Chapter 21

The shop was located right beside a large Market Square. It just so happened to be Sunday, and the square was bustling with people—some were playing, others had set up stalls to do business. The atmosphere was busy and lively.  

Only Lin Qingping and her group stood gloomily beside several large bundles, their faces full of dejection. Gu Youlian, in particular, looked utterly dispirited.  

“What do we do! What do we do! There are so many clothes, and no one wants them—what are we going to do!”  

She kept muttering the same words over and over, which frayed everyone’s nerves. Du Gen told her to stop, and the two of them ended up in an argument.  

“This is all your fault! If you hadn’t taken Pingzi to buy those awful clothes, none of this would’ve happened!”  

As Gu Youlian argued, she began to cry.  

Du Gen was left speechless—what she said was true. He was indeed the main cause of this mess.  

Lin Qingping looked around at the people running stalls in the Market Square. Some were selling malt candy, some were hawking pots and pans, and others had skewered candied hawthorns… The Provincial Capital truly lived up to its name—even the small businesspeople here were full of energy.  

Her eyes lit up.  

“Enough! All of you, get up and let me have a proper look!”  

Everyone was confused, but they obeyed.  

There were five of them in total. Gu Youlian and Second Sister had slightly darker skin, but that didn’t matter—their figures were both excellent. Second Sister was youthful, practically bursting with collagen, while Gu Youlian was mature and full-figured, her features remarkably similar to Gu Juncheng’s—she was quite beautiful.  

As for Du Gen, he was pale and refined in appearance. Unfortunately, all they had this time were women’s clothes.  

Lin Qingping took Second Sister and Gu Youlian with her, leaving Du Gen and Zhiyuan to watch over the goods.

Half an hour later, the three women returned to Du Gen and Zhiyuan, leaving the two of them utterly stunned.  

Du Gen even nudged Zhiyuan.  

“Is that your aunt and grandaunt? Am I seeing things?”  

Du Gen couldn’t help but be shocked. He had no idea what sort of magic the three of them had worked—same faces as before, and yet they now looked like actresses from movie posters he had seen in the big city.  

Lin Qingping hadn’t done anything extraordinary. She had simply taken the two of them to a hair salon to wash their hair. It was then blow-dried until it was smooth and straight. She bought a bottle of snow cream, and all three of them applied a layer.  

They didn’t have any makeup or cosmetic tools. All Lin Qingping could do was heat up a black hair clip to curl their eyelashes slightly. Fortunately, both the Gu and Lin families had genes that gave them large double eyelids and naturally long lashes. With just a bit of tidying up, their features suddenly became radiant and refined.  

Then they changed into the altered pants and Dacron shirts they had modified themselves. The shirts were tucked into their trousers and pulled out slightly at the hem, which looked effortlessly stylish.  

Since they were focusing on autumn and winter wear this time, each of them pulled out a coat and draped it over their shoulders. It was indeed hot, but they had to endure it—for the sake of selling!  

When Lin Qingping saw Zhiyuan, a sudden idea struck her. She changed him into a pair of children’s overalls and a white shirt, and layered a brown woolen children’s coat over it.  

Once dressed, the pair looked exactly like a mother and son in matching outfits.  

Even Lin Qingping herself was surprised at how Zhiyuan’s entire aura changed—it could rival the child models from decades in the future.  

The final step: she directed Du Gen to find a few cardboard boxes, stack them together, and cover them with a piece of cloth. That made a simple display stand. Then she took a large sheet of cardboard and wrote on it: 【Latest Fashion Trends】.  

Thus began Lin Qingping’s very first street stall experience since arriving in this era.  

Very quickly, a crowd gathered around their stall, asking for exactly what Lin Qingping and the others were wearing.

The outfits worn by Lin Qingping and Zhiyuan sold the fastest—people were buying them as full sets. Very quickly, the children’s clothing was completely sold out. Many who hadn’t managed to buy anything still lingered around the stall, unwilling to leave, hoping another set might somehow appear.  

