CH 19

Chapter 19 – Taobao

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Su Qin forgot that at this time, Li Chuan was still studying for a Ph.D and hadn’t joined the workforce yet, so he certainly didn’t own a car and bicycle was his only means of transportation.

The man is adept in cycling which is more stable than driving a car.

The old city district’s streets in 2006 were dilapidated while the houses were ramshackle and crowded. At this hour, the roadside stalls for supper had already set out.

Li Chuan drove her around through the streets and alleys. Looking at those fragrant snacks, Su Qin actually began to drool.

Ten years later, this old city district will cease to exist, as will the old-time street snacks like the caramelized hawthorns, steamed pork bun wrapped in leaves, cold dips, cold jelly and others.

Truly miss the snacks of this era.

As if he knew what she was thinking, Li Chuan stopped in front of a stall.

With the slim Su Qin sitting on the bicycle, the man pushed and walked ahead for a while.

Seeing him get off the bicycle, Su Qin wanted to leap down too but was stopped by the man, “Don’t get off but sit tight. There’s water puddles below.”

Only then did she notice there were puddles under the bicycle’s wheels and Li Chuan was treading on it. Recalling that he is somewhat mysophobia, an inexplicable sense of guilt rose up in Su Qin’s heart.

Li Chuan pushed the bicycle to a street peddler. The girl then jumped down, straightened her clothes and stood behind him.

“This stall’s cold jelly is good, want to try it?” Li Chuan turned his head and asked her.

Su Qin didn’t want him to spend, yet looking at the bowl of cold jelly, she couldn’t help but swallow a mouthful of saliva before shaking her head.

Li Chuan was amused by the girl’s duplicity. He handed 3 yuan to the boss, “Two bowls of cold jelly please. Thanks.”

“Okay.” The boss started to prepare the cold jelly nimbly. Seeing how handsome Li Chuan was, the boss added a little more hawthorn and raisins.

The moment he took the bowls of cold jelly from the boss, Su Qin felt that she once again owed him a little more.

The old-fashioned street lamps were dim. Standing at the roadside eating cold jelly, the two of them were like a harmonious scene of a brother bringing his little sister out to look for a late-night snack.

When Su Qin was with Li Chuan in the previous lifetime, he was already a mature man, who attired impeccably every day with some obligations. He had never stood by the street to slurp street snacks like cold jelly with her.

This is the first time.

On a summer night, eating a bowl of cold jelly when the mouth was parched really swept away the day’s fatigue. Su Qin took a few mouthfuls of the cold jelly and secretly looked up at Li Chuan but was caught by the man’s gaze, and their eyes met.

Getting caught head-on, Su Qin’s face blushed inexplicably and she quickly lowered her head.

Tsk. Her thirty-something soul actually blushed at Teacher Li who is in his early twenties? This is irrational.

But a handsome grown boy with long legs, taking a girl out to eat cold jelly by the roadside, was indeed rather teasing. If she is truly a young girl, she might really have a crush on him.

After finishing the cold jelly, Li Chuan drove her to continue the journey.

The boss waved farewell to them, “Little brother, come often ah, I’ll give you discounts!”

“Okay.” Li Chuan didn’t look back. Holding the handlebar with one hand, he waved goodbye to the boss.

On the way home, the two didn’t talk much. Apart from studies, they didn’t know what else to talk about. Nearing Su Qin’s neighborhood, Li Chuan suddenly opened his mouth and said, “Su Qin.”

“En?”

“You’re 16. Girls your age have a lot on their minds. You can talk to me if you have problems in the future.”

The man’s tone was like a father educating his daughter.

She was still lamenting inwardly that Li Chuan sounded mature when his next sentence almost made Su Qin choked on her saliva.

Li Chuan paused for a moment and added, “Do you know why,  I was able to get good grades in high school and even skip grades?”

“En?”

Could there still be some specific secret to this?

Li Chuan said, “When the students around followed the trend of puppy love, I devoted all my attention to studies.”

Su Qin is not stupid, so how could she not understand the meaning of his words?

Teacher Li was trying to educate and guide her. He was telling her that puppy love was a hindrance to her studies and that it would affect her dreams.

__ But Teacher Li ah, how can I, an old aunt who is almost 40, fall in love with a child? You really think too much.

Since Su Qin had a handphone, she exchanged phone numbers with Li Chuan.

As Su Qin doesn’t have a high budget monthly mobile plan, she won’t take the initiative to call anyone and usually, it is others who call her.

Meng Sisi would call her every day to ask about her recent studies. And Li Chuan is usually busy with writing thesis in addition to his company matters and product research development, he seldom calls her and mostly just SMS her.

Every SMS is 10 cents a message and it is not convenient to type on the phone’s keypad, so Su Qin doesn’t reply to his SMS very often.

Li Chuan sent three, she replied one.

The following month, Su Qin’s livelihood was quite fulfilling.

Waking up at 5 every morning to cook, she began to memorize vocabs and essays. After breakfast, there was still an hour before work, she would use this time to dictate vocabs and essays.

At noon, she would also take out to recite the wordings.

Looking at her conscientious face, the lady boss sighed and said, “Qin’er ah, I know you are such a competent girl ah and you won’t stuck here. What’s the matter, are you planning to go abroad by memorizing words ah?”

Su Qin closed the book, lowered her head to take a mouthful of rice before shaking her head and said, “No, I plan to go to Yunyang High School.”

“Are you going back to high school ah? Even Yunyang High School?” Picking a piece of chicken thigh meat with the chopstick and put in her bowl, Chen Meixin said, “Qin’er, do you know how difficult it is to get into Yunzhong ah? If you get into their school, your life is regarded as half successful.”

