Rebirth: Seven Years in a Great Dream

Chapter 16: I’ll Lend You Some Money

In the morning, Mu Dong woke up early. Lately, he’d been so busy that going to bed early and waking up early had become the norm. The storage yard was very close to the river, so there was a lot of moisture in the air. On this late-summer morning, a thin, light mist had risen. It wasn’t a thick, blanket-like fog, but rather a wisp here and a strand there—like threads of sheer gauze, scattered casually here and there. It didn’t shroud the scene; rather, it adorned it. The quiet storage yard gradually came to life amidst these patches of light mist. Mu Dong strolled out of the stockpile yard, walked a short distance toward the river, and sat down on a large rock. Watching the gently flowing river, he thought quietly to himself. The stockpile was gradually getting back on track; personnel and equipment were largely in place, and no further investment was needed. All that remained was to wait patiently as this vast, desolate wilderness was slowly filled with sand piles. There was one thing he needed to try, though. After all, the official line was that the yard was shipping sand to Quancheng, and Mu Dong felt he should at least keep up appearances. As for the lottery, Mu Dong finally decided to buy tickets during the time period he remembered. Whether he’d win or not was up to fate. It’s not that he hadn’t considered making a trip back to Quancheng now to buy tickets for multiple draws. But in the end, he decided against it. He had traveled back in time. The butterfly’s wings had already begun to flutter—who knew if it might set off a whirlwind that would change everything? Better to be cautious. After pondering for a while, Mu Dong strolled slowly back to the yard. He opened his phone and first called Lin Xiangyan to explain that his phone had broken yesterday and to apologize. Today is the first day that Mu's Yard has started accepting bank transfers for payment. Early this morning, most drivers expressed their support for bank transfers and provided their Agricultural Bank of China account numbers. A small number of drivers did not express an opinion; they are likely waiting to see how things play out. Since settlement isn’t until this afternoon, it’s not too late for them to make their position known then. That morning, Mu Dong first went to an internet café to send some documents to Lin Xiangyan, and after returning, he spent the rest of the time walking around the yard. It wasn’t that he was busy—every task now had someone specifically in charge. Mu Dong had, in fact, become a hands-off manager. In everyone’s eyes, Mu Dong was the one who made the big decisions; these minor, day-to-day matters really weren’t his responsibility. That was fine by him. By looking around, he could spot any problems or come up with ideas for improvements at any time. At lunchtime, Mu Dong discussed the matter with Mu Daguo and decided to assign the task of handling bank transfers to Mu Xiaoxia. Since Mu Daguo had previously been in charge of settlements, Mu Dong was worried he might read too much into it. Mu Daguo would continue to be in charge of issuing cards, tallying the number of unloaded vehicles, compiling reports, and handing them over to Mu Xiaoxia, who would handle the bank transfers. Mu Dong hoped that when he wasn’t at the yard, Mu Daguo would be able to oversee the entire operation. Mu Daguo felt a twinge of resentment. He’d been in charge of the purse strings all along, and now that power was suddenly being taken away from him—how could he possibly be happy about it? However, Mu Dong had adopted a very humble attitude, coming specifically to discuss the matter with him. Besides, that POS machine looked just like a landline phone—he doubted he’d be able to figure out how to operate it anytime soon—so he decided to go along with it and do Mu Dong a favor. Besides, carrying around a wad of cash every day had left him on edge. Now that he didn’t have to worry about it anymore, he finally breathed a sigh of relief. After sorting things out with Mu Daguo, Mu Dong called his sister and asked her to come by that afternoon. Before his sister arrived, Xie Donglin showed up. Xie Donglin had just had his stitches removed today and rushed right back to work. It was just a minor injury to begin with; in fact, he’d wanted to come to work a few days ago before his stitches were removed. But his parents absolutely refused to let him. As soon as his stitches were finally removed at noon today, he rushed right over. His parents, worried about him, came along as well. Mu Dong first greeted his second aunt and uncle. Upon learning they hadn’t had lunch yet, he quickly asked his mother to arrange a meal. The group sat down to chat. Mu Dong deliberately lifted Xie Donglin’s bangs to take a closer look at the wound and teased, “It’s not too bad—you can’t really tell it’s there. It won’t stop you from finding a pretty wife.” Everyone burst into laughter, though Xie Donglin’s face turned red. Then Mu Dong said to his second aunt and uncle, “Second Aunt, Uncle, I didn’t take good care of Xiao Lin and let him get hurt. I’m sorry for worrying you.” Aunt Mu No. 2 said, “Xiao Dong, it’s not your fault. I already know what happened. He was just careless. While he’s here, you’ll have to keep a closer eye on him.” Aunt Mu’s husband gave a good-natured smile, took a drag on his cigarette, and said