Chapter 218: Touching Porcelain
Maiyang Road is a small street only 700 meters long. It is located on the north side of Xiafei Road. The intersection looks inconspicuous , but starting from March and April this year, this previously deserted street suddenly became lively. After the first clothing store opened at the intersection near Xiafei Road, more than 20 clothing stores opened here in less than half a year.
Standing at the intersection of this street, looking at the familiar yet unfamiliar scenes around him, Song Yuanchao was a little dazed for a moment.
Maiyang Road Clothing Market is the most famous place in Shanghai after the reform and opening up. The prosperity of this market continued until the late 1990s. In the late 1990s, this clothing market moved to opposite the Xiafei Road Park about one kilometer away from the original site, and continued to be popular for nearly ten years.
Maiyang Road was most famous from the late 1990s to the first few years of the new century. At that time, its fame even spread beyond Asia to the world. The first thing that foreigners who came to Shanghai would do was to visit the Maiyang Road clothing market. Most of these foreigners were ordinary people, as well as executives and diplomats of multinational companies. Even some famous Hollywood stars and politicians enjoyed this market and would spend a whole day here looking for what they liked.
As early as 1957, a tin shed was built on the roadside of Maiyang Road, but it was mainly used to trade second-hand goods, and was also called the Maiyang Road Second-Hand Goods Market. Now, as the second-hand goods market continues to shrink, new clothing stores have begun to replace the previous second-hand stores, and the initial shape of the future has already been vaguely formed.
"This place looks a bit like Dashilan." Today, Song Yuanchao accompanied Lin Yan and Li Xiaoyun to stroll along Maiyang Road. When they reached the intersection and saw how lively it was inside, Lin Yan couldn't help but say.
"It's a bit similar, but the store is different, the atmosphere is still the same." Song Yuanchao agreed, and at this time Li Xiaoyun pulled Lin Yan and walked in excitedly. Girls like lively places, and shopping is a woman's nature. How could they hold back after seeing these?
The first store at the door caught Li Xiaoyun's eye. Not only did the store have many familiar products, but there were also some new things she had never seen in Yanjing. She dragged Lin Yan around the store, looking at things and asking the stall owner about prices from time to time, looking very excited.
Song Yuanchao did not go in. The store was very small, with all kinds of clothes and accessories hanging everywhere, as well as some small sundries and commodities.
Most of the clothes are underwear, including jeans, bell-bottoms, shirts, etc., which are the most popular styles at present. Many of them are products from Tengfei Factory and Hong Kong, because they have the Apple logo on them and are easy to recognize. Of course, there are also some counterfeits and miscellaneous brands, all kinds of which are hung everywhere.
In addition to these, there are things like microphones, electronic watches and even calculators, as well as some girls' headwear, rubber bands, beads and the like, and there are even quite a few children's toys here.
Looking at the dazzling array of goods, Song Yuanchao felt the hustle and bustle here. Today was Sunday and there were a lot of people here, and the street was bustling with people coming and going.
Lin Yan and Li Xiaoyun stayed in this store for a long time. In the end, they each bought a headdress. The headdress was made of plastic and inlaid with fake pearls and silk flowers. It was not expensive and looked very beautiful. Although this kind of thing has become common in later generations, it is now a representative of fashion.
Li Xiaoyun came out of the store happily and put on the headdress on the spot. She shook her head left and right and asked Lin Yan if it looked good. Of course Lin Yan said it looked good. The two girls held hands and continued to shop forward, going from store to store, buying a little here and a little there. In half a day, they bought a lot of things.
After shopping for a long time, they finally reached the middle of the shopping and went into a store to look at things. Song Yuanchao waited at the door with the things they bought and took a break. Accompanying women shopping is really a hard job. Song Yuanchao felt more tired than running ten kilometers. What's more terrible is that Lin Yan and her friends would come out from time to time to try the clothes on themselves and ask Song Yuanchao if they look good. This made Song Yuanchao rack his brains to respond. He could not show an expression of annoyance, nor could he keep saying yes to everything and give a hasty response. He had to answer the questions with reason and evidence, and think carefully from the other side's perspective, so that they would be satisfied.
