THD Chapter 9

Miao Shuangshuang took charge of everything, handling the entire matter from beginning to end. Her confidence infected the whole family, filling them with excitement and anticipation.

Everyone was happy.

Everyone except the system.

The system was on the verge of crashing.

Was this really the villainous female supporting character?

Her character setting had completely collapsed!

What kind of villainous supporting character not only refused to sabotage the female lead, but actively helped her sell products?

The system's nonexistent heart nearly seized from anger.

Yet even while collapsing, it stubbornly persisted.

Did Miao Shuangshuang really think she could sell something just because she said she could?

Anyone could boast.

If she were truly as capable as she claimed, how could she have ended up living such a miserable life in the original timeline?

Ye Xiqing had clearly gone insane.

Instead of relying on the flawless male lead, she had placed all her hopes on a villainous supporting character.

The system was determined to see how this absurd partnership would eventually end.

Fortunately, Ye Xiqing couldn't hear its thoughts.

Otherwise, she would have replied immediately:

"What else could it be? In my previous life, I was foolish enough to marry a useless husband who drained away all my luck."

Just thinking about it made her shake her head.

Too tragic.

Fortunately, as the female lead, she possessed excellent fortune.

She never stole anyone else's luck.

She merely convinced other people to work for her.

Early the next morning, Ye Xiqing brought Miao Shuangshuang to inspect the wine.

As they walked, she sighed heavily.

"I thought that once the wine was brewed, it would naturally sell."

"But so far, only Old Miao at the village entrance bought anything."

"He spent two yuan on a plastic bottle."

She looked at the stacked barrels with visible concern.

"We've used so much grain."

"If this all gets stuck in our hands, what are we supposed to do?"

Miao Shuangshuang felt delighted every time she saw Ye Xiqing worried.

Seeing those furrowed brows was strangely satisfying.

With her hands behind her back, she inspected the wine like a leader inspecting a factory.

Raising an eyebrow, she asked,

"This barrel alone must weigh fifty jin."

"You've brewed quite a lot."

Ye Xiqing nodded.

"We already had all the equipment and ingredients ready."

"It would've been wasteful not to make more while we were at it."

Then she looked at Miao Shuangshuang hopefully.

"We're not expecting miracles."

"As long as we sell enough to recover our costs, we'll be satisfied."

"Heh."

Miao Shuangshuang merely snorted.

Six large wine barrels stood neatly in a row.

These barrels had been specially made for storing liquor, each holding fifty jin.

Together, they contained three hundred jin of wine.

The partially filled barrels nearby weren't even included in that count.

Miao Shuangshuang opened every barrel and sampled each batch.

The moment she finished tasting, she understood everything.

With a casual wave of her hand, she declared,

"Measure out five jin for me."

"I'll take it."

"When I come back tonight, all of you can start counting your money."

Then she left.

...

She said she would return that night.

But she disappeared for the entire day.

As the hours passed, everyone became increasingly anxious.

The wine hadn't been sold.

And now even Miao Shuangshuang had vanished.

What if something had gone wrong?

What if she couldn't find a buyer?

What if she had simply exaggerated her abilities?

Just as everyone's nerves were reaching their limit, the sound of an engine echoed from outside.

Rumble.

Rumble.

A vehicle stopped in front of the house.

The door opened.

Miao Shuangshuang jumped out.

"I'm back!"

The family hurried outside to greet her.

But before they could ask any questions, another person climbed out of the vehicle.

It was a plump middle-aged woman with a bright smile and a booming voice.

"The wine's inside, right?"

"Let me have a look!"

"Of course! Go ahead!"

Miao Shuangshuang waved grandly toward the house.

The woman marched inside.

Just like Miao Shuangshuang had done that morning, she opened each barrel and tasted the wine one by one.

The more she tasted, the brighter her eyes became.

Finally, she turned toward the family.

Smiling broadly, she asked,

"So."

"What price are you asking?"

The family froze.

Then they exchanged stunned looks.

She had really found a buyer.

Ye Xiqing immediately turned toward Miao Shuangshuang.

Her eyes sparkled with admiration and curiosity.

How did you do it?

Miao Shuangshuang enjoyed that look immensely.

Wasn't it obvious?

Retail and wholesale were completely different games.

When selling directly to consumers, you had to think about where customers were and what they wanted.

But when selling in bulk, there was only one thing that mattered.

Who stood to make money?

Liquor was fascinating that way.

The grain itself might cost only a few cents.

After brewing, it could sell for twenty or thirty.

Add packaging and a label, and suddenly a bottle was worth over a hundred.

With profits that enormous, there would always be middlemen eager to get involved.

The woman standing before them was exactly that kind of person.

A reseller.

And resellers loved one thing more than anything else.

Products that could make them rich.

In truth, it wasn't much of a secret.

Most of the private wineries in the area had some connection to Aunt Cai.

Her husband held considerable influence at the local porcelain bottle factory. Between the two of them, they provided a complete package: wine, bottles, labels, and distribution.

After everything was packaged and branded, a barrel of wine purchased for a few dozen yuan could be transformed into bottles selling for seventy or eighty yuan each.

The profits were staggering.

Only Ye Xiqing, blissfully ignorant of such matters, knew nothing about it.

The five jin of wine Miao Shuangshuang had taken that morning hadn't been intended for sale at all.

It had been a gift.

After delivering the wine and treating Aunt Cai's entire family to a restaurant meal, Miao Shuangshuang had secured exactly the result she wanted.

By afternoon, Aunt Cai had arrived in a hurry.

Before the deal, they had been the ones asking her for help.

Now she was the one asking them.

Naturally, Miao Shuangshuang refused to lower the price.

After a lengthy negotiation, both sides finally agreed on twenty-two yuan per jin.

