Inside the small room.
Song Yanxi, with tearful eyes, pulled Chen Pingsheng aside, "Husband, did you go act in the lake in such cold weather?"
"Yeah, Zhao told you, huh?"
Chen Pingsheng pulled her over to the bed, chuckled, and said, "Yanxi, let's not talk about that right now, take a look at how much money I made today."
Ding, your Alipay account has received 14,000 yuan.
Song Yanxi was startled, her eyes went wide,
"How is this possible, husband, where did you make so much money in just one day?"
More than ten thousand in a day, the concept was already beyond her imagination.
At this rate, wouldn't her family be able to buy a house after the New Year?
Chen Pingsheng patted her perky butt, mysteriously said,
"Wife, although I know you're excited, I have to warn you in advance to get used to your husband making big money."
She had to get used to it indeed. Song Yanxi, who was just feeling sorry for him a moment ago, was now thinking about how to spend all that money.
Years of frugality had made her accustomed to saving whenever possible.
With such a sudden increase in income, she was somewhat not used to it.
"Husband, my mom called. She wants us to celebrate the New Year at her place."
"Let's go then. It's no big deal."
"But..."
Song Yanxi, thinking of her husband being the butt of jokes every time they went there, instinctively wanted to refuse.
Chen Pingsheng, holding her hand, comforted her, "There are still more than ten days until then. Let's work hard. By then, we'll have bought a house and see who dares to laugh at us."
The daily life of an ordinary couple is that simple; every day, they think about how to make money and how to lead a better life.
Song Yanxi bit her lip, thinking about yesterday's crazy half hour, and suddenly with today's excitement, she really craved for that again.
After all, she was still a young woman of twenty-five.
Happy thoughts brought her cravings, and Chen Pingsheng quickly began tugging at her tight jeans.
Soon, she was like a little white lamb.
Little An'an was still outside, watching the Teletubbies, the volume turned up high, and she didn't dare to turn it down.
She just snuggled in his arms, munching on a bag of chips.
The next day finally stopped raining.
His tricycle finally had an opportunity to shine, as they lived near Shougang, a super large state-owned enterprise among the world's top 500 companies.
The pedestrian flow was huge.
He usually had many spots to sell his goods, and Chen Pingsheng called on his childhood friend Young Marshal, and the two of them rode two tricycles to get their supplies.
For street vendors like them, durian had the highest unit price, and naturally, the highest profit.
But, you could say there was a knack to it as well.
The price of fruit fluctuates greatly, like durians which were 600 yuan per box a week ago, roughly thirty pounds.
Averaged out to about twenty-one pounds per piece.
These past few days, it had risen to 700 yuan each, roughly five to six per box, the price increased by one hundred yuan in just a few days.
Durians sell well during the New Year, and the prices are higher.
When they arrived at the fruit wholesale market, there were so many cars.
High-demand New Year fruits like durians, those who only took one or two boxes basically got no attention.
Chen Pingsheng took out his phone; after all, he had been mixing in this circle for a few years and knew quite a few people.
"Old Guo, do you still have stock?"
"Yeah, how much do you want?"
"What's the price?"
Under normal circumstances, like them, it wouldn't be possible to take goods directly in this way; street fruit sellers understand.
Fruit has a shelf life, durians included.
If a durian cracks open to a certain extent and can't be sold, wholesale merchants must unload them at a low price.
Otherwise, it could easily backfire on me.
This kind of low-priced durian is where the real money is at.
Of course, during the New Year period, there's no worry about not being able to sell durians, but he had to do the same as those fruit shop owners.
Pick and buy normally.
Old Guo usually looked sloppy, spending all day in his truck, yet he was actually a big boss.
Not to mention the others, many of the major wholesalers who got their stock from him paid him on a quarterly basis.
At the end of a quarter, the owed payments could amount to as much as tens of millions.
How could he keep things running without real strength?
Old Guo just had a small storefront, mainly selling goods off his nine-meter-six long truck.
Now, there were only a small section left, probably two or three hundred pieces.
"Boss Guo, business is booming for you!"
"It's all thanks to you guys taking care of me."
Old Guo, in his early forties, had been all over the place when he was young, and it was only ten years ago that he laid down roots in Capital City to do fruit wholesale.
Now, he had a net worth of at least tens of millions, and the quality of his durians was quite good.
Chen Pingsheng offered him a Laobaisha cigarette, "What's the price today?"
"For the last bit, I can give it to you for six hundred eight each."
That was twenty less per piece than the usual price, and Chen Ping wasn't too satisfied. He smiled and said, "How about six hundred each if I take all the ones in your truck?"
"There are still two or three hundred pieces here, can you handle all of that?"
