Chapter 23: Sugar Tangerine Prices Surge Over 100%! (Please Keep Following!)

The alarm clock rang at 7:00 AM, waking Jiang Tao up.

No intelligence regarding money-making opportunities refreshed today. Consequently, he had no choice but to head back to the secondhand furniture market to hunt for odd jobs. Fortunately, the 80,000-plus in debt his family owed had been cleared, and he still had several tens of thousands left in savings—enough to enjoy a good New Year. Although he was still out hunting for work, his mood was completely different from before. With no debt weighing him down and not a hint of anxiety, his spirits were high.

After a simple breakfast of soup dumplings and wonton soup at the village breakfast stall, he returned to his old trade. Whether earning 80,000 in an hour or 800 in a day, Jiang Tao maintained a steady mindset; he didn't feel unbalanced by the massive fluctuations in income. He worked from 8:00 AM until 5:30 PM, ending the day with 625 yuan—much the same as usual.

After finishing work and parking his vehicle at the entrance of Xiaoshahe Village, Jiang Tao stopped by Pang Dongdong’s supermarket on his way home to buy a pound of fresh noodles, two tomatoes, and a carton of eggs. He planned to have tomato and egg noodles for dinner.

"Master Jiang, want to try your luck with another bottle of Qinghualang?" Yu Dongdong asked. Every time he saw Jiang Tao, he would push the liquor, giving Jiang Tao a sort of "Qinghualang PTSD."

"My luck isn't in today. Boss Yu, have you switched careers to become a liquor salesman? You try to sell me booze every time I come in." Jiang Tao waved his hand with a smile and a playful jab.

"Haha, just kidding, don't take it to heart, Master Jiang. Honestly, the winning rate for this stuff really isn't high. Besides the three first-prize winners you bagged that day, I've sold six or seven cases in the last two days, and the biggest prize was only a second prize." Yu Dongdong was a straightforward man; he spoke his mind rather than risk offending a loyal customer just to move some liquor. Even though Jiang Tao was frugal, his annual spending at the small supermarket totaled over 10,000 yuan.

Changing the subject, Yu Dongdong asked, "By the way, Master Jiang, I have a small job tomorrow. Are you interested?"

Jiang Tao grinned. "I'm interested! What kind of work? How much does it pay?"

"Tomorrow morning, I need you to help me pick up 200 crates of sugar mandarin oranges from the Huilongguan Fruit Wholesale Market. Including loading and unloading, that’s 600 yuan."

A crate of those oranges usually weighed about 10 pounds, so 200 crates would be roughly a ton. Jiang Tao did the mental math—it was a doable job. "Fine, I'll take it! What time do we leave?"

"Five-thirty," Yu Dongdong replied.

"Deal!" Jiang Tao could handle an early start if it meant making money.

"It’s a deal then. We head out from here at 5:30 sharp."

"You got it! Anything else you need me to know, Boss Yu?"

"Here is the pickup address and the driver’s phone number. Just head over tomorrow morning and mention my name." Yu Dongdong grabbed a carbon pen from the counter and scribbled the details for Jiang Tao.

"Got it! I’m heading back now to eat and get some sleep." With the address in hand, Jiang Tao stopped chatting, grabbed his eggs and noodles, and headed out. Having locked in 600 yuan for the next day, his mood was even better, and he hummed a little tune all the way home.

He whipped up a tomato and egg sauce in the rice cooker, then boiled the noodles. In no time, he had a large, steaming bowl of tomato and egg noodles. After finishing his meal, he video-chatted with his wife, Xu Li, for a while, talking idly until past 9:00 PM. Since he had to be up early, he skipped his usual audiobook. After washing up, he set his alarm for midnight and climbed into bed for a nap.

*Ring—*

Exactly at midnight, the alarm woke him. He rubbed his eyes and sat up in bed. With a thought, Jiang Tao checked the day's intelligence.

[Today’s Intelligence]: You reached a cooperation agreement with Yu Dongdong yesterday, gaining relevant information—Due to meteorological factors, sugar mandarin oranges will see a wave of price hikes in three days. The increase will exceed 100% and last for a week. It is advisable to stock up appropriately.

"An increase of over 100%?" Jiang Tao’s expression showed pure shock. This was insane! Boss Yu of Pang Dongdong’s supermarket was quite far-sighted to order 200 crates at once, but he likely never imagined that the price would surge by 100% in three days. If he had known, he wouldn't have just ordered 200 crates; he probably would have ordered 2,000!

Winter was the peak season for sugar mandarin oranges. They were hot-selling items in every supermarket and market across the capital. Jiang Tao had a few fellow villagers living in the Xiaoshahe urban village who made a living in fruit wholesale. They would head to the wholesale market at dawn, load up a van, and sell the fruit at surrounding morning markets. When business was good, they could make 600 or 700 yuan a day, though the work was tiring and they had to play cat-and-mouse with the city inspectors.

Jiang Tao was on decent terms with them. A few days ago, Wang Lianming had even been planning to invite everyone over for drinks. Being from the same home region and working as migrants in the capital, they felt a sense of kinship. Jiang Tao never bought fruit himself, as his home was always stocked thanks to these friends. Since they were small-scale individual vendors without cold storage, they would take home whatever didn't sell and share the surplus with neighbors like Jiang Tao and Wang Lianming.

Seeing this intelligence, Jiang Tao’s first thought was to cooperate with these fellow villagers. Without them, even if he knew the price was going to skyrocket, he, an outsider, would just be watching from the sidelines. Knowing the price would rise was one thing, but you had to be able to sell the stock to make a profit. If he went it alone, he wouldn't be able to move much volume.

"Boss Yu said the current wholesale price is 3.5 yuan per pound, and retail is 5 yuan—a profit of 1.5 yuan per pound."

"If the price goes up by 100%, wouldn't it hit 10 yuan? That’s a profit of 6.5 yuan per pound! The profit margin would quadruple!"

Of course, this only worked if he secured the stock before the hike. Otherwise, the wholesale price would surely rise as well.

"65 yuan profit for 10 pounds, 650 for 100 pounds, 6,500 for 1,000 pounds... This is a windfall! A huge windfall!"

Jiang Tao recalled his conversations with his fellow villagers. When business was good, they could sell 1,000 pounds of oranges in a day. Of course, they didn't operate on margins as high as he had calculated; they usually only made about 1,000 yuan a day.

"Price hike in three days—there's still time to prepare."

"I’ll scout the prices when I go to pick up the goods for Boss Yu tomorrow morning. Then, I’ll call Xiao Liu, Xiao Dan, and Xiao Zhang in the evening to discuss it."

After sketching out a rough plan, Jiang Tao checked his phone and realized half an hour had passed. He closed the interface, lay back down, and drifted off to sleep.