When entering the room, the aroma of food assailed the nostrils. Liu Yun was just bringing a large plate to the table, filled to the brim with pork ribs, and some radish and mushrooms mixed in the soup. Just looking at it made one’s mouth water.
Hearing the door open, Liu Yun immediately turned her head and greeted Chen Yuanming with a smile, “Dou Dou, you’re finally here. I was just saying to let Mao Mao go… Oh my, what happened to your clothes? Where are you hurt?!”
At a glance she saw the boy’s dirty knees and the dark red bloodstains on his schoolbag strap. Liu Yun nervously walked over, pulled Chen Yuanming close, and examined him carefully.
“Don’t mention it. When I went, Dou Dou was surrounded by several classmates about to be beaten!” Sun Lang chimed in from the side.
“The injury on his head was caused by those guys. I don’t even know how many times this has happened!”
“How can they do this?!” Liu Yun became angry as soon as she heard. “Did you tell your mom? Let her go find the homeroom teacher!”
“Auntie, it’s really nothing this time.” Chen Yuanming gave an awkward smile and declined. “Besides, it’s winter break now. It’s not worth bothering about…”
“You child are just too quiet! If you were like Er Mao, how would you be bullied…” Thinking of Chen Yuanming’s family situation, Liu Yun couldn’t help but sigh.
This child was good in every way, but his parents cared too much about face. When the kids in the courtyard played rough as children, as long as it reached Chen Jianhua, he would beat his son first without a word. Eventually, no one dared to play with him.
She ran to get a wet towel, patted and brushed off the dust, and pressed Chen Yuanming onto a stool. “Eat first. You’re just too thin. If you were stronger, how would they dare bully you!”
On the table were two dishes and a soup, with a bowl of snowy white rice in front of each person. It looked appetizing.
Sun Lang had already picked up a piece of pork rib with his chopsticks and stuffed it into Chen Yuanming’s bowl. “Exactly! No one at school dares to mess with me!”
“Auntie will also be knitting gloves at home during this time. How about you come to Auntie’s house for winter break, Dou Dou, and study and do homework with Mao Mao…”
Liu Yun also picked up a chopstickful of cabbage stewed with vermicelli and stuffed it into Chen Yuanming’s bowl, and the pile of food immediately towered up. “By the way, how many points did you score on this final exam?”
“679 points, seventh in the class.” Chen Yuanming took two fierce mouthfuls of rice and saved the precarious pile of food back to a balance.
“How many?!” Sun Lang spat out the rice in his mouth and looked at Chen Yuanming in shock. At this time, L City still used the local hundred-point unified exam papers, with a total score of 700 for seven subjects.
“Only twenty points short and still seventh in the class?!!! How can Three Middle School be so insane? Our school’s top scorer only got over 680 points!”
“You’re one to talk. How many points did you score for top fifty in the school!” Liu Yun glared at her son without courtesy, then turned to Chen Yuanming and smiled. “Really, when you come here, also help Mao Mao with his homework. Auntie is worried to death.”
Looking at Liu Yun’s warm smile, how could Chen Yuanming not understand? Sun Lang’s father was the branch factory director at the factory.
Sun Lang was supposed to attend a university in the city and be arranged directly into the factory after graduation.
With the admission scores of the few high schools in L City, it was no problem for Sun Lang to get into high school and attend a local university.
To put it plainly, all this talk was just worry that he would be bullied again, and letting Sun Lang help shield him.
But no one understood future developments better than Chen Yuanming. Three years of high school plus four years of university, and by graduation it would be the peak of State-Owned Enterprise layoffs.
By then, State-Owned Enterprise would have long lost their glory, with countless bankruptcies and restructurings.
If one only had a third-rate university diploma, how could one be competitive? Since the other party cared so much about him, he should naturally return the favor…
Swallowing the mouthful of food, Chen Yuanming revealed a big smile. “Sure, Auntie. I’ll tutor Second Brother’s homework. If I can find high school textbooks, I can also try to help Second Brother review.”
Hearing this, both people opposite were stunned. Sun Lang’s face immediately twisted into a knot. “Dou Dou, are you serious?! This is winter break!”
“So what if it’s winter break!” Liu Yun cut off her son’s complaint with a slap, but she immediately relaxed. No parent would dislike good grades, and killing two birds with one stone was even better, right?
“Auntie will go ask the other neighbors. We can always find a few high school textbooks. Your Second Brother will be counting entirely on you!”
“Don’t say that, Auntie. Second Brother’s grades are already pretty good.” Chen Yuanming ignored someone opposite making eyes and gestures, and replied with a smile.
Then he remembered another thing. “By the way… isn’t Uncle working at the branch factory office? I wonder if he could help me find some newspapers? It doesn’t matter if they’re outdated. I’d quite like to read the newspaper…”
“Oh, that’s easy!” Although she was a bit curious why a child wanted to read newspapers, this stuff wasn’t anything rare. Liu Yun agreed immediately. “I’ll just tell your Uncle. The newspapers in their office are all picked up and sold by the gate guards. What a waste!”
