Chapter 43: Helping Mom Sell Tofu

  Qiu Ye first went to the bank and deposited all the money into her passbook, of course, when she got there, she received a basket of white eyes from the bank staff, because she came to deposit money ten minutes before noon, and most of the money she brought was small change, the bank staff still had to wait for their shift to end, this time they would have to be late.

  Qiu Ye stood outside the counter, her eyes scanning the place with a mixture of disdain and boredom, ignoring the flirtatious glances from inside. She thought to herself, "If they have time to flirt, I'll just finish counting my money." Little did she know, bank employees can multitask and count money while flirting.

  It's better to have a professional count the money, after counting for over an hour herself, three staff members finished it in ten minutes. She thought to herself while waiting outside, if there were more staff members counting, wouldn't it be even faster? It ended up making her stand outside for ten minutes.

  Qiu Ye checked the numbers on the deposit slip and then put it in her backpack. She went out to look for her mother.

  From a distance, she saw her mother smiling and weighing tofu for an old lady. Qiu Ye hurried up and called out sweetly, "Mom."

  Qiu's mother saw her old daughter coming, and quickly looked at her hands to see if she was carrying anything. Seeing that both hands were empty, she let out a sigh of relief, thinking it was good that the child hadn't bought anything impulsively this time.

  "What are you doing here? You should be staying at home!" Qiu's mother scowled, asking her daughter. Whenever her daughter made that face, it was always up to no good.

  "Mom, I'm here to gain experience." Qiu Ye continued to act cute.

  Qiu's mother raised an eyebrow and looked at the girl, meaning hurry up and clarify things.

  "Mom, aren't all the schools on holiday now? My little stall can't be opened." Qiu Ye hugged her mom's arm and started acting coquettishly.

  "Alright, stay at home and calm down, by September you'll be obediently going to school for me." Mrs. Qiu thought to herself, this trick won't work today. Besides, she really hoped her own child wouldn't do those things anymore, there were adults like them who earned money, if only her daughter could be like a little kid, playing every day would be great, now it's all about money, three sentences can't get away from money, the whole thing is just about losing money, and even her son has been led astray by her daughter.

  As a parent, she is never satisfied. Before Qiu Ye's rebirth, her mother was thinking about when this child would understand things and stop fooling around every day. Now that Qiu Ye has become sensible, she feels that the child should play more instead.

  "Mom, I'll definitely be going to school in September, no need for you to mention it. My grades are not something you need to worry about either, my godfather said that I'm absolutely a genius. Now, what I want to do is make the most of this last bit of free time and do something meaningful, help share some of the family's burdens with dad and mom. After all, I am also a part of this family, seeing dad and mom working so hard every day makes me and my brother feel very sad."

  "So, I was thinking, can you make a few more tofu boards in the next few days? I'll go sell them at the market too." Qiu Ye started to ramble on and on, finally getting to her point. She thought to herself, it's really hard to ask for favors, and she had to put on a smiling face to coax her mom into understanding.

  "You also want to sell tofu? Shall we sell it together here?" Old Lady Qiu asked with a puzzled expression, but in her heart she thought, "Isn't this like taking off one's pants and farting, what a waste of effort!"

  Qiu Ye was about to say no, when an old man came to buy tofu. Qiu Ye hurriedly put on a welcoming face, "Old grandpa, do you want to buy tofu? How much do you want to buy? Do you like to eat the edges or not? Look, I'll weigh it high for you, next time you buy tofu, be sure to come to my mom's place to buy it."

  Qiu Ye finally made the old man happy serving him, and he said he would come to her place again tomorrow to buy tofu, and then he left with a big smile on his face carrying the tofu.

  Qiu's mother watched her daughter's performance and nodded secretly in her heart, this girl is really good at doing business. In fact, she didn't know that the service industry in later generations basically followed this path, treating customers as gods.

  Qiu Ye turned her face and continued to say to her mother: "Mom, I'm not selling here, I want to go with my brother to the Xizhai market to sell."

  "So far, you two kids go, I'm not at ease." Qiu's mother originally didn't agree with the children going out to set up a stall. Now that she heard the girl wanted to go so far away to sell tofu, she was even more displeased. This trip would take at least an hour on foot for the two kids.

