The Box of Cantaloupe

I was walking back to my apartment tonight when I say a truck with a man outside selling fruit. I had seen him before but I did not have money with me, and he usually leaves before I get home after school. I decided to stop and went up and asked him how much the cantaloupe was. I want to point out that I asked him in Chinese!!! So I said 多少钱. They understood me but what ensued was not quite so smooth. They told me how much it was 二十五, which unless you know Chinese means nothing. (I hope I am writing the correct characters, if I am not I apologies for my lack of knowledge.) I knew that 二 meant 'two' and 十 meant 'ten' but I did not remember what 五 meant. Since this is China there were plenty of Chinese people who also do not speak English there to help. Two other customers started pointing and saying things in Chinese when they saw that I was not understanding the price. Others on their electric bikes or those standing near by settled in to watch the foreigner buy cantaloupe on the side of a rather busy intersection. After sometime, maybe 20 seconds, of pointing I understood that he was not selling individual cantaloupe but a box of six. I was then wondering of the price, which I understood to be two and ten which means twenty, but since I did not know the last character I was not sure if he meant two hundred yuan. Which I thought was rather a lot. The customer who had just bought his box showed me fingers of two and five so then I thought it was 250元. We finally got it figured out when he, using the cash in his hand, showed me 75元  which I thought was the price. I have him my 100元 and he gave me the 75元. I took it and the box of six cantaloupe that I just bought since I still was not completely sure on the price and walked towards my apartment. A few steps out I realized that the 五 meant five. So, he was telling me that the box cost 25元. I felt stupid for not understanding that since I do, somewhat, know my numbers. I then walked the rest of the way home happy that I just bought six cantaloupe for 25元 which converts to roughly .67 cents a cantaloupe. Now I just hope I can eat them all before they go bad. I would say for today I get a B+ for using Chinese with locals since I successfully completed a transaction.

After a few hours . . . and actually counting the cantaloupes I realized that I bought five not six . . . >_< that brings the price to .81 cents per cantaloupe.