Chapter 48: Jiang Tao’s Secret Stash and His Ambitions! (Happy New Year~ Please keep reading!)

Roadside diners like the Fortune Restaurant mainly cater to the migrant workers living in the urban village.

Their core appeal is affordability and value, with even the most expensive dishes priced under one hundred yuan.

The four of them ate and drank to their hearts' content, and the total bill came to less than five hundred yuan for Jiang Tao.

When they paid, the proprietorship gifted each of them a small bottle of beverage.

Over the past few days, the four guys had been coming here daily for their team gatherings.

As a result, the proprietorship had grown much warmer toward them.

Had it been before, spending five hundred yuan on a single meal would have left Jiang Tao aching with regret all night.

Today, even before splitting the profits from the sugar mandarins, Jiang Tao had already made a neat profit of around seventy thousand yuan from selling lottery tickets.

Such a small amount for a meal truly meant nothing to him anymore.

After the guys had worked hard all day, it was only fitting that he, the major shareholder who had gone missing for a day, treated everyone to a meal.

Chatting and laughing, the group returned to Jiang Tao's rented room to divide today's earnings.

Today went slightly better than yesterday, with total sales reaching 182,800 yuan.

According to the profit-sharing ratio, Jiang Tao took 71 percent, which came to 129,788 yuan.

Liu Zhiyuan and Dan Yufei each took 14 percent, netting 25,592 yuan each.

The remaining 1,828 yuan went entirely to Zhang Chao, and Jiang Tao supplemented it with an extra 1,200 yuan.

Following that, he also handed out a thousand yuan in wages to Liu Zhiyuan and Dan Yufei respectively.

Usually, after the money was distributed, Liu Zhiyuan and the others would be full of excitement, bantering and laughing as they headed over to Zhang Chao's place to play Landlords.

Today, despite receiving no less money than usual, the guys looked somewhat lacking in spirit.

Puzzled, Jiang Tao asked, "Why aren't you guys going to play cards today? Why do you all look so downcast?"

"Well, Brother Jiang, those sugar mandarins of ours won't be worth selling anymore by tomorrow."

Liu Zhiyuan looked at Jiang Tao with an expression of regret.

This time, by investing in the sugar mandarin project with Jiang Tao, he had put in fifty thousand yuan and, within just a few days, had already earned over 130,000 yuan.

Subtracting his initial fifty thousand yuan investment, his net profit was over eighty thousand yuan—averaging twenty thousand yuan a day!

These past few days had undoubtedly been the most glorious of Liu Zhiyuan's entire life!

Unfortunately, such glorious moments lasted only a few short days; tomorrow it would all end, and everything would return to normal.

"If only I had listened to Brother Jiang and invested more from the start."

Dan Yufei wore an equally regretful expression.

His savings actually amounted to more than fifty thousand yuan, and he could easily have scraped together another fifty thousand!

However, his risk tolerance threshold was only fifty thousand yuan, and he simply lacked the courage to put all his eggs in one basket like Jiang Tao did.

Zhang Chao: "..."

Among them all, the one with the deepest regrets was naturally Zhang Chao.

Back then, Jiang Tao had practically spoon-fed the opportunity right into his mouth, yet he stubbornly refused to open it and didn't invest a single cent!

Fortunately, Jiang Tao was a loyal and righteous person; just the wages paid to him over the past few days amounted to nearly ten thousand yuan.

While the others feasted on meat, he at least got to sip some broth.

"Brother Jiang, if there are ever any other get-rich-quick opportunities in the future, please remember to include us. You can eat the meat, just leave us some broth to drink."

Zhang Chao looked at Jiang Tao with even greater respect than before.

"Rest assured, brothers. Whenever there's another money-making opportunity in the future, I certainly won't forget you all."

Through this collaboration on the sugar mandarin project, Jiang Tao gained a deeper understanding of the three of them: Liu Zhiyuan, Dan Yufei, and Zhang Chao.

Liu Zhiyuan and Dan Yufei were both honest, reliable fellows who made trustworthy partners.

Aside from his fondness for foot reflexology massages and visiting masseuses, Zhang Chao was actually not bad in other respects either.

Should the intelligence system present any suitable projects in the future, Jiang Tao would definitely consider the three of them first.

After all, they shared a history of cooperation and a foundation of trust.

"Then thanks in advance, Brother Jiang! Thank you for leading us to wealth!"

"Thank you, Brother Jiang! Making two or three years' worth of income in just one year means I can finally hold my head high when I go home for the New Year!"

"Thanks to my Brother Jiang!"

The three of them thanked Jiang Tao once more with the utmost sincerity.

"We're all brothers of the same family, so saying thank you just makes us sound like strangers."

Mentioning brothers of the same family reminded Jiang Tao of Wang Lianming, who was still at the hospital taking care of his sister-in-law.

Busy with various matters over the past few days, he hadn't found the time to visit the hospital.

"If we wrap up early tomorrow, I plan to visit Brother Wang at the hospital. Are you guys coming?"

