Chapter 93: Chapter 93: Sold and Still Counting the Money

Haggling is an art.

Customers will often find all sorts of reasons to haggle.

Even when they’re perfectly happy with a piece of clothing, they have to act displeased, as if they’re reluctantly settling for it.

If the stall owner discovers you’ve taken a liking to a particular item, you’ll often be quoted a high price.

Bargaining is a psychological game.

Examples include: "My neighbor bought the same one for less," "The material is terrible," or "It’s not worth this price..."

The excuses are endless.

And the stall owner? They have to put on a pained expression and find their own reasons to jack up the price.

After a good deal of back-and-forth, the customer will play their final card: "If you can’t do that price, I’ll go look somewhere else."

At this point, the stall owner will usually offer a "final price" that both can more or less accept, and the deal is done.

But what did Lin Ruoxi know about any of this?

She had only ever sold vegetables. The market price for produce is relatively stable, and Lin Ruoxi’s growing costs weren’t high, so the worst that could happen was she’d throw in a little extra. She never took a major loss.

But products with messy pricing like clothing were different. The potential markups were staggering.

That was why haggling was just part of the game.

"But... I really bought it for 50," Lin Ruoxi said, unsure how to counter the woman’s move.

"Silly girl, would I lie to you? My neighbor bought the exact same one—same brand, same style—for 30."

The woman spoke with such conviction, as if she were telling the absolute truth.

"Oh..." Lin Ruoxi felt so wronged. ’It looks like the wholesaler cheated me again.’

"Look, I’ll give you 50. That way you can at least break even." The woman feigned a magnanimous air and handed Lin Ruoxi 50 yuan.

Lin Ruoxi nodded. "Oh... thank you..."

After the woman walked away with the clothes, looking utterly satisfied, the owner of the next stall finally couldn’t hold it in anymore.

"HAHAHAHAHA..."

The man was doubled over with laughter. He’d never seen a girl so naive.

Xue Rui could barely contain himself either. ’This silly girl, and she even thanked her.’

"If I sold you one day, you’d probably help me count the money," Xue Rui said, pinching Lin Ruoxi’s cheek.

They’d spent half the day selling just one item, and they’d ended up losing 10 yuan on it.

"Where... where are you going to sell me?" Lin Ruoxi asked, staring into Xue Rui’s eyes as she handed him the 50 yuan.

Xue Rui didn’t know whether to laugh or be angry. ’She actually took me seriously again.’

"I’m just teasing you. I have no idea how you’re so good at school," Xue Rui said, exasperated, and gave Lin Ruoxi’s forehead a light flick.

Lin Ruoxi rubbed her forehead. "I... I think we got cheated by the clothing wholesaler."

After thinking for a long while, she concluded that the woman had seemed more sincere.

Xue Rui didn’t know how to explain it to Lin Ruoxi, so he simply said, "It’s possible they both lied to you, or maybe only one of them did. Who do you think it was?"

"Whoever has the biggest conflict of interest with you is the one who’s most likely lying."

Lin Ruoxi thought for a long time before shaking her head blankly. She couldn’t figure it out.

"Just keep selling," Xue Rui sighed, exasperated.

He suddenly had the feeling that Lin Ruoxi was a hopeless case.

"Young lady, how much for the clothes?"

"Um... 200."

...

A little over an hour passed. Lin Ruoxi had sold about ten items, and she was down another 50 yuan.

Xue Rui figured that if any other girl with a face like hers had used a few sweet words, male customers would have been lining up to buy clothes at a high price.

But Lin Ruoxi was just too pure. Within a few sentences, customers had her figured out and knew her bottom line.

As dusk began to fall, Lin Ruoxi still hadn’t earned a single cent. Xue Rui finally said, "You talk less. From now on, just focus on helping customers try things on."

"Okay." Lin Ruoxi nodded. ’I’m so useless,’ she thought. ’I’m actually losing money selling things.’

Before long, another middle-aged woman came over.

"Young lady, how much are the clothes?"

Xue Rui stepped in with a smile. "Why don’t you try it on first? The most important thing is that you’re happy with it. We can talk about the price."

He glanced at the customer’s build, rummaged through the clothes, and handed her an item in about the right size.

The woman felt the fabric and thought the quality was pretty good. She reached out and straightened the item a bit.

