Diary of Getting Rich Quick in the South

I was moving goods when I heard the news that Ruan Dong had turned himself in, and I stopped what I was doing.

"What exactly is the situation?"

"She was double-crossed by local gangsters in Vietnam, who took all her money and clients. With nowhere else to turn, she surrendered to the border guards at the border crossing."

Old Zhou's comrade said, "She handed over all her storage devices, including her mobile phone, computer, USB flash drive, and several encrypted hard drives. There's a lot of stuff on them, and we're sorting them out now."

Where is she?

"She has already been detained. She reported multiple transnational criminal networks, and given that the cases she was involved in were relatively minor, the initial sentence is around eight years."

Eight years.

I leaned against the truck and let out a long sigh.

Eight years is neither a long nor a short time.

But at least, everything she had was confiscated.

The sword that had been hanging over our heads has finally fallen to the ground.

"Thanks," I said to Lao Zhou's comrade.

"No need to thank me, it's nothing."

He smiled and said, "Oh, by the way, she asked someone to pass on a message to thank you."

I froze for a moment.

"What are you thanking me for?"

"She didn't say anything about thanking you, she just said that she was the one who wronged you before, and that it wouldn't happen again."

I didn't say anything.

After hanging up the phone, I stood at the warehouse door and lit a cigarette.

The autumn wind is blowing and it's a bit chilly.

Ruan Dong went inside.

This woman, who schemed against everyone, ultimately ended up scheming against herself.

The unidentified female corpse pulled from the riverbank was not her.

She lived a long and successful life in Vietnam before she fell from grace, surrendered herself, and was to spend eight years in prison.

Old Zhou came over and handed me a cigarette.

"Boss, what are you thinking about?"

"I miss Ruan Dong," I said honestly.

During this time, in casual conversation, I also told him about my relationship with Ruan Dong.

"Her..." Old Zhou sighed.

"He's a pitiful person too."

"Pitiful?"

I sneered, "How many people has she ruined? Zhao Hongqi went to jail because of her, how many families were destroyed because of her?"

"Yes, she is hateful."

Old Zhou nodded: "But think about it, she's a Vietnamese woman, all alone and helpless. How can she survive in China without being ruthless?"

I didn't say anything.

What Lao Zhou said makes sense.

Ruan Dong was a scheming man who spent his whole life plotting, and in the end, he even got himself caught in the crossfire.

"Boss, there's something I'm not sure if I should say," Old Zhou hesitated for a moment.

"explain."

"My comrade said that when she turned herself in, she only had two hundred yuan on her and her shoes were worn out."

I took a drag of my cigarette and didn't say anything.

"She was double-crossed in Vietnam, and they took all her money."

Old Zhou exhaled a puff of smoke: "I heard that her customs clearance company used to be quite large, with more than a dozen people working for her. But it was targeted by a local warlord and was wiped out overnight. When she ran away, she almost lost her passport."

I said "Oh," but didn't reply.

We just squatted there, watching the sunset in the distance, and no one said a word.

It took me quite a while to stand up.

"Alright, stop thinking about it."

I brushed the dust off my pants: "Get to work."

Old Zhou also stood up and followed me into the warehouse.

That's the end of Ruan Dong's matter.

From now on, whether she lives or dies is none of my business.

When I got home that evening, I told Su Wan about it.

After listening, she paused for a moment, then softly said "Oh".

"Eight years?" Su Wan asked.

"Um."

"Alright."

Su Wan came out of the kitchen carrying the dishes: "At least, I won't have to live in fear anymore."

I took the dishes and placed them on the table.

That night, Su Wan cooked a whole table of dishes.

I also opened a bottle of beer.

Su Wan said, "Why drink alcohol when it's neither a New Year's nor a holiday?"

"Happy."

I poured her a glass: "Sister Wan, it's all over."

Su Wan picked up her glass and clinked it against mine.

"Yes, it's all over."

