Looking at the drunk Chen Xiaoting who had collapsed on the sofa, Li Zhongnan spread his hands: "Han Xue, I'm leaving first, you can take her home."
They were all young people, and with Han Xue there, after eating and singing, the small misunderstanding between him and Chen Xiaoting had already dissipated.
Han Xue vented angrily: "Are you even a man?"
Alright then.
Li Zhongnan gave a wry smile, had no choice but to support Chen Xiaoting.
Once outside, he asked Han Xue: "Where does she live?"
Han Xue replied that she came from the township below, and he said he would take her home.
Han Xue shook her head: "In this state, my mother will kill me!"
Coming from a family of teachers, Li Zhongnan understood her situation. Resignedly he said: "Alright, I'll get her a hotel room."
Han Xue glared at him, angrily said: "She's drunk to this point, you're just going to let her stay alone? Take her to your place!"
Li Zhongnan exclaimed: "Damn it! You don't trust her alone, then you trust me?"
Han Xue stared at him: "What's there to worry about?"
They were classmates for many years, she knew he wouldn't take advantage of the situation. Besides, Chen Xiaoting was her cousin, unless he didn't want to be classmates anymore. Also, no matter how outrageous she can be, she should be better than this young girl, right?
Alright then, he had to clean up a mess of his own making.
He got Chen Xiaoting into the shop, carried her to his room, tossed her on the ground, shut the door and went to sleep on the sofa in the living room.
In the middle of the night, the sound of a door opening woke him up.
The young girl groggily came out, making her way to the bathroom. Li Zhongnan opened his eyes to see a soft, fair body. It was hot, the room was stuffy, and with all the alcohol she had consumed, in her sleep Chen Xiaoting had stripped down to her undergarments.
Well, you can't just ignore a sight like that.
When she came out of the bathroom, she was stark naked. Though, the room was so dark that he couldn't make out any details.
Yup. There weren't any to see.
Watching this scene, Li Zhongnan felt a surge of desire, but couldn't help but wonder... Did she actually flush the toilet? Did she do a number one or number two, and if it was the latter, did she clean up properly?
He woke up early in the morning.
To avoid any awkwardness for the young girl, Li Zhongnan left the house before she woke up.
After breakfast, remembering last night's incident, he went to a second-hand electronics store and bought four old air conditioners. He renovated them and brought them back.
Four air conditioners for just over two thousand yuan!
Having the system really was awesome.
Actually, the second-hand electronics business was also quite profitable. But after all, it doesn't have a market as big as mobile phones and computers, where the money comes faster. And right now his business was just starting, he shouldn't spread his resources too thinly.
When he returned to the shop, Chen Xiaoting had already left.
Two in the sales hall, one in the bedroom and one in the living room, after installing the air conditioners, he opened the shop. By noon, he had sold fifteen mobile phones, making over ten thousand yuan.
It was clear that there were more customers than the previous few days. It was worth it to have spent a few thousand on air conditioners.
As he was reading, Chen Xiaoting walked in, shouting: "Boss, I'm here to work. Eh, it's really cool, boss, did you install air conditioning?"
While talking, the young girl seemed to remember something, her face flushing slightly, wondering if this lewd guy saw anything?
Li Zhongnan nodded, said to her: "Alright, it's three thousand yuan a month. Take a day off once a week, but if you work on your day off, it's two hundred yuan per day. Can you accept this?"
Chen Xiaoting said: "One of my classmates works in Shenzhen, her salary~~~"
"There's no room for negotiation."
Li Zhongnan waved his hand. The salary being offered in the county town was already quite generous, and part of it was because of Han Xue.
Chen Xiaoting was counting on her fingers, three to five hundred for rent, three to five hundred for food, three to five hundred for Taobao ---
There wasn't much left.
Then she pretended to be pitiful, and cooed, "Um, boss, could you offer meals and lodging as well?"
Bored with her pleas, Li Zhongnan threatened, "Sure, but you'll have to share a room with me."
Chen Xiaoting stuck out her tongue and dared not say more.
Li Zhongnan added, "And, without my permission, you can't enter the warehouse or my bedroom."
