Returning wealthy individuals develop their hometowns and become rich in the 1980s

"Oh! Brother happy, what brings you here? What a rare guest!"

Pepper's shout attracted the attention of everyone around. Several shady-looking young men stood up and looked over. Wang Wenxi glanced at Pepper's cards and said with a sneer, "Wow, what's the point of playing with such terrible cards?"

"Brother Xi, sit down and play a couple of rounds," Pepper gestured to the person next to him to make room. Wang Wenxi didn't stand on ceremony and sat down, then started shuffling the mahjong tiles.

"Brother happy, how's it going with Brother Bingkun lately? I heard that the residential area is almost finished," Pepper said, squinting as he smoked a cigarette, pushing the mahjong tiles around in his hand, his eyes occasionally glancing at the Shanghai-brand watch on Wang Wenxi's wrist.

Wang Wenxi chuckled, glanced at Pepper and started arranging the cards, "Not bad, you only make a hundred or eighty yuan a month. Unlike you, Pepper, I heard you've been getting into some really shady business lately. Do you have some connections that allow you to even get smuggled electronics from Shenzhen?"

Upon hearing this, Pepper's previously squinted eyes instantly lit up. He glanced warily at the other two people at the table and lowered his voice, saying, "It's just about making a living, not as exaggerated as you're making it out to be, Brother Xi."

Wang Wenxi chuckled and leaned closer to Pepper, saying, "Don't try to fool me. Your old house in the village has been renovated. I heard that your mother is already arranging for a matchmaker to introduce you to potential partners. Is that true?"

"Yes, yes, that's true," Pepper said to Wang Wenxi in a low voice. "I was just lucky to know a guy who does big business in Shenzhen and has all sorts of smuggled goods from outside."

Wang Wenxi frowned. If it was smuggled in, he hadn't seen many appliances in Nanshan City. Or had this guy distributed the goods to other places?

"Is there really such a way? Then, Pepper, could you help me get a 75-inch TV? Just tell me how much it costs," Wang Wenxi asked tentatively.

Pepper chuckled upon hearing this and said with a smile, "Brother Xi, you've misunderstood. The guy I know is in Shenzhen, and he just distributes his goods directly there, instead of shipping them to our Tuocheng."

"Besides, Brother Xi, if you want a TV, why do you need to buy these imported smuggled goods? Boss Chen's TV factory has them, you can just take one home."

"Not pepper? What you're saying has really confused me," Wang Wenxi said, genuinely bewildered. "You said your buddy has connections in Shenzhen, that he gets smuggled goods from Hong Kong, but he doesn't even ship them to our Tuocheng. How did you get so rich, renovating your old house and getting married?"

"Hehe, I'm not afraid to tell you, Brother Xi, that's why I have good judgment. That guy came to my place to play cards, and he was incredibly generous. That guy lost more than two thousand in one night without even blinking. He came back the next day and lost another thousand. He borrowed four hundred from me, saying that someone would bring him money later."

Pepper started rambling on to Wang Wenxi about how he met "Brother Kun," saying, "I thought that since I have so many people under my command in my own territory, I could lend them to him and he wouldn't be able to run away. So I lent him four hundred, and guess what? There really was one of them carrying a briefcase, about this big."

Pepper gestured with his hand, "He just pulled out ten thousand dollars in cash! I was shocked and asked him what he did and how he could be so rich."

"He told me he was involved in smuggling in Shenzhen, that his methods were extremely lucrative and stable, and asked if I wanted to invest. After we got to know each other better, I didn't dare invest too much the first time, only 800 yuan. To my surprise, I got 1200 yuan back by the end of the month!"

Wang Wenxi asked incredulously, "Is it really that profitable? How much did you invest, and how much have you made?"

"I've made a few thousand yuan in total, Brother Xi. It's only because we're close that I told you about this. In this kind of business, Brother Kun usually doesn't involve people he doesn't know well!"

Although Wang Wenxi wasn't very educated, he knew one thing well: there wouldn't be a golden toad hopping around on the street waiting for you to catch it. If it were that profitable, would anyone be stupid enough to let you play along?

But Wang Wenxi came today to gather information, so he pretended to be very interested and said to Pepper, "Pepper, is it really that profitable? If it is, do you think you can introduce me to it?"

Pepper looked at Wang Wenxi and smiled, "Brother Xi, it's not that I, Pepper, look down on you, but Brother Kun doesn't take small orders anymore. If the amount is less than a thousand, he won't let anyone invest."

Wang Wenxi angrily pulled out the 1,100 yuan he had left over from the morning's distribution from his pocket and slammed it onto the mahjong table. "Hu Jiao, who do you think you are? If that Kun guy you mentioned really has a way to make money, I'll borrow 20,000 or 30,000 yuan from my brother-in-law and invest it all!"

"Brother happy, are you really going to do it?"

"If it's a money-making opportunity, only a fool wouldn't take it!"

"Okay, I'll contact Brother Kun tonight and let you know when I have any news," Pepper thought. He was thinking that if Brother Kun gave him 20 yuan for each person he recruited, and if Wang Wenxi could really invest 20,000 or 30,000 yuan at once, he could at least get 100 or 200 yuan as a head fee.

While playing cards, Wang Wenxi talked to Hu Jiao about this Brother Kun and managed to extract a lot of useful information. After playing two more rounds, Wang Wenxi lost a little over a hundred yuan. He then made an excuse that he had something to do at the construction site and left the old street with Liu Huaqiang and the other two on motorcycles.

The four of them did not leave Jiping directly, but parked their motorcycles in the alley and squatted at the entrance of the old street. They actually managed to wait until Pepper drove out on his motorcycle. When Wang Wenxi saw this, he immediately took Liu Huaqiang, Bingzi, and Shui Niu and followed.

They arrived at a house outside Gaozhai Village. Watching Pepper drive inside, Wang Wenxi guessed that the guy called Brother Kun probably used this as his hideout.

The four of them kept watch around for a day. During that time, a group of people rode in and out on motorcycles. Wang Wenxi and the others didn't know which one was Brother Kun. They left Shuiniu and Liu Huaqiang to continue the stakeout, while he took Bingzi back to Lianzhai and told his brother-in-law Huang Bingkun the news.

"Invest 800 and get 1200 back in a month? This is fucking a scam to fool idiots," Huang Bingkun said, naturally not believing it. "If it were really that easy to make money, why would that guy be so kind as to recruit people?"

"Brother-in-law, since we've already found where they're hiding, why don't we just take some men there and raid their place? That way we can get that 50,000 yuan back."

"Don't rush, I'll go talk to the old house first and see what they say. You take a few more people and keep an eye on things, so they don't notice anything amiss and escape," Huang Bingkun instructed, getting up to put on his coat, intending to go to the Chen family's old house to ask about the matter.

Huang Bingkun always felt that this matter seemed to be a scam, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. There are too many scammers these days, with all sorts of strange tricks, making it impossible to guard against them all.