Chapter 058 Can be used up
"I used to work as a shopkeeper for NT$1,300 a month, but my family thought that was too little, so they found me a job in a garment factory. It was tiring, but I could earn NT$1,500 a month. This way I gave NT$1,200 to my family and still had NT$300 left for my expenses."
"You still have to give money to your family?" Tang Yuan was surprised.
"Yes, you have to pay for household expenses," Liang Meiyi was even more surprised than Tang Yuan's surprise, "You don't have to pay?"
Tang Yuan shook his head slowly.
"Oh my god, you are so lucky. Everyone I know has to pay household allowances, but you don't. You can save a lot of money every month," Liang Meiyi looked at Tang Yuan enviously, "I wish I didn't have to pay household allowances either."
Tang Yuan did not tell her about her situation in detail. After all, she still had an excuse from Xue Shiqi that she was "knitting sweaters for her family". It would not be good if she was exposed one day.
"Are you doing well in the garment factory now? Is it hard?" She changed the subject.
"It's hard work. I can only rest for half a day a week, but the salary is high, and the garment factory also provides work clothes, so I can save a lot of money on weekdays," Liang Meiyi said, and began to talk about the situation at the garment factory. "Let me tell you, when I first arrived at the garment factory, I didn't know anything..."
The two sat in the small park and chatted. Most of the time, it was Liang Meiyi who did the talking and Tang Yuan just responded.
The garment factory where she works is a small one, mainly producing jeans and shirts, which are also the clothing with the greatest demand in the market today. According to her, this batch of clothes should be the ones that Tang Yuan saw in the market before, with an average price of twenty or thirty yuan per piece.
However, even if the original price is 20 or 30 yuan, the fabric cost plus labor cost of a piece of clothing only costs a dozen yuan.
Tang Yuan was just bored at first, and happened to meet an acquaintance, so he sat down to chat for a few minutes. As he listened, his mind started to work, and when he was about to answer again, he asked, "Does your garment factory have some scraps of cloth? Do you sell them?"
"Yes," Liang Meiyi nodded. "It's very cheap. You can buy a big bag for one dollar. Do you want some? If you want, I can give it to you."
"How many rags do you have in stock in your factory?" Tang Yuan asked.
"Not much, because they are all shirt and denim materials, and most people's clothes are shirts and denim. If the clothes at home are torn, they can be taken home and repaired, and it is completely invisible," Liang Meiyi said, "but it was cold before, and everyone wore thick cotton clothes, so there were not many of these materials, so there are still some left."
After saying that, Liang Meiyi looked at Tang Yuan and said, "You ask this because you want more?"
"Well, I have some ideas," Tang Yuan smiled, "Can you help me pull some strings?"
Liang Meiyi thought about it and nodded immediately: "Okay, I'll help you pull the line."
Liang Meiyi worked in a garment factory, and the factory also started making clothes at night. Tang Yuan followed her and easily came into contact with people who could deal with scraps of cloth.
When the other party heard that Tang Yuan wanted all the scraps of cloth, he became very alert and looked her up and down: "What do you want the scraps of cloth for?"
"Take it back and make some handicrafts," Tang Yuanzhi said, "I should be able to earn some money."
"Handicrafts? Purely handmade?" The other party showed some disdain in his eyes, "See, if you want to make money in Hong Kong these days, you still have to use machines. How much money can you make from pure handmade work?"
Tang Yuan did not refute, but simply handed the cigarettes he had prepared in advance to the other party.
She had inquired with Liang Meiyi in advance and confirmed that she was addicted to smoking, so she bought it on the road.
Sure enough, after getting the cigarettes, the other person's expression changed instantly: "It's just some scraps of cloth, not very useful, these are what I left over from this period of time, if you want them, just take them all, just give me twenty dollars."
Tang Yuan raised his eyes and looked at the five large sacks of rags in front of him. It took a lot of effort to suppress the frown on his lips.
"Thank you. I'll call a rickshaw to help me move the things." Tang Yuan said, gave the money first, then went to the garment factory and hailed a rickshaw on the roadside. After agreeing on the price, he asked the other party to come in and help, and put the rags on the rickshaw one by one.
There were a lot of rags, enough to fill five large sacks. Fortunately, the rickshaw was light, and the rickshaw driver wanted to make money, so he tied all the bags onto the rickshaw. In the end, there was really no room left for people to sit.
However, the money had already been spent, so Tang Yuan simply spent a little more money to call a rickshaw, and then she and the goods returned to her current residence.
At that time, the character of the rickshaw owners was mixed. She did not dare to let the owners carry the things upstairs. Instead, she placed the things at the door, asked the security guard to watch, and carried them upstairs bag by bag.
The security guard asked curiously, and she told the truth, and even let the security guard see the rags in the bag with his own eyes.
