Chapter 659: Chapter 658: The Great Shuttlecock Selling Campaign
Lin Nianhe was a man of action. Once the decision was made, he organized the village children to start making shuttlecocks.
The task was simple and there weren’t many chicken feathers to begin with. Moreover, most children in the village had so “skills,” so in one morning, they turned these feathers from waste into treasure, producing over a hundred beautiful shuttlecocks.
The students were divided into five groups by class and went to sell at the Cooperative Society, the Vegetable Station, the Grain Station, and outside the gates of two factories, overseen by the teachers who had not yet returned ho.
The teachers weren’t responsible for selling, only for watching the children.
Lin Nianhe, with warming patches all over himself and wrapped up in a military coat, stood in a wind-sheltered spot watching the second graders, each with shuttlecocks in hand and little red faces, wanting to approach the adults coming off work to make a sale but not daring to.
Lin Nianhe didn’t intervene, only taking responsibility for bringing them there without offering any more advice.
They had already agreed that the money from the sold shuttlecocks would belong to them; if they couldn’t sell them, then that was that.
One di was, to the children, quite the “fortune,” enough to buy ten one-cent popsicles, or fruit candies, or new notebooks and pencils.
Finally, Niuwa took the lead, stopping a man in his thirties, he raised a shuttlecock and asked, “Uncle, these are shuttlecocks we made from wild chicken feathers. Would you like to buy one for your son or daughter? It’s only a di, your little brother or sister would surely love it.”
He was good-looking, spoke sincerely, and his little face, reddened by the north wind, looked sowhat pitiful.
The man was startled for a mont, took the shuttlecock, and asked with a smile, “Who told you kids to sell things?”
“It was Uncle Wong who allowed us,” Niuwa said word by word, clearly, “We’re not doing anything bad. Teacher said this is to let us experience the hardship of earning money.”
The man smiled, scrutinizing the shuttlecock, then said to his colleague, “Well, you’ve got to admit, these little bastards did a pretty decent job.”
Right away, Niuwa said, “You can try kicking it, we spent a long ti making these!”
The man did indeed give it a couple of kicks, quite steadily.
Thinking of his own two children at ho, he figured a di wasn’t much, so he cheerfully took out a di and bought Niuwa’s shuttlecock.
“Thank you, Uncle. I wish you and your family peace and safety!”
Niuwa, holding the money, did not forget to provide good after-sales service.
“Hey, this kid is quite the sweet-talker,” the man laughed, ruffled Niuwa’s hair, and handed him a piece of fruit candy he had bought for his own children, “Alright, go on ho now. Don’t catch a cold in the New Year’s cold.”
“Thank you, Uncle!”
Niuwa waved at the man with a smile.
With Niuwa as a role model, the children were no longer so timid and scared; Bai Xiaojun was the first to charge forward, finding a girl of about eighteen or nineteen, and parroting Brother Niuwa’s pitch:
“Sister, these are shuttlecocks we made from wild chicken feathers. Would you like to buy one for your son or daughter? It’s only a di, your little brother or sister would surely love it.”
The girl’s face instantly turned red: “Oh, what are you talking about? I don’t have any children!”
Bai Xiaojun was stunned and uncertain about how to continue.
Lin Nianhe, watching on the side, couldn’t help but laugh inappropriately.
What’s this kid going to do in the future?
Luckily, Bai Xiaohan had Brother Niuwa. Niuwa stepped forward, smiling, and said, “Sister, wouldn’t you like to buy one to play with yourself? You’re so pretty, nothing suits you better than our shuttlecocks!”
The girl’s face flushed red, and looking at the hopeful eyes of the two little boys, she couldn’t bear to disappoint them. She took out the money she’d planned to use for buying soda while watching a movie and bought the shuttlecock.
The children continued to sell; so were successful, while others faced rejection. One seed to have a mont of stupidity, waving his hand and knocking Wang Xiaoi over as she tried to sell to him.
Girls already have thin skins, and combined with the cold and exhaustion, now with such a fall, she burst into tears with a cry.
Lin Nianhe’s heart tightened. Just as he was about to step forward, he saw the children scattered around quickly gather to surround Wang Xiaoi, protecting her.
The one who pushed Wang Xiaoi was a man in his twenties, visibly troubled with discontent that didn’t lessen even when this group of children approached. He pointed at Wang Xiaoi and scolded, “You’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you, little girl? My sister just broke her leg yesterday and here you are, selling shuttlecocks today. Why do you pick such tis?”
Lin Nianhe listened and felt helpless.
This was truly an undeserved disaster. With so many people off work, it was Wang Xiaoi’s misfortune to run into soone so irritable.
“But you can’t just push people around!”
“You’re a man, how can you bully a girl?”
“That’s too much!”
The kids clamored all at once, while the man looked utterly annoyed—as if drinking cold water could lodge between his teeth. He hadn’t pushed hard, so why did the girl fall? But he didn’t want to explain; his sister had broken her leg during the holidays, and he was just too upset.
Maybe… should he just buy the shuttlecock? Consider it spending money to avert disaster?
Wang Xiaoi gradually stopped crying.
She wiped her tears and got up from the ground.
The little girl, with tears still in her eyes, offered the snow-dusted shuttlecock to the man, her voice quivering with sobs as she spoke, “This, this is for your sister. I, I… she will definitely get well soon… and can play with it once she’s better…”
After she finished speaking, she turned and ran towards Lin Nianhe’s direction, tears falling again: “Wuuu… Teacher Lin…”
Lin Nianhe witnessed everything and squatted down with open arms.
Wang Xiaoi rushed into Lin Nianhe’s embrace, hugging her neck and sobbing softly with grievance.
“Xiaoi, be good, don’t cry,” Lin Nianhe patted the snow off her body and got her to move her limbs.
Wrapped up warmly for winter, the child wasn’t hurt from the fall; she was just upset.
Wang Xiaoi rubbed her eyes and whispered, “I didn’t an to… I didn’t know his sister was injured…”
“It’s not your fault,” Lin Nianhe assured her while drying her tears, and covered her face with a scarf, “Xiaoi, you did well.”
“But…”
Wang Xiaoi looked at her empty hands, feeling even more aggrieved.
She had no shuttlecocks left, nor any money.
She had nothing at all.
Suddenly, a one Jiao banknote landed in the palm of her hand.
Niuwa smiled and said, “Wang Xiaoi, I’ll share half my money with you. We’ll spend it together.”
Wang Xiaoi looked at Niuwa through tear-blurred eyes, appearing lost.
At so point, the children who had gone to seek justice for Wang Xiaoi had all returned. They said:
“Xiaoi, don’t cry, we’ll share our money with you.”
“Right, right, we’ll spend it together.”
“I’m not selling my shuttlecock anymore; you can play with it.”
Watching the children help and support each other, Lin Nianhe’s lips curled into a smile.
Imdiately after, she raised her head sharply, looking towards the young man holding the shuttlecock in a daze. Her piercing gaze seed to question his soul—
What now? Are you not even as good as a group of children?
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