Old Mrs. Song is reborn; get out of here, you scumbag husband and illegitimate child!

Aunt Wu did not take the socks on the spot.

The socks haven't been delivered yet from Cihuai Hutong. Song Xianglan said she would go to Chen Zui's rented house to pick them up later.

Aunt Wu took the fifteen yuan and went home.

After her son Wu Tianming and daughter-in-law Lu Hong came home from get off work and stepped across the threshold.

Aunt Wu slammed the door shut and slammed two banknotes onto the square table.

"Look, I helped that Miss Song for half a day today, and she gave me fifteen yuan as payment."

You all have no idea how busy you are, your throats are practically on fire. And that little black monkey, oh, its background is so pitiful.

Wu Tianming and Lu Hong exchanged a glance.

Wu Tianming pulled out a stool and sat down. "Mom, isn't this money burning your hands?"

"Why burn your hands? It's only right that I do the work and she pays." Aunt Wu pushed the money in front of her daughter-in-law. "I've decided not to save this money."

That young woman had a batch of nylon socks from the south, so I exchanged them all for other goods and set up a stall at the night market that evening.

With an investment of fifteen yuan, even if you don't make a lot of money, you can at least buy two jin (1 kg) of meat.

Aunt Wu lives with her eldest son.

She still had her two sons who had separated from the family and her daughter who had married out of the family, and she was planning to subsidize them when she earned money in the future.

Especially that daughter who married in the suburbs, her life is a complete mess.

Lu Hong gasped.

"Mom, setting up a stall at the night market is speculation and profiteering. It's so embarrassing if people see it."

"What's so shameful about it? It's only shameful to be so poor that you're starving and have nothing to eat." Wu Tianming's eyes lit up. "Mom's thinking is right. This kind of business is just a passing fad; it'll be gone as soon as it's over."

Our family needs to seize this opportunity to make as much money as possible; having money in hand gives us confidence.

Wu Tianming leaned closer to his wife and instructed her:

"I also took a commission from the purchase of goods by Section Chief Li at the factory today. Keep this to yourselves, and don't let anyone else know. Go back to your parents' house tomorrow at noon."

Lu Hong was taken aback. "Why are you going back to your parents' house?"

"It's a sales pitch."

Wu Tianming: "My brother-in-law's factory leaders must also be eyeing these in-demand goods."

You could tell me beforehand that if you can successfully refer a client to your brother-in-law, you'll get a 1% commission. Wouldn't that be faster money than a fixed salary?

Lu Hong's mind cleared up. "Okay, I'll go to Auntie's house to get the goods after I finish eating."

Chen Zui and Bai Gang made a trip to Cihuai Hutong.

They carried two sacks of small items to the courtyard, and Bai Gang helped carry them into the house.

His wife came along.

The two selected socks, detachable collars and t-shirts, and digital watches.

After dinner.

Lu Hong held the hundred yuan she had saved up. Aunt Wu said she would buy goods separately from her daughter-in-law, so she took ten yuan in addition to fifteen yuan.

The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law knocked on Song Xianglan's door.

I picked out some nylon stockings, fake collars, and white undershirts, filling a cloth bag to the brim.

Under the cover of night, the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, each carrying a bag, headed straight for the night market several miles away.

The courtyard became completely quiet.

Chen Zui said he was going back to the hotel.

"Staying in a hotel every day is so expensive," Song Xianglan said, feeling sorry for him wasting money. "Why don't you just sleep in the living room?"

Chen Zui said he would stay again next time he came, and then left.

Song Xianglan bolted the door and drew the curtains.

Pull the bag out from under the bed and unzip it.

Stacks of ten-yuan notes, along with five-yuan, two-yuan, one-yuan, and small-denomination bills, were piled up on the table, forming a small mountain.

She grabbed the abacus, her fingers flying up and down, the beads clattering together with a crisp sound.

During the day, I set up a stall and collected over 28,000 yuan in cash from the local residents who took home the loose goods.

After deducting the principal from the goods purchased from Qingyang, the pure profit for the day was just over 21,000 yuan.

The profits are outrageously high.

Most of the goods in Qingyang were smuggled and seized, and the bottom price she got was less than a quarter of the factory price.

The remaining untouched batch of goods.

If we clear them all out, we can double our profits.

Song Xianglan washed her face, took off her clothes, and went to bed.

She earns her living through hard work at the night market, and having already made a good impression today, there's no need for her to stay up all night and strain herself.

You can't spend money if you're alive.

Early the next morning.

Song Xianglan quickly washed and dressed, then headed straight for the entrance of the department store.

The cleaning lady was sweeping the floor when she saw Song Xianglan walking over, and her eyes lit up.

"Little sister, I thought you weren't coming."

"We can't go back on our promise." Song Xianglan handed over two meat buns. "Have you made contact with the person yet?"

The cleaning lady wiped her hands on her apron and took the steamed bun.

"I've made contact, but the courtyard is quite far in the northern suburbs. Do you really want to go see it?"

"What's there to be afraid of if it's far away? As long as the house is suitable, my son will at least have a place to stay when he comes to Beijing in the future." Song Xianglan casually made up a pretext.

In this day and age, it's considered bad to say you're preparing a house for your daughter.

Then, a bunch of matchmakers and men without houses will come knocking on your door, eyeing you.

Tell your son, and you'll have half the trouble.

The cleaning lady asked her supervisor for leave and took Song Xianglan to the northern suburbs on her bicycle.

I rode for a full hour.

The two stopped in front of a large courtyard gate.

Blue bricks and gray tiles, towering courtyard walls.

Push open the wooden door.

Song Xianglan's eyes lit up.

The courtyard was even more spacious than she had expected.

