Chapter 63: I Am Not a Man of Easy Virtue

"Aunt Liu, when you all pick strawberries every day, has anyone ever come by to ask about them?"

Chen Dabao carefully inspected the patch of stolen strawberries, estimating that at least a hundred pounds had been taken.

Based on the price he charged Huo Anni, a hundred pounds of strawberries would amount to three thousand yuan.

In Peach Blossom Village, this was by no means a small sum.

This indicated that the strawberry thief was specifically targeting them for resale; otherwise, they wouldn't have bothered to steal so many.

"Of course people asked. Plenty of people asked! Passersby always stop to ask a few questions!" Aunt Liu hesitated for a moment before nodding.

"Among those who asked, were any of them acting suspiciously?" Chen Dabao continued to probe.

"Couldn't tell!"

Both Aunt Liu and Zhang Aihua shook their heads.

That was strange. Although Peach Blossom Village wasn't a major strawberry-growing village, quite a few families grew them. If someone held a grudge against Chen Dabao, trampling a patch of strawberries would be much simpler—there was no need to steal such a large quantity.

Stealing that many strawberries meant the culprit most likely knew that Chen Dabao's strawberries were out of the ordinary.

Yet Chen Dabao had never mentioned anything about the strawberries to the villagers.

Nobody in Peach Blossom Village knew that his strawberries could sell for thirty yuan a pound.

"Aunt Liu, Aunt Zhang, don't mention this to anyone. Just act like you know nothing, and I'll handle it myself!" Chen Dabao pondered for a moment. Since the thief was stealing the strawberries to sell them for cash, they certainly wouldn't stop at just one attempt.

He intended to catch the thief himself.

"Alright, Dabao, we'll listen to you!"

Aunt Liu and Zhang Aihua nodded. Having no ideas of their own, they could only follow whatever Chen Dabao decided.

After giving his instructions, Chen Dabao turned around and headed home for breakfast.

Early the next morning, the truck from Xianxian Fruits arrived as usual to load the strawberries.

A figure hiding in the shadows watched intently. Seeing that everything seemed normal, the person quietly slipped away.

"Why aren't you sleeping at daybreak? What are you wriggling around for?"

At Li Youcai's house, he leaned on his crutches with an impatient expression.

"What do you know? A golden opportunity for our family to get rich is here!" Ma Jinlian reached into her pants to scratch herself, then quietly carried a large crate of strawberries out of the cellar and loaded them into her electric tricycle.

"You think you're going to get rich off a few crates of rotten strawberries?"

Li Youcai sneered, too lazy to bother with this foolish woman.

"Like I said, what do you know!"

Ma Jinlian loaded several large crates of strawberries into the bed of the tricycle, covered them with a tarpaulin, and took a detour along remote village paths to the town. There, she paid fifty yuan to hitch a ride in a van that was heading into the city.

"Shengyuan Fruits!"

Upon arriving at the fruit wholesale market, Ma Jinlian found a large fruit store with a five-bay storefront and approached with a flattering smile, "Boss, do you buy strawberries here?"

"No, we don't, we don't! We sell fruit, we don't buy it!" A staff member inside the store said impatiently, not even sparing Ma Jinlian a glance.

"Don't buy them then, no need to snap! Whoever buys my strawberries will strike it rich!" Ma Jinlian muttered resentfully, turning around to leave.

While she was fierce back in the village, she wouldn't dare throw a tantrum casually in the city.

"What kind of strawberries do you have that are so amazing, making whoever buys them strike it rich?" Just then, a man in his forties walked out of the store.

The man was short and stout, completely bald, and possessed a fierce, fleshy face—clearly no good person.

He glanced at Ma Jinlian, a lecherous gleam flashing in his eyes. Ma Jinlian had just turned forty this year; she wasn't bad-looking in her youth, and she still retained some residual charm. Otherwise, the three Zhao brothers wouldn't have hooked up with her at the village threshing ground all those years ago.

"Boss, these are strawberries from Peach Blossom Village, the exact same kind sold by Xianxian Fruits. Xianxian Fruits sells them for fifty or sixty yuan a pound!"

Ma Jinlian said quickly.

"You have the strawberries sold by Xianxian Fruits?"

Zhao Daqiang's expression shifted, and he hurried over.

Shengyuan Fruits had recently been trying to break into the high-end fruit market. A few months ago, Zhao Daqiang had opened a high-end fruit store named Golden Fruit.

Yet, it could never compete with Xianxian Fruits.

Recently, business at Golden Fruit had grown even worse. Upon inquiring, Zhao Daqiang discovered that Xianxian Fruits had started selling a variety called "Sweet-to-the-Heart Strawberries."

These strawberries sold exceptionally well, enjoyed a stellar reputation, and even boosted sales of other fruits, causing business at Golden Fruit to plummet.

Zhao Daqiang was at his wit's end when, unexpectedly, Ma Jinlian showed up at his doorstep with strawberries.

"I do! Boss, have a taste!"

Ma Jinlian quickly pulled out a few strawberries, rubbed them against her pants, and handed them to Zhao Daqiang.

Zhao Daqiang smiled. Seeing that Ma Jinlian looked decent—and assuming a decent-looking woman must be clean—he didn't mind and eagerly popped the strawberries into his mouth.

"They really are those strawberries! Exactly the same!" After tasting a few, Zhao Daqiang's eyes lit up. If his Golden Fruit store could also offer Sweet-to-the-Heart Strawberries, he would surely be able to rival Xianxian Fruits. "Beauty, how many of these strawberries do you have? How much do you want per pound?"

"I'll take as many as you have!"

"