After waiting for a while, I looked at the time and found that if they didn't buy anything, they would almost leave. Based on my experience along the way, I knew that two people would spend about twenty minutes in a store, and now it was almost twenty minutes.
Just as Song Yuanchao was thinking this, he suddenly heard a noise coming from inside. Song Yuanchao was stunned. Wasn't this Li Xiaoyun's voice? His face changed and he hurried to the store without saying a word.
"What do you mean? Do you think I'm stupid? Do you want to chop me off with a punch?" Li Xiaoyun scolded in a rude voice. When Song Yuanchao walked in, he saw her with a red face, scolding a young shop owner.
"I don't know what you mean by stupid or not! If you can't afford it, don't keep the money in your pocket. If you have money, just take it out!" The young shop owner was dressed in trendy clothes, with a floral shirt and bell-bottom pants, a moustache, and a microphone on his nose. He had a look of disdain on his face and spoke in a sarcastic tone.
"I have plenty of money. I would rather throw it into the Huangpu River than give it to you! What the hell, you want to pretend that this piece of junk is a diamond? You are blackmailing me!"
"Hey, sir! If you keep talking nonsense, I'll eat your life!" The shop owner pushed the microphone to his forehead, glared at him with his two green bean-sized eyes, tilted his head and threatened: "Anyway, you broke the things, so pay for it! Take out the money, 200 yuan, pay and leave!"
"Bah!" Li Xiaoyun was furious. She had never suffered such a loss in her life. What's more, a piece of junk cost 200 yuan? She thought it was made of gold!
"Comrade, please speak nicely! This thing is obviously broken. You are trying to scam us. Why should we pay for it?" Lin Yan, who was standing by, was afraid that Li Xiaoyun would suffer a loss if she did that, so she quickly grabbed her and stopped in front of her to lecture the store.
"Comrade? Where did this country bumpkin come from? Stop talking nonsense and pay!" The owner was arrogant and started cursing in Mandarin with an accent.
"You...!" Lin Yan's face turned red with anger. Just as she was about to refute, Song Yuanchao came in. When he saw this, he quickly stopped her and asked what happened.
"Brother Yuanchao, you came just in time." Seeing Song Yuanchao coming, Li Xiaoyun pointed to her right side angrily and said, "Look at this, it was broken to begin with. It broke when I touched it, but he insisted on saying that I broke it and asked us to spend 200 yuan to buy it. Isn't this extortion?"
Looking in the direction Li Xiaoyun pointed, he saw a pair of Michael glasses with one leg of the frame broken. When he saw this, Song Yuanchao already understood what was going on.
With a gloomy face, Song Yuanchao picked up the pair of Michael glasses and took a closer look. From the broken corners of the mirror legs, he could tell that the pair of Michael glasses were not newly broken, but had been broken for some time, because the cracks were clearly caused by squeezing, and the cracks at the broken position were also a bit old, so it was definitely impossible that they were broken by Li Xiaoyun.
Besides, the Michael glasses are meant to be worn by people. How can they be worn if they break at the slightest touch?
"Friend, doing business is not a good idea, right?" Holding the microphone mirror, Song Yuanchao asked the owner coldly.
"Don't talk to me about this. You guys broke the things, so you have to pay for it no matter what!" The shop owner waved his hand without fear of Song Yuanchao's questioning. Instead, he said confidently, "This pair of Michael glasses is an authentic imported product. My store clearly marked the price at 200. How can I sell it after you broke it? To tell you the truth, if you don't buy it today, I will be rude to you. Don't even think about leaving!"
As they were talking, two ruffians appeared out of nowhere, blocking the narrow shop door tightly on the left and right. They looked at Song Yuanchao and the others with unfriendly eyes, especially looking at Lin Yan and Li Xiaoyun unscrupulously.
"Bullshit! What can you do to me if I don't compensate you today? Are you trying to be a hooligan? Come on, come on, show me one. If I frown today, I'm not your aunt!"
