Chapter 6: Getting the Job Done

"Little girl, you want to buy a job!" Tan Kai said, flicking the ash from his cigarette. "The jobs I have here aren't cheap."

Song Suisui nodded. "I know. Since I came to find you, I have naturally made my preparations."

"You can call me Old Tan. Since you're being so straightforward, I won't beat around the bush either."

Then, Old Tan began introducing the jobs he had available to Song Suisui.

Old Tan didn't have many jobs on hand, just two. One was a temporary position at a state-owned restaurant, and the other was a permanent position as a procurement officer for the Xinghai City Machinery Factory.

The temporary job was cheaper, costing only five hundred yuan, while the permanent procurement job was eight hundred and eighty.

After hearing this, Song Suisui chose the permanent position without hesitation.

Hearing her choice, both Old Tan and the young man beside him were quite surprised.

After all, eight hundred and eighty was already a very high price in this era.

"Can you even afford that much money?"

Old Tan was somewhat skeptical. Although Song Suisui was wearing makeup, she was still in her original clothes.

She didn't look like someone who could produce eight hundred and eighty yuan.

However, having worked in the black market for a long time, Old Tan wouldn't judge a person by their appearance; perhaps this little girl really could produce eight hundred and eighty!

So, he only asked out of habit.

"I can't..." Song Suisui looked at their stunned faces and gave a light laugh. "I can't produce cash, but I can sell things to you, and then use the cash to buy the job."

Hearing her words, the young man beside Old Tan couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.

"Are you that confident in your goods?"

Song Suisui took a box out of her bag, opened it, and held it out in front of them, saying, "Whether I'm confident or not, won't you know once you've seen my things!"

At this moment, Old Tan could no longer hear her words; he was staring intently at the pair of watches in Song Suisui's hands, appraising them.

The watches Song Suisui produced were naturally not cheap goods, but high-end imports from the Friendship Store.

Old Tan knew this brand; the prices were exorbitant.

In some large cities, they could definitely be sold for a good price.

Having seen enough, he looked up and said, "Just two watches? That doesn't seem like enough!"

"Who said there are only these two? I have five pairs of these watches in total."

Upon hearing that she had more stock, Old Tan's eyes lit up. These watches were excellent; they would be very decent to use for social favors or for personal wear.

He was going to Shanghai in half a month, and there were many wealthy people there; he could definitely supply them without worry.

But as for the price, he would certainly have to haggle. What if he actually managed to cut the price down?

Seeing that he was tempted, Song Suisui was in no hurry to name a price. Now it was the other party who was anxious, not her, so she planned to listen to the price he offered first before evaluating it.

"How about one hundred and eighty for the men's watch and one hundred and thirty for the women's?" Old Tan asked tentatively.

As soon as Song Suisui heard his offer, she knew there was definitely room to increase the price. But thinking of her subsequent plans, she said, "Today is my first time doing business with Boss Tan. How about this: I'll sell each pair of watches to you for five hundred yuan."

Five hundred a pair meant two thousand five hundred for five pairs. Old Tan felt it was too expensive and that the profit wasn't much.

Thus, after a "battle of wits" between the two, they finally settled on a price of three hundred and fifty yuan per pair.

Five pairs of watches totaled one thousand seven hundred and fifty yuan. After deducting the cost of buying the job, she would still have eight hundred and seventy yuan left.

Song Suisui did the math and sighed inwardly. As expected, the people of this era did not lie to her; at this time, as long as one was bold, doing business was the fastest way to make money.

After receiving her eight hundred and seventy yuan, Song Suisui gave the remaining four pairs of watches to Boss Tan.

"How do we handle the handover for the job?"

"Sister, are you free this afternoon? If you are, I'll contact the seller to take you for the handover."

"I'm free. But can you guarantee there won't be any follow-up issues with the job you're selling?"

Hearing this, Old Tan chuckled. "You can rest easy on that point, sister. This job just so happens to be being sold by a young girl. Her stepmother kept her in the dark and signed her up to go to the countryside. If she didn't sell this job, it would just go to her stepbrother for nothing..."

Hearing the origin of the job from Old Tan, Song Suisui felt an inexplicable sense of déjà vu, as if the girl selling the job were the protagonist of a period novel.

But what did that have to do with her? As long as she got the job, it was fine.

Going to the countryside was out of the question.

"However, after she goes to the countryside, you might be harassed by her stepmother for a while," Tan Kai reminded Song Suisui.

"Hah~ What did I think it was? I'm not afraid of that."

"That's good, then. So, do you choose this afternoon, or should we find another time tomorrow?"

"Better to do it today than to pick another day! Let's do it today!"

"Alright, I'll have someone let her know. Around two in the afternoon, just wait at the entrance of the Machinery Factory."

Song Suisui nodded, then looked at Tan Kai with a toothy grin and asked, "Boss Tan, do you buy pork?"

"I do. I buy everything here. But how much pork do you have? Is it safe? I don't take sick pigs!"

Hearing Tan Kai's words, Song Suisui felt that this man still had some principles.

"Don't worry, the pork I have is freshly slaughtered, guaranteed to be fresh. It's just that the quantity is a bit large; I'm afraid you won't be able to handle it."

"Oho~ The little girl has quite the big mouth! Tell me, how much pork do you have?"

"Hehe~ Ten pigs in total, each weighing around three hundred jin."

"Are you serious?" Tan Kai was quite surprised.

"Of course," Song Suisui answered firmly.

After all, those ten pigs were all from the blind boxes she had opened this morning.

The blind boxes she had opened this morning were a makeup kit, five pairs of watches, and ten pigs.

To be honest, she was a bit unaccustomed to the Salted Fish System suddenly becoming so generous.

Song Suisui and Tan Kai agreed to sell the ten pigs to him at a price of thirty cents per jin, with the pickup taking place in a dilapidated house in the east of the city tonight.

Thirty cents per jin, calculating based on three hundred jin per pig, would be ninety yuan; ten pigs would be nine hundred yuan.

Adding that to the eight hundred and seventy she had just received, she now had one thousand seven hundred and seventy yuan in cash.

This didn't even include her other money. Thinking about how much money she had, Song Suisui's sense of security increased.

No matter what era it was, no matter what was lacking, one could never lack money.

Having settled the matter, Song Suisui left.

After all, Boss Tan and his friend were in this room puffing away on smoke; she didn't want to continue inhaling secondhand smoke here.

The harms of secondhand smoke were much stronger than firsthand smoke.

Time to slip away~

It took five bus stops to get from the Song family home to the Machinery Factory area; actually, the distance was quite far.

However, to prevent her family from worrying, she hurried back to eat lunch.

When she returned home, she found an empty alley and took out the piece of pork belly she had opened on the first day.

As she approached home, she saw that the lock on the main gate was already open, indicating someone had returned, so she pushed the door and entered the house.

After Song Niannian finished arranging her job, she had actually gone to inquire about jobs as well. Unfortunately, jobs in the city were like "one radish for one hole"—they were very hard to find.

When she had achieved fame and success in her previous life, she had heard people mention that the black market in Xinghai City seemed to involve the buying and selling of jobs.

At the time, she had only heard it in passing; Xinghai City was so large that she didn't know which black market those people were referring to.

(End of Chapter)