Xiang Jiang's shirt and jeans were basic clothing. The material was worthless, and the scraps were even less valuable. The security guard looked at them out of curiosity, but lost interest and said to her, "You can't make much money from this. You might as well find a job if you have the time."
"This is also work. I have found someone to help with the processing. You need to bring this batch of rags to my room first, and then sort them out and send them to the helper in batches," Tang Yuan said calmly, handing over another pack of cigarettes. "I will need to buy some more rags later, and I will need you to watch them for a while when the time comes."
"You're welcome. I just took a look," the security guard smiled and put away his cigarette. "It's not easy for you to make money. Even if these scraps of cloth can be made into something, they are not worth much."
"Life is hard for everyone. I'll go upstairs first." Tang Yuan said, carrying the last bag of rags and walking slowly upstairs step by step.
It was only here that she dared to make such a lavish purchase. If she had lived in her original place, her actions would have attracted unnecessary attention. She lived there with nothing in the house. No one noticed it last time, but if she did it again, someone might notice something was wrong.
It's different here. It's a high-end building and the neighbors are relatively indifferent and unwilling to talk to her. There are security guards at the door, and maybe powerful people live there, so they won't dare to commit petty theft.
As for moving things in and out, she originally carried sweaters and wool in a large bag each time. The same bag was big enough to hold a small bag of rags, and no one would know what was in her bag unless she spilled it.
However, this time she did not move all her things into the game space. In the following days, she even went out to visit several small garment factories. Under the influence of cigarettes, she made the managers of these factories willingly agree to sell the scraps of cloth to her at a reasonable price.
In a few days, she spent more than two hundred Hong Kong dollars to buy more than fifty bags of rags, almost emptying the small garment factory's rags. Among them were not only shirt rags, denim rags, but also other miscellaneous rags. These rags were useless to the garment factory and took up warehouse space. If they could be sold later, it would be a refreshing clearance for the garment factory.
Because the quantity was so huge, even the security guard who didn't say much at first began to become curious. He was mainly curious about how big her house was to be able to hold so many scraps of cloth.
In response, Tang Yuan explained that they could be “pressed” because they were all made of cloth, and she pressed them together after taking them home.
"What else?"
"There's no room for it," Tang Yuan smiled bitterly. "The room is full. I almost had to sleep standing up. The main reason is that I didn't expect there to be so many. I originally thought that 20 to 30 bags would be enough."
"I thought you had almost no place to sleep in your house," the security guard said, and then he advised, "Don't buy any more, or they will pile up at the door, and then everyone will be unhappy."
"No, no," Tang Yuan nodded repeatedly. She had been planning not to buy anything, so she nodded and handed over a pack of cigarettes, whispering, "Please help me cover it up. Don't tell anyone that I bought so many rags. It's okay for other things, but I'm mainly worried that my neighbors will be unhappy."
"Then don't touch fire in the house," the security guard took the cigarette, "your house is very dangerous now."
"That's right. From now on, I will definitely not light a fire in the house. I will be careful when I go in and out every day, and then slowly put all these things out," Tang Yuan said seriously. "After I have selected them, I will take them out one by one. I have to give myself a place to sleep."
"Then you should be careful. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone," the security guard promised. "Don't bring so many things back next time."
"Of course not!"
After talking to the security guard, Tang Yuan returned to the house carrying the last bag of fabric in his hand.
The neighbors all had to go to work during the day, so when she went back and forth during the day, not many people saw her carrying the rags. As long as the security guard had agreed, there wouldn't be any big problems.
The security guards at the door worked in shifts, and she would only bring the fabric back when one of the security guards was on duty. Since he said he would keep it confidential, he would naturally not leak the news to anyone.
Stockpiling fabrics is not a big deal in itself. The main point is that if there is too much, it will be very dangerous if there is a fire. Tang Yuan promised not to start a fire, and the security guards did not want to cause more trouble.
The situation in the house was actually much better than she said and than the security guard expected.
Although there were indeed a lot of bags of rags piled up, this was actually only a part of them. The rest were moved by her to the game space.
It was just that the amount of scraps she stockpiled this time was indeed a bit too much, causing the cabin in her game space to be filled to the brim, with the scraps in the corners piled up to the ceiling.
But who said the scraps of cloth this time were so cheap? If the price was a little more expensive, she would definitely not be willing to buy so many scraps of cloth.
Four yuan for a sack, even in the mainland today, there are probably people willing to buy it, not to mention that she paid in Hong Kong dollars, so cheap. If she doesn't stock up this batch of rags, she will definitely be heartbroken when she thinks about it later.
Rather than being heartbroken later, it is better to spend money to buy it now.
It's just fifty bags of rags. As long as she works hard enough, they will be used up sooner or later!