Finally Able to Earn My Dear Money

"Why?" Xia Weiguo's voice instantly turned cold.

"My younger sister has actually been dating with Qin Mingcheng for a long time, so in order to get the Qin family to agree to her marriage into the Qin family, she conspired with the Qin family to plot against me and Kaize.

They were really together last night! Although now I have the confession letter with her signature and fingerprint, she is the most beloved daughter of my parents. If this matter gets out from me, my parents will never forgive me for the rest of their lives."

Su Yijia hung her head low, her heart filled with a hint of sarcasm.

As a matter of fact, she didn't care about what her parents would think. After all, she wasn't the original host of this body, and they hadn't treated her well either.

What mattered was not allowing these four people to deviate from the ending she had already planned for them.

"So you're just gonna let your sister and the Qin family get away with what they did?!" Xia Weiguo scolded angrily.

But listening to the faint breathing on the other end of the phone, he couldn't persist in pursuing it. He couldn't accept but could understand the current situation of Kaize's wife.

"Uncle Xia, when you come over, I'll give you the confession letter. And I'll make sure my sister marries into the Qin family as soon as possible to fulfill her wish. From now on, she'll be integrated with the Qin family. If there's ever such a calculating act again, we'll settle both old and new scores with them."

Su Yijia's tone carried a hint of pleading.

After a moment of silence on the phone, Xia Weiguo finally compromised with a long sigh, "Fine! We'll do it your way! They'll be at the Qin's house shortly, and I'll take the next train to your place. I should arrive around dinner time."

Not wanting to keep the two of them wait for too long, he had already sent the security guard to buy the quickest train tickets to Hu City.

After hanging up the phone, Su Yijia went to the local supply and marketing cooperative.

As she looked at the red paper posted behind the counter with the four big characters "No Hitting," a sardonic smile couldn't help but twitch at the corners of her mouth.

"What are you looking at? If you want to buy something, just buy it. Staring won't make things cheaper." Irritated by Su Yijia's gaze, the saleswoman urged impatiently.

Su Yijia then raised her head to look at her and asked, "How much is the oil?"

"Two yuan and three coins per pound, with a ticket."

"What about soybeans?"

"Nine cents per pound, with a ticket."

"And corn?" Su Yijia asked again.

She could refine oil from corn, soybeans, sesame, peanuts, rapeseed, pork, beef... a few types of food.

Of course, she had to choose the cheapest option.

But the saleswoman was annoyed by her continuous questions.

"Are you done? If you're not buying, just get lost! Don't waste my time here!" She waved her hand like she was shooing away chickens and ducks.

Looking at the crowded customers around her, Su Yijia couldn't be bothered to get angry with her. This profession, characterized by the unique traits of the times, was not likely to change for a few years.

If she were to keep accounts, encountering such individuals was possible not only in the supply and marketing cooperatives, department stores, and state-owned restaurants but even when buying a bus ticket. Tearing into each one would likely exhaust her first.

However, in a couple of years, as more individual businesses emerge and service becomes linked to sales, these people would naturally become more compliant.

After leaving the supply and marketing cooperative, Su Yijia made her way to the underground market. It was the year 1977, and she was in Hu City. In this underground market, there were not only a lot of people doing business but also longer business hours compared to what she had read in other books. Here, from early morning at around four or five o'clock until late at night at around eight o'clock, there was a constant stream of people.

Following the vague address mentioned in the book, she finally found the place. At the entrance of the alley, there was a large tree that could only be encircled by two people. Under the tree, four or five men in their forties were playing chess. They didn't look particularly young, but it wasn't too out of place either.

Su Yijia approached them and took out two cents from her pocket, handing it to one of the men. The men glanced at her and then lowered their heads. Only then did she enter the alley.

These men were responsible for maintaining order in the market, similar to setting up stalls in an amusement park, so they needed to pay a management fee and sanitation fee. If anything unusual occurred, they would notify everyone in advance. Therefore, paying these few cents was not a bad deal for the sake of safety.

The alleyways crisscrossed, and on both sides of two long lanes, there were people selling various items. Buyers kept their heads down and didn't haggle loudly over prices. Once they made a purchase, they quickly moved on.

Su Yijia spent fifty cents to buy a bamboo basket that was about half the height of a person. After circling around for a while, she finally found a vendor selling plastic buckets.

"Uncle, how much is this plastic bucket?" She squatted by the vendor's stall, picked up the largest white plastic bucket, and gave it a squeeze.

These days, the quality of goods was still quite good. The plastic bucket was clean and didn't have any strange odors. It was also thick enough.

"For this 30-liter one, it's five yuan," the man replied.

Su Yijia was shocked, "Five yuan? Is it that expensive?"

Nowadays, the average salary for a worker was only twenty-five yuan a month.

"Don't you know how difficult it is to get these plastic buckets?" The man's tone became a bit impatient.

Indeed, plastic was quite expensive nowadays, but she didn't have five yuan in her pocket anymore.

"What about the 10-liter one?" Su Yijia could only opt for the smaller size. One pound (a Chinese unit of weight) of oil was equivalent to 0.625 liters, and a 10-liter bucket could hold sixteen pounds, which was just the right amount for one batch of oil production.

"One yuan and fifty cents."

"Isn't that still a bit high?" Su Yijia rubbed her fingers against her pocket, feeling the pinch. In the past, she had money from her family and high bonuses from her research, so she didn't even feel it when she spent millions or tens of millions. Now, she wished she could split every penny in half.

The man furrowed his brow. "It's not high at all. If you think it's expensive, you can go to the supply and marketing cooperative and ask around."

Seeing that the price wasn't negotiable, Su Yijia reluctantly fished out one yuan and fifty cents from her pocket and placed the square plastic bucket with a lid into her bamboo basket.

The moment she lifted it, she discreetly stashed the plastic bucket in her personal storage space. Fortunately, the bamboo basket also had a lid, so even if someone taller than her looked inside, they wouldn't see what was in it.

After wandering around the market for a while, she finally found a vendor selling soybeans. The man had brought in 100 pound of soybeans in a sack, but not many people were buying them now.

Su Yijia approached, carefully inspecting the quality of the soybeans. Once she confirmed that they were plump and had a high oil yield, she asked, "Uncle, how much are these soybeans?"

"Thirteen cents per pound, no need for a receipt."

"Could you sell them for twelve cents?"

The man glanced at her and asked, "How much do you want?"

"Twenty-four pounds," Su Yijia had just inquired with the system, and it calculated oil extraction based on the number of times. However, each extraction couldn't exceed ten pounds, so even if she extracted two pounds, it would still count as one extraction.

With three pound of soybeans producing one pound of oil, buying twenty-four pounds for twelve cents would leave her with eight cents, just enough for the entrance fee when she came back to sell her products later.

"Alright," the man thought it was a bit low, but after all the time he had spent there, she was the only one who had come to inquire about the price.

He quickly weighed out twenty-four pounds of soybeans, and Su Yijia, with her head down, hurriedly left the market.

After turning several corners for more than five minutes and making sure no one was following her, she found a secluded spot where nobody was around. She then processed the soybeans from her personal storage space into oil and stored it in the plastic bucket.

Returning to the market's outskirts, she pondered whether going in and out like this would attract too much attention. In the end, she reluctantly decided to hide it under the cleanest piece of cloth in her pocket.

Carrying the bamboo basket, Su Yijia went to find the men who were playing chess to pay them the fee. They glanced at the money in their hands and then at her, saying, "Why is it you again?"