Chapter 80

The weather was getting colder and colder. The sweater that Shen Yiyi was knitting for Li Chen was still not finished. Seeing that winter was about to arrive, Shen Yiyi had not gone anywhere these past few days. She stayed at home, sitting on the warm heated bed, focusing on knitting the sweater.

After knitting for seven or eight days, she finally completed it.

She held it up and compared it against herself. Although the stitches were uneven, and it looked a bit crooked, at least it was wearable!

Shen Yiyi felt a bit excited and wanted to call Li Chen over to try it on, only to realize that it was already past ten at night, and Li Chen had not returned yet.

These past few days, Li Chen had been leaving early and coming back late every day. Shen Yiyi knew what he was busy with, so she did not question him.

Three Baos were already asleep. Shen Yiyi carefully got out of bed, put on a cotton coat, and took an oil lamp to the kitchen. She reheated the food and also made a bowl of brown sugar ginger tea. Just as she finished, Li Chen returned.

“Are you cold?” Shen Yiyi touched his hands. They were so icy that she shivered. She quickly turned around to scoop hot water for him. “Go wash up first and warm yourself up!”

“You go ahead, I’ll get you some clothes.” Shen Yiyi said, then hurried back to the room to fetch his sleepwear.

After he went to wash up, Shen Yiyi brought the food and brown sugar ginger tea to the heated bed in the small house.

On such a late night, sitting on the heated bed to eat was much warmer than eating in the main hall.

Li Chen finished washing up and changed into clean clothes before coming in. Seeing the steaming hot food and brown sugar ginger tea on the table, he felt a warmth spread through his heart.

Shen Yiyi handed him the brown sugar ginger tea. “Drink this first!”

“Alright!” Li Chen obediently drank the entire bowl of brown sugar ginger tea in one go, then started eating.

Shen Yiyi propped her chin up with her hand and chatted with him. “You didn’t run into any danger, did you?”

“No!”  

“That’s good.” Shen Yiyi nodded and earnestly reminded him: “No matter when, if you encounter danger, you must run first. Even if you lose money, it doesn’t matter. Your safety is the most important thing!”  

“I know, wife!” Li Chen answered seriously. While eating, he reached out with one hand, grasped Shen Yiyi’s hand, and gently squeezed it.  

He was clearly very touched.  

Shen Yiyi glared at him playfully, then took his large hand in hers and rubbed it gently.  

Li Chen suddenly remembered something and got off the heated bed. “Wife, I have something for you!”  

“What is it?” Shen Yiyi asked. “Eat first, then—”  

Before she could finish speaking, she saw Li Chen take out a large burlap sack from a cabinet. From inside, he pulled out a rectangular object tightly wrapped in cloth.  

He handed it to Shen Yiyi, his tone full of eagerness. “Wife, this is the money I earned these past few days. It’s all for you!”  

???  

Shen Yiyi untied the knot in the cloth, revealing a thick stack of cash. Even though she had been mentally prepared, she still gasped sharply. “How much is this?”  

“16,500 yuan!”  

!!!  

Shen Yiyi was completely stunned!  

“You…” She didn’t even know how to praise him. “How are you this amazing?”  

Being looked at with such shock and admiration by his wife immensely satisfied Li Chen’s vanity.  

He had sold five tons of grain in batches to different buyers. Some he sold at 1.2 yuan per jin, some at 1.3, and others at 1.4 or 1.5.

On average, he sold at around 1.3 yuan per jin. That meant his total income was 13,000 yuan. After deducting the 8,000 yuan cost, his profit was 5,000 yuan.

Li Chen had sold the 100 watches in batches to three Black Market bosses in Shanghai, increasing the price by 195 yuan per watch. The total revenue was 19,500 yuan. After deducting the 14,000 yuan cost, the profit was 4,500 yuan.  

Adding everything together, that made 9,500 yuan. On top of that, he had earned another 10,000 yuan from antiques, bringing the total to 19,500 yuan.  

Considering that Chen Qiang and Zhou Fengshou, although they hadn’t contributed much in terms of negotiations and sales channels, had put in significant effort in transporting and covering for him, Li Chen had originally planned to give them 2,000 yuan each.  

However, they felt they had only contributed physical labor and were too embarrassed to take too much, so they each accepted just 1,000 yuan. That totaled 2,000 yuan.  

Additionally, he had spent 500 yuan on smoothing over relationships and connections.  

Li Chen skipped over the details of negotiations, transactions, and transportation, as well as who exactly he had dealt with. Instead, he gave Shen Yiyi a rough explanation of how the money had been made.  

“……” Shen Yiyi was so shocked that she didn’t know what to say. She could only instinctively ask: “So there’s still 17,000 yuan left?”  

And what about the extra 500 yuan? Was he trying to stash some private savings?  

Li Chen glanced at the burlap sack on the floor. “I bought this bag of stuff.”  

Shen Yiyi looked at the large sack and had a faint premonition. Sure enough, when she opened it, it was filled with old items—calligraphy, paintings, porcelain, and gold and silver jewelry.  

The calligraphy and paintings were similar to the ones she had acquired before, many of them authentic works by historical figures.  

As for the porcelain, while there weren’t any particularly rare pieces, in this era, antiques were generally untouched by counterfeits!  

The gold and silver jewelry went without saying—they were all valuable.  

Altogether, if this collection were taken to the future, it could easily be worth an eight-figure sum… or even nine figures.  

Shen Yiyi opened her mouth, but it took her a long while to find her voice again. “So this whole sack… you got it for just 500 yuan?”  

Then how much had her half-sack cost?

Li Chen nodded. Worried that she might feel he had wasted so much money on things that seemed useless at the moment, he explained:  

“These items were either looted from landlords’ homes or brought to the Black Market by people who couldn’t afford to eat, exchanging them for food. They were all extremely valuable in the past. Even though they aren’t worth much now, I just casually tested the waters and threw out an absurdly high price. I didn’t expect that Old Hei would actually spend that much money to buy these things, which means they must have real value.”  

Although she had indeed been the one to suffer a loss, he didn’t have to say it so lightly—she still had her pride!  

Shen Yiyi: “…Weren’t you afraid that if you asked for too much, they just wouldn’t take it?”  

“If they didn’t want it, then so be it.” Li Chen said indifferently. “Either way, I wouldn’t have lost anything.”  

Shen Yiyi: “……” You should be grateful that you’re my man!  

Li Chen promised: “Wife, don’t worry. I’ll hide them well. No one will ever find them!”  

Shen Yiyi nodded with tears in her eyes, hugging the 16,500 yuan tightly.  

In the end, after all the twists and turns, the money still ended up in her hands.  

However, she hadn’t expected Li Chen to be so sharp—to deduce from just her reaction that these antiques had value.

More than that, he had the courage to take a gamble, spending 500 yuan to acquire so many antiques.  

This gave Shen Yiyi some comfort. Although she had spent 10,000 yuan to buy things that Li Chen might have gotten for just two or three hundred, making her look rather foolish,  

At least it served as a lesson for Li Chen, pushing him to earn even more antiques for her. In a way, it was a blessing in disguise!  

However, she swore that next time, she would never do business with Li Chen again.

If she wanted antiques, she would just have him buy them for her!  

No way was she letting him scam her again!

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T/N: She got scammed 😭😭

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