Chapter 38: The Third Watch
It wasn’t that Qian Qing’s words were harsh; rather, Wan Zhenzhen’s transformation was truly absurd.
Since the time at her parents’ home when Wan Zhenzhen’s pregnancy was revealed, barely a month had passed. Yet Wan Zhenzhen had swollen up as if inflated by breath, her chin noticeably rounder.
At this rate, by the time Wan Zhenzhen reaches the later stages of her pregnancy, it will be truly alarming.
Wan Zhenzhen had to squeeze through the crowd before she realized that the person selling pillow towels was Qian Qing; her immediate instinct was to drop everything and leave. But then she thought better of it, turned back around, and plastered a bright smile on her face.
“Qian Qing, I haven’t seen you these past few days. Did you go out of town?”
While collecting money, Qian Qing replied, “Yes, I did. I notice you’ve gained quite a bit of weight—how far along are you in your pregnancy?”
Wan Zhenzhen: ……
A direct hit!
Wan Zhenzhen had intended to provoke Qian Qing, given that in her previous life Qian Qing had only one daughter and bore her quite late. Yet, silenced by a single remark from Qian Qing, she was suddenly reminded of the terror she had felt a month earlier when dominated by this couple. Barely holding herself together, she fled in disarray.
Qian Qing blew away the stray hairs clinging to her temple. Having grown accustomed to such encounters, she found it rather unremarkable. With Wan Zhenzhen’s level of combat prowess, she simply wasn’t worth the effort.
Zhou Hao, who had been keeping an eye on people from a short distance away, noticed Wan Zhenzhen the moment she arrived. Now, he gave Qian Qing a subtle hand gesture, its meaning unmistakable.
Well countered!
With a hint of pleased pride at the compliment, Qian Qing curled her lips into a smile as she collected the money and handed over the goods.
The entire stock sold out in an instant, with people still eagerly asking if there would be more tomorrow. Only after Qian Qing announced the opening time for the next day did the crowd finally disperse, clearly planning to return tomorrow with relatives and friends in tow.
Zhou Hao folded up the camping bed and placed it on the stall, intending to take it back home later.
Their stall was the fastest-selling one on the entire street, giving the whole family some spare time to stroll along the small market lane.
Although they had just started, their displayed goods looked quite professional: clothes, shoes, socks, hats, hair flowers, and hairpins were all on offer. There were also snack vendors—one making cotton candy and another selling braised delicacies from a large pot—drawing quite a crowd around them.
Qian’s mother brought Qianqian along as well. Zhou Hao hoisted Qianqian onto his shoulders, while Qian’s mother bought her granddaughter a stick of cotton candy and ordered some braised delicacies.
After everyone tasted them, they reached the same conclusion: “Not as delicious as what Mom (I) makes.”
Qian’s mother gazed thoughtfully at the crowd gathered around the stall. Could braised food with just this flavor really sell for over two yuan per jin for meat items, and even one yuan per jin for vegetarian ones?
Ever since Qian’s mother came to the oilfield town to help her youngest daughter sell popsicles, her entire worldview had been continuously reshaped.
Not only can you make money just by reselling, but even these bland braised snacks are selling at such high prices. How is that any different from robbery?
Qian Qing patiently explained to her mother, “Mom, when we buy or sell things, we can’t just calculate based on whether it’s ‘worth it.’ If you still cling to that old mindset, then most things would seem not worth the price. Take those arm protectors sold at the stall, for instance. One pair costs one yuan, and you’d certainly think that’s a loss, right? After all, if you bought some fabric yourself and used a sewing machine, three yuan could make five pairs, bringing the cost down to just sixty cents per pair. But think about the effort involved in between. Some families don’t even own a sewing machine and have to borrow one; others, like me, don’t know how to sew and can’t use a machine anyway. Just to save forty cents, how much time would everyone end up wasting?”
“Even if people could afford to spend that time, there’s the issue of urgency. What if they need it right away? It’s already autumn now; everyone worries about their sleeve cuffs getting dirty during fall and winter, so they all need these protectors. Are they supposed to wait until they’ve learned how to make them themselves?”