……

After Ruan Dong's matter was settled, I thought things would finally calm down for a while.

But after only a few days of calm, the company couldn't hold on any longer.

Lin Jianhua's cross-border e-commerce warehouse has doubled in size, and the daily volume of goods entering and leaving the warehouse has doubled.

Old Zhou, along with Da Liu and Xiao Sun, worked from morning till night, without even having time to drink water.

Once, while moving things, Da Liu leaned against the refrigerator and started snoring. Xiao Sun woke him up. After waking up, Da Liu said, "I didn't sleep, I just wanted to rest for a while."

I know I need to hire people.

The logistics cooperation with Qiangsheng Commerce has also officially started.

Zhao Chujing entrusted me with the short-distance delivery from Kunming to three surrounding cities. I made at least two trips a day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, rain or shine.

With the effects of the previous GG sign in the community starting to show, there are more individual orders. I can get five or six orders a day, which are all for residents moving and small companies relocating.

Four people and two cars simply can't make it.

Old Zhou was even worse off. He had never been this tired when he was a reconnaissance soldier. He would go home at night and fall asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

He couldn't hear his wife when she called. Once, she thought something had happened to him and almost ran over from her hometown.

I'm struggling myself. I move goods during the day and do accounting at night. I get less than five hours of sleep a day, and my eyes are bloodshot. Su Wan said I look like I'm on drugs.

That evening, after work, I called the three of us together for a meeting.

It was supposed to be a meeting, but it was really just a bunch of people squatting in a circle at the warehouse entrance, with each of them getting a cigarette.

"This can't go on."

I exhaled a puff of smoke: "We need to hire people."

"They should have confessed a long time ago!"

Da Liu was the first to raise his hand: "Boss, if I keep doing this, my back will be ruined. I moved a piano yesterday, and my back still hurts."

Xiao Sun nodded in agreement: "That's right. I feel weak and listless when I talk to clients now. Last week, an auntie even asked me if I was sick and insisted on introducing me to an old Chinese medicine doctor."

Old Zhou didn't say anything, but he nodded. The dark circles under his eyes were even more pronounced than mine.

"Okay, let's hire."

I stubbed out my cigarette: "Tomorrow I'll post a job ad and also advertise on the local social networking site. The salary is 3,000 during the probation period, 4,500 after that, and there will be bonuses if I do a good job."

"Boss, you're paying a pretty good wage," said Xiao Sun.

"We do manual labor, so we can't let people work for free."

I said, "But there's one condition: you must be hardworking and reliable. No cheating or shirking, and no criminal record. This is a legitimate company."

The next day, I posted a job advertisement at the warehouse entrance and spent another two hundred yuan to post a job ad on a local social media account.

The effect is immediate.

People came to apply for the job that very afternoon.

The first person to arrive was a burly man with tattoos, including a large dragon on his arm. He patted his chest as soon as he entered.

"Boss, I used to work for Brother Hao. Nobody in this area dares to mess with me! Hire me, and I'll keep you safe!"

I looked him up and down: "We're a moving company, not a debt collection agency. Can you carry a refrigerator up to the sixth floor?"

The burly man hesitated for a moment: "You...maybe?"

"Okay, three thousand for the trial period. If you can't handle it, you can leave immediately."

The burly man's face turned green, but he still agreed.

He worked for half a day and then ran away, saying, "This job is not for humans."

They even took a bottle of mineral water from me when they left.

The second person to arrive was a young man who had just been discharged from the army. His name was Li Bing. He was in his early twenties, not very tall but sturdy. He didn't talk much, and he would answer "yes" to everything you asked.

I let him try it out. He carried a double-door refrigerator up to the fifth floor without breaking a sweat, and then helped move two wardrobes down.

"You're the one."

I immediately decided: "Come to work tomorrow."

Li Bing excitedly saluted me on the spot: "Yes, boss!"

I was both amused and exasperated: "No need to salute, just call me Brother Chen."