The Reborn Sidekick Rejected The Male Lead
Chapter 240 - 232: The Beginning

Chapter 240: Chapter 232: The Beginning

Lu Jingqiu stood next to Aunt Liu, listening to the gossip for a while, and then followed the neighbors in giving a gift.

Aunt Cuihua and Big Uncle Xu came back after eleven, and what exactly they said to the groom was unknown to everyone else.

Anyway, they had a few arguments with two of the groom’s uncles, and in the end, the groom’s family left in a huff.

Lu Jingqiu held a bowl of rice noodles at noon and ate it in the yard for nearly an hour.

When Yang Mingchao came in, he looked at her two erect ears and laughed, "Look at those ears of yours; they’re almost catching up to Hua Hua’s."

Seeing him speak so loudly, Lu Jingqiu quickly pulled him into the house, "Why are you so loud? If Aunt Cuihua finds out I’ve been listening to her family’s gossip, she’s sure to stand at the front gate, hands on her hips, scolding indirectly for a good while."

"Hehe, seems like there was a lot of excitement today, shame I missed it."

"Nothing much to see anyway; the battlefield wasn’t here. I heard the groom went over to Xu Li’s place and smashed their guest tables aggressively. Although Xu Li called the police, they didn’t intervene since they considered it a family dispute."

"What do you mean ’they didn’t intervene’? I bet even the police couldn’t stand watching."

"In any case, after the groom smashed things up, he went straight around the corner, picked up another lady, and went home to have a wedding."

"Another lady, huh? Was the guy prepared on both sides?"

"According to the aunts in the courtyard, it was a friend of the groom’s father. The two families were well-acquainted anyway, and the children got along fine on regular days. Now seeing the groom’s family tricked, his old friend couldn’t lose face and just had his own daughter marry over to them."

Yang Mingchao somewhat disapproved, "That’s too hasty. What if the woman doesn’t like it or the man doesn’t? If they hastily create a bitter couple, won’t that be a headache?"

Lu Jingqiu felt the same, but it was other people’s business and they just enjoyed listening to the drama, "Second cousin, how come you’re back?"

"I quit my job."

"Ah, that quickly? Did the team approve?"

"My captain didn’t really want to let me go, but I insisted on leaving, and they couldn’t stop me. Besides, I handed my job directly to my captain’s relative.

Only then did my captain relent. I’ll stay at home for a few days, then I’m going with the captain to the north to buy a truck."

"So soon?"

"Exactly, I don’t like to dawdle when I’m doing things."

"Uh... what about Fourth Brother Gao?"

"He’s still in the team, hauling goods on his own, dabbling a bit in transporting others’ goods, not much different from before. He likes to play it safe. But what I’ve noticed is that there are private transport crews now, carting goods from one point to another for people, and it’s quite profitable. I’ve told him to pay more attention and see what their operation method is like."

"Logistics, huh."

"Logistics? What logistics?"

"Oh, what the second cousin is talking about seems like cargo circulation, right, cargo circulation. I heard my teacher mention it before."

"Are school teachers so well-informed now? It’s indeed about the circulation of goods. From one place to another, like how we don’t have factories producing TVs and refrigerators in our city, we need to haul them from other cities. Transporting them requires vehicles, and one trip would cost at least twenty yuan I guess; deduct the fuel, food, and accommodation, and you could earn ten yuan per round trip. That’s just for short distances. For long hauls, it’s at least fifty to a hundred. Previously, such expensive freight wasn’t used much by individuals.

But I noticed in Shanghai, it’s done by many families together."

Just like this truck, it’s headed for our West City, with many merchants from West City sharing the cost of the freight.

For example, for the clothing he brought in, two large parcels, he paid just five yuan, and for the shoes, one hundred pairs, he paid ten yuan directly.

As for the electronics and refrigerators, which take up a lot of space, he paid twenty yuan straightaway.

All these small sums add up, and one trip can bring in seventy or eighty yuan in freight charges. If you drive yourself, you can save twenty to thirty yuan. If you hire a driver, you can probably save around twenty yuan. And that’s just for one truck. What if there are two trucks, or three? You could easily earn one to two hundred yuan a month."

Lu Jingqiu smiled, "Second cousin, you’re right, but the prices you mentioned are on the low side."

"I’m just roughly estimating. We collect the freight charges rather casually anyways, and no matter how much we collect, we give some to the team, and keep the rest for ourselves. We charge about five or ten yuan for small parcels and estimate the price for the larger ones as we see fit. I don’t even know how much we make in the end. If the logistics rates were higher, we couldn’t afford to miss this opportunity."

Lu Jingqiu nodded in agreement, "Second cousin, are you interested in doing logistics?"

In his previous life, Fourth Brother Gao had not done so.

"I’m thinking about it, but I’ve just started such a big venture, and now to start logistics too, I don’t have that much capital."

"The most important thing in logistics is the vehicle. If you can’t afford a new truck at first, you could buy a used one, a second-hand vehicle. It doesn’t need to be too big, you could start with short hauls. Look at our province, we now have wholesale markets in West City, and factories are selling wholesale to individuals outside. In some counties, there are individuals who handle goods, but their biggest barrier right now is transportation.

Rail transport is too expensive, and individuals can’t carry much. Not to mention buses.

So for them to bring goods into the city is not easy. Besides, second cousin, aren’t your electronics meant for wholesale? When the time comes, you could deliver to their doorsteps, charging separately for logistics. On the way there, you could transport goods for others, and on the way back, bring goods from the counties to the city, benefiting both sides."

Yang Mingchao slapped his thigh, "Qiuqiu, I knew you were the cleverest. Though a second-hand vehicle may not be suited for long hauls, it would be fine for short ones.

I can’t do this alone. I don’t have much money, and even if we pool all your money together, it’s not a lot. I’ll have to discuss it with Ah Da."

"Hey, second cousin, aren’t you going to eat?"

"Eat? I’m not in the mood. I’ll think about it after I get this sorted out."

Lu Jingqiu wished she could say that she had ten thousand yuan given to her by Jiang Nanzhou, but since she hadn’t asked him, she couldn’t touch it.

A second-hand vehicle would cost at least five thousand yuan, wouldn’t it?

Starting with two vehicles should be feasible.

She hoped that this time Fourth Brother Gao would seize the opportunity.

These past few days, Lu Jingqiu had been watching the excitement and idling her time away by drawing.

On the other hand, Xia Lin was quite busy recently. The two of them had been giving each other the cold shoulder over a matter concerning the children.

She didn’t want to compromise. When it came to choosing between her children and her career, Xia Lin would definitely opt for her career.

She had rented a place and recently had it renovated, and through some connections, she bought three sewing machines from a department store.

Missing the spring season, she was preparing to make summer clothes.

Most of them were for women, and with a simple stroke of her pen, she could design several nice pieces.

As for the fabric, she could take care of that, too. Last time she made clothing, she had met a director of a textile factory. While he didn’t offer the fabric super cheaply, it was much cheaper than retail.