Chapter 10: Advancing by Retreating, Negotiating the Terms! (Please continue reading!)

Dong Dong Yu left three winning bottle caps behind. He found three wooden stoppers for Jiang Tao and resealed the wine bottles.

“Heading off, Boss Yu,” Jiang Tao said cheerfully, waving goodbye as he carried three boxes of wine out of the supermarket.

Barely ten meters from the door, Jiang Tao spotted a familiar face coming toward him.

“Hey, Xiao Jiang! No work today? Out buying wine? Got guests over?”

The speaker was a tall elderly man with a full head of silver-gray curls and a ruddy complexion.

This was Lv Qian, Jiang Tao’s landlord.

Although Lv was already seventy, he was in excellent health and spirits.

He received a monthly pension of around sixteen to seventeen thousand yuan.

Additionally, the tenement building he owned brought in over thirty thousand yuan in rent monthly.

For a seventy-year-old man, Lv’s income surpassed that of seven or eight young men.

With Beijing’s high average income, retirees like Lv contributed quite a bit.

Lv’s daily routine involved smoking, drinking, getting perms, bird walking, and cricket fighting — a lifestyle far more comfortable than that of most young people.

“I don’t have any guests. Just picked up some wine while buying cigarettes, on my way to work now,” Jiang Tao replied with a smile, greeting his landlord before preparing to leave.

“Oh, isn’t that Qinghualang? Nice, Xiao Jiang! You’ve been doing well lately, upgrading your drink quite a bit!”

Lv’s eyes flicked to the wine boxes peeking from Jiang Tao’s bag — none other than his favorite Qinghualang brand.

Jiang Tao’s heart stirred at Lv’s words.

Everyone who had rented from Lv for a few years knew about his fondness for wine.

And Lv was well-off; the cheapest bottle he drank cost several hundred yuan.

As Lv put it, being seventy, how many years were left? From now on, it was time to eat well, drink well, play well, and enjoy the rest of life.

Of course, he had the means to do so.

Jiang Tao’s own parents were in their sixties, rising at four or five every morning to work under a foreman’s van, returning only after dark.

Their hard labor earned barely five thousand yuan a month — not even a fraction of Lv’s pension.

Some are born into Rome, others into servitude.

Even within the same village roots, the difference between Beijing’s villages and Jiang Tao’s rural hometown was vast.

“Grandpa, let’s step over here; I want to say a few words,” Jiang Tao said, gesturing for Lv to follow him aside.

“So mysterious,” Lv said, puzzled but following a few steps ahead to a nearby alley entrance.

“Grandpa, these three boxes of Qinghualang I just bought from Boss Yu. You can ask him if you don’t believe me,” Jiang Tao explained.

“Besides scanning the QR codes under the caps to redeem prizes, I haven’t touched the wine at all.”

“I’ve already redeemed all the QR codes, so these are just regular bottles now.”

“If you don’t mind that they’ve been opened, I’ll sell them to you at a discount.”

Jiang Tao cut straight to the point.

“Oh? How much of a discount?” Lv asked, clearly interested.

For true Qinghualang enthusiasts, the QR code promotion was just a small bonus.

Even without it, fans would still buy the wine they liked.

And given the pitiful odds—most people don’t even win second prize after ten tries—99.99% end up with the third prize: a 100ml trial bottle.

Only someone like Jiang Tao, who was incredibly lucky, could win three first prizes in a row.

Rather than gamble on the odds, a price discount was a much more tangible benefit.

As for the bottles being opened, real connoisseurs didn’t mind at all.

Good loose wine could fetch hundreds of yuan per jin anyway.

Jiang Tao thought for a moment and said, “Three bottles for 2,700 yuan, about 60% off.”

Lv’s eyes brightened at the offer.

Getting three bottles of Qinghualang at 60% off would save over two thousand yuan!

After a few seconds’ thought, Lv held up two fingers: “I’ll take them for 2,000.”

“Grandpa, don’t bargain me to death like that! I paid 4,500 for all three—you're cutting the price in half!” Jiang Tao covered the bag with his hand, feigning indignation with a dramatic flair.

Lv relented slightly: “2,100, that’s my final offer.”

“2,600, no less!” Jiang Tao countered, skillfully balancing their negotiation.

“How about we each give a little? I add some, you reduce some. 2,300 flat?”

“Grandpa, you’re a big man; what’s a couple hundred yuan between us? I’ll say 2,400.”

“All right, 2,400 it is. Let me check the goods first.”

Lv, no longer fussing over a hundred yuan, smiled and took the bag to inspect the wine boxes.

For Lv, bargaining was a pastime; for Jiang Tao, it was survival.

Four hundred yuan could buy his daughter a decent down jacket.

Selling the three bottles for 2,400 yuan—double what Boss Yu offered—was acceptable to Jiang Tao.

Originally, he planned to keep the wine for himself.

But thinking of the eighty to ninety thousand yuan debt at home, he wavered.

What kind of family drinks thousand-yuan bottles of wine?

If you want to enjoy life, it’s not now—first, clear the family debt.

“No problem with the wine! Come on, Xiao Jiang, I’ll scan for you.”

Lv, a longtime Qinghualang drinker, could tell authenticity by scent.

Having dealt with Jiang Tao for over six years, he trusted his character and believed he wouldn’t sell fake wine to an old comrade.

“Alright, scan here,” Jiang Tao said, smiling as he pulled out his phone and flipped it to show the WeChat payment QR code inside his phone case.

“By the way, Xiao Jiang, what prizes did you win with these three bottles?” Lv asked while scanning the QR code and entering 2,400 yuan.

[WeChat payment received: 2,400 yuan!]

The payment notification sound made Jiang Tao laugh; it was much sweeter than the sound from Teacher A Xin’s ten-pat E6.

“I just won three first prizes,” Jiang Tao answered with a grin.

“Three first prizes? What daydreams are you having, kid?” Lv chuckled, shaking his head.

He didn’t truly believe Jiang Tao had won three first prizes.

He had asked casually, and if Jiang Tao didn’t want to elaborate, he wouldn’t pry.

Either way, the prize winnings had nothing to do with him.

He was paying 2,400 yuan to save over two thousand yuan on three bottles of genuine Qinghualang.

For a true fan like Lv, it was a great deal.

“Haha, if you don’t believe me, forget it. I’m off to work—bye now!” Jiang Tao waved and turned to walk toward the village outskirts.

“This young man, dreaming of first prizes being so easy to get?”

“I’ve drunk dozens of bottles and only got one second prize,” Lv said with a smile, watching Jiang Tao’s departing figure, convinced he was joking.

***

Not far from Lv’s place, inside the Fat Dongdong Supermarket.

Seeing Jiang Tao’s streak of luck, hitting three first prizes in a row, Dong Dong Yu felt a stirring in his heart.

He opened a fresh case of Qinghualang, selecting two bottles to scan.

“Congratulations, you won third prize!”

“Congratulations, you won third prize!”

As expected, both scans yielded the 100% probability third prize.

Two 100ml trial bottles of Qinghualang.

“How can some people be so different from others…” Dong Dong Yu slumped in his chair, deciding never to challenge those odds again.