The Reborn Sidekick Rejected The Male Lead
Chapter 173 - 169: Spent All the Money Earned

Chapter 173: Chapter 169: Spent All the Money Earned

Yesterday, Dad and Jiang Nanzhou had already left West City. They didn’t mention specifically where they were going.

Upon hearing this from Editor Liu, Lu Jingqiu truly became interested.

In the evening, after Aunt Liu got off work, she brought her a sack, saying with a smile, "There are two hundred meters worth of cable inside, and I can bring the rest over tomorrow. Xiao Qiu, will that be in time?"

"It’ll be in time. Thank you for this, Aunt Liu."

"Why be so polite with me? If you need anything in the future, just let me know. I’m going back to cook now."

"Alright."

Not long after Aunt Liu left, Second Cousin came by. Looking at the sack of plastic insulated copper-core electrical wire, he said with a smile, "Qiuqiu, how much can Aunt Liu get for us?"

"I asked Aunt Liu for five hundred meters. That should be enough, right?"

"What do you mean ’enough’? This is our first time dealing with this kind of stuff, and we don’t even know if it will sell well. Five hundred meters is plenty."

"It’s alright if we can’t sell it. I’m going to be building a house, and I can use it then."

"Okay, what did Xiao Xue say? How much rice can he give?"

"Over a thousand pounds. He said for you to go to the same old place tonight."

"A thousand pounds can fit in the car, and the wires don’t take up much space. Qiuqiu, Gao Da actually put up three thousand yuan this time. We won’t need much money for our little venture."

"Huh, Gao Da has so much money now?"

Knowing Gao Da’s finances, Yang Mingchao said, "These past two years, we actually didn’t make much, just around one or two thousand yuan. But we made some money flipping televisions this time. Each of us could take home six thousand yuan. The rest of the money, I figure, must have come from family. If we get the chance to go to Yangcheng City again, we’re planning to bring back a batch of televisions."

"Yeah, televisions are profitable. If we have more capital, besides televisions, radios could also be brought back. The ’three-turn-one-ring’ models are definitely in demand right now."

"That’s exactly what I was thinking."

While speaking, Yang Mingchao took out the money they had earned from selling televisions and excitedly said to Lu Jingqiu, "Today, Gao Da and I did the accounting. Guess how much we made this time?"

Lu Jingqiu, seeing the stack of money that was even larger than the last time, said, "Certainly quite a bit." They were splitting the profit from each television, and even more so from watches.

Yang Mingchao showed her a figure: "Twenty-two thousand and thirty yuan."

Lu Jingqiu had roughly estimated that amount, but hearing it for real still shocked her. After all, her parents had scrimped and saved for decades and had only accumulated ten thousand yuan. "Second Cousin, you’ve given me quite a scare."

"Haha, I knew you’d have that look on your face. When Gao Da and I were doing the accounting today, we too were amazed. However, since you put in more money this time, after taking out the costs, we’ll give you six thousand five hundred yuan."

"No, Second Cousin. I just put in the money; I haven’t done anything else. You and Fourth Brother Gao took the risks and put in the hard work to transport it, and you also managed the sales on your end."

"We’ve already taken our share on top of that; this is for you. Take it and don’t be shy with your brother. Keep the four thousand yuan from before as your capital contribution to us."

After giving it some thought, Lu Jingqiu counted out one thousand yuan and gave it back to her Second Cousin, "Second Cousin, let’s round it up. I’ll give you five thousand as my investment. I’ll keep the rest."

"Okay, this time I’m also prepared to put in eight thousand yuan, and I plan to save the remaining two thousand yuan. From now on, every time I flip a batch of goods and make some money, I’ll save some of it. If there’s a house for sale, I’ll buy one. Just like you said, renting out a storefront would also be a good deal." However, Yang Mingchao only took five hundred yuan from her and left her the money to buy electrical wiring.

"Hmm."

After dining here, Second Cousin left with the two hundred meters of electrical wiring. Lu Jingqiu, having nothing else to do, had offered to accompany them but was turned down by Second Cousin.

They were doing this secretly and didn’t want to risk Lu Jingqiu’s safety.

Having thought about it for a night, Lu Jingqiu decided to write a story about her years in the countryside.

The next morning, she picked up her pen and within the morning, she wrote over two thousand characters. Editor Liu had mentioned that their section only needed around a thousand characters.

In one day’s time, after writing and revising, she finally reduced it to thirteen hundred characters, not sure if this would be acceptable.

Seeing that it was almost time to meet with Mud-brick Uncle, Lu Jingqiu rode her bicycle to the newly bought house.

Unexpectedly, Xue Jianian had also come over and said in surprise, "You’re here today?"

Xue Jianian pointed to the bamboo basket behind her and laughed, "I was planning to go to Fish Tail Market. When Uncle mentioned this place, it was on my way, so I stopped by to have a look. Your property will indeed have a small backyard once the house is built. But, if the house faces the street, there will be quite a space in the rooms."

Lu Jingqiu thought the same and promptly took out her own sketch to show her and the two uncles, who all repeatedly praised it: "This is my first time building such a large door for a house; I also left the windows wide open."

"Uncle, what I’m thinking is, it naturally benefits businesses to have bigger doors. If they are selling food, they can also sell goods through these windows."

Xue Jianian was incredibly surprised: "Right, some pastry vendors can sell directly through the window, right? Oh, and you even have a bathroom inside."

"Yeah, there’s one downstairs too. Since I don’t have a yard, I have to consider the bathrooms," Lu Jingqiu replied.

The two uncles smiled while looking at the blueprints: "Your house will be one of a kind in West City once it’s built."

Then one uncle said, "Building this kind of house requires a lot of tools. I inquired for you yesterday. The tools can be borrowed. A full set needed for building a house is ten yuan a month, ten kilograms of rice, and five kilograms of flour. If you agree, I’ll go and borrow them for you."

"Uncle, looking at a house like this, about how many months will it take to build?"

"If we have a team of twenty people, the walls can be raised in six to seven days. Adding the floor slabs, applying the cement, the structure can be up in two months. The remaining work, dragging on after the New Year, will take another one or two months."

"Alright then, Uncle, you take care of arranging the construction for me. I’ll handle the cement, sand, and bricks. I just don’t know how much to pay for labor?"

One uncle pointed at the collapsing house nearby: "Comrade Lu, you surely have to demolish this building, right? You’ll need to redo the surface and foundation. We can give you a package deal for demolition—twenty yuan, and it can be done in three to four days. For building, it’s fifty cents a day per person, and you don’t need to provide meals. Does that seem okay to you?"

Lu Jingqiu quickly did some rough calculations in her head—the labor cost alone would be several hundreds, not to mention materials and miscellaneous expenses. Without four thousand yuan, it would be impossible to build this house.

Not building it seemed like a waste since it was just sitting there, but the rent wouldn’t be too expensive once it was built.

After much thought, she ultimately decided to proceed with construction and, to prevent leaks, to build a house with roof tiles—so a red brick tile-roofed house it would be.

After finalizing with the uncles, they went back to their work, mentioning that she should come and check the kitchen the next day as it would be finished.

Upon hearing that borrowing the tools alone was going to cost so much, Xue Jianian promptly put aside her plan to buy a house.