EAY Chapter 39

Small Stall Opens

39

Qi Ye asked a female colleague for the address of the shopping street, saying he planned to go and take a look first. It wasn’t until Shi Ran finished his part-time job that day that they finally went over.

They arrived quite early. Qi Ye’s first impression was that the shopping street wasn’t very big, and there weren’t many people either, which immediately lowered his expectations.

“Wow, you guys are here!” A girl greeted them enthusiastically. She and her classmate were still setting up their stall. Smiling, she came out from beside the shelves, her gaze shifting from Qi Ye’s face to Shi Ran’s, and she nodded in satisfaction. “Two handsome guys! Are you planning to work together?”

Before Qi Ye could reply, Shi Ran nodded. “Yeah, he’s in charge of drawing, and I’m in charge of attracting customers.”

Qi Ye felt a little relieved, but he still looked around, not seeing much foot traffic at all, and there were very few stalls.

The girl seemed to sense Qi Ye’s concerns and said, “You guys are early. A lot of students haven’t set up their stalls yet, and customers don’t really start showing up until after 7 PM. Really, I’m not lying to you. You’ll know if you stay a little longer.”

Qi Ye latched onto the important information in her words, “Student stalls? Don’t tell me, all the stallholders here are students?”

“Yeah, the sellers are students, and the buyers are a mix of everything, but I’ve found that the main consumers are still college students. They love to eat, love to have fun, and love new things.” The girl reached out and pulled them to the side of the road. “Let me be honest with you. This is actually an event organized by our school, limited to one month, like those flea markets, except we moved the location outside of campus. So you really don’t have to worry about not having customers or anything. I can guarantee the foot traffic. It’s just that my friend and I are selling ordinary stuff, and everyone’s used to buying these hair accessories online, so there’s not much business. We only realized it after we bought the goods.”

Shi Ran said, “You guys could try selling snacks or something. People would definitely buy that.”

The girl sighed, “I know selling food would definitely make money, but it takes so much time. My friend and I are already busy with our studies and our part-time jobs. We don’t have the energy to deal with food and drinks. Besides, what kind of food can you sell without equipment? Even selling rice balls would require a thermal container and a rice cooker, right? The costs are a bit high.”

“That’s true.” Shi Ran agreed. He thought of Grandpa Shi’s roasted sweet potato stall. Outsiders might think it’s nothing special, but the old man put a lot of effort into it.

The girl clapped her hands and said, “My friend and I don’t want to waste all the goods we bought. Aside from the cost issue, we carefully picked out each of these small accessories. I thought if we could combine it with Qi Ye’s comics, we might be able to sell some of them.”

Shi Ran then said, “Wait a minute, since this is an event organized by your school, can we participate as students from another school?”

“Hehe, normally you can’t, but we don’t have enough participants for this event, so the student union is turning a blind eye. Besides, we’re all students, and self-employment and work-study programs are worth encouraging.” The girl said with a smile, “Oh, I haven’t introduced myself yet. My name is Lin Yicheng, and that’s my friend Xu Yanran over there.”

Qi Ye introduced himself and Shi Ran. Lin Yicheng took out her phone and said, “Let’s add each other on WeChat. Tell me when you’re coming in advance, and I’ll get the stall ready for you.”

Qi Ye took out his phone and added her on WeChat. Lin Yicheng praised his avatar as cute, asking if it was his own simple drawing. Qi Ye nodded.

Shi Ran watched from the side, feeling a little uncomfortable for some reason.

Qi Ye said, “We’ll prepare the stall ourselves. I’m sorry to trouble you—”

“Don’t be sorry. We didn’t buy it with our own money. It was left over by a senior student, so we might as well use it. Besides, we have classmates helping us move it. It’s no trouble at all.” Lin Yicheng said cheerfully, “If you can help me attract customers and sell these little trinkets, you’ll be our lucky star!”

Qi Ye looked at the accessories on their stall. How should he put it? They weren’t exactly “small.” They were all very “big.” In short, they were exaggerated in style, like butterfly pendants as big as his head, furry hair clips as thick as his arm, and long streamers of various kinds that Qi Ye didn’t understand. Some looked like something a female lead in an ancient drama would wear, while others gave off a fairy-like vibe.

Shi Ran gave them a suggestion, asking if they knew how to do any updos, because some of these hair accessories looked better with certain hairstyles.

Both girls shook their heads. “We’re all hopeless when it comes to that.”

Shi Ran suddenly thought of someone. “I know someone who’s very skilled.”

Meng Nan was completely tricked into coming here by the two of them. When he demonstrated his miraculous hair-braiding skills, the two boys and two girls immediately refused to let him leave.

“I knew you guys were up to no good.” Meng Nan refused flatly. “But I don’t have time. I have to go to my part-time job.”

Qi Ye said, “We’ll pay you too.”

Meng Nan said, “My part-time job is long-term. How long can you hire me for?”

The others fell silent. That’s right, there was only less than a month left here. The two girls were participating in response to the school’s event, Shi Ran had just finished his part-time job, and Qi Ye was trying to train himself. In short, none of them needed a part-time job as urgently as he did. In Meng Nan’s world, reality was above everything else, making them seem like they were just playing around.

Meng Nan looked at the group of people looking at each other and couldn’t help but soften. “Which of you has better learning skills? I’ll teach you a few simple ones that look impressive. It should be enough for your little stall.”

Lin Yicheng quickly raised her hand. “Me, I’ll learn!”

Xu Yanran next to her quietly tugged at her sleeve. “Why don’t I do it? You’re better at attracting customers, and honestly, I’m a little less hopeless than you are.”

“Okay, you do it!” Lin Yicheng smiled.

When everything was ready, on the night before the opening, Qi Ye was still a little nervous. He couldn’t help but tremble when he picked up a pen and tried drawing on paper.

Shi Ran, who was next to him, noticed his nervousness and lowered his head to whisper in his ear, “It’s okay, you’ve practiced so many times.”

Qi Ye: “This isn’t a pencil, you can’t erase, what if, what if I draw it wrong?”

Shi Ran: “So what? We’ve prepared so much paper, there’s plenty of room for error.”

Qi Ye then brought up his biggest concern, “What if the customers aren’t satisfied?”

“If they’re not satisfied, they don’t have to pay. At most, they’ll complain a bit.” Shi Ran said with a smile. “The worst-case scenario is that some bad-tempered customers might want to cause trouble and smash the stall. But I’ll be there, so you don’t have to worry.” Shi Ran patted his shoulder. “But the chances of that happening are one in ten thousand.”

Qi Ye nodded blankly. Shi Ran patted his head. “What are you afraid of? We’re not really trying to make big money from this. Just the fact that you’re sitting here is amazing.”

That’s right, Qi Ye thought of his former self, who needed a long period of mental preparation just to talk to others, let alone think about what talents he had.

But now, someone actually recognized his drawing ability and said it could be monetized.

Although he hadn’t seen a single penny yet and had spent a lot on art supplies, he was really starting down this path.

Qi Ye took a deep breath, looked at the bustling crowd, and silently straightened his back.