nothing. Mu Dong said, “Aunt Mu, don’t worry—I’ll keep a close eye on him.” Then he turned to Xie Donglin and said, “Xiao Lin, now that you’re back, don’t take charge of unloading the truck. How about you learn to drive?” Xie Donglin replied, “Drive a loader? Sure, sure! I’ve been wanting to learn for a long time.” Mu Dong said, “First, learn to drive the tractor with Old Tan. Once you’re comfortable with that, learn to drive the loader with Su Peng. Try to get familiar with both machines as soon as possible. In the future, you’ll be taking turns driving them, so you’ll need to know how to operate both.” Xie Donglin jumped up excitedly and said loudly, “Brother Dong, don’t worry—I’ll definitely learn well.” Then he dashed out, calling over his shoulder, “I’m going to see what Auntie’s cooking. Just something simple will do.” That kid—he can’t wait to finish eating so he can go learn to drive. Aunt Mu and Uncle Mu finished their meal and took their leave. Mu Xiaoxia arrived as well. Mu Dong took his sister to the office and explained to her that she would be in charge of handling the bank transfers. Mu Xiaoxia was a little excited and asked Mu Dong, “Xiao Dong, can I do this? Can I really do this?” Mu Dong suddenly felt a pang of sadness. Mu Xiaoxia had actually been an excellent student in school. But since the family’s financial situation was tight back then, she had taken on odd jobs here and there after graduating from middle school to help support the family. If it hadn’t been for their financial struggles, she could have gone to college and led a better life. Mu Dong said, “Sis, it’s actually really simple. I just learned how to do it myself. Watch, I’ll walk you through it.” After a few tries, Mu Xiaoxia quickly got the hang of it. Mu Dong had her try transferring money twice to a test Agricultural Bank of China card, and it worked without a hitch. Mu Dong said, “See, sis, it’s that simple. You’re so meticulous—you’ll definitely have no trouble with it.” Mu Xiaoxia was thrilled and kept nodding. “That’s great, that’s great. I’ll start work tomorrow.” After thinking for a moment, she added, “Tomorrow’s the weekend, so the kids don’t have school. When I start working, I’ll have my mother-in-law pick them up at lunchtime.” Mu Dong said, “It’ll be a bit of a struggle for the next few days, but once we switch to weekly pay, things will get much easier.” After finishing his conversation with his sister, Mu Dong left the yard and headed to Lunan City. This time, they were going to find clients! Yes, finding clients—they had to at least go through the motions and sell some sand to other regions. Mu Dong first found a quick-print shop and had a few boxes of business cards printed. Then he went to the Lunan Logistics Market and the Lunan Cargo Matching Market. As the largest commodity distribution hub in southern Shandong and northern Jiangsu, Lunan City sees a substantial number of freight vehicles traveling back and forth every day. On their return trips, these drivers all want to carry some cargo to earn a little extra freight revenue—this is called “cargo matching.” Mu Dong planned to find his own clients among these returning vehicles. If a return-trip vehicle didn’t have suitable cargo to match, the driver was in a hurry to get back, and the local price of sand was relatively high—provided all three conditions were met—Mu Dong would have a business opportunity. Although the odds weren’t great, Mu Dong didn’t mind; he hadn’t intended to operate on a large scale anyway—he was just going through the motions. Mu Dong began handing out business cards everywhere. His business cards read: “High-quality washed river sand, loaded by large loaders, 19 yuan per cubic meter, Phone: …” Mu Dong got tired of handing them out after a while, so he spent 100 yuan to hire two people to do it for him. After finishing at the logistics market, he went to the freight matching market and continued handing them out. Finally, Mu Dong left his business cards at the offices of several freight matching stations. All set. Time to go home and wait for business to come to him. He hadn’t even made it home yet when a driver from out of town reached out. Mu Dong was a bit taken aback. This was working way too fast. Over the phone, Mu Dong gave them the location of the yard, guided them on the route, and told them to come load up first thing tomorrow morning. But the driver wouldn’t have it—he wanted to load up as soon as possible because he was in a real hurry to get back. “All right, as you wish.” As it turned out, Mu Dong and the big truck arrived at the yard almost simultaneously. It was a truck registered in Heilongjiang, with a cargo bed 16 meters long, 2. 