An hour later, he delivered the goods to Zhuo Xiong. Zhou Kun then decided to visit Xu Cai's fruit beverage shop, which was along the way. He prepared to deliver half a crate of dragon fruit to him.
Although Zhou Kun was still far away from Xu Cai's beverage shop which was named 'Vitamin C Fruit Bar', he still saw his uncle Xu Cai right away.
The shop seemed to be a little deserted as it lacked business. Xu Cai stood at the cash register—fanning himself leisurely with the fan in his hand. His aunt, Lu Guifen, was not around.
"Uncle, I was rather busy the past two days and hence, I haven't been able to deliver the dragon fruit that you ordered. Shall I place the fruit in your warehouse?" asked Zhou Kun who began preparing to unload the goods.
"Kun, you're here. Don't be in a hurry to unload the goods. The weather is scorching. I will pour you a glass of water," said Xu Cai who was about to serve a drink for Zhou Kun.
"I'd better not drink it now. I'm rather busy lately. I'll go back after unloading the goods," said Zhou Kun who mainly did not want to run into Lu Guifen, for fear that a conflict would break out once more.
Xu Cai followed Zhou Kun and got busy together with him, looking like he was hesitant to speak.
"Uncle, what do you want to tell me?"
Xu Cai was taken aback for a moment, and then he answered sheepishly, "Regarding what happened with your aunt before, don't take it to heart. Guifen is not a bad person, she just..."
"It's okay. I didn't take it to heart in the first place. Uncle, this is the money you gave me last time. You should take the money back first. I'm sure you understand the situation in our family. We haven't reached this extent yet," Zhou Kun said as he took the money out of the bag and tried to return it to Xu Cai.
"Kid, why are you so stubborn? This is just a little token from me. Such a major thing happened to your family, and you're the one keeping everything together. There is not much that I can do for you. You must accept the money," said Xu Cai who suddenly raised his voice, shoving the money back into Zhou Kun's arms.
"Uncle, I really don't need this money. Besides, does Aunt know that you gave me money?"
At the mention of his aunt, Xu Cai subconsciously looked around to check if Lu Guifen had returned. Zhou Kun obviously knew that the money was his uncle's secret stash. If his aunt were to find out about it, the two would definitely fight again.
While they were struggling, Zhou Kun's mobile phone rang. It was a call from Zhuo Xiong.
"Brother, come on, send me two more baskets of dragon fruit."
Zhuo Xiong's call surprised Zhou Kun. He thought, 'Haven't I just delivered the goods to him? Even if he wants to stock up, he shouldn't be doing it in this manner.'
"Do you have refrigerators that are big enough? I'll deliver some fresh ones to you tomorrow morning, alright?"
"I sold half a basket."
"Huh?"
"I said, I've already sold half of the dragon fruits. If you still don't deliver any to me, I'm going to run out of stock at night."
Zhou Kun had obviously still underestimated the power of his batch of dragon fruits. Neither Zhuo Xiong nor Zhou Kun had ever imagined that there would be such a high demand for dragon fruits.
According to his original plan, Zhuo Xiong placed all of the fruits that Zhou Kun had delivered at the front of the shop. He even cut one open and used it as a sample.
The most special thing about Zhou Kun's dragon fruit was the rich, fruity fragrance.
He took out a large batch of dragon fruit from the cold storage, and after they gradually warmed up, they began to emit the unique fragrance of dragon fruit, soon attracting the first customer.
"Boss, how much are these dragon fruits?" asked an elderly lady.
"18 yuan per 500 grams (catty)."
"Are dragon fruits so expensive nowadays?"
The old lady obviously didn't expect dragon fruit to be sold for 18 yuan per 500 grams. Besides, Zhuo Xiong's fruit store had always been known for selling fruits at cheap prices. Yet, a dragon fruit that was sold at 18 yuan per 500 grams suddenly appeared. The first thing the old lady thought was that it was not worth it!
