Chapter 32: Someone Makes Things Easy

She smiled, “It seems like I’m really lucky today. I met a noble person right when I left the house. If that’s the case, I’d like to thank Director Xu and Comrade Liang first.”

“Hey, don’t mention it!” Liang Yu waved his hand. “If you really feel bad, you can treat us to dinner another day. By the way, I don’t know… what are your names?”

Xu Sangluo realized that she hadn’t introduced herself yet. It was rude.

She quickly said, “My surname is Xu, and my given name is Sangluo. This is my friend, Chen Tao. I’ll be in the county tomorrow too. If you two are free, would you mind joining us for dinner tomorrow?”

“Oh, you’re also surnamed Xu? It seems like you two are destined to be together. You were a family five hundred years ago.” Liang Yu chuckled. “Then I’ll be waiting with an empty stomach tomorrow at noon.”

Xu Xingtao smiled, “Don’t mind him. You don’t have to come over specially.”

He remembered that she had said last time that her home wasn’t in the county.

So she might be in a nearby town, which was quite far away. It wouldn’t be easy for her to come.

As for the countryside, he didn’t even consider it.

Because Xu Sangluo didn’t look like someone from the countryside, from her appearance, demeanor, or even her way of speaking.

Especially Xu Sangluo today, she was truly eye-catching.

Xu Sangluo explained with a smile, “No, I’ll be selling things in the county for the next few days.”

“Oh? What are you selling?” Xu Xingtao was surprised, then his eyes suddenly swept over the simple, elegant, and novel headband on her head. He had a sudden realization.

Xu Sangluo pointed to her braids, “It’s something like this hair accessory. I bought the scraps of cloth to make hair accessories to sell.”

Xu Xingtao looked like he had expected it.

Liang Yu, on the other hand, looked at her headband in surprise.

“You made this? With those scraps of cloth?”

“Liang Yu.” Xu Xingtao frowned and warned him in a low voice.

Although he hadn’t done business before, he knew that it was not appropriate to pry into such things.

Liang Yu also realized his mistake and scratched his nose, “Sorry, pretend I didn’t ask.”

Xu Sangluo laughed, “It’s not a secret. It’s indeed made with scraps of cloth. I made some and sold them in town before, but now the market there is saturated, so I’m planning to come to the county. Today is the first day, a trial run, and I’m also buying materials. I was planning to go to the textile factory to ask after dinner, but it’s such a coincidence that I met you two.”

Xu Xingtao said, “Do you only need scraps of cloth? Do you need any other fabrics? We also have nylon rope, cotton thread, and so on that you can buy internally, but the price will be relatively higher.”

Xu Sangluo’s eyes lit up even brighter, “I do need those things. What are the prices of nylon rope and cotton thread? If possible, I’d also like to buy some new fabrics. If not, I can also buy some flawed fabrics.”

Liang Yu said, “New fabrics are expensive. If you use them to make these things, you’ll lose money if you don’t sell them at a high price.”

Xu Sangluo smiled, “No, I want to buy some new fabrics to make clothes, not hair accessories.”

Liang Yu was surprised, “You know how to make clothes? That’s amazing.”

Xu Sangluo just smiled.

She suddenly thought of something and turned to Xu Xingtao, “By the way, Director Xu, does your factory produce yarn?”

Xu Xingtao nodded, “We do, but it’s not produced by our factory. We buy it from the city. If you need any, I can ask someone to buy some for you.”

“That’s great. Thank you so much.”

“Don’t be so polite. And don’t call me Director. Just call me by my name.”

“Okay, then can I call you Brother Xu?”

When she was working and starting her own business before, she was used to calling everyone brother or sister. She didn’t think there was anything wrong with calling people that.

A hint of amusement flashed in Xu Xingtao’s eyes. He nodded, “You can.”

Chen Tao, who had been observing for a while, narrowed his eyes and frowned, staring at Xu Xingtao, then at Xu Sangluo.

He didn’t know if he was being too sensitive.

He felt like this Director Xu was up to something.

After a while, Xu Xingtao and his friend…

The food arrived.

Everyone chatted while they ate.

After the meal, they had become more familiar with each other.

Chen Tao was the one who spoke the least.

Xu Sangluo had only met him today, so she thought he didn’t like to chat with strangers.

After dinner, the four of them went directly to the textile factory.

Although it wasn’t working hours, Xu Xingtao, as the director, naturally had the authority to bring people in.

Xu Sangluo followed him on a tour of most of the textile factory.

The textile factory in the county was quite large, a medium-sized factory.

Then they looked at the fabrics and other materials that could be purchased internally.

In the end, they bought 20 bags of scraps of cloth and 25 rolls of flawed fabric.

Although it was flawed fabric, it was only slightly flawed.

Each roll was about 30 meters long, and there might only be one or two meters of flaws.

But usually, they only sold the whole roll, so this kind of fabric was sold internally to employees.

Those who bought it would cut off the flawed parts and sell them at a lower price, which was what Xu Sangluo had bought outside last time.

The new fabric could be taken home to make clothes or sold at a higher price.

The denim fabric she had bought at a high price from the cotton mill last time must have come from here.

Now, with Xu Xingtao’s help, she could buy the whole roll.

It was a pleasant surprise.

She also bought a large roll of nylon rope at a low price, enough to make tens of thousands of hair ties.

She chose ten rolls of new fabric.

Two rolls of thick brown nylon fabric, two rolls of denim, two rolls of white cotton fabric, two rolls of gray twill cotton fabric, and two rolls of light brown velvet.

New fabrics were indeed more expensive, and the prices varied.

The cheapest white cotton fabric, for example, cost 12 yuan per roll.

Just these ten rolls of new fabric cost about 200 yuan.

Adding the other items, the total price was about 300 yuan.

Her big purchase surprised both Liang and Xu.

Although their families were not poor, they couldn’t just spend 300 yuan without blinking an eye.

It seemed that Xu Sangluo’s family must be quite well-off.

Liang Yu kept winking at his friend.

Xu Xingtao ignored him and took them to his office to rest.

The factory had its own rules.

Xu Xingtao could bring people in to buy internally, but he couldn’t actually help them buy.

So they had to wait for the finance department to start work and go there to get a receipt and pay before the purchase was complete.

Fortunately, they were all good at chatting, and Liang Yu added some humor.

When they talked about business and the market, Chen Tao couldn’t help but join in, and the atmosphere became more and more relaxed.

Unconsciously, it was time to start work.

Xu Xingtao immediately took the list and took Xu Sangluo to the finance department.

The people in the finance department were surprised to see him personally bring someone over. They prioritized calculating the bill and issued a receipt.

After Xu Sangluo paid, she could take the receipt to collect the corresponding items.

Xu Xingtao then took her to collect the items.

He didn’t call anyone else. It was already working hours. Asking someone else to help him would be favoritism, so he helped himself.

Liang Yu was different. He had already gone back to work.

The three of them, along with the gatekeeper who came to help, worked for a while before they managed to load everything onto the car.

Xu Sangluo sighed and thanked Xu Xingtao and the gatekeeper with a smile.

Then she pretended to take out two boxes of fruit-flavored rubber candies from her rattan basket and gave them to the two men.

After some pushing and pulling, they finally accepted them.

She got on her bike and waved to Xu Xingtao with a smile, “See you tomorrow.”

Xu Xingtao also waved with a smile, “See you tomorrow.”

After they left, the gatekeeper chuckled, “Director Xu, is she your girlfriend? I think this young woman is pretty good. Go for it.”