This humble Taoist priest wants to take the college entrance exam.

Chapter 123 A Master Should Act This Way
I left the residential area and came to the Xijiang River.

The sky had already darkened, and the dazzling lights illuminated both banks of the West River.

During the Autumn Equinox, the nights are not as humid as the days. It's also the weekend, and the banks of the West River are much more lively than on weekdays after dinner.

Stalls of all sizes sprang up like mushrooms after rain, including those belonging to Chen Shi'an and Li Wanyin.

When I arrived here, it was already 7:15 pm. The time for setting up a stall is not too late, but it is definitely not early either. After all, some full-time stall owners come here as early as 3 or 4 pm to reserve their spots.

The best spot for setting up a stall was obviously out of the question, but fortunately, the entire pedestrian street along the Xijiang River had a lot of foot traffic, so there were always places where you could set up a stall.

"Let's do it here," Chen Shi'an suggested.

"Here? I'd like to walk a little further."

Li Wanyin looked around and found herself under a banyan tree decorated with colorful lights, providing ample illumination. There was a barbecue stall on the left and a phone screen protector stand on the right. The only drawback was that it was quite far from the tourist attractions where people would take photos. Although the flow of people was not bad, not many people lingered on this stretch of road.

“The feng shui here is good,” Chen Shi’an said.

Li Wanyin chuckled. Anyway, the remaining locations were all pretty much the same. Since Chen Shi'an said this place had good feng shui, then this place would be fine.

The main reason is that she just broke even in the neighborhood, and every cup of sweet soup she sells from now on will be pure profit, which greatly relieved the psychological pressure of Li Wanyin's first time setting up a stall.

After deciding on the location for her stall, Li Wanyin quickly began preparations.

She took out two folding chairs from the bottom of the folding cart, handed one to Chen Shi'an, and sat on the other herself.

In early autumn, leaves often fall under the banyan tree. To prevent them from falling into the sugar water bucket, she always covers it with a lid, which also helps to keep it warm.

The night market-specific light was also brought out. When folded up, it was about one meter tall. When connected to a power bank, although the wattage was not high, it could keep the lights on for eight or nine hours without any problem.

Price tags were also put up and placed next to the folding cart. With the lights on, this simple stall became eye-catching.

That wasn't enough. Li Wanyin took out a small speaker from her backpack, pressed play, and the electronic voice she had recorded came through:

[Homemade, freshly made sweet soup, mung bean sweet soup, three yuan a bowl, five yuan for two bowls...]
Chen Shi'an turned his head and looked over.

Slightly embarrassed, the older sister listened to her own voice coming from the small speaker, her pretty face flushed slightly as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear...

"Sister Wanyin is so well prepared."

Chen Shi'an picked up Li Wanyin's small speaker and played with it.

The older sister's voice inside was playing on a loop, which was quite interesting.

"Hey... don't mess around."

Li Wanyin gave him a shy and reproachful look, took back her small speaker, and put it aside.

After all, it's just selling the simplest dessert, so any fancy ways to attract customers are superfluous in the street vendor economy. A small loudspeaker that plays advertising messages on a loop is the best marketing tool.

Chen Shi'an's stall was even simpler than hers.

He took the bundle off his shoulder, blew the dust off the ground, and unfolded it into the original dark blue cloth, about a meter square in size.

The wood carvings, handmade incense, calligraphy and paintings inside were arranged one by one on the cloth. Finally, he sat down on the folding chair that Li Wanyin had just given him, and that was it—he was ready to set up his stall.

Li Wanyin had seen Taoist priests setting up stalls before, but didn't they all dress themselves up to look quite serious first? At the very least, they would wear a Taoist robe, put up a banner, and write down a sign saying "Fortune Telling, Physiognomy, and Feng Shui"!
But Chen Shi'an treated it like a game. He didn't wear a Taoist robe or set up a banner. He simply laid out a piece of cloth with some trinkets and waited for the right person.

Remembering what Chen Shi'an had just told her, 'Buying my stuff is a stroke of luck for them; if they're willing to trust me, that's their destiny.'