"These are imported white-fleshed dragon fruit that just arrived today. They're very fresh. Would you like to taste it?" Zhuo Xiong cut a piece of dragon fruit and handed it to her.
The old lady made up her mind not to buy any when she heard that it was white-fleshed dragon fruit. After all, white-fleshed dragon fruits were usually not sweet enough, but she didn't turn down the dragon fruit that Zhuo Xiong handed over, and took a bite.
After taking a bite, the old lady finally discovered that it was surprisingly sweet.
"These are imported dragon fruit. How's it? They're very sweet, aren't they?"
"18 yuan is still too expensive," the old lady, ignoring Zhuo Xiong's warm greeting, mumbled and left.
The old lady turned around and walked to the Good Orchard Fruit Store next door. She asked, "Do you sell dragon fruit here?"
"Yes, this is the red-fleshed dragon fruit that we have in store. They're guaranteed to be sweet. Why don't you have a taste of it?" Although the fruits sold at Good Orchard Fruit Store were expensive, the fruits were of good quality, and the service was excellent as well.
The old lady took a bite of the dragon fruit that the store assistant handed over. She then frowned and said, "Why is it so mild-tasting and not sweet at all?"
The store assistant of Good Orchard Fruit Store smiled and said after being shocked, "How can it not be sweet? This is Grade-A honey dragon fruit, which is directly produced by us."
The old lady didn't care where the fruits were from, and she simply continuously remarked that they were tasteless.
After that, the store assistant stopped recommending it to her. The dragon fruit was sold for 16.8 yuan. He had seen too many old ladies like her who would grab a few samples and try them before saying that the fruit was not delicious if they were too expensive.
"Would you like to take a look at other fruits?"
He continued, "We have a fresh batch of oranges that arrived today. They're not bad." The service principle of Good Orchard Fruit Store was to be warm to all customers, regardless of whether they were going to purchase any fruit or not.
"My grandson is coming home for dinner today. Dragon fruit is his favorite. Forget it, I'll just get the expensive ones!" the old lady muttered to herself.
"I will pick out two fresh ones for you then."
The store assistant originally thought that the deal was about to be done. To his surprise, the old lady waved her hand and said, "No, your dragon fruit is not tasty. I'll go to the shop next door to buy some, even if it's a little more expensive."
She then left without looking back.
The store assistant initially thought that the old lady was simply making up an excuse for her refusal to purchase because of the fact that the fruits were too expensive.
He thought, 'If she thinks it's expensive, she can just say so. She even said that our dragon fruits aren't sweet enough. I know very well what kind of quality the fruits sold next door are.'
They're all just ordinary goods that were obtained from the wholesale market. How can there be any dragon fruits on the market that are better than ours?
However, coincidentally, in the next hour or so, the store assistant of Good Orchard felt that he had continuously been proven wrong, and he felt rather embarrassed and infuriated.
In just one hour, he served several customers who all asked without exception: "Do you sell dragon fruit here?"
Nevertheless, after hearing his introduction, the customers all declined mercilessly and said that the dragon fruit at the shop was not sweet. They then turned around and headed to the fruit store next door.
The store assistant of Good Orchard secretly glanced at the shop next door, which was named 'Golden Field Fruit Industry', while he was tallying the goods at the entrance. He wanted to see what was that special about their dragon fruit.
Unlike the refined packaging of the fruits sold at Good Orchard, the fruits sold at Zhuo Xiong's fruit store made it obvious that Golden Field Fruit Industry was a traditional fruit store. The brightly-colored dragon fruits were piled up at the entrance like a mountain, and several people were picking and choosing the ones they wanted.
He looked at Good Orchard and realized that it was very empty.
In the past, the boss of the Golden Field Fruit Industry, the fruit store next door, would hang his head low all day. Why were the roles reversed today?
All of a sudden, the store assistant of Good Orchard became very curious about the dragon fruit sold next door.