ryethenovel Chapter 68: Being Targeted Again
Chapter 68: Being Targeted Again
Zhang Xiaoli and her two daughters, who were walking home from school, saw Zhang Beichuan and his friends loading eels and loaches into a tricycle in the yard and ran over quickly.
"Uncle, you're back?"
Zhang Beichuan wiped the sweat from his forehead and nodded with a smile.
"Hmm, how's school?"
"That's great." Zhang Xiaoli suddenly asked curiously, "Uncle, is it true that Dad said you bought a TV?"
"Really?" Zhang Beichuan, his playful side emerging, reached out and playfully hooked his mother's nose. "How about your uncle picks you up and takes you to the county town for a trip this weekend?"
"Yay! Yay!" Xiao Cui jumped up happily, "Uncle is the best!"
Lan Xiuying came out of the house with a notebook in her hand. Looking at the three girls' happy faces, she shook her head helplessly.
"You're back, aren't you going to do your homework?"
After their mother said that, the three little girls went inside to do their homework, but they all looked very happy.
"Xiao Chuan, come here. You gave me another 200 yuan yesterday, making a total of 400 yuan. I still have a little over 156 yuan left. This is the ledger for the chickens we collected yesterday and today. Check it against the records."
Zhang Beichuan looked at the account book his grandmother handed him and pushed it back.
"Sister-in-law, I won't look at the accounts; you can keep them yourself."
"That won't do. You need to know what's going on." Lan Xiuying shoved the account book into his hands without saying another word.
Zhang Beichuan had no choice but to glance at it briefly, but as he looked at it, he realized something was wrong.
"Sister-in-law, you didn't make a mistake in the accounts, did you?"
Lan Xiuying was slightly taken aback upon hearing this.
"I don't think so. I've calculated every single expense over and over again, just in case I made a mistake. So, take a look, how much more did I overpay?"
Zhang Dequan also came over and gave her a helpless look.
"Youngest brother, quickly calculate and see where it's missing. We're all from the same village, have your sister-in-law go ask tonight, she should be able to get it back."
"It's not that we have less money, it's that we have too much!" Zhang Beichuan looked at them, both amused and exasperated.
"Oh, too much?"
Zhang Beichuan quickly calculated for them, "According to the records in the ledger, we collected a total of 18 chickens yesterday and today, weighing 100.8 jin. The cost of collecting the chickens is more than 231 yuan."
"Adding the bonus of one chicken, 18 yuan, the total should be 249 yuan, leaving about 151 yuan."
After listening, Lan Xiuying and Zhang Dequan exchanged a glance, and their tension disappeared.
"Oh my god, that scared me! I thought I'd really miscalculated!"
Zhang Beichuan looked at his grandmother's smiling face, completely bewildered.
"Isn't this wrong?"
"Youngest son," Zhang Dequan said with a smile, explaining, "When I came back that day, I discussed it with your sister-in-law, and she also felt that one yuan a piece was too high, so she offered to sell them for fifty cents a piece."
Zhang Beichuan's lips twitched, unsure of what to say.
"Sister-in-law, Third Brother, could this be...?"
Before he could finish speaking, Lan Xiuying interrupted him.
"Xiao Chuan, don't worry. Your sister-in-law will give them 50 cents each. Many of the aunties in the village are overjoyed. I promise it won't interfere with your work."
You can earn 50 cents for helping to collect a chicken. As long as you are diligent, you can easily earn one or two dollars a day.
"Even so, sister-in-law, you can't just not take a single penny, can you? Collecting chickens and eels already takes up your time."
Lan Xiuying immediately became unhappy, "What are you saying? Your sister-in-law is just helping you with a small favor, how could I possibly make money off you? If word gets out, people will laugh at us to death!"
Zhang Dequan said cheerfully, "Don't worry, your sister-in-law and I have already discussed these things with the villagers. They will all bring it over together in the morning."
"I see..."
The three were talking in the courtyard when Wang Guifen arrived.
"They're all here." She greeted Zhang Dequan first, then looked at Zhang Beichuan and reluctantly handed him the money. "Here's the remaining seven hundred yuan. Please count it."
"Okay, then we're even." Zhang Beichuan took it, counted the notes casually, then took out a written agreement from his pocket and handed it over. "Keep the agreement."
Wang Guifen rubbed her hands together, hesitated for a moment, and then spoke.
