It seemed unlikely they would make it to Beijing today.

Xia Xiaolan didn’t know He Congsheng, so there was no way she would have revealed anything about the radio reselling business. However, He Congsheng hadn’t been cautious around a young girl like her, and within a few exchanges, Xia Xiaolan had managed to discover his identity.

Xia Xiaolan found it quite amusing. So this was Chen Xiliang’s “backing” – a factory director of a clothing manufacturer.

While Xia Xiaolan wasn’t familiar with Chenyu’s scale, judging from the quality of clothes at Chen Xiliang’s stall, Chenyu had to be more than just a small factory to produce such merchandise. Having dealt in clothing for several months, combined with her knowledge from her previous life, Xia Xiaolan chatted with He Congsheng for a while, and the factory director came to believe she was truly his brother-in-law’s customer.

Unable to find Chen Xiliang and needing to get to work, He Congsheng asked Xia Xiaolan to pass along a message before quickly cycling away.

He was quite an unrestrained clothing factory director. Despite being wrongly accused early in the morning, Xia Xiaolan wasn’t angry at all – rather, she felt like a fox who had just caught a chicken. Even though Xia Xiaolan now knew Chen Xiliang’s supply source, there wasn’t much she could do about it. He Congsheng was Chen Xiliang’s brother-in-law, and family ties couldn’t be severed. It would be impossible for Xia Xiaolan to bypass Chen Xiliang and source directly from Chenyu.

Unless she transitioned from retail to wholesale, her sales volume wouldn’t be enough for the factory to even consider dealing with such a small customer.

Chen Xiliang surely wasn’t sourcing exclusively from Chenyu – a single clothing factory’s styles would be too limited to meet his business needs. Xia Xiaolan now understood why by the millennium, Chen Xiliang had become a mogul in the clothing industry, possessing wealth in the hundreds of millions… Having a factory director as a brother-in-law certainly helped Chen Xiliang take shortcuts in building his fortune.

Many currently prosperous factories might struggle in a few years. With accumulated capital and connections, one could acquire state-owned assets – this was likely how Chen Xiliang had built his wealth. Everyone had their destiny, and Xia Xiaolan wasn’t jealous. She hadn’t been born into wealth in either of her lives, but what of it? In this life, she was fortunate to be Liu Fen’s daughter and had gained a loving uncle – Xia Xiaolan was quite content.

The satisfied Xia Xiaolan went to eat breakfast on the street, ordering a bowl of wonton noodles.

The wontons, filled with shrimp and pork, were so delicious one might swallow their tongue along with them. The duck egg noodles were perfectly chewy – Xia Xiaolan quite enjoyed Yangcheng’s flavors. As she was engrossed in her battle with the wonton noodles, someone sat down across from her.

It was Ke Yixiong with his round face, looking truly harmless.

“Boss Ke, have you eaten? Want a bowl too?”

Ke Yixiong studied her for a moment, confirming something. “You aren’t afraid of me.”

Xia Xiaolan leisurely sipped her soup. “No, I’m afraid of foolish people, not clever ones.”

Foolish people couldn’t be reasoned with.

Take Wan and Li for example – Xia Xiaolan felt Senior Brother Wan wasn’t very good at communication.

She wasn’t afraid of clever people because they could be reasoned with and knew when to compromise. While she might seem like a fearless newcomer, Ke Yixiong had worked his way up to become a gang leader – he had the intelligence to think things through and maintain a sense of caution.

When Xia Xiaolan praised him as clever, Ke Yixiong wasn’t sure whether to be pleased or angry.

Because of Xia Xiaolan, he had lost considerable face.

Being intimidated by Pan San and having several of his men injured had damaged Ke Yixiong’s reputation in the underworld. He had to work quite hard to maintain his current territory.

Surprisingly, when Ke Yixiong saw her face that could switch between coyness and charm, he didn’t feel particularly angry.

“You should bring a couple of people when moving around Yangcheng. The Bai Family Martial Arts School people might be stupid, but they’re quite good at fighting.”

