Huang Fang and the rest suddenly became extremely enthusiastic about grapes. The few of them bought all the grapes that Zhou Kun had, together with plenty of dragon fruits.
All of a sudden, someone said, "Little Zhou, do you have any chat groups for group purchases?"
"What kind of chat group?" asked Zhou Kun who could not quite react immediately.
"Look, your fruits are delicious, fresh, and cheap. Why don't you start a chat group for bulk and group purchases?"
Zhou Kun finally understood what the elderly lady meant. She was referring to chat groups in social messaging applications where people would combine their orders and purchase items at a group purchase price after accumulating a certain amount. Those chat groups had been rather popular in the past two years.
Previously, Zhou Kun had also started a similar chat group but the response was lukewarm. After seeing that there was barely any business, he decided to end the group chat.
"I've never tried that before," said Zhou Kun who rejected immediately because he found it to be troublesome.
"You've never created chat groups like that before? Here, let me help you," said Huang Fang who insisted on adding Zhou Kun as a friend on WeChat.
Soon, Zhou Kun was added to a chat group named 'Flowers of Jinlan'.
"Hurry up, I've already added Little Zhou and you guys to the group. We will only add the people in our residential district to this group. Then, if Xiao Zhou has any fresh fruit, he can just deliver it to our estate. When the time comes, we will tabulate all the orders and purchase them from you in bulk."
Under Huang Fang's leadership, the few elderly ladies were added to the chat group, and the number of members was still increasing exponentially. Soon, the number of members of the group increased to 70 or 80.
"Little Zhou, if you find it a hassle, I can teach you. Do you know how to use the platform named Jiaduoduo? Download it and set up an online store on that platform. Next, start a group purchase order and that will make it easier for us to place orders."
"Yeah, it would be easier and more convenient to facilitate the group purchase then. Don't worry, you don't need to pay for the postage. We can all collect the goods from you."
Seeing that the elderly ladies in front of him were all enthusiastic about using Jiaduoduo and placing group purchase orders, Zhou Kun thought about his ailing business and hung his head low in shame.
After sending away the enthusiastic "Flowers of Jinlan", Zhou Kun finally had the time to send a message regarding the peaches and grapes to the chat group with the wholesalers. However, the purchase price of the grapes was 30 yuan per 500 grams. Hence, no one inquired about them for the time being.
After being done with his errands, Zhou Kun discovered that Two Thousand was jumping up and down inside. He reckoned that Two Thousand was eager to relieve nature's call because Huang Fang and her friends had fed it too much food.
In the past two days, Zhou Kun had developed some chemistry with Two Thousand. Hence, he led Two Thousand to a deserted alley behind the warehouse.
Two Thousand was very new to everything along the way, and it would stop every now and then to sniff about and answer nature's call. Its behavior was no different from ordinary huskies.
However, Zhou Kun began to feel on edge again even though he had just gotten a sense of relief. If he had seen correctly, there were clearly only two weeds in the spot where he let Two Thousand urinate on. Yet, there was suddenly a dense cluster of weeds that appeared after Two Thousand urinated. They grew rapidly and shot all the way up to the level of Zhou Kun's calf.
Is this the effect of Two Thousand, the Great Botanical Genie?
Zhou Kun suddenly felt that he could not let that go on. Hence, he dragged the reluctant Two Thousand back into the store.
"Listen up, I know almost everything about your identity. From now on, you will urinate here. If you don't want to be locked up here forever, you'd better behave yourself."
Two Thousand looked at Zhou Kun aggrievedly, as if to say, "Are you blaming me?"
Zhou Kun stopped looking at it and paid attention to the messages in the chat group. Unlike what he had expected, he had not received a single order yet because the wholesale price of 30 yuan per 500 grams was obviously too expensive.
'Forget it, I'll just wait and see.'
On that night, Zhou Kun received a call from Shen Keying.
"I have good news for you. When I conducted a physical examination of your father today, I discovered that the hemorrhages in his brain have subsided a lot. According to this trend, he may wake up very soon."
"Is that so? That's wonderful, it's great."
As soon as Zhou Kun received the piece of news, the first thing he thought was that Potion No. 11 had taken effect.
Is Father going to regain consciousness?
Am I finally going to keep the broken family together again?
At this moment, Zhou Kun felt like tearing up.
"If you're free tomorrow, you may come to the hospital to visit him."
"Alright, I'll be there."
Shen Keying could hear that he seemed to be choking with sobs, and she suddenly felt distressed and sympathetic towards him. She knew clearly how much pressure Zhou Kun had been facing during that period of time.
Fortunately, he had finally seen the silver lining of the cloud.
Zhou Kun did not sleep at all that night. Bright early in the following morning, he rushed to the hospital.
He immediately informed his mother about the good news, following which the two of them visited Zhou Kun's father's ward.
Looking at his father who was still lying on the hospital bed in the ward and sleeping, Zhou Kun felt extremely energized. He felt that he had to spruce up the business at the fruit store before his father regained consciousness.
After setting his goals, Zhou Kun felt extremely diligent.
At this moment, he received a call from Huang Fang again. This time, he saved her number as a contact on his mobile phone.
"Little Zhou, are you busy?"
"Auntie Huang, what's the matter?"
"I have something to discuss with you."
"Auntie, go ahead," said Zhou Kun who was curious about what Huang Fang wanted to say to him.
"Do you still have the grapes that you sold to us yesterday?"
"Yes, I still have plenty of them."
"How many do you have exactly?"
"Uh... Auntie Huang, do your relatives want some?"
"No, the neighbors in our estate tried the fruit that we bought from you yesterday, and they all think that it's delicious. They'd like to purchase fruit from you, so they arranged for us to ask you if you could sell it to us at wholesale price."
"Wholesale price?" Zhou Kun was a little hesitant. However, after thinking about how he did not receive a single order from the wholesalers in the chat group yesterday, he felt that he must have charged too high of a price.
Hence, Zhou Kun decided to sell the fruit to Huang Fang at wholesale price. "Auntie, if your neighbors would like to purchase some, I can sell it to them at a wholesale price of 30 yuan per 500 grams."
"Isn't that cheaper by five yuan per 500 grams?"
Huang Fang did not expect to be charged five yuan lesser than the original price. She went shopping at the supermarket the day before and saw numerous varieties of grapes. However, they were all inferior to the ones sold by Zhou Kun. The grapes were claimed to have been imported from America and were priced at 40 to 50 yuan per 500 grams."
Zhou Kun mistook Huang Fang and thought that she found the price to be expensive. Hence, he explained, "Yes, the cost price of these grapes is expensive in the first place. The wholesalers who order fruit from me, purchase them at this price too."
"Alright, deal."
"How many kilograms would you like? If they're purchased by the people of your estate, I'll deliver the fruit altogether."
"How many kilograms do you have?"
Zhou Kun was amused by her question. He thought, 'I'm a wholesaler, and no matter what, I would definitely have tons of fruit. Can you possibly buy all of them from me?'
"Not much, about less than two tons."
Zhou Kun heard Huang Fang muttering on the other end of the line, "A ton is a thousand kilograms, so less than two tons means less than two thousand kilograms. Oh, that's not much. Little Zhou, we'll order all the grapes that you have."
"What..."