Chapter 6#

When he entered the house, the aroma of food filled the air. Liu Yun was placing a large plate on the table, filled with pork ribs, with some radishes 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, “Doudou, you’re finally here. I was just about to ask Maomao to… Oh my, what happened to your clothes? Where are you hurt?!”

Seeing the boy’s dirty knees and the dark red bloodstains on his schoolbag strap, Liu Yun walked over nervously and examined Chen Yuanming carefully.

“Don’t mention it. When I went, Doudou was being surrounded by a few classmates who were about to hit him!” Sun Lang chimed in from the side, “The injury on his head was caused by those guys. I don’t know how many times this has happened!”

“How can this be?!” Liu Yun was annoyed as soon as she heard this, “Did you tell your mom? Ask her to go to the head teacher!”

“Auntie, it’s really nothing this time.” With an awkward smile, Chen Yuanming demurred, “Besides, it’s winter vacation now, it’s not worth it for this matter…”

“You child are just too quiet! If you were like Er Mao, how could you be bullied…” Thinking of Chen Yuanming’s family situation, Liu Yun couldn’t help sighing. This child was good in every way, but his parents were too concerned about face. When the children in the courtyard fought in their childhood, as long as it was brought to Chen Jianhua’s attention, he would beat his son first without saying a word. In the end, no one dared to play with him anymore.

Running to get a wet towel, she patted and flicked off the dust, and pressed Chen Yuanming onto the stool, “Eat first. You’re just too thin. If you were a little stronger, how would they dare to bully you!”

There were two dishes and one soup on the table, and a bowl of white rice in front of each person. It looked so appetizing that Sun Lang had already picked up a piece of pork rib and put it in Chen Yuanming’s bowl, “That’s right! No one dares to mess with me at school!”

“Auntie will also be knitting gloves at home during this time. Why don’t you come to Auntie’s house for the winter vacation, Doudou? You can study and do homework with Maomao…” Liu Yun also picked up a piece of braised cabbage with vermicelli and put it in Chen Yuanming’s bowl, and the pile of vegetables immediately peaked, “By the way, what was your score in the final exam this time?”

“679 points, seventh in the class.” Chen Yuanming took two big mouthfuls of rice, saving the precarious pile of vegetables back to the balance line.

“How much?!” The rice in Sun Lang’s mouth sprayed out, and he looked at Chen Yuanming in shock. At this time, L City still used the local unified percentage exam paper, with a total score of 700 for seven subjects. “Only 20 points off and still seventh in the class?!!! How is No. 3 Middle School so perverted? The first in our whole school only got over 680 points!”

“You still say that, what score did you get in the top 50 of the whole school!” Liu Yun glared at her son unceremoniously, then turned to Chen Yuanming with a smile, “Really, you can also help Maomao with his homework when you come here. Auntie is so worried.”

Looking at Liu Yun’s warm smile, Chen Yuanming understood everything. Sun Lang’s father was the director of a branch factory. Sun Lang should go to a university in the city, and after graduation, he would be directly arranged to work in the factory. With the admission scores of the several high schools in L City, it was not a problem for Sun Lang to get into high school and a local university. To put it bluntly, these words were just worrying that he would be bullied by others again, and asking Sun Lang to help him block things.

But no one knew the future development better than Chen Yuanming. Three years of high school plus four years of university, and he would come out at the peak of layoffs in state-owned enterprises. At that time, state-owned enterprises were no longer glorious, and bankruptcies and transformations were countless. If he only had a third-rate university diploma, what competitiveness would he have? Since the other party was so concerned about him, he should naturally return the favor…

Swallowing the food in his mouth, Chen Yuanming showed a big smile, “Okay, 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 of them were stunned. Sun Lang’s face immediately twisted into a ball, “Doudou, are you serious?! This is winter vacation!”

“What’s wrong with winter vacation!” A slap interrupted her son’s complaint. Liu Yun was immediately relieved. No parent would dislike good grades. Wouldn’t it be better to kill two birds with one stone? “Auntie will ask other neighbors. I can always find a few high school textbooks. Your Second Brother is all counting on you!”

“Auntie, don’t say that. Second Brother’s grades are already good.” Chen Yuanming also ignored the winks from someone opposite and replied with a smile. Then he remembered another thing, “By the way… isn’t Uncle working in the branch factory office? I wonder if he can help me find some newspapers. It doesn’t matter if they are expired. I really want to read the newspaper…”

“Oh, that’s simple!” Although she was a little curious about what a child would read in the newspaper, this thing was not a rarity. Liu Yun agreed without hesitation, “I’ll just tell your uncle. The newspapers in their office are all picked up and sold by the gatekeeper. What a pity!”