Just like that, with chatting and joking, the meal was quite enjoyable. After the meal, she sent her son off to wash the dishes, and Liu Yun took out a pair of coffee-colored gloves from the cabinet and handed them to Chen Yuanming.
“These were developed by me and your sister… Dou Dou, take a look…” Liu Yun handed the gloves to Chen Yuanming nervously, looking at him eagerly, as if completely forgetting that he was only a 15-year-old child.
He pinched the yarn of the gloves. Genuine fine wool, soft and comfortable, not too prickly. The five fingers were knit very evenly, and a few simple stripes were crocheted on the back of the hand.
The color combination was also beautiful. Chen Yuanming took one and put it on his hand.
His hands were a bit larger than the average middle school student, with long knuckles, making the glove look somewhat small, but the warmth from the wool was impeccable.
He casually dug a pen out of his schoolbag and tested it briefly. The finger spacing was neither loose nor tight, and the exquisite workmanship did not look like a product from a handmade workshop at all.
“This is great!” Chen Yuanming took off the glove with sincere admiration. “The workmanship is beyond words. But Auntie, how much time does it take you to make one pair of these gloves?”
“Will this work? It doesn’t take much time. One pair is about two or three hours, I guess?” Liu Yun’s eyes shone with excitement.
“Later, your sister and I will coordinate and divide the work. I’ll do the fine work, she’ll do the back of the hand, and it might be even faster.”
“Two or three hours…” Chen Yuanming frowned slightly. This was a bit longer than he expected. After thinking for a while, he pinched the glove again.
“What if the yarn is knit looser? Not so many stitches, about two-thirds of this density.”
“That might be a little faster, but it won’t save much yarn…”
“It’s not about the yarn.” Chen Yuanming smiled.
“No matter what you’re selling, you have to first create tiers. If this kind has color and fine stitching, you should add another kind with simple colors and slightly rougher stitching, to give customers room to choose. That’s how things sell better. Also, look here…”
Chen Yuanming turned the glove over and pointed underneath.
“Auntie, you could get some satin cloth like a trademark, embroider a simple pattern, and then sew it in with a sewing machine. Then you can say it’s a big brand product from Shanghai.”
“Then… isn’t that cheating?” Liu Yun asked back, somewhat dazed. These days people didn’t have a deep brand awareness yet. They simply didn’t identify branded goods when wearing clothes, and wouldn’t even think of these questions.
“This is called marketing strategy.” Chen Yuanming was in no hurry and explained slowly.
“Auntie, think about it. These days, who doesn’t prize things from Beijing and Shanghai? Taking them out is a matter of face, right? Our product isn’t too rare, but packaging can make it high-end. Once it’s high-end, the price goes up too…”
“Then~~ then how much should we sell it for?” Liu Yun hesitated again. “These gloves use little yarn. The cost for one pair is just a few mao, right? Plus the trademark you mentioned, selling for three yuan, what do you think…”
“Sell the exquisite kind for eight yuan, and the ordinary kind for five yuan.” Chen Yuanming answered decisively. “Make most of them women’s styles. The more snug, the better. For men’s styles, just make the ordinary kind, knit a bit larger.”
Liu Yun was completely stunned. You have to know, at this time a wool sweater was only 100 or 200 yuan, and a monthly salary was only around 100! A pair of gloves daring to go for this much, could they even sell?
“Don’t worry.” Looking at Liu Yun’s expression, Chen Yuanming smiled. “Auntie, trust me. With so much effort spent, I can’t let you lose money.”
After saying that, he thought for a moment, then dug a notebook out of his schoolbag and hastily drew simple patterns of cartoon characters like Kitty Cat, Winnie the pooh, and snoopy on the paper.
He had never studied drawing, so the few drawings looked crooked, but in Liu Yun’s eyes, these patterns were quite novel and cute.
“These are all foreign big brand styles. If we can find a way to knit them onto the gloves, that would be great. With these patterns, we won’t have to worry about sales. But first, let’s agree: make fewer of the exquisite ones with patterns, and more of the simple ones without patterns.”
Looking at the drawings in front of her and listening to Chen Yuanming’s methodical explanation, Liu Yun gradually calmed down.
Thinking of the profit from each pair of gloves, her heart immediately burned hot. “Okay! Auntie will listen to you. This time we’ll give it a try!”
That day they discussed many details about sales, and in the end Sun Lang personally rode his bike to send the person back.
Although he got home later than last time, the outstanding final exam results clearly offset everything.
His parents also showed a slightly arrogant pride about him helping Sun Lang with homework during winter break, without a single objection.
Lying on the still cold and hard wooden board, Chen Yuanming pulled up the cotton quilt and closed his eyes in the cold wind seeping through the window cracks. A dreamless night.