Chapter 73: Gathering

Bai Ruojiao couldn’t help but laugh. She pulled An’an over and sat down.

With her beside him, An’an felt a little more relaxed. He curiously asked about the candies.

Tang Hua and Xiang Zhigao immediately vied to introduce them.

Zhao Sihai shook his head and familiarly took the food and ingredients he had brought to the kitchen.

As he was putting them down, Tang Hua sneaked in, put his arm around his shoulder, and couldn’t help but grin mischievously, “Lao Si, can you contact your little sister?”

Zhao Sihai was stunned for a moment before he realized who he was talking about. He raised an eyebrow, “Why? Is there something wrong with the goods?”

“Pfft, pfft, pfft. Don’t talk nonsense. When your Big Brother is involved, how could there be any problems?”

He grinned even more mischievously, “Do you know how much money we made this trip?”

Zhao Sihai crossed his arms, “It must be no less than 400,000 yuan.”

Tang Hua’s eyes narrowed in a smile, his thumb and forefinger rubbing together, “Hee hee hee, 440,000 yuan. Each piece was sold for 440 yuan, and there wasn’t even enough to sell. So, I wanted to ask, does your little sister have any more goods? Your brother can handle more.”

Zhao Sihai was a little surprised. He hadn’t expected the price to be so high.

He frowned, “Is it safe? Has anything unusual happened?”

Tang Hua immediately shook his head, “No, it’s absolutely safe. At least for now, there haven’t been any unusual occurrences. It’s just that two old customers took a lot of goods, and they’re going to sell them elsewhere.”

Zhao Sihai’s brow didn’t relax. He still shook his head, “Let’s take a break for now. Don’t sell anything else. Safety first. Two such large transactions, it’s hard to guarantee that it won’t attract attention.”

Tang Hua’s expression froze, and his brow furrowed.

Although he thought Zhao Sihai was being overly cautious, the entire team had been relying on his command and hadn’t made any mistakes.

So, although he was reluctant, he thought about it and sighed, deciding to listen to him.

After all, they had made a lot of money on these two trips. Over 100,000 yuan! If they had continued with their small-scale operations, it would have taken them ten or twenty trips to earn that much.

“Alright, Lao Si, I’ll listen to you. But can you ask your little sister about the next batch of goods, what they are, or when they’ll be available?”

“It’s impossible to ask. I’m just in a business relationship with her now.”

Tang Hua was stunned, then he slumped his shoulders, “Alright, then we’ll wait for her to come to us.”

But soon, he perked up again.

“This time, we took 40%, which is 176,000 yuan. You get 36,000 yuan. Do you want to leave it with me or take it back to keep? By the way, does your sister-in-law know you’re doing this?”

Zhao Sihai nodded, “She knows. Don’t worry, she won’t say anything. I’ll take the money.”

He felt a little awkward. After all, the money he got was essentially taking money from his wife.

But then he thought, it was all money they were going to spend anyway. It was better for him to have it than for others to take it.

This was also a way of giving his wife more money.

“Okay, then remember to take it with you later. I’ll pack it for you.”

But as he finished speaking, he felt a little worried.

“Lao Si, taking so much money back, won’t it scare your sister-in-law? What will you say if she asks?”

A thousand yuan household was already quite impressive, let alone a ten-thousand yuan household. It was almost unimaginable for ordinary people.

“Don’t worry. Qiaoqiao can handle it.” Zhao Sihai opened his mouth, but in the end, he could only helplessly pat him on the shoulder.

He suddenly thought about how she just handed hundreds of thousands of yuan to others to handle.

Although this money might not be entirely hers, she just gave it away without blinking an eye.

That kind of courage was truly extraordinary.

He suddenly became curious about his wife’s family.

Bai Ruojiao didn’t know what they were whispering about.

She really didn’t care about the money.

This amount of money might be a lot in this era, but for her, it was just a drop in the bucket.

