CHAPTER 410: CHAPTER 105: JINGXI AGRICULTURAL MARKET (PART 2)

After parking the car, the uncle driving pulled out the keys and disappeared without a trace. Well, that was expected; it was a rental for a day after all. We can’t expect him to both drive and help shout out sales.

Zhuo Feng and Xiao Xian stood blankly beside their sweet potato cart, unsure of what to do next.

"Shall we follow the vendor across the street and yell out to attract customers?" Xiao Xian suggested, pointing to a woman selling free-range chickens about ten meters away.

The woman, a quintessential rural farmwife with sun-reddened cheeks and wearing a faded floral shirt, was loudly promoting her goods with a basket of eggs and several chicken coops: "Selling free-range chickens and eggs, come take a look at these fresh Miyun eggs!"

An elderly woman who seemed to have been out for a morning exercise walked by. She was a veteran in buying poultry and could easily spot the difference between farm-raised chickens and those fed on commercial feed. She asked the farmwife to pick a smaller chicken with golden Ma Huang feathers.

The elderly lady weighed the chicken, noting its smaller size typical of free-range chickens that roam the mountains—they’re not fat like the feed-raised ones.

She then examined its plumage. The color of a free-range chicken is more vibrant because they feed on insects and pebbles, unlike those fed with flavored feed.

"That’s a real deal, and perfect for making chicken soup for my grandson. I’ll take this one," she said, and without waiting for the farmwife to brag, a few other knowledgeable customers quickly grabbed the other plump chickens. Soon, most of the chickens in the cage were sold.

"How about we do something similar, let’s spread a few sweet potatoes on the ground. Stacked on the cart, others can’t really tell," Zhuo Feng suggested. She climbed onto the cart, picked out a few sweet potatoes she thought looked best, and neatly arranged them in a row on the ground.

Groups of people buying chickens and ducks passed by without glancing at the sweet potatoes on the ground. A few onlookers noticed the conspicuously out-of-place Zhuo Feng and Xiao Xian in the crowd, giving them looks that clearly said: "Where did these two come from, don’t block the way."

"Xiao Xian, why don’t you try calling out?" Zhuo Feng thought, even the scent of wine fears the depths of lanes—they are new faces at the market, and it’s normal for regulars to hesitate buying their sweet potatoes. Who knows if these are faulty, and the sellers might disappear tomorrow.

"Shout? Auntie, you better do it. I’ve been feeling weak recently, can’t raise my voice," Xiao Xian made an excuse.

"Then I’ll do it," Zhuo Feng decided, puffing up her chest and tucking in her stomach, she blurted out a long rehearsed line: "#@%￥&%".

Xiao Xian listened but couldn’t make out what Zhuo Feng, with her mosquito-like voice, had said.

"Come, take a look, rock-bottom prices! Potatoes only 0.8 yuan per half kilo," chanted the neighbors—two burly men from the northeast selling potatoes, one waving a red plastic bag and the other shouting through a megaphone.

Zhuo Feng’s feeble voice was immediately drowned out.

An hour passed, and most of the morning exercisers who came to shop had left. On Zhuo Feng and Xiao Xian’s stall, the number of sweet potatoes hadn’t changed.

The potato sellers nearby started counting their money, and the farmwife selling chickens and eggs was almost ready to pack up.

Just then, a new customer arrived, challenging the authenticity of the farmwife’s eggs, demanding a lower price.

The straightforward farmwife didn’t waste words explaining. She pulled a bowl from her weighing bag, took an egg, and cracked it open.

The thick, golden yolk, enveloped in clear egg white, flowed into the bowl. The yolk was large and a rich, authentic golden color. She shook the bowl slightly, and the viscous egg liquid swirled around inside.

"Can’t be fake, definitely free-range," said the Northeastern man who had just finished selling his potatoes. He quickly took out thirty yuan from his proceeds and bought all the remaining eggs before the skeptical customer could react, who cursed and turned away.

Zhuo Feng watched and admired the tactic. True gold is not afraid of fire; too bad they were selling sweet potatoes, not eggs, and couldn’t apply the same strategy immediately.

Xiao Xian also noticed the effectiveness of the demonstration. She grabbed a sweet potato off the ground and ran to one of the nearby free water faucets.

In the blink of an eye, Xiao Xian returned with a clean, shiny, and exceptionally fresh-looking sweet potato.

"Uncle, can we borrow your loudspeaker," Xiao Xian, unapologetic, borrowed the megaphone from the two men from Shandong.

Having stood around for over an hour, Zhuo Feng and Xiao Xian were finally ready to step up their efforts. The surrounding vendors, including the chicken-selling farmwife, paused their activities and waited to see how Xiao Xian would market their sweet potatoes.

"Auntie, you handle the shouting. Just say they’re authentic sugar-heart sweet potatoes, try before you buy, no sweetness, no money," Xiao Xian came up with the sales pitch. Zhuo Feng thought it sounded more like selling watermelons, but desperate times called for desperate measures. If they couldn’t sell these sweet potatoes, it would mean their hard work of half a year would rot in the ground.

Thinking of Feng Xing, who was still digging up sweet potatoes in the field, Zhuo Feng rubbed her nose, threw caution to the wind, blushed deeply, and shouted loudly: "For sale, for sale, sugar-heart sweet potatoes, not sweet, no money needed!" Just as she finished, a crisp "click-clack" sound was heard from the intrigued onlookers.

**

Today’s third watch, with one more update to come.

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