Chapter 34: Online Shopping?

Chapter 34: Chapter 34: Online Shopping?

That afternoon, while picking vegetables at Sister-in-law Liu’s stall, the corners of Yun Zhen’s lips were curled upward in a constant smile.

Li Mei couldn’t help but ask, "Did something good happen? Tell me so I can be happy for you."

Yun Zhen didn’t hide it. "I made six Lazy Sheep crochet dolls last night, and I sold all of them this afternoon for sixty bucks a piece."

"You made six in one night?" Li Mei exclaimed in surprise. "You definitely deserve that money!"

In reality, Yun Zhen had only made one. The other five were crocheted through the combined efforts of the ten people she had taught.

Hearing this, Sister-in-law Liu couldn’t help but praise her as well. "Yun Zhen, you’re so smart and hardworking. Oh, if my child were even half as diligent as you, I wouldn’t be this exhausted all the time."

Yun Zhen blushed at the compliment, but she was genuinely thrilled.

Li Mei asked, "Have you decided to keep doing this from now on? Where did you buy your raw materials?"

"As long as it makes money, I’ll keep doing it," Yun Zhen replied. "There’s a ten-buck store up ahead that sells the materials. It’s forty-two bucks a pack."

Li Mei thought about it for a moment. "There’s a ton of raw materials online for just twenty-something bucks, and one pack can make over a dozen five-inch dolls."

She wondered, "Online?"

She had heard this word again. Confused, she asked, "Where is ’online’?"

Li Mei paused. Realizing that Yun Zhen’s background likely meant she had never been exposed to the internet, she pulled out her smartphone. "I love hunting for bargains on Pinxixi. The stuff on there is practical and cheap, and it’s not a bit worse than what you’d find on other platforms.

"Look, a pack of crochet materials online comes in forty-seven colors and can make eleven to thirteen dolls.

"It’s only twenty-something bucks a pack. That’s much cheaper than physical stores."

Li Mei then went on to explain the various uses of the internet to Yun Zhen. To Yun Zhen, it sounded like she was listening to a foreign language, but she tried her best to absorb the core concepts of what Li Mei was saying.

The glowing slab in Li Mei’s hand displayed many types of crochet materials. The red text underneath them was probably the prices, though she couldn’t read the numbers yet.

"If I buy it online, how do I go and pick it up?" she asked.

"There are dedicated couriers who will deliver the items to a nearby package station," Li Mei answered. "When the time comes, you just match your pickup code to get your package."

Staring into Yun Zhen’s confused eyes, Li Mei spoke earnestly. "Let me tell you, making money is important, but right now, the most crucial thing for you is to learn how to use the internet. For ordinary people like us, the internet is the only way to understand the outside world.

"If you want to grow quickly, you have to learn what the internet is used for, and online shopping is the simplest, most practical first step."

She tapped into her saved items and ordered a case of yogurt. "See? It’s that convenient. When the package arrives, they’ll notify you of where to go pick it up."

Amazed and envious, Yun Zhen pulled out her own basic communicator. "Mine doesn’t seem able to do this."

A wave of sympathy welled up in Li Mei’s heart. "Online shopping only works on smartphones."

Sister-in-law Liu bagged up some vegetables for a customer, then turned her head to say, "There’s no rush, Yun Zhen. Wait until you come of age in a year. The organization will buy you a smartphone for your future work needs. It won’t be too late for you to get in touch with the internet then."

Li Mei nodded in agreement. "That’s right. Sister Zhang’s Charity Organization is the most famous philanthropic enterprise in the local area. It’s been on the news quite a few times. Not only do they take in adult women with poor working abilities and homeless minors to help you find jobs once you’re of age, but they also provide an adulthood fund, and a phone is part of that package."

Ever since discovering that a girl from the charity organization was working nearby, Li Mei had specifically looked up Sister Zhang’s Charity Organization. It was a highly reputable philanthropic enterprise backed by many local socialites and celebrities.

Moved, Yun Zhen nodded. "I understand. Thank you both for telling me this."

"If you trust me," Li Mei offered, "I can help you buy the crochet materials online. They usually arrive in two or three days."

Yun Zhen’s face lit up with joy. "Really? I’ll give you the money, and you can buy them online for me."

"I’m just helping out where I can," Li Mei said with a nod. She took out her phone, tapped the screen a few times, and brought up a list of crochet materials. "Which ones do you need? I’ll place the order now, and it might even arrive by tomorrow afternoon."

