Xu Sangluo smiled at the group. “Mine is 22 yuan and 1 mao, so today’s total income altogether is…”
Everyone unconsciously held their breath, staring nervously at Xu Sangluo.
Even little Qin Yan, who didn’t quite understand, swallowed nervously and followed the tense atmosphere.
Xu Sangluo’s eyes curved with a smile. “88 yuan.”
“Hah—!”
The group collectively sucked in a breath, their faces filled with disbelief.
“8… 88 yuan? Did I hear wrong? It’s 88? Eighty and eight yuan?” Qin Zhifeng stammered, staring at the money in his hands, not knowing how to react for a long time.
Xu Sangluo collected the money one by one and put it away.
“Alright, Xiaoyu, you should go to school now. You’re going to be late.”
Qin Zhiyu still hadn’t recovered from the shock and was urged to stand up in a daze.
Eighty-eight yuan. They had earned eighty-eight yuan in just half a day.
How could it be so much?
Her eldest brother worked himself to exhaustion at the brick factory and only earned about twenty yuan a month.
She had heard that even the highest-paid workers at the cotton textile factory only made around sixty yuan a month.
So how had they earned eighty-eight in half a day?
Not just her—Mother Qin was also still stunned.
“Snap out of it. Hurry to school. Be careful on the road and don’t space out,” Xu Sangluo said helplessly as she pushed her outside.
Qin Zhiyu swallowed. “Sister Sangluo… it’s really… really 88 yuan?”
“Yes.”
“Then… then… should I ask for leave this afternoon and help make more?”
Xu Sangluo’s face darkened slightly as she continued pushing her along. “Don’t even think about it. Studying properly is more practical. The three of us this afternoon will be enough.”
“But…”
The two of them were still reluctant.
With one more person, they could make many more pieces and earn even more money.
Eighty-eight yuan!
Just thinking about making fewer pieces in the afternoon and earning less money made Qin Zhiyu’s heart ache.
However, when Xu Sangluo put on a stern face, she had no choice but to head to school reluctantly.
It was obvious she wouldn’t be able to focus on her studies that afternoon.
When Xu Sangluo returned to the room, Qin Zhifeng was still staring blankly at the money on the table.
Mother Qin, meanwhile, wore a complicated expression, seemingly lost in thought.
Seeing Xu Sangluo come in, Mother Qin gently took a breath. “Sangluo, I think the thirty-seventy split still isn’t appropriate. How about twenty-eighty instead?”
With that much money, even at a twenty-eighty split, the Qin family would still get nearly twenty yuan.
That was a full day’s income.
Mother Qin felt uneasy taking so much money.
It was just some scraps of cloth. They had only spent a few hours making them, and after selling for half a day, they had already earned 88 yuan.
How could that feel real?
If the money hadn’t been sitting right there the whole time, Mother Qin would have thought it was all an illusion.
Xu Sangluo immediately showed a helpless expression. “Mother Qin… please don’t be like this. It’s really not necessary.”
Suddenly, Qin Zhifeng shouted, “Ah!” and jumped to his feet.
The sudden movement startled little Qin Yan.
Mother Qin instinctively patted the boy’s back to comfort him while turning to glare at her son.
Qin Zhifeng spun around and ran out of the room. “I’m going to get some air and clear my head.”
Otherwise, it all felt like a dream.
He could barely tell reality from a dream anymore.
Xu Sangluo: “…”
That afternoon, Xu Sangluo went to the town’s supply and marketing cooperative again and bought quite a lot of rubber bands, nylon cords, and some small accessories.
For example, bead necklaces and pendants.
These could all be dismantled and incorporated into new designs.
She planned to seize the opportunity and make a good profit in the town first.
She had a feeling the town market would probably last about three or four days.
After that, imitators would likely appear.
Maybe even the female workers at the textile factory would start figuring it out today.
Since the market hadn’t fully formed yet, the factories probably wouldn’t get involved.
But individuals would likely begin setting up stalls to compete for business.
However, Xu Sangluo had more varieties here, so she could at least seize the advantage for about a week.
Still, the best sales would probably only last for the first four days or so, after which they would gradually decline.
After all, there were only so many people in the town, and most of them knew how to do some handicrafts.
The items themselves weren’t difficult to make either. Soon enough, people from other communes would figure out how to make them on their own.
So she planned to sell for another three days. If things went as expected, she would go straight to the county to seize the market there.
Xu Sangluo quickly came and went, then taught Qin’s mother and Qin Zhifeng a few new designs, adding small plastic beads, tiny stars, sequins, and other decorative pieces.
Cloth hair accessories—similar to those.
This made the designs more varied.
Encouraged by the eighty-eight yuan profit, Qin Zhifeng and Qin’s mother worked enthusiastically the entire afternoon, completely focused.
Xu Sangluo couldn’t endure too much manual handiwork, so she took the materials to her room and entered her space to work there.
Fortunately, the farmhouse had always promoted full-service hospitality, so even a sewing machine had been provided.
With the sewing machine, the work became much easier.
After working for a while and feeling it was enough, she stopped and prepared to leave with the finished items.
But before leaving, she thought for a moment and headed toward the office building.
The three-story office building looked like a small villa. At this moment it was empty, giving off a slightly eerie feeling.
Xu Sangluo’s office was on the third floor, occupying the entire level along with the rooftop terrace.
Here she had her office, a lounge, a study, and a gym.
The rooftop had been turned into a small garden, with a swimming pool in the middle. It was very beautiful.
She first went to the lounge to see if there was anything she could use.
Then she checked the study for books related to handicrafts.
Unfortunately, there weren’t any.
She didn’t enjoy handicrafts. In the past, she had only learned such skills for work.
After that, she went to the office.
The office was spacious and relaxed in style.
On the left was a sofa. On the right were bookshelves and display shelves. In the center stood an artistic-looking desk.
Behind it was an entire wall of floor-to-ceiling windows.
She walked over and lifted the blinds.
Standing by the window, she could see half of the farmhouse, especially the farmland and orchard areas.
After watching for a while, she lost interest.
She lowered the blinds again and sighed.
Since the farmhouse had been brought into this space with her, she wondered whether the farmhouse in the real world still existed.
If it had suddenly disappeared, it would probably scare a lot of people.
They might even suspect some kind of alien invasion.
Thinking helplessly about it, she walked back to the desk, turned the chair around, and sat down.
When her whole body sank into the soft boss’s chair, she finally felt a trace of the familiarity she once had.
She narrowed her eyes, slowly spinning the chair and letting out a soft sigh.
Just then, perhaps because the chair had bumped into the desk as she spun—
The computer monitor on the desk suddenly lit up.
Xu Sangluo froze for a moment, then made a small sound of surprise and sat up straight, staring at the screen in astonishment.
The farmhouse was always full of sunlight, just like the space itself—there was no night.
Many places in her farmhouse had floor-to-ceiling windows or glass doors.
Without curtains drawn, the interiors were always bright.
Subconsciously, she had assumed the farmhouse had no power supply system, so electricity here wouldn’t work, and she had never tried using it.
She hadn’t expected that the power system installed here would actually still function.
Suddenly thinking of something, she immediately grabbed the mouse and clicked to unlock the screen.
Then she saw the full network signal icon in the bottom-right corner.
Her heart suddenly began pounding rapidly.
She unconsciously tightened her grip on the mouse, and a thin layer of sweat began forming on her palms.
After hesitating for two seconds, she moved the mouse and opened the browser.
Her computer had been specially configured overseas, with extremely high performance.
With a single click of the mouse, the window instantly popped open.