Chapter 22

In the afternoon, the stalls along the commercial street began to be set up one after another.

After Heng Jianmu finished setting up his own booth, he looked at his wife and son sitting in front of the stall and went to buy them two cups of milk tea.

"Drink something first; it'll probably be a while."

His wife took the milk tea and took a sip. "Why hasn't that stall owner you mentioned arrived yet?"

The three of them had come today specifically to buy more goods, since that vendor insisted on purchase limits. They had to pool their numbers to get what they wanted.

Heng Jianmu sat down on a chair. "She arrived late yesterday, too—it was already dark when she showed up."

"It should be the same today. You have no idea how busy it was here yesterday; it was packed with people. I managed to sell quite a few phone cases just by being in her proximity."

That was true—aside from applying screen protectors, selling phone cases was another source of income for him.

After saying this, he stroked his son's head. "Is the learning machine Daddy bought you useful?"

"What did you learn in your dream last night? Recite it for Daddy."

His son, sipping his milk tea, shook his head frantically. "It's not good! It's not good at all!"

Heng Jianmu laughed when he heard this. Seeing the little rascal's expression, he knew for a fact that the boy must have spent the whole night studying in his dreams.

"Be a good boy, and if you manage to get into the top ten in your class, Daddy will let you play with the bamboo dragonfly, how about that?"

The little boy's eyes lit up at the mention of the bamboo dragonfly. He had watched with intense envy as his parents flew around the living room with it the night before. Although he had played with it for a moment, his father hadn't let him keep it. He had been longing to play with it for a long time, just like his mom and dad.

"Really?" He tilted his head. "I want to go to the park to fly it."

Heng Jianmu nodded. "Really. As long as you place in the top ten, you can fly it wherever you want. Just don't fly too high; Daddy would be worried."

"Deal!" The child sipped his milk tea, already blissfully imagining himself as a superhero.

Heng Jianmu, however, was already planning to tie a rope around the boy's waist when the time came, treating it like flying a kite. A human-kite son—that actually sounded pretty cool, ha!

His wife was looking toward the pedestrian street when she suddenly clicked her tongue. "There are a lot of people today."

Usually, the street wouldn't be this lively at this hour; the foot traffic was already approaching what it usually was on a weekend night.

Heng Jianmu smiled. "They're probably all here for that stall owner. But that's okay, we have the advantage of being right next door, heh."

At the very least, being right next to her stall meant he wouldn't lose out to others. Plus, he had been the very first customer yesterday. He considered himself a regular now; he didn't even ask for a discount, as long as his family could make a purchase.

At that moment, in a nearby milk tea shop, the disguised Yang Hongbo kept glancing at the empty stall. There were already quite a few people near it, and some had even started lining up. He narrowed his eyes, waiting for the stall owner to show her face tonight so he could round her up in one fell swoop!

However, the person they were all waiting for, Xia Zui, was sneezing under the overpass.

"Who's badmouthing me!"

Xia Zui rubbed her nose. She had been under this overpass for an entire day, and there hadn't been a single passerby.

"Eleven, can we really complete this mission?"

Eleven, currently busy fan-girling over cartoons in her mind, replied, "Should... be possible?"

"Even if we don't finish, it doesn't matter. If all else fails, I'll just rob the stall when it's time to leave!"

The stall, on the side: [Shocked.jpg]

Xia Zui: ...

She picked up a fishing rod and weighed it in her hand. It was incredibly light, roughly the weight of an egg.

To be honest, if it weren't for the restriction that she had to stay in this specific location, she would have taken the rod and gone fishing herself. Although she had never fished before, it didn't seem to matter. After all, the function of this magical rod was to release a special scent that attracted fish and, the moment a fish approached, it would automatically hook it. Not only that, but this rod required no effort, no matter how big the fish was. With a gentle tug, the fish would be pulled out. Situations where a fisherman gets dragged into the water by a big fish simply wouldn't happen.

Xia Zui sighed and stretched her neck. Just then, a man carrying fishing gear walked over slowly.

The man was dark-skinned and thin, and looked quite short. He hadn't expected anyone to be setting up a stall under this overpass, and he paused in surprise. Even as he walked up to the stall, he kept turning his head to look at her setup, wanting to see what the vendor was selling.

Seeing someone approaching, Xia Zui immediately called out, "Brother, want to take a look at my fishing rods?"

Mao Fei hesitated for a moment. He looked at the vendor’s physique, pursed his lips, and walked over. He thought to himself that he must have lost his mind—no one ever came to this broken overpass, yet here was someone trying to do business. Could they even make thirty or fifty a day? And why did this vendor, who looked like a fitness coach, sell nothing but toy fishing rods?