  "It's okay, mom. Look, my brother is even taller than you now. At first glance, people might think he's an adult. What's there to worry about?" Qiu Ye didn't say that she was looking at her brother from behind. If she looked at him from the front, she would see a face full of youthful awkwardness. No matter how hard kids try to act like adults, they can't pull it off. Just like her, no matter how hard she tries to act cute and innocent, she still can't pass as a kid. When people look at her brother, they know he's just a kid, but when they look at her, they can't guess her age.

  "That won't work either, I don't have the energy to make tofu all day, you'd better just stay on your own side." Qiu Ma had made up her mind today, she couldn't let the girl get her way.

  Qiu Ye saw that her mother was not convinced, so she didn't say much more. Anyway, there were still several days left, and somehow she would be able to wear her mother down. After all, it's said that no parent can outsmart their child, and under Qiu Ye's tactics, her mother would eventually give in.

  Then, Qiu Ye really helped her mother sell tofu with a peace of mind. She let her mother sit and rest beside her, while she stood at the stall and started calling out to customers. Qiu Ye always thought that the saying "good wine needs no bush" was nonsense. Everything is the same, if you don't advertise, it's impossible to become famous, so she believed that selling things should be done by calling out.

  "Take a look, take a look! Qiu's tofu, frozen tofu, full weight, honest deal, no cheating of the young and old!" Qiu Ye shouted without any guilt. Now eighty percent of those doing business are like this, but they are all ashamed to express it, only knowing how to do it but not say it. Her work experience from past lives told her that wouldn't work, if you did something yourself but didn't speak out about it, who would know?

  Qiu's mother was shouted at by her daughter, and she couldn't lift her head in the back. This dead child, what is she blindly shouting about? Doesn't she see that she's the only one making a big fuss in this entire market? Isn't she ashamed?

  But Qiu Ye's shouting was also very effective, aren't Chinese people fond of gathering around excitement? In the entire market, there was only this one kid calling out for sales, how could it not attract people? So shortly after Qiu Ye finished shouting, several middle-aged women carrying baskets came over, first looking at the kid and then looking at the stall to see if they really had frozen tofu, curiously asking: "Hey, little girl, you really have frozen tofu, how many refrigerators do you have at home, can freeze so much tofu?"

  Nowadays, there are also households with refrigerators, but they are extremely rare. In the building where Qiu Ye's family lives, including her godfather's house, only three families have a refrigerator. That's why this woman has such doubts.

  "Yes, Auntie, we have a big freezer at home and these frozen tofu are all made by ourselves and then frozen. They're absolutely clean and delicious. Do you want to take a pound back home to try?" Qiu Ye didn't tell the truth, it's better if fewer people know about this, who knows if someone will get jealous of their own family, if they find out that Dad is using the public freezer to freeze his own tofu, that would be a big deal. Although some people do put their own things in the freezer during normal times, everyone just pretends not to notice, but if someone really makes trouble, Dad would really be in the wrong.

  "Oh my, this kid's got a silver tongue! I'm almost an old lady now, and he still calls me auntie. Alright, you've convinced me with your sweet talk, so I'll buy two catties of frozen tofu. If it tastes good, I'll come back to buy more next time." The middle-aged woman was delighted by Qiu Ye's term of endearment and immediately weighed out two catties of frozen tofu for him.

  Several women watching the excitement nearby also bought some, and since it's summer now, frozen tofu is indeed rare, so they each ordered a few kilograms.

  Newcomers to the market, seeing so many people gathered here, thought there was something exciting to see and also came closer. As a result, Qiu Ye's business didn't stop all morning, and before 12 o'clock, all the frozen tofu and water tofu were sold out.

  When Qiu Ye was packing up, a woman selling bean sprouts next to her said to Qiu's mother: "Your daughter is really talented, just this short period of time and all your tofu has been sold out. And my bean sprouts have also been sold more than usual. You should bring your daughter here often in the future, let me benefit from it too."

  Qiu's mother said modestly, "Nonsense, it's just kids messing around, and coincidentally there are a lot of people at the market today. She doesn't have that kind of skill." In fact, she was delighted in her heart, as no mother dislikes hearing others praise their child.

  Then, Qiu's mother proudly led Qiu Ye, pushing the cart back home.

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