Every year around the New Year, the price of durians is bound to increase.
This time, Chen Ping was hoping to make a big bet. If it worked out, he would have all the money he needed to buy a house.
"Just a few hundred pieces, I'm sure I can manage if I push myself."
"Okay then, let's load up the goods."
To get the lowest price in the fruit market, clearing out the leftover stock is the most direct method.
Four people cleared the stock together, and there were a total of 321 pieces. At six hundred each, that was around a hundred and ninety thousand.
Chen Pingsheng called Song Yanxi to handle the transaction.
He'd often stockpiled goods like this before, just never this much at once.
This was his biggest gamble yet.
Song Yanxi made the transaction quickly, and Old Guo helped move the goods directly to the external warehouse.
That place allowed for temporary rentals, designed to accommodate stockpiling.
Chen Ping didn't plan on selling right away; he intended to hoard this batch for three or four days, waiting for the price of durians to surge again.
Still, he decided to send a message in advance in the moving group chat.
Young Marshal: "Old Chen is aiming big, snapping up two hundred thousand worth of durians in one go, brothers, get ready to clear stock!"
General: "Triple six, no problem, in a few days we'll all help Boss Chen move the stock."
Village Flower is Mine: "I'll take thirty pieces first, nobody compete with me."
Remaining Life to Strive: "I should be able to sell fifty pieces."
Having brothers is great; there's no way he could have sold all that stock by himself.
With everyone's help, it wouldn't be stressful at all.
Two days later, Young Marshal sent a message in the group chat that the market price of durians had risen to seven hundred and fifty each.
Another couple of days went by, and just before the Little New Year's Eve, a blizzard directly drove the price of durians up to eight hundred and fifty each.
Chen Ping was so excited he was jumping up and down; just by hoarding the goods for a few days, he was set to make a clean profit of thirty to forty thousand.
And it was quite possible that no one else would have been able to get their hands on any stock.
The price fluctuation of durians is no secret in the market.
However, even Chen Ping hadn't expected the price to hike up so drastically in just a few days.
On Little New Year's Eve, he immediately began to move his stock. In the moving group chat, six people came with six three-wheeled bikes, all to help him sell his goods.
Three days had passed since the Little New Year.
Chen Pingsheng turned on the stereo at home, and he and Little An'an started dancing the twist together.
Little An'an twisted in such an ugly way; she looked nothing like him, who was full of talent for square dancing.
In these days, he had made a hefty profit from the more than three hundred boxes of durian he had hoarded.
If it weren't for the Golden Finger, he would never have dared to take such a gamble before.
But now things were different, the random doubling was too emboldening.
"Ding! Host has accumulated an income of ninety-two thousand in seven days, would you like to open a random doubling?"
He had only recently found out that the Golden Finger could also stack income, that is, calculated cumulatively.
Small money no longer satisfied him; he planned to accumulate a week's earnings before drawing once.
"Activate."
The two Golden Dice appeared again, and even if the smallest double was rolled, he would have enough for a down payment on a house.
However, Chen Pingsheng still fantasized about hitting the maximum tenfold; then, he could pay it off in one go.
The first die was a bit small, rolling a disappointing two.
The second die wobbled next to a five, but ultimately landed on the smallest number, one.
"Congratulations to the host on obtaining a threefold random increase."
"Ding! Twenty-seven thousand six hundred has been credited to your Alipay account, with a balance of twenty-seven thousand six hundred and fifty."
Tsk... not great luck but still a windfall.
Originally he could have made more money from those durians, considering that a few people in the moving group had supported him unconditionally when he first got the stock.
He still offered them a discount, one hundred less per box than the market price.
In summary, everyone had made a good amount of money with him during this time.
The least anyone made was over twenty thousand, enough to have a decent New Year.
Chen Pingsheng took Little An'an to pick up her mother from work, as it was her last day on the job today.
She would start her New Year's holiday tomorrow, about ten days off, with the annual meeting scheduled after the Lantern Festival.
Song Yanxi and Du Juan came out together, finally on holiday, both faces radiating happy smiles.
"Yanxi, your husband is so punctual every day."
Song Yanxi chuckled lightly, "I told him not to come pick me up but he never listens."
"Just show off."
Du Juan always enjoyed hanging out with Song Yanxi; first, because she was easy-going, and second, she was a genuinely nice person, always considerate of others.
"Speaking of which, you two have been married for so many years and both earn decent incomes, why not buy a car? Don't let An'an catch a cold from riding the motorbike in this weather."
The little guy was bundled up tight, but was still sniffling with a runny nose.
They had thought about buying a car before, but Song Yanxi had always wanted to buy a house first.
