Chapter 049 Changing Thoughts

“Today it’s five sweaters.”

Tang Yuan stood at the door of the scrap yard, settling today's bills with Shen Wenyu and Second Aunt.

After counting the sweaters, they counted the bacon. The former was traded openly, while the latter was traded cautiously. Finally, the transaction was completed.

The money for the bacon was paid directly by Shen Wenyu. If this amount is included, Tang Yuan can still make some money from the two orders today.

Just after collecting the money, Shen Wenyu suddenly spoke up: "By the way, Xiaofang, didn't you say before that you wanted to buy some used newspapers?"

While speaking, she winked at Tang Yuan.

Tang Yuan immediately responded: "Yes, is there anything cleaner? The old newspapers were a bit dirty last time I came here."

"Of course there is, otherwise I wouldn't tell you," Shen Wenyu pulled Tang Yuan's arm and turned to talk to Second Aunt, "Second Aunt, you continue weaving, Xiaofang and I will go over there."

"You guys get busy." Second Aunt put the three dollars she had just received into her pocket and continued to knit the sweater in her hand without looking up. Her hands moved very skillfully and she could knit a small piece in a short while.

On the other side, Shen Wenyu and Tang Yuan walked to the waste paper area.

"I just brought in a bag of old books yesterday. I looked at them and they are indeed old books, all packed together," she said, rummaging through the waste paper pile. "Are you going to take these away today?"

Tang Yuan opened the bag and took a look, then nodded: "Well, I'll take them all away today. I'll try to get some cartons later to pack them together, and we can divide them up later."

"That's no problem. I trust you to do the job." Shen Wenyu handed a bag of old books to Tang Yuan, took out a stack of old newspapers, put them on the top of the bag, and took the initiative to help carry it to the door of the waste station.

After putting the things down, she weighed them directly.

Second Aunt raised her head at this time, and Tang Yuan spoke first: "By the way, I haven't given you the next pattern yet. This time the pattern is more complicated, and it will be more troublesome to weave, so the price is also higher, one piece is 1.5 yuan."

As soon as she said this, not only Second Aunt, but also Shen Wenyu was attracted by her: "Really give me 1.5 yuan?"

"How can it be fake?" Tang Yuan took out the pattern from her bag. "Sister Shen and Second Aunt are both experienced people. This pattern shouldn't be difficult."

They each took a page of drawings and looked at them.

Shen Wenyu spoke first: "It's a bit difficult."

"Almost the same. It just looks difficult. It's actually woven the same way." Second Aunt took one look and knew which weaving method to use. "But this pattern is indeed... fancy."

"If they want it, why should we care?" Shen Wenyu continued. "Second aunt, if you can do it, I won't worry. If I can't do it later, you can teach me."

"Okay!" Second Aunt nodded.

Tang Yuan smiled and said, "Then you guys continue with your work. I'll be leaving first."

They both said at the same time: "Walk slower."

After bringing back another bag of things, Tang Yuan walked around the wooden house in the game space. The house was originally small, and later on, a bathroom and a kitchen were purchased, which reduced the space by half.

During this period of time, she brought back bag after bag of things. Even though she was busy, these things were piled up in different corners in a mess, making this space, which didn't even have a bed, look particularly messy.

She had been waiting for the scrap yard to get another antique display rack, but now it seemed that even if there was one, it wouldn't be enough to store all her stuff, so she still had to find some storage boxes.

With this in mind, she left Xiangjiang Cottage and went downstairs, then looked around for a store that sold boxes.

Wooden boxes, plastic boxes, cardboard boxes... When she arrived at the handmade sweater shop, she had already decided to buy cardboard boxes, not for any other reason, but mainly because they were cheap enough.

There were two sweaters hanging in the store today, which was unusual. They were obviously the ones she brought in the day before yesterday.

Xue Shiqi looked up from the counter when she heard the voice: "You're here, come and see my new design!"

Tang Yuan walked forward and saw the design drawing in front of Xue Shiqi. There were indeed pearls on the sweater, and the presence of the pearls was extremely harmonious with the pattern on the sweater.

"This design will definitely be very beautiful when woven!" Tang Yuan said sincerely.

"I thought so too, and I can't wait to weave it. Look, I even bought the pearls." Xue Shiqi took out a small box of pearls, which were full of pearls and obviously worth a lot of money.

Tang Yuan didn't know what the price of pearls was at that time, but she knew that natural round pearls were not cheap under any circumstances. Putting pearls on the sweater was enough to increase the price of the sweater by at least a few hundred yuan.

"So I have something else to discuss with you," Xue Shiqi looked at Tang Yuan, "Can you help me knit the whole sweater? I can give you extra money, ten yuan per sweater, no, fifteen yuan, okay?"

Add fifteen dollars, which means the labor cost for a sweater is forty-five dollars. Add five dollars for the yarn, and it's exactly fifty dollars.

The previous bill for labor costs of fifty yuan increased to sixty-five yuan.

The cheapest sweater in Xue Shiqi's store costs over a hundred yuan. She takes out fifty yuan as processing fee, and keeps fifty yuan as profit.

