I went to Old Du’s shop, and he was right there accompanying an acquaintance as they looked at the car. The car belonged to the acquaintance and needed to be sold; the keys were kept tightly in his own hand. Even after circling around it twice, he still didn’t hand them to Old Du.
First, he talked about how long it took back then to pick up the car. Then he said the interior color was specifically chosen. When it came to the audio system, he simply got in the car and played a track, inviting us to listen. I don’t know much about cars, but the bass sounded quite thick—yet Old Du crouched down by the tire.
He deals in used cars, and the place I was looking at was different from where I saw it. I was figuring out how popular the car must have been back then. Meanwhile, he was already calculating which parts would still require money after he got it back.
After the acquaintance left, Old Du turned off the music and said, “I guess it won’t be possible to talk things through today.”
I asked, “Isn’t the spread too big?”
He said, “It’s not time to talk about pricing yet. Today they’re here to listen to me praise the car. If they really want to sell, then we’ll talk.”
I said, “Then why didn’t you just praise it a couple more times just now?” He said, “The better I praise, the harder it will be to report the price later. He wants me to buy it based on how much you like it. I have to base it on how much the person is willing to pay.”
There were two key boxes on the table. One had a “Do Not Touch” label. I thought it was for an expensive car. He said, “It’s for an old customer. They agreed to sell it, but the next day they called and asked to have his son come back and drive it once more.”
I could understand that pretty well. Keeping the car parked at home takes up space. But when someone really wants to drive it away, they remember it never abandoned them on the road. Even that crack along the side of the seat—you can recognize how it got there.
Old Du said, “For customers like you, I usually advise renewing for another year.”
I asked, “Isn’t it even harder to sell next year?”
He said, “Maybe. But don’t do business like this in order to make this little bit of money, so that next time they see me, they always feel that it was me who made their good car cheaper.”
At this moment, Manager Lan called and asked where we were. She happened to be passing nearby. The car pulled over; first she asked Old Du to listen to it. When turning at low speed, it made a bit of a sound.
Old Du went out with her to test it once around, and when they came back, he didn’t say what was broken—he only told her that if she had time, she should drive it to a repair shop to put it on the rack and check. He had a row of cars waiting to be sold. Manager Lan didn’t look at any of the cars; instead, the moment she entered the door, she stared at the tea in the display case.
Old Du said, “It was a gift from someone else. See if there’s anything you can drink.”
She took out a box, turned it over to look at it, and then put it back. I asked, “What’s wrong?” She said, “You have to ask him—whether he’s planning to drink it, or to keep it for a long time.”
Old Du said, “What’s the point of keeping it?”
She said, “Then take it apart.”
Before, Manager Lan’s shop also had some things she didn’t want to dismantle. Keep them for entertaining important customers. Keep them for holidays. Keep them for a more suitable day later. Later, she took out a set of cups and started using them every day. She said that if we were going to keep them instead, new clerks wouldn’t even know the shop had this.
I asked her, “When an important customer comes, what do you use?”
She said, “Just use this. Isn’t it just a matter of cleaning it?”
While brewing tea, Old Du asked her whether that membership system was any good. He also wanted to set one up, to record what car customers bought and when they had been contacted.
Manager Lan said it was especially useful during the demonstration. You just tap a few times on the screen. I thought I could even manage the accounts from the neighboring store. But when it came time for me to use it myself, when we had to return one item, the two of us and the clerk searched for half a day.
Old Du said, “Go ask the guy who sells software.”
She said, “I did. I sent a video.” Watching the video was very clear. But when it was my turn to tap, what came up wasn’t the same page. Now whenever he says, “It’s really simple,” I first call the clerk over—don’t make me listen alone.
I remembered that she had sent a photo from the store a while back—on the cashier counter, there was a computer and also a notebook. At the time, I thought she liked handwritten notes. She said that notebook was specifically for keeping track of IOUs. When regular customers came in to pick up things, they’d put it on her account—so how could she just stop them to ask for their phone number first?
When Old Du heard this, he went to the drawer and took out his own notebook. The cover was oily-looking. When he flipped it open, it was very neat—one page for one person. He said, “Even my wife can understand it. If we change systems, she’ll have to ask me again.”
The two of them put their notebooks together and started talking about which customers should get phone calls and which ones only needed messages. I moved to the other side of the table, finished my own notes, and also added the $ETH arrangement for this time.
**Currency: ETH · Long
**Entry reference: 2410—2420
**Stop loss: 2385
**Take profit: 2470—2495—2520
Warm reminder: All price points fluctuate up or down by 1—5 USD. Personal view only, for reference.
Old Du’s shop didn’t have a proper tea station. The water was heated by the side. The table was uneven, and a folded advertisement paper was placed under the cups as a spacer. Manager Lan said, “This tea setup can be used. Where did it come from?”
He thought about it for a while, but couldn’t figure it out. He took the package over and looked at it again.
Someone came to the entrance to pick up the car. Old Du went out to move the position and called out for us to just sit. Manager Lan took out her phone to photograph the tea box and then replied to the clerk’s message. I topped up the water in my cup, scooted a bit toward the window, and watched him slowly pull the car from the very inside, one step at a time.