Chapter 104

After getting off the car, looking at the extremely exotic faces around him, Tang Yuan finally felt like he was in a foreign country.

"Amy, let's go."

"Coming." Tang Yuan followed Lola's footsteps.

There is a lot of traffic around here, probably because many places have been affected by the floods. Most of the people coming and going are carrying bags of varying sizes, filled with bread, meat, vegetables and the like.

Tang Yuan followed Lola all the way without saying a word. He just looked around and wrote down the route so that she could walk on her own next time.

Not long after, the two arrived at a nearby market where shops were concentrated. In addition to shops of all sizes, there were also some scattered stalls selling some agricultural products. Most of them looked temporary and no one drove them away, which showed that this was a permitted activity.

Lola walked quickly into a bakery and quickly picked up a basket of bread.

Tang Yuan entered the store after a while and looked at the bread on the shelf. The prices were not too expensive, but... she really had no money.

"Amy, you don't want to buy it?"

"Buy it." Tang Yuan nodded and took a few loaves of bread as a token of appreciation, spending two dollars in the end.

Fortunately, she had done several transactions with Lola during this period and had some extra money on hand, otherwise she would not have been able to take out the two dollars.

Later, Lola planned to go somewhere else, so Tang Yuan used the excuse that she also wanted to see other places and went her separate ways. After Lola left, she returned to the bus stop to confirm the bus time.

There is a bus from here to her current residence every hour starting at nine in the morning. It takes nearly fifty minutes to get here, and then it drives back after a ten-minute break.

The last bus is at 6pm, and there will be no more buses after 6pm.

There are some job openings in nearby stores, and the working hours also start at nine in the morning. If you miss the first bus, you need to buy a car or ride a bicycle to go to work.

A journey that takes 50 minutes by bus would take an hour and a half or even longer by bike.

This is not suitable for her, not to mention that she now has multiple aliases. Even if she only has this one alias, the daytime here is late at night in China. She has a regular job here and has to work 24 hours a day.

So we still have to set up a stall.

She looked at a stall selling rice and went up to ask about the price, and at the same time learned about the things she needed to pay attention to when setting up a stall there.

During the brief conversation, she quickly learned about the situation at the stall. She only needed to submit a simple application to get a fixed stall for $200 a month, and she could sell anything at the stall.

Of course, if you really don't want to pay, that's not a bad idea. Many of the stall owners around here only come every now and then, and two hundred dollars is a lot for them, so they are not willing to pay. The worst that can happen is that they can just set up their stall in a different location every time they come.

Tang Yuan wanted to give money, but she really had no money.

After learning about the stall's situation, she looked at the bags of rice in front of her and finally spent one dollar to buy 6 pounds of rice, which is about 0.16 US dollars per pound.

The price is not expensive.

She doesn't buy too much because she has no money.

Tang Yuan pondered this silently in her mind, and finally decided that she should find a way to earn some US dollars. She could exchange them for Hong Kong dollars, but there probably wasn't a place to exchange them here.

She probably wouldn't be able to exchange many US dollars in Hong Kong, so she still had to make money on her own.

As for ways to make money, I’d start with small wallets and hair bands.

When Lola came back, Tang Yuan had already made the decision and was waiting at the shuttle bus stop. When the two of them went back, Lola, with bags in her hands, talked to her about her gains of the day.

She bought bread, seasonings, salad dressing...all daily necessities. She also mentioned that it was inconvenient to go out, so most of the time she only went out once a week.

Tang Yuan hasn't mastered English yet, so he still speaks to her in simple sentences, trying to get as much information about the surrounding area from her as possible.

After a stroll, she went back to sleep and woke up at six o'clock in the afternoon in Country M, which was nine o'clock in China.

Fortunately, her work in the boiler room did not start until the afternoon, otherwise she would not have so much time to sleep. After catching up on her sleep and waking up, she started today's work.

Before going to do the work, she went to the bank and found that there was no public exchange rate for Hong Kong dollars to US dollars. The current exchange rate was 5.5 to 1. If she went to exchange it personally, she would not be able to exchange much.

However, the two places also have their own trading situations, and prices cannot be calculated solely by exchange rates.

If she wants to earn US dollars, it would be more appropriate for her to go to Country M to earn it herself. It is not cost-effective to exchange it for Hong Kong dollars.

With that in mind, she quickly packed up a batch of small wallets and hair bands suitable for sale in the M country market, put them in a separate bag, and planned to try them out early tomorrow morning, in the afternoon.

She was busy all day and had no time to sell tea.

Fortunately, Zheng Man is now helping to sell tea, so if she sells one day less it won’t have any impact at all.

In the evening, she came to the warehouse again. Looking at the rags piled up in the warehouse, she knew that Zheng Man had a good harvest today. She moved the rags and put out bags of tea.