5 meters wide, and side walls 80 centimeters high. Since sand is relatively heavy, loading it to the top of the side walls was sufficient. With a forklift on hand, it was loaded to capacity in just a few back-and-forth trips. Adhering to the principle of quality service, Mu Dong had a few workers help level the sand on the truck and then assisted the driver in securing the tarp. The volume of sand was easy to calculate: 32 cubic meters. At 19 yuan per cubic meter, the total came to 608 yuan. Mu Dong generously rounded down the total to 600 yuan. The two truck drivers were very satisfied. Sand prices are very high in Heilongjiang Province, so transporting this sand back would not only cover their fuel costs but also yield a profit. They had picked up sand in southern Shandong before, but the price there was slightly higher than what Mu Dong offered, and the service wasn’t nearly as good. The two men thanked him and hurriedly drove off. Mu Dong looked at the 600 yuan in his hand and thought to himself, “I’ve finally seen some cash coming in.” This was the first time money had come in since the stockyard opened. Haha, maybe I should put this away for safekeeping. In the evening, it was time to settle accounts. No one opted for cash—they were short on funds. Those who had been waiting on the sidelines saw that most others were choosing bank transfers, so in the end, they all submitted their account numbers as well. Drivers who had settled their accounts quickly left the yard and headed to the ATM at the Agricultural Bank of China branch in town to check their balances. Although Boss Mu had assured them the money had definitely been credited—and the balance was visible on his machine as well—they still felt more at ease checking it on the bank’s large ATM. For ordinary people, accepting new things takes time. Fortunately, this process was brief. Sure enough, the balance shown on the bank’s main terminal matched the balance displayed on Mr. Mu’s small device. A total of 330 truckloads of sand had been delivered today, with several sand pits accounting for nearly 200 of them. Settling the accounts for this portion was straightforward; Mu Daguo had already tallied the quantities and processed the transfers directly. It took about a quarter of an hour to complete the settlements for those sand pits. The sand pits owned by Mu Tongqing and Zhong Shujie are settled once a week, so there was no need to settle accounts with them today. Mu Dong instructed Mu Daguo to keep detailed records of the accounts for these two sand pits and to summarize them daily. The remaining 100-plus truckloads belonged to nearly 30 drivers spread out across various locations, so it took quite some time to process them. On top of that, since it was Mu Xiaoxia’s first day handling the task, she was a bit nervous. In total, it took about two hours to complete all the transfers. Even so, this was nearly an hour faster than settling accounts with cash every day. Mu Xiaoxia was covered in sweat, but she felt incredibly satisfied. Next came Saturday. In the morning, the crew installing the conveyor belt arrived at the stockpile yard. Previously, the stockpile had to be managed solely by forklifts, with piles reaching heights of about three to four meters. Now, with the crawler tractors, they could first create a gentle slope and then use that slope to build the pile up to five or six meters high. Once the forklift and crawler tractor had stabilized the base of the sand pile, the conveyor belt could build it up to over 10 meters high. Although current funds aren’t sufficient to raise the entire stockpile to over five meters, Mu Dong still decided to make it a bit taller. There’s still some time left, and funding might become available. What Mu Dong didn’t know was that the funds were right nearby and on their way. Over the course of the morning, the conveyor belt was successfully installed. All the equipment—both planned and unplanned—was now in place. Two more delivery trucks arrived in the morning to load sand, bringing in 1,100 yuan. In the afternoon, five delivery trucks arrived, bringing in 2,600 yuan. Mu Dong was actually surprised. This was too unbelievable—in just one day, a few boxes of business cards had made such a dramatic difference. “I was just going through the motions!” Mu Dong hesitated. Was this business actually worth pursuing? Mu Dong planned to stockpile this sand, waiting for prices to skyrocket. Selling one more truckload now meant earning a little less later. He was torn. Mu Dong locked himself in his room and thought it over for quite a while. In the end, he decided to go for it. There were three reasons. First, the current purchase price of sand was still low—it wasn’t yet time to hoard it and withhold sales Second, the current cost of sand—including management fees—is about 11. 5 yuan per cubic meter, and selling it for 19 yuan yields a substantial profit. Third, strong sales and steady supply would boost confidence among his family, the workers at the storage yard, and the suppliers. However, he’ll limit the distribution of business cards to this group—no need to expand further; maintaining the status quo is sufficient. Buying in large quantities and selling in small amounts is exactly what Boss Mu aims to do. While Mu Dong made this decision, others made a decision of their own. Ever since Mu Dong began building the storage yard, certain people have been keeping a close eye on him. Such a huge site, such massive sand shipments, so many cash transactions—not to mention all the air conditioning, bottled water, and other such things—were all just ways to waste money. This guy—we haven’t seen a single tax deduction from him! Just how much money is he going to squander! Finally, word got out that the Mu family’s stockpile yard had started selling sand—and at a pretty good price, too. Buyers were coming from all over the country. That Mu kid really has an eye for business. While local sand quarry owners are all focused on the local market, he’s already expanded his business to other provinces. Hmm, it’s time to make a move. I’ll go talk to that kid. That