But Qiuhu is in the heart of the provincial capital, and it's too far to go. Sanni feels it's a bit unrealistic for her. Just when she was about to give up, Qi Jinzhou said there were foreigners in the county. When he was having dinner there that day, he happened to see a table of people chattering in a bird language.
My deskmate said that they were probably speaking Japanese and that they were a group of Japanese people.
They were either tourists or businessmen. These days, Shanyin County was a vast rural area made up of countless towns and villages. There was no point in sightseeing; most people who came were businessmen.
In the past two years, the country has opened its doors to encourage foreign exchange earnings and actively promoted the development of foreign trade. Domestic products are absolutely high quality and low price for foreigners, and the prices given by foreigners also make domestic businessmen feel that they have made a fortune.
When the two sides are combined, no one suffers.
The most famous thing about Yue City is the "Three Jars Culture": wine jars, soy sauce jars, and dye jars.
It was unlikely that the Japanese were just there to buy soy sauce, so whenever she had time, she would take Liang Shengdi's boat to Bu Street.
I went there for several days in a row, and I really saw one or two foreigners every day. Although not many, there were definitely some.
In addition to those with blond hair and blue eyes who can be identified as foreigners at a glance, there are also some Asian foreigners with yellow skin and black hair. The obvious sign is that they will definitely be accompanied by accompanying personnel and translators.
Whenever she saw people like this, she would secretly stand by and listen to their conversation, but most of the time she couldn't understand what they were saying because most of them spoke English. There was also a group of Asians who didn't speak English, but kept talking in a smectic manner.
There were only two times when she could understand Japanese. The foreigners both brought translators with them, so she didn't have much chance and didn't dare to go up and talk to them. She just stood by and listened to their tone of voice. Sometimes when she heard something that sounded different from what she was saying, she would write it down in her notebook.
Standing on the side like her doesn't make people feel awkward, because whenever they hear someone speaking a foreign language, people with nothing to do will come over to join in the fun. They don't do anything, just stand on the side and watch foreigners talk, which is no different from watching a monkey show.
Sanni was looking at the translators. She envied this profession very much. They were well-dressed and stood confidently between the two sides, switching between the two languages at any time. She had no idea how much they could get in a day.
I just listened to it and it felt weird. Did the boss just say 6.5?
"...You, you are wrong..." Sanni mustered up the courage to shout out loudly.
The group of people standing at the door of Xingwang Cloth Shop suddenly became quiet. Those who understood what she was saying turned around to look at her. Those who didn't understand, seeing everyone turning their heads, also turned around inexplicably and found that they were looking at a young girl.
"What did you just say? Who said something wrong?" Xu Fadada, the owner of Xingwang Cloth Shop, was the first to come to his senses.
The man who served as the translator frowned and looked Sanni up and down with a bad attitude, but did not respond to her.
Sanni swallowed and took a step forward. "You quoted 6.5 yuan per meter, right?"
The domestic retail price of 39"45" polyester-cotton fine cloth is actually only 2.5 yuan per meter, but since it is sold to foreigners, Xu Fadada just quoted a price of 6.5 yuan without blushing or beating his heart.
He nodded. "Yeah."
Sanni nodded in the translator's direction with her chin. "When he told this...customer just now, he quoted four dollars and a half per meter."
When four dollars and five cents and six dollars and fifty cents are said quickly, they are actually very similar, except for the difference of "ke" in the middle. At first she thought she had misheard, but then she heard the two Japanese people who came with her discussing how much the cost of a piece of clothing would be if it was four dollars and fifty cents per meter.
And the translator did not interrupt their discussion to correct the price.
Only then did she confirm that the translator had indeed quoted four dollars and fifty cents.
The translator got anxious when she heard this. Actually, he'd already realized it while listening to their conversation, but he didn't really want to correct her. What if she thought he was unprofessional? Besides, doubling the price for foreign trade was a standard practice in China, and he knew his boss wouldn't lose money.
But how can a rustic country girl like you jump out and slap him in the face?
"What are you talking about! Do you understand Japanese? Who said I quoted four dollars and fifty cents? We're talking about international business, don't you understand? What are you, a country bumpkin, getting involved in? If I lose money, you can take the responsibility!"
Sanni has never been someone who would be scared by a loud voice. Since the boss was sure that the price he quoted was six dollars and fifty cents, she ignored the man opposite who was making a threatening gesture and seemed like he was going to pounce on her at any second. She didn't leave her butcher knife at home.
She looked directly at the two Japanese people and spoke in Japanese, which she had always practiced speaking to herself.
"Hello, the price of that cloth just now was 6.5 yuan per meter, not 4.5 yuan per meter. Your translation reported an error."
It's a bit choppy, but completely understandable.
The two Japanese did not speak at first. They looked at each other and then at the translator. The translator quickly explained to them in Japanese,
"I didn't make a mistake! The boss said four dollars and fifty cents! He just suddenly raised the price!"
This is a typical case of everyone being an idiot.
"He's lying! The boss quoted six dollars and a half! He just mispronounced it!"
Two Chinese people, standing in front of a cloth shop in a small southern county town, started arguing in Japanese.
Boss Xu's eyes lit up as he stood by. "Little girl! You can speak their bird... Japanese!"
Sanni was arguing with the translator in a fierce and aggressive manner. The next second, she nodded shyly to her boss.
"I attended night school for a year and can communicate in some simple ways." For example, the translation of "polyester cotton" just now is very simple, but it is indeed the first time I heard it, if the translator did not translate it wrongly.
"Not easy! Haha!" The boss smiled with a face full of amiability. "Then please help me translate it for them and tell them it's 6.5 yuan per meter, but if you buy more, you can get a discount!"
The boss didn't blame the translator, because four dollars and a half wasn't a bad price, and it wouldn't be worth it to offend a translator for no reason. But he wasn't really willing to trust the translator anymore. For a business owner, making a mistake in the price is like poking a hole in the sky.
Sanni babble a bunch of nonsense to the two Japanese people, and without checking with the translator, she starts talking directly to her, leaving the translator standing nearby with a pale face.
The two Japanese bargained aggressively, saying they wanted 5,000 meters of cloth first, and if the work was good, they would order more later. They bargained down from $6.50 to $5.50, but in the end, because the bill was in US dollars, the boss insisted on stopping at $5.80.
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