While the students at County First High School were diligently working on the practice tests bought by Xia Xiao Lan, she had already boarded a southbound train.
The weather was terrible, and at her strong insistence, Fen Liu temporarily suspended her business of reselling deep-fried residue.
Grandmother Yu’s work, however, couldn’t stop. After being hospitalized and having others cover her shifts for several days, she picked up her broom to clean as soon as she was discharged. The doctor said diabetes patients shouldn’t overexert themselves. Fen Liu couldn’t bear to see an elderly woman sweeping the streets in such cold weather.
She went out early to clean the streets Grandmother Yu was responsible for, leaving the elderly woman with no work to do.
When Grandmother Yu went out with her broom, she happened to run into Fen Liu, who hadn’t yet left the scene. Grandmother Yu ignored her – this person never seemed to know how to thank others… The next day, the weather hadn’t improved, and Fen Liu again helped sweep the streets for Grandmother Yu. Only someone with her patient, burden-bearing nature could get along with Grandmother Yu. Though Grandmother Yu had a difficult personality, she was still better than the quarrelsome and abusive Old Lady Xia.
If Old Lady Xia hadn’t been so cruel to Xia Xiao Lan, Fen Liu could have even continued tolerating such a nasty old woman.
Grandmother Yu merely kept people at arm’s length – what was there for Fen Liu not to accept about that?
The neighbors watched all this and couldn’t help but gossip privately. Once Grandmother Yu was hospitalized, her diabetes couldn’t be kept secret anymore. She had managed to offend all the neighbors, and they were waiting to see when the old lady would meet misfortune. She lived alone in five large rooms while other families faced housing shortages – who could like Grandmother Yu?
But who knew that suddenly a distant relative would appear!
When Xia Xiao Lan and her mother moved into the Yu household, it sparked endless gossip.
Both Fen Liu and Xia Xiao Lan had pleasant personalities, completely different from Grandmother Yu. Some even thought Grandmother Yu was too lucky – after alienating everyone, she still had distant relatives coming to take care of her.
“They must want her house.”
“The Yu family has no one else. Once the old lady passes, the house will surely be reclaimed.”
“They won’t get anything – all their effort will be wasted!”
“Still, those two have good enough temperaments to live with Old Lady Yu.”
“I heard she was in bad shape, and the mother-daughter pair took her to the hospital…”
These discussions weren’t hidden from Grandmother Yu.
After hearing them, she remained silent but struggled to straighten her thin back. She couldn’t collapse, nor could she die – if she died, the other Yu family members wouldn’t be able to find their home. Xia Xiao Lan was clever; Grandmother Yu could maintain an appropriate distance from her. But facing Fen Liu, this fool who only worked without saying anything clever, Grandmother Yu found it troublesome.
Was Fen Liu doing all this, like the others, hoping to get her property?
But they had no family relation at all – even if she died, there was no way the property could go to Fen Liu and Xia Xiao Lan.
Unable to figure out Fen Liu’s motives, Grandmother Yu kept her distance.
When Xia Xiao Lan returned to Yang City, she first visited Zhen Zhu Bai’s home.
Unfortunately, Zhen Zhu Bai had obtained a border pass and had gone to Peng City Special Zone just yesterday, so Xia Xiao Lan’s trip was in vain. Back in Shang City, it was prime season for selling winter coats and down jackets, so Xia Xiao Lan couldn’t wait in Yang City for Zhen Zhu Bai.
This time she had 9,000 yuan in capital but still only brought 5,000 yuan to Yang City.
Chen Xi Liang called out to her from a distance, “New goods, new goods!”
Xia Xiao Lan squeezed over to his stall. Compared to other wholesale stalls with very cheap prices, Chen Xi Liang’s business didn’t seem as good. It wasn’t easy choosing to sell mid to high-end clothing wholesale in the early 1980s. Though Chen Xi Liang’s total sales volume wasn’t as high as others, his profits weren’t necessarily less. While others might only make one or two yuan profit per piece, the wholesale price of a sweater at Chen Xi Liang’s stall exceeded 10 yuan – selling one piece was equivalent to others selling three. Not to mention those extremely expensive high-end wool coats; higher wholesale prices naturally meant more profit!
