EAY Chapter 6

A Method to Drive Away Customers

A Method to Drive Away Customers

6

Cute, cute, cute, just too cute!

Qi Ye pushed his cart, standing in the bustling crowd. The night market was noisy and prosperous, but Qi Ye’s eyes could only see the handsome young man in front of him setting up a cute stall. He couldn’t see a trace of the fierce fighting bully from school!

The contrast was just too strong.

Shi Ran noticed that this customer was in a daze and seemed oblivious to his enthusiastic greetings. So, he put away his businessman’s smile, put his hands on his hips, and asked brusquely, “What are you standing there like an idiot for? Are you buying or not?”

“Ah, oh.” Qi Ye woke up as if from a dream, pushed the cart to an empty spot next to the stall, rubbed his hands, and came to stand before the dazzling array of goods. “Let me take a look.”

Shi Ran looked at him amusedly, “You’re really planning to buy something?”

“Yeah.” Qi Ye naturally had no interest in these cute accessories, but he had a reason, “I want to buy them for my mom and my sister.”

“Oh.” Shi Ran nodded. “That’s pretty thoughtful of you. Go ahead and pick something.”

The stall couldn’t be called small, it was a miniature version. The goods were displayed in an open wooden box, probably a specially designed jewelry box. It was large, opening to ninety degrees, with accessories displayed on both the top and bottom of the lid. White display stands were also placed on either side of the box.

In total, there were three shelves displaying goods, which, upon closer inspection, were divided into three categories, from left to right: butterfly bracelets, butterfly hair clips, and butterfly hair ties.

In Qi Ye’s simple mind, it was just things you wear on your wrist and things you wear on your head.

He was more interested in how the stall was set up than in the goods themselves. The base support was probably a rectangular table, but because it wasn’t high enough, something had been placed underneath it, though it wasn’t clear what it was, as it was covered by a pink checkered cloth.

Qi Ye subconsciously reached out to touch it, but was immediately stopped by Shi Ran, “What do you think you’re doing? You trying to wreck my stall?”

Qi Ye asked, “What’s underneath?”

Shi Ran said, “Reinforced concrete.”

Qi Ye: “……”

Shi Ran said helplessly, “Hurry up and pick something. What do you want?”

Qi Ye couldn’t possibly guess what girls would like. His mom was tolerant, but he was afraid Qi Xue would scream that it was ugly and he’d polluted her eyes by giving her something like that.

So, Qi Ye pleaded, “Could you, help me pick something?”

Shi Ran glanced at him. “What, can’t make up your mind?”

Qi Ye: “I don’t know how to pick these things. It’s my first time buying them.”

Shi Ran smiled and said okay, going around to the front of the stall to pick for him, still smiling as he said, “You must have done something wrong.”

Qi Ye: “Huh?”

Shi Ran: “That’s why you were assigned to run errands at the night market and want to buy something to take home as an apology.”

Qi Ye shook his head. “No, that’s not it.”

Shi Ran scoffed, “Don’t tell me you came all the way here just to support my business?”

Qi Ye wanted to say of course not, but he didn’t have the confidence, and for a moment he didn’t reply.

Shi Ran, who had been facing away from him, picking things out, sensed the silence and straightened up, turning to him. “You really came all the way here to support my business? Who told you about it?”

Qi Ye said weakly, “I accidentally, heard someone talking about it, and I thought, I’d come and see.” He glanced at Shi Ran. “Am I, being a busybody?”

Shi Ran thought for a moment and shook his head. “Not really. Quite a few classmates do come to see me, but very few actually buy anything.”

Qi Ye: “Why not?”

Shi Ran quickly told him why. He had picked out two butterfly hair ties, which together cost seventy yuan! And these were the cheapest things on his little stall.

Shi Ran smiled and said, “The girls in our class say that hair ties that cost more than five yuan are already expensive.”

Qi Ye thought, based on that level of spending, it was very expensive.

Qi Ye felt around in his pockets. Adding up all the loose change, he had about two hundred yuan. He handed it to Shi Ran, saying, “This is all I have on me. Will it be enough?”

Shi Ran looked at him, depressed. “Are you stupid?”

He handed the hair ties back to him. “You can buy exactly the same thing at the two-yuan store near the school. You came all the way here to get ripped off?”

Qi Ye was stunned. “Really? Things at the night market cost several times more?”

Shi Ran thought he was hopeless. He threw the accessories he had picked out back onto the shelf. “I sell everything to other customers at normal prices, but the students from school are an exception.”

Qi Ye: “Why?”

“I find it annoying, okay? I don’t want them always coming over, chattering and surrounding me in a circle, affecting my normal business.” Shi Ran took a bottle of mineral water from a bag on the ground and drank.

Qi Ye felt inexplicably wronged. He hadn’t been chattering. Just now when customers came, he had even consciously moved aside.

The customers were two young women, and seeing that the stall owner was a handsome young man, they deliberately took a long time to choose, chatting and smiling with Shi Ran. Fortunately, in the end they chose a lot of things and took out a hundred yuan bill.

Shi Ran had brought some change, but at the moment, he couldn’t break the bill. He was just about to go and ask the stall next door to exchange it when Qi Ye stepped forward like a timely rain. “I have some here.”

After the customers left, Shi Ran still went to the other stall owners to exchange some smaller bills, and then returned the money to Qi Ye. “Thanks.”

Qi Ye: “No problem.”

Shi Ran rubbed his nose. “Do you still want the ones I picked out for you just now? I’ll sell them to you at the normal price.”

Qi Ye: “An abnormal price is fine too.”

Shi Ran frowned. “Do you want them or not?”

Qi Ye quickly nodded. “Yes, yes, yes!”

After buying the things, Qi Ye still didn’t want to leave. He racked his brains for a topic to talk about, looked at the dark night over there, and then at the light on this street, which was as bright as day. He scratched the back of his head. “Um, don’t you get sleepy at night?”

Shi Ran rolled his eyes at him. “I know you have a very healthy routine, and go to bed especially early.”

Qi Ye: “Yeah, going to bed early is good for your health.”

Shi Ran didn’t want to talk to him anymore, but Qi Ye finally remembered what he wanted to ask, turning sideways and leaning slightly in his direction. “Why does your grandfather’s stall sell accessories?”