Chapter 12: The First Customer
Translator: Aristophaneso Editor: Caron_
After he arrived at the fish supplies section, Chu Xian approached a shop selling fish tanks. Truthfully, the only real difference between fish tanks was the design.
The fish tanks Chu Xian used to sell were very cheap, small glass cups. This time, he planned to buy some specially designed tanks with artificial mountains and plants, and perhaps some model people as well.
A high-quality small fish tank was at least one hundred, and Chu Xian bought twenty for a little over 3000 RMB.
Then, he got some people to deliver some quality fish food he bought, along with some wallpaper.
He was busy till two in the afternoon transforming his shop.
Sky-blue walls were decorated with all kinds of exquisite sea creatures framing twenty small fish tanks; each tank contained five or six elegant small goldfish. The whole shop had a refreshing, natural feel.
“Ze ze,” Chu Xian clicked his tongue and said admiringly, “This is money well spent!” In a great mood, he took out his phone and started taking videos of the place.
He walked around the place, saying, “This is my shop in Hai Qing City, Gu Wu Street. We sell the greatest high-quality goldfish – everyone take a look!” He pointed the camera here and there, capturing all twenty of the tanks and the beautiful goldfish swimming around elegantly.
Opening the Fast Hands app, Chu Xian uploaded the video and added at the bottom: “People who are experts in goldfish and are willing to buy, please add me on WeChat. Two thousand RMB each; no bargaining! If you’re in Hai Qing City, you’re welcome to come to my shop and take a look in person!”
After submitting the post, Chu Xian opened WeChat and clicked on a message.
“Hey boss, you there? Do you only have one kind of Panda Goldfish? Are there any other kinds? Do you have more videos?”
This was the first message, and seeing it, Chu Xian face-palmed. He had forgotten to upload some pictures and videos to his WeChat Moments.
Immediately, he walked around the fish tank section and took more photos of each of the fish, uploading them to WeChat.
He had a total of eight different types of goldfish, and after Chu Xian finished taking photos of each one, he also shot some videos and uploaded them all to his WeChat Moments.
“Check out my Moments, bro!” Chu Xian wrote after he finished uploading.
Chu Xian checked his friend requests. Some people asked where he got all the goldfish, and others asked whether he could help them sell their goldfish—all these people he blocked and deleted.
“Eh, this person looks like he wants to buy!” Chu Xian said with some surprise when he got to the last message. His face finally showed a small smile.
The message had been sent this morning, and it said he was very close to Gu Wu Street and was interested in buying. The person asked if he could come and see things for himself. Chu Xian immediately shared his address and replied, “Sure, I open every day at eight and close at ten pm. You’re welcome anytime!”
After sending the message, Chu Xian saw his notifications and said with some surprise, “People are commenting so quickly?”
Clicking on a couple messages, he saw, “F**k, Chu Xian, you’re actually a WeChat salesman? These fish are pretty, but two thousand RMB is too much.”
“Chu Xian are you for real? Trying to trick your friends? To restore our hurt spirits you should give us all a tank and some goldfish for free!”
“What’s up Chu Xian? Are you still selling goldfish? If your business isn’t great you should just find a job. Stop hanging around the school; if you have it you have it, and if you don’t you can’t force it anyway!”
There were three replies, and each one made Chu Xian shake his head, especially the last one which was obviously talking about more than just business.
Thinking back, throughout his four years in college he only had a few good friends, and it wasn’t because he had a bad personality. For one, after getting into a relationship with Xiao Ying, he spent most of his time with her and many of his classmates were jealous. Most importantly, there were only seven guys in his class!
Chu Xian didn’t reply to any of them. To his surprise, someone mentioned him in the class WeChat group.
He always muted this group and barely talked, but he was curious about people mentioning him so he entered the group.
“Chu Xian, are you the one selling goldfish on the Moments today? I want to buy some; can you give me a discount?”
This was a message from one of his female classmates, and Chu Xian still remembered this girl was pretty good-looking. He replied, “Sure, how many?”
“Classmates shouldn’t talk about money! Chu Xian, you should just gift some to beauty queen Song.”
“That’s right! You should give everyone one hahaha!”
As soon as he sent out his message, a boy and a girl from his class immediately replied. Chu Xian smiled to himself but didn’t respond.
“Your small tanks have five or six goldfish. If I want to buy the whole tank, how much is that?” the female classmate asked again.
After thinking a little, Chu Xian replied, “Six small goldfish for ten thousand!”
After directly deducting two thousand RMB and the cost of the fish tank, he thought he was being pretty generous already.
“F**k, Chu Xian. Why don’t you just rob her directly? Those tiny fish in one tank cost ten thousand?”
“OMG, you’re really willing to abuse your friends! Two hundred RMB is more than enough for all of these fish!”
“This is all your fourth-year classmates mean to you? Chu Xian, you’re too much!”
In a flash, all kinds of random replies showed up and Chu Xian’s face blackened a little, but he ignored them and waited for the female classmate’s reply.
“Too expensive! I thought six hundred would be enough – baby can’t afford it!” the classmate replied quickly, adding a sad emoji at the end.
“Six hundred? Beauty Song, six hundred is enough to buy five tanks of these! He’s too evil, daring to trick his own classmates!”
“Seriously! It can’t be that classmate friendship just dissipates after graduating?”
historical
Chu Xian read the replies with some amusement, when suddenly:
“Hello, are you the owner here?”
A chubby young man walked in and asked.
Chu Xian was stunned for a second, then hurriedly answered, “Hello, yes I am the owner.”
The chubby young man examined the shop and asked, “Are you the one on Fast Hands selling the Panda Goldfish?”
“That’s right. Did you find me online? Welcome, welcome. Please come in and look around. I have Panda Goldfish and also Red Crown Pearl, Twelve-Red, Dan Feng, Red Lion Head, Butterfly Tail etc. All of them are of the highest quality,” Chu Xian said passionately, gesturing for the chubby man to examine them more closely.
His first customer had arrived.