Chapter 12: You Might Profit, But Huang He Will Never Lose

"Sold out! It's really sold out!" As the line of people stretched nearly fifteen meters, Shen Yuequn at the front shouted through a loudspeaker.

"To hell with you!" Those still queuing at the back cursed in frustration, but it was pointless; the tricycle was already emptied out, and all they could do was watch as Shen Yuequn packed up his stall.

Fortunately, Shen Yuequn announced through the loudspeaker again that they were just heading home to fetch more goods and would return in the afternoon to continue selling. Anyone interested could come back then. Only after this reassurance did the crowd finally disperse.

The so-called tide has ebbed, revealing the rocks beneath. When the crowd was gone, the surrounding small vendors finally emerged, staring in awe at the spot where Shen Yuequn had been sitting.

"Old Li, what time is it now?"

"Ten twenty-three in the morning!"

"When did that guy set up his stall?"

"Nine o'clock."

"I remember when he arrived, he didn’t start selling for about half an hour, so he only spent fifty-three minutes to sell out the whole cart?"

"Yes."

"To hell with you!"

The shock among the other vendors was immense, but the most astonished were Shen Yuequn and his wife, riding their tricycle back home.

On the ride, neither spoke a word, as if nothing had happened. They simply pedaled furiously, speeding all the way home.

The moment the door closed behind them, Shen Yuequn burst out, unable to contain himself, "Honey, quickly, count how much we earned!"

"No need to count. I packed three hundred boxes in total—ten yuan each. We made three thousand yuan!" His wife had already calculated it countless times in her head during the ride.

"You mean, we earned three thousand yuan in just one morning!" Shen Yuequn shouted, barely able to restrain his excitement.

"Yes, three thousand yuan in a single morning!" his wife echoed, equally thrilled.

"Honey, you’re telling me we earned as much as two months’ salary in a single morning? I didn’t mishear, did I?" Shen Yuequn’s voice rose as if he wanted the whole world to hear. Luckily, their home was on the outskirts of SY, and most neighbors had gone south for work, so nobody could hear them. Otherwise, they’d never dare shout so loudly.

"Exactly. Your monthly salary is fifteen hundred. This is two months’ wages. Darling, we’ve struck it rich!"

"Hahaha! We’re rich!" Shen Yuequn hugged his wife tightly, overwhelmed with excitement, and what followed was a scene best left undescribed.

Trust me, given his wife’s looks and figure, writing it out would be ill-advised.

After their passion cooled and the heat dissipated, both gradually calmed down. His wife, no longer as excited, wore a look of frustration. "Too bad, this money isn’t really ours—it all goes to Huang He! We still have to hand it over to him!"

"Right, it goes to the Chairman. This afternoon, I’ll deposit it in the bank and transfer it to the company account!" Shen Yuequn nodded.

"Are you really that foolish, Shen? This money is ours, and you’re actually willing to give it all to Huang He?" His wife’s expression twisted. "Listen to me, husband: we’ve already moved back to our hometown in the northeast, far away from Wenzhou. Even if Huang He had supernatural powers, he couldn’t control us here. Why not stay put and keep selling these mystery boxes?"

——

"Brother-in-law, aren’t you worried someone might sell our mystery boxes, make money, and never come back?" In the office, Leng Zhiruo became a curious kitten, asking repeatedly.

"Not at all," Huang He replied with a confident grin. "I guarantee they’ll all come back, and not a single cent will be missing!"

"I don’t believe it. Are all our employees saints?" Leng Zhiruo pouted.

"Of course not. If they were saints, why would they besiege my office building?" Huang He chuckled. "But they are all clever people, and I trust clever people to make clever choices."

——

"Smack!" Another slap sounded, but this time it wasn’t the continuous noises from below—it was a sharp slap across the face.

"Huang Mei, I urge you once and for all to abandon this idea. Don’t speak such foolish words again!" Shen Yuequn stared furiously at his wife.

"You dare hit me!" She was enraged; moments ago they were passionate, now this. Who could stand it?

"I slapped you to make you smarter!" Shen Yuequn said angrily. "Do you think Chairman Huang is some greedy villain? No, he always thinks of us. He said, as long as we sell the goods, just eighty percent needs to be transferred to the company—the rest is ours!"

"These three thousand yuan worth of goods, after all costs, the real profit is only about fifteen hundred. The Chairman gives us six hundred in one go, keeps nine hundred for himself, and that money is used to pay workers’ wages. He’s already generous enough; we mustn’t betray him."

"Only six hundred profit? If we ignore your Chairman, we’d have three thousand net income—five times as much! You really are the fool," his wife protested. "We have three thousand boxes; selling them all is thirty thousand. But if we keep only twenty percent, that’s just six thousand. Don’t you feel the loss?"

"You’re truly foolish," Shen Yuequn sighed helplessly. "Fine, let’s say we keep all three thousand boxes and net three thousand. At today’s rate, in a week, all goods would be sold."

"And then? What would we do next?"

"We keep restocking and selling mystery boxes! If we keep at it for a year, we’ll be rich!" she replied, her eyes still filled with visions of money.

"Let me ask you: in all of China, which factory sells mystery boxes besides the Jiangnan Leather Factory? Where else would we get stock?"

"..." She gaped.

"Now you understand? The supply is in the Chairman’s hands. If you dare not pay him, he’ll cut us off. Do you want to earn just a week’s money or a year’s, or even a lifetime’s?" Shen Yuequn explained clearly, leaving her speechless. Within minutes, she dragged him to the bank to transfer the money to Huang He and insisted on ordering several thousand more boxes from Jiangnan Leather Factory.

"The goods are shipped from Wenzhou; it’ll take at least a week. By then, our stock will be just sold out. That’s called seamless turnover!" she said.

"You really have become smarter, wife!" Shen Yuequn said, moved.

"Yes!" she nodded, then glared at him fiercely. "You could’ve just explained things clearly instead of slapping me and calling me stupid. You never mentioned the supply problem before!"

"Smack!" Soon, the passionate sounds started up again.

——

"Brother-in-law, what if someone really wants to keep all the profits and stops restocking from us?" Leng Zhiruo asked, still curious.

"Doesn’t matter!" Huang He shrugged. "Except for those four, everyone else can only take ten thousand worth of goods, costing less than four thousand. If they keep it, they can forget about any owed wages. I won’t lose!"

Huang He losing money?

Impossible.