Well... that's how a true expert should act. Believe it or not, buy it or not!
Seeing the siblings set up their stall together, Fei Mo became their lucky cat, squatting in the open space between them. When someone looked over, the cat would wave.

When I first set up my stall, there weren't many customers. People came and went, but most of them just glanced at me out of curiosity and left.

Li Wanyin left her seat and curiously squatted in front of Chen Shi'an's stall, picking up his wood carvings, handmade incense, and calligraphy and paintings to take a look.

"Shi'an...did you make all of these yourself?"

"Yes, I used to make these in the mountains. I just picked some up on my way down. Once these are sold out, I'll make some more when I have some free time."

The first thing Li Wanyin picked up to look at were the wood carvings. There were only eight or nine in total, all of which were very small. Some were carvings of figures, some were carvings of small animals in the mountains, and some were simply a pine tree.

She didn't understand wood carving, but she could tell that Chen Shi'an's craftsmanship was exquisite. All of these objects were carved to lifelike detail. When she held the little deer in her hand, she inexplicably felt that the wooden deer was about to jump out at any moment. Although it was a wood carving, it had a unique vitality.

Li Wanyin had always felt that she didn't understand art, but she never expected that one day she would hold a few wood carvings and look at them for a long, long time. The more she looked at them, the more fascinated she became. Each wood carving felt different in her hands, as if she could feel the state of mind of the person who carved it.

"Does Sister Wanyin like this little deer?"

"Yes, Shi'an, you carved it very well!"

The small wooden deer sculpture stood in her palm, and Li Wanyin liked it more and more as she looked at it. The charming feeling of the wild deer made her suddenly understand why some people love to collect carved objects.

"If Sister Wanyin likes it, then it's yours," Chen Shi'an said generously.

"...No, no, you've put these up for sale at your stall, how can you just give them away!"

Li Wanyin really liked the wooden deer. After thinking for a moment, her eyes lit up and she said, "Shi'an, let me buy it from you. Since this is your first time setting up a stall, how about I treat you as my first customer?"

"Okay."

Li Wanyin was very happy to see Chen Shi'an agree. She was his first WeChat friend, his first Douyin friend, and even his first customer when he set up a stall.

"how much is it?"

"Nine yuan and ninety cents it is."

"So cheap!!"

"It's just ordinary wood anyway, it just takes a little effort to carve."

"No, no, that's too cheap. Sell it to me for a higher price."

"...Is this how you buy things?"

"Sell it for a little more, and hurry up." "Then twenty-nine yuan and ninety cents will do. Sister Wanyin, do you still want it? If not, I won't sell it to you. I'll give it to you later."

"...Yes, yes, I'll buy it."

Li Wanyin thought to herself, "Twenty-nine yuan and ninety cents is very cheap, okay?"

Even if it's just ordinary wood, with such exquisite carving skills, she felt it could at least sell for... well, something that can't be quantified, so she didn't know how much to sell it for.

Taking out his phone, scanning the QR code to pay, Chen Shi'an successfully completed his first business transaction.

"Shi'an, if you were to sell it to someone else normally, how much would you be willing to pay? You can't sell it for such a low price, can you?"

"Of course not."

Pricing artworks is a complex system, not simply determined by cost. They can be worthless or priceless.

From the perspective of wood carving alone, linden wood itself is not valuable. Although he imbued it with meaning through his carving skills, it is mainly for appreciation and enjoyment.

It's something that can be made in an hour or two, and it's usually kept at the bottom of a drawer, so it wouldn't be reasonable to sell it for too high a price...

Chen Shi'an glanced at the small items displayed on the cloth, thought for a moment and said, "As for wood carvings, two hundred yuan each."

"Two, two hundred yuan!!"

"Does Sister Wanyin think it's too expensive?"

"..."

Li Wanyin initially wanted to say that it was indeed very expensive, after all, it was just a very ordinary piece of linden wood. However, upon seeing the exquisite carving techniques and the unique and wonderful experience of viewing and handling it, she suddenly felt that the two hundred yuan was not expensive, and even a bit worthwhile.

