Chapter 258 - 255: Stocking Up 1
Liu Da led the two of them toward the guesthouse. He told them it was run by locals and no one would dare cause trouble there, but he also warned them not to trust people too easily.
Li Xiangyang nodded and said, "Uncle Da, we’ll leave it to you to make the arrangements."
Upon arriving at the guesthouse, Liu Da greeted the owner familiarly, "Boss Peng, I’m back again."
"Brother Liu, welcome, welcome." The owner told him there were only two guest rooms left.
Liu Da nodded and booked the rooms. He told the owner their vehicle would be arriving in Yangcheng City in a day or two and asked him to keep two rooms reserved for them.
The owner readily agreed and led the three of them to the guest rooms on the second floor. He told Lin Lan and Li Xiangyang that the bathroom and hot water were in the room at the end of the hall.
Lin Lan saw that the guest room door had a hasp, which was convenient for travelers there on buying trips, as they could use their own padlock to lock the door when they went out.
Inside the room were two single beds with a desk between them, upon which sat two thermoses.
Behind the door was a triangular washstand holding two porcelain basins, but no towels.
Lin Lan took out her towel and quickly washed up. Just then, Li Xiangyang and Liu Da came over, and the three of them went downstairs together.
Liu Da borrowed the owner’s phone to get in touch with his contact. They arranged to meet at the warehouse at six the next morning.
After eating at the guesthouse restaurant, Lin Lan and Li Xiangyang grabbed some bags and followed Liu Da to the night market.
Most of the stalls at the night market were sheltered under large awnings. An electric wire was strung across each stall, with a single large light bulb hanging from it for illumination.
Unlike the outdated styles and drab colors found in the department stores, the clothes here were vibrant and fashionable.
There were also some simple roadside stalls—just a large wooden board placed on top of boxes, piled high with clothes.
A stall owner held up an item and shouted at the top of his lungs, "Come take a look, come pick one out! One-fifty a piece! Everything’s one-fifty a piece!"
Each vendor tried to outshout the next. Unless you were standing right in front of them, it was impossible to hear clearly over the roar of the crowd.
Lin Lan saw some customers carrying large bags who didn’t even bother to look closely at the merchandise. They would just grab a bundle, count the items, pay, and immediately move on to the next stall.
Liu Da said to the pair, "I don’t know anything about clothes. You two can decide what to stock up on."
"I don’t get it either. It’s all making my head spin," Li Xiangyang said, gripping Lin Lan’s hand tightly, afraid she’d be swept away by the crowd. "Little Lan, which styles look good to you?"
"Let’s take our time," Lin Lan said. "We’ll pick out items with better fabric and more fashionable styles."
’I don’t want to sell that kind of low-quality street stall stuff,’ Lin Lan thought, feeling a bit overwhelmed. After looking at a few stalls, she still hadn’t found any fabrics or styles she liked. ’It’s not just that it lacks class; all the back-and-forth trips to restock would be exhausting for very little profit.’
As the three of them slowly made their way forward, two young men in wide bell-bottoms and curly, permed hair pushed their way toward them.
Li Xiangyang pulled Lin Lan between himself and Liu Da, shielding her as they continued on. The two curly-haired men followed them for a few minutes, but seeing no opportunity, they spotted a new target, gave up, and began tailing someone else.
Lin Lan said in a low voice, "Those two were pickpockets."
Li Xiangyang smiled. "You noticed, huh?"
Lin Lan nodded. "You can spot their type a mile away."
After walking for another ten minutes or so, Li Xiangyang pointed to some bell-bottoms hanging at a stall up ahead. "What do you think of those?"
Lin Lan nodded. "The style looks good. Let’s go take a look at the fabric."
The three of them walked up to the stall, where they saw pants in two colors laid out on the wooden board: black and navy blue.
Lin Lan picked up a pair to examine. They weren’t the extra-wide kind of bell-bottoms, and the fabric felt pretty good. She turned them inside out to check the workmanship—the stitching was tight, the overall quality was decent, and the pockets were large.
