護花近衛 - 第105章 砍價好手 - 墨香閣

Ahead of the snack street lay a night market of general goods. Though it was called a night market, on weekends plenty of vendors set up their stalls in the daytime too, and it was every bit as bustling as the snack street here.

Wei Zhao had nothing to do—over there, Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu were eating to their hearts' content—so he headed toward the general-goods night market. Compared with the expensive brand-name shops in the department stores, Wei Zhao preferred the street stalls.

So long as one had a good eye and knew the tricks of haggling, one could buy clothes of novel design and sound quality at a street stall just the same.

"Heh—" Gazing at the familiar figure before him, Wei Zhao was caught somewhere between laughter and tears. It seemed he and she were truly fated to keep meeting.

As Wei Zhao drew near, Tang Yun was crouched in front of a stall selling girls' clothing, a dress in her hands, looking as though she liked it very much.

"Um... could you make it a little cheaper?" Tang Yun hesitated a while before asking the stall owner.

"Little girl, take a look—this is all top-grade fabric, and look at the workmanship, nothing to fault there. The style's the most popular of the year, too. If you put this in Pengzhan Department Store, you couldn't walk out with it for less than eight hundred or a thousand..." The stall owner held forth, spittle flying, as though his wares were the finest in all the world.

"This..." It was plain that Tang Yun was not much of a haggler. "But two hundred yuan is a bit too expensive..."

"Not expensive at all—look around, everything's gone up in price these days. The fabric, the labor, together it comes to more than two hundred. Two hundred was figured on my old wholesale price; now that wholesale prices have risen, once this batch is sold, I'll be raising my prices..." The stall owner went on singing the praises of his goods.

"I... I'm from the snack street over there... Could you make it a little cheaper? A little cheaper and I'll buy it..." Tang Yun gritted her teeth and revealed who she was.

"Oh? You run a stall on the snack street over there?" The stall owner glanced at Tang Yun, then said, "If you're a vendor over there, you should know even better. I work on small profits and quick turnover—how much can we night-market sellers really make? With so many stalls, who's undercutting whom? And every day there's tax to pay, management fees to the market—what's actually left over isn't much..."

"Ah?" Tang Yun looked weakly at the stall owner. She had said as much as she had, and he would not knock off a single cent? Could he have seen how much she liked the dress, and so refused to budge an inch? This man was truly hateful.

Wei Zhao shook his head. With Tang Yun's style of haggling, it would be a wonder if she got the price down. It looked as though he would have to help her out. Tang Yun's family circumstances were not good—Wei Zhao could see that much—so if he could save her some money, he naturally ought to.

"Hey, brother, you've got a stall here?" Wei Zhao walked over and clapped the stall owner warmly on the shoulder.

"Ah? Uh? You are...?" The stall owner looked at Wei Zhao, utterly baffled, having no idea who this might be.

"You've forgotten me? Last year the two of us went to pick up stock together—at Old Zhang's place," Wei Zhao said with a smile. "I used to run a stall at the night market south of the bridge."

"Oh, oh." Hearing this, the stall owner nodded in sudden understanding. "So it's you, little brother. No wonder you looked so familiar. How's it going? Business good lately?"

"Don't even mention it. Your sister-in-law's pregnant, and I'm home looking after her—when would I have time to run a stall? It's just that my sister finally came to visit these past couple of days, so I seized the chance to get out and wander around a bit." Wei Zhao crouched familiarly in front of the stall.