year, but I didn't have time on the second day of the Chinese New Year. Now is the perfect time to bring it back to you!"
The bag was very big. Grandpa Jiang took it and opened it. He saw that it contained several pairs of cotton shoes hand-woven with cotton thread.
"The two maroon pairs are for you and mom, and the smaller pair is for Ningning. My sister-in-law is taking care of Songzi and Baizi, so I didn't knit for them."
Like Grandma Jiang, Jiang's mother was responsible for all the work outside and was not good at housework. The shoes in Uncle Jiang's house were all made by Uncle Jiang's wife. Jiang Song would buy the shoes to wear, and Jiang Bai would pick up Jiang Song's shoes to wear.
That is to say, when the store is not busy, she can watch the store and make shoes for her family at the same time. In addition to Grandma Jiang and Grandpa Jiang, her parents-in-law, two children, husband, and herself all knitted thick cotton shoes. The soles are all ready-made foam soles, and the inside of the shoes are filled with thick cotton, which is very warm.
She gave the shoes to Grandpa Jiang, and only then did she have time to look at Grandpa Jiang and said, "Dad, you have had a good time these days, and your face has gained weight."
Grandpa Jiang took the shoes the little girl knitted for him and said with a smile, "I moved to a place near Ningning's school. She gave me meat every day. She gave me a lot of meat at a meal. I couldn't finish it. How could I not gain weight?"
After saying this, Grandpa Jiang was so satisfied with what he said. Look at what he said, 'there's so much meat that we can't finish eating'. Now he even dares to say something like 'there's so much meat that we can't finish eating'. Oh my God! I must tell this to his old friends when I return to the village.
His old friends were all old men who were about the same age as him, either a few years older or younger. They were all old men whose children had grown up and who had nothing to do in the village except herding cattle and taking care of their grandchildren. When they got together, they had no other hobby but bragging.
Grandpa Jiang likes it too.
Grandpa Jiang waited at Aunt Jiang's house for a whole morning before he spoke a few words to Jiang Bai and the others.
As soon as Tong Jingang saw Jiang Ning, his mouth was stretched to his ears: "Sister, don't be stingy today. Don't be reluctant to give me the commission that Bai Zi has earned. Look at how much money I have earned for you today!"
He took out a handful of money from his pocket, approached Jiang Ning mysteriously, and winked at her: "I'm raising the price of each piece of clothing by ten yuan!"
He's so proud of himself, okay? He increased Jiang Ning's profit tenfold! ten times! I used to only make one dollar per piece, but now I can make ten dollars!
Oh my God, he couldn't even imagine how much money he had made for Jiang Ning today!
He almost felt dizzy just thinking about it.
Jiang Ning smiled and said, "Okay, when this batch of clothes is sold out, I'll give you a big red envelope!"
When they heard about the big red envelope, their eyes lit up!
The girl said there is a big red envelope! How big is it?
So looking forward to it!
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