The Scum Gong Begs Me to Get Back Together, but I Just Want to Get Rich

Although it has only been a few days, the method he sold his goods was about to change.

The goods sold before were mainly Lunar New Year’s items, but now that the new year had passed, many people would not buy such things at this time. For example, the stall selling Spring Festival couplets next to Jiang Xiao’s simply left and did not set up the stall after the new year. Everyone also knew, who would still sell couplets at this time?

Although the business was good before, Jiang Xiao hadn’t even sold a third of his stocks. The profit margin of his small stall wasn’t low and many of his costs were negligible, but being overstocked was normal. Even if Jiang Xiao had selected carefully, it was expected that some items were more popular than others.

If it weren’t for the quick delivery during New Year’s Eve, it would have been very difficult for him to sell out items worth 20,000 yuan just in a few days.

It’s all right to keep some goods. For example, some items for middle school and high school students could still be put into a small container for sale after school starts. There was no rush to sold these items. On the other hand, some other items used in winter would not be easy to sell when the spring warmed up, but he could still sell them at a slightly discounted price.

However, if he wanted to make money, selling things was not the only way.

The stall owner who sold Spring Festival couplets had a good relationship with him. The boss had earned enough money to go back to his hometown for the New Year’s Eve, so the stall was empty and could be used by Jiang Xiao, with a cheaper rent fee.

Jiang Xiao’s previous stall could continue as usual and the former Spring Festival couplets stall was turned into a darts and balloons game booth.

He still had enough balloons from Liujiang Wholesale Market, thus he decided to make a big foam board. In addition to the long balloons he made into balloon puppies, he also bought some round balloons. For this game booth, he used the pump to inflate the round balloons one by one, tied them up, and stored them.

The balloon itself wasn’t expensive, a big bag of them worth only 10 yuan and Jiang Xiao didn’t even spend any money to buy them. When he bargained for his goods, the boss of the shop at the wholesale market also gave him all the goods with damaged packaging bags that were difficult to sell.

After it was done, he hung them up one by one on the foam board.

Each balloon came in big and small sizes. Each game costs 5 yuan to have 12 darts at a time. If the customer hit more than 9 balloons, they would be rewarded. The value of the reward varied according to the number they hit the balloons, but they were all items from Jiang Xiao’s stall. That way, no matter how high the reward was, Jiang Xiao was unable to suffer a loss.

There was also a small balloon half the size of a fist in the foam board which could give more expensive rewards if the customer could hit it. Jiang Xiao wrote all the rules and hung them at the stall. Xia Wanwan just happened to help take care of this stall. With such clear terms and conditions to play the game, she didn’t need to explain again, just make sure that people didn’t cheat.

The market after the new year was just as lively and Jiang Xiao had two stalls to make money.

As expected, there were more people on the street on the third day of Lunar New Year and most of them came out with their family to look around. If it were parents, they would be willing to buy a new schoolbag, stationery, or gloves for their children at this time, which matched Jiang Xiao’s stall. All the winter items were also sold at a discount. After all, the winter in Houlin was quite long, so these items could still be used for another two months. If the quality was good, it could be used for several years.

The price was originally affordable, but Jiang Xiao further discounted them to clear up the stocks, thus the sale performance was really good. When people took a look at the price of playing one game, they just went for it.

… Sure enough, prices were the magic weapon to attract customers.

After a while, people gradually came to the balloon stall to join the fun.

When the first person came to play, there were a lot of people watching, probably because they thought it was interesting. Anyway, it didn’t cost money to watch other people play.

After nine hits, Jiang Xiao would give them a small toy worth 1 yuan, and they could choose whatever they want. Ten hits would be rewarded with stationery or decorations worth 3 yuan, eleven hits would be items worth 5 to 8 yuan, and if the twelve hits could be reached, the reward was a large toy worth 20 yuan. If people could also aim for the small balloons, they could get a set of car miniature or Barbie dolls worth 50 yuan.