But soon enough, not just the children’s clothes—even the adult clothing was nearly gone. The crowd waiting on the sidelines could no longer hold back and rushed in to make their purchases.  

Before the afternoon had even arrived, all of their clothes were completely sold out.  

Many people still stood by, asking when they would set up their stall again. Lin Qingping thought it over—the new batch of clothes had already arrived at the county. If they rushed to finish processing them, they could have a new stock ready by next Sunday. She quickly promised to return the following Sunday. Only then did the lingering customers leave, albeit reluctantly.  

The four large sacks they had come with—stuffed to the brim—were now nothing but empty woven bags.  

Lin Qingping, Second Sister, Du Gen, and Gu Youlian exchanged glances. Their eyes shimmered with the light of joyful tears.  

Gu Youlian, especially, couldn’t hold it in—she cried on the spot.  

As they were packing up the stall, a middle-aged woman approached them.  

“Hello, excuse me, I’d like to buy a piece of clothing. Do you have any stock left?”  

Lin Qingping turned to look. The woman’s appearance was quite tasteful.  

“I’m very sorry, we’ve already sold out. We’ll bring another batch next Sunday. If you’re free, please come by again then.” Lin Qingping replied with a smile.  

“Next Sunday…” The woman looked over each of them carefully. “Aren’t the clothes you’re wearing part of the stock? Sell me those. And the set on the child too.”  

“This…” Lin Qingping glanced at the others. If they sold everything they were wearing, it would be over a hundred yuan in total. It wasn’t that she was like those snobbish sales clerks at the Shopping Mall—who looked down on customers—but who really bought clothes like this?  

“These outfits—we’ve been wearing them all day. They’re all sweaty, the weather’s hot!”  

She wasn’t lying.  

But the woman said it didn’t matter—she was determined to buy them. She simply liked them that much.

Very well—no one ever turned away business. Since this woman was determined to buy, Lin Qingping led everyone to change out of their display clothes and sold them directly to her.  

And just like that, they had truly cleared out all their stock—not a single piece remained. They changed back into the clothes they had worn when they first arrived.  

“Let’s go. We’ll have a meal first, then head home.” Lin Qingping said with a smile.  

“Mm!” Gu Youlian nodded vigorously, but tears still streamed down her face.  

Lin Qingping walked at the front, holding Zhiyuan’s hand in one and Second Sister’s in the other, searching for a restaurant. Gu Youlian followed behind, crying the entire way.  

Du Gen walked beside her, whispering comfort: “Why are you still crying? Didn’t we sell all the clothes? Isn’t that a good thing? You should be happy.”  

Gu Youlian wiped her tears and whispered back to her husband: “I am happy, Genzi… I was just so scared. What if all that money had gone to waste? Do you know how much I hated myself? I was the one who told my sister-in-law about the cheap clothes. In the end, the worst person in all of this was me… These past few days, I’ve been so upset. I’ve been blaming myself constantly, and I didn’t even dare say anything…”  

Du Gen looked at the woman walking ahead of them with a spring in her step and gently patted his wife’s hand.  

“Don’t blame yourself anymore. Even if you hadn’t said anything, your sister-in-law would’ve come up with something else. She’s just not the type to stay idle.”  

Lin Qingping, carrying a large bundle of money, dared not be careless, and certainly didn’t dare to show off. She led everyone to a simple meal, bought some dry rations for the journey, and then headed straight to the train station.  

The station was packed. She handed the money to Du Gen and told him to squeeze into the crowd to queue for train tickets. The three women stayed with Zhiyuan well away from the crowds, huddled together.  

At that time, getting a train ticket was no easy task. Let alone a sleeping berth or a seat—just getting a standing ticket was already considered lucky.  

As she watched the noisy crowd at the station, Lin Qingping couldn’t help but think of her previous life, when she could simply pull out a mobile phone and book a plane or high-speed rail ticket online anytime she pleased.  

It felt as though those days belonged to another lifetime…