While Jiang Tao and his family of three were at his in-laws' house comforting his mother-in-law, Jiang Bing was alone at home, working on her laptop in her room.
Though she usually came off as loud and a bit scatterbrained, when it came to work, she was quite serious and responsible.
A small-town girl from an ordinary rural background with no special advantages, she managed to earn seven or eight thousand yuan a month through her own hard work—an impressive achievement.
Before this, when her family arranged blind dates for her, many of the men earned less than she did.
After the Spring Festival, traffic to her online store began to pick up again. The order volume for Jiang Bing's shop had also increased, almost returning to pre-holiday levels. She sold various small toys and trinkets—items with low unit prices but decent profits as sales volume grew.
However, the Flying Pig Popcorn Bucket, listed for 199 yuan and marked as in stock, still hadn't sold a single unit. Jiang Tao wasn't worried, but Jiang Bing was starting to feel anxious, wondering if she should hire someone to place a few fake orders.
The first sale is always the hardest.
Breaking through from zero to one sale is critical for any product. Especially for an item priced well above its apparent value, no one wants to be the first sucker. But once someone buys it, later buyers feel less psychological burden, thinking they're not the only ones "getting ripped off."
"It's coming, it's coming! It should happen soon. We've got the advantage here! Stay steady, we'll definitely win!" Jiang Bing shifted her gaze from the Flying Pig Popcorn Bucket listing, clenching her fists to cheer herself on.
In recent days, the box office for *Nezha 2* had been soaring, repeatedly breaking records. Various movie-related merchandise was riding a massive wave of popularity. Across the country, Flying Pig Popcorn Buckets sold alongside popcorn at movie theaters had become a hot commodity, with demand so high they were hard to come by.
By the time theaters realized they needed to order more, the Flying Pig Popcorn Buckets were out of stock and only available for pre-order. Many online stores had also run out of stock, switching to pre-sale mode with delivery times of one to two months.
But Jiang Bing had 10,000 Flying Pig Popcorn Buckets in stock—real, ready-to-ship stock! That was a huge advantage! Two months from now, the hype for *Nezha 2* might have died down. For trend-chasing youngsters, falling behind the wave by two months was unacceptable.
*Ding ding!*
While Jiang Bing was processing orders, a message popped up on her shop's Wangwang chat.
"Is the Flying Pig Popcorn Bucket in stock? When can it be shipped?"
Seeing this message, Jiang Bing's whole body jolted. Finally, someone had taken the bait! Her fingers flew across the keyboard as she quickly replied: "It's in stock and can be shipped tomorrow!"
The customer didn't respond after her reply. Just when Jiang Bing thought the deal had fallen through, a notification popped up in the backend: Customer XXXX had placed an order for four Flying Pig Popcorn Buckets, totaling 796 yuan!
"Someone actually bought it!" Seeing the 199-yuan Flying Pig Popcorn Bucket finally sell—and four at once—Jiang Bing's heart leapt with joy. This was a great sign!
After processing the Taobao orders, she opened her Xiaohongshu account.
"Whoa! Six sold here too!" Seeing that six buckets had sold on Xiaohongshu, Jiang Bing was ecstatic, practically envisioning piles of cash flying toward her.
*Ding dong!*
Before she could finish filling out the shipping addresses on Xiaohongshu, another order came in on Taobao. Another Flying Pig Popcorn Bucket sold! Once the sales broke zero, it was like a seal had been broken. Orders kept pouring in. In just over an hour, more than a dozen customers had placed orders, totaling 31 buckets sold!
"It's blowing up! The sales are blowing up!" Watching the sales trend for the Flying Pig Popcorn Buckets, Jiang Bing was so excited she started dancing, unable to contain herself.
*Click!*
Hearing the sound of the front door opening, Jiang Bing hurriedly got up from her chair, flung open her door, and rushed out.
"Second Brother! They're selling! They're finally selling!" Jiang Bing dashed to Jiang Tao, who had just walked in, grabbing his arm and sharing her excitement with a thrilled expression.
