Seeing her companion make a purchase, the woman beside her didn’t hesitate either.
She chose a simple flower hair tie, a hair clip covered with little flowers, and a ribbon.
Clearly, Xu Sangluo’s own hairstyle had become a living advertisement.
After paying, the two women left arm in arm, probably eager to go back and try the accessories.
Soon, several more people gathered around.
While answering their questions, Xu Sangluo glanced at the photo studio employee nearby who was still hesitating.
“Comrade, actually your photo studio could really stock more hair accessories. It might attract more customers. After all, a hair accessory can be reused countless times, right? You could even charge a little extra for styling.”
The idea sounded somewhat novel, but the woman understood what she meant.
After thinking about it, she felt Xu Sangluo had a point.
Originally, she had only planned to buy some for herself.
But if they were for the photo studio, she could apply for reimbursement—and she could also use them at work from time to time.
Her eyes turned thoughtfully. “Alright then. I’ll take one ribbon, one headband, these three hair ties, and this hair clip. If I buy six, can you give me two for free?”
“Of course. Your total comes to four yuan and fifty cents. Would you like to pick one more item to reach five yuan? Then I can give you a ten-cent discount.”
“Oh? Alright then, I’ll take this one too. Is that enough?”
“Perfect. That makes five yuan. With the discount, it’s four yuan and ninety cents. Here are your two free gifts. Thank you for your purchase.”
This small burst of activity attracted a few more people.
Basically, anyone who came over bought one or two items. It was a good start for her stall.
Unfortunately, there really weren’t many people around at this time.
After the initial lively moment, in the following hour only five or six customers came by sporadically.
Most of them bought just one item, usually the cheapest flower hair ties or clips.
Xu Sangluo waited a bit longer. Seeing that hardly anyone else was coming, she slowly pushed her bicycle around to look for another spot.
She changed locations twice more and managed to make a few more sales.
By the end of the morning, she had earned nearly thirty yuan—already a very good start.
After all, excluding labor, the cost of that whole batch was only around five yuan.
And that didn’t even count the items she hadn’t sold yet.
She had brought out more than a hundred pieces today, all rushed out the previous day.
Just that morning, she had already sold nearly forty of them.
She secretly took out her watch and checked the time. It was almost the hour when workers got off work and students were dismissed.
So she rode her bicycle to wait outside the nearby cotton textile factory.
There were only three factories in the town: the cotton textile factory, the red brick factory, and the fertilizer factory.
None of them were very large, but each had around a hundred workers.
Generally speaking, textile factories tended to employ more female workers.
She didn’t know the situation very well yet, so she chose the cotton textile factory first.
While waiting, she casually ate two buns.
The food had been stored in her space. She pretended to take them out of her shoulder bag, still warm.
After eating, she waited another ten minutes or so before hearing the factory bell ring.
Soon afterward, the factory gates opened. Two minutes later, people began walking out in small groups.
Once a few more workers had come out, Xu Sangluo softly began calling out to advertise her goods.
The cotton textile factory indeed had a high proportion of female workers.
Out of every ten people leaving, at least seven were women.
At first, everyone was curious about Xu Sangluo standing by the wall.
But none of them had taken the initiative to approach her.
The moment she started calling out, she immediately attracted everyone’s attention.
Very quickly, some of the women couldn’t help but gather around to ask about her products.
After all, Xu Sangluo herself was simply too eye-catching. As a model for the accessories, she easily scored full marks.
Qin Zhiyi knew that Xu Sangluo planned to set up a stall in town today.
Although she had confidently said she would be fine,
he still couldn’t help worrying.
At noon, he didn’t go to the scrap yard. Instead, he searched around the town, hoping to see whether she was still there.
After walking for about twenty minutes, he finally ran into Xu Sangluo and Qin Zhiyu on the street.
The two of them were squatting beside an old farmer’s bamboo basket, picking out vegetables.
Clearly, the Qin siblings had thought of the same thing.
After school, Qin Zhiyu hadn’t run straight home. Instead, she had taken a lap around the town to see if Xu Sangluo had already returned.
The town wasn’t very far from home, so the twins didn’t pay for school meals and instead ran home every day to eat lunch.
Qin Zhishu studied in the county and had to take the bus back and forth each day. To save some bus fare, he ate lunch at school.
The cotton textile factory was conveniently only one street away from the school.
When Qin Zhiyu ran past the street corner, she heard some commotion and looked over out of curiosity.
Then she faintly heard Xu Sangluo’s voice coming from the crowd.
When she squeezed inside to take a look, it was indeed Xu Sangluo.
So she immediately joined in, helping sell the goods and collect money.
In just over ten minutes, almost everything had been sold.
Only a few items were left, and Xu Sangluo didn’t bother waiting any longer.
The two of them decided to head home. On the way, they saw an old farmer selling vegetables.
Since the vegetables at home were almost gone, Xu Sangluo stopped to buy some.
Today had been a very fruitful day.
Although Qin Zhiyu didn’t know exactly how much money they had earned in total, she had personally watched banknote after banknote being handed over while helping earlier.
She had been so busy collecting money that her mind had gone a little blank. Even now, she still felt a bit lightheaded, almost unable to believe it.
So when buying things now, she didn’t feel the least bit stingy.
“Big Brother?” Qin Zhiyu spotted Qin Zhiyi first and called out in surprise.
Xu Sangluo turned her head and was also a little surprised to see him.
“What are you doing here?” Shouldn’t he be at the scrap station at this hour?
“I came to take a look,” Qin Zhiyi said, glancing at the bicycle.
He couldn’t see anything unusual about it, nor could he tell whether the goods had been sold.
So he didn’t know how to ask directly.
But Xu Sangluo immediately understood.
The corner of her lips lifted into a smile. “Perfect timing. Want to come home for lunch?”
Qin Zhiyi shook his head. “No, I still need to go back. You two should head home early as well.”
“Okay.” The siblings nodded obediently.
Xu Sangluo pretended to take out a small cloth bundle from the bamboo basket.
“There are two buns inside. Have them to fill your stomach.”
“Alright.” Qin Zhiyi took it and nodded, then urged them again. “Hurry and head back.”
With that, he turned and walked away quickly.
Xu Sangluo watched his broad back and couldn’t help smiling.
She didn’t linger long either. After picking out the vegetables, she carried Qin Zhiyu on the bicycle and rode back.
Meanwhile, Qin Zhiyi walked toward the scrap station with the cloth bundle in his hand.
Before he even arrived, he heard someone calling out.
Turning around, he saw Boss Liu jogging over.
“Da Qin, where did you go today? I thought you weren’t coming,” Boss Liu said, slightly out of breath.
Qin Zhiyi looked surprised. “Something came up just now. Is there something you need?”
His work at the scrap station was paid by the piece, so he could technically go whenever he wanted.
Usually he went over after finishing work in the morning.
But sometimes if work delayed him, he might go later—or not go at all.
So why had Boss Liu come looking for him today?
Boss Liu waved his hand. “No, no. I just wanted to ask you something.”
He rubbed his hands together and chuckled, looking a little embarrassed.
His round, chubby face was smiling so widely that his eyes had turned into narrow slits.
Qin Zhiyi straightened his expression. “What is it?”
“Well… about those buns yesterday. Were they really homemade by your family?”
Boss Liu kept rubbing his hands together, and when he mentioned the buns, he seemed to swallow unconsciously.