Meng Tao admired the flowers and plants for a while, then tidied up the yard and made herself a lunch, which consisted of two meat and vegetable dishes, a soup, and stewed rice. It was simple but delicious.

After dinner, I went into the space to catch up on my sleep and slept until seven in the evening.

She got up, washed, and quickly cooked a bowl of noodles. Then she started to dress up. She tied her hair, which was long enough to be braided, into a bun at the back of her head, put on a loose gray-blue dress, a large mask, and a flowered triangular bag in her hand. She looked like an ordinary female worker in the town.

When she opened the gate and came out, it was time to cook and eat dinner. There was no one in the alley except a few half-grown children running and playing. Meng Tao looked at the neighbor's gate on the left. The yard was quiet. Usually she could hear Aunt Wang yelling at her grandson, but today she didn't hear that. She guessed that Aunt Wang was not at home.

Meng Tao didn't have time to visit and say hello at this moment, so she would talk about it tomorrow.

She locked the gate of her house, walked out of the alley, and strolled along the street seemingly aimlessly, but in fact she was going to the black market. Since she came to Mengzhou, she had to go to the black market to see if she could find anything.

As we walked along, about 500 meters away from the entrance of the black market, we saw two young men squatting under the eaves of a building on the street. The street lights showed that their clothes were torn in several places and they were barefoot. One of them had blood all over his face, and the other was pulling up his sleeves to wipe the blood flowing down his head.

Meng Tao was not a person who liked to meddle in other people's affairs. She just took a glance and continued on her way.

The two men started talking. Hearing the voices, Meng Tao paused slightly, turned around and looked back again. This time he saw clearly: they were indeed members of the Tian family, Tian Zhiyuan and Tian Laoliu.

Meng Tao was no longer in a hurry to travel on his way. He turned around and walked to the curb, looking both sides and pretending to wait for someone. He wanted to hear what Tian Zhiyuan and Tian Laoliu were saying.

Tian Zhiyuan: "Be gentle! You idiot, are you going to hurt me to death?"

Tian Laoliu: "It's all bloody and I can't see clearly, what can I do?"

"Just tear off a strip of cloth and wrap it around here twice!"

"...Fourth brother, I said that they wanted to collect protection money just now, so why don't you just give it to them?"

With a "bang", Tian Laoliu screamed, probably because he was hit by a punch. Tian Zhiyuan was extremely angry: "I will beat you to death, you spineless and ambitious bastard! We are all in the black market, all engaged in speculation, why should I give him money? It doesn't matter whether it's reasonable or not. I will report this black market and see how arrogant they are!"

"Brother, it seems to me that they have someone's support. Otherwise, why would other stalls pay so obediently?"

"Bullshit support, I am also a man of the world, I already know one thing, they are just bullies, you admit you are a coward, you will always have to keep your head down in front of others, as long as you are strong enough to fight him once, he won't dare to do it next time, understand?"

"But, but what a huge loss we suffered. We made over 30 yuan tonight and had two cloth bags of goods left. Now they are all gone, and we were beaten and kicked out."

"…Isn't it because you are too stupid? I'm doing business, and you can't be more alert standing next to me. Will you die if you see someone coming to call me? It's not necessary to lose money like this. Forget it today. What was lost were flashlights, nylon umbrellas, and raincoats. The prices are a bit high and it's not easy to sell. My brother and I brought back four large sacks of goods from Guangzhou City. Fortunately, all the cloth was sold out. We recovered the 300 yuan of capital and made more than 200 yuan in profit. Our mother is happy.

If we keep doing this, we can earn more and more money, and then we can buy jobs for all the brothers, and transfer their rural household registration to the city, so that they don’t have to go back to the village to pick up dirt and live a miserable life... Third brother is smart, this business is too good to be true, don’t tell anyone, wait for my head injury to heal in a few days, and then I will take you to Guangshi to buy goods!"

"But we don't know where to get the goods. Last time, we wandered around the streets of Guangshi and got lost. Fortunately, it was raining heavily, so we helped the old man carry the goods. The old man said he would sell us four sacks of goods at a low price. This time..."

"Fourth brother, your head is no longer bleeding, are you still going to the hospital?"

"No, I'm going back to the hotel to sleep, and I'll go home tomorrow morning. I'll take the last bit of goods to the next county to sell. The more money I make, the more capital I'll have. I'll be able to buy more goods in Guangzhou in a few days."

“…”

Tian Zhiyuan limped away with the support of Tian Laoliu, while Meng Tao crossed the road to the opposite street and continued walking forward.

I was very curious: Is it true that the Guangzhou market during this period was full of opportunities as Tian Zhiyuan said? Wouldn't it be easy to make money, like picking it up by chance?

She wants to go and see it, too.

Meng Tao went to the two black markets in Mengzhou and found that they were almost the same as usual. There was nothing new, so Meng Tao didn't gain anything. It was just a wasted trip and she just regarded it as an exercise walk.

She went to see two stalls specifically, where they were selling the cloth, flashlights, radios, nylon umbrellas, raincoats, plastic water bottles, plastic sandals, etc. mentioned by Tian Zhiyuan and Tian Laoliu, as well as various student supplies.

The young boss is good at speaking and his business is pretty good.

These things are a little more expensive than those sold in department stores, but you don't need a ticket, the quality is just as good, and you can choose whatever you want. The boss greets you with a smile and is friendly and humble. Compared to those sales clerks who get paid but have a stern face, I believe many people would rather come to the black market to buy.

If the small boss does a good job, he can open his own store in a few years. Even if it is a small department store, it can still be very profitable. After accumulating a little bit of capital and understanding the supply and marketing of goods, he can directly open a chain of supermarkets in a few years... This is probably what Tian Zhigao planned.

Meng Tao said that this was a great idea, and she also wanted to open a supermarket in the future, so let's all play the game of Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea and show off our magical powers!

It was already ten o'clock in the evening when Meng Tao returned from the black market. She closed the gate and went back to the house to rest.

The next morning, after getting up and cooking breakfast and eating, Meng Tao walked out of the yard and met Aunt Zhao who lived diagonally across the street. She greeted her and said a few words to her. She learned from Aunt Zhao that there was a happy event in the hometown of Uncle Wang and Aunt Wang next door, so the couple took their children back to their hometown for the banquet. Only the second son and his wife were looking after the house for the next two days.

Meng Tao thought that it was no wonder that the yard over there was so quiet. Since Aunt Wang was not there, there was no need to go over and say hello.

At around nine o'clock in the morning, Meng Tao drove out of Mengzhou and rushed back to Xingyang County.

First go to the winery and put the tiger and two wild boars stored in the space into a small warehouse, then go to the post office to call Zhang Fu, who happened to be still at the factory and had not gotten off work. When he heard Meng Tao say that the "boss" had sent another tiger to the warehouse, Zhang Fu immediately ran excitedly to find Master Gan.

Master Gan asked Zhang Fu to help him process the tiger and make tiger bone wine and tiger tendon wine. He also slaughtered and cleaned the two wild boars. Meng Tao had instructed on the phone that according to the rules from last time, he should leave some tiger meat and wild boar meat for Master Gan, as well as a five-jin jar of tiger bone wine.

(End of this chapter)