By the time they arrived at Yong'an County, the moron was already on the verge of collapse, his clothes drenched in sweat and sticking to him as if he had been fished out of water.
"Hey Moron, tired?"
The moron wiped the sweat off his forehead and smiled, "Not tired."
"Once we sell the lobsters, I'll buy you a soda."
Seeing the moron so exhausted, Jiang Xiaobai wished he could immediately reward him with a bottle of soda, but he was strapped for cash.
"Great, soda it is!" The moron clapped excitedly, as if suddenly energized. "Where are we pedaling to now?"
"I remember there's a market nearby. I came here once before to sell shrimp. Moron, get down, I'll take over."
Fearing the moron might wear himself out, Jiang Xiaobai pedaled the tricycle toward the market himself, with the moron following behind.
In no time, Jiang Xiaobai found the market. Without a stall, they had to set up on the roadside leading into the market.
Under the scorching sun, the lobsters in the bucket were still lively and bouncing, much to Jiang Xiaobai's surprise. Regular lobsters would have been sun-baked to death by now.
By around one in the afternoon, the market was at its quietest, with hardly anyone coming to buy vegetables, leaving the road almost deserted.
The two squatted by the roadside until three in the afternoon, when people began to frequent the market. Jiang Xiaobai started hawking, a skill he was much better at than Zhao Sanlin.
"Come, take a look, don't miss out! Fresh, wild-caught big lobsters, huge with thin shells, lots of meat and delicious flavor. Men eat them for vitality, women for beauty. Elders eat them for longevity, children for strength and intelligence. Every household will have a centenarian, and every child will top their class! Only forty yuan per jin, just forty yuan! Big sale, big sale..."
He had checked the city prices for lobsters. Lobsters as big as his, even if farmed, would normally sell for sixty yuan per jin. If wild-caught, they would fetch at least a hundred yuan per jin.
Jiang Xiaobai's shouting soon drew a crowd.
"Young man, are these lobsters really wild?" a woman in her sixties asked.
Jiang Xiaobai smiled, "Ma'am, I guarantee every single lobster here is wild. If even one isn't, I'll give them all to you for free."
Someone knowledgeable in the crowd remarked, "These lobsters have dark shells, they should be wild."
The old lady smiled and asked, "Young man, can you make it cheaper?"
Jiang Xiaobai grabbed a big lobster and smiled, "Ma'am, look how big my lobsters are, yet I'm only selling them for forty yuan per jin, and they're wild too. If you spent forty yuan on farmed lobsters, you'd get much smaller ones. Honestly, if I weren't in urgent need of money, I wouldn't sell them for less than eighty yuan per jin."
"Give me five jin."
The old man who recognized the wild lobsters liked their freshness and threw down two hundred yuan.
"Hey, you've got a sharp eye, sir."
Jiang Xiaobai weighed five jin of lobsters for the old man and threw in a few extra, essentially giving a jin for free.
Seeing that eighty-yuan lobsters were now only forty, the old lady felt like she'd struck gold. "Young man, I want five jin too. Don't forget to give me a few extra," she hurriedly said.
"Sure thing, ma'am. I'll weigh six jin for you." Jiang Xiaobai swiftly weighed the lobsters for her, exchanging lobsters for cash.
"None of them will be dead, right?" she asked worriedly.
Jiang Xiaobai replied, "Don't worry, ma'am. If you find any dead ones at home, come back and I'll compensate you a jin for each dead one."
"I want five jin too."
...
A herd mentality ensued, and most of the onlookers bought Jiang Xiaobai's lobsters. By the time this wave of customers left, almost half of the lobsters had been sold.
Jiang Xiaobai counted the money in his pocket and felt overjoyed. The cost of five hundred yuan had been recouped long ago; now they had earned over three thousand yuan.
"Moron, watch the stand, I'll buy you a soda."
There was a small shop two hundred meters away, which they had passed by on their way. Jiang Xiaobai ran over, bought a popsicle and a bottle of ice-cold soda, and walked back with the popsicle in his mouth.
With the popsicle in his mouth, his heart was filled with sweetness. Eating a popsicle in the heat was a sheer delight. Jiang Xiaobai slowed his pace, walking back leisurely. Rounding a corner, he spotted his stand, where three thuggish men were robbing the place. The moron was stubbornly defending it, already battered by their punches and kicks.
"Hey, what are you doing!"
Jiang Xiaobai yelled, tossing the popsicle aside and running over.
"Xiaobai, they're trying to steal our lobsters!"
Seeing Jiang Xiaobai, the leader of the three men said, "This stand is yours?"
Sensing the fishy smell from them, Jiang Xiaobai guessed they were vendors from the market. His low prices had likely hurt their business.
"What's the deal, fellas?"
The leader, named Li Chao, in his early thirties, was the head honcho of fish and seafood vendors in the Xinmin Market area.
"Kid, you're cutting into our profit. You have two choices: either we take all your lobsters, or you leave now and never show up here again!"
"Oh no, big brothers, this is a misunderstanding! We're actually delivering to a restaurant, but some overly enthusiastic grandpas and grandmas insisted on buying some. We were just about to leave when you guys showed up," Jiang Xiaobai explained with a wink at the moron, hoping he understood.
"Moron, let's pack up and go."
Li Chao was taken in by Jiang Xiaobai's words, thinking he really was delivering to a restaurant. Seeing the high quality of Jiang Xiaobai's lobsters, better than what they had, he couldn't resist asking, "Buddy, where do you get these lobsters?"
"Interested, big brother? Our boss gets them; I'll find out and let you know. Big brother, leave your contact info."
They exchanged phone numbers, and Li Chao, afraid Jiang Xiaobai would forget, reminded him before leaving, "Buddy, call me as soon as you find out."
Once Li Chao and his men were out of sight, Jiang Xiaobai handed the soda to the moron. The moron opened it and chugged it down, leaving only a little at the bottom.
"Xiaobai, do you want some?"
"You drink it," Jiang Xiaobai said.
After finishing, the moron kept the bottle. As they pushed the cart forward, Jiang Xiaobai asked, "Why are you keeping the bottle?"
"Hehe, the bottle still smells like soda. When I crave it, I'll just sniff it," the moron chuckled.