“You’ve delayed quite a while this time.”
Chen Xi Liang wondered if the winter coats and down jackets she took back had gotten stuck in inventory.
Even if that were the case, he wouldn’t accept returns or refunds from Xia Xiao Lan. Though she was extremely beautiful, not all men were swayed by beauty – Old Chen thought “unity” bills looked better.
Xia Xiao Lan had also discovered his money-obsessed nature. “Where are the new goods?”
She wouldn’t tell him about the sales volume of the winter coats and down jackets.
Chen Xi Liang pointed to a coat hanging behind him: “Do you dare to sell it?!”
Behind Xi, Liang Chen hung a black double-breasted military-style coat – a men’s style!
No wonder Chen Xi Liang was provoking her – Xia Xiao Lan usually stocked women’s clothing, only having taken a few men’s winter coats and down jackets last time. A men’s double-breasted military-style coat?
At this time, men’s formal wear consisted of loose-fitting oversized suits with wide pant legs, big shoulders, and long sleeves… Xia Xiao Lan could imagine how striking this coat would look on a tall man, like Zhou Cheng. Men in Shang City weren’t short either; Xia Xiao Lan was confident she could sell these men’s wool coats.
“What’s wrong, having trouble selling these coats?”
Chen Xi Liang’s eyes flickered. “You don’t know how popular they are. I saved them for you because you’re a regular customer.”
Xia Xiao Lan didn’t believe a word. What kind of regular customer was she? She’d only bought goods three times.
“Tell me your wholesale price. If it’s cheap, I can help you sell a few.”
Chen Xi Liang deflated – was she really this hard to fool?
He gritted his teeth, “…Minimum 80 yuan each, this is Cashmere fabric!”
Xia Xiao Lan reflexively corrected him, “It’s Cashmere.”
Cashmere, a rare specialty animal fiber, precious textile material, internationally known as the “fiber diamond” or “soft gold.” Because Asia’s Kashmir region was once a distribution center for cashmere exports to Europe, cashmere is internationally known as “Kashmir.”
Domestically, they used the phonetic translation, so Chen Xi Liang wasn’t wrong in saying “Kai Si Mi.”
But if it were a cashmere coat, how could the wholesale price be just 80 yuan?
Xia Xiao Lan didn’t need to touch it or look closely in the dim light to know Chen Xi Liang was lying. In China in 1983, cashmere fabric wasn’t sold domestically at all. Even the extremely rare cashmere products only appeared in high-end foreign-oriented venues like the Beijing Friendship Store or Shanghai Jinjiang Hotel… prepared for foreigners staying in China. Even with a stack of unity bills, you couldn’t buy them – you needed “foreign exchange certificates.”
In the 1980s, cashmere was an export commodity for earning foreign exchange. Companies that could produce cashmere were all focused on exports, selling cashmere abroad to earn foreign currency. Unity bills weren’t accepted for international market settlements – to import various equipment, both the country and enterprises needed foreign exchange!
Take 1983 for example a cashmere sweater’s export price was about 25 US dollars – how much fabric would a cashmere coat need?
A human hair’s diameter is about 75 microns, while cashmere is generally 15-17 microns. To weave such fine cashmere into fabric required very high “combing” technology standards. China only made its cashmere combing machines in 1965; before that, they could only export raw cashmere materials, lacking the technology for deep processing. In the early 1980s, after importing more advanced combing equipment from Japan, China’s cashmere product exports entered a period of rapid growth. You could say 1983 was when domestic cashmere enterprises were busy earning foreign exchange – how could there be extra cashmere coats for sale in Yang City’s wholesale market?
Why did Xia Xiao Lan know this so clearly? In her previous life after college graduation, she worked as a sales representative, not selling appliances or such – she sold large equipment… At one point, she even sold combing machines, domestic ones. Loving what you do, she had to understand the industry’s entire history to sell the machines!
Her memory had become so good that she could remember materials she had studied many years ago – no wonder she could recall the 1984 college entrance math exam. Relying on her good memory, with absolute certainty, Xia Xiao Lan crushed the fraudulent Comrade Chen Xi Liang:
“This coat absolutely cannot be cashmere, and you dare quote 80 yuan wholesale!”