Chapter Forty-Five: Garage Sale

  This afternoon, the sunshine is abundant, it's a good weather for fishing. However, this afternoon, Ju An can't go fishing because a cow is going back to its country. Thank God, Amen! Although Ju An doesn't believe in religion, he follows the old Chinese tradition of worshipping Buddha wherever he goes, regardless of whether it's foreign or domestic.

  Driving a GMC with Wu Ming, of course, and also Wu Song, the two men and a monkey sent Wang Fan to the airport. After accepting Old Thomas's suggestion, Wang Fan decided to return home first and recruit some promising, insightful, valuable, and patient young Chinese men to come here to learn about American horse breeding and training experience from the old master, in order to flourish the domestic market. Of course, Wang Fan is not a one-time deal, he will come back after a while to buy horses and continue to contribute to the American Empire's prosperity.

  Wu Ming then wanted to stay here and return to the country with the tour group. For these two days, Wu Ming didn't care about the tour group at all because he had already experienced everything later on, such as horseback riding, herding sheep, driving cattle, and other chaotic farm life. He didn't need to experience it every day. Every day was just sending Wu Ming and Wang Fan over in the morning and picking them up at night to return to the ranch. However, according to Wu Ming, the general reaction of the tour group was, as one member put it: "Brother Wu! This trip is pretty okay!"

  No matter what the tour group is doing, today I sent off one troublemaker and now there's only another troublemaker left by my side. Thinking that in two more days this troublemaker will also return to their country, my heart feels a sense of relief. After sending Wang Fan onto the plane, I started humming a little tune:

  It is better to cherish the memory than to meet in person.

  Even if you don't understand

  All I can say is goodbye

  Wu Ming listened to Ju An singing for a while, and when he opened the car door to get in, he said to Ju An: "Can't you sing a whole song? You keep repeating these three sentences over and over again. I've been waiting for the fourth sentence all along, it's driving me crazy!"

  "Brother only remembers these three sentences, and doesn't know the rest."

  Jū ān started the car and was about to continue singing, but Wú Míng interrupted him: "If you sing again, I'll smash my head into the front windshield, believe it or not!" Jū ān had no choice but to stop. Replacing the windshield would cost at least a hundred bucks. You can't go against money, right?

  As they drove through the town of Lewistown, they saw several small cardboard boxes on the side of the road with "Garagesale" written on them and an arrow pointing to it. Wu Ming pointed at the sign and said: "These Americans are really not particular about this, obviously messing up the city environment. I'll write a letter when I get back to Xiao Hei, telling them to set up a city management department too, so they can learn from our advanced management experience."

  "Come on, it's obvious that this is a garage sale, something Americans do all the time in spring and summer," said to Wu Ming. "Don't be ridiculous, they're just selling stuff they don't need at home. It's like a second-hand market back home. This kind of thing is very popular here, you think it's illegal?"

  Wu Ming immediately felt refreshed: "Then don't be polite, hurry up and take a look, what are they selling, let's go and have a look".

  Yu An had no choice but to drive and follow the signs on the small paper, after a while, he saw a long table in front of a garage, with some things placed on it, several children and adults were surrounding it, picking something.

  Jū Jū ān stopped the car by the side of the road, and went over with Wú Míng to take a look. Oh, this small town is really small! A middle-aged white man was busy attending to adults and children selecting things. Jū Jū ān actually knew him - it was Henry, who had given Jū Jū ān a ride when he came back from New York last time.

  "Hello there, Henry."

  Henry saw Yu An smiling and stretched out his hand: "Hey! You're An".

  "And then Henry shook hands with him and said: 'This is my friend, you can call him Ming, he's very interested in garage sales, we came to take a look.'"

  "Henry smiled and said, 'Take a look, that's my little daughter Annie, and that's my son Michael. We're doing some cleaning up at home, taking out things we don't need, seeing if the neighbors want anything, and whatever is left over will be donated to recycling organizations.'"

  Just then, Henry's daughter Annie came over with two little girls and looked at the monkey on Wu Song's shoulder, saying: "Sir, your monkey is so cute".

  Henry smiled and said, "This is my neighbor's daughter and my little girl are good friends. The several little guys made some drinks to sell today." He pointed to the other two little girls.

  Jū ān pulled Wǔ Sōng down from his shoulders and put him in Annie's arms, saying: "You can help me take care of it for a while, but when you leave, you have to return it to me. Its name is Wǔ Sōng."

  The three little girls happily said: "Thank you, sir." and continued to sell their drinks.

  As another group of customers arrived, Henry smiled and said, "Sorry, you just look around, I'll go attend to them."

  Ju An and Wu Ming looked around, the things placed in front of the garage were all cheap toys for kids, a children's book that can be opened, with a small button on the cover, pull it, and the little zebra on the cover becomes a cute little bear. There are also some folding storybooks, open one and pull out something like a big white rabbit or a big gray wolf. The price tag is $0.25 per book. Some wooden blocks were also seen, with prices mostly in the range of $0.x dollars.

