The Reborn Sidekick Rejected The Male Lead
Chapter 179 - 174: Xue Jianian Became Careless

Chapter 179: Chapter 174: Xue Jianian Became Careless

It was just after one in the afternoon when Lu Jingqiu rode her bicycle, and Zhang Yang pushed his, to the factory at Wujiao Chemical. At the gate, Lu Jingqiu directly brought out two chicken eggs, which she had bought from Xue Jianian, for this very occasion.

"Uncle, my family is building a new house this year. We just filed with the Urban Construction Bureau this morning, and now we’re here to buy some water pipes."

The gatekeeper, looking at the two eggs in his hand, quickly smiled and said, "Oh, you’re here to buy the drainage and supply pipes, huh? Wait here, I’ll call someone for you."

From what the gatekeeper said, it seemed that many who were building houses in the city came to the factory to place orders.

It wasn’t long before the gatekeeper returned with a man in his thirties and said, "This young comrade, this is Director Li from our market sales department. Director Li is in charge of the household purchases in the city."

"Director Li, my name is Lu Jingqiu. You can just call me Xiao Lu."

"Comrade Xiao Lu, do you have the tickets?"

"Yes, yes, I do."

As she spoke, Lu Jingqiu took out five tickets from her pocket and handed them over. After examining them, Director Li said, "Come with me."

Lu Jingqiu nodded, then gestured to Zhang Yang to follow.

On the way, Director Li finally asked, "Where is Comrade Xiao Lu’s house located?"

"On Fish Tail Hutong South Street, right next to the roadside."

"That place, right. I remember the sewer connection isn’t far from there; you’ll need at least two to three hundred meters. The fifty meters you’re after won’t be enough."

Lu Jingqiu was slightly startled and realized what was going on. "Director Li, how many meters do you think I should buy?"

"You’ll need about three hundred sixty meters. Our pipes come in ten-meter sections, so you’ll need thirty-six of them. Do you also need supply pipes?"

"Yes, but I don’t have that many tickets."

Director Li laughed, "Most tickets given by the Urban Construction Bureau are not enough. For the extra you need without tickets, it will be fifty cents more expensive. Our drain pipes are one yuan twenty per section with a ticket, one yuan seventy without. Supply pipes are one yuan per section, ninety centimeters each."

"Oh, that’s alright. I’ll take fifty meters of supply pipe." Lu Jingqiu agreed outwardly, while internally she was calculating the cost. It was indeed expensive.

Director Li led them straight to the storeroom, had people pull out thirty-six drain pipes and fifty-six supply pipes for them, got a good number of connectors and even some faucets. Then he asked her if she wanted squat toilets, to which she naturally said yes and straight away got two, to have everything at once. In total, she spent over a hundred sixty yuan.

Fortunately, the handcart was equipped with ropes. After loading everything, the contents were secured with the rope, making it secure against falls.

Building a house, these little items hadn’t been considered yet, and all told, they would also come to several hundred yuan.

After the things were pulled back, Lu Jingqiu faced a predicament, "Uncle, won’t this stuff be stolen if we leave it here?"

The uncle smiled and replied, "Just place it next to the house beside yours; that’s Zhang Yang’s home."

Lu Jingqiu turned to look at Zhang Yang, who then started to look a bit embarrassed.

Another uncle said, "We have a lot of stuff on this side, and considering that, we thought of Zhang Yang’s place. We initially planned to offer some goods so the Zhang family could keep an eye on things at night. Coincidentally, Zhang Yang was home asking if we needed any odd jobs done, so we thought, for our convenience, why not bring Zhang Yang along as well. At night, some important items are kept at the Zhang family’s place. Comrade Xiao Lu, you can give them some food or anything extra you think is fair."

"Sure, uncle, you’ve thought of everything."

After speaking, Lu Jingqiu turned to Zhang Yang, "Comrade Zhang, we’ll trouble your family during this time. Would you prefer food, or would you like money? I can pay you an extra fifty cents daily."

Zhang Yang was delighted, "Money, I want money."

"Alright. Then, I’ll be relying on your family to look after my house’s items from now on."

One of the uncles counted the number of pipes, wrote down the total, and had Zhang Yang pull them to his house first.

