CHAPTER 206: CHAPTER 206: SELLING POPSICLES

Lin Xiang sighed heavily, "Dong, it’s not that I don’t want to help, but if your parents aren’t willing, I can’t just decide for you."

Dong Sheng grunted, "Sister Niu, I’m not a three-year-old that you can trick. My parents treat your words like gospel; whatever you say, they’ll definitely listen!"

Even if they don’t agree at first, Dong Sheng firmly believed that if Lin Xiang mentioned it a few more times, his parents would definitely allow him to sell ice cream bars!

Lin Xiang: "..."

She really wanted to give this little brat a good whack.

"I observed the effectiveness of the cooler yesterday. Selling ice cream in the village is feasible, but the problem is, the rural areas are far from town. Just the round trip would take several hours, and with such a heavy cooler on your back, can you handle it physically?"

"Moreover, with the weather so hot, what if you get heatstroke selling ice cream in the scorching sun? We have to consider these issues."

Dong Sheng was silent, just staring fixedly at Lin Xiang.

He knew that since Sister Niu had suggested selling ice cream and even bought the cooler, she surely had a way to solve this problem!

As long as he kept pressing, Sister Niu would definitely relent!

Lin Xiang reached out and gave Dong Sheng a rough head rub, "Little brat, only knows how to exploit me!"

"That’s because I know Sister Niu has the best ideas, and I love listening to you the most."

Lin Xiang snorted coldly, but still ended up giving Dong Sheng some advice, "I’ve thought about it carefully, and selling in the countryside is a bit inconvenient unless you have a bicycle. But if you can’t sell in the countryside, you can sell in the city."

"Mianyang Town has only one ice pop factory, and only the store in front of the factory sells ice cream bars. Those who live nearby can buy every day, but those who live far away have to travel a great distance just to eat an ice cream bar, which is quite tiring. So you can take the ice cream and sell it to other residential areas."

With every sentence Lin Xiang spoke, Dong Sheng’s eyes lit up a bit more.

"Yes, yes, I’m not afraid of the hard work! Sister Niu, take me to get the ice cream bars now!"

He yelled so loudly that Fifth Uncle and Fifth Aunt heard it.

The two exchanged glances, with a look of difficulty in their eyes.

"Niu, I think maybe we shouldn’t let Dong Sheng sell ice cream bars, constantly running back and forth to the countryside. I’m afraid he’ll get heatstroke."

Though the family wasn’t wealthy, they weren’t lacking in the money Dong Sheng could earn, and the child’s health was the most important.

Dong Sheng stood straight and proud beside Lin Xiang, as if immensely proud, "Mom, the issues you’re worried about, Sister Niu has already considered! So she said, I don’t need to run to the villages, just sell in the city."

"But you don’t know the city’s roads, what if you get lost?"

"There’s a mouth right below my nose, if I can’t find the way, can’t I just ask someone for directions? Mom, you have to trust me, I can do this!"

Fifth Aunt was still a bit hesitant.

Frankly, having lived in the countryside all her life, she had a natural awe of city people, feeling as though they were not on the same level as rural folks, and thus worried Dong Sheng would be taken advantage of or bullied.

However, Dong Sheng’s desire to earn money was too strong, and in the end, it was Fifth Uncle who decided to let Dong Sheng try.

So, Lin Xiang took Dong Sheng to the ice pop factory.

"Coming to get ice so early today?" The boss greeted Lin Xiang warmly, "Some have already been frozen, I’ll get them for you."

"Boss, we’ll get the ice in the afternoon; we’re here to buy ice cream bars in bulk."

Since they had only one large box, the boss didn’t ask any questions and directly counted out 150 ice cream bars.

Lin Xiang only wanted 120 ice cream bars and added 30 ice creams.

"Boss, if we buy a lot of ice creams in bulk, can you give us a discount on the price?"

"As per the rules, if you buy 50 ice creams, it’s 9 cents each, and for 100, it’s 8 cents each. Since your grilled fish is delicious, I’ll let you have it at 9 cents per 50. But tonight’s grilled fish has to be a big one."

"Deal." The boss was straightforward, and naturally, Lin Xiang was too, "Today I’ll also send you ten spicy shrimp and a bowl of noodles."

"Let’s negotiate, I’ll take the ice cream bars in two batches, 120 now, and at least 150 this afternoon. Can you drop the price a bit more?"

"Sure, if you take more than 200 bars, I’ll give them to you for 2 cents each."

"So what if I take 300?"

"Anything over 200, regardless of how much, will still be 2 cents each."

His wholesale price was 1.8 cents; dropping more would mean giving Lin Xiang the factory price, leaving him with no profit! No matter how good the grilled fish, he couldn’t go against money!

Knowing this was the boss’s bottom line, Lin Xiang didn’t insist further.

She paid for the 150 ice cream bars and ice creams at the price of 2 cents and 9 cents each.

"I’ll come to pick up the rest when I get the ice blocks in the afternoon."

Since the boss knew where Lin Xiang’s stall was, he wasn’t worried she wouldn’t pay.

After leaving the ice pop factory, Lin Xiang handed Dong Sheng a hand-drawn map of Mianyang Town.

"If you go this way, you’ll reach the residential area of the cotton spinning factory. The cotton spinning factory now has the highest income in Mianyang Town, so people there should be willing to spend money. Additionally, over here is the residential area for Jinggong Steel Factory; their wages are high too..."

Dong Sheng slung the cooler strap over his shoulder and patted his chest, promising Lin Xiang, "Sister Niu, just wait and see, I’ll definitely sell all the ice cream bars!"

One hundred and fifty, just the residential area of the cotton spinning factory could consume all of them.

And since Dong Sheng was quite clever, Lin Xiang wasn’t worried they wouldn’t sell.

But she hadn’t expected Dong Sheng to be so fast.

"You sold them all in under an hour?"

"Yeah!" Dong Sheng wiped the sweat from his face with the handkerchief handed to him by Fifth Aunt, "Sis, when I got to the residential area of the cotton spinning factory, the security guard stopped me. I gave each of them an ice cream, said a few kind words, and repeatedly promised not to rush in, then they let me in and even lent me their loudspeaker."

With the loudspeaker, Dong Sheng didn’t go far, just stayed where the guards could see him, loudly shouting about selling ice cream and popsicles using the loudspeaker.

The kids from upstairs ran down in a hurry.

"City folks are really rich; they don’t even blink at ice creams costing a dime and buy several at once."

Spending several dimes in one go made Dong Sheng envious and sad.

Before his family started selling spicy noodles, they couldn’t even earn several dimes throughout the year, and every penny at home had to be used sparingly.

But city kids, they just spent it so freely.

You really can’t compare people with people.

Hearing Dong Sheng say this, Lin Xiang was quite worried about his mindset.