Hearing Second Fool Liu’s stammering cries, the people passing by couldn’t help laughing.
Six copper coins for one pound, so two pounds should cost twelve copper coins, right?
Why was he saying eleven?
Could this person really be a fool?
Everyone turned to look and sure enough, Second Fool Liu had a completely foolish expression on his face. Aside from shouting his sales pitch, all he could do was grin stupidly at people.
But… wasn’t that actually perfect?
As it turned out, ordinary people’s desire to take advantage of a bargain was far stronger than their fear of fools.
Before long, quite a few people gathered around.
Seeing that Xiang Xi’s stall suddenly had so many customers, Hu-shi tried her old trick again.
“Everyone, listen to me. One of these two is a fool and the other is a crazy woman. You’d better be careful.”
But this time, no one backed away.
Instead, they secretly laughed to themselves.
If he weren’t a fool, I wouldn’t even come over!
What’s so bad about a fool? Fools are adorable!
He can’t even do simple arithmetic. He’ll charge us less!
Seeing that no one was leaving, Hu-shi became depressed.
Why weren’t these people afraid anymore?
“Hey, fool!”
Second Fool Liu grinned.
“Hehehe… What is it?”
“You sell one pound for six copper coins and two pounds for eleven. How much for three pounds?”
How would Second Fool Liu know how much three pounds cost?
His wife had never told him!
“I… I don’t know!”
“I know!” It was Xiang Xi’s turn to step in.
She seriously counted on her fingers several times before declaring,
“Three pounds is sixteen copper coins!”
“Are you sure you didn’t calculate it wrong?”
Xiang Xi answered with absolute certainty.
“Definitely not! I counted it on my fingers!”
“Hahaha…”
Everyone burst into laughter.
Three pounds should clearly cost eighteen copper coins.
She had undercharged by another two!
Teasing fools was so much fun.
Following the principle that anyone who refused to take advantage of a bargain was an idiot, someone quickly said,
“Give me three pounds.”
And just like that, sixteen copper coins were in the bag.
Of course, people could never get enough of a bargain.
Someone else asked,
“How much for four pounds? What about five?”
“Hmm…” Xiang Xi counted on her fingers again.
“Four pounds… twenty-one copper coins! As for five pounds… one, two, three, four, five… twenty-six! Five pounds for twenty-six copper coins!”
Everyone: …
Wasn’t this equivalent to charging one copper coin less for every additional pound?
Wouldn’t that mean the more they bought, the more they profited?
“I want five pounds!”
“Me too!”
“Give me five pounds too!”
Three quick-witted customers immediately rushed forward.
Soon, Xiang Xi’s mushrooms were almost sold out.
Xiang Xi immediately shouted,
“Last three pounds of mushrooms! Only twelve copper coins!”
“I’ll take them!”
Four copper coins per pound.
What a huge bargain!
Those who hadn’t managed to buy any were filled with regret.
“Are you coming tomorrow too?”
“Yes, yes! We’ll come first thing tomorrow morning. We’ll have at least a hundred pounds!”
Hearing Xiang Xi’s answer, everyone stopped looking at the other vendors’ mushrooms.
They could buy cheap mushrooms tomorrow, so why bother buying expensive ones today?
It wasn’t life-saving medicine.
They could eat them any day.
Xiang Xi glanced at the women whose faces had turned gloomy.
See?
Thought having a scale made you so impressive?
Could your scales help you sell mushrooms?
Poor primitive people.
You should be grateful to this lady.
Otherwise, not in this life, the next life, or even the life after that would you ever understand what modern marketing was!
She patted her money pouch.
Twenty pounds of mushrooms had brought in 106 copper coins.
Not bad, not bad.
“Second Fool, we’re done!”
“Yes!”
Watching the two of them happily walk away, the women’s faces turned green.
This crazy woman was really an idiot!
After this whole sale, she had earned more than ten copper coins less than she could have!
More importantly, because of her stunt, nobody wanted to buy mushrooms from them today!
