The 1970s: Married First, Fell in Love Later-Chapter 145 - 144: Don’t Disturb Me Counting Money

Chapter 145: Chapter 144: Don’t Disturb Me Counting Money

"Yeah, if you want some, I can take you. I guarantee they’re pure gold."

He Lang changed the subject. "So, if you were buying, what’s your price?"

The man shot to his feet, glaring at He Lang. "Are you messing with me?"

He Lang chuckled and stood up as well. "Easy there, friend. If I were selling, would you dare to buy?"

The man paused, studying the two of them, as if weighing whether they were telling the truth.

"You’re really selling? How many bars?"

He Lang patted his pocket, producing a metallic jingle. Only then did the man relax.

"Follow me."

He Lang raised an eyebrow. "What about your stall—"

The man waved his hand dismissively. "It’s fine. No one would dare touch it. Someone’s coming to watch it."

With that, he led He Lang and Xue Xingzhou deeper into the market and down an alley.

After a short walk, they stopped in front of a Ruyi-style gate. He knocked three times.

The door quickly opened from the inside. It was an old man. He stood in the doorway, looking them over. "Why’d you bring people here?"

"Uncle Ming, these two want to sell some ’small yellow croakers.’ I’m here to see Brother Hua."

Uncle Ming glanced at He Lang and Xue Xingzhou. "Come in. Brother Hua is inside."

Once inside the courtyard, they discovered it was another siheyuan, much larger than the one they had looked at earlier that day.

Uncle Ming closed the gate and led He Lang and the others to the door of the main house. He knocked, then pushed the door open and went inside.

Upon entering, they saw a middle-aged man in his forties sitting inside. He wore a pair of gold-rimmed glasses and had a full head of white hair. The man was dressed in a long white tunic.

"Brother Hua, they want to sell some ’small yellow croakers.’ Take a look—"

The man called Brother Hua slowly raised his head and looked at He Lang and Xue Xingzhou. He Lang could clearly feel the pressure in his gaze. ’With an aura like that, this is no ordinary person.’

The room was silent. After a moment, Brother Hua spoke. "Small yellow croakers? Let’s have a look."

He Lang took one bar out of his pocket, placed it on the table, and pushed it forward.

Brother Hua picked it up, weighed it in his hand, and gave it a quick look before nodding. "How much are you selling it for?"

He Lang knew he had a chance. "What are you offering?"

Brother Hua stated flatly, "2,500."

He Lang shook his head. "3,000. And I have more than just this one." He Lang took out four more identical bars and placed them on the table.

Brother Hua’s eyes narrowed as he looked at He Lang. "You’ve got some nerve, friend. Daring to bring this many gold bars so openly into my territory. If I’m not mistaken, you’ve got more on you, don’t you?"

He Lang chuckled. "I do. But I only plan on selling these five. If you ever raise your price, it won’t be too late for me to come looking for you."

Brother Hua glanced at He Lang, then met Xue Xingzhou’s eyes for a few seconds before laughing out loud. "Alright, 3,000 it is. I’ll take all five."

"You’re a generous man, Brother Hua," He Lang said with a smile. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

A short while later, He Lang emerged with 15,000 yuan in cash stuffed in his bag. Xue Xingzhou followed close behind, on high alert, listening carefully for anyone tailing them. Fortunately, no one followed them out of the black market, and the two of them finally breathed a sigh of relief.

On the way back, Xue Xingzhou finally asked He Lang where the gold bars came from. He Lang simply said that Ruanruan had stumbled upon them in their courtyard. He explained that the area in their village used to belong to a landlord, and the gold was probably buried by them years ago and accidentally discovered by Ruanruan.

Hearing this, Xue Xingzhou couldn’t help but marvel, "You guys really hit the jackpot. This is great. Just this morning you were worried about not having money for a house, and now you do. I’m so jealous."

He Lang chuckled softly. "If you want to buy a place, you can take some of the money. It’s enough to buy a small house."

Xue Xingzhou shook his head. "We’ll see. If I find a suitable place and really decide to buy, I’ll definitely come to you."

"Okay."

When they got back, He Lang walked into the room carrying the money and saw that Xue Yue was already awake, sitting by the bed with a small lamp on.

When Xue Yue saw He Lang return, she quickly stood up and hurried over. "How did it go? Was everything okay?"

He Lang looked at her. "It’s still early. Why are you awake?"

Xue Yue sighed in relief. "I woke up and you were gone. I knew you went to the black market with... that stuff. How could I rest easy? I was so worried you’d be followed or run into danger."

He Lang caressed her face. "Don’t worry, everything went smoothly."

Then he opened the bag of money to show Xue Yue.

Staring at the bag full of large bills, Xue Yue asked him, "How much is this? Did you sell all of it?"

He Lang shook his head and pulled the remaining gold bars from an inner pocket of his clothes.

"Why are there still so many?" Xue Yue had assumed the money was from selling all the gold bars.

He Lang smiled and said, "We really don’t know the price of gold. It’s more expensive than we thought. I sold it for 60 yuan a gram, and they’ll turn around and sell it for 80. Think about that profit margin. I have a feeling the price of gold is going to keep rising, so I only sold five bars. Let’s hold on to the rest. This is 15,000. It should be enough for us to buy a house."

Xue Yue was stunned. "Five bars sold for this much? If we sold them all, we’d be rich, wouldn’t we?"

He Lang nodded. "I suppose so."

Xue Yue couldn’t contain her happiness and went over to plant a kiss on Ruanruan’s cheek.

A smile crept onto He Lang’s lips as he saw this. He took off his clothes and got ready for bed.

But after He Lang got into bed and lay down, he saw Xue Yue sitting on the floor counting the money. She had already made one stack and set it aside, muttering to herself as she counted.

He Lang’s eye twitched. "You’re not going to sleep?"

Xue Yue didn’t even look up. "You go ahead and sleep. Don’t mind me."

He Lang gave a helpless smile. "In a few days, that money might be gone when we buy the house. You’re counting it for nothing."

Xue Yue said, full of pride, "I have to count it. This has been my ultimate goal! Where else am I going to see this much money? I’m going to count money right now until my hands cramp. Maybe then I won’t get so excited the next time I see it."

He Lang rolled over. "So unambitious. You’ll probably have plenty more chances to count money in the future."

"We’ll see about the future later. Don’t bother me while I’m counting."

He Lang drifted off to sleep. Xue Yue sat on the floor in the middle of the night counting money for over an hour. When she finally finished, her eyes were too heavy to keep open, and she was dizzy. ’Seems like this isn’t such a great job after all,’ she thought. She tidied up and hurried off to bed.

The next morning, they went out together and took a half-hour bus ride to the Friendship Store.

Back then, not just anyone could enter the Friendship Store. You needed foreign exchange certificates, because many of the items inside were imported.

Zheng Guofeng had given them a lot the previous night. They were issued by his work unit.

After going inside, they found many things they had never seen before, like chocolate, peanut butter, Coca-Cola, lots of high-end clothing, and even a refrigerator.

Xue Yue glanced at the price. ’Good heavens, a single refrigerator costs 3,000 yuan! That’s half a house. We can’t afford that.’

Besides appliances, there were also jade, porcelain, jewelry, silk, and tea. However, they were just window-shopping when it came to those items. In the end, they bought some tea for Zheng Guofeng, along with some chocolate and a few bottles of Coca-Cola for the kids to try something new.