Chen Lishu took the clothes handed over by Section Chief Wang, unfolded them, and examined them carefully. The quality was acceptable, likely containing spandex for a slight stretch. However, the style was exceedingly plain. Finally, Chen Lishu’s gaze fell upon a line of small characters embroidered on the left chest pocket: [某某轧钢厂].
Seeing her eyes linger on the embroidered words, Section Chief Wang chuckled sheepishly, “It’s not very noticeable. It doesn’t affect wearing it at all.”
Indeed, it didn’t affect wearing it, but it certainly affected its appearance!
“Section Chief Wang, I run a shop and do business. This greatly impacts sales. I think we should forget it.”
Chen Lishu said this as she placed the clothes back. She was here to buy clothes, not to help him clear out old stock. She wouldn’t buy them even for ten yuan.
When Section Chief Wang heard she wasn’t buying, he immediately became anxious. “These were produced this year. They just sat for a while and got a bit dusty. The quality is fine. If you’re sincere about buying, I can discuss it with the leadership. For ten yuan, the steel rolling mill still ordered them at twelve yuan each before.”
Section Chief Wang was also troubled. The steel rolling mill’s performance wasn’t great. The two to three thousand short-sleeved shirts originally ordered for employees were suddenly rejected. With names printed on them, they were unwanted even by other factories. Giving them away was impossible, and the factory still had costs tied up. Even though the steel rolling mill had paid a deposit, they were still losing money, though the deposit was only a drop in the bucket compared to the costs.
Chen Lishu frowned. Judging by the dust, these were definitely not produced this year. For short-sleeved shirts of this quality, sold in her shop, they would fetch at most thirteen or fourteen yuan. And he was offering them for twelve? It seemed not a word of truth came from Section Chief Wang.
“How about seven yuan? I’ll take whatever you have.” Chen Lishu said, dusting off her hands.
Whatever she had?
“I have nearly three thousand pieces in total?”
Chen Lishu remained noncommittal.
“Alright, if you take them all and guarantee payment upfront, our factory will take a small loss and sell them for nine yuan each. What do you think?”
Chen Lishu shook her head. “I won’t pry into when exactly these were produced. There are words on them, and most people would find it off-putting and wouldn’t buy them. There’s no hope of selling them in the city. I can only transport them to the countryside to sell cheaply. Shipping and labor, every aspect costs money. At your price, I wouldn’t make a profit, I might even lose money. How about we just forget it?”
“Eight yuan, no lower. We just want to get rid of them. This price is rock bottom. Otherwise, we’d find trucks ourselves and sell them cheaply in the countryside, and they would still sell.”
After all, they were produced by a large factory. As long as the quality was good, people in the countryside would still buy them, even with a few words on them.
“That’s fine then.”
Section Chief Wang thought she had agreed, and before his smile could fully form, he heard Chen Lishu continue, “In that case, I won’t take them.”
Section Chief Wang: “……”
After a round of bargaining, Chen Lishu finally bought all over 2,800 short-sleeved shirts for seven yuan each, but she had to arrange for pickup herself. In Section Chief Wang’s words, it was already a losing deal, and they couldn’t afford to deliver them.
Chen Lishu paid the money and got the receipt. She then went back to fetch Liang Chunsheng to help her transport all the newly purchased goods to the rented warehouse.
“This, this is employee work attire, isn’t it? There are words on it. Can customers buy this?” Liang Chunsheng frowned as he looked at the words while unloading the goods.
“They definitely won’t sell well.” Sensing Liang Chunsheng’s doubt, Chen Lishu said truthfully, “But they are definitely cheap, only seven yuan each. We’ll process them ourselves and sell them for over ten yuan, which should be fine.”
Chen Lishu had already thought of this when buying them. The short-sleeved shirts were plain. All they needed to do was remove the chest pockets and then sew on some other embellishments. It should be unnoticeable.
After three trips back and forth with Liang Chunsheng, all the goods were finally transported back. Both of them were quite exhausted.
Seeing that it was getting late, they went to a nearby restaurant for lunch. Liang Chunsheng returned to the shop, while Chen Lishu went to the underground market by the river.
It couldn’t really be called an underground market anymore, as it had been legalized. As long as vendors paid their stall fees on time, the urban management wouldn’t chase them away like before.
Dong Ji'an now had his own fixed stall. Because his goods were novel and attractive, his business was quite good. Seeing Chen Lishu arrive, he greeted her with a smile, “Comrade Chen, you haven’t been here in a while.”
“Mm.” Chen Lishu nodded, her gaze falling on the goods displayed on the stall.
“Still looking for beads? I recently got some new styles.” Dong Ji’an said, taking out a few from a packet and showing them to Chen Lishu.
Chen Lishu took them and glanced at them. They were indeed more attractive than the previous organic beads. One type was small, rice-sized white beads, and the other was bean-sized red round beads. The two paired together were quite pleasing to the eye, but not quite suitable for decorating her newly purchased batch of clothes.
Chen Lishu returned the beads and then her eyes lit up when she saw something sparkling on another side—sequins!
This item would appear on many clothes later on. In the next few years, jackets with sequins were even popular for a time.
“How much are these sequins?”
Dong Ji’an quickly replied, “Fifty cents a packet.”
Chen Lishu looked at the paper packet in her hand, which was about the size of her palm, and thought the price was quite reasonable. She readily bought ten packets. As she was leaving, she hesitated for a moment, then spent ten yuan to buy some of the red and white beads she had just seen.
After returning home, Chen Lishu took out the newly bought clothes. She first removed the chest pockets, then used a pen to sketch a simple small flower where the stitching had been, and finally used sequins to form a flower pattern along the drawn lines.
After finishing, Chen Lishu examined the clothes carefully and was quite satisfied. However, she felt the overall effect was still a bit too monotonous. So, she picked up the pen again and drew a few simple lines at the collar.
Once everything was done, Chen Lishu nodded with satisfaction.
…
Meanwhile, on the other side, Zhao Hong and Jin Kun were having a heated argument.
“Why quit a good job without even telling me?”
When she learned that Jin Kun had applied for a leave of absence from the factory, Zhao Hong was so angry she smashed the cup in her hand.
A sharp glint flashed in Jin Kun’s eyes. “I already told you before, but you didn’t agree, did you?”
He was a formal worker at a meat processing plant, earning over forty yuan a month – a job others scrambled to get. He had applied for a leave of absence just like that. Zhao Hong shouted, “I didn’t agree, yet you went and applied for leave. What exactly do you mean?”
Jin Kun took a deep drag of his cigarette and stubbed out the butt in the small iron box in front of him, which served as an ashtray. “It’s already done. What’s the point of talking about it now?”