Thirty-one, when you encounter a bad person, shout.
Li Wei and Luo Da got off the bus and took the tram directly to the free market.
The market was as bustling as ever. Li Wei led Luo Daxian around the free market, but they didn't see the vendor selling fabric scraps, so they guessed he wasn't there today.
Li Wei found an intersection where the market and the road met, and she and Luo Da put their bags on the ground, opened the bags, and started setting up a stall.
Since it was Sunday, there were quite a few people coming and going to buy things. One after another, old ladies and young wives came to inquire about and look at the hair accessories. When they heard that the price was not expensive, three or five people started to buy them. After all, which family doesn't have a girl or woman, and which woman doesn't love beauty?
Suddenly, not only did Li Wei start selling goods and collecting money, but even Luo Da started paying for goods and collecting money. Li Wei was a little worried, wondering if Luo Da could figure out the accounts. This guy was quite good at math.
Even though people kept coming to buy, the two of them had brought so many hair accessories that by noon, Li Wei estimated that they had only sold about a third of them together. They each had more than half a pack of hair accessories left, and she didn't know when they would ever sell them all.
Li Wei was getting anxious when a middle-aged woman in a floral dress approached. Seeing the two children selling things, she made a slightly surprised "Eh?" sound, but said nothing. She squatted down and began frantically searching through the hair accessories. At first, Li Wei greeted her with a smile, but the woman practically turned both bags upside down, asking the prices at least three times, yet she didn't buy a single one!
Li Wei's smile gradually faded, and her cheeks started to ache. She stared at the woman with a serious expression, wondering if she was just browsing without buying anything. That would be better; she probably just wanted to snatch something cheap. She watched the woman's every move with wide eyes.
The woman in the floral dress finally finished her fuss and looked up to ask Li Wei, "Little girl, where are your parents?"
It seems they don't believe a small child can sell things.
Li Wei was afraid that this woman wasn't a good person, so she went along with it: "My mom is busy and told me to sell first. Auntie, do you want to buy? If you don't want to buy, hurry up and leave, don't scare the children here."
The girl in the floral dress thought for a moment and said, "Then let me ask you, little friend. If I buy more, can you sell it to me for a discount?"
"Auntie, how much are you planning to buy? If it's a lot, my mom said we can consider it." It seems we've run into a haggling match.
"I'll buy a hundred. Twenty of this kind and twenty of that kind. Sixty of that kind. They'll be fifty cents each on average. What do you think, kid?"
Li Wei currently has about 240 to 250 hair accessories left. If she buys 100 floral dresses, she'll lose 10 yuan, but she'll still have quite a few left. After thinking for a moment, she said, "Fifty cents is too little. If you only buy 100, six cents is more like it. If you can buy them all, five cents is acceptable."
The woman hadn't expected the little girl to offer two solutions. She'd underestimated her. These ideas didn't seem like something an adult would explain before leaving. She couldn't help but scrutinize Li Wei several times. Regardless of the stall owner's status, she'd already bargained with her. If she wanted to buy something, she needed an explanation: "Auntie doesn't have that much money. How about 55 cents each? I'll buy a hundred, okay?"
Li Wei didn't care about the price now. What she cared about was the sales volume. She didn't want to carry so many things back again. Small profits but quick turnover, she thought. Besides, the profit margin wasn't small anymore. So, without room for negotiation, she said, "If they're five cents each, you need to buy at least two hundred. I'll only give you six cents each because I'm being very sincere. I can't lower the price any further."
The girl in the floral dress made a last-ditch effort. After all, several girls had recently asked about these hair accessories at her little shop near the middle school entrance, and she still wanted to stock up on some. Selling things to students was quite profitable, so she said, "Little friend, when will your mother be back? I'd better talk to your parents about it."
Li Wei scoffed, "Auntie, you'd better not wait. My mom's busy. I'll take charge here."
Seeing that Li Wei didn't seem to be lying, the woman hesitated for a moment, then gritted her teeth and decided to take a gamble. She had never seen this before, and girls should like it. There were over a thousand students in the school, and five or six hundred of them were girls. If she couldn't sell them, she would follow the child's example and set up a stall elsewhere.
