Novel Bin Chapter 7: Live-streaming Shoe Selling
Liu Man used to get all of her allowance from her father. Now that Liu Chenyu wasn’t here anymore, she didn’t even have enough allowance to buy the cat food. When she looked at her mother, Zhang Pei, who was sitting in the living room and looked as if she suddenly grew older, Liu Man realized that she needed to find a way to earn money.
She walked into her dressing room and saw her piles of clothing and shoes. She then took out her phone, typed out a message, and sent it into a group chat that she was in, along with Li Xiaoru and Wang Nina.
“Do you guys know anyone who wants second hand clothing and shoes?”
The duo replied in less than a minute.
“Nope, (._.) but I think they usually sell these kinds of stuff on Xian Yu.”
TL’s Note: Xian Yu is an app that people use to sell and buy second hand stuff. Most commonly used in China.
“What? You suddenly want to sell your clothes and your shoes now?” Li Xiaoru said while typing out a huge question mark.
“Yeah, I want to sell my AJs.”
“!!!!!!”
“Are you going crazy? Aren’t AJs your most favorite thing in the whole world?”
Both girls were shocked. They all liked AJs and were jealous of how Liu Man could buy all the shoes that she liked. With their allowances, they certainly couldn’t afford all those AJs. They also went to Liu Man’s house before and saw a whole wall filled with piles of AJs. They all thought that Liu Man was crazy rich.
That’s why both girls were so shocked.
“I really need money right now,” Liu Man didn’t want her friends to worry, “And I don’t even like AJs anymore. There isn’t enough space in my house anyway.”
“What’s going on with you? You don’t like Tang Tu anymore, and now, you even want to sell your AJs. Then, really, what do you like?” Nina asked with a bewildered expression.
“I like money.”
“……”
Under the advice of the two girls, Liu Man took pictures of every pair of shoes that she owned and sent them onto Xian Yu, with the date they were made and their color. In total, there were sixty-two pairs. When she finished, Daylight had already fallen asleep on her blanket.
That night, Liu Man was so tired that she cuddled Daylight and immediately fell asleep.
The next day was a Tuesday. She packed up and rushed to school. On the subway, she held onto the railing while she logged onto Xian Yu to check if anyone had messaged her. She didn’t expect to see so many people message her.
“Are all the shoes at size thirty-six?”
“Are there more pictures of the fourth pair?”
“Is it really that new? Are you really not faking it?”
“I’m in the same city, can I come and go see the shoes?”
A lot of people had messaged her, since her shoes were newer than most of the shoes that people sold in Xian Yu, and the price was only half the original price. A lot of AJ collectors were very interested.
She replied to every single message and discovered that everyone was questioning whether the shoes were fake or not. She added to her profile, “I’m also an AJ collector, due to family issues, I have to sell these, but I can guarantee that these AJs aren’t fakes.”
A little while after adding the information, she had another comment. “You have lots of AJs and there are lots of buyers. Not all of us are at capital, so it would be difficult to prove that the AJs aren’t fake. How about you do a live video, and show us the shoes one by one?”
Live?
Liu Man was surprised. In her memories, the old Liu Man didn’t really watch live videos, and she didn’t even have a live-streaming video app on her phone. At school, Liu Man asked her two best friends for advice.
“Why not, there’s really no reason for hesitation. Xu Zihan in the neighboring class live-streamed piano videos and was able to make a lot of money.” Li Xiaoru didn’t think there was a problem.
Wang Nina spoke with disgust, “With her skills? She’s even worse than Manman. She can only coax the internet.”
TL Note: Manman = nickname for Liu Man.
Liu Man felt like Wang Nina was looking down on her skills and was also looking down at creating live-stream videos. She smiled, but didn’t say anything.
“But Manman, why are you suddenly selling your shoes? Did something happen in your family?” Li Xiaoru asked with concern.
Li Xiaoru thought, ever since Liu Man passed out, she’d changed. Liu Man spoke less, had more on her mind, and her behavior changed. Multiple times, Li Xiaoru saw her alone in the piano room practicing, working harder than usual. She doesn’t hug them anymore, and when they attempted to hug her arm, Liu Man dodged them. This girl seemed like she became more mature in the span of a night.
“Don’t worry, I just realized that I used to spend money without care and that I bought a lot of useless things. So right now, I have to stop myself before it’s too late. Didn’t I say this before? Right now, I really like money. Especially the feeling of holding a bunch of cash in my hands.
“Can you not be so low..?” Wang Nina was speechless, they were supposed to be the piano major’s youngsters.
“More low is more elegant.”
The three laughed together, Liu Man temporarily dispelled their doubts.
After discussing it with her two friends, Liu Man decided to stream tomorrow night in their dorm room. She first downloaded the streaming app. She made an account called “Princess Man,” and wrote down her streaming time and username on Xian Yu’s public page.
At the live-streaming time, Liu Man changed into a pair of jeans that suited everything, and Li Xiaoru held the camera up so that it only showed from below Liu Man’s legs.
“Why aren’t there any viewers?” After Li Xiaoru’s commentary, the view count changed from 0 to 1. “There’s someone, there’s someone! Their username is Dragon’s Roar.”
TL Note: Usernames in Chinese are hard to replicate in English. There will be flaws in the names. If we directly translated Liu Man’s username, then it would turn out like this: Princess Go Slow. In Chinese, the name incorporates Liu Man’s actual name which we cannot transfer into English. So we have to use Princess Man. Man in Chinese means slow.
Wang Nina rolled her eyes at Li Xiaoru, “Shhhh.”
Li Xiaoru quickly shut her mouth.
Although there was only one viewer, Liu Man still introduced herself, “Hello Dragon’s Roar, I’m an AJ seller on Xian Yu, so now I’ll show you my collection.”
Liu Man’s voice was unnatural. She was a bit nervous and felt uncomfortable. Even though there was only one person viewing, she felt as if she was exposing herself in front of millions of people.
For a girl who was locked away in the cold palace and wasn’t able to walk out the front door even once, this was a huge challenge.
“Today, I’m going to be showing you five pairs of shoes, and because my size is 36, all my AJs are also size 36.”
Liu Man opened a shoe box and took out the shoes. Li Xiaoru immediately filmed the shoes in every way possible with the phone. Front, back, sideways, from bird eye’s view, and from the bottom. At this moment, a second audience member entered the live-stream room.
When Liu Man changed into her shoes, there were already six people in the audience.
“Wow, her legs are beautiful,” an audience member with the nickname of “I’m here for the shoes” wrote the first comment.
Li Xiaoru saw it and said, “Thank you for praising Manman.”
“Why won’t you show your face?” “I’m here for the shoes” wrote.
“Haha, she’s a bit shy,” Li Xiaoru explained.
Liu Man’s face blushed a bit, but continued to present the shoes, “I bought these last year in January, I’ve only worn them twice, and the original price was $1899.”
She put on the shoes and walked a few steps.
There were now 11 viewers.
One person came in by accident,
“What is this? Is she showing off her legs?” –Otaku Boy
“It’s for showing shoes.” –I’m just here for the shoes.
“But the legs are more attractive than the shoes.” –Otaku Boy
TL Note: Yes, it’s literally written like that. With the double “–” and the weird names. There aren’t any periods either.
To be honest, Liu Man did have beautiful legs; they were skinny and long. The jeans perfectly outlined her curves, and the lifted up parts of her jeans showed her flawless ankle. She was indeed, beautiful.
Credits: Sydney, Kathrien, & Dora