TPW – Chapter 73

Yu Fan hesitated for two seconds. It was obvious she had the idea, but she still denied it: “There are too many clothing vendors on this street, and my place is in a remote corner. I won’t be able to sell well.”

Li Hongjun disagreed: “How could it not sell? Look at how well Haizhou and I did before.”

Yu Fan laughed at him: “You two sell stuff you can’t even find on the market. Of course it’s popular. Plus, you and Xu Haizhou—one has a slick tongue and the other’s good-looking. You barely have to shout, and customers come to you themselves.”

The most crucial part was that the two of them often came up with different marketing activities—who could compete with that?

“Hey, now that’s not something I like to hear,” Li Hongjun said, shooting her a look. “What do you mean Haizhou’s good-looking? Don’t you think I’m handsome too? Maybe a bunch of female comrades are coming just for me.”

He was tall and well-groomed too, okay? Just not someone you’d want standing next to that guy Xu Haizhou, or you’d definitely get overshadowed.

The more he spoke, the more smug he became: “Besides, Haizhou’s already taken. I’m still single. A golden bachelor, you know?”

Yu Fan mercilessly mocked him: “Golden? More like an iron lump.”

Li Hongjun waved his hand and clicked his tongue: “Tch, no taste at all.”

After the laughter faded, Yu Fan thought of her store’s income and deflated again.

“Hey, look at that Zhang Weiqiang… Before you guys came, I could at least sell one or two orders a day. After you arrived, it went up to three or four a day. But ever since you two left, I haven’t sold a single piece!”

Puhahaha—

“For real?” Li Hongjun immediately stood up and looked down the alley, gleefully slapping his thigh. “Oh dang, you’re right! Look, no one’s going to his place! But wait, didn’t his business used to look decent?”

Yu Fan rolled her eyes: “What do you mean decent? He just got lucky with a good location with lots of foot traffic. Not many people actually buy. And have you seen the junk he sells in his shop? Come here, let me tell you something.”

She hooked her finger, motioning Li Hongjun to come closer, and whispered: “I heard there’s a kind of clothing you sellers get called ‘blind stock’—a big sack for just a dozen bucks. You know about that?”

“You—uh—how do you know that?” How could he admit they had ever bought blind stock? That would be brand suicide. “I’m not sure. I’ve heard of it, but we don’t have any of that stuff.”

Even if they had, he couldn’t admit it. That stuff was so low-quality, barely anything was worth selling.

Last time they bought two huge bags, at least a third was straight-up junk, and the rest only sold because Qiao Lu had the skills to salvage them.

If it weren’t for her, they’d all have gone to waste.

“I heard those clothes come from abroad… like, you know, smuggled in. Trash. Second-hand stuff foreigners wore!”

“Second-hand?!” Li Hongjun was shocked. That he truly hadn’t known.

When they’d opened the sacks, he just thought the stuff was messy and dirty—figured it was outdated stock that had sat in storage too long and collected dust. Never imagined it was second-hand clothing worn by foreigners!

Damn it, that’s just too nasty!

“Yeah, most of it’s second-hand,” Yu Fan whispered while glancing around. “One morning, I came early and saw him clearing out stock. Half his store was full of second-hand junk.”

It was all washed, sure, but whether it had been disinfected? Who knew.

Some of it probably came off dead people. Even if it was disinfected, just the thought was gross.

“I really didn’t expect that.” Zhang Weiqiang looked honest enough—how could he do something like this? Was he clueless, or doing it on purpose?

“As a businessperson, the worst thing is having no conscience.”

Yu Fan chuckled indifferently: “Whatever. I don’t buy from him anyway.”

“Alright, not chatting with you anymore—I’ve got customers.”

One second Li Hongjun was lazily lounging in a chair, the next he was full of energy, greeting customers.

Then came the loud banging of his broken gong—his voice echoed across the sky, driving nearby vendors crazy with complaints.

Around 3 p.m., Xu Haizhou finally showed up, fashionably late.