No need today, his wallet was fat, buying an economic car was no pressure at all.
"I..." Song Yanxi didn't finish her sentence when Chen Pingsheng cut in, "We must buy, definitely buy. Do you have any recommendations? I just want to buy Yanxi a new car."
When Song Yanxi married him, it wasn't about cars or houses; they didn't even want a dowry.
Her family had even provided a dowry of ninety-eight thousand; now that he was in a position to do so, he had to treat his wife even better.
Du Juan joked, "That depends on your budget. If you think about spoiling your wife, around two hundred thousand would definitely get you a BMW 1 Series or a Mercedes-Benz A-Class."
"If you want to treat your wife even better, a BMW 220i convertible for three hundred thousand would definitely impress when you drive it out. And if you're thinking of four hundred thousand, an Audi A4L is definitely the first choice."
She was clearly joking, knowing quite well the financial condition of their family.
At best, they could opt for a family economy car priced around one hundred thousand or more.
Chen Pingsheng thought, since he was buying a car for his wife, why not get a good one in one go?
After all, Yanxi had been with him for so many years and had hardly ever enjoyed any luxuries.
"Alright, let's take a look at Audi."
"You're really thinking about spending four hundred thousand on an A4L? I was just joking, don't take it seriously."
"It's okay, just going to take a look and not necessarily going to buy it."
Though Chen Pingsheng said this, he had made up his mind to seal the deal.
He could push back buying a house a bit since he now had the capability to earn money, which meant he couldn't settle for too small a house.
At the very least, he would have to buy a big house of no less than two hundred square meters.
The saying held true: money emboldens people. Things he dared not even think about before, he could now consider.
Neither of them rode the motorcycle anymore, instead they took Du Juan's car to the Audi 4S dealership.
Song Yanxi really thought he was just looking, but once they arrived, Du Juan herself was quite taken with the A4L.
Unfortunately, she wasn't in a position to buy it.
The salesperson offered them several cups of tea and explained in great detail about the promotions available for the New Year.
After various discounts, the lowest-end 1.8T automatic comfort model could be had for about 320,000.
Chen Pingsheng asked his wife to try sitting in the car, and Song Yanxi felt a bit shy.
But the salesperson had already opened the car door, so Song Yanxi gingerly sat down.
Worried she might damage something.
Only after she was seated inside did Chen Pingsheng ask, "Do you have any cars available for immediate sale?"
"Of course, we do have one white car ready for sale right now."
"White, huh? That works."
Chen Pingsheng bargained hard, trying to get as many discounts as possible. In the end, in addition to the lowest price, he also got three free maintenance sessions, two cans of oil, and a series of basic subsidies like car tints.
By the time Song Yanxi realized he was really going to buy it, Chen Pingsheng had already paid two hundred and seventy thousand.
The remaining fifty thousand was up to her.
Song Yanxi hadn't come to terms with how he managed to have savings of over two hundred thousand. Now wasn't the time to discuss this; the car was still short of fifty thousand, and it was up to her to make the payment.
After purchasing the Audi A4L, they had about 360,000 left in savings.
Song Yanxi felt like she was dreaming, as the changes at home had come too fast all at once.
Even Du Juan was stunned, never would she have believed that Chen Pingsheng, who always rode a little scooter to take his wife to and from work, could be so wealthy.
A man under thirty buying an Audi A4L outright.
What they didn't know was that a young couple like Chen Pingsheng and Song Yanxi always had savings set aside.
They just had to rely on themselves for everything and obviously couldn't splurge without their parents' help.
Over time, this created a strong impression of them being poor.
Who would have thought that once they finally made a move, they themselves would be the fools?
Of course, Du Juan was not like Yang Dan; she had nothing to be envious of, just momentarily filled with a multitude of reflections.
"I'm telling you Chen, turns out you're not broke, you just don't like spending money."
"My husband has always been a good earner, it's just that you all have always looked down on his profession."
"Come on, not me, that would be Yang Dan."
Du Juan said with a smile, "Now that you've got an Audi, I'd like to see what she has to say when you drive it up to her. I've always thought Chen was great, especially how true he's been to you."
Song Yanxi smiled from the heart, feeling that this was really wonderful.
Gradually, no one would look down on her husband anymore, or mock him for simply being a street durian vendor.
"Hey, now that you two have bought the car, why don't you take a few photos and post them on your social circle?"
Du Juan pulled her in front of the car, giving a thumbs up, and Little An'an also stood in the middle. As a family of three with their first car, they definitely needed a family photo.
December 28th, Lunar Year 2012.
Chen Pingsheng and his family joyfully collected their Audi A4L.
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