Ke Yixiong’s words carried deeper meaning.

Xia Xiaolan appeared completely unafraid. “Isn’t Boss Ke here to help?”

If Ke Yixiong’s men knew about this, they would be furious enough to spit blood! Pan San had said that if anything happened to Xia Xiaolan in Yangcheng, Ke Yixiong would be held responsible – was she going to rely on their gang of ruffians?

Ke Yixiong’s influence only extended around the train station area; he hadn’t yet gained control over all of Yangcheng.

Ke Yixiong smiled instead of getting angry.

“You seem quite close with Chen Xiliang. I heard he’s married though.”

Xia Xiaolan gave him a strange look, and Ke Yixiong himself felt the comment was beneath him. Spending time around Xia Xiaolan seemed to lower one’s IQ. Having come just to make his presence known, Ke Yixiong left without eating any wonton noodles.

Around eight o’clock, Xia Xiaolan finally saw Chen Xiliang return on his motorcycle.

A while later, Wan and Li appeared, each carrying a snakeskin bag. Xia Xiaolan watched them pass by from the wonton noodle shop without saying a word.

Probably not finding her in the house, the three came out looking for her.

Xia Xiaolan kept her head down pretending not to see them, until Bai Zhenzhu also arrived carrying a bag – only then did she reveal herself.

“Sister Bai!”

When something seemed too good to be true, Xia Xiaolan always suspected there might be a catch.

Among Chen Xiliang, Wan, and Li, she trusted Bai Zhenzhu the most – Bai Zhenzhu had been introduced by Zhou Cheng. Wan and Li were one degree removed, while Chen Xiliang was purely a business relationship.

What if any of these three sold her out for a few tens of thousands of yuan?

Chen Xiliang sighed in relief. “You were here eating noodles – you scared me to death!”

They had worried it might have been a ploy to draw the tiger from the mountain – using cheap radios to lure everyone away, then having Xia Xiaolan disappear after the goods were retrieved. From the expressions of all four people, Xia Xiaolan could tell things had gone smoothly:

“Did you check everything?”

“We randomly checked over thirty units – no problems.”

The four of them checking together still took about ten minutes for thirty-plus units, and the seller was very impatient, constantly urging them to hurry. When neither Bai Zhenzhu nor Chen Xiliang could find any issues with the radios, they had no choice but to pay and accept the goods. The 500 radios cost 45,000 yuan in total, and the seller was so eager to offload them that they didn’t even require payment in Hong Kong dollars.

Smugglers usually demanded Hong Kong dollar payments since that’s what they had to pay their suppliers.

Exchanging for Hong Kong dollars was quite troublesome, and the seller wanted to dispose of the radios as quickly as possible. When this information reached Bai Zhenzhu’s ears, she intercepted the deal. Fortunately, Xia Xiaolan hadn’t been greedy and had decisively brought Chen Xiliang into the partnership, managing to gather enough money for 500 radios within the seller’s timeframe… The transaction went very smoothly – neither did the police suddenly appear to make arrests, nor did they encounter any ruthless characters who might have absconded with the payment.

Everyone felt this windfall was rather strange.

The five of them closed the courtyard door and checked all 500 radios before reconnecting with the middleman who had initially quoted prices to Chen Xiliang.

Upon hearing they had 500 radios, he licked his dry lips:

“I’ll need to call two people to help distribute the goods.”

“No problem, but we need the money today – I need to go to Beijing.”

Unable to find any issues, Chen Xiliang was still worried about keeping the radios too long and wanted to sell them as quickly as possible. If brought back to Shangdu, they could sell for at least 200 yuan each – 150 radios would bring an extra 7,500 yuan in profit. After careful consideration, Xia Xiaolan still decided to sell all the radios in Yangcheng.

For 150 units, her initial investment of 13,500 yuan had turned into 22,500 yuan.

This was the fastest profit she had made since starting her business!