Chapter 8: The First Guest
Chapter 8 Repeat Customers
Looking at the white man walking towards him, Yang Wendong felt a little uncomfortable.
"Are you also from the hawker management team?" The white woman walked over and spoke in fluent Cantonese.
"No." Yang Wendong said quickly: "We are just vendors here."
The white woman then said, "Can you help me take this person to the hospital?"
"Go to the hospital?" Yang Wendong glanced at the middle-aged man who had just been beaten and now stood up with the help of his daughter.
The white woman added, "He's seriously injured, maybe broken, he needs to go to the hospital."
"No, I don't want to go to the hospital." The person who was beaten also heard the conversation not far away, and hurriedly limped over and said.
The white woman said, "Why? Your internal organs might be injured."
The middle-aged man shook his head, endured the severe pain in his body, and said: "I don't even have the money to pay the management fee, how can I get the money to go to the hospital? If I had money, I wouldn't have been beaten."
The white woman said, "I can pay for you, don't worry."
Yang Wendong remained silent. He felt sorry for the father and daughter, but he could do nothing about it. There were so many pitiful people like this in Hong Kong society.
If he had really died of the flu, it would not be certain whether Su Yiyi and her daughter would be able to stay in the dormitory, and the situation might not be much better in the future.
However, after hearing what the female foreigner said, he couldn't help but take a closer look. He actually met a foreigner who likes to help others.
"No, I won't go." The middle-aged man refused without even thinking.
The white woman frowned and said, "If you have internal injuries, you might die."
The middle-aged man shook his head and said, “If you really want to help me, buy something to eat for my daughter. She hasn’t had enough to eat for a long time.”
"Okay, this is a little gift from me." The white woman finally did not force him and handed him a 5-dollar bill. The latter thanked her and left.
Yang Wendong did not say anything. Seeing that the matter was over, he was about to leave, but the white woman stopped him and asked, "Wait, you said you were a vendor here?"
"Yes." Yang Wendong nodded.
The white woman observed for a while and said with a hint of doubt: "I always feel that you look different from others."
Yang Wendong asked: "What's the difference?"
"I can't tell you." The white woman didn't think much about it. She looked at the remaining mousetrap in the basket next to Yang Wendong and asked, "What is this?"
"Rat catcher? Do you want one?" Yang Wendong asked in full compliance with professional ethics.
The white woman looked at it and seemed not to understand, so she asked, "How does this thing catch mice?"
"It's like this." Seeing that the foreigner in front of him seemed a little interested, Yang Wendong immediately began to introduce him.
After listening for a while, the white woman understood what was going on and said, "It's a very clever structure. It won't hurt people like a mousetrap, and it doesn't require you to take out the dead or injured mice after catching them like a mouse cage."
Yang Wendong smiled and said, "Yes, if you take away the wood chip, the mouse corpse will fall out. It's very simple. You can even directly throw it away together with the mousetrap. It's very cheap, only 5 cents." In recent days, Yang Wendong has finally been able to get access to a lot of information from the outside world in this vegetable market because he can find a lot of old newspapers.
Although he does not recognize many individual traditional Chinese characters, he can understand most of them when they are combined into sentences.
Therefore, he also had some understanding of Hong Kong in 1958, for example, the average salary in Hong Kong was HK$80 per month.
It’s just that in any society, most people are averaged out. An ordinary person in Hong Kong, working hard for 12 hours a day, may only earn a little over $1.
Another group of high-income people, such as the British, earn hundreds or thousands of dollars a month.
5 cents is not a lot for an average Chinese family, but they are reluctant to waste it. But for a British foreigner, it is just like an ordinary worker in later generations buying a lollipop.
"It's really convenient. Rats are so annoying." The white woman nodded and said, "Then I'll buy two too. If they're useful, I'll come back to you next time."
"Okay." Yang Wendong smiled. When doing business, he would not let go of any small customer. Today, in addition to the 200 that Abiao needed, he also brought some more, hoping to sell a little more.
After all, even the 30 yuan earned from A Biao can only make life a little better for himself and others.
He still very much lacks money.
The days of setting up stalls are still going on. Although I can't make much money, most people in Hong Kong today live in poor conditions. People living around the East Market are often troubled by rats. If they see cheap rat traps, some people will still buy some.
Yang Wendong, Zhao Liming and others managed to earn some basic living expenses by setting up stalls.
At Yang Wendong's request, Su Yiyi also stopped the embroidery work that was hurting her eyes and followed him to set up the stall, while Zhao Liming was alone in the dormitory, making mousetraps.
One day, Yang Wendong and Yiyi were chatting while setting up their stall.
Su Yiyi smiled and said, "Brother Dong, what you said is true. Many people have made the same mouse traps as us, but they didn't set up stalls. They just sold them inside the dormitory or in crowded places."
Yang Wendong said: "Well, it's normal. To do business in the market, you have to spend money, and you have to be able to convince others to buy. Not everyone has this ability."
In fact, some people may have tried it, but gave up on the first day.
For most people who have stable jobs or even part-time jobs, starting a small business is a high threshold that they cannot overcome.
It looks simple, but in reality it is much more difficult than hard labor or even mental work.
However, if successful, the benefits will naturally be high, just like Yang Wendong now, whose income is basically much higher than that of a laborer, which also makes his living standard relatively better than before.
"Well, we sold a lot today. In the evening, I want to buy half a chicken so that Mom can eat better." Su Yiyi said.
"Okay." Yang Wendong agreed.
Although funds are still scarce now, we don't have to save so much that we just don't starve to death every day. We still have to eat something a little better occasionally.
At this moment, an acquaintance came over. It was the white woman from a few days ago. She came to Yang Wendong and said, "Hello, I want to buy some more of your stuff, the rat catcher."
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(End of this chapter)