The round-faced proprietress, seeing their large bag, called out to them, "Just got this blended fabric in. Feel how nicely it drapes! Are you buying wholesale or retail?"
Lin Lan replied, "Wholesale!"
The proprietress glanced at the three of them. "Three yuan a pair for wholesale, with a three-pair minimum."
"Two-fifty," Lin Lan countered. "And I’ll take two ’hands’ of each color."
Seeing that Lin Lan was buying two full size runs, the proprietress nodded. "Deal. What waist sizes do you need?"
Lin Lan looked at her and asked, "What waist sizes do you carry?"
The proprietress smiled. "The men’s sizes run from a 2.1-chi waist to a 2.6-chi waist. The women’s go from 1.8 to 2.4 chi."
’Lin Lan recalled the clothing store that used to be behind her parents’ stall. Every year, around the 28th or 29th of the twelfth lunar month, the shop would be almost completely sold out.’
’Later, a friend in the clothing business told her that business had been incredible in those years. Sometimes, even the clothes the staff set aside for themselves were snatched up by customers.’
She thought for a moment, then said, "Give me four pairs each of sizes 2.1, 2.5, and 2.6 chi, and five pairs each of 2.2 and 2.4. I’ll take the same assortment for the women’s sizes."
’It wasn’t like it would be thirty or forty years later, when most men would have waist sizes of 2.6 or 2.7 chi. In this era, people were generally slimmer, with most waistlines falling between 2.2 and 2.4 chi.’
’People who wore larger sizes were either well-off enough not to worry about their next meal, or they just had the kind of metabolism that meant they’d get fat from drinking plain water.’
"You got it!" the proprietress said, turning to shout an order to the young woman helping her before immediately turning her attention to other customers.
The young woman pulled the stock from a large bag in the back. After counting out the items by size, she said to Lin Lan, "Boss, please take a look. I’ll bundle them up for you."
Li Xiangyang bent down and counted them. "It’s all correct."
The young woman tied the bundle with a rope, placed it in the sack Li Xiangyang was holding open, and then started writing out a receipt.
Lin Lan took the receipt, paid the young woman with money from her waist pouch, and the three of them continued on their way, carrying the new sack of goods.
They visited two more stalls and bought some straight-leg pants. After passing a few more, they spotted a stall that was wholesaling Western-style suits and Zhongshan suits.
The suits, both Western and Zhongshan style, were ironed perfectly straight and hung from a makeshift rack constructed of lashed-together wooden poles. They looked crisp and well-structured.
The Zhongshan suits had mandarin collars, and the Western-style suits were all single-breasted with two buttons.
Lin Lan felt the fabric and saw that the suits were lined. The lining material felt decent as well. They came in navy blue, dark cyan, and black.
The owner glanced at the large bag Li Xiangyang was carrying and said, "Boss, take a look. Latest style of woolen suits, just came in."
"What’s the wholesale price?" Lin Lan asked.
The owner replied, "Eighteen for a full size run."
Lin Lan shook her head. "Too expensive. This isn’t pure wool, it’s a blend. Fifteen. If you’ll sell at that price, I’ll take a full run of each color, plus an extra of the middle sizes."
Liu Da shot Lin Lan a surprised glance. ’He couldn’t believe she had just lowballed the man by three yuan right off the bat. The owner would never agree to that.’
The owner gritted his teeth and put on a pained expression, as if he were taking a huge loss. "Fine. Since you’re buying in bulk, I’ll sell them to you at that price."
As before, Lin Lan requested an assortment with one fewer of the smallest and largest sizes and one extra of the middle sizes.
The owner then pointed to the suit trousers and straight-leg pants at his stall. "Boss, have a look. My pants are half-lined. I guarantee you’ll be able to sell them for a premium."
As he spoke, the owner turned a pair of pants inside out and spread them on the stall. "Look at this workmanship. See how tight the stitching is? Even the loose threads have been trimmed perfectly clean."
Lin Lan asked for the price. They were a yuan more expensive than the bell-bottoms. She decided to buy a selection of the suit trousers and straight-leg pants to pair with the Western and Zhongshan suits.