Chapter 152: To Each According to Their Abilities-The Counterattack Life of the Doomed Supporting Actress(Caramel milk tea)

Li Kai simply decided to be generous and gave the fruit baskets he brought this time to Chen Liguo as a gift, allowing him to use them as free samples to show others.

According to their agreement, Li Kai would provide one hundred fruit baskets first, as Chen Liguo wanted to test the waters and see how well they sold.

After all, one hundred gift boxes would cost four hundred yuan, which was roughly equal to half of his annual salary.

Yet, Chen Liguo had a gut feeling that one hundred wouldn't be enough. Even though one hundred gift fruit baskets sounded like a lot, he had a large extended family.

Besides, once word got out about these items, he feared other people would come looking for them too, which meant they could potentially repeat this venture several times.

Although the few of them had drawn up an agreement from the start outlining their partnership,

this was also why Tang Xin had proposed that everyone contribute ten yuan of capital at the very beginning. The total of forty yuan was kept aside as an emergency reserve fund, serving primarily as a token of their cooperation.

Aside from the contract in black and white, every member had invested real money, making such a collaborative relationship far more stable.

Weighing the value of goods against currency in this era, Tang Xin had pondered for a long time before deciding that exactly ten yuan was the most appropriate amount.

Chen Liguo paid a fifty-yuan deposit in advance. After returning home, Li Kai and his family packaged the one hundred gift fruit baskets together, and then, taking advantage of the cover of night, he sneaked into the city and disposed of all the merchandise.

Given Tang Xin's shrewdness, how could she not know that there was bound to be a discrepancy between the price Chen Liguo paid her and the price he ultimately sold them for?

There was simply no other way; this was a special era, and an individual like her had no way of offloading such a large volume of high-end gift boxes on her own.

At most, she could only find ways to make some petty cash on the black market during normal times. If she genuinely wanted to accomplish anything substantial, she had to rely on people with connections and resources.

Even knowing that Chen Liguo would buy low and sell high to pocket the difference, Tang Xin, as the primary upstream supplier, was not worried about this issue in the slightest.

She only needed to know that her goods had been collected and that she had received her money, and that was enough for her.

As for how much profit the middlemen, agents, and distributors made, that depended entirely on their own abilities; you couldn't possibly expect to keep all the benefits for yourself, could you?

When delivering the goods in the county town, Li Kai was overcome with excitement. It was the first time in his life he had held so much cash in his hands.

Most of the money Chen Liguo gave him consisted of crisp ten-yuan bills, along with some smaller notes, adding up to quite a thick stack.

Just looking at it made Li Kai's eyes turn green with envy.

Four hundred yuan. A full four hundred yuan—he had never seen that much money in his entire life.

The profits would still need to be divided after returning home, but since it was a rare occasion to make some money, Li Kai decided to buy a few things for his family.

Tang Xin had arranged to meet him outside the Eighth Production Team. Once the two of them met up, they would go over a few details before heading back to their respective homes.

However, upon seeing Li Kai's current state, Tang Xin desperately wanted to laugh.

When he had left, because he needed to carry one hundred fruit baskets—which was quite a large volume—he had deliberately wrapped them in cloth to conceal them, resulting in Fang Shi tying two large cloth bundles to the back of his bicycle.

Yet now, looking at Li Kai, he was still loaded down with large and small packages of numerous items.

"How come you bought so much stuff?"

The real Tang Xin had only been in this place for a few months, but sometimes she felt as though she had lived here for a lifetime, occasionally letting local accents slip into her speech unconsciously.

Li Kai rubbed the back of his head and smiled sheepishly. "I've grown this big and haven't really filialized my parents much. I bought them some fabric, and I also got some white flour so we can make dumplings to eat tomorrow."

Of course, Li Kai also explained earnestly, "Rest assured, I only spent the share that belongs to me; the bulk of the money remains untouched."

Tang Xin merely smiled without speaking.

Why wouldn't she believe him? She trusted her brother-in-law's character.

Yet, as if suddenly remembering something, Li Kai slapped his forehead and said, "Sister-in-law, if Mom and Dad ask, just say you gave me the money to buy these."

"Huh?" Tang Xin was slightly surprised.

Was her brother-in-law doing a good deed anonymously and pinning the good reputation on her instead?

Seeing the perplexed look in her eldest sister-in-law's eyes, Li Kai thought for a moment before explaining earnestly, "Mom and Dad don't know that we went out and made money on our own. Besides, if Mom sees that I bought things the moment I made a little cash, she'll get angry."

However, they all knew that their sister-in-law was generous with her money, so if they knew the same items were bought by her, her parents wouldn't be angry at all.

Well, that reasoning left Tang Xin speechless, yet she knew what her brother-in-law was saying was entirely true.

After all, people had a hard time making ends meet in those days, and whenever they had a little money in their hands, they would try every possible way to save it.

Thinking about it this way, it seemed she was the only odd one out in the entire production team, wasn't she?

Alright, Tang Xin decided she had been wrong; in the future, it would be best not to act so high-profile, but rather to bury her achievements and fame quietly.

Back at home, Li's father and mother were still busy weaving fruit baskets.

Although they had already made one hundred previously, their second son had mentioned that the buyers had already inspected the goods and praised the quality of their work.