Of course, this was just a marketing trick. If the items worth 50 yuan from Liujiang were sold in Houlin, after the operational costs were added, it was normal to sell them for 150 yuan. So these things didn’t worth that much for Jiang Xiao. Moreover, that set of car miniature and Barbie dolls were also in trend currently, which was still rare in Houlin. Many children were attracted by this and brought their parents to play.

5 yuan for a game was not particularly expensive and everyone was willing to spend more money to have fun during the Lunar New Year.

A lot of people gathered in front of the stall. Many of them just came to see the excitement and when they saw players missed their shot, they would sigh and say a few words.

Some parents were confident and took a shot with their heads high. Although their throws weren’t perfect, after two rounds, they managed to win a small toy for their child. It was not a loss for them, as well as for Jiang Xiao.

Other people couldn’t throw accurately and didn’t manage to get anything after spending 5 yuan, but Jiang Xiao still gave them some balloon puppies. With their hands not empty, both parties were happy.

While Xia Wanwan helped to take care of more and more customers in the balloon stall, Jiang Xiao’s sale at his own booth was not as prosperous.

ooOOoo

When there were fewer people at dinner time, Jiang Xiao simply cleaned up his shop and told Xia Wanwan to go home and rest, saying that he would take care of the balloon stall by himself.  Although her health had improved now, Jiang Xiao didn’t dare to let her work outside all day like him and urged her to go home quickly.

Xia Wanwan didn’t feel tired. She was busy now, but she felt fulfilled. Her face was full of light and her lips were rosy.

“I’m not tired,” she said, “I can continue to help you.”

“Don’t be so fearless, go back and drink the medicine quickly.” Jiang Xiao threatened her, “The doctor has instructed Mom to take the medicine on time. If Mom doesn’t go back now, I will take Mom to the hospital tomorrow and won’t set up the stall tomorrow.”

It was good to go out and do some activities, but Xia Wanwan’s body was not like his, a half-child. It was all right to be a little tired, she currently was just excited so she didn’t feel so tired. However, how could she not be tired after a busy day? She would only know the next day, with her body feeling sore all over if she continued to help him.

She’s been moving around all day, so no matter what, he couldn’t let her stay any longer.

ooOOoo

Seeing that the business was so good today, Jiang Xiao thought about hiring a part-timer. When he closed the stalls at night, he counted the money earned for the day. The two stalls had collected more than 2,000 yuan. It was not impossible to hire someone to help.

He packed his things and went home. But when he walked down the corridor to his house, he felt someone was behind him. The next second, he was hugged from behind.

“Xiao Xiao…”

The person in the back was about to speak more, but Jiang Xiao didn’t want to hear it. He did a shoulder throw to that person on the spot, his defensive skills were fully charged. He picked up a brick and asked with a frown, “Who?!”

Street lamps illuminated the face of that person.

It was Lin Chengyu.

Jiang Xiao regretted it a bit, he shouldn’t just give him a shoulder throw, he should just hit this man with the brick earlier!

“What are you doing? Are you crazy?!” He became even angrier, “Dare to sneak an attack on me?!”

“No…” Lin Chengyu supported his waist and stood up, feeling a little pain in his body. “I just want to hug you. I have scared you, I’m sorry.”

When he came here, he saw Jiang Xiao coming back. He had been away for a few days because of family affairs and thought Jiang Xiao would think something was wrong. He planned to hug him from behind, as it would appease him to hug each other.

Then he fell over his shoulder.

Forget it, Jiang Xiao had this temper towards him now, he should have thought of this result long ago.

Lin Chengyu could rest assured that his grandfather would intervene in the Lin family’s affairs. In the past few days, Grandpa had told him some things, telling him to discuss more with Yue Cheng outside. He naturally nodded.

The Mingyue Bay project had been signed and the start of construction would be postponed because of the integration of the new construction team. Lin Chengyu was also afraid that Lin Feng would jump over the wall in a hurry, so he kept an eye on him, but Yue Cheng told him that he was really afraid of the old man recently, so they were safe for a while.

That’s right, now Yongjiang’s cash flow was steady, all of its businesses were stable, and Grandpa was in good health. Even if Lin Feng got tough, he couldn’t shake the current Yongjiang Company, so it’s better to lie down.