very evening, someone came knocking on his door. There were two of them: one was Mu Huafeng, and the other was also from the village. Mu Dong didn’t know his name, only that he was a wealthy man in the village. The wealthy man’s name was Mu Jinqian. He wasn’t very old—not yet 50—but held a very high position in the family hierarchy. Mu Dong had to address him as “Grandfather.” Even Mu Dong’s own father had to respectfully call him “Uncle.” Mu Jinqian had a very small circle of associates—about ten or twenty people. These families were all relatively well-off, and they ran a peculiar business: lending money to others. Yes, they actively lent money to others. With bank deposit interest rates so low these days, running one’s own business carries considerable risk. As a result, similar circles have sprung up in rural areas. They specifically seek out promising businesses and entrepreneurs in the vicinity, proactively offering them loans. The interest rates are higher than those offered by banks but significantly lower than those of loan sharks. Generally, the annual interest rate hovers around 10 percent. These people aren’t greedy; they’re very cautious in selecting projects and only do business with people they know. So, overall, they make more than they lose and rarely fail. Thanks to his high standing within the family hierarchy and his keen business acumen in recent years, Mu Jinqian enjoys considerable prestige in this circle. He has direct access to about 1 million yuan in capital and can influence funds totaling no less than 5 million yuan. Mu Jinqian wasn’t close to Mu’s father, and he had even less in common with Mu Dong. After hearing Mu Huafeng mention the young man from the Mu family a few times, he approached him to act as an intermediary. Mu Huafeng was delighted—he had plenty of experience acting as a go-between! Moreover, having Mu Jinqian ask him to do this was a huge honor; after all, Mu Jinqian was his senior! Mu’s father, Mu Dong, Mu Jinqian, and Mu Huafeng—the four of them—took their seats in the yard office. Mu Dong offered cigarettes to the other three and lit them one by one. Mu’s father addressed Mu Jinqian with due respect: “Uncle, what can I do for Xiao Dong?” He then turned to Mu Dong and said, “This is your great-uncle. Call him by his title.” Mu Dong felt a bit helpless, but he understood the proper etiquette. He stood up respectfully and addressed him as “Great-Uncle.” Mu Jinqian was also exasperated. He’d come to discuss business, but with everyone so stiff and formal, how could they possibly get anywhere? With that in mind, he said to Mu’s father, “Hua Shan, you go ahead and get back to work. I’ll have a chat with Xiao Dong.” Then he turned to Mu Hua Feng and said, “You should go out with your older brother, too.” The two brothers stood up hesitantly and walked out. Mu Jinqian smiled at Mu Dong and said, “Now that your dad’s out of the room, you don’t have to be so formal. Let’s have a chat, shall we?” Mu Dong actually breathed a sigh of relief and said, “Great-Uncle, you really know how to handle things. I really didn’t feel comfortable with my dad here.” Mu Jinqian said, “Xiao Dong, since it’s just the two of us, I’ll be straightforward. I think your business looks promising, and I’d like to get involved. What do you think?” Mu Dong was a little taken aback. He thought to himself, He really is direct—what’s his game here? He replied, “Sure, Great-Uncle. Are you planning to buy a stake?” Mu Jinqian said, “Stop calling me ‘Great-Uncle’ all the time—it sounds awkward to me. I’m not even as old as your dad. Here’s what we’ll do: since it’s just the two of us, just call me ‘Young Master.’ It rolls off the tongue and sounds better.” He continued, “Don’t get me wrong—I’m not taking a stake in the business. It’s just that if you’re short on funds, I’ll lend you some and charge a little interest.” Mu Dong immediately thought of loan sharking. Any normal person would think that. Mu Dong replied, “Young Master, I really don’t need money right now. I just took out a loan a few days ago—my Uncle Hua Feng knows about it; he even co-signed for me.” Mu Jinqian chuckled and said, “Kid, you’re overthinking it. It’s not a loan shark deal—it’s 12% annual interest. Of course, that’s higher than a bank loan.” He paused for a moment before adding, “I heard about your loan. It’s precisely because I heard you took out a loan that I figured you might be short on cash.” As soon as Mu Dong heard this, he immediately felt this was a deal worth pursuing. But why would such a great opportunity come his way? With that thought in mind, he said, “Young master, do I really catch your eye that much?” Upon hearing this, Mu Jinqian knew the deal was sealed. With a smile, he said, “I only do business with people I know—just making a little money on the side. You can ask around; I lent money to Mu Tongqing and Zhong Shujie when they first started their sand quarry.” Mu Dong saw that Mu Jinqian’s cigarette was nearly finished, so he stood up and offered him another one. “Young Master,” he said, “that interest rate is a bit high. In Quancheng, when friends help me out, it’s 10% at most.” “Friends, huh? Only 10 percent? You’re like a grandfather to me—can’t you give me a better rate?” Mu Jinqian thought to himself, This kid’s a sly little fox. He said, “How much do you need?” Mu Dong said, “500,000.” “Nine percent.” “Eight percent.” “Deal!”