Chen Xiaoting muttered, "Hmph, making it seem as if I'm dying to enter, just a doghouse, it's not like I haven't seen it."
Next, Li Zhongnan guided her through familiarizing herself with her role. Actually, it was just about selling and buying phones, which anyone could understand.
Having observed for a few days, Chen Xiaoting performed quite well, young ladies do possess strength. Her bargaining skills were similar to his. With the natural advantage of being a woman in sales, he decided to keep her.
However, the number of phones sold and purchased was gradually declining these past few days. This was not related to Chen Xiaoting, it was anticipated given the market saturation. Of course, the inventory in the warehouse kept piling up.
But, he wasn't too worried about this, as the financial pressure wasn't as intense now. The items wouldn't vanish if stored inside. At most, he would need to make a trip to Goat City to research the market. Attractive quality and prices meant it wouldn't be hard to sell the goods as long as he had them in stock.
Currently, earning gold coins was the priority.
To clarify, one could sell anything to the system, even sand and rocks. It's just that the purchasing price was so low that it could be considered negligible. More expensive items weren't necessarily bought by the system at higher prices.
To make a comparison, selling a high-priced phone to the system would yield very few gold coins. This had nothing to do with the price of the phone, but with the amount of plastic and wires present in the phone...
Thus, to acquire affordable gold coins, collecting waste couldn't stop.
Having been in this field for half a year, Li Zhongnan was quite familiar with the market. Let alone others, he knew clear enough where the recycling stations were in each of the hundreds of villages in the town where Li Family Village was located.
Well, time to visit the Li Family Village. It has been quite a while since his last visit.
On the side, he planned to bring an iPhone for Bighead, um, and for his sister-in-law too. As for his elder brother Li Dapeng, there was no point in giving him one as he wouldn't know how to use it. Carrying the phones, Li Zhongnan made another trip to the second-hand home appliance store, buying a few air conditioners, a sizable wall-mounted TV, washing machine, and refrigerator.
Then, he arranged for a car to deliver them back.
The shop was left to Chen Xiaoting alone, but he wasn't worried about her manipulating the accounts. He had installed hidden cameras which, although could be overlooked once or twice, would surely expose her unbeknownst to her.
The things were delivered to the purchase station at the village entrance and he closed the door to repair them using the system. This purchase station, left by an old man, was nothing but a worn-out courtyard with two old tile houses. After returning from Yanjing, Li Dapeng had handed over the purchase station to him, and he moved out of home, and thus, the brothers had parted ways.
On leaving the purchase station and returning home, a young woman in her thirties was killing a chicken.
Li Zhongnan greeted her with a faint smile: "Sister-in-law."
Gao Yan glanced at him and coolly replied, "You're back." Then, she got up, limped away, and ignored him, just like a stranger.
Li Zhongnan couldn't help but chuckle wryly. His sister-in-law used to be quite affectionate towards him. Of course, she still was. And well, knowing that he was coming back, she had straight away killed the chicken that produced eggs.
How should I put it? Their home was poor, his older brother wasn't swift-minded, no girl from the neighboring villages wanted to marry into their family, so they had no choice but to spend 20,000 RMB to buy a wife from Vietnam, who ran away in less than two years.
Later, through someone's introduction, Big Brother married Gao Yan, his current sister-in-law.
At that time, she was only in her late teens, pretty and had a good figure, but unfortunately, she lost a leg in an accident. In the countryside, a girl who couldn't work in the fields, no matter how young and attractive, was essentially useless, and was denigrated by the decent families. Thus, she ended up marrying his brother under her parents' arrangement.
Poor meals, poor accommodations, her husband was old and not quick-witted, knew nothing beyond farming, their son was mischievous and insisted on being the leader every day. She saw no hope in this family.
But, her brother-in-law's academic aptitude gave her some solace.
So, Gao Yan was deeply concerned about this brother-in-law. If there was no money, she'd borrow. He had to eat well and keep nutrition up, dress appropriately, and carry the demeanor of a scholar.
Later, he became the university entrance exam top scorer, which filled her with immense joy. She'd brag about him to everyone, thinking they were just a few years away from a better life. Her brother-in-law had been largely raised by her, how could he forget about her family once he made money?
However, he returned home in less than two years.