“Gods of Wealth, what do you want to eat? Tea eggs, corn? Fruit? I can go buy, you just eat on the way.”
Jiang Luo lounged casually. “Do as you like, whatever’s fine.”
Zhang Zhiqiang went off to get the food, and Wang Chuang plopped down next to Jiang Luo. Excitement made him fidget. “One doll cost us five yuan, selling at fifteen—ten yuan profit each! Two thousand dolls, that’s twenty thousand!”
“Even more than last time!”
Jiang Luo glanced at him, teasing: “Who’s to blame?”
Wang Chuang immediately smacked his own face. “All you! All you!”
“Alright, enough.” Jiang Luo chuckled.
He leaned back and explained, “It’s not really you. With Guo Ronghai’s side, we weren’t going to work together for long anyway.”
Wang Chuang looked at him, puzzled.
Jiang Luo analyzed: “Pacific Department Store isn’t short on foot traffic. Plenty of locals and tourists from other cities come to Haicheng. Decades ago, this place, after Beijing, was one of the top cities in the country.
“People come from other provinces to see the sights, shop, and spend. Pacific Department Store is huge—there’s no shortage of people.
“But one doll at sixty-eight yuan… it sells for a day, a week, a month. Eventually, someone else will start selling the same doll cheaper. It’s inevitable.
“If we don’t do it today, someone else in Haicheng will, sooner or later.”
He patted Wang Chuang’s shoulder casually. “Just wait. We won’t stop at Haicheng, and we’re not just making a few thousand yuan here.”
At the same time, back at Haicheng’s small market, the dolls were selling like wildfire—
Some buyers recognized them as the same dolls sold at Pacific Department Store for sixty-eight yuan.
Some came to test if the dolls were cheaper here.
Some came specifically because they’d heard they were available.
No matter the reason, the fifteen-yuan dolls sold exceptionally well at every stall.
Stall owners tacitly priced them at twenty-five yuan—no bargaining.
Still, they sold quickly.
Privately, stall owners chatted:
“Ten wasn’t enough; I should’ve bought thirty. Didn’t you see the toy stalls? More colors, more buyers.”
“Exactly. I barely sold anything else this morning, but the dolls are gone.”
“Those two young guys said more would come tomorrow?”
“Yes, they said they’d bring stock.”
“I need more than ten, then. Ten won’t last.”
The next morning, a truck slowly pulled up near the small market’s back entrance.
As soon as it stopped, Jiang Luo and Wang Chuang jumped from the front seats to the back, heading to the cargo area.
Word spread fast, and many stall owners gathered near the truck. The doors swung open, revealing large boxes stacked inside.
Jiang Luo stood in the truck, lollipop in his mouth, notebook and pen in hand, while Wang Chuang pulled dolls into large plastic bags from a nearby box.
A stall owner stepped forward: “Five colors, ten of each.”
“Fifty in total,” Jiang Luo confirmed, jotting it down: “Fifty dolls, fifteen each, total seven hundred fifty yuan.”
Wang Chuang packed the dolls without pause.
The first owner pleaded, “Boss, can you give a discount? I’m buying fifty at once.”
Jiang Luo didn’t look up. “No discounts. Don’t want it? Someone else will.”
A veteran stall owner added: “Honestly, today’s stock won’t be enough. First come, first served. Wait too long, it’ll be gone.”
Others immediately joined in: “I want five colors too, fifty in total.”
Jiang Luo grabbed another black bag from behind and kept pulling dolls from the boxes.
Together, Jiang Luo and Wang Chuang worked seamlessly—logging orders, packing dolls, collecting and counting money.
The small crew at the truck grew steadily as more and more market stall owners, men and women alike, arrived to buy.
Jiang Luo’s waist pouch filled quickly with cash; when it was too full, he grabbed an empty doll box to temporarily stash the money.
“Seventy dolls for me.”
“Boss, give me fifty too.”
