raknovel Chapter 36 Export Overstock Clothing Store
Chapter 36 Export Overstock Clothing Store
Li Si'an couldn't fall asleep again.
He lay there, Tang Yun nestled against his chest, her hair loose, her breathing light and slow. Birds chirped intermittently outside the window, and sunlight streamed in through the curtains, casting a bright line on the floor at the foot of the bed.
A few things were lazily on his mind.
The store needs to restock its cassette tapes, a few chairs at the video arcade are broken and need fixing, and I need to pick up those clothes from Xiushui Street this afternoon; I'll need to call a van to bring them back.
He lay there until after eight o'clock, but he couldn't stay in bed any longer. He gently moved Tang Yun's head from his chest to the pillow. She groaned softly but didn't wake up. The blanket slipped down a little, revealing a section of her shoulder, which he quickly covered her up again.
When I went downstairs, Chen Dong was already in the store, wiping the counter with a rag.
"Good morning." Chen Dong replied without even looking up.
"Good morning." Li Si'an used an electric kettle to boil water, made two cups of tea, and carried one cup back to the counter. "Was the video arcade crowded last night?"
"About fifty." Chen Dong threw the rag into the bucket. "They were showing 'A Chinese Odyssey,' which made several young girls cry."
Li Si'an nodded. Stephen Chow's film has always received a pretty good response from students.
He leaned back in his chair, took a sip of tea, and his mind started wandering back to the clothes.
Wen Kai has already prepared 20,000 yuan worth of goods, just waiting for him to pick them up. He needs to clear some space in his shop, and he needs to nail nails to the wall and hang ropes, otherwise there will be nowhere to hang the clothes.
Just then, there was a noise upstairs. Tang Yun woke up.
Li Si'an carried another cup of tea upstairs and pushed open the door. Tang Yun was leaning against the headboard, her hair messy, her face still showing signs of just waking up. The blanket was pulled up to her chest, revealing a section of her collarbone.
"What time is it?" Her voice was a little hoarse.
"It's not even nine o'clock yet." Li Si'an placed the teacup on the bedside table. "You can sleep a little longer; it's still early."
Tang Yun shook her head and propped herself up to sit up. She frowned slightly, and unconsciously pressed her thighs and then her lower back.
"What's wrong?"
"Sour." Tang Yun glared at him, her eyes filled with a hint of resentment, but she was too embarrassed to say more.
Li Si'an laughed, a smug smile on her face: "It's my fault, it's all my fault."
Tang Yun didn't reply. She picked up her teacup, took a sip, lowered her head, and her ears turned slightly red.
"What are the plans for today?" she asked.
"I'm going to Xiushui Street to pick up my clothes this afternoon," Li Si'an said. "You stay home and rest; don't go downstairs."
"I'll go with you."
"You should just stay home. Doesn't your leg hurt anymore?"
Tang Yun opened her mouth, as if to say it didn't hurt, but when she moved her leg, her brow furrowed again. It really hurt. Her muscles ached, spreading from her groin all the way to her knee, as if she had run ten kilometers.
Li Si'an understood from her expression: "Alright, stay put. I'll be right back."
Tang Yun didn't insist any further, leaned back on the pillow, and mumbled an "Mmm".
At noon, Li Si'an bought two plates of pork and scallion dumplings from the dumpling restaurant next door and went upstairs to eat with Tang Yun on the edge of the bed. Tang Yun didn't eat much, only four or five before putting down her chopsticks.
"Why are you eating so little?"
I'm not hungry.
"You have to eat even if you're not hungry." Li Si'an pushed the bowl towards her. "You worked so hard last night, you need to eat more. Don't let me go out and come back to find you starving upstairs."
Tang Yun was so angry she laughed, and in her anger she picked up the bowl and ate two more.
After finishing her meal, Li Si'an changed her clothes and hailed a taxi on the roadside. She headed straight for Xiushui Street.
When we arrived at Wen Kai's shop, Wen Kai was already waiting. There were four or five large woven bags stacked next to him, bulging with contents.
"You're here?" Wen Kai greeted him. "Are you alone? Didn't your girlfriend come?"
"I'm resting at home."
Wen Kai smiled, didn't ask any more questions, and unzipped the woven bag to show him.
T-shirts, jeans, sweatshirts, and more than a dozen dresses, all in colors and styles that Li Si'an had picked out last time—not over the top, but fashionable, perfect for students.
"How much?"
"Twenty thousand three hundred, I'll round it down for you, twenty thousand." Wen Kai handed over a bill. "Check it out, the quantities and styles are all on it."
Li Si'an looked through the list from beginning to end, then folded it and put it in her pocket. She then took out two stacks of money from her bag and handed them over. Wen Kai counted them and put them in the drawer.
"What about the two models?" Li Si'an asked.
Wen Kai brought out two plastic mannequins from the store. One male and one female, both white, bald, and without facial features, just standing there, looking a bit creepy.
"How much?"
"The wholesale price is 120 each, but you can give me 200."
Li Si'an counted out two hundred and handed it over. Wen Kai accepted it and helped him move the woven bag and mannequin to the roadside.
"You should order a noodle; a taxi can't fit this," Wen Kai said.
Li Si'an nodded, waited by the roadside for a few minutes, and then hailed a minivan. The driver was a middle-aged man in his forties, who worked efficiently and helped him stuff the woven bag and mannequin into the car before closing the door.
"Where to?"
"Baishi Bridge, across from the Affiliated High School of Beijing Dance Academy."
The car headed west. Li Si'an, sitting in the passenger seat, glanced back and saw that the woven bags were piled up to the brim, with two plastic mannequins squeezed in the middle, their heads tilted as if looking at him.
It was almost four o'clock when they got back to the shop. Chen Dong came out from the back, saw the car full of stuff, and paused for a moment.
