It was the second day in the morning.
Thinking of how he couldn't handle it by himself, he took out his phone and dialled: "Bighead, come over to the county town and bring some people..."
An hour later, seven or eight motorcycles hurriedly arrived and stopped in front of him.
About twenty teenagers, carrying steel pipes and iron bars, all were arrogant and aggressive. It stirred up so much controversy that some patrols didn't dare to approach, just watching from a distance to prevent a skirmish.
Li Datou got off the car hastily, shouting aloud: "Uncle, are you okay? Where is the guy?"
Li Zhongnan looked at the form, and didn't comprehend for awhile, asking: "What happened? Bighead, are you trying to start a war?"
Li Datou roared: "Uncle, didn't you ask me to bring men? Who had the audacity to provoke you? I will annihilate their ancestors up to the eighteenth generation!"
"I asked you here to collect waste!" Li Zhongnan couldn't help but laugh, and gave him a hard kick. He blamed himself for not making things clear on the phone. But if he told him he wanted him to collect junk, Li Datou probably wouldn't have listened anyway, this nephew was more vain than him, a university student.
After Li Datou graduated from junior high school, he went to Goat City and had changed over a dozen factories within less than a year, none of which lasted more than a month. After returning to Li Family Village, he gathered a bunch of "like-minded" children, doing mischievous things all day, causing complaints from the villagers nearby.
As expected, Li Datou reacted unhappily when he heard this: "Uncle, I would never do this! Collecting junk, that's so humiliating, plus there's no money in it."
"Who said there's no money to be made?"
Li Zhongnan took out a thick bundle of cash from his pocket and threw it in front of Li Datou.
Looking at a stack of hundred-yuan bills that added up to tens of thousands, Li Datou's eyes widened, and he cautiously touched it and asked: "Uncle, did you earn all this? Can you give me some to spend?"
"Hmm, all from collecting waste!" Li Zhongnan said triumphantly.
He then pulled out ten bills and threw them to Li Datou: "Go, buy some good cigarettes for your brothers."
Li Datou bought several packs of cigarettes, and each person received two packs.
Smoking the cigarettes, Li Datou asked out of nowheres: "Uncle, did you win the lottery? Who are you kidding with saying you can make money from collecting junk? My dad, your elder brother has been doing it for so many years and he's still smoking Red Plum!"
"You know nothing!"
Li Zhongnan, too lazy to continue, directly took them to a sidewalk food stall, dined and drunk copiously. After dining on great food, drinking great alcohol, and smoking fabulous cigarettes, the group of young hearts were all stirring, each proclaiming they want to follow uncle and do some earth-shattering big business——
Go collect junk!
There are five high schools in Northrealm. The first middle school has a building manager's aunt watching over it, you could directly send a few teenagers over to help.
The other four middle schools still needed a looksy. Li Zhongnan was a shopkeeper so he ordered Li Datou to go. Actually, it wasn't much work, just have to contact the school's dormitory manager and negotiate a good price, leave a few youngsters to help and it could be handled.
Though Li Datou did follow his dad for a while, he was still quite reliable.
In less than half a day, Li Datou had taken care of everything.
When he arrived at the shop, he proudly reported to him: "Uncle, everything has been settled. The price is much lower than your budget, on average it's forty-two cents per pound."
Li Zhongnan nodded, smiling: "Well done!"
After hearing this, Li Datou scratched his head abashed.
As he sauntered around the shop looking left and right, "Uncle, this shop is massive, you run it? How come there's not one Iphone?"
The repaired phones had already been sold out. Those that hadn't been repaired were stored in the back warehouse, out of Li Datou's view.
"Enough, don't wobble around here, let me know which mobile phone you want to use, come get it in a few days." Li Zhongnan found it somewhat amusing, what was this Bighead nephew thinking, he knows it all, but still hiding behind himself, like a little girl.
"Thanks, uncle!"
Li Datou chuckled, then said, "Uncle, I want the newest Iphone. These days, if you don't have an Iphone, girls won't even talk to you."
"Sure!"
Li Zhongnan agreed.
Even one hundred, or one thousand, were treated as trivial matters by him now.
With five high schools, there would be six to seven thousand graduates. Roughly estimating, there should be less than a hundred thousand pounds of textbooks. Presently, he had about one hundred and fifty thousand on him, half of which wouldn't be spent.
Upon thinking of this, Li Zhongnan closed the shop's door and decided to personally take a trip to Nangang. Next, he would visit Han Xue's house and drive the van out.
"Oh yeah! Going to Nangang!"
The group of youngsters, upon hearing they were going to the city, competed to get into the van, in an instant the van was jam-packed, the ones who couldn't squeeze in were unsatisfied.
Nangang City was renowned throughout Lingnan Province, the city area being much more prosperous than here, it was even rumored that there were dozens of red-light districts, it would be strange if these teenage children weren't thrilled.
Looking at the truckload of steel pipes and iron bars, Li Zhongnan immediately lashed out at Li Datou: "Throw all this junk away, otherwise everyone get off the truck, go back to Li Family Village."
"Uncle, that won't do. The druggies are getting more audacious, it's unsafe on the road without something to protect ourselves."
Li Datou defended.
Li Zhongnan gave him a stern look: "As if you know so much!"
What Bighead said was also somewhat accurate. Nowadays, though large cities' law and order were getting better, addicts were suffering worse off, and a large part of them had returned to rural areas. These people, once their addiction kicks in, it's a common occurrence to rob people on the road, having something for self-defense was a good thing.
Upon arriving in Nangang City, they went from one school to another.
But things didn't go very smoothly.
The urban high schools, most of them already had people collecting inside the campus and the price wasn't short of fifty cents per pound. To this the only solution was to increase the price. Compared to gold coin, this bit of money wasn't important. However, raising the price did have a benefit and that was he didn't need any extra hands.
Of course, there would still be some competition. It would be impossible to monopolise everything. But the high schools in Nangang had many more compared to Northrealm, even if he couldn't completely monopolise it, the amount wouldn't make too big of a difference.
By midday, Li Zhongnan once again let the group of youngsters eat their fill. After they were full from food and beverages, Li Datou, satisfied, smoked his cigarette and snickered: "Uncle, it feels fantastic. If we can eat at the sidewalk food stall everyday, I could even die for you."
"What are you talking about? Would your uncle make you die for me?"
Li Zhongnan glanced at him, agitatedly said, "Rest assured, following uncle's work, not just eating at sidewalk food stall, in future you can even eat at fine restaurants every day."
They were all just children after all, satisfied with just food and drink. Having lived impoverishingly for too long, being able to eat and drink was a joy in itself. Perhaps, he should do something for these children, for Li Family Village, or even for the poor Peacehaven County.
Li Datou smirked: "Uncle, aren't we going to Nangang Middle School?"
Nangang Middle School?
Teacher Yao Danhong was at that school, if he went now, would he meet her? How would she view him now? She must be pretty disappointed! But, he honestly missed her, it was okay even if he was only able to get a glance from afar.
Should he go or not go?
Li Zhongnan managed a bitter smile. It seems he hasn't yet faced the reality. Although he was indeed a waste collector now, he could just as well rely on his own hands to create wealth and accomplish formidable things.
There was nothing to feel inferior about!