He hadn’t seen Jiang Xiao for a few days, but the other part still didn’t want to see him as usual.

Lin Chengyu had left someone from his family in Houlin. Through the phone, he knew that Jiang Xiao happily went out to set off fireworks on New Year’s Eve. He also knew that the other person didn’t go out on the first and second day of the new year. He came out to set up a tall today and came up with the idea of a balloon game to make money.

Truly a clever and quick-witted young man.

However, now Jiang Xiao was still angry. He glared at Lin Chengyu, then turned around and went upstairs without saying a word to him.

ooOOoo

The next morning, Xia Wanwan’s legs were really sore. After all, she had to stand for a long time outside yesterday to set up the stall and her body couldn’t keep up.

“Blame me for being useless,” she frowned and looked at Jiang Xiao with worry, “You have two stalls, how can you manage them alone?”

Jiang Xiao found the medicated oil and rubbed her calf. It was no big deal, actually. So he told her to rest more for the next few days and said in relief, “It’s already great that Mom can help me yesterday. I went upstairs last night to Grandma Wang’s house. Her grandson, Wang Liang-ge, just wanted to earn some extra money so he agreed to help me.”

The neighbor upstairs, Wang Liang, was four years older than Jiang Xiao. He was also someone they knew and currently studying in a polytechnic. Yesterday, he just came back from visiting his relatives and was so vexed by his seven dagu and eight dayi1. Jiang Xiao just came in time, thus he agreed to help without thinking too much.

Jiang Xiao promised to give him ten yuan an hour, thus he could earn more than one hundred yuan in a day, and six to seven hundred yuan if he could work for four to five days in a row. This was quite a lot of money during this time, which was equivalent to his monthly living expenses.

As a result, when Jiang Xiao took Wang Liang out to set up a stall the next day, he saw Lin Chengyu standing there, smiling, by the time he arrived at the market.

Jiang Xiao really didn’t know what to say, “…”

Wang Liang was naïve, so when he saw Lin Chengyu coming up to help them, he asked Jiang Xiao, “Is this your cousin? He’s pretty handsome.”

“No,” Jiang Xiao didn’t know how to explain for a while, “You can just be busy with your work, just ignore him.”

But how could Lin Chengyu really let Jiang Xiao ignore him? Both Lin Heyuan and Ye Yingying had gone back to their hometown and they couldn’t come back these few days. Wang Liang, who was just a neighbor to Jiang Xiao, was much easier to deal with.

Lin Chengyu still brought him breakfast, which Jiang Xiao persistently didn’t eat, so he simply gave it to Wang Liang to curry favor.

The mouth is short to exploit2, so Wang Liang has a good impression of Lin Chengyu. Later, Lin Chengyu gave him another one hundred yuan to teach him how to make a balloon puppy. Wang Liang then used a pump to inflate the balloon and made a bunch of balloon puppies at the back of the stall.

Lin Chengyu got what he wanted. He looked after the balloon stand and whenever he was free, he asked Jiang Xiao a few questions.

Lin Chengyu really had some questions related to the customers and this was his own business, thus Jiang Xiao couldn’t help but answer. Wang Liang, this honest person, finally finished his tasks and Lin Chengyu went to the back to say a few words. Afterward, the two of them left together.

Lin Chengyu was really hard to guard against.

Footnotes:

1 seven dagu and eight dayi (七大姑八大姨) literally means ‘seven paternal aunts and eight maternal aunts’, it’s a common saying for someone who have a lot of female relatives (who usually are nosy and always want to set you up for marriage lol). I guess Wang Liang had a very abundant family from both of his parents lol. I can imagine the pain. I have 5 paternal aunts and 2 paternal uncles. But they’re, at least, never trying to get into my business.

2 The mouth is short to exploit (吃人嘴短) is a saying that if you take advantage of others, you will deliberately give in to others, even if they have shortcomings or mistakes, you will not dare to speak out or take care of them. I don’t know if I have translated this correctly lol. But let me know your thoughts!