Jiang Tao looked at his overly excited younger sister with a speechless expression. "What's selling? Look at how worked up you are."
Xu Li, equally delighted, asked, "Old Third(Jiang Bing), did that SP signed card sell?"
"Uh, no, not the SP card. Our Flying Pig Popcorn Buckets are finally selling! Someone placed an order!"
"Calm down, Old Third(Jiang Bing). Is it worth getting this excited? Your mentality needs work," Jiang Tao said, chuckling as he patted her shoulder and walked past her to sit on the couch.
"No, how are you so calm? We're making 175 yuan profit per bucket! Guess how many we sold just now?"
"Thirty-one! In just a short while, we've already made 5,425 yuan! Pure profit, you get it?"
"What? That much?" Xu Li's eyes lit up at Jiang Bing's words, as if she could see piles of cash. She knew the profit-sharing model for this project—her husband got 80%. That meant in just one day—no, in just a short while, as Old Third(Jiang Bing) said—he'd already earned over 4,000 yuan?
Jiang Bing grabbed Xu Li's hand excitedly and said, "Yes, yes! Second Sister-in-Law, just wait to rake in the cash! Once this project is done, you'll be a proper millionaire!"
"Uh…" Xu Li wanted to say she already was, but she held back. Her husband had said not to flaunt their wealth.
"I'm going back to work! No more chit-chat! Money, here I come!" After sharing the good news, Jiang Bing rushed back to her room in a whirlwind.
"My husband's got vision! You're amazing!" Xu Li snuggled up to Jiang Tao, hanging onto him and looking at him with admiration, like he was her idol.
"Where am I amazing?" Jiang Tao wrapped his arm around Xu Li's exaggeratedly curvy waist, a slightly mischievous grin on his face.
"Everywhere~" Xu Li pinched his waist and gave him a flirtatious eye-roll.
The family of three stayed in the living room until nearly 10 p.m. Xu Li took Jiang Xue to wash up, while Jiang Tao sat on the couch, scrolling through his WeChat Moments and quietly deleting the ten anti-fraud posts he'd shared earlier that day. Their purpose had been served, and keeping them up was unnecessary—especially since more than a dozen people had asked if he'd started working at an anti-fraud center or gotten scammed, which was awkward.
After deleting his Moments, Jiang Tao opened the system interface with a thought, checking the new intelligence about the beef market that had just refreshed today. Even the most confident economic experts wouldn't dare guarantee that beef prices would rise in a month. After years of price slumps, cattle farmers had lost confidence, and many large-scale breeders had cleared their stock.
Of course, there were also plenty like Jiang Tao, looking to buy low during the dip. But most investors weren't optimistic. Buying low and seeing quick gains was true bottom-fishing. Holding for a year or two at the bottom? That's just catching a falling knife.
With the precise intelligence provided by the system, Jiang Tao was absolutely confident in riding the beef market wave, but others weren't so sure. When he invited his father-in-law to join the venture that afternoon, he could tell the man wasn't very interested, likely skeptical and afraid of becoming the next sucker.
Before today, Jiang Tao knew nothing about the beef market. He'd only done a quick online search for some basic info before trying to pitch the idea. Convincing Old Third(Jiang Bing) was easy—she trusted him completely. But his father-in-law, a seasoned old fox, wasn't so easily swayed. Jiang Tao didn't *need* to bring his father-in-law along to make money, but he couldn't bear to miss out on the system's 1x bonus reward. Without a partner, he'd lose over 2 million yuan!
This time, he had to drag his father-in-law into the deal!
[Detected that the host is facing difficulties in convincing a partner. Would you like to spend 1,000 yuan to reduce the task difficulty?]
Suddenly, the blue system interface popped up with a line of futuristic text.
"Spend 1,000 yuan to lower the difficulty?" Jiang Tao's interest was piqued. A thousand yuan was pocket change for him now—worth a try!
[Yes!]
With a thought, Jiang Tao selected "Yes."
[Payment successful. Generating investment feasibility report. Please wait…]
*Buzz!* His phone vibrated, showing a bank notification that 1,000 yuan had been deducted.