"So many?"
"What do you think is worth 20,000 yuan?" Li Si'an clapped his hands. "Hurry up and help move it."
Two people unloaded the woven bags and carried them to the warehouse at the back of the first floor. Two naked plastic mannequins stood in the corner.
"We'll start organizing tomorrow," Li Si'an said, dusting off her hands. "Let's clear out the shelves first."
The next morning, Li Si'an and Chen Dong started working.
They moved the cassette tape rack against the wall in the shop to the middle, making room on one wall to hang clothes. Chen Dong nailed on hooks, and Li Si'an unpacked woven bags and hung the clothes up one by one.
T-shirts are arranged by color, with dark colors in one row and light colors in another; jeans are arranged by style, with straight leg and flared leg; sweatshirts are hung on the top row, dresses are hung in the middle, and a few of the popular items recommended by Wen Kai are also included.
Tang Yun came downstairs and stood by for a while.
Last night she absolutely refused to sleep in the same room as Li Si'an, saying that her legs hurt.
"Hey, didn't you say your legs hurt? Don't stand, sit down right now," Li Si'an said.
"I'm not disabled." Tang Yun understood what Li Si'an meant and rolled her eyes at him.
Li Si'an ignored her eye roll and continued to tease her, "Oh dear, you were making such a fuss last night, so just rest today, just rest!"
Tang Yun ignored him, walked over and took the clothes out of the woven bag for him, handing them to him one by one.
Li Si'an stopped joking and took the item, hanging it on the wall. The two of them worked together, and their speed was much faster than before.
By noon, the clothes were mostly hung up. Li Si'an moved the two mannequins over, one male and one female, and placed them on either side of the shop entrance.
"This thing..." Chen Dong looked at the female model, "Doesn't it need to be dressed?"
"Nonsense." Li Si'an took a white T-shirt and a pair of jeans from the shelf and put them on the male mannequin. Then she took a sundress and put it on the female mannequin.
Li Si'an moved the mannequins to the store entrance and then began to arrange them. The male mannequin had his hands on his hips, while the female mannequin had her arms slightly raised, as if she were about to dance.
Tang Yun, upon seeing the female model's pose, remarked, "This pose is so affected."
Li Si'an said, "Being pretentious is good; being pretentious is what attracts attention."
The three of them took two steps back and looked at the two mannequins standing at the store entrance, dressed in clothes, with the store lights on. They did look quite attractive.
Then Li Si'an made a sign that read, "Export quality, domestic price. Limited quantity, buy now!"
After he finished writing, he hung the sign at the door.
"All set." Li Si'an clapped his hands. "Open for business."
On the first day, not many people bought anything.
There were quite a few customers coming into the store; after all, it's an audio-visual store, and people usually come to buy cassette tapes.
Seeing clothes hanging on the wall, they come over, look at them, feel the fabric, ask, "How much is this?", and then leave.
Li Si'an sat behind the counter, watching people rummage through the clothes, finally putting them down and leaving, feeling nothing in particular. It was the first day, nothing unusual.
Tang Yun came downstairs and changed into a floral dress that the store was selling. It was white with small blue flowers, the waist was perfectly fitted, and the hem was just above the knee.
Li Si'an glanced at her: "What are you doing?"
"I'll be your model," Tang Yun said, stopping in the middle of the store and turning around. "How about it?"
Li Si'an glanced at her. Standing there at 1.72 meters tall, her long legs stretched straight to the ground beneath her white dress, making her look like a tree that had sprouted a branch.
The white dress was tucked into her waist, which was so slender it seemed as if it might break. She walked from the shelf back to the counter, the hem of her skirt swaying with each step, the lines of her legs appearing and disappearing in the air.
Li Si'an looked at it for two seconds, then looked away: "Okay. But you have to sit as a model, not stand."
"Are you never going to stop?"
Tang Yun replied briefly, then ignored him. She wandered around the store, tidying the clothes on the racks, seemingly enjoying herself.
A customer came in, saw the dress she was wearing, and asked, "How much is this?"
"Eighty-five," Li Si'an said.
The customer hesitated for a moment, then left.
Tang Yun glanced back at Li Si'an but didn't say anything.
Business improved a bit the next day.
I sold two T-shirts and one pair of jeans this morning.
In the afternoon, a girl came in and saw the floral dress Tang Yun was wearing. She said, "My classmate bought one yesterday, saying she bought it from your place. I want one too."
Li Si'an took the money, folded the dress, put it in a bag, and asked as she handed it over, "Did your classmate buy this yesterday?"
"Yes, she said the clothes here are nice and the prices aren't too high."
Li Si'an nodded, understanding the situation. Repeat customers were starting to bring in new customers.
After closing the shop at night, Li Si'an was doing the accounts behind the counter. Tang Yun sat next to her, her legs propped up on another chair, flipping through a magazine.
"How much did you sell today?" she asked.
"Four items." Li Si'an closed the ledger. "Better than yesterday."
Tomorrow will be better.
How did you know?
Tang Yun glanced at him, and the corner of her mouth curled up slightly: "Just guessing."
Li Si'an chuckled and reached out to pinch her calf. Tang Yun pulled her leg back and glared at him.
"pain."
"Where does it hurt?"
"It hurts wherever you pinch."
Li Si'an smiled and withdrew her hand. The lights in the shop were turned off, leaving only a table lamp on the counter, its orange light illuminating the two people's faces.
The light from the streetlights outside shone through the shop window, casting a long, bright line on the ground.
"Li Si'an".
"Um."
"How many of these clothes do you think can be sold?"
"You can rest assured," Li Si'an said leisurely, sitting with her legs crossed. "When have I ever lost money in business?"
Tang Yun didn't ask any more questions and lowered her head to continue flipping through the magazine.