A truly capable person is one who can make the right decisions at crucial moments. Years later, she became a wealthy woman in a colorful dress because she made several correct choices in her life, and this time was one of them.
Finally, the girl in the floral dress used the hundred yuan she had brought to buy other things to buy hair accessories, leaving with twenty strings of them. Li Wei thought this woman had some guts, after all, a hundred yuan was no small sum at this point. So she gave her an extra string of ten ordinary hair accessories as a bonus, which surprised and delighted the girl in the floral dress. She couldn't help but look at the little girl selling things with higher regard, and after the previous bargaining, she didn't think Li Wei's move was foolish. On the contrary, she thought the girl was quite good at business, so she promised to buy more from Li Wei if the sales were good.
Both the buyer and seller were happy.
Li Wei looked at the thirty-odd hair accessories in Luo Da's and Luo Da's bags. Their weight was negligible. She combined the two bags into a brown corduroy backpack and carried it on Luo Da's back.
Luo Da had no objections. In fact, having witnessed Li Wei pull off such a 'big deal,' he felt a mix of admiration and even deeper skepticism about women's intelligence. He had personally witnessed Li Wei combine a pile of rags, broken ropes, and other odds and ends, and then start raising prices on the spot. And, incredibly, so many people were buying it—it was truly bizarre.
It's said that this thing is worn on the head. Does the head really need so many small items?
Anyway, the junk had turned into money, and Li Wei and Luo Da were both quite happy. Li Wei, in particular, counted the hundred-yuan bill three times, and even held it up to the sunlight to check if it was real or fake. Wow! It seems that at this time, people don't have the energy to make counterfeit money.
Li Wei's actions completely forgot an old saying: "Don't flaunt your wealth."
As a result, they were targeted.
When Li Wei was pulling Luo Da across the street towards the music store to see the handsome young man and buy sheet music, a tail appeared behind them. "You're a tail, and a tail that's going to do bad things, can't you at least dress more plainly!"
A young man with long hair and sunglasses, wearing a red shirt, flared jeans, and sunglasses, had been watching Li Wei ever since she started haggling with the floral dress. Only after Li Wei received the hundred yuan and a stack of ten-yuan bills did the young man finally succumb to greed.
Li Wei turned into the quieter street where the pianos were sold and then realized something was wrong. As she turned, she glanced back and saw the guy dressed like a typical delinquent following her suspiciously, looking around furtively. Finally, he turned to Li Wei with a displeased expression.
Damn! After living in this simple, peaceful era for so long, I've actually forgotten that there are always hooligans. Living in the countryside for so long, I've even forgotten that hooligans exist in both urban and rural areas.
The music store was just ahead, but there were only a few pedestrians on the street, and none of them were strong; they were all elderly, weak, women, and children. What bad luck!
Li Wei pulled Luo Da closer and whispered for the young man's opinion: "Luo Jianhua, there are bad guys behind us trying to rob us. When I shout loudly, you immediately run into the music store with the red door in front, understand?" This was hardly a request for opinion; it was a classic case of risking one's life for money and making arrangements for the aftermath.
Luo Da, being a young child, had been in many fights but had never encountered a truly bad person. Upon hearing Li Wei's words, he immediately turned to look, his innate instincts locking onto the red shirt. Before he could examine it closely, Li Wei forcefully pulled him back: "Don't look! If you anger them, they might try to steal your money and kill you! Run!" She then shoved Luo Da forward and, with all her might, shouted, "Someone's robbing me! Someone's robbing me!" and started running as well.
She didn't even look at herself; she didn't look rich at all.
In her panic, Li Wei ran only two steps before colliding head-on with Luo Da. Luo Da managed to move forward a few more steps, but she herself stumbled backward, having run for nothing.
Enraged, she ignored the bad guys and yelled at Luo Da, "You thought you were fast? How did I catch you?!" This was such a waste of time; she didn't dare look back. She had been hoping that while the bad guys were momentarily distracted, the lightning-fast Luo Da would make a safe escape with the large sum of money! Maybe then she would be safe too. Now, she was caught red-handed.