Five main rooms are arranged in a row, with three side rooms on each side.

The yard was spotless, and there were two sturdy ginkgo trees and two jujube trees standing in it.

The backyard was even larger, with a large vegetable garden created.

The northern suburbs now look desolate.

But Song Xianglan knew that in twenty or thirty years, once this area was developed, this courtyard would be a money tree.

The homeowners were an elderly couple with gray hair.

The old man puffed on his pipe, and the old woman sighed.

My son has been transferred to work in Shenzhen. He wants my wife and me to go there too.

We have several daughters in Beijing, but they live far away and each has their own family, so they don't get along with their daughters-in-law.

The old man was reluctant to part with the yard, so I thought I'd sell it and use the money to support myself so I could go to Shenzhen to live with my son.

Song Xianglan walked around the courtyard.

The walls inside the house have been repainted.

The roof beams are thick and free of wormholes, so no major repairs are needed.

"Sister-in-law, I like this house. Please name a fair price."

The old woman held up three fingers: "Three thousand. Not a penny less. A room in a tenement in the city would cost several hundred."

Song Xianglan shook her head and immediately tried to lower the price. "Auntie, you said it yourself, this is the suburbs. You have to walk two miles just to buy a cabbage. My price is two thousand two. If that's okay, we can go to the housing management bureau to transfer the property today, and I'll pay the money in full at once."

Houses in the suburbs are not expensive to begin with.

Song Xianglan offered 2,200 because she genuinely loved this place.

The old man coughed twice and waved his hands.

No, no.

Song Xianglan didn't linger and turned to leave.

"Let's go back. This money should be enough to buy three decent rooms in the city."

As soon as she stepped out the door, the old lady hurriedly spoke up:

"Hey girl, turn back. Two thousand two it is."

Song Xianglan stopped in her tracks.

The four of them rode their bikes straight to the real estate bureau.

The 2,200 yuan was counted in person, and the red property deed was directly registered under Song Xianglan's name.

The old woman, holding the money, her eyes reddening, muttered to the old man:

"This home where I've lived for half my life has just become someone else's."

Song Xianglan put the property deed into her bag, then turned to look at the elderly couple:

"Sister-in-law, listen to my advice. Once you get to Shenzhen, don't hold onto all your money or give it all to your son. Find a place closer to them, even if it's just a small apartment of fifty or sixty square meters."

"Houses are cheap in Shenzhen. With this money, you can buy a fairly large house and still have some left over."

The old woman said, "We're going to live with our son, and we're going to buy our own house?"

Song Xianglan: "The two generations have different living habits, and they quarrel every morning and evening when they live under the same roof."

You both have your own house, so you can go out and defend as you please. You can help take care of your grandchildren during the day, and go back to your own place to sleep at night. Nobody will mind if anyone does.

In case we're short of cash, we can still collect rent by renting out the house. We old people need to have some trump cards up our sleeves.

These words struck a chord with the old man.

The old man tapped his pipe and nodded repeatedly:

"This young lady is very insightful. My son wrote to me a few days ago saying that factories are being built everywhere in Shenzhen, and there are a lot of people from other places. We'll listen to you and go there to buy a house to settle down first."

The old lady smiled too, and her wrinkled face smoothed out when she mentioned her grandson:

"My two grandsons are very clever. I can keep an eye on them every day. This house was worth the price."

The elderly couple took three days to move.

Song Xianglan readily agreed and pushed her bicycle back with the cleaning lady.

We're almost in the city.

Song Xianglan took out four ten-yuan bills from her pocket and stuffed them into the cleaning lady's hand.

The cleaning lady was startled and absolutely refused to answer.

"Hey girl, what are you doing?"

"Sister, you've gone to a lot of trouble leading the way, this is your due referral fee. As for how the middleman splits the money, you can decide for yourself." Song Xianglan forcefully stuffed the money into her pocket.

The cleaning lady touched the thick wad of banknotes and tentatively asked:

"That's quite a generous offer. If there are any other good houses available, I'll find you some more."

Song Xianglan waved her hand, her face full of bitterness:

"Don't let this get out. The money I used to buy this house was compensation I got after someone cracked my skull a few days ago. I had to beg and plead for it."

"If it weren't for wanting to secure a future for my son, I wouldn't have dared to buy a house in the suburbs."

The cleaning lady suddenly realized what was going on and patted her chest to assure her.

"Don't worry, I'll keep this to myself."

Song Xianglan parted ways with the cleaning lady and went to the shop that was being renovated.

Song Tingting's clothing store is currently undergoing renovations.

The storefront has been expanded.

The workers were shirtless, applying white paint.

Chen Zui, wearing a hat folded from newspaper, was standing at the door gesturing to the foreman about the blueprints.

He turned around and saw Song Xianglan.

Chen Zui patted the dust off his hands.

He ran over quickly.

"Godmother, where did you go? I went looking for you early this morning, and the neighbors all said you left early."

Song Xianglan patted the dirt off her clothes.

"I went out for a casual stroll. How's the store's renovation going?"

"The progress is very fast. The contractor said that at this speed, it will be completed in another five days." Chen Zui pointed to the newly built shelves inside, "Once the clothes are hung up, it will definitely be the most eye-catching store on this street."

Song Xianglan nodded.

"Keep a close eye on them."

Just then, two men wearing Zhongshan suits walked over.

The man, carrying a briefcase, lingered on the freshly painted doorway.

Chen Zui frowned and stepped in front of Song Xianglan.

Who are you looking for?

The man pushed up his glasses, his gaze sweeping past Chen Zui and settling on Song Xianglan. "Someone reported that your paperwork is incomplete and that you're engaging in speculation and profiteering."

Song Xianglan's face darkened.