Rebirth: My college entrance exam score was stolen? I turned the tables and made a billion.

Chen Defu made up his mind not to sit any longer, pushed open the door and walked out.

After leaving the house, he went directly to the supply and marketing cooperative's sales point at the street corner.

"Aunt Zhang, give me a pack of Hongtashan cigarettes!"

Chen Defu slapped ten yuan on the glass counter.

Aunt Zhang was fanning herself with a large palm-leaf fan when she heard this, and she paused for a moment, staring at Chen Defu for a couple of seconds.

"Hey, Defu. Hongtashan cigarettes aren't cheap, they're four yuan and fifty cents a pack. Your dad usually smokes Ashima, why are you buying such expensive cigarettes?"

"I'm just entertaining a friend, don't worry about anything, just take a cigarette."

Chen Defu urged impatiently.

After getting the cigarettes, Chen Defu went straight to the Industrial and Commercial Bureau on Zhongjie Street in the county town.

In the early 1990s, the county's industrial and commercial bureau was a row of two-story gray brick flat-roofed buildings.

The wall was half painted green, and several eye-catching slogans were written in white lime.

The door to the first office on the east side of the first floor was half open.

The room was filled with smoke, and the old, worn-out three-bladed ceiling fan creaked and groaned, but it couldn't dispel the stuffy heat.

Four men wearing white tank tops and shorts were playing cards around a desk.

"K! Do you want it or not? If not, I'm going to bet everything!"

A man with slicked-back hair and a slightly overweight build shouted at the top of his lungs.

This man was Chen Defu's second cousin, Wu Dalong, from the market management team of the county's industrial and commercial bureau.

"cousin!"

Chen Defu stood at the door and shouted.

Wu Dalong was holding two bad cards and was worried about losing money this round. When he heard the sound, he immediately slammed the cards down on the table.

"Oh no! I can't call anymore, my cousin needs to see me urgently!"

Ignoring the complaints of his colleagues, Wu Dalong wiped the sweat from his forehead and strode out of the office.

"Fuzi, what are you doing here on such a hot day?"

The two walked to the ventilation shaft at the end of the corridor.

Without saying a word, Chen Defu tore open a pack of Hongtashan cigarettes, pulled out one, and handed it over.

Wu Dalong's eyes lit up suddenly, and he took it and smelled it.

"Wow, this is good stuff."

"However, you've always been very shrewd, so tell me, what do you want with your cousin?"

Chen Defu took out a match and lit it for Wu Dalong, then lit one for himself, took a deep drag, and finally spoke through gritted teeth.

"Cousin, does your local business administration office no longer care about the street vendors? People are getting too arrogant and rude to me!"

Wu Dalong exhaled a smoke ring and frowned.

"What kind of talk is that?"

"In these streets of our county, who dares to break the rules? What happened? Were you bullied?"

Chen Defu immediately embellished the story of what happened at the cinema entrance.

He deliberately concealed the fact that he had started the trouble first, only saying that Liu Guangming was occupying the road for business and leading a group of vagrants to run rampant, and that he had only gone to buy a glass of watermelon juice out of kindness and almost got stabbed.

After hearing this, Wu Dalong snorted dismissively.

"I thought he was some kind of powerful outsider."

"Watermelon sellers? With their poor and shabby appearance, what kind of trouble could they possibly cause?"

"But with their small business, do you really think they'd dare to bully you like that?"

"Hey, cousin, don't underestimate them!"

Chen Defu took a step closer and lowered his voice.

"That chilled watermelon juice, it costs 15 cents a cup! Business is booming!"

Chen Defu started calculating the accounts for Wu Dalong on his fingers.

"Think about it, this watermelon costs at most two cents a pound."

"How much juice can he make from a 10-pound watermelon with crushed ice?"

"With that kind of cup, I reckon it could make at least twenty cups of juice!"

"Twenty cups, that's three yuan! After deducting the two mao (0.2 yuan) cost of the watermelon, he makes a net profit of more than two yuan per watermelon!"

"His stall must sell several hundred pounds of melons a day! Cousin, you do the math, how much money does he make in a day?"

Wu Dalong, who had been nonchalant, suddenly trembled as he heard this.

Hundreds of kilograms of melons a day? Two yuan profit per melon?

So this stall must make a net profit of tens of yuan a day?!

Wu Dalong's Adam's apple bobbed up and down twice.

