Chapter 52: Chapter 52: Setting Up a Stall
In the end, Yun Jiao kept a few of the small monkey carvings and the two wind chimes her fourth brother had given her for her birthday, which were her absolute favorites.
"Let’s try selling these other ones."
She didn’t keep the wooden carvings of her brothers’ zodiac animals, since her fourth brother hadn’t just carved them for her; all the other brothers had one too.
They just didn’t have as many as she did. Each of her brothers only had one.
Once everything was sorted, Yun Jiao hugged one of the little monkey carvings and conked out, sleeping soundly.
Her brothers gathered around to watch her sleep, admiring how cute she was. They poked her chubby little cheeks, giving them a gentle squeeze.
Even a fluffy cat wasn’t as delightfully squishy as their little sister.
Satisfied after a few gentle pinches, they lay down beside Yun Jiao and went to sleep.
The next day, she woke up with sleepy, half-open eyes.
Shen Yunlian carried her to the next room to get her dressed.
She sat on the bed, yawning, her eyes welling up with tears.
Her little arms and legs were limp, which actually made it easy for Shen Yunlian to dress her.
Yun Linhai wiped her face with a warm, damp towel.
"Still sleepy, Jiaojiao?"
Yun Jiao shook her head and mumbled softly, "I’m awake."
After her face was washed, she patted her little cheeks and started to wake up properly.
By the time her hair was combed, she was wide awake.
"Dad, when are we going to the market? Is Mom coming too?"
Yun Linhai replied, "Everyone is going except for your grandpa and Grandma."
With so many children to watch, they wouldn’t feel safe with too few adults.
Yun Jiao only needed a little tidying up to look neat and pretty. Shen Yunlian held her, marveling at how precious she was.
’Their Jiaojiao was so beautiful. She would definitely grow up to be a great beauty.’
"Let’s go~"
Even though it was a small town, it was packed with people on market day, and the entire place was bustling with excitement.
There were especially large numbers of vendors selling all sorts of seafood.
There were also other small stalls, and even someone selling popsicles.
The moment Yun Xiaowu and the others heard someone shouting, "Popsicles for sale!" they perked right up. They immediately pestered the adults for one and began eating them with glee.
First, they went to the temple to offer incense and make donations to Mazu and the other immortals.
Coastal folk mostly all worship Mazu. Yun Jiao took the one-yuan coin her dad handed her and put it in the donation box.
They also donated one yuan to the Dragon King.
A one-yuan donation was a lot of money back then. Yun Linhai only decided to give that much because of his recent good fortune with his sea shipments, gritting his teeth as he parted with the money.
In the temple, even the rowdy boys were on their best behavior.
After they finished making donations and offering incense, Shen Yunlian and the other adults needed to go buy household necessities.
Yun Xiaowu’s eyes darted around, and he pulled his eldest and second-eldest brothers aside.
"Dad, Mom, Uncle, Auntie, you all can go. Eldest Brother, Second Brother, Third Brother, and Fourth Brother are all here to watch us. We’ll just go wander around over there."
Kids love to play, so Yun Linhai and the others didn’t suspect a thing.
"Don’t run off. Meet back here in an hour."
"No problem!"
After the four adults left, Yun Chendong and Yun Chenxi finally asked, "What are you guys up to?"
Yun Xiaowu grinned mischievously and took out the items they had been carrying.
They had each carried some of the items separately, so when they put them all together, the quantity was quite impressive.
That morning, they had also gotten some more of the things Yun Chenbei usually made in his spare time.
"We’re going to sell them."
"Let’s go, let’s go! First, we need to check the prices for this kind of stuff."
Yun Chendong and Yun Chenxi let them do their thing, as long as they didn’t run off and get into trouble.
After finding out the going rate for similar toys, they found a spot, spread a few newspapers on the ground, and arranged the various toys and pretty trinkets on top.
Yun Chenbei fretted, "Can we really sell these?"
He squatted beside his brothers, trying to make himself inconspicuous.
Yun Jiao said, "If we can’t sell them, we can just take them back. If other people don’t like them, I do! The things Fourth Brother makes are the prettiest!"
Yun Jiao took a small seashell hair clip and fastened it in her hair.
The little clip was adorable. Yun Chenbei had used his own allowance to buy some plain hair clips, then he’d picked out nice little seashells and stones to glue onto them.
"What a cute hair clip! How much are they?"
Two girls walked up to their little stall, their eyes fixed on the hair clip in Yun Jiao’s hair.
Yun Xiaoqi held up two fingers: "Twenty cents each."
’He had bought the plain clips for only ten cents for a set of two or three,’ Yun Chenbei thought.
The clips themselves were just thin pieces of metal, so they weren’t expensive.
But decorated clips sold for a bit more.
Yun Xiaoqi had noticed that even clips decorated with cheap-looking fake flowers or a bit of braided yarn sold for ten or twenty cents each.
Theirs were much prettier, so he was confident he could sell them for twenty cents.
Sure enough, the two girls squatted down to look at the clips and absolutely loved them.
"Okay, I’ll take four."
After some careful picking, they took four of the hair clips.
After they left, Yun Jiao and her brothers high-fived.
’Hehe... we sold them!’
Yun Chenbei was still in a daze.
’Just like that... they sold?’
’And for twenty cents each, no less!’
Yun Chendong and the other older brothers were also surprised.
The hair clips were just the beginning. After that, more people started stopping by one after another.
It was mostly girls.
The young girls, wanting to look pretty, were drawn to the beautiful hair clips, bracelets, and hair ties.
The little boys, on the other hand, were more interested in the wooden carvings.
This was because Yun Chenbei’s carvings weren’t just lifelike; they also had simple moving parts.
For example, the limbs on his carved rabbits could move back and forth.
"This wind chime is gorgeous."
A fashionably dressed woman stopped in front of their stall and picked up the largest wind chime.
Shells of various colors were interwoven in a staggered pattern, with the whole piece spiraling downward.
When the wind blew, they would clink together and make a pleasant sound.
"How much for this one?"
Yun Xiaoqi replied, "That one’s three yuan."
’His little brother was really making an outrageous demand!’ Yun Chenbei thought.
Yun Xiaoqi was young, but he was incredibly clever and had a silver tongue.
"We went all the way to the beach to find these beautiful shells, and we spent a long time carefully picking out only the very prettiest ones to make this..."
Yun Xiaoqi’s sales pitch was so over-the-top that Yun Chenbei, who was standing behind him, hid behind his two older brothers. Being so thin-skinned, his face turned bright red.
Thanks to Yun Xiaoqi’s gift of gab, he actually managed to sell the wind chime for three yuan.
The other brothers’ eyes went wide. The way they looked at Yun Xiaoqi had completely changed.
Yun Xiaowu clapped him on the shoulder.
"Little Seven, I always knew you liked to trail after me, but I never knew you had this kind of talent!"
Yun Jiao hadn’t expected it either.
She had only suggested they give it a try, but she’d accidentally discovered Yun Xiaoqi’s hidden talent.
’If he wasn’t born to do business, then who was?’
They were so caught up in selling their wares that they completely lost track of time. Before long, the four adults were searching everywhere for the children.
Thankfully, their group was easy to spot. There were a lot of them, they were all good-looking, and it was especially easy to get directions by asking about Yun Jiao—nearly everyone they asked had seen her.
As it so happened, they learned the children’s exact location from the very woman who had bought the wind chime.
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