"Um... Xiao Chuan, there's something else I want to discuss with you."
"What is it?"
"Look at Jianjun and his son, they don't have much to do at home. I heard you collect eels..." Wang Guifen said with a smile, "Could you let them catch some to sell too? They're all our kids, could you do them a favor?"
The courtyard fell silent, and Zhang Dequan and Lan Xiuying both looked at Zhang Beichuan.
In fact, Wang Guifen came yesterday.
Zhang Dequan's thinking was that the grudges of one generation are their own, and since it didn't involve the children, he would accept the child.
But Lan Xiuying felt that this business belonged to Zhang Beichuan, and whether or not to accept it was up to Zhang Beichuan to decide; they were just helping out.
Therefore, Wang Guifen was told to talk to Zhang Beichuan herself.
Zhang Beichuan was silent for a few seconds. "This won't work."
Wang Guifen's smile froze. "Why? Everyone else accepts, why can't we?"
"Just because it's your house," Zhang Beichuan said calmly, "I, Zhang Beichuan, can accept anything from anyone, but not from yours!"
"You!" Wang Guifen's face flushed red. "What do you mean by this? We're all family, why are you holding such a grudge?"
"Holding a grudge?" Zhang Beichuan sneered. "Sister-in-law, when you bullied my third brother, making them sleep in a straw hut in the freezing cold, did you never think of us as family? I'm making this clear to you today: if you bully my third brother, you're bullying me!"
Wang Guifen was choked and speechless, her lips trembling.
Zhang Dequan wanted to speak up to persuade her, but Lan Xiuying quietly tugged at his sleeve and made him shake his head.
In her view, everything her brother-in-law Zhang Beichuan did was to stand up for them. If she were to be a fence-sitter or a pushover at this time, wouldn't that break his heart?
"I've accepted the money, please leave now."
Wang Guifen stood there, her face turning red and white in turns. Finally, she glared at Zhang Beichuan fiercely before turning and leaving.
He walked onto the dirt road and even spat as he turned back.
"Pah! What's so great about it!"
Watching her departing figure, Zhang Beichuan felt no emotion whatsoever. Some debts are not truly settled simply by paying off the money.
"Sister-in-law, take this money; consider it your capital for buying chickens and eels."
After hearing what he said, Lan Xiuying accepted the money generously.
"Okay, then I'll keep it for you. Drive carefully on your way back."
"Okay, I'm going back now."
It took Zhang Dequan a long time to come to his senses. He watched him leave and sighed helplessly.
"Drive carefully."
By the time Zhang Beichuan returned to the county warehouse, it was already five o'clock in the afternoon.
Huang Zhenjiang, who was cornered in a pile of junk in the corner of the warehouse, watched Zhang Beichuan pour eels into a bucket. He was hesitating whether to catch Zhang Beichuan and ask him where the money was hidden.
But the next second, the sound of the front door being opened again made him hide back inside.
"Brother Xiao Chuan, are you there?"
It was Lan Baohong's voice, along with the laughter of several young people.
As soon as Zhang Beichuan looked up, he saw Lan Baohong and seven or eight others enter, each carrying three or five chickens.
"It looks good today, why so much?"
"Hehe, we visited a bit more places today and collected a total of 32."
Zhang Beichuan did some calculations and, adding the chickens he had saved up in the past two days and the ones he brought back to the county town today, he had a total of 86 chickens.
We'll give it to Ma Ben and Wang Ping tomorrow; there won't be much left. We need to get everyone to speed up the acquisition process.
"Okay, put it in the cage for me. After I finish what I'm doing, we'll go to the department store, and I'll give you some more money."
Huang Zhenjiang, who was hiding in the corner of the wall among the piles of junk, was slightly taken aback when he heard this.
This kid really did hide money in the department store. No wonder we couldn't find anything in the warehouse today.
Why couldn't I find it even after searching several rooms last time?
"No rush, we'll help you with that."
Seven or eight young men worked quickly, and in just a few minutes they had transferred all the eels from the bucket to the large vat.
After locking the door, Zhang Beichuan led them back to Beichuan Department Store.
Once he was sure the guy was gone, Huang Zhenjiang crawled out from the corner, thinking to himself that he had to go find that kid tonight and ask him for some money.
From his observation, this kid was very rich.
After this job, it's perfect to head far away and meet up with my boss.