These days, even with all the subsidies, he only earns about ninety yuan a month working himself to the bone at the local industrial and commercial bureau.

These street urchins earn in a day what he earns in a week?!

So that's how it is...

Wu Dalong immediately felt a strong urge to get involved.

However, although Wu Dalong is greedy, he is not a brainless person who can get by in the system.

He suppressed the burning desire in his heart and looked at Chen Defu with suspicion.

"Fuzi, if what you're saying is true, this business is indeed huge. But with such a large operation, didn't this kid even bother to get a business license?"

"If their paperwork is complete, we can't just do anything about it."

"He can't possibly get a certificate!"

Chen Defu sneered, his face full of disdain.

"Cousin, you overestimate him. Liu Guangming is just a poor student from Laogou Township. He just finished his college entrance exam the day before yesterday. How could he know how to get a certificate, how to get one, and even which way the business office door faces?"

Upon hearing this, Wu Dalong nodded, agreeing.

"Just finished the college entrance exam? Then you're definitely a greenhorn."

"However, the policies from above are different now."

Wu Dalong flicked his cigarette ash: "You're not in the inner workings, so you don't understand the intricacies of it all."

"A large conference was held recently, and that person said that we need to move quickly and be bold. The director has been emphasizing this in meetings these past two days, encouraging the revitalization of the economy, and he has also made some demands."

Wu Dalong paused, then continued, "If this Liu Guangming is selling watermelons grown on his own land, then that's called a farmer selling his own produce in the city!"

"Self-production and self-sales is a good thing, responding to the call and in line with policy!"

"If things were like this, and I brought people to smash his stall, and it escalated to the higher authorities, I'd be skinned alive!"

Wu Dalong's concerns were very real. In the context of 1992, the line between self-production and self-sales and reselling was the key to industrial and commercial law enforcement.

Upon hearing this, Chen Defu immediately slapped his thigh.

"Cousin, his home is in Laogou Township! It's a full thirty miles of mountain road from the county seat, all bumpy dirt roads!"

Chen Defu sneered repeatedly: "Think about it, even if he had eight legs, he couldn't possibly push a cart from the countryside into the city every day to sell several hundred kilograms of watermelons!"

"Self-produced and self-sold? How is that possible? This is clearly reselling! It's unlicensed black market trading for speculation!"

Chen Defu emphasized the last few words.

Upon hearing this, Wu Dalong's concerns completely vanished.

If it's not self-produced and self-sold, and if a business license isn't obtained, then it's definitely illegal operation.

Confiscating tools and seizing illegal gains is just a matter of a word from him, the market management officer of the Industry and Commerce Bureau!

"good!"

Wu Dalong threw the cigarette butt on the ground and crushed it out with his leather shoe, his eyes gleaming with greed.

"They dare to engage in profiteering and monopolistic practices on my turf! They've gone too far!"

Wu Dalong turned around and prepared to walk towards his office.

"You wait here, I'll go in and get some men. Get in our sidecar and go straight to that entire stall and raid it! Take him, the vehicle, and all the money back to the station!"

"Cousin! Wait a minute!"

Upon seeing this, Chen Defu grabbed Wu Dalong's arm and held on tightly.

Wu Dalong was stunned and turned around to look at him with a puzzled expression.

"What? You're showing mercy and softening your heart now?"

"Soft-hearted my foot!"

Chen Defu gritted his teeth, his face full of malice.

"Cousin, think about it. They've only just started setting up their business these past few days."

"If you investigate now, how much profit can you extract from the fines?"

Wu Dalong stopped in his tracks. "So you mean...?"

Chen Defu leaned close to Wu Dalong's ear, lowered his voice, and spoke with a ruthless tone.

"Fatten them up before killing them!"

"Let him sell comfortably today! Then, tomorrow afternoon when the sun is at its strongest, when they're selling like hotcakes and have the most money in their pockets, you take some men and suddenly raid them!"

"At that point, the amount of the fine for operating without a license will be entirely up to you, won't it?"

"The more money he earns, the more you'll have to fine him!"

Wu Dalong was stunned for a moment, then reacted, pointed at Chen Defu's nose, and burst into laughter.

"Cousin, you're really cunning! Brilliant! That was an absolutely brilliant move!"

After saying that, Wu Dalong patted Chen Defu's shoulder forcefully.

"Okay! We'll do it your way!"

"Let this kid run wild for a day. Tomorrow afternoon, I'll see how he dies!"