"Hey, you're still trying to bully me? I've seen a lot of idiots like you, so stop talking nonsense and pay me, or I won't be polite!"
"you……"
Li Xiaoyun was so furious that she encountered such a terrible thing while shopping. Besides, Li Xiaoyun was not ignorant. She had worked for Luo Yang for a long time and was very familiar with things like the Microphone Mirror.
This kind of microphone glasses are imported? Bullshit! It is a fake at first glance. The frame is made of plastic, and it is a very low-quality plastic. It feels wrong in the hand. In addition, the label on the lens is not in English, but in Chinese pinyin. I don’t know which small factory produced the fake one.
This kind of microphone mirror is only 5 yuan a pair in Luoyang, and the selling price is 10 to 15 yuan at most. Does Li Xiaoyun really think she knows nothing? She actually asked for 200 yuan?
Li Xiaoyun has always had a hot temper. It was her idea to come here shopping today. Lin Yan was there too. If she admitted this today, she would be so embarrassed.
Just when Li Xiaoyun was about to argue with the other party and have a good talk, she didn't expect Song Yuanchao to stop her with one hand.
"How much is this pair of Mike glasses? 200?" Song Yuanchao asked the owner calmly.
"Yes! 200! Pay and leave! If you continue to act like a scoundrel, I won't be so nice to you." The owner still had that gangster look on his face, looking at Song Yuanchao with a squint.
Song Yuanchao nodded without saying much. He stuffed the broken microphone into his pocket and took out 20 Great Unity cards from another pocket.
"This is 200, count it."
The shop owner was surprised by Song Yuanchao's frankness, and then delighted. He quickly took the money and counted it quickly. It was indeed 200 yuan.
Suddenly, a smile appeared on the shop owner's face. He said to Song Yuanchao, "You are a sensible friend. 200 is right. That's enough. You can go now."
With a wave of his hand, the two "door gods" at the door moved to the left and right, leaving the middle passage. At this time, Li Xiaoyun stared at Song Yuanchao with incredible eyes, as if she wanted to say something, but before she could say it, Song Yuanchao grabbed Lin Yan and Li Xiaoyun with one hand, and left the store without saying a word.
"Brother Yuanchao, they are blackmailing us, how can you just give us the money?" When we got outside, the sun was scorching, but the atmosphere suddenly became much more relaxed.
After walking about ten meters away from the store, Li Xiaoyun couldn't help but blame Song Yuanchao.
"I know." Song Yuanchao smiled faintly, touched Li Xiaoyun's head, and looked at Lin Yan who was thoughtful beside him: "It's just 200 yuan. The safety of you and Yanzi is more important than this money. A gentleman does not stand under a dangerous wall. There is no need to conflict with these little bastards for such a small amount of money."
"Your brother Yuanchao is right. Okay, Xiaoyun, don't be angry. I was really worried that they would just start fighting. There are three men, and if a fight really starts, your brother Yuanchao will suffer." Lin Yan took Li Xiaoyun's hand and comforted her. She still approved of Song Yuanchao's way of solving the problem. If a conflict really arose in that situation, she and Li Xiaoyun, two women, would be of no help at all. They might even cause Song Yuanchao to get beaten up.
"I'm so mad!" Li Xiaoyun thought about it and understood the truth, but she was still furious. She puffed out her cheeks and stomped her feet in anger.
"Come on, don't be angry. It's not worth getting angry at such a person." Song Yuanchao comforted her with a smile, and then asked, "Let's go. There are still a few shops behind. Let's continue shopping."
"Why are we still shopping? We're no longer in the mood. Let's go back." Li Xiaoyun shook her head. Seeing that she had lost interest in shopping, Lin Yan naturally felt the same way. In that case, they decided to go home. However, they did not go back, but continued to walk forward, intending to cross Maiyang Road and exit from the north.
They had just taken a few steps and were about to reach the north exit when a young man who appeared out of nowhere suddenly blocked the way of Song Yuanchao and the other two. The young man was dressed similarly to the shop owner, also wearing a floral shirt, bell-bottom pants, and microphone goggles.
