Father and Mother Lin were also very happy. They had just arrived and half of the products had been sold. There were still people in the store touching and looking at the products.
The two elders followed those people and said in broken Mandarin, "Delicious..."
“It will be delicious…”
“It will be fresh…”
"It's cheap... only 45 cents..."
Ye Yaodong returned to the store happily with a stack of new banknotes in his hand. As soon as he entered, he heard them greeting the customers in the store with smiles on their faces. They didn't look uncomfortable, but their Mandarin was ridiculous.
He can only utter two or three words, and his intonation is very inaccurate, but it's good enough that he can speak. It's much better than most people. Anyway, I can barely understand him.
Ye Yaodong also smiled and said to the people in the store: "Just now the boss weighed 500 kilograms to take away, and everyone saw it. You can rest assured about the quality of the dried fish. They were all dried before the New Year, so they won't go bad if left here."
"If it's windy or rainy and it's inconvenient to go out to buy groceries, it's much more convenient to steam or stir-fry a bowl of dried fish. You don't have to worry about having no vegetables to go with it at home. It's also suitable for drinking and it's cheap."
“Yes, yes, it won’t go bad… and it’s cheap…” Lin’s father agreed.
He can speak Chinese, but he can't speak Mandarin. He needs more practice.
Those who were picky kept nodding their heads and said they wanted to try two or three kilograms first. Lin's father and mother immediately became busy again.
There is no need to package this dried fish. Just take a straw rope, pass it through a hole in the fish head, tie a knot, and you can carry it in your hand.
There were two old men, one was working on a scale and the other was threading a rope. Ye Yaodong took some time off and went to the door to set off a string of firecrackers.
It’s the first day the new store opens, so we have to set off some firecrackers as a formality and to celebrate.
Because of the sound of firecrackers, their shop really attracted a lot of curious people to come and take a look.
After finishing all the work, Ye Yaodong placed a sack of dried fish horizontally on the ground, and then placed a pile of change on the sack and counted them.
"I'll have to buy a table and chairs later. There's no place to put my things, and no place to sit."
"I don't think you need to buy any. You can go back today and you'll have to bring another truckload of dried fish tomorrow. It looks like there are a lot of customers. There are only about 300 kilograms left. If you get a lot and it's not enough, you can bring a broken table and chairs from home when you bring another truckload, or buy one from a carpenter in the village. It's definitely cheaper than buying it in the city."
"That's fine."
You can just go to the village committee and move in. The situation was too sensitive in those years. The shabby primary school in the village had no teachers, so it was closed later. And now there are no teachers willing to come, so all the children go to school in the next village.
He could tell his mother and ask her to move a set of tables and chairs. There were so many of them anyway that they could just be placed in the village committee.
After Ye Yaodong counted the money, he lifted up his clothes and put them into the cloth bag he was carrying on his back, and also put the new stack of money neatly in there.
The first thing I received was a brand new banknote. Of course, I would not want to fold it. Only during the Chinese New Year will I have the chance to receive the new banknotes that have just been circulated from the bank.
If you have time when you go back, you can go to the bank to exchange a set of new banknotes of various denominations and save them. When the time comes, looking at them one version at a time, they will be memories.
For the entire morning, Ye Yaodong had been busy arranging food and accommodation for Lin's father and mother. There were guests coming from time to time, and there was quite a lot of people, so they had to stop and greet the guests after a while. Fortunately, Lin's mother was there and could help with the arrangements.
If the tractor driver at the door hadn't urged him to leave, Ye Yaodong probably would have been reluctant to leave. As soon as the new store opened, it attracted quite a lot of people coming in and out of the market.
There are relatively few people entering and exiting the two entrances on the side. After all, this is the main entrance, and the two on the side are side doors. It is really difficult to rent a shop in the short term.
When they returned home, it was already dusk. Not only Lin Xiuqing, but also his parents were very concerned about what happened on the first day of opening.
Ye Yaodong didn't say much. He took off his clothes, took out the cloth bag inside, unbuttoned his clothes, and then poured the banknotes all over the table. He looked at the two boys with stars in his eyes.
"Ah! There are new banknotes!"
"There's new money!"
The children were quick-eyed and quick-handed, and each of them pressed a card and slid it in front of them.
"It's so new, Dad. This is new money."
“I like new money…”
Ye Yaodong touched the two children's heads and said, "Little kids, don't move. This big unity ticket costs ten yuan."
"We are just curious about the new money, so we are just playing with it and will return it to you later."
Children find everything new. They have never seen such brand new money before, so they can brag about it when they tell others about it.
The adults had seen more money a few times before, so they weren't as excited, but they were still very happy.
Father Ye said with a smile on his face, "So many, are these what you sold today? Quite a lot, about two or three hundred yuan, right? We got there this morning and were delayed on the road for quite a while, so it shouldn't have been long since we've been there, right?"
After Lin Xiuqing calculated it in her mind, she was surprised, "How many hundreds of kilograms were sold at once?"
"It's selling so well. We just went there this morning and we sold several hundred yuan." Ye's mother was also surprised. "Isn't this much better than setting up a street stall?"
Ye Yaodong took two dimes from the table and gave them to the two children, "One dimes each, go out and play, don't get in the way here, and don't talk nonsense outside."
"Yes, Dad."
Ye Chenghu excitedly took the money and quickly climbed down the stool. He loved his father the most!
"Brother, wait for me..."
After the two children left, Ye Yaodong told them what happened this morning, and the whole family was happy.