After supervising the construction site for a while, Lu Jingqiu went again to Fish Tail Market around four in the afternoon. She saw that Xue Jianian was just about to close up and hurriedly approached him, "I’m glad I caught you in time. Do you still have chickens at home?"

Xue Jianian didn’t expect her to still be there and quickly replied, "Yes, yes." He then took out a plump hen from his basket.

Lu Jingqiu was surprised, "Your chickens are really well-behaved; they don’t even struggle in the bamboo basket."

Xue Jianian smiled sheepishly and didn’t reply.

"By the way, do you have any fruit left?"

"Yes, do you want apples?"

"You already have apples here?"

"Yeah, the fellow from the country said their fruits ripen early, and I bought nearly half a basket," Jingqiu replied.

"I want a dozen or so."

Xue Jianian then took out ten large apples from the bamboo basket for Jingqiu, who had not expected them to be so big. Seeing the apples were both red and juicy, she thought they were worth the price at two mao per jin.

Worried that the chicken might peck at the apples, in the end, one handle of her bicycle held a chicken, the other a bag of apples.

Upon entering the courtyard, she encountered quite a few people. Upon seeing her chicken and bag of apples, they all asked curiously, "Xiao Qiu, where did you buy that chicken of yours?"

"At Fish Tail Market."

"Xiao Qiu, where did you get these apples? They’re so big and red; I can smell their fragrance from far away."

"Aunt, I got them at Fish Tail Market. You should go early tomorrow, maybe they still have some for sale. A young guy with a big bamboo basket, his family’s rice, flour, chickens, ducks, and fruits, they are all pretty good," Jingqiu advised.

"Okay, I’ll go take a look tomorrow. These apples are quite rare."

"Hey, Aunt Chunhua, call me tomorrow, let’s go together," someone chimed in.

"I’ll go as well."

Xue Jianian had no idea that Jingqiu’s endorsement would make business boom the next day, keeping her busy from morning until night.

She had been worried about how to sell off the apples in her storage space, but in one day, she sold off more than half of them.

And that made her several hundred yuan richer.

That evening, as Xue Jianian was happily counting her money at home, Wei Jincheng suddenly came back.

Seeing the assortment of Woolen Tickets and Great Unity RMB scattered on the bed, he was surprised, "How did you get so much money?"

"Business was good today."

"Did you go out to the suburbs to collect goods again yesterday? What did you get that you sold for so much money?"

"I got quite a few chickens and ducks, and some apples."

"Apples? There are apples available now?"

"Yeah, the first crop. I even saved two for you. They’re in the bamboo basket, go and try them," she directed.

Jincheng nodded. He no longer had to deal with the Wei Family’s affairs, he was well-fed and so was his family, and his wife was earning money, occasionally bringing back a lot of good stuff from the countryside.

He was no longer stingy; he even saved his salary from the last two or three months. Their little home would not have to worry about food or drink in the future.

When he went to get the apples, he saw the white flour inside and frowned slightly, "Where did this white flour come from? It looks much better than what I got last time I went with you."

It was then that Xue Jianian, who had been sitting on the bed, realized, and quickly explained, "Ah, that’s goods I wholesaled from an older sister at the Black Market. I don’t know where she gets such good flour.

You won’t believe it, but despite being expensive, a lot of people want it," she added.

"Really?"

"Yeah. Haven’t you been busy lately? What brings you back all of a sudden?"

While munching on an apple, Jincheng wrapped an arm around Jianian’s waist and joked, "I can come back whenever I am free. I missed you."

Jincheng’s subtle and coy manner made Jianian a bit flustered. She blushed and pushed him away, "Look at how much I’ve earned these past two days?"

"How much did you earn?"

"More than five hundred."

At that number, Jincheng furrowed his brow, "How much stuff did you have to sell to earn that much, a thousand jin of apples? How did you bring them back? How much per jin for the white flour? How much for the apples?"

Of course, being a soldier, he was not so easy to deceive, much harder to fool than Jingqiu. What to do?

Anxious that Jincheng might probe further, Jianian quickly hugged him and cooed, "Jincheng, I missed you too." She then planted a kiss on his face; being young and newly married, it was clear that his attention would no longer be on the apples and white flour.