Chapter 44: Sold
The arrival of Jiang Xia and Da Huang didn’t affect An Ning’s pace in the slightest.
After two laps around the village, An Guoming was trailing behind, gasping for air. He flopped onto the ground and struggled to hold up a hand.
"Sis..."
An Ning glanced back.
It looked like he truly couldn’t go on.
She had no choice but to offer a hand, haul An Guoming to his feet, and practically carry him back to the An family’s home.
At breakfast, An Guoming’s hand was trembling so much he could barely hold his chopsticks.
"Did you run on your hands?"
An Guoming slowly, stiffly, turned his neck. He wanted to argue with An Guoqing, but decided against it. Talking was too much effort.
After breakfast, An Guoming, Lin Cuihua, and Zhou Guifen stayed home to continue making the backpacks.
An Ning and the others went back to the fields.
The day passed uneventfully. An Ning earned the most work points, having spent the entire day working by the irrigation ditch.
When she came home that evening, she went back to studying her mechanical parts. In the An family, those who could help with the backpacks did so, while the others took care of household chores.
That day, An Guoming and the other two made ten backpacks—a respectable number.
Everyone was busy with their tasks in the courtyard, just like any other evening, until An Guoping came home.
"Dad—"
"Mom—"
At An Guoping’s two hoarse shouts, An Guoqing and An Ning rushed out of the courtyard, one grabbing a wooden stick and the other an iron rod.
"Big Brother, Sis, what are you two doing?"
Seeing the synchronized ferocity on their faces, An Guoping realized he must have caused a misunderstanding.
"It’s a misunderstanding! A misunderstanding! I wasn’t getting bullied."
An Guoping swore that after he said this, he saw disappointment in their eyes.
"Heh heh... next time I get in a fight, I’ll be sure to call you guys."
An Guoqing and An Ning turned and went back inside.
An Guoping rubbed his nose sheepishly and followed them inside, not daring to raise his voice this time.
"Dad, somebody wants to buy a backpack! He didn’t think it was expensive at all. I told him twenty yuan each, and he wants one by tomorrow."
"I really didn’t think we could actually sell them!"
As An Guoping muttered to himself, the others started peppering him with questions.
"Did you really sell one?"
"Twenty yuan? You made that clear?"
"Make sure you get the money."
An Guoping answered their questions one by one, explaining the situation to the An family.
The buyer was a classmate of his. Everyone in the kid’s family had a job—they were doctors, factory directors, that sort of thing. He was an only child, so their family was as well-off as they come.
"A few others were interested too, but they thought the price was too high and were hesitating."
The news from An Guoping immediately revitalized Lin Cuihua and the others. Though they had been exhausted from a long day’s work, they now felt they could make another two bags!
The sewing machine was moved into the kitchen. Working by dim light and eventually the beam of a flashlight, they wrapped things up for the night by completing two more bags.
These weren’t just backpacks anymore; they were forty yuan.
Lin Cuihua stroked the two backpacks lovingly. "Guoming," she asked, "how much profit do we make on each bag?"
"Well... we spent seventy-three yuan on all the fabric, and one hundred and twenty on the sewing machine."
After An Guoming finished, everyone immediately started doing the math.
They split into two main groups for the calculation: An Guoqing led the finger-counting contingent, while An Ning and An Guoping formed the faster group.
Regardless of the method, everyone figured it out.
With costs under two hundred yuan, they would break even after selling just ten bags.
As for labor costs, no one included them. In the eyes of country folk, their own labor didn’t count as a monetary expense.
"Oh my god, I need to sit down for a minute."
Lin Cuihua braced herself against the doorframe and slowly sank onto the threshold. They hadn’t even used a quarter of their fabric yet, and they’d already made thirteen backpacks.
In other words, they could make at least forty more, maybe even fifty.
Fifty bags... at twenty yuan each... that’s one... thousand?
The number made both Lin Cuihua and her eldest daughter-in-law feel weak in the knees, their hearts pounding erratically.
One thousand yuan!
To Lin Cuihua and the others, the shock was no less than hearing the sum of a million yuan today.
An Guoming was excited too, but perhaps because he had a natural gift for business, he was the first to recover. The excitement even seemed to counteract the exhaustion from his morning run.
’Apparently, making money really can cure anything.’
That night, everyone in the An family was too excited to sleep. Everyone, that is, except for An Ning.
「Early the next morning.」
"Sis... please, just let me sleep a little longer!"
"I can’t do it! I’m gonna die!"
An Guoming clung to the doorframe, refusing to let go, but An Ning gave him an uncompromising look.
"If you don’t go, I’m cutting you out of the business partnership."
"Let’s go, Sis! Don’t keep me from my workout!"
An Guoming shot to his feet. His willpower triumphed over his physical exhaustion. Gritting his teeth, he started to run without even needing a push from An Ning.
An Ning smiled smugly. ’So that’s how effective it is to know someone’s weakness.’
She followed behind An Guoming and, once again, ran into Jiang Xia and Da Huang.
Upon seeing An Ning, Jiang Xia intentionally picked up his pace. Da Huang shot An Ning a longing look, but ultimately, for the sake of his kibble, he followed his owner.
Jiang Xia shot Da Huang a look of utter disappointment. ’I gave you three bones yesterday!’
’Did they go to the dogs?!’
’Wait, they literally did.’
Secretly competing, Jiang Xia finished three laps in the time it took An Guoming and An Ning to complete just one.
Feeling rather pleased with himself, he held his head high and glanced back at An Ning smugly. Just then, An Ning raised her arm and pointed at something up ahead of him.
Jiang Xia didn’t understand. Thinking she was calling out to him, he waved and shouted triumphantly, "I’m ahea—HOLY SHIT!"
Jiang Xia hadn’t been watching where he was going, and Da Huang hadn’t warned him. He tripped over a stone and tumbled headfirst into a pile of grass on the side of the path.
An Ning jogged over at a leisurely pace and stopped in front of him.
"That green hat looks good on you."
Having delivered her critique, An Ning took off running. Behind her, an infuriated Jiang Xia scrambled out of the grass pile.
"Hey! Who’s wearing a green hat?! You make yourself clear!"
Jiang Xia caught up to An Ning in a few strides, determined to argue the point.
Those two words, "green hat," were something no man could tolerate.
An Ning stopped and looked at Jiang Xia, realizing her mistake. It couldn’t really be called a hat.
"I meant your head has some green on it."
The breath Jiang Xia had just let out in relief caught in his throat again.
"Don’t you know you can’t say a man is ’green’? You just can’t!"
An Ning genuinely didn’t understand. "Then what color do you prefer?" she asked with utter sincerity.
An Ning’s response left Jiang Xia so angry he was confused. ’Who’s talking about favorite colors?’
"You’re just mad because I’m faster than you, aren’t you?"
An Ning looked at him calmly, her eyes twinkling with amusement.
"Whatever makes you happy."
And with that, she was off again.
Jiang Xia pointed a trembling finger at her retreating back, his lips quivering. He wanted to yell for her to stop, but the words wouldn’t come out.
He clutched at his chest.
"She’s infuriating! This one’s a master at it!"
"Just you wait. Sooner or later, you’ll learn that I’m not to be trifled with!"
"WOOF! WOOF!"
Interrupted by Da Huang, Jiang Xia sighed in resignation. "I know, I know. You eat meat."