Jiang Xiu hurried over and asked, “Shanzi said you went to the Ji family. What did they say?”
“Ji Cheng is pretty decent. He agreed to break off the engagement.”
Jiang Xiu let out a sigh of relief. “Ji Cheng is a good man. It’s Qiao Xiaohong who wronged him—she really did a number on him.”
Who else could she blame for failing to recognize people’s true nature? Herself, for one.
The next day, Jiang Xiu stayed home instead of going to the fields to shuck corn.
Lin An’an had been in this family for two days already. She couldn’t just live off what they had, and she certainly couldn’t expect to strike gold in this backwater village. She had to think of some way to make money.
What way was there to make money in a remote mountain valley?
“Shanzi, Mom will give you fifty cents later. Go buy some apples at the orchard for you and your sister to snack on.”
Jiang Xiu and Shanzi were accustomed to living frugally, but An’an was different. She had grown up in a wealthy family and had surely eaten plenty of snacks. Jiang Xiu couldn’t let her suffer too much.
“Mom, give it to me now. It’ll be hot later.”
Shanzi had already experienced the ferocity of autumn’s lingering heat. He might be young, but he wasn’t stupid.
Lin An’an took several yuan from her pocket. “I’ll go with Shanzi. I’d like to take a walk.”
“The road is rough, so take it slow. There’s no need to hurry back…”
They followed a rugged mountain path for about two li before finally reaching the orchard halfway up the mountain.
Shanzi quickened his pace and ran ahead, calling out as he went, “Third Uncle, I’m here!”
A head poked out of the shed. It belonged to a middle-aged man with a dark, honest-looking face.
“Shanzi, it’s been a long time since you came by. Are you here to buy apples?”
“Yes, Third Uncle. Which apples are ripe right now? We want to buy some for snacks.”
“I’ll take you there. Pick whichever big ones you like.”
The siblings bought ten jin of apples. Qiao Zhongjiang also gave them more than three jin of bruised fruit. They could just cut off the spoiled parts; the apples would still be perfectly edible.
The good apples cost only thirty-eight cents a jin. They were incredibly cheap.
After thinking for a moment, Lin An’an asked, “Third Uncle, I’d like to buy some apples wholesale and sell them. Could you help me get in touch with someone?”
Shanzi cried out, “Our family’s already in debt! Sis, could you stop making trouble?”
An’an was displeased. “What do you mean, making trouble? If we don’t think of a way to make money, will our debts just disappear on their own?”
Qiao Zhongjiang agreed. “Selling them individually can make a profit. Just start by buying a small amount—the risk will be lower.”
Lin An’an asked Qiao Zhongjiang to help her select fifty jin of apples. They had to be good-quality fruit; if the price was more than thirty-eight cents a jin, there wouldn’t be much profit, so she didn’t want them.
When they returned home, Shanzi immediately dragged his mother off to complain.
Lin An’an ignored him. She was spending her own money. She carefully picked out the bruised apples, washed the rest, and arranged them in a bamboo basket.
Jiang Xiu was deeply worried. “An’an, doing business isn’t easy. What if you lose money? Your mother is useless and can’t help you.”
The family was already seven or eight hundred yuan in debt. Farmers earned very little, and as a widow raising children alone, Jiang Xiu could barely keep food on the table. The weight of it all had already left her struggling to breathe.
If this made things even worse…
“Apples are food. Even if I lose money, I can’t lose that much. I have to give it a try. I don’t want to sit around doing nothing and become a useless person.”
Jiang Xiu fell silent. Qiao Xiaohong had annoyed her whenever she talked too much, and An’an—who had never lived with her before—was no different.
That evening, Qiao Zhongjiang delivered the fifty jin of apples. They were large and attractive, and Lin An’an was very satisfied.
The price was thirty-six cents a jin, and Lin An’an paid him in full on the spot.
The following day at noon, Lin An’an and Shanzi set off with the fifty jin of apples.