Even Ye's mother said something nice, "I didn't expect that you could actually make a lot of money from all the dried fish you sold. It's not rare here, but it's so popular in the city."
"People in the city outside don't have any fields or land, so they have to spend money to buy everything. Only people like us living by the sea can store dried fish, and it's cheap." Father Ye was a little pleased with himself.
"If you know so much, why didn't you get rich earlier?"
"Look at what you said. You started again before we even had a few words to say. Who would have thought? This is the only time I've been to the city in my entire life."
Mother Ye rolled her eyes at him. "Instead of talking here, why don't you go help the eldest and second brothers move the goods? There aren't many left there. Move them all over and put them in the yard. I'll ask Dongzi to weigh them later. We'll have to make another delivery tonight, otherwise there won't be enough to sell."
"I know. Why are you in such a hurry? Can our own goods grow legs and run away? We should count how much they were sold for."
"What are you counting? Didn't they say they sold for two or three hundred? They don't want you to count, the couple can count it themselves."
"Is it not enough for me to listen? If you are in a hurry, just go and move it yourself." Father Ye glared back, not wanting to be outdone.
Ye Yaodong was speechless when he heard the two old men quarreling, "Why don't you two move together? That way no one will suffer any loss?"
"You are the ones who have too much to do. If you have time, go and help with the work." The old lady said as she drove Ye's father out. "Go, go, go, move some of it here first. Don't touch it to the ground. I'll tell you how much it sells for later."
Seeing this, Ye's mother followed.
The room became quiet and the old lady didn't say a word so as not to disturb the couple counting money.
After she finished counting, she said with a smile: "It may be because it has rained a lot during this period, and people in the city want to store some food at home, so it may be easier to sell next time."
Ye Yaodong nodded, "That's possible. Anyway, we have a lot of stock before the New Year. If we send another truck in the early morning, the stocks at my eldest brother's and second brother's will be emptied, and only ours will be left. If there is no large quantity delivered, we can still sell for a long time."
"Sell slowly, sell slowly, you will always make money."
"Well," Ye Yaodong looked at Lin Xiuqing again, "Put the money away, and don't fold the new money."
Lin Xiuqing smiled and said, "No matter how new it is, it will become old after a while. Did you leave some change for my parents? If they need change, it will be troublesome if they can't find it. There are no shops around to change money."
"Yes, I kept a few cents from three or four dollars, enough to make change, so I didn't bring that many bills back today."
"Um."
At night, Ye Yaodong transported another truck to the city and brought two sets of tables. The two elderly people also needed one set for their residence. He asked his mother to help buy them. Anyway, the village committee had some of them piled there, so he just asked her to help ask. He bought two sets at a discount price, and they only cost a few dollars each.
It's still made of solid wood~
When he arrived at the market at three o'clock in the morning, the lights inside the market were bright, and the light came directly through the entrance. There was a constant stream of vendors and carts coming and going, and the door of his shop was wide open, with some customers coming in and out.
Ye Yaodong jumped out of the car and was about to help when he saw a man rummaging around and touching things. Then, when no one was paying attention, he grabbed a few pieces of dried fish and stuffed them into his cotton-padded jacket. Then he looked around and wanted to leave.
"What the hell? Did I encounter three hands?"
He simply stood at the door to block the thief's way.
The thief didn't look like a habitual offender. He must have acted on impulse and was a little greedy, so he stole a few pieces and put them inside the clothes.
Seeing him blocking their way, they looked at him nervously, grabbed their clothes tightly, and moved to the side.
Ye Yaodong also moved to the side, blocking the way, "Take the things out!"
"Wha…what…"
He didn't waste any words and directly grabbed the thief's hand that was covering his stomach and twisted it behind his back. In an instant, four or five large pieces of dried toad fish fell out from his clothes.
The people coming in and out saw it and immediately cried out in surprise, "Thief!"
"There's a thief!"
People in the shop also gathered around to watch.
"Let me go~"
The thief struggled to run away, and Ye Yaodong had a hard time catching him. After kicking him twice and punching him, he let him run away.
Lin's father and mother stepped forward quickly and said, "It's a good thing you came, otherwise it would have been stolen."
"There were quite a lot of people coming and going in this store, and we couldn't handle them all. We didn't look carefully and didn't keep a close eye on them, so the items were almost stolen."
"It's okay. There are a lot of petty thieves. How can we catch them all with just two pairs of eyes?" Ye Yaodong said casually and immediately told the guests present not to take it seriously.
Customers came into the store again and started to pick things.
Father Lin walked beside Ye Yaodong and said with a smile: "Fortunately you rushed to deliver a truckload early, otherwise I would be worried that there wouldn't be enough to sell. It's still dark and we've already sold more than 20 kilograms right after we opened the store. We have nowhere to dump it, otherwise it would be better if we dumped it out and sold it."
"Okay, when I come in a couple of days, I'll bring a whole bamboo bed. This way, we can pour the dried fish onto the bed and it will be easier to pick out."
“Hey hey.”
Ye Yaodong had been helping out in the store, working from pitch dark to just after dawn. Only then did the number of customers decrease. Occasionally, he would carry three or four bags of goods from the tractor down to the store, and he would move the rest to another store, which served as a warehouse.
We sold more than 200 kilograms this morning. The sales volume is very encouraging. Having a shop there is quite conspicuous, which is better than a group of people gathering there to set up stalls.
Many of them are fishmongers who come here to buy goods. When they see a shop here, they come in to have a look and then buy some.
He felt that the truckload of goods brought in today would probably only be enough to sell for a few days.