Li Wei didn't dare to turn around, but Luo Da did. He ignored Li Wei and craned his neck to look at the hooligan. He had never really seen a bad person before.
The thug had already reached Li Wei from behind, but ignored her and pounced on her. It was clear he was after the money. He quickly reached Luo Da and reached for his backpack. He had personally witnessed the little girl putting the money bag into the boy's bag, so his target was obvious.
The villains were fierce, but Luo Da was no pushover either. Although he was a bit small, he had never been afraid of anyone, except for Li Wei's maternal grandfather, whom he mostly respected.
So, before the scoundrel's hand even touched the bag, Luo Da rammed his head into the thug's stomach; his head barely reached the thug's chest. Luo Da, the village's little tyrant among underage children, wasn't just a figure of speech; especially lately, with his kung fu practice and goat milk, his head was hard enough to make the thug stumble back two steps, his stomach even feeling slightly uncomfortable.
The thug, rubbing his stomach in anger, thought, "Little brat, how dare you hit me!" He came over and tried to slap Luo Da, but Luo Da clung to his arm like a koala. The thug tried to throw himself off but couldn't, and then found his left arm was also heavy. Looking down, he saw another koala clinging to him, this one even fiercer, opening its mouth and biting his forearm. The thug screamed in pain and suddenly threw Li Wei away.
Li Wei's scream of pain as she fell to the ground was drowned out by the thug's even more shrill scream. This time it was Luo Da, who was even more ruthless. He almost tore off a piece of flesh from the thug's arm, and even though the thug, who had lost his mind, threw him off, he landed steadily on his feet without falling.
This time, the thug was completely enraged. He'd been outmaneuvered by two kids! How could he ever face the city's gangsters again? What would the other thugs think of him? Ignoring his two bloodied arms, he suddenly pulled out a gleaming dagger: "You little brats have sharp teeth, huh? You dare bite me? I'll stab you to death!" He then lunged at Luo Da. He'd realized that the main attacker was the little boy, and the girl was just helping him out.
Li Wei was terrified. If someone died, she wouldn't want to live either. But she had brought that child out, and she was relatively far from the thugs. Just as she was getting anxious, Luo Da suddenly darted towards Li Wei, his speed no slower than the thugs! Li Wei gritted her teeth, thinking, "If you had run this fast earlier, nothing would have happened!"
Ignoring her own pain, Li Wei saw Luo Da approaching and immediately threw herself into his arms, thinking, "You scoundrel, if you want to kill me, come at me! Anyway, I'm of questionable origin, and maybe I can be reborn after I die. Luo Jianhua is innocent, though he's a bit slow, but he'll definitely be a hero when he grows up."
However, the pain that Li Wei had been waiting for did not come. Instead, the thug was making a lot of noise and groaning. Li Wei felt that something was wrong and turned her head to look. She saw the thug in the red shirt kneeling on the ground, his dagger lying aside. His arms were twisted behind his back and he was being held down by a young man in military uniform who was stepping on his calves and pulling his arms.
Just as Li Wei was about to see what was going on, she suddenly realized that she had moved, and her face was now facing the opposite direction of the thug. Looking down, she was shocked! She had actually climbed onto Luo Da's back. Of course, she couldn't see Luo Da moving to check the situation. She quickly slid off Luo Da and turned her head to continue looking at the brave and righteous People's Liberation Army uncle.
The People's Liberation Army soldier subdued the thief, then looked up and smiled brightly at the two children, revealing his pearly white teeth: "Little friends, don't be afraid, I've caught this guy, he can't hurt you two anymore."
Having escaped the thieves, Li Wei gratefully said to the People's Liberation Army uncle, "Uncle PLA, you are so brave! I want to write a thank-you letter to your unit. Uncle PLA, which unit are you from? You are even more capable than the police! We've been making a scene for so long and haven't seen a single policeman. If it weren't for you, Uncle PLA, we would be in big trouble!" Li Wei had never called the People's Liberation Army uncle with such heartfelt gratitude in either of her two lives.
The brave People's Liberation Army soldier, however, looked utterly exasperated and said, "I'm a policeman."
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