He glanced at the price tag, and "...!"

Mao Fei regretted it. He regretted it deeply. He shouldn't have taken this route to go fishing. He had been planning to go to Qingliu River, but a friend had told him two days ago that taking the overpass was a shortcut, so he had come this way. Come to think of it, his wife had mentioned a "shady stall" near Jiangchao Park yesterday. He hadn't taken it seriously at the time, but he hadn't expected to run into it himself.

Mao Fei looked at the fishing rod priced at one thousand yuan, then back at the vendor's physique. His eyes went dark—he had run into one of those legendary "shady stalls"!

"Brother, big brother, I shouldn't have come this way. I'm sorry. Can you just pretend you never saw me?"

Xia Zui: ???

What kind of nonsense was this guy spouting?

"Just take a look at my rods. I guarantee you'll catch fish; they're incredibly useful!"

Mao Fei pursed his lips. Even if you hyped this rod to the heavens, it was still a thousand yuan! This vendor must mean that if he didn't buy one, he wouldn't be let go.

Ah! Why did he have to take this shortcut? Regret!

Seeing him start to hesitate, Xia Zui figured there was a chance. She immediately followed up, "It's only one thousand yuan! If you don't catch any fish, come find me; I'll be setting up my stall here for the next few days."

Mao Fei was on the verge of tears. He tremblingly took out his phone. "Brother, do I really have to buy it?"

Xia Zui laughed. "Transactions are voluntary. If you want to buy it, you buy it; if you don't, you don't. I'm not forcing you."

Did this guy want to buy it or not? Why was he asking her?

Mao Fei closed his eyes and said repeatedly, "No pressure, no pressure at all. I want to buy it myself."

He understood. The vendor meant that even if he didn't want to buy it, he had to.

Mao Fei scanned the QR code, and after losing a thousand yuan, he grabbed a fishing rod and ran for his life, as if there were dogs chasing him.

Xia Zui watched his retreating figure, frowning as she wondered what was wrong with him. He had paid, yet he acted like he’d been mugged. She sat back behind her stall, playing on her phone while waiting for the next customer.

Still, this was a good start—at least she had sold one. It was a pity she hadn't had the chance to explain the functions of the magical rod to him. Sigh, whatever. If he didn't know how to use it, he'd eventually come back to ask. Xia Zui put the matter out of her mind.

Meanwhile, Mao Fei ran all the way to Qingliu River, stopping only when he was panting for breath. The river was very calm, and there were already quite a few anglers there. There was a saying about this river: there were more fishermen than there were fish. Even with winter approaching, the bank was packed with people. In the summer, there wasn't even a place to stand.

A fellow fisherman looked over, spotted the toy rod in his hand, and chuckled. "Brother, did you buy that for your kid to play with?"

Mao Fei looked at the rod, wanting to cry. "Not at all. I got ripped off under the overpass by some shady stall."

The fisherman frowned. "The overpass? I heard someone say there was a shady stall near Jiangchao Park. Sigh, business people these days are truly heartless."

"How much did you pay for this rod?"

Mao Fei: "One thousand."

The fisherman took a deep breath. "Brother, my condolences to your wallet."

Mao Fei sighed, clutching the rod and walking forward. It took a long time before he found his good friend. His friend, Nie Luo, loved fishing and had a home full of every kind of gear imaginable—long, short, everything. He had previously teased Nie Luo for having a house that looked like a tackle shop. He never expected to be forced into buying a new rod himself today.

Seeing him arrive, Nie Luo laughed. "Come over here, let me tell you, I've had quite the harvest today!"

He pointed to a bucket nearby. Mao Fei looked—there were three small fish inside. For them, who often returned empty-handed, three small fish were quite a lot.

Nie Luo then noticed the gaudy fishing rod in his hand. "Where... where did you get that?"

Mao Fei recounted his experience, tossed the rod aside, and began to set up for fishing. He had already spent the thousand yuan, and he didn't dare go back to that stall owner. Judging by her physique, she could probably twist him into a pretzel with one hand. Forget it, forget it.

The two chatted as they fished. By the time it got dark, Mao Fei hadn't caught a single fish. Nie Luo smiled. "Why don't you try that toy? Since you spent a thousand on it, you might as well use it; otherwise, it's a waste."

"Who knows? Maybe this kind of rod comes with a 'newbie starter pack.'"

After all, this rod looked like a toy for children, and children often caught fish the first time they tried—the legendary "newbie luck." He just didn't know if the luck was related to the rod, but it was worth a shot.