The Birth of Shanghai's First Conglomerate

At the gate of a university in Beijing.

By 5 p.m., this area becomes a street full of late-night food stalls.

Universities attract a concentration of young people, and naturally, vendors will also congregate outside of them.

Chen Pingsheng was wearing a straw hat and a thick Northeastern-style coat, while Song Yanxi was holding a small stool and tearing open a pink cloth to sell her brand-name "fake" handbags.

The price is honest and fair, five hundred each.

They also have Hermes, LV, Chanel, Gucci, and other brands.

She sells everything, but nobody buys anything. She's been setting up her stall for almost an hour, and there have been so many people coming and going.

The stall owner next door, who was actually selling fake bags, smiled at them with a cruel sneer.

Song Yanxi huffed, "Old Chen, is the counterfeit bag business really that hard to do these days?"

"It's not difficult, the key is that you're selling genuine bags!"

"I'm selling genuine bags, so why can't I outsell their fake ones?"

Song Yanxi began to question the meaning of life.

Chen Pingsheng thought for a moment and said, "I guess it's because you can't afford it as cheap as them. Five hundred each, even college students can't accept that."

"I bought them back for over a million each."

Song Yanxi refused to lower the price. She had twenty bags hanging on her stall, and she originally wanted to sell them all as soon as possible so she could go home to cook and tend to her flowers and plants.

Who knew that an hour had passed and she still hadn't made a single sale.

Chen Pingsheng's business is still good; he's selling durians again, the kind that costs ten yuan a pound.

Don't ask why it's so cheap; the answer is always the same: he went to Thailand and learned how to grow it domestically.

That one is made in Thailand, this one is made in China.

Two more young girls came to the stall, both looking to be in their early twenties, one with short hair and the other with shoulder-length hair.

Her attire is quite simple; if people are looking at fake bags from street vendors, her family must not be very wealthy.

It's not so easy to become middle class these days; the era's advantages have completely disappeared.

The short-haired girl took a liking to the Hermès bag, and the shoulder-length girl chimed in, trying to dissuade her:
"Don't carry this, it looks too fake. The real thing costs over 500,000, and this is clearly beyond our means."

"Which one should we carry?"

"Her brand is too big, with bags costing hundreds of thousands of yuan each. Let's go buy some smaller brands instead!"

The girl with shoulder-length hair pulled the girl with short hair, trying to leave. Song Yanxi thought to herself, "No wonder she can't sell her stuff."

It turns out it was too fake. This fakeness doesn't mean her bag is fake, but rather that her status doesn't match. If you're carrying a bag that originally cost hundreds of thousands, people will immediately recognize it as a fake.

Driving a Bentley or Rolls-Royce would be a completely different story.

Song Yanxi hasn't opened for business for so long, how can she let them leave so easily?

"Young lady, don't go! What if you actually buy a genuine Hermes bag for five hundred?"

"This is impossible."

The girl, whose hair reached her shoulders, said, "How could you possibly buy a real Hermes bag for 500? We're just poor, not stupid!"

Song Yanxi: "Little girl, I haven't made a single sale in an hour. Why don't you buy one and take it home? Maybe you'll actually get the real thing."

The short-haired girl really liked that Hermes bag; she always felt it looked so real it was almost unbelievable.

It's exceptionally exquisite; upon opening it, I was surprised to find it completely flawless.

If such a bag isn't fake, it probably wouldn't be cheap either; five hundred yuan for one isn't actually a bad deal.

She could easily take out that money.

"Xiaoqin, I really love this bag!"

"If you like it, just buy it. Just don't carry it at school, people will laugh at you." "Yeah, I'll just buy it and carry it home occasionally."

Song Yanxi was overjoyed when she opened her business. She even gave her a buy-one-get-one-free deal and a Chanel black crocodile embossed lambskin handbag.

This bag is the cheapest one Song Yanxi owns; its original price was over 700,000 yuan.

Even if you take it to a pawn shop, you can get at least 400,000 yuan.

"Young lady, we're having a buy-one-get-one-free sale for our grand opening. But let me remind you, don't just give these bags away. If you ever have any financial difficulties or run into any trouble, try taking these bags to a pawn shop or a luxury goods recycling store. You might be pleasantly surprised."

The two bags together cost two to three million, which is enough to easily solve the difficult needs of an ordinary person.

I don't know if the girl listened or not, but she just nodded and took the two bags home.

However, what happened later made Song Yanxi extremely gratified. Three years later, this young girl really got into a big trouble, which was caused by her own brother.

Her older brother fell in love with a girl, and she asked her family for nearly 500,000 yuan as a bride price. Her parents scraped together all the money.

As a result, the woman's family changed their minds and kept adding more conditions for marriage.

Her brother was so angry that he didn't even go through with the wedding and took people to the woman's family to return the betrothal gifts.

The woman spent all her money in just a few months, so she had no money left to give him.

The two families started fighting right away. Her brother went a little too far and seriously injured someone, even though he was the one who started it.

Although he was in the right, it was still wrong of him to strike first. The woman's family made an outrageous demand for an additional 800,000 yuan in compensation.

Otherwise, we'll have to send her brother in.

Her brother was really aggressive, constantly hitting the woman's face, leaving the whole family in a panic.

The short-haired girl was thinking of selling it for whatever price she could, and when she took the bag to sell, she was shocked by what she found.

It's actually worth over three million, and it can still be sold for 280 million on the secondhand market.

She received 250 million.

This startled the short-haired girl, and it was only then that she remembered what the old lady had said when she sold her the bag.

She was almost certain that the old lady knew perfectly well that she was selling genuine bags.

That's why I reminded her afterwards that if anything happens at home, she should try out these two bags.

Who knows, there might be a pleasant surprise?
This isn't just a surprise, it's like a windfall!

With this two million yuan, her brother's problem can be completely resolved, and her parents will no longer have to worry so much that they can't sleep at night.

When the short-haired girl went to find the old lady again, Song Yanxi was no longer there.

Of course, that's all a few years from now.

Song Yanxi was very happy with her business opening. She couldn't complete her goal for the day, so she took the 500 yuan she earned and treated Chen Pingsheng to barbecue.

The two hadn't eaten this kind of roadside late-night snack for many years, partly because it was unhealthy, and partly because they no longer liked strong-flavored foods.

Chen Pingsheng also said to her, "It's just that you sold one bag, is it really that you're so happy?"

"Of course I'm happy. This is what they call doing good deeds anonymously."

Song Yanxi laughed heartily, "What if that little girl's family encounters difficulties a few years or even ten years later, and she tries to sell those two bags? Wouldn't she be pleasantly surprised?"

"I'd be pleasantly surprised too."

Chen Pingsheng asked her, "Is this why you sell real bags as fakes?"

"Or else?"

Song Yanxi laughed exaggeratedly: "From today onwards, I, Song, will do good deeds for the world as an unknown old lady, just to make a small wish to heaven that I can be your wife again in the next life."

"Chen Pingsheng, if you were to return, would you still marry me?" (End of Chapter)