"Hey, aren't we heading to the county town? Where are you going?"
Seeing that Xiao Weiguo was pedaling in the wrong direction, Liu Ye couldn't help asking.
Straining at the pedals, Xiao Weiguo laughed heartily, "The sock factory is right here in our county town, and most of the workers live here too. If you've got a mountain of socks at home, I bet everyone else does too. Who are we going to sell them to?"
Riding fast against the wind, Xiao Weiguo shouted his explanation to Liu Ye.
"We're heading south to Wuxian. There are only a few heavy industry plants over there, so it'll definitely be much easier to sell than in Shangxian."
Liu Ye slapped her forehead.
"Right, why didn't I think of that?"
Xiaotun sat right between the two counties, so the distance was pretty much the same no matter which way you went. But since Xiaotun fell under the jurisdiction of Shangxian, people instinctively thought of running to their own county town whenever something came up.
A twenty-odd-kilometer ride was nothing at all for a seventeen- or eighteen-year-old lad. In less than an hour, the two of them arrived at the county town of Wuxian.
After cruising through the town on his bicycle, Xiao Weiguo finally stopped outside the residential compound of a machinery factory.
"Liu Ye, lend me fifty cents."
They parked their bikes under the shade of a tree by the roadside, and Xiao Weiguo rubbed his hands together sheepishly as he turned to Liu Ye.
"What for?"
Rolling her eyes, Liu Ye pulled out a fifty-cent banknote and handed it to Xiao Weiguo. This guy had promised fifty cents a pair to buy her entire stock of socks, but before she'd even seen a dime of his money, she was already out fifty cents.
Taking the money, Xiao Weiguo pointed toward the guard booth at the residential compound's entrance.
"I need to buy a pack of cigarettes, or they won't even let us through the gate."
Fifty cents was just enough for a pack of Daqianmen cigarettes. Xiao Weiguo had lost every last penny he had in the coin toss last night—otherwise, he wouldn't have taken that beating—so he had no choice but to borrow from Liu Ye.
Sure enough, after offering a cigarette and claiming he was visiting relatives, the old gatekeeper took the smoke, put down his newspaper, and peered at Xiao Weiguo over his thick spectacles for a few moments. Without saying much more, he let him pass.
When it came to his appearance, Xiao Weiguo's looks were quite deceptive. Tall, with a sturdy build, a sharp, chiseled face, thick eyebrows, and big eyes, he didn't look like a bad guy at all.
Xiao Weiguo carried half the socks into the residential compound, leaving the rest outside with the bicycle for Liu Ye to watch.
He knocked on the door of the first apartment, which was opened by a middle-aged couple.
The two of them froze when they saw a rural youth with a giant pack on his back standing outside their door.
Before they could speak, Xiao Weiguo flashed a warm smile and greeted them.
"Hello, Uncle and Aunty! I'm from the sock factory up north in Shangxian. To break into the Wuxian market, our factory is running a special promotion on welfare socks—great prices and top-notch quality. Socks that cost two bucks a pair outside are only a dollar fifty each if you buy five or more..."
With a smooth, practiced patter, Xiao Weiguo delivered his pitch with absolute sincerity and concise phrasing. He pulled out a pair of socks and gave them a firm tug.
"Look at this elasticity, Uncle and Aunty, look at this quality! This is a brand-new product our factory developed specially for this event. Buying them now is pure profit."
Xiao Weiguo was far too familiar with door-to-door sales; it was how he had made his first fortune in his past life. Besides, in this era, the concept of door-to-door selling didn't even exist yet, and people generally had very weak defenses.
How could ordinary people resist such a pitch? Before long, the couple cheerfully bought ten pairs on the spot.
Socks were consumables anyway, and the price wasn't high. Buying a few extra pairs to keep around didn't hurt—you'd need them sooner or later, and snapping them up during a promotional event meant bagging a huge bargain. Didn't the young man say buying them now was pure profit?
Within minutes, fifteen yuan was in his pocket. Subtracting the cost to be paid back to Liu Ye, he had netted a clean ten yuan profit.
Pocketing the cash, Xiao Weiguo felt a surge of excitement. It looked like he had chosen the right path.
Brimming with energy, he knocked on the next security door.
An old woman in her sixties answered.
"Oh, hello, Grandma! You look to be in fantastic health. I'm from the sock factory up north..."
He launched into another smooth, fast-paced sales pitch. Finally, leaning in close to the old woman's ear, he lowered his voice.
"Grandma, we're only running this promotion this once. If you don't buy now, once we roll this out everywhere, you'll never get another chance like this."
His strategy was simple: talk to people in their own language. Playing on the elderly's psychological weak spot for snapping up small bargains, he successfully sold another ten pairs of socks.
A qualified salesperson is never constrained by their environment.
In less than two hours, Xiao Weiguo had completely sold out of the two hundred-plus pairs of socks.
Pulling the money from his bulging pockets, Xiao Weiguo roughly counted it. There was around 370 yuan in total.
Counting out 125.5 yuan, he tucked the cash neatly into his two pockets, slung the empty sack over his shoulder, and strolled leisurely out of the residential compound.
Liu Ye was sitting on a stone block by the roadside. The weather was so hot that she kept fanning herself with a small handkerchief. Even so, her cheeks remained flushed from the heat, making her look utterly adorable.
Seeing Xiao Weiguo walk over with an empty sack, she sprang to her feet immediately.
"You sold out already?"
Xiao Weiguo smiled casually.
"What's so hard about that?"
With that, he pulled out the neatly counted stack of 125.5 yuan and handed it to Liu Ye.
"Here is the money for half the socks, plus the fifty cents I borrowed earlier—it's all here. As for the other half, I'll give it to you once I sell the rest."
Liu Ye took the money, her eyes curving into smiling little crescents.
Just half the socks had brought in over 120 yuan—far more than her father's monthly salary. Handing out those socks had originally felt like a hopeless burden, but through Xiao Weiguo's slick handling, it had somehow turned into a massive bargain.
"Weiguo, you're so capable!"
"It's nothing. You'll see I'm capable of a lot more later on."
With a nonchalant wave of his hand, Xiao Weiguo said, "Come on, big brother's taking you out for a proper meal."
Liu Ye smiled brightly. "Brother Weiguo, I know how things are at your house. You've helped me out so much today; I should be the one treating you."
"There's no such thing as a girl paying! Get on the bike!"
Stepping onto the bicycle with an air of absolute authority, Xiao Weiguo told Liu Ye to sit tight and pedaled toward a state-run restaurant.
After the massive commotion that morning, he hadn't eaten breakfast at all. Combined with a whole morning of non-stop running around—and all of it hard physical labor—Xiao Weiguo's stomach was practically stuck to his backbone by now.
Money was a man's backbone. Having made over two hundred yuan in a single morning, Xiao Weiguo felt like he finally had some solid ground under his feet, and he intended to treat himself properly for lunch.
The rich aroma of restaurant food drifted over from afar, and both of their stomachs began to rumble.