When Zheng Man came back, she opened the warehouse door and waited for her. She saw the tricycle she was riding with a bicycle on it.

"Will the tricycle be able to stay here at night?" Zheng Man asked, "I bought a second-hand tricycle. I plan to ride it to buy rags and sell tea. This will be more convenient."

"How much is the tricycle? I'll reimburse you." Tang Yuan also thought this was appropriate.

Zheng Man breathed a sigh of relief: "No, I bought it second-hand. When the business here decreases in a while, I can sell it when I don't need it. Did you see the scraps today? Oh, they have been taken away?"

"Yes, I just happened to be delivering tea, so I took the scraps away," Tang Yuan made way for Zheng Man to ride the tricycle into the warehouse, "In addition to tea, there is also a large bag of hair bands, a large quantity, you can sell them for several days."

"That's great. I was worried I wouldn't be able to deliver them in time," Zheng Man took a bag off the tricycle. "The tea I took out today hasn't been sold out yet, so I can continue to sell tomorrow."

"It's all fine. You decide for yourself." Tang Yuan watched Zheng Man put down the tea bag, and handed her the money he had prepared in advance for buying rags. Then the two of them settled the money for the tea and the hairbands.

Count the three sums of money separately, and settle each one separately, so that both of you will have a clearer understanding.

“By the way, you still need RMB, right?” Zheng Man asked her.

"You also met people who smuggled in here?" Tang Yuan was surprised.

"Someone came to me and wanted to trade with me," Zheng Man said. "This time I will be careful to trade in a public place, both parties will trade together, and will not go to a hidden place."

"If they are willing to exchange, then let them do so. RMB is useless to them," Tang Yuan nodded. "Go and exchange it. I will still give it to you at the original price."

There are still two years before Hong Kong officially exchanges with the mainland, which means that during these two years, it is impossible for her to openly exchange Hong Kong dollars for RMB.

As for doing business and making money, although it is gradually being relaxed, it was still strictly controlled in the first two or three years. Small business was allowed, but large-scale business was basically not allowed. It was also not easy for her to make a lot of money.

If you can directly exchange Hong Kong dollars for RMB, the operation will be much simpler.

Zheng Man just exchanged the money, and Tang Yuan nodded, and she had no objection.

After the two men finished the transaction, they pushed the tricycle into the warehouse, locked the door, and rode back.

That night, Tang Yuan worked in the boiler room until he got off work. He went home and went to bed early. He opened his eyes at around four o'clock the next morning and went to Country M to catch the two o'clock bus.

Arriving at her destination at 2:50, she found a place in the market to set up a stall and put out the small wallet and hair ties she had brought with her.

Not long after it was put away, the first customer came and asked about the price of the hair band.

Before coming to Tang Yuan, I had inquired about the average income in Country M. The median annual income is about 16,000 or 17,000, which is similar to the current annual income in Hong Kong, or even slightly higher.

So according to the market conditions here, her quoted prices for hair bands and small wallets are almost the same as Hong Kong dollars. Hair bands are one US dollar each, and small wallets are sold for 3, 5, and 10 Hong Kong dollars depending on the situation.

The customer hesitated for a moment, without bargaining, and picked out two hair bands and a small wallet for 3 yuan.

A good start, earning $5.

After the first customer, several more customers came one after another. Although not every customer bought anything, those who picked out things almost all picked three or five items.

As the number of customers coming and going increased in the evening, her business improved a lot. She didn't even need to explain anything. As long as she quoted a price, the customers would automatically choose the hair bands and small wallets they wanted according to their preferences.

This made Tang Yuan feel somewhat relieved.

When the first customer hesitated, she thought her price was too high and considered whether to lower it. Unexpectedly, the subsequent business was quite good.

She started setting up the stall at three o'clock, and by the time she was leaving at six o'clock, she had earned a total of 110 yuan, which was equivalent to more than 36 yuan per hour.

Based on the current exchange rate between Hong Kong dollars and US dollars, she earned at least 550 Hong Kong dollars in three hours.

This is only three hours. If she sets up a stall here for a whole day, she doesn't know how much money she can make. Unfortunately, she really can't work 24 hours a day as 007.

After packing her things, she quickly walked onto the last bus and sat in the back seat as usual, holding her wrapped bag and watching the situation in the market outside.

There were fewer and fewer people outside the market at this time, and she saw the fixed stalls at a glance.

The characteristics of these fixed stalls are that they are clean and conspicuous. Not only do they have special shelves, but they are also located in the most conspicuous corners. Such locations have a large flow of people. If you can set up a stall here, you should be able to sell a lot more things every month.

But she got up at four o'clock this morning and only set up the stall for three hours. It's a pity to spend two hundred dollars a month to set up the stall for three hours a day.

This position... 3 hours a day, it should be no problem for her to earn an extra 200 yuan a month.