“You’re late.” The moment he saw Xu Haizhou, Li Hongjun straightened up and dropped the gong to greet him.

Xu Haizhou got out of the vehicle and tossed over a burlap sack: “Went to the market to buy some materials for Qiao Lu.”

Li Hongjun received it happily and started restocking: “Hey, now we’ve got what, fifteen or sixteen people in the yard helping us make clothes?”

Xu Haizhou grunted: “Roughly.”

He pulled out a handkerchief to wipe the sweat off his forehead, glanced at him: “Stop banging that gong. People can hear it from a kilometer away—you’re disturbing the peace.”

“Okay, I’ll stop.” Li Hongjun grinned and asked, “Hey, would you say our current scale counts as running a small factory?”

Xu Haizhou laughed at him: “What are you thinking? You think business will stay this good forever? Once this trend fades, who knows what’ll happen.”

“People need dreams, don’t they?” Li Hongjun started fantasizing again after just a few words. “What if we keep this up for another couple years? Maybe one day we’ll have enough money to open a real factory.”

“A clothing factory—tsk—when that time comes, I’ll be the deputy director, you’ll be the director, and sis-in-law can be the accountant, handling the money. Oh wait, better let the staff handle that. Sis-in-law can be deputy director number two.”

He was already planning things out: “Say, is it okay for a factory to have two deputy directors?”

Xu Haizhou snatched the sack from his hand. “Wake up. Let’s sell this current batch first.”

As for starting a factory—Xu Haizhou did have that in mind. But that wasn’t something dreaming and fantasizing could achieve. First, they needed to keep their feet on the ground, make sure their clothes sold well, and become the best in the business. Only then would opening a factory even be worth considering.

Xu Haizhou began sorting the clothes according to Qiao Lu’s pairing instructions. The shop was small and couldn’t fit two people working side by side, so Li Hongjun didn’t interfere. He unfolded a long chair and lay down.

“I’m gonna nap for a bit. Haven’t had my afternoon rest yet—call me if you need anything.”

The April weather was perfect for napping in the sun—warm and cozy, but not too hot.

He closed his eyes to rest. He had only been lying there for a short while when, just before drifting off, the golden sunlight on his face suddenly darkened.

Someone had blocked it.

Li Hongjun thought it was Xu Haizhou and mumbled, “Haizhou, move—don’t block my sun.”

Four or five seconds passed with no response. Still with eyes closed, he clicked his tongue, “Haizhou, move…”

His eyelids instinctively opened a small slit, and he jolted awake as if a flea had crawled on him.  “Oh my god—O-officer, comrades?”

Just a moment ago, with his eyes closed, he thought it was Xu Haizhou blocking the sun. But now that he opened his eyes, there were two male police officers in olive-green uniforms standing right in front of him?

His drowsiness vanished in an instant, and he scrambled up from his chair.

“O-officers, what—what brings you here?” He quickly searched his memory for anything suspicious he’d done recently. As far as he knew, he hadn’t broken any laws!

Hearing the commotion, Xu Haizhou, who had been sorting out merchandise, turned around and finally noticed what was going on outside.

“Nothing much. Are you the owner of this shop?” the shorter officer asked, frowning and looking visibly displeased.

“Uh… yes, I guess… oh, yes, I am.”

“Let me ask you, are the clothes in your store from the capital?” the taller officer followed up.

Why are they asking that?

Li Hongjun was startled: “Huh? The c-capital? Our—our clothes… uh, I don’t think so… I mean, not exactly, it’s just…”

He stammered, clearly scared stiff.

Xu Haizhou frowned and stepped forward a couple of steps, just about to speak, when suddenly the old man selling tea next door poked his head out, clearly having been watching, and said gleefully: “Officers, all their clothes are from the capital! Every day they bang that broken gong and yell it out! I hear it so much my ears have grown calluses!”

Li Hongjun shot him a vicious glare and was about to say something more when the officers suddenly flashed their IDs and took him away without further explanation.

“Come with us.”

“Hey—what are you doing, what are you doing?! What did I do wrong? What law did I break?!” As the two officers dragged him away, Li Hongjun screamed in panic, “Haizhou—Haizhou—!!”

In these times, just being taken away by the police was terrifying, even if you were innocent. Of course Li Hongjun was scared out of his wits!

Xu Haizhou quickly came to his senses and rushed up in three steps to block them.

“Comrades, may I ask—what did he do wrong?”

The two officers looked him up and down with sharp eyes and said sternly, “You’re an accomplice?”

“Accomplice? We’re just doing business together…” Xu Haizhou explained anxiously.

The two officers exchanged a glance and sneered coldly: “Fine. If you’re accomplices, then come along too.”

Xu Haizhou: “???”

And so, Xu Haizhou was taken away as well.

“Hey, hey, hey—what’s going on here?! Officers, we’re good citizens! Honest-to-goodness citizens!”

“Yeah, we’re just selling clothes. What law did we break?”

“Officers, at least tell us—what crime did I commit?”

“I’ve been wronged—!”

“Shut up.” Finally, the short officer lost his patience and shot a sharp glare at Li Hongjun, snapping, “Keep talking and we’ll lock you up right now!”

Li Hongjun: “……”

He shut up immediately, not daring to make a sound.

Meanwhile, Baiyun Street was in an uproar.

The nearby vendors stopped their business and gathered around Xu Haizhou’s stall to gossip. Thankfully, it was a weekday, and at 3:30 p.m., customer traffic was at its lowest.

“What did those two get arrested for?”

“Maybe someone got jealous of how much money they were making and reported them?”

“Reported for what? Speculation and profiteering? Then we’d all be in trouble!”

“Can’t be that. We’re running legal businesses. Must’ve been that brat doing some shady stuff.”

“Serves him right! So arrogant all the time. Let him cool off a few days in jail!”

When Yu Fan noticed the commotion, she ran over in a panic—but she was too late. She watched helplessly as Li Hongjun and the others were taken away by the police. Asking the neighboring stall owners yielded nothing—they all claimed ignorance.

She vaguely remembered Li Hongjun mentioning that he lived in a shared courtyard on Ziyuan Street. Since the two men were business partners, they probably lived in the same place, right?

No time to waste!

She pulled out two yuan and asked the sock seller across the street to watch Xu Haizhou’s stall for her, then hopped on her bicycle and vanished like the wind.

“Zhang Weiqiang! Watch the stall for me, I need to go out!”

“Hey—where are you going?! Damn it, hurry up! I’ve got my own business to run!”

When Yu Fan rushed to the courtyard on Ziyuan Street, Qiao Lu was just getting ready to take her son to the grocery store to buy some dried noodles. They had canned luncheon meat at home, perfect for dinner.

“What? Haizhou got arrested?!”

The moment he heard that his father had been taken away, Qiao An burst into tears, completely catching the two women off guard.

The little crybaby hadn’t been this upset in a long time. He wiped his tears with his tiny hands and sobbed, “M-my dad is a good person! Why did the police uncle take my dad away—?”

He clutched Yu Fan’s clothes tightly, his face full of urgency: “Sis, what did Dad do wrong? Why did they take him away? Waaah! Dad is a good person, he’s not a bad guy!”

Yu Fan had never comforted a child before. She was at a total loss as she clumsily wiped away his tears. “It’s okay, it’s okay. It’s probably just a misunderstanding. Sis will take your mom to go check it out, alright?”

No time to delay. Qiao Lu quickly went back into the house, stuffed her beeper into her pocket, and left. “An’an, be good and wait at home. Mom’s going to the police station to see what’s going on.”

“Waaah—” The little guy’s eyes were brimming with tears. He ran after her on his short legs and hugged her tightly: “Mommy! I want to go too! Let’s go save Daddy together!”

Pfft—

Qiao Lu didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. She pulled out a handkerchief to wipe his tears.  “Silly boy, what do you mean ‘save Daddy’? Are you planning a prison break or what?”