“I want a hundred, all five colors!”
Wang Chuang kept packing relentlessly.
Jiang Luo jotted orders, collected cash, handed out dolls, and handled chatter from stall owners:
“Boss, where did you get these dolls?”
Jiang Luo, lollipop dangling like a cigarette, gave a relaxed, street-smart smile. “Don’t worry about it. You wouldn’t be able to get them anyway. These are Hong Kong-made, same production line as Pacific Department Store.”
“Boss, are you exaggerating? Hong Kong ones sell for sixty-eight, and you sell at fifteen?”
“Believe it or not, fifteen yuan works for me. He charges sixty-eight—that’s just greed. You wouldn’t be able to get them from him anyway.”
“Boss, are you from Hong Kong?”
Jiang Luo switched to local Haicheng dialect: “Nope, I’m from Haicheng.”
And so, at fifteen yuan each, Jiang Luo and Wang Chuang sold doll after doll.
By the time the truck emptied, both were soaked in sweat, Wang Chuang’s back completely drenched.
But neither of them cared about wiping sweat or taking a break. They leaned against the tail of the truck, dumping all the cash from Jiang Luo’s waist pouch, plus the pile of bills from the boxes, counting each one carefully.
Wang Chuang, counting the hundreds, laughed so hard that crow’s feet appeared at the corners of his eyes, sighing with delight, “This is what business is all about! You have to do business!”
“These hundreds… only in business can you have this much.”
He counted on: “Eighteen, nineteen, twenty…”
Jiang Luo counted too, going through stacks of five- and one-hundred-yuan notes: “Thirty-two, thirty-three, thirty-four…”
Out of a thousand dolls, aside from a few defective ones, the market stall owners had purchased almost six hundred and fifty.
At fifteen yuan each, that morning alone brought in 9,750 yuan in sales.
Wang Chuang held a bundle of bills, pressing a kiss to the top.
Jiang Luo, still chewing the stick of his lollipop, shook his head at Wang Chuang’s silly antics, amused, and playfully nudged his friend’s head.
Wang Chuang turned away, then back, staring at the money in his hands. “Awesome! Totally awesome!”
Jiang Luo drove the truck, with Wang Chuang in the passenger seat, a cigarette tucked behind one ear and another unlit one in his mouth.
Together, they sang loudly:
“Gently I will leave you,
Wipe away the tears at the corners of your eyes,
Through the long nights ahead,
Dear, don’t cry for me~”
A gentle, sentimental ballad, transformed by their voices into a declaration of grand ambition.
As Jiang Luo had said, Haicheng, one of the top cities in the country, didn’t just have locals—it drew visitors from all over China every day.
With so many people, it was natural to visit the city’s department stores.
Pacific Department Store was a common stop to buy toys for kids, so the blond dolls selling at sixty-eight yuan consistently sold well.
Local families bought them, and visitors with business or sightseeing also purchased them.
Now, the small market had dolls too—more color variations, prettier dresses, and priced at only twenty-five yuan. Not cheap, but far more attractive than sixty-eight.
Among parents visiting the market, six or seven out of ten would buy one.
The reasoning was unanimous: “Pacific Department Store sells for sixty-eight, with fewer colors and less elaborate dresses. Twenty-five here is worth it, just grit your teeth and buy it.”
In recent days, the dolls at the small market sold like wildfire.
Shoppers entering empty-handed often left holding a doll.
Prices remained uniform at twenty-five yuan, with slight discounts for bulk purchases. Every stall sold exceptionally well.
Soon, the remaining few hundred dolls in Jiang Luo and Wang Chuang’s rented truck were all bought up by market stall owners.
Jiang Luo went to the bank to wire the balance for the latest thousand dolls to Zhang Zhiqiang in Wencheng. At the same time, he used the bank’s landline to call Zhang.
Hearing that the balance had arrived so quickly, Zhang could barely stop smiling on the other end of the line.