Jiang Tao looked at the three of them and asked.

"I'm in. I was actually planning to visit sister-in-law at the hospital before heading home for the New Year anyway."

"I'll go too."

"Count me in."

Dan Yufei and Zhang Chao readily agreed.

Jiang Tao made the final decision: "It's settled then. We'll visit Brother Wang and sister-in-law first, and have dinner after we get back."

"Got it!"

"No problem!"

With the serious business discussed, Liu Zhiyuan and the others chatted idly with Jiang Tao for a few more moments before bidding farewell and leaving.

Jiang Tao walked the three of them all the way downstairs and took the opportunity to stop by the Fatty Dongdong Supermarket to buy a carton of Huanghelou cigarettes.

As life steadily improved, his daily ration of cigarettes underwent a modest upgrade as well.

On his way back up after buying the cigarettes, Jiang Tao ran into his landlord, Brother Lü, at the mouth of the alley.

Brother Lü was dressed just as flashily as he had been yesterday.

He wore a long black woolen overcoat and a small black fedora, styling himself very much like Xu Wenqiang from The Bund.

"Little Jiang, have you eaten yet?"

Upon seeing Jiang Tao, Lü Qian quickened his pace and greeted him with a cheerful smile.

"I've eaten. Brother Lü, your outfit looks so sharp today. Are you coming back from a date?"

Jiang Tao looked Lü Qian up and down and teased him with a smile.

"Hehe, you guessed it, Little Jiang!"

"Today, after taking Xiaomei to stroll around the Forbidden City, we went to Quanjude for roast duck, and then visited Tiananmen Square, the Bird's Nest, and the Water Cube. This day has been so fulfilling!"

"Xiaomei, she..."

Lü Qian shared the bits and pieces of his time with Ma Dongmei with an exuberant expression, giving Jiang Tao no chance to interject.

It was evident that things were progressing smoothly and rapidly between the two of them!

This must be the sheer power of a 97 percent compatibility match!

Jiang Tao had once heard someone say that whoever you are meant to spend your life with is predestined long in advance.

Once you find that right person, it takes very little effort to become wedded couples.

That was how it was for Jiang Tao's older brother, Jiang He, and sister-in-law Zhang Xiaoyan, and the same went for him and Xu莉.

The landlord and that Ma Dongmei were probably no exception.

The chat on the street wasn't enough to satisfy them.

Lü Qian invited Jiang Tao into his room and chatted with him for over half an hour before finally letting him go!

Back upstairs, Jiang Tao washed up briefly before climbing into bed and diving under the covers.

Rubbing his hands together, Jiang Tao opened the Alipay app and checked his account balance.

"304,794 yuan!"

"When has our old Jiang's little treasury ever been this affluent?"

"Life is getting better!"

Seeing the balance in his Alipay account, Jiang Tao swallowed hard with excitement.

Just over ten days ago, he was still consumed with anxiety over more than eighty thousand yuan in foreign debts.

Worrying that creditors would show up at his door for the New Year, he had suffered from insomnia every night out of anxiety.

At this moment, not only had he paid off all his debts, but his little treasury had also accumulated over 300,000 yuan!

Adding the 200,000 yuan previously transferred to Xu Li, the 100,000 yuan spent on upgrading Brother Tong, and the 60,000 yuan transferred to his younger sister Jiang Bing today for stockpiling goods.

Plus the unsold Nu'er Hong wine and sugar mandarins still hidden beneath his bed.

In the span of just over ten days, relying on the intelligence provided by Brother Tong, Jiang Tao had already earned seven to eight hundred thousand yuan!

Having Brother Tong as his backer was truly akin to being kept by a wealthy sugar mommy.

In a dozen days, he had earned the wealth that Jiang Tao would normally have needed over a decade to accumulate!

His financial future was blindingly bright!

Thinking of the Nu'er Hong under his bed, Jiang Tao's appetite was instantly stirred once more.

He immediately got out of bed, retrieved the wine jar from beneath the bed, and poured himself another cup.

The justification, of course, was to celebrate his little treasury breaking the 300,000 yuan mark!

At this rate of wealth accumulation, buying a house and a car wouldn't be far off either.

Thinking about buying a house, Jiang Tao's gaze drifted through the rental room's window toward the flickering lights of the tall buildings not far away.

Less than two kilometers from Xiaoshahe Village stood a residential complex that had been settled for less than five years.

The clean, orderly environment and the spacious, bright apartments inside were an entirely different world compared to this urban village!

Although this was already outside the Fifth Ring Road, the average housing price was still over thirty thousand yuan per square meter.

The money in Jiang Tao's Alipay account was barely enough to buy a toilet.

Prior to today, as a veteran Beipiao who had drifted in the capital for seven or eight years.

Jiang Tao had never dared to dream of buying a house in a place like Beijing where every inch of land was worth its weight in gold.

At this moment, looking at the distant high-rises, he suddenly felt a powerful and irrepressible impulse to settle down right there.