  There are also some slightly more expensive things, basically all unopened. I just saw a foam puzzle on the ground that was completely unopened for only $1.

  Jū ān and Wú Míng entered the garage, only to find several large items inside, such as wardrobes, bedside tables, chairs, table lamps, and vacuum cleaners. Each item had a small paper tag attached to it with prices written on them. Jū ān took a look around and found a dresser that looked very good, with four drawers per row and four rows in total, priced at only $5. A sturdy chair with floral patterns, the kind used for study desks, was also priced at $5. Most of the other items were similarly cheap. The vacuum cleaner was the most expensive item, priced at $10, but it looked brand new and had probably been used only a few times.

  Wu Ming looked around and said: "It's really cheap, now I want to buy something back".

  "Hey, what are you going to do with these? Are you planning on buying a vacuum cleaner and taking it back home?"

  After a while, he came out of the garage and arrived at a stall where several little girls were selling drinks. There were seven or eight kids lined up in front, and Wu Song was standing on the stall, holding something in one hand and munching on it, while the other hand kept taking steel rings from the little guys and throwing them into a small box next to him. Then, a little girl would hand over a cup of drink to the kid who handed over the money and say thank you. Upon closer inspection, Wu Song had somehow put on a small cowboy hat on his head, and he was wearing an athletic shirt with the number 6 written on it. The paper sign in front of the stall read "10 cents per cup". After lining up for a while, it was finally my turn. I handed over a 0.25-dollar steel ring to Wu Song, wanting to buy two cups of drink. But unexpectedly, after taking the money, Wu Song immediately put the steel ring back into my hand.

  Wu Ming said: "This little monkey of yours hasn't been raised in vain, knowing that his family's money is good."

  Annie handed over two cups of drinks and said: "Wu Song brings us good business, we'll treat you to two cups of drinks."

  Jū ān and Wú Míng took the drinks handed over by the little girls, said thank you, and then left the little girls' stall under the urging of the little guys behind.

  Two people were chatting, Lucy, whom they had met last time, came out of the house and saw Ju An, smiling and saying: "An, how are you? Has Wu Song arrived?"

  The vendor of the drink stall smiled and said, "Where are you going to sell drinks?" Then he raised his hand with the drinks: "These two cups are free."

  Lucy looked at the queue in front of the drink stall and smiled, saying: "It seems that Annie and her friends are doing a good business, they've hired a good cashier."

  Following Lucy's apology, they got busy again, only Ju An and Wu Ming continued to stroll leisurely.

  There were few people coming over, and with Lucy's help, Henry came over to continue chatting with Ju An.

  "Wu Ming asked: 'Do you have such sales every year?'"

  "Henry smiled and replied, 'Not necessarily, it's just an exchange between neighbors. Some things you have at home that you can't use might be useful to others, and vice versa. That's what garage sales are for, they're usually very cheap.'"

  "Very cheap," said Ju An with a smile, "I just saw that the most expensive one was a vacuum cleaner for $10."

  Henry smiled and replied, "That's brand new. My family has several of those at home now, all brought by my sister and brother when they came for Christmas. We can't use that many, so we're selling them." Then, looking at the long line in front of the drink stall, he laughed and said, "It seems like the little girls' drink stall is the most popular now."

  Ju An and Wu Ming also burst out laughing.

  During this time, some people came over. One of them bought the cabinet that Ju An had just seen earlier. After asking, it was discovered that his son had rented a house to live alone and the cabinet was just right for him to buy for his son's use.

  They chatted for a while, and when they saw that it was getting late, they said goodbye to Henry and went to find Wu Song. When they found him, they discovered that the little girls had sold out of drinks and were counting their money. As they walked over, Anni called out to Ahn, "Ahn, this is Wu Song's money." She handed Ahn a small plastic bag containing steel washers.

  Just as An was about to decline, Henry said beside him: "An, don't decline. This is the salary for Wu Song. The kids are doing the right thing. Wu Song has paid labor and should get his salary."

  After receiving the small plastic bag, the little girls hugged Wusong one by one and said goodbye to him.

  After saying goodbye to Henry and his family at their home, I started the car and drove for a while. Through the rearview mirror, I could still see several little girls waving goodbye.

  Wu Ming shook the small bag of coins and said, "Wu Song made some money today, listen to this." He then added, "These kids really know their manners, I didn't think the little girls would give Wu Song money." Seeing Wu Ming shaking his own money bag, Wu Song, who was sitting in the back seat, became unhappy and started making discontented noises, wanting to get the money bag back. Only when Wu Ming threw the bag over to Wu Song did he calm down after grabbing it in his hand.

  "Ha! I didn't think so either, maybe it's just a different perspective."