The woman glanced at Lin Ruoxi, then at Xue Rui, who was patting himself down for something, and asked casually, "How much is it?"

"280," Xue Rui said offhandedly, not even looking at the customer as he continued to search his pockets for something.

"Okay."

The woman paid without a moment’s hesitation, as if she were afraid Xue Rui would change his mind. She grabbed the clothes and left.

To Lin Ruoxi’s astonishment, the woman hurried off into the distance.

The neighboring stall owner looked on curiously. He’d rarely seen anyone who didn’t even try to haggle.

"What are you looking for?" he asked, his curiosity piqued.

"Where’s my lighter?" Xue Rui muttered to himself.

The man tossed him a lighter. "Here."

"Thanks." Xue Rui put on a show of lighting a cigarette.

When Lin Ruoxi saw Xue Rui smoking, she worked up the courage to say, "Smoking... isn’t good for you."

Xue Rui nodded thoughtfully, then dropped the cigarette on the ground and stamped it out.

After that, this bizarre scene repeated itself more than once.

’Why?’ the neighboring stall owner wondered, scratching his head. Ever since dusk fell, it seemed like hardly anyone had haggled with those two kids.

Besides, the two of them were acting so strangely. The boy would periodically pat himself down looking for a lighter, the girl would give him a look, and then the boy would stamp out his cigarette.

The odd image was stuck in the man’s mind, replaying over and over.

"We’re heading out, sir," Xue Rui said. He felt they had done enough for the day, so he packed up the stall and headed for the wholesale market.

"So strange," the man muttered.

That afternoon, Xue Rui and Lin Ruoxi sold over twenty items, clearing a net profit of 2,000 yuan.

Sitting in the cargo bed of the tricycle, Lin Ruoxi asked curiously, "Why didn’t they haggle with you?"

Xue Rui smiled and tossed a paper bag to Lin Ruoxi.

Lin Ruoxi opened it to find it full of bright red banknotes.

But the color of the notes was slightly off, and they had "Practice Money" printed on them.

"When they tried on the clothes, they would feel this practice money," Xue Rui said with a grin.

These wads of practice money were props Xue Rui had asked Chen Shen to get for him.

Xue Rui had crumpled up the practice money and stuffed it into the pockets of the clothes. When customers tried on an item, they’d instinctively put a hand in a pocket and feel a wad of paper that felt just like a roll of cash.

Xue Rui had also tucked in a few real, smaller bills. The customers, afraid of being caught by the stall owner, would only dare to take a furtive glance, seeing a roll of red and green notes.

The feel was right, the colors looked right, and it was getting dark...

They subconsciously assumed the stall owner had carelessly left it in one of the garments and forgotten about it.

Combined with Xue Rui’s act of "looking for his lighter," they were terrified of being discovered. Human greed was magnified in that instant, and they had no time to waste haggling with Lin Ruoxi.

That’s why when Xue Rui quoted the exorbitant price of 280, they happily paid up and left.

With a guilty conscience, they didn’t dare inspect their find nearby. Instead, they hurried away, filled with secret delight.

"I... I don’t understand." Lin Ruoxi found Xue Rui’s explanation difficult to grasp.

’Why did putting that in the pockets stop people from haggling?’

She had a vague idea, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it.

In the end, Xue Rui returned the tricycle and the rest of the clothes. The wholesaler haggled the return price down a bit, but it didn’t matter. Xue Rui had no use for them anyway.

"We made two thousand. Aren’t you going to treat me to dinner?" Xue Rui said, patting Lin Ruoxi’s head.

"Um... you earned it. I... I only lose money," Lin Ruoxi said, her head bowed.

She still hadn’t figured it all out, but she knew that Xue Rui was the reason they’d made a profit.

"Want to get some shrimp?" Lin Ruoxi asked, pointing to a small restaurant nearby.

"Definitely," Xue Rui agreed at once.

The two of them ordered the house special shrimp and a few other dishes.

"Does your grandma eat in the evening? We can get some takeout for her."

"Grandma won’t eat it."

Lin Ruoxi was nibbling on her finger when something suddenly clicked.

"Isn’t... isn’t this tricking people?" Lin Ruoxi exclaimed, the realization dawning on her.