“I will do my best in the exam.” Su Qin looked at her lady boss apologetically, “I’m sorry ah, Sister Chen. No matter if I can get into Yunzhong or not, I’ll go back to school. I don’t think I’ll be able to work here for too long.”

“You this Yatou[1], why are you apologizing for? Do you know how good my shop performance has been since you came? I calculated your salary this month, including commission, it’s almost 3200. That Myspace marketing of yours is doing well, so keep up the good work. Even if you don’t work in my shop anymore in the future, you can still continue to help me with Myspace. Photoshop I a bit, make my face smaller and my legs longer, so that I look like an international supermodel.”

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The lady boss’ words actually reminded her of the online marketing that was all the rage at the moment.

If she remembered correctly, 2006 will be a breakthrough for Taobao, which will soon become an indispensable basic necessity for the country.

It is rather suitable to set up a Taobao store at this time.

“Boss, have you considered … setting up a Taobao store? You don’t need to expand your shop as by then people from all over the country can buy our clothes. You have the means to purchase goods and have good taste in choosing styles, so you will definitely be able to establish yourself in Taobao.”

Chen Meixin had also found out about Taobao, where things there were cheap. She had bought stuff there, but she was clueless … about starting up a store.

Su Qin had sold her designed clothes on Taobao in her previous lifetime. She had invested 2 million and lost all of it. In that era, the competition was too great, and her own team was poached by her former partner which ultimately caused her store to cease in failure.

But she has experience in setting up Taobao and has a thorough understanding of online marketing.

Putting down the bowl and chopsticks, Su Qin grabbed the lady boss’ hand and said, “Sister Chen, you don’t have to worry about this. You can leave the online merchandise to me. However, I still need Sister Chen to be the model. Don’t worry, I will definitely photoshop you into a beauty! We only have two people in our shop now, there is no extra budget to hire models and art designers for the time being. You will be the model while I will do the artwork.”

Chen Meixin was shocked speechless by the little Yatou, “Qin’er, tell me, what else can’t you do? Aren’t you a bit too remarkable? But even if we have all these, what about the clientele, where do they come from?”

“You don’t have to worry about this. Leave it to me. I will be responsible for broadcasting and marketing.”

“Broadcasting?”

“Right, I will lure Myspace customers to Taobao, so that they don’t have to call us everyday to ask about the price and if there’s still stock, which they can see perfectly clear on Taobao. Once we have slowly accumulated our credibility on Taobao, more online buyers will notice our store. Of course, we can only facilitate buyers in the same city at the earlier stage. As for buyers elsewhere … we have to take it slowly and there’s no hurry. Sister Chen, I went online these days to understand Taobao’s development tendency. In the future, each of us is likely to have a Taobao account and will need to shop on Taobao. If we set up Taobao now, we will also make a fortune when Taobao thrives. Doing this business, we have to look forward and not just to the present.”

In this era, Taobao’s synonym is ‘low price’. Cameras are still only 5 million pixels and goods delivery is also difficult. Su Qin herself also knew that Taobao was actually not in its best period, but it didn’t matter since they have a retail shop, the Taobao store would just make do incidentally.

Doing Taobao now can be convenient for their accumulated Myspace customers, since they are doing it for their regulars.

The little girl seemed to know very well and Chen Meixin suddenly suspected that this girl was not a human being, but a god! Seems to know everything at such a young age.

At times like this, she could only sigh with emotion – children of the poor manage their household at an early age.

The application for the Taobao store was quickly done and Su Qin started to stock up.

Su Qin and Chen Meixin made use of the evening to take photos. In the week Taobao started, Su Qin almost had no time to study except in the morning.

On Monday, when Li Chuan tutored her in Nanjing University library, he found that she hadn’t made much progress and didn’t seem serious with self-study in the past week.

Li Chuan knew that she was under a lot of work pressure recently and was very tired too.

At such a time, even though Li Chuan couldn’t bear it, he still frowned and spoke harshly to her, “Su Qin, if you don’t want to study, you can choose not to. You can support yourself too by focusing on selling clothes, so why waste my time?”

“ … Teacher Li … I was wrong.” Acting cute and coquettishly, Su Qin raised two fingers and swore, “Next week, next week I will certainly let you see my progress.”

Since she was wrong in this matter, it was okay for Li Chuan to be angry.

Teacher Li’s eyebrows furrowed in a very unfriendly manner. She tugged at her own ears and sincerely admitted her mistake, “How about this Teacher Li, in order to punish me and make me remember, tonight, I will drive you home instead, okay?”

Li Chuan, “ ……. “ Wanting him to lose face?

Su Qin only sleeps 4 hours a day and spends all her time studying, as well as Taobao.

Because of her clear goals, she was like injected with chicken blood* everyday, even though she didn’t get enough sleep, she wasn’t sleepy at all during the day.

[T/N: 打了鸡血 (Dǎle jī xuè) – become excited/stimulated]

Two weeks later, the Taobao store ‘Yunyi Clothing House’ was officially launched.

When Chen Meixin switched on her Taobao store, she was really surprised to see the photos inside.

Every photo was exquisitely edited. Chen Meixin never knew that she actually has the potential to be a model?

Looking at these photos, Chen Meixin felt she was simply so beautiful that she confidently stuck her chest out and took a deep breath to hold her belly in.

She decided to lose some weight, perhaps she can really become a model?

Chen Meixin certainly is not stupid. She only believed half of Su Qin’s words.

This Taobao store is indeed convenient for the accumulated Myspace customers. Those customers can order online and pick it up at the retail shop themselves, which saves them from calling every day to ask about the price and whether there is any stock.

At this time, Chen Meixin looked down on Taobao and felt that those who set up Taobao stores were those whimsically unemployed.

[1] 丫头 (Yātou) – is now used to describe a ‘cute girl’, but it’s best to use this word only for young girl, especially those who are close to you — since it’s very informal.