With only a little over 800 yuan in her pocket, she wouldn't spend 200 yuan to buy a wooden carving that she could only look at and play with; but if she had 8,000 yuan in her pocket, then Li Wanyin, who has always been a pragmatist, felt that she might really grit her teeth and buy it.

"How about you raise the price a bit, Shi'an?"

Li Wanyin wasn't being sarcastic. Putting herself in the shoes of someone with eight thousand yuan in her pocket, she thought that selling this wood carving for only two hundred yuan was really cheap! Some poorly made figurines sold outside, which were only for nostalgia, could sell for hundreds or even thousands of yuan!
"So, Sister Wanyin, what do you think is a suitable amount?"

"Double...double it?" Li Wanyin asked cautiously.

"Okay, let's sell it for the starting price of four hundred yuan."

Chen Shi'an didn't care whether there would be a market for it or not; people with discerning eyes would naturally buy it when they came across it.

"How much do you want to sell these handmade incense sticks for?"

Li Wanyin picked up a tube of incense, opened the lid, and smelled it.

Compared to the artistry of wood carving, the direct sensory experience of handmade incense is more pronounced. Even before it was lit, Li Wanyin felt that the fragrance was quite extraordinary.

"I originally wanted to sell it for 300, since there are exactly 30 sticks inside. But since the wood carvings are already selling for 400, I'll sell a tube of incense for 600. This is considered medicinal incense, and it has certain therapeutic effects."

"Six, six hundred!!"

"Does Sister Wanyin think it's expensive?"

"...No, I think it's pretty cheap."

Li Wanyin scratched her head. Heaven knows how she, with only a little over eight hundred yuan in her pocket, could be so shameless as to think that selling a bundle of thirty incense sticks for six hundred yuan was cheap!

This one probably won't even burn for half an hour, yet it costs twenty yuan. That's quite a luxury, isn't it?
"What about these calligraphy and paintings?"

Li Wanyin put down the incense in her hand and took out Chen Shi'an's calligraphy and painting to look at.

The calligraphy and paintings were not mounted; the paper was simply rolled up and stored together in a long wooden box.

She unfolded a painting, about four feet three inches in size, depicting a mountain morning. It was a standard traditional Chinese ink and wash painting, and it was clear that Chen Shi'an's painting skills were in no way inferior to his carving skills.

When Chen Shi'an painted, he also used the supernatural ability to convey meaning through objects to endow the painting with a corresponding artistic conception. So much so that Li Wanyin, who did not understand art, never expected that one day she would look at a traditional Chinese painting with great interest for a long, long time, as if she were really in the mountains at dawn...

"As for this painting... well, let's sell it for 1,800."

"One thousand eight hundred!!"

Li Wanyin felt it was worth it.

"What makes paintings more valuable than wood carvings?" Li Wanyin asked curiously.

She could tell that Chen Shi'an didn't set prices arbitrarily; he had his own value system.

"The main problem is that the pigments are troublesome to prepare. Just like wood carving and handmade incense, I also make the pigments myself when painting. I use plant juices from the mountains to make watercolors, such as indigo, carmine, and gamboge; and natural mineral pigments to make stone colors, such as ochre, cinnabar, azurite, malachite, and orpiment. Mixing them together is indeed a bit troublesome, so I sell them at a higher price."

"You...you made all these paints yourself?!"

"Yes, just like wood carving and handmade incense, I use local materials. Apart from the pigments, I make the ink and paper myself."

"...!!"

Li Wanyin was dumbfounded.

Wood carving can be done with any piece of wood, and I saw him picking up a lot of 'trash' when we went hiking. But I never imagined that he even made the paint and paper for his paintings and calligraphy!

For Chen Shi'an, these were all businesses with no capital investment, but Li Wanyin didn't know that the expensive part was all labor!
Putting aside the artistic value of these items themselves, in modern society, which item related to pure handmade intangible cultural heritage is not expensive?

"No, no, no!"

"What's wrong?"

"It's too cheap! This painting should sell for two thousand eight hundred!"

The older sister, who only had eight hundred yuan in her pocket, said this.

(End of this chapter)