However, if she were just an ordinary shop owner, the remaining 50% profit would have to be deducted from the shop rent, her personal salary, water and electricity expenses, and the actual profit left would not be much.

With this calculation, she was able to offer a processing fee of forty-five yuan, which was indeed very sincere.

Tang Yuan blinked and said, "As long as you are willing, I will be more than happy to help you."

"That's great. This way, I have time to crochet this dress," Xue Shiqi waved the design drawing in her hand. "This is my first time designing something like this. I must crochet it myself."

As she said this, her eyes lit up.

Seeing her like this, Tang Yuan felt a little embarrassed. After all, the purpose of her establishing this connection was just to make money. But she also felt that making money was a very happy thing, so she suppressed the embarrassment in her heart.

Hobbies are not divided by status. You like to knit sweaters, and I like to make money. You and I both have a bright future.

Tang Yuan smiled: "I'll tell them when I get back, and I'll bring the finished product when I come back later."

Xue Shiqi's drawings are very detailed. Not only the front and back patterns are drawn, but also the sleeves and neckline patterns. However, the most complicated ones are definitely the front and back patterns.

Shen Wenyu and Second Aunt had already woven the most difficult one, so the other simple ones were no problem for them.

After getting Xue Shiqi's nod, Tang Yuan hurried back, bought a few cardboard boxes on the way, and after returning to the game space, he went to the waste station.

The sleeves and neckline were not difficult to make, and even though the new pattern made them much more difficult, she only added fifty cents to the price. Now that the clothes needed to be made into finished products, she only needed to weave some less difficult parts, so she compromised and charged twenty-five cents per piece.

In this way, a sweater of low difficulty is 1.25 yuan per piece, and a sweater of high difficulty is 1.75 yuan per piece.

Both Shen Wenyu and Second Aunt were very happy to hear the news. They couldn't help but say more: "I was wondering why you bought a sweater but didn't finish knitting it. This is right. Why do you need so much cloth for a sweater? I can finish it quickly."

"Maybe it's to test us," Shen Wenyu said with a smile, "The extra ones are not difficult, I can knit them all, and Second Aunt is no problem at all. Now, with the money I earn from knitting sweaters plus my monthly salary, I can get 70 or 80 yuan a month. That's the salary of an eighth-level worker."

"That's not a lot. With a salary of 70 or 80 yuan, the whole family can live a good life." Second Aunt looked at her, "You just live too steadily and don't know how hard it is to make money."

"Second aunt earns more than me. Just from our knitting work, I earn more than 30 yuan a month, while Second aunt can earn more than 40, almost 50." Shen Wenyu took Second Aunt's hand.

The second aunt obviously hadn't calculated it carefully. When she heard this, her eyes widened instantly. After a moment's silence, she came to her senses: "It seems... it seems that there are really so many? Oh my God, I'm going to have a good life!"

Shen Wenyu and Tang Yuan looked at each other and both laughed.

Tang Yuan smiled, but she felt worried. The order was changed from sweater pieces to a whole sweater, so the two of them earned an extra 25 cents, and she earned an extra 15 yuan. So she definitely earned too much, but it also meant that her monthly RMB expenditure would increase.

Before, she thought that at sixty dollars a month, her savings would probably last her two months.

Now it has become eighty yuan a month, and her savings can't even last two months.

Money is hard to make, both positive and negative.

For a while, she really couldn't think of a way to make money. She could only put the matter aside for the time being and think about it carefully later. In the next two months, she would make some money by selling eggs and bacon, which would be enough to cover her expenses for two months.

After that...if it really doesn't work, she can only consider continuing to sell pork and bacon.

There is no limit on the amount of meat you can buy in Hong Kong, but the price is a bit higher. She has to earn 80 yuan a month, and she only needs to make 50 kilograms of bacon.

Assuming that one pound and four ounces of pork makes one pound of bacon, she needs to buy 70 pounds of pork. At one pound of pork, there are twelve pieces, which is 840 Hong Kong dollars.

And she should be able to earn three to four thousand yuan every month by selling the sweaters to Xue Shiqi. With this calculation, pork in Hong Kong, which costs twelve pieces per pound, is not too expensive. It is not completely impossible to make money by making bacon from the pork.

After figuring this out, Tang Yuan finally calmed down.

Apart from other things, it is not difficult for her to sell 50 kilograms of bacon. There is a large supply of pork in Hong Kong, so it is not difficult for her to buy 70 kilograms of pork. With the support of the pork business, she does not have to worry about not having enough money to "pay wages" when the end of the year comes.

Having said everything that needed to be said, she did not stay to disturb the two people from knitting sweaters. She went back to the game space and took out eggs to sell.

When there was a shortage of Hong Kong dollars, she went to Hong Kong to sell eggs. Now that there is a shortage of RMB, she naturally has to continue to promote eggs in the Mainland. It is not difficult, but she needs to change her mindset. To sell eggs in the Mainland, she still has to do it quietly.

She is now looking forward to the news of the resumption of the college entrance examination. It’s not that she wants to take the college entrance examination, but the news of the resumption of the college entrance examination means that the day of reform and opening up is about to come.

Only then can she do business openly in both places.