Yun Zhen carefully browsed the options and picked out fifty bucks’ worth of materials. She handed over the wages she had earned from working at the restaurant at noon to Li Mei. "Here is fifty. Thank you for the trouble."

Li Mei accepted the money and placed the order. "It’s no trouble at all. It only takes a second."

After her shift ended, Yun Zhen carried the leftover vegetable leaves Sister-in-law Liu had given her and took her sixty bucks in wages, heading back to her neighborhood to do some major shopping.

Today’s income:

Eighty-nine bucks from collecting scrap.

Fifty cents leftover from yesterday.

Three hundred and sixty bucks from selling six crochet dolls.

Fifty bucks from working at the restaurant, which was given to Li Mei to buy crochet materials online.

Remaining balance: four hundred and forty-nine bucks and fifty cents.

She thought, "Oh my god! That’s such a huge sum of money!" and couldn’t help but cover her mouth.

She pondered for a moment. The village wasn’t lacking food right now—the rice porridge was currently enough to feed them. What they lacked was winter clothing to fend off the cold.

She began wandering around the neighborhood.

The clothes sold in the actual shops looked incredibly expensive at first glance, so she focused her attention on the street stalls. A ready-made garment cost fifty or sixty bucks, and the absolute cheapest was twenty. She did some quick mental math. There were one hundred and thirty people in the village. Even excluding her family of four, who already had the clothes gifted by Sister Huang, the money in her hands was far from enough to buy a padded cotton coat for everyone else.

Ensuring that everyone in the village was fully fed and warmly dressed was still a long and arduous journey!

After careful consideration, Yun Zhen decided to buy fifty catties of raw cotton. At six bucks a catty, three hundred bucks were instantly gone. When she brought this cotton back, she could have Aunt Cui Lan and the others sew it into the linings of their old clothes. That would allow forty to fifty people to have warm padded coats. She needed to prioritize the warmth of the children and the elderly first. As for the young and able-bodied, she would just have to buy them clothes once she had more money.

Yun Zhen buried her face in her hands. Money really did disappear quickly!

With some of the remaining funds, she bought fifty catties of rice.

"Warm cotton socks on sale! Forty cents a pair!"

Yun Zhen looked toward the source of the voice. A large crowd was clamoring around a stall selling winter coats, where a massive pile of socks sat on display. It turned out the cotton socks were heavily discounted.

Even if she couldn’t buy everyone a winter coat, buying everyone a pair of socks would at least keep their feet from freezing.

Yun Zhen grabbed a pair of the cotton socks and felt the inside. They were fuzzy, thick, and very warm. "Boss, are these cotton socks really forty cents a pair?"

The stall owner nodded. "Honest business, no tricks! These thick, heavy cotton socks are only forty cents a pair today. I have no choice—I’ve got too much inventory piled up at home and need to clear it out. They were originally a buck fifty a pair, but now I’m selling them at rock-bottom prices. How many pairs do you want, miss?"

"I want one hundred and thirty pairs. Do you have that much in stock?" Yun Zhen slipped her hand into one of the socks. It was soft, plush, and incredibly warm, with the exact same texture as a thick cotton quilt. She knew this was quality merchandise.

The stall owner jumped in shock, thinking he had misheard. "Miss, you really want that many?"

Yun Zhen nodded firmly. "Yes. I need thirty pairs that can fit five- or six-year-old children, and the rest in adult sizes!"

"Alright, I’ll bag them up for you."

The owner counted them out right in front of Yun Zhen. "One, two, three, four... fifty..."

He counted all the way to one hundred and thirty, panting heavily from the effort by the time he finished. "Here you go, miss. That’s a total of fifty-two bucks!"

Yun Zhen paid the money.

She now had forty-seven bucks and fifty cents remaining.

She found a two-dollar-style discount store and bought two twenty-buck packs of thirty-two-color crochet materials, along with two crochet pattern blueprints for five bucks. The blueprints featured detailed tutorials for over a dozen crochet dolls of different styles and colors.

If she could finish making ten crochet dolls tonight, she would have another huge sum of money coming in tomorrow.

In the end, she had two bucks and fifty cents left, which she decided not to spend.

After eating dinner at the cafeteria, she returned to her dorm room and gathered all her newly purchased items together. Then, she chanted in her mind, "Go back!"