She considered it all as initial investment capital.

The group stayed until the afternoon, and they all became familiar with each other.

An’an could even run around the courtyard with Xiang Zhigao, holding a toy airplane.

Seeing Tang Hua roll up his sleeves and sit by the well, ready to start processing the pile of ingredients, Bai Ruojiao went over to help.

Zhao Sihai saw that it was getting late, so he took his things and went to the village.

It was Mid-Autumn Festival today. Although the village didn’t celebrate as grandly as Spring Festival, there was still a festive atmosphere.

When he arrived, it wasn’t even time for dinner, but smoke was already rising from many chimneys.

As soon as he arrived, he attracted the attention of many people.

Although their family had left, their “legend” continued in the village.

The day after they moved, Cheng Guoqing’s report to the commune was like a bolt from the blue.

Although many people coveted Zhao Sihai’s driver’s job, they all gave up after hearing the price of 2,000 yuan.

Some even gossiped behind his back, saying that Zhao Sihai was stingy and obsessed with money.

Others even wanted to wait for him to lower the price when he couldn’t sell it.

But who knew that someone was actually willing to pay such a high price?

That was 2,000 yuan, not 200 yuan.

When they first heard about it, many people were sour, but they also secretly laughed at the village head’s family.

They said that the village head and his wife were biased, and that Cheng Guoqing’s brothers were fools, spending all their family’s savings to buy such a job for their older brother.

In the end, Cheng Guoqing’s wife couldn’t take it anymore and argued with someone, publicly analyzing the benefits of buying this job.

Not to mention the 30 yuan a month, they could retire after six years. Just the subsidized grain and tickets were worth a lot.

These were good things that you couldn’t buy even with money.

Besides, this job was inheritable. Their family could pass it down for decades. How could it not be worth it?

Moreover, the value of this job was far more than just the benefits they could get. It was about gaining connections in the leadership circle.

Some people knew these benefits, and that’s why they were so sour.

But some people really hadn’t thought that much. They only saw that it was not worth spending so much money.

After being analyzed like this, they suddenly felt that the job was worth the price.

Then, some young people started to complain about their families, saying that if they had been willing to pool money together like the village head’s family, they would have gotten the job.

Several families even had conflicts because of this.

Some people even stirred up trouble at Fang Hanwu’s and Fang Chunsheng’s families.

They laughed at the two families for being closest to Zhao Sihai’s family, but they didn’t think of them when there was something good.

However, both families, from the old women to the young wives, were not easy to mess with, so the trouble gradually subsided.

But some people still felt uncomfortable deep down.

So, when Zhao Sihai came this time, some people were still enthusiastic, while others were cold.

Unfortunately, Zhao Sihai didn’t care. Their emotions were like throwing a wink at a blind man.

At the Zhao family’s old house, Zhao Dani was sitting on the doorstep, eating melon seeds and chatting with the neighbor’s wife.

As they were chatting, the wife suddenly bumped her arm and gestured to the side.

She turned her head in confusion and saw Zhao Sihai riding his bicycle over. Her eyes immediately lit up.

But then she thought of something, her pupils constricted, and she immediately stood up. It was clear that the warning from last time had scared her.

Zhao Sihai had already reached the door, with one foot on the ground.

“Hey, Sihai, you’re here. Why are you alone? Where’s Zhiqing and An’an? Didn’t they come with you?” The wife greeted first.

Zhao Dani also forced a stiff smile, “He, he, yes. Sister-in-law and An’an, why didn’t they come?”

Zhao Sihai nodded to the wife first, then reached out and lifted the sack on the back seat with one hand, placing it on the stone stool.

“Qiaoqiao is at work at the factory. She’s busy, so she couldn’t come. But she prepared some Mid-Autumn Festival gifts for Dad. There’s five pounds of cornmeal, a pound of sugar, five feet of cloth, and five pounds of cotton. Maybe you can help Dad make a winter coat.”