Now they couldn’t sell their mushrooms.
They could only carry them home and eat them themselves…
Ahhh!
If they set up stalls again next time, they absolutely couldn’t sell alongside this crazy woman.
Absolutely not!
…
“Wife, where are we going?”
Xiang Xi chuckled.
Where else could they go now that they had money?
Obviously, they were going shopping!
First, they needed some grain.
Prices in this world weren’t very high.
Bright white rice cost only four copper coins per pound.
She bought ten pounds first.
Cooking oil cost ten copper coins per pound, so she bought two pounds.
Without oil for cooking, even a great chef like her couldn’t show off her skills.
Then she bought salt, bean paste, and some spices.
Just like that, their 106 copper coins dwindled to only twenty.
The spices were mainly responsible for the high cost.
Finally, the two bought ten steamed meat buns, completely spending all the money they had earned that day.
It seemed that no matter which world one lived in, it was always the same.
No matter how much money you had, it never seemed to last.
But it didn’t matter.
People said money was like a dog—the more you spent, the more you’d get.
“Let’s go home!”
Of course, going home was impossible.
Mushrooms were selling so well.
They had to pick more today.
The two left the market town and headed straight back into the mountains, picking mushrooms as they walked.
By the time they reached home, they had gathered more than thirty pounds of mushrooms.
Xiang Xi found a cool, shady place to store them, then took Second Fool Liu back into the mountains.
This time, she brought two large baskets.
Perhaps because the temperature had risen, there were even more mushrooms in the afternoon.
By the middle of the afternoon, both baskets were completely full again.
When they returned home and counted everything, they had definitely gathered more than a hundred pounds.
It wasn’t even dark yet.
Xiang Xi and Second Fool Liu immediately got to work again and built two crude shelters.
After working all day, Xiang Xi was exhausted.
Her entire body was covered in mosquito bites.
She deeply realized how difficult it was to earn money.
Before dawn the next morning, Xiang Xi took Second Fool Liu to the market town again.
The people from yesterday had also arrived early.
When they saw that Xiang Xi had really brought so many mushrooms—and still couldn’t do arithmetic—they immediately started buying five pounds here, five pounds there.
The more than one hundred pounds of mushrooms were quickly sold out.
After counting the money, they had earned 521 copper coins!
A lucky number!
“Wife, where are we going?”
Where else?
Obviously, they were going shopping again!
Yesterday, they had only bought rice.
They hadn’t bought any meat yet.
So the two headed straight to the meat stall.
When Xiang Xi saw the huge pile of assorted offal hanging there, she immediately started craving it.
“Shopkeeper, how much for the offal?”
The butcher first looked them over.
One was merely a young girl, while the other looked like a fool.
He casually replied,
“Fifty copper coins for the whole set.”
“Will you sell it for ten?”
“Forty-five at the lowest.”
Xiang Xi said,
“I’ll give you eleven at most.”
Butcher: …
What the hell?
Had he really encountered a genuine idiot?
Who haggled like this?
Hadn’t they even asked how much other people were selling it for?
“I’m not selling!”
“If you don’t want to sell it, then don’t. Why are you being so fierce?”
Xiang Xi pouted.
She had read plenty of novels.
Didn’t they always say that offal was extremely cheap, practically given away?
So it had all been lies!
“Thirteen.”
Butcher: …
Ahhh!
Why did it feel like he was bringing this frustration upon himself?
If these two didn’t buy the offal today, they weren’t leaving!
“Thirty-five!”
“Thirteen and a half.”
…
In the end, the butcher nearly cried.
Clutching his butcher’s knife, he glared fiercely at them.
“Thirty copper coins! Take it!”
Xiang Xi thought about it.
“All right, all right. This lady isn’t the kind of person who haggles over every little thing. Give me a large bone too.”
Butcher: …
Take it, take it!
And don’t ever come back here to buy meat again!
Xiang Xi happily handed over the money.
Thirty copper coins for a huge pile of assorted offal, plus a large bone.
What a generous boss!