Volume One, Chapter 16: This Woman Is Truly Remarkable—I Must Keep Her!

Today, Tang Yichen and his father planned to expand their reach, aiming to sweep through all the wet markets within a five-mile radius of the train station. The potential customer base exceeded 500,000 people.

It must be said that having a local from Chuzhou was incredibly convenient. Previously, Tang Yichen and his father had to juggle maps and stop to ask for directions, which was not only inefficient but exhausting. Li Huihui, who had grown up in the area, was different; she knew the place like the back of her hand. Even if she wasn't sure about the specifics of a particular market, as a local, she could get accurate information with a single inquiry.

After visiting two markets, Li Huihui was already confident enough to approach the vendors herself. "Boss, these are dried wild fish and shrimp brought in from the countryside. They taste absolutely amazing! You should stock some and give it a try. I guarantee they’ll sell well and make you a good profit. The stall owner over there already took over ten pounds. Don't be jealous when you see them making money later!"

With her local dialect, practiced sales pitch, and sincere, enthusiastic attitude, she always managed to hook the vendors right away. Seeing that the quality of the dried fish and shrimp was indeed superior to anything they had seen before, the success rate of her deals was astonishing.

Furthermore, Li Huihui’s outgoing and lively personality made her a much tougher negotiator than Tang Xionghua. Yesterday, Tang Xionghua had mostly stuck to a base price of 6.9 yuan, starting higher. Today, the first deal Li Huihui closed was actually finalized at 7 yuan, and the vendor walked away smiling, thinking they had gotten a bargain. To top it off, Li Huihui was good at bookkeeping; once a deal was made, she would record it clearly in the small notebook Tang Xionghua carried.

Watching from the side, Tang Xionghua was stunned. Even Tang Yichen couldn't help but marvel inwardly: this woman was a natural-born salesperson. While her physical strength and stamina might be lower than a man accustomed to hard labor, in terms of efficiency and results, she was clearly superior. Most strong male workers tended to be a bit taciturn or dull, and none would be as useful as Li Huihui. Even if she couldn't handle such manual labor in the long run, he could simply keep her on to focus solely on market outreach.

As they left a market, Tang Yichen whispered to his father, "Dad, she's good. She's a keeper!" Tang Xionghua nodded in deep agreement. "Hmm." Father and son were of one mind.

After a morning of running around, Li Huihui began to tire. Since they were heading to more distant locations, Tang Xionghua insisted on taking over the pedicab, letting Li Huihui and Tang Yichen sit in the back.

"Boss Tang, I'm fine, I'm not tired!" At first, Li Huihui adamantly refused, worried that Tang Xionghua might think she was useless and let her go.

"Huihui, you're doing a great job. Don't worry, we won't let you go," Tang Xionghua assured her, and only then did she agree to step down from the front of the pedicab. Wiping her sweat and catching her breath, she looked at Tang Yichen with a grin and gently patted his little cheek. "You're so handsome. If only I had a son like you."

Tang Yichen: "..."

Still, with Tang Xionghua pedaling and Li Huihui and Tang Yichen sitting behind him, they looked quite like a family of three as they moved through the streets.

Upon reaching a new market, Li Huihui would nimbly jump off to start her sales pitch. With a few experiences under her belt, she became even more adept. It didn't hurt that being a young, pretty woman gave her a distinct advantage. By four in the afternoon, the 180 pounds of stock they had brought that morning were completely sold out.

"Huihui, that's it for today. You've worked hard. Just come by at eight tomorrow morning," Tang Xionghua said as the three of them returned to their rental building. He decided to wrap up early; it was too late to go out for more stock, the remaining markets were quite far away, and they were all exhausted.

"Alright, Boss Tang, I'll be there on time tomorrow!" Li Huihui’s face beamed with a smile that was both weary and joyful. But what surprised her even more was what Tang Xionghua said next.

"Huihui, you're very capable, so I've decided to stick to the original job posting terms—I'll pay you 200 yuan a month!"

"Really?" Li Huihui looked at Tang Xionghua in disbelief. She had been the one to offer to work for 150 yuan; she had initially thought she should be grateful enough that he didn't fire her. To have it raised back to 200 was a delightful surprise. In this era, 50 yuan was not a small sum.

"Of course it's real. As long as you keep working hard, there will be raises in the future."

"Okay, thank you, Boss Tang! See you tomorrow." If she weren't so tired, Li Huihui might have jumped for joy. Before leaving, she excitedly planted a quick kiss on Tang Yichen's cheek. "See you tomorrow, A-Chen!"

Tang Yichen wiped the saliva off his cheek, speechless. *This woman, why is she taking liberties...* Beside him, Tang Xionghua smiled without a word, feeling a tinge of envy for his son.

Tang Xionghua locked the pedicab in the stairwell, and the two went back inside. As usual, Tang Xionghua dumped the day's earnings onto the table and pulled out the notebook to calculate their gains. After a flurry of activity with a wide smile on his face, he said to Tang Yichen, "Yichen, we sold 179 pounds of goods today, a little less than yesterday. We brought in 1,245 yuan, which averages out to 6.95 yuan per pound—that's 10 yuan more in total... This is all thanks to Li Huihui!"

Tang Xionghua couldn't help but reflect: being articulate and clever was truly an advantage. Earning an extra 10 yuan a day was more than he used to make in a whole day as a teacher.

Tang Yichen smiled and summarized, "Today's income is pure profit. Adding in the 970 yuan from yesterday, we've already made 2,215 yuan."

"Over two thousand!" Even though he had known they could make this much, seeing the pile of cash on the table still left Tang Xionghua feeling stunned and exhilarated. Was business always this profitable? If his son hadn't been reborn, it would have taken him over a year and a half of scrimping and saving to accumulate this much money. Yet, in just about a week, they had done it.

Tang Xionghua took a deep breath and instinctively pinched his cheek. It hurt—it wasn't a dream! Seeing his father's funny, child-like reaction, Tang Yichen chuckled. "Dad, stay calm! This is only the beginning. Once we get to Shanghai, you'll realize that making money... is even easier than this! Selling physical labor will always be the least profitable path."

Tang Xionghua exhaled. "Shanghai, huh? I'm really looking forward to it."

"Dad, we need to find time tomorrow to go to the bank and deposit the money. It's not safe to keep over two thousand yuan on us or in the room."

"Yes, yes, we must deposit it," Tang Xionghua agreed firmly. He had kept yesterday's thousand yuan under his pillow and hadn't slept soundly at all. He planned to deposit a flat 2,000 yuan. The remainder, plus the expected revenue from tomorrow, would serve as their working capital. There was still about 110 pounds of stock left in the room, and even though the markets were further away, they should be able to sell it all. That would bring in another 700 yuan or so.

If they sold everything tomorrow, the first batch of goods would be successfully cleared. Then, they would have to head home and step up their efforts to make even more money. Their first goal: to become a "ten-thousand-yuan household"!