Ring, ring, ring—
At six thirty the next morning, Jiang Tao was woken up by the alarm on his phone.
Just as he was about to turn off the alarm and sleep a bit more, he suddenly remembered the news he had refreshed on last night.
Whoosh!
Jiang Tao immediately sat up from the bed and started dressing in a hurry.
The power of money is truly immense!
Laziness crumbles before it without a fight!
It took him three minutes to dress neatly, and Jiang Tao left the house and went downstairs.
It was still early, and the Red Star Second-hand Furniture Market hadn't opened yet, so there was no need to rush.
He thought about earning another 29,800 yuan today.
Jiang Tao couldn't help but think of having a good meal to treat himself.
Arriving at the entrance of Old Gu's Lamb Soup Shop, Jiang Tao went right in.
He ordered a large bowl of lamb tripe soup and half a flatbread, spending only 23 yuan in total.
After eating his fill and warming up, Jiang Tao left and continued to the village entrance.
"Xiao Jiang, you seem to be living a good life, enjoying lamb soup."
Shortly after walking on, his fellow villager Wang Lianming caught up to him from behind, hands in his pockets, teasingly.
Jiang Tao smiled and replied, "I'm too lazy to cook, just eating for convenience. Brother Wang, have you eaten?"
"Your sister-in-law cooks millet and pumpkin porridge every morning, claiming it's nutritious and healthy."
"No matter how nutritious and healthy, you can't eat it every day. My mouth's almost bland as a bird!"
"Brother truly envies you; living freely without anyone controlling you, eating what you like."
"In our house, it's your sister-in-law who decides what we eat. The noodles and flatbreads I love are considered calorie bombs by her."
"Eating a bowl of noodles feels as if I've committed a grave crime!"
Jiang Tao chuckled and said, "I envy you, Brother Wang, for being with your wife every day. It's two to three months before I see mine again."
Life can be such that others' lives always seem more carefree, making one envious.
Little do we know, others envy us as well.
"How about we swap?"
"Haha, Brother Wang, you shouldn't joke about that. If your wife heard, you'd be kneeling on a washboard when you got home!"
"Kneeling on a washboard? We, men, don't kneel! Not that I would brag to you…"
Laughing and chatting, they reached the village entrance, got into their respective trucks, and headed toward the Red Star Second-hand Furniture Market to start their day.
At seven thirty, the market opened, and vendors began entering one after another.
"Let's get started!"
Jiang Tao swung open the cargo door, jumped down from the driver's seat, shut the door, and joined the vendors heading inside.
"Shop 25 in Area B, this is it…"
Having worked in this market for five or six years, Jiang Tao was familiar with its layout and quickly found the entrance of Shop B25.
This was a shop selling second-hand sofas, occupying an area of three to four hundred square meters, with a spacious interior.
"It's almost eight o'clock and they still haven't opened."
Jiang Tao looked at his phone, then at the locked door of B25, feeling a bit anxious.
"Calm down, calm down, it's just a lousy sofa. No one's competing with you for it, no need to act so eager."
He comforted himself while pulling a cigarette from his pack and lighting it to ease his nerves.
Halfway through his cigarette, a plump woman wearing a maroon long down jacket, sporting short curls, stopped at the entrance of B25.
With one hand holding a breakfast pancake, she took a bite now and then, and with the other hand, she took out keys from a black cross-body bag to unlock the door.
"She's here!"
Seeing the woman unlocking the door, a smile spread across Jiang Tao's face, waiting so long!
Once the curly-haired woman removed the chain lock, she pushed the door open, officially starting her business for the day.
Jiang Tao quickly stubbed out his cigarette on a nearby trash can and strode towards the entrance of Shop B25.
"Looking for a sofa, handsome? What kind are you after? Sister can help you choose."
Li Guiying had just turned around after entering and saw Jiang Tao coming in. Quickly she set down her breakfast pancake and greeted him with a smile.
"Big sis, you haven't finished breakfast yet. Please eat, I'll browse on my own to see if anything catches my eye."
Jiang Tao smiled and told her, looking towards a northwest corner of the storage area.
In Jiang Tao's vision, there was a beam of light shooting from the floor to the ceiling in the northwest corner of the warehouse.
Based on yesterday's experience with the liquor purchase, that glowing item was probably the sofa containing someone's private stash!
"Okay, feel free to look around. Let me know if you find something you like; you're today's first customer, so I'll give you a discount."
"Alright! Enjoy your meal while I take a look."
Jiang Tao said with a grin to Li Guiying and began browsing the shop.
To keep his real motive hidden, he didn't walk straight to the glowing area today and instead pretended to wander around other areas for five or six minutes.
While wandering, he seemingly casually arrived at the sofa enveloped by the beam of light.
It was a two-seater sofa that looked pink and new, about seventy or eighty percent new.
"Oh dear, this color…"
Seeing this overly pink sofa made Jiang Tao, a man, feel a wave of awkwardness.
But for the private stash inside the sofa, what's a little awkwardness.
As long as he's not embarrassed, then it's others who are!
"Ahem, big sis, could you come over, please?"
Jiang Tao called out to Li Guiying who was eating her pancake in a temporary office near the entrance.
Li Guiying took her last bite of pancake, walked over with her chunky little legs with a smile, and asked:
"Which one caught your eye, handsome?"
"Sis, how much is this sofa?"
Jiang Tao pointed to the pink sofa, looking mildly embarrassed asking for the price.
"Huh? You want this one?"
Seeing the sofa Jiang Tao had pointed to, Li Guiying instantly thought he belonged to some special group.
This lad looks pretty manly!
But that taste…
Jiang Tao smiled awkwardly and explained, "Ahem, my wife likes this color. How much is the sofa?"
"Handsome brother, wait a second. I seem to remember something about this sofa…"
"Oh right! I remember now, this sofa was already sold in my live stream last night. The buyer said they'd come pick it up this morning."
"Brother, take a look at the others."
While speaking, Li Guiying patted her head, feeling her memory declining in winter.
"What? It's sold?"
Jiang Tao was dumbstruck hearing Li Guiying's words.
Arriving so early only to be intercepted by someone else?