Lin An’an couldn’t even properly handle the pushcart. She staggered along, steering it crookedly. Fortunately, the town wasn’t far away, and they arrived in half an hour.
The siblings parked the cart securely outside the town’s middle school. The school let out at twelve, so they had to catch the students at that time.
Lin An’an opened the fruit basket, revealing large green apples tinged with yellow.
As soon as the first students came out of the school gate, Lin An’an began calling out, “Students, buy some apples! One apple is thirty cents, and if you buy two, you get a beautiful collectible sticker! The Grasshoppers, Chow Yun-fat, Brigitte Lin, Barbara Yung, Angie Chiu, Joey Wong, Michelle Yim, Sheren Tang—we’ve got them all!”
Where had the stickers come from? Of course, Lin An’an had brought them from the Lin family. Before her identity had been exposed, she had been a carefree young girl who loved following celebrities and had obsessively collected their stickers.
They were all deluxe editions, too.
Now they had finally come in handy.
Teenage boys and girls might not necessarily buy apples, but for the sake of the beautiful stickers, they had to buy them.
“Do you have Angie Chiu?”
“We do. Pick out two apples and I’ll give you a beautiful sticker. You can choose one.”
Lin An’an stuffed the stickers into Shanzi’s hands. “It’s your job now. They have to buy two apples to get one sticker.”
Lin An’an took care of putting the apples into bags and collecting the money.
Teenagers’ celebrity obsessions tended to be blindly driven by the latest trend. Before long, a crowd had gathered around Lin An’an’s cart.
“Me, me! Two apples—I want Chow Yun-fat.”
“Four apples for me. One Barbara Yung and one Joey Wong.”
…
Once the crowd dispersed, Lin An’an glanced into the fruit basket. There were only ten apples left.
Shanzi was astonished. “They sell that well?”
An’an took the opportunity to “brainwash” him. “Of course. As long as you’re willing to use your brain, you can make money.”
There weren’t many apples left, and it wasn’t worth waiting for the students to finish class. Lin An’an counted the money, put it into her schoolbag, and prepared to go home.
“Get lost! Who told you to come here?”
Lin An’an had been sitting on the pushcart. Someone kicked it, nearly knocking her to the ground. The fruit basket overturned, and apples went rolling in every direction.
Several young thugs stood in front of them, looking slovenly and insolent, cigarettes dangling from their mouths. The leader wasn’t very tall, and his lecherous eyes kept drifting toward Lin An’an’s chest.
He spoke with a lascivious grin. “Pretty little girl, let me give you some advice. Take your business somewhere else. This place already belongs to someone.”
It was only a temporary fruit stand, not a shop. What did they mean, someone owned the place? They were trying to fool her like she was an idiot.
Dealing with the students had been simple and worry-free, without all these twists and turns. They also had decent purchasing power. Lin An’an had no intention of giving up on doing business here.
There was no way she was moving, and she didn’t budge.
The leader waved his hand. Several of the thugs grabbed the basket and the cart, while another kicked Shanzi in the rear.
Shanzi was still young. His small body went sprawling onto the ground, and the gravel scraped both his palms bloody.
“Wahhh… You’re bullying people!”
Lin An’an’s temper flared instantly. If they hadn’t resorted to violence, they could have talked things out. She could even have paid a protection fee. But Shanzi was still a child, and she couldn’t tolerate them laying a hand on him.
Lin An’an snatched up the basket and brought it down over the head of one of the pretty-faced thugs.
The pretty boy wrested the basket away, but Lin An’an immediately grabbed his arm. She drove her knee into his groin, slammed him onto his back, and struck him with her elbow in one fluid motion.
The pretty boy was temporarily out of commission, and his face turned even paler.
“You’ve got some moves. Too bad you ran into me. Brothers, get her!”
Two fists were no match for four hands, especially with the difference in strength between men and women. Lin An’an was about to be overwhelmed when—
Suddenly, a series of anguished howls rang out. The other three thugs fell to the ground one after another, while a foot came down on the leader’s body.