“The same logic applies to our braised snacks. The people out tonight are either single individuals or families coming together. They simply want something to eat right now; it’s not necessarily about what specific food they crave, but that they want it immediately. With only two snack stalls on this small street, what harm is there in raising the prices slightly? Pricing isn’t determined by cost alone, but by the balance between those who need the product and those who provide it.”
Qian’s mother listened in a daze, but she grasped the gist of it and suddenly perked up with interest: “Then I’ll sell too!”
Qian Qing looked at her mother in surprise. She was well aware of the significant changes her mother had undergone recently, but this was the first time her mother had explicitly stated what she wanted to do.
Was it the result of Qian Qing’s day-after-day persuasion, or had Qian’s mother truly awakened?
Qian Qing tentatively asked her mother, “So, what do you want to sell?”
Without a moment’s hesitation, her mother replied, “Braised delicacies!”
Qian Qing let out a sigh; it seemed she had simply been overthinking things.
Still, everyone in the family was moving in a positive direction; they just needed to take it step by step.
“Mom, you need to consider that you’ll be managing the small shop during the day; you won’t have enough time to prepare everything. And even if you do set up a stall, don’t sell braised delicacies. There are only two snack vendors on this street; you could sell anything else and make money. The market is huge—why insist on competing over braised foods?”
Qian’s mother reflected and realized he was right. Setting up an evening stall was convenient, but preparing ingredients during the day would be troublesome. If she really had to rush around all morning to get things ready, not only would her health suffer, but her daughter couldn’t magically create another stall for her either. Stalls here were limited in number, and each spot could only accommodate one vendor.
However, Qian’s mother had already convinced herself that selling food would be profitable, and she felt reluctant to let that potential income slip through her fingers.
Qian Qing thought for a moment and offered a suggestion: “How about this? Once the small shop opens, you could try selling some food inside? The weather is getting colder; you could sell things like roasted sweet potatoes and tea eggs.”
Mother Qian thought this was an excellent idea!
It just so happened that the family of Qian Yu’s in-laws grew sweet potatoes; in recent years, they had harvested an abundance yet struggled to sell them. They could load up a cart and bring them over, set up an iron-framed stove outside, and with so many children around, selling them would surely be no trouble at all.
Over the next two or three days, the enthusiasm sparked by Qian Qing’s pillowcases and handkerchiefs showed no sign of fading; the crowd grew larger each day. In less than a week, all two thousand pillowcases and one thousand handkerchiefs were sold out. Yet even such a vast market remained unsaturated after releasing several thousand pillowcases into it.
Her elder sister, Qian Yu, had actually cleared her stock two days earlier than Qian Qing. Having already settled all matters at home, she came to find Qian Qing, brimming with joy and money tucked securely in her pocket.
The two of them took off their shoes, lay head-to-head on Mother Qian’s bed counting the money, and kept a ledger as they counted.
In the end, Qian Qing had netted a profit of 1,700 yuan. Qian Yu returned Qian Qing’s initial capital of 850 yuan, leaving her with 800 yuan in hand.
Clutching the cash, Qian Yu trembled all over. Just two days prior, she had been heartbroken over giving Grandma Huang twenty yuan and lamented the loss incurred by selling dozens of towels and handkerchiefs at cost price. Now, she held her own share—800 yuan. Eight hundred yuan!
She had never before possessed so much money that truly belonged to her!
Qian Qing furrowed her brow. She currently held nearly four thousand five hundred yuan; of this, five hundred was borrowed from Lao Ding and one thousand from Chen Xinran. Calculating carefully, only three thousand yuan truly belonged to her.
To others, turning a two-thousand-yuan capital into a net profit of one thousand yuan in less than a month, plus several hundred yuan worth of inventory for the small shop, would seem an extraordinary feat.
But to Qian Qing, this amount was still far too little.
She wanted to buy a storefront. In addition to her mother’s small shop, she needed another commercial space to serve as her launching point.
Street vending faces too many restrictions; the reason the factory only marked out a simple area and didn’t offer long-term leases is that no one knows how things will develop in the future.
Moreover, it won’t be long before the weather turns cold, which will affect night market stall business, not to mention days with strong winds or rain…
We still need to buy a house, Qian Qing thought to herself.
Recalling how she had specifically asked those two men and two women for their factory’s address last time, Qian Qing felt her heart stir with excitement once again.
“Sister, shall we make a trip to the south?”