Aunt Cai was disappointed she couldn't bargain further, but once the price was settled, she paid without hesitation.

"I won't bother weighing it."

She slapped a stack of cash onto the table.

"This isn't low-proof liquor. A full barrel probably weighs less than fifty jin."

"But I'll count every barrel as fifty."

She pushed the money toward them.

"Six thousand six hundred yuan."

"Count it carefully."

"If you find even one counterfeit bill, bring a loudspeaker to my house and make a scene."

She laughed loudly.

"There are plenty of scammers buying liquor around here."

"It's only because we're locals and from the same hometown that I'm being this straightforward."

Then she scribbled a number onto a piece of paper.

"Here's my phone number."

"When you have more liquor, come find Aunt Cai."

"Of course!"

Miao Shuangshuang smiled brightly.

"We came to you because everyone knows your reputation."

The two women exchanged compliments so naturally that it sounded like music.

Only Ye Shiying stood frozen.

She stared blankly at the thick stack of money in her hands.

Then she remembered that Miao Shuangshuang had earned five thousand yuan from acting.

Now another six thousand six hundred yuan had appeared.

Her head spun.

Did this mean...

Their family had become a ten-thousand-yuan household?

...

Once money had been earned, the next question was naturally how to spend it.

That evening, Ye Shiying spread the cash across the table.

She counted it once.

Then again.

Then a third time.

Under the dim yellow light, her flushed face looked as though she had already drunk several bowls of liquor.

Finally, her eyes shone.

"I know what we should do."

"Let's pay off our debts."

"And build a new house."

She looked around the cramped room.

"This place was built when your father and I got married."

"It's old."

"It's small."

"There's barely enough room for everyone."

Her voice became more excited as she spoke.

"Let's build something bigger."

"After it's finished, Shimei can move back too."

"We won't have to go far away to work anymore."

"We'll find jobs nearby."

"From now on, the whole family can live together."

Ye Shimei froze.

For a long moment, she couldn't speak.

A home.

She hadn't truly had one for years.

When her parents were alive, she could always return.

But after they passed away, the house had become her brother's and sister-in-law's.

She knew frequent visits would be inconvenient, so little by little, she stopped coming back.

For years, she had wandered from place to place for work.

Partly to earn money.

Partly to avoid feeling unwanted.

Somewhere along the way, she had begun to believe there was no longer a place in the world that belonged to her.

Yet now her sister was telling her:

Come home.

We'll live together.

At that moment, Ye Shimei was so moved that she almost wanted to drop to her knees like the heroines in melodramatic television shows.

If she could stay in this house, she'd willingly be a maid for the rest of her life.

Naturally, she supported the idea wholeheartedly.

The two sisters were already imagining construction plans.

But Ye Xiqing saw things differently.

She understood their longing for a home.

She truly did.

However, houses built with current methods took time.

A lot of time.

If construction started now, it could easily take a year.

And during that year, wine production would likely stop.

Building a house would spend ten thousand yuan.

Upgrading the distillery could earn ten thousand yuan over and over again.

Not to mention her plans for future expansion.

She still wanted to plant sunflowers.

After some thought, she cautiously suggested:

"Maybe we should improve the brewing equipment first."

The room fell silent.

Ye Shiying and Ye Shimei exchanged glances.

Unfortunately...

That also made perfect sense.

Just as the sisters began wavering, Miao Shuangshuang suddenly grinned.

"I don't want either of those."

Everyone turned toward her.

"What do you want then?"

"A telephone."

"And a color television."

Ye Shiying stared.

"Huh?"

In this era, telephones and color TVs were luxury goods.

Even with money in hand, ordinary people wouldn't dare spend so extravagantly.

For a moment, Ye Shiying suspected her daughter had lost her mind.

Miao Shuangshuang, however, thought her reasoning was completely obvious.

"Of course we need a telephone."

She looked at them as if they were the strange ones.

"How are customers supposed to contact us otherwise?"

"When we're selling wine, are we going to borrow the village store's phone every time?"

Ye Xiqing paused.

...That actually made sense.

Miao Shuangshuang continued triumphantly.

"And I'm going to be on television soon."

She pointed at herself.

"If we don't buy a color TV, you'll have to go somewhere else to watch me."

Ye Shiying paused.

...That also made sense.

The room fell silent once more.

And so, after much discussion, the family somehow arrived at the least expected solution first.

They decided to buy a telephone anod a color television.

Miao Shuangshuang excitedly rode the only bicycle in the house to the county town to buy a color TV.

As someone reborn from the future, her thoughts were completely different from those three primitive inhabitants of her family. Building a house? What house? Future housing prices would be insane! With that money, it would be far better to buy a house in the capital while prices were still low. No matter how hard you worked, could you compare to someone who simply got rich through demolition compensation?

As for what Ye Xiqing had said, it did make some sense. But could a stinking alcohol seller like her compare to a future superstar and the wife of a billionaire? So the answer was obvious—which was more important, understanding priorities or listening to Ye Xiqing?

Was Ye Xiqing's need more important, or Miao Shuangshuang's?

From now on, she would be the one supporting this family. It was enough for Ye Xiqing to earn a little pocket money. Miao Shuangshuang didn't expect her to make any real money selling alcohol. She only hoped to become a big star and marry into a wealthy family.

In the future, money wouldn't be worth much anyway. Ten or twenty thousand yuan would be nothing. Her future husband would become the richest man in the country, and she—

Screech!

Miao Shuangshuang slammed on the brakes.

The sky was clear and cloudless, and she had been in an excellent mood. When people were happy, it was easy to forget things. But no matter how much you forgot, you'd eventually remember.

And now she had only one thought:

Oh no! The future richest man!

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