In this way, they talked and laughed, and the meal was quite harmonious. After dinner, she sent her son to wash the dishes, and Liu Yun took out a pair of coffee-colored gloves from the cabinet and handed them to Chen Yuanming.

“This is what your sister and I came up with… Doudou, look…” She handed the gloves to Chen Yuanming nervously, looking at him eagerly, as if she had completely forgotten that he was just a 15-year-old child.

He pinched the yarn of the gloves. It was genuine fine wool, soft and comfortable, not too prickly. The five fingers were very evenly knitted, and there were a few simple stripes crocheted on the back of the hand. The color combination was also beautiful. Chen Yuanming put one on his hand. His hands were a little bigger than ordinary middle school students, and his knuckles were very long, which made the gloves look a little small, but the warmth from the wool was impeccable. He casually took out a pen from his schoolbag and tried it a few times. The finger spacing was not loose or tight, and the workmanship was so exquisite that it didn’t look like a product from a handmade workshop.

“This is great!” He praised sincerely and took off the gloves, “The workmanship is impeccable, but Auntie, how much effort does it take for you to make a pair of these gloves?”

“Is this okay? It doesn’t take much effort, about 2 or 3 hours for a pair?” Liu Yun’s eyes lit up with excitement, “When I cooperate with your sister later, I’ll do the fine work and she’ll do the back of the hand. It might be even faster.”

“2 or 3 hours…” Chen Yuanming frowned slightly. This was a little longer than he expected. After thinking for a while, he pinched the gloves again, “What if the yarn is knitted looser? Not too many stitches, about 2/3 of this density.”

“That might be a little faster, but it won’t save much yarn…”

“It’s not a problem of yarn.” Chen Yuanming smiled, “No matter what you buy, you have to create different grades first. If this one has color matching and delicate stitches, you should add another one with simple color matching and slightly rougher stitches to give customers a choice. Things will sell better that way. And look here…”

Chen Yuanming turned the glove over and pointed at the bottom, “Auntie, you can 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.”

“That… isn’t that cheating?” Liu Yun asked in a daze. People in these years didn’t have a deep brand awareness. They wouldn’t recognize brand-name clothes when they wore them, so they wouldn’t think of these problems at all.

“This is called a marketing strategy.” Chen Yuanming was not in a hurry and slowly explained to her, “Auntie, think about it. Who doesn’t like things from Beijing and Shanghai these days? It’s also a matter of face to wear them out. Our things are not too rare, but packaging can make them noble. Once things are noble, the price will go up…”

“Then~~ what’s a suitable price?” Liu Yun hesitated again, “These gloves use little yarn, and the cost of a pair is only a few cents. Plus the trademark you mentioned, what do you think of selling them for 3 yuan…”

“The exquisite ones sell for 8 yuan, and the ordinary ones for 5 yuan.” Chen Yuanming answered crisply, “Most of them are made in women’s styles, the closer to the hand the better. Men’s styles only need to be ordinary, knitted a little larger.”

Liu Yun was completely stunned. You know, at this time, a woolen sweater was only 100 or 200 yuan, and a month’s salary was only about 100 yuan! How could a pair of gloves be sold for so much? Would they sell?

“Don’t worry.” Looking at Liu Yun’s expression, Chen Yuanming smiled, “Auntie, trust me. You’ve put in so much effort, you can’t let yourself lose money.”

After thinking for a while, he took out a notebook from his schoolbag and roughly drew simple patterns of cartoon characters such as Kitty, Winnie the Pooh, and Snoopy on the paper. He had never learned to draw, and the few pictures looked crooked, but in Liu Yun’s eyes, these patterns were quite novel and cute.

“These are all foreign big brand styles. It would be great if we can find a way to knit them onto the gloves. With these patterns, we don’t have to worry about sales. But let’s say it first, 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 orderly narration, Liu Yun also slowly calmed down. The thought of the profit from each pair of gloves made her heart burn with excitement. “Okay! Auntie will listen to you. Let’s give it a try this time!”

That day, they discussed many details about sales, and finally Sun Lang personally rode his bike to send him back. Although it was later than the last time he got home, the excellent results of the final exam obviously offset everything. His parents also showed a little arrogant satisfaction about him helping Sun Lang with his homework during the winter vacation, without any objection. Lying on the still cold and hard wooden bed, Chen Yuanming pulled up the quilt and closed his eyes in the cold wind seeping through the window cracks. He had a dreamless night.