[Investment feasibility report generated and printed! Can be retrieved in an unobserved environment.]
Jiang Tao glanced around. No one was nearby, but to be safe, he went to the small storage room, locked the door, and summoned the system interface. A new [Inventory] option had appeared, displaying a grid like a video game inventory. In the first slot was a stack of A4 papers.
Jiang Tao reached into the interface and pulled out a stack of about 20 sheets. "This is getting a bit sci-fi," he muttered. "System Bro, why didn't you tell me you could do this earlier? I wasted two pounds of saliva!"
Grumbling at the system, he glanced at the documents. The first page read, "Feasibility Report on Short-Term Investment in Beef Cattle." The 23-page report, dense with professional data and analysis, was practically a college thesis. Its conclusion: high feasibility.
"With this professional-looking report, it'll be much more convincing," Jiang Tao thought, skimming through it before putting it away. The report was for others to boost their confidence—he was already convinced.
He returned to the couch, scrolled through Moments for a bit, then went to shower after Xu Li and Jiang Xue finished. That night, Xu Li's period arrived unexpectedly, so she wasn't up for action. After some playful verbal praise for "Little Jiang," they went to bed.
Jiang Tao stayed up until midnight for the intelligence refresh.
[Today's Intelligence 01]:
When you accompanied Xu Li's parents to the police station yesterday to file a report, you saw a wanted poster on the bulletin board, obtaining the following intelligence—
Liu Hongwei, the fugitive in the Mang Village murder case, returned to his parents' home in the same village at 22:13 last night, driven by homesickness. Reporting the fugitive will earn a 100,000 yuan bounty.
Fugitive's departure countdown: 04:03:01.
[Note 1]: Liu Hongwei brutally killed a neighbor during an argument, an extremely heinous act. Assisting the police in bringing him to justice will earn an additional system reward equal to the bounty.
…
"A wanted fugitive? A murderer, no less!" Seeing the first piece of intelligence, Jiang Tao perked up. He vaguely recalled glancing at a few wanted posters on the police station bulletin board while accompanying his mother-in-law. The bounties ranged from 10,000 to 100,000 yuan, depending on the severity of the crimes. This 100,000-yuan bounty was for a murder case—a big deal.
Reading the note, Jiang Tao felt no qualms about reporting Liu Hongwei. It wasn't about an overflowing sense of justice—System Bro was doubling the reward! A single call for 200,000 yuan—who could say no?
With over four hours until the fugitive left, there was no rush. Jiang Tao opened the second piece of intelligence.
[Today's Intelligence 02]:
You had contact with your sister Jiang Bing yesterday, obtaining the following intelligence—
Jiang Bing has been indulging herself a bit too frequently lately, showing signs of kidney deficiency. Timely nutritional supplements will aid her recovery.
…
"Old Third(Jiang Bing), that girl…" Jiang Tao couldn't help but chuckle at the second piece of intelligence. He hadn't expected his sister to have such hobbies. How was he supposed to bring this up without her dying of embarrassment? Better not. Tomorrow, he'd ask Xu Li to cook some kidney-tonifying dishes, and he'd join in—after all, the past few days had taken a toll on him too. With Xu Li on her period, it was a good time to restock his "ammunition."
After reviewing both pieces of intelligence, Jiang Tao gently pulled his arm out from under Xu Li's head, put on his pajamas, and slipped out. The fugitive in the first intelligence would only stay for four hours—too short to wait until morning.
In the courtyard bathroom, Jiang Tao turned on the light, lit a cigarette, and mentally rehearsed what to say. Halfway through the cigarette, he dialed 110.
*Beep beep beep—*
"Hello, Ping County 110 Dispatch Center. How can we assist you?"
Despite it being past midnight, the call was answered quickly.
"Hello, if I provide information about a fugitive on a wanted poster, can I get the reward? Can I report anonymously?"
"Okay, I'll report anonymously. I saw the Mang Village fugitive Liu Hongwei return home last night. You'd better hurry and organize a capture."