With Xue Rui’s guidance, she finally understood the crucial point: the reason those people didn’t haggle was that they had mistaken his practice money for real cash.

"Tricking them? What did I trick them about? Did I ever say I’d give them money for buying clothes?" Xue Rui asked with a grin.

"Um... no." Lin Ruoxi shook her head blankly.

She felt something was very wrong, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on what it was.

"They were trying to take advantage of you. They just got too greedy and outsmarted themselves," Xue Rui remarked with a sigh.

"If you weren’t so pretty, we wouldn’t have gotten so many customers today. So you can consider this money yours."

Xue Rui then added with a laugh, "So, how does it feel to be a trickster?"

Lin Ruoxi still hadn’t processed it all.

"If we hadn’t used a little trick, you would’ve lost money all day. Now do you see why people might try to trick you?" Xue Rui said, pinching Lin Ruoxi’s cheek.

"I... I don’t want to trick people," Lin Ruoxi said, unable to meet Xue Rui’s eyes.

"Sigh." Xue Rui let out a breath. ’This silly girl. So quick to trust others, letting them run circles around her.’

Two thousand yuan in cash was right in front of her, and she wasn’t the least bit tempted.

Honestly, Xue Rui was deeply impressed.

It was just... if he weren’t around to look after Lin Ruoxi, he wondered how many times she would be taken advantage of in the future.

"Miss, your food is ready," a little boy said, walking over with a tray.

Xue Rui smiled at the boy.

It was a family-run restaurant. When they had walked in, the boy had been hunched over a table doing his homework.

It reminded him of his own childhood, when his family also ran a small diner.

Suddenly, the boy tripped over a trash can at his feet.

Lin Ruoxi jumped in surprise and rushed to steady the boy, but the sauce from the dish splashed onto her skirt.

"Are you okay?" Lin Ruoxi helped the boy up, pulled out a napkin to wipe him off, and murmured, "Thank goodness it was a cold dish. You have to be more careful."

"I’m so sorry, so sorry! This is our fault. We’ll bring you a new one right away," a man said, rushing out from the kitchen to apologize to Lin Ruoxi.

"No, it’s fine..." Lin Ruoxi said, flustered. She waved her hands and picked up the dish from the floor.

"It’s still edible, you don’t need to replace it. And I can just wash my skirt."

Xue Rui’s brow furrowed. ’Lin Ruoxi is always trying to please others. She deserves compensation for something like this, so why is she refusing it?’

"Why?" Xue Rui asked.

Lin Ruoxi whispered, "When... when I was little, I’d get beaten if I broke a bowl. I’m afraid..."

Xue Rui’s gaze hardened. He glanced around. ’What is she so worried about?’

The boy had spilled a dish and stained a customer’s clothes.

’If they have to pay for it...’

’Is she worried about the boy?’

’Is she afraid that if the boy costs the restaurant money, his father will hurt him?’

The middle-aged man looked frantic. Seeing the large greasy stain on Lin Ruoxi’s skirt, he rushed to look for some napkins.

"We’ll take it to go," Xue Rui insisted, settling the bill.

"I’m so sorry about this..." the man apologized again and again, insisting on giving Xue Rui several extra side dishes and drinks on the house.

As they were leaving, Xue Rui nudged the trash can with his foot.

"You should move this trash can in a bit. It already tripped the kid."

On the way back, Xue Rui took Lin Ruoxi’s hand. "He won’t get hit," he said softly.

Lin Ruoxi’s face flushed, and her arm went a little stiff. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

Xue Rui would often pinch her cheek or tap her on the head...

But this was the first time he had ever held her hand so gently.

She felt as though it meant something...

’Isn’t this what the young couples at school are like?’

Xue Rui caressed Lin Ruoxi’s hand. It was slender, but not as soft as Gu Muxue’s. There were faint, hardened calluses on her palm.

Having been caught in the rain herself, Lin Ruoxi always wanted to hold an umbrella for others.

Xue Rui decided there was no need to try and change Lin Ruoxi. That kindness of hers was innate; it would be difficult to alter now.

He glanced sideways at Lin Ruoxi and suddenly felt that he didn’t deserve this angel on earth.

’But what exactly has this angel been through?’

To be honest, he wanted to run to Hua Village right now and piss on that scumbag’s grave.