Chapter 21: A Good Start

“It’s all made by my sister Sangluo. She said people in the city like to wear these hair ties.”

“Right, she wants to do business.”

“It’s not expensive. Sangluo said she’s just making some money from her craft. This hair tie is only 50 cents, this hair clip is 20 cents. Of course, there are many cheaper ones, like this one for 10 cents, and it’s also very pretty.”

“Oh, she’s going to sell them in town. If my classmates know about it, they’ll definitely buy them. They love to dress up.”

Along the way, most of the women, young and old, heard Qin Zhiyu’s “promotion.”

Although they thought Qin Zhiyu’s hair ties were indeed pretty, they didn’t plan to buy them. They were too expensive and not worth it.

They didn’t think Xu Sangluo would be able to sell them either.

Such a small thing for 50 cents, it was almost like robbery.

Besides, if they had money, why wouldn’t they buy better ones at the supply and marketing cooperative?

They all thought that Xu Sangluo couldn’t stand the hardship of the Qin family and could only come up with some speculative schemes.

Although it seemed that buying and selling was now open, who knew what the situation was really like?

Didn’t they say it was open a couple of years ago? In the end, a bunch of people were sent to prison.

They were all thinking that the Qin family was really unlucky.

They thought that marrying a city girl would help their family.

Now it seemed that the whole family might be implicated by her one day.

Xu Sangluo didn’t know how the people in the brigade were talking about her.

After breakfast, she tidied up a bit and then rode her bicycle to town with two bamboo baskets hanging on the handlebars.

The bicycle was borrowed from Qin Zhiyi. Originally, Xu Sangluo didn’t want to borrow it.

Although she would bring some snacks when she returned the bicycle, it was still inappropriate to always use someone else’s bicycle.

But Qin Zhiyi said the bicycle belonged to his friend, and they had two at home, which they didn’t use often.

Xu Sangluo finally agreed.

Today was Qin Zhifeng’s turn to take a day off, and Qin Mama wanted him to come along to help.

But Xu Sangluo didn’t let him.

She had already been to town once, and it wasn’t very big, so she was now familiar with the place.

She had already scouted out a spot yesterday.

Originally, she wanted to start a food business.

Now, although the products were different, it didn’t really affect her original plan.

She found a spot at a fork in the road.

Across the street was a state-owned restaurant, to the left was the supply and marketing cooperative, to the right was a photo studio, and opposite was a barbershop.

Old Photo Studio

It was almost 8 o’clock now, past the rush hour for work and school.

But there were still quite a few pedestrians on the street.

Xu Sangluo wasn’t in a hurry. She parked her bicycle and took out a piece of cloth to spread on the wooden board at the back of the bicycle.

She picked up the bamboo basket and took out the headwear she had made, arranging them neatly.

It was the first day of trial sales, and she didn’t have high expectations.

But she wouldn’t lose money.

She had also dressed up specially today.

Her appearance was similar to the hairstyle she had done for Qin Zhiyu yesterday.

But the hairband was much prettier than yesterday, and with her own good looks, she was at least ten times more beautiful.

At least when she stood there, passersby couldn’t help but glance at her.

Xu Sangluo arranged the headwear and then took out a small sign and hung it on the handlebars of her bicycle.

The sign said, “Unique hair ties, headbands, hair clips, and hair hoops. Buy three get one free. Spend 5 yuan and get 10 cents off.”

The unique person, the strange behavior, and the novel sales pitch.

It immediately attracted people to look around.

The passersby were still watching, but the female comrade from the photo studio couldn’t help but come over out of curiosity.

“Comrade, are you selling these? Do you have the one you’re wearing on your head?”

What girl doesn’t love beauty? And Xu Sangluo was such an eye-catching model.

Although the things she displayed were all made of cloth, they were very delicate.

Xu Sangluo immediately flashed a perfect marketing smile.

“Hello, comrade. I just had these hair accessories shipped from Wenzhou. They are all new products from the factory. We should be the only ones selling them here. Would you like to try a few? They are all very pretty. I heard that many foreigners dress like this. They say it’s fashionable.”

The female comrade listened to her words, her eyes couldn’t help but glance at her hair, then at the hair accessories on the board. She was clearly very interested.

“Wenzhou, ah. I’ve heard that they have a lot of new things there. How do you sell these? Are they expensive?”

She said, unable to resist picking up a headband to examine it.

The headband was made of bamboo that had been roasted and then wrapped with a layer of matching cloth. Two cloth flowers were sewn on the side.

The female comrade looked at it, a little reluctant to let go, but also embarrassed to try it on.

Xu Sangluo immediately said, “Of course, expensive things have their reasons. After all, they are all handmade and unique new products. But there are also many affordable items. This headband is only 20 cents.”

She picked up a headband next to it and showed it to her.

This headband was actually just a piece of cloth sewn into a tube the size of a finger, with a hole in the middle. Then, a nylon rope was threaded through it and tied and sewn together.

The cost was just a small piece of cloth and a 5-centimeter nylon rope, about 1 cent.

The female comrade took the headband, “20 cents? Can you give me a discount? Also, what you wrote on the sign, buy three get one free, does that mean you get one free for buying three different items?”

“Yes.” At this time, two other female comrades came over to look at the novelty. Xu Sangluo smiled, “Buy any three items, and you’ll get this hair clip for free. These things were brought here over mountains and rivers, and it cost a lot. I’m just making a little money for running errands. I really can’t give you a discount.”

The hair clip was the kind with two black wires. You could buy a whole board of them for a few dozen.

But now, the hair clip was adorned with a thumb-sized cloth flower at one end, which looked quite pretty. It was sold for 10 cents each.

People all have a bit of a bargain-hunting mentality.

10 cents might not be much to people here, not even enough to buy a bun.

But it was free.

Immediately, some people were interested.

Another female comrade asked the same question as the female comrade from the photo studio, pointing to the hairband wrapped around her hair, “Which one is this?”

Xu Sangluo immediately picked up a hairband, “It’s this one. Because the workmanship and materials are more complex, it’s a bit more expensive, 80 cents.”

The hairband was about the length of an arm. The middle section was contracted and curled like a pig’s intestine, with a nylon rope inside that could be stretched. There were also two butterfly knots sewn on it, like leaves.

The two sides were a finger-width wide, and a small cloth flower was sewn at the end. Overall, it looked pretty good.

The main thing was that Xu Sangluo was demonstrating it.

Although it was indeed a bit expensive, the female comrades looked down at the hairband, then at her, and they were clearly very interested.

“I’ll take this one, and these two. How much is it?”

The female comrade holding the hairband was quite decisive. After a moment of hesitation, she bought it directly.

She bought a hairband, a simple headband, and a large bow hair tie.

Xu Sangluo’s smile became even more perfect. She quickly took the three items and a hair clip and handed them to her.

“Thank you for your patronage. The total is 1 yuan and 50 cents. Thank you for your patronage.”