Back to 1979: Sending the Educated Youth’s Wife Back to the City

Chapter 48: Bullshit
Fortunately, communicating about buying and selling just means asking the price, bargaining, and then recording the quantity.

Anyway, when someone tried to bargain, he just shook his head and disagreed.

Price and quantity are just numbers, he has no problem with one, two, three, four, and five.

At worst he could bring paper and pen to write Arabic numerals.

Fang Mingche nodded, and the matter was settled.

Song Quan said: "I know you are a righteous person. But our leader said that we can't let you help for free. I heard that it costs a lot to hire a translator. But we don't have money, so we will let you take a 5% commission from the goods you sell. Do you think it's okay?"

Fang Mingche thought to himself: Your leader is quite sensible. This kind of person is good to get along with and can be a long-term cooperation.

"Okay, no problem!"

"Thank you!"

Fang Mingche frowned. It seemed that if he wanted to maintain this image, he would have to find time to learn English.

Originally, his English score in the college entrance examination was only used as a reference, and he was not prepared to learn it now.

But nowadays, it is not too much trouble to spend half an hour every day memorizing words.

He asked Uncle Gu, "Uncle, I saw you have a radio. Can you lend it to me? When I have more money, I will buy a new one and return it to you."

Radios today are very big. They are as big as a TV set and longer. So, they are easy to see.

To buy one, you need a radio ticket. And domestic ones cost dozens of dollars, while imported ones start at more than a hundred dollars.

Grandpa Gu said, "When have you ever seen me listening? It's broken. If you can fix it, you can fix it and use it."

"Are there any tools?"

“There are some, but I don’t know if they are suitable.”

Uncle Gu found the repair tools and Fang Mingche took it apart and started tinkering with it.

Just remember how you disassembled it and put the removed screws away. If it can't be repaired, you can always put it back the same way.

Men, to some extent, have some hands-on skills in these matters.

Take it apart first, maybe one of the wires is broken. Then try to peel off a little plastic, tie it back together, and tape it shut.

Mr. Gu asked, "Why, do you want to listen to the enemy station?"

He heard what Song Quan said just now, and at that moment he saw that Xiao Fang looked a little guilty.

I guess his English is not as good as Xiao Song thinks.

But this kid really dared to think and act! He actually agreed.

Fang Mingche said, "What enemy station? There is no such thing nowadays. We have officially established diplomatic relations with the United States on New Year's Day this year. The United Kingdom recognized New China as early as 1950. There are no eternal friends or eternal enemies between countries. You will see that English will become more and more important in the future. Besides, the BBC is a shortwave radio station and it cannot be heard in China now. I want to listen to China Radio International."

This is China's radio station that broadcasts to the world. It was founded in 1941.

It has not yet reached the level of crazy attention that later generations have paid. High schools simply do not offer this course.

Because there is no teaching staff! The first batch of foreign language department students have not graduated yet.

Otherwise, he could ask Lao Gao to introduce an English teacher.

As for his university English teacher, he didn't have the connections to get to know him.

Uncle Gu said, "If you agree to this, aren't you afraid of messing things up for them?"

You also receive commission.

Fang Mingche fiddled with his hands and said, "Arabic numerals are used all over the world. They are just prices and quantities, there is no mistake about them."

Later, when the Universiade was held in Chengdu, those foreign athletes went to visit the lotus pond.

I can communicate with the store owner easily and buy things with just a calculator.

People are even pressing the plus and minus keys to bargain.

After fiddling with it for more than a quarter of an hour, Fang Mingche put it back in place. Then he looked at the desktop and saw nothing new.

Grandpa Gu found some batteries, installed them, turned them on, and there was a sound!

"All right."

"Then bring it home to listen to it in the evening. Bring it to me when you go out to set up the stall so I can listen to the news, too."

"Okay, thank you!" Fang Mingche carried it back and saw several children jumping around in the open space of the compound. There should be grids drawn on the ground.

He stood in the courtyard and shouted, "Yanyan, go home——"

Yanyan said goodbye to the little friend and ran back with a red face.

"What are you playing?"

"Hopscotch. What is that?"

"A radio is a tweeter that can sing and tell stories. Let's look for a channel that tells stories."

Yanyan nodded vigorously, "Okay!"

She likes to listen to loud speakers. When she lived in the village school, she would sit under the eaves on a small stool every day to listen.

It doesn’t matter whether I understand it or not, I just like it.

Tonight Fang Mingche arranged for her to listen to the music while soaking her feet. He found a channel that told bedtime stories.

After she finished running, took off her clothes and tucked herself into bed, the little girl was still listening happily.

After a while, Fang Mingche put down the exercises in his hand and looked back, only to see that she had fallen asleep.

So I changed the radio to the English channel and played it in the background while I continued to do the exercises in my hand.

The next day, everyone from the handicraft cooperative came with their tools.

Paper cutting is the simplest thing, just a pair of scissors and a stack of red paper.

The one for flipping flowers uses a straw stick, the same kind used to stick candied haws, with several different styles of flowers inserted on it.

Seeing Yanyan watching with interest, I gave her one. I taught her how to turn it over and over again, and it was another style.

Fang Mingche saw that he had to help sell some extra flowers to make it justifiable.

Then there were shadow puppet performances, dough figurines, revolving lanterns, and people making Chinese knots and silk cords.

I don’t know if it is called Chinese knot nowadays, but it is this thing anyway.

There is also Song Quan's bamboo weaving. He directly brought a set of twelve zodiac animals and was still weaving them with his hands.

Originally, a cross-shaped wooden stake was made for hanging. Fang Mingche took it down for him and placed it on the small table.

Today he specially bought two more sets of teapots, three more table bowls, and two more tables.

He borrowed a tricycle from the slum in the morning and asked Song Quan to drive him here.

Song Quan said: "What are you doing?"

"The cross has a special meaning in Christianity, so put it away."

Song Quan thought about it and remembered that there was such a thing in the church. He slapped his forehead and said, "I forgot about it. Fortunately, you thought of it."

These don't take up much space and are just placed in a circle next to the tea stall.

Song Quan and his team's leader, Lao Wang, also came and gave Fang Mingche cigarettes.

"Xiao Fang, I'm going to trouble you in a while. Don't worry, we'll take care of your business."

He specially brought a few logistics staff over to help make tea and refill water.

In this way they are no longer considered hired laborers, but the working people are helping each other.

The cost of translation is not considered as hiring a worker. Hiring a worker is exploitation, and hiring a translator is very high-end and has nothing to do with it.

Fang Mingche nodded, "Okay!"

As usual, business came quickly.

And because there were people from the handicraft cooperative showing their skills here, there were a lot of people watching, and naturally more people came to drink tea.

Fang Mingche held a notebook seriously, on which were the unit prices of all the items.

A foreign tourist pointed at the flower-turning and asked, "How much?"

He watched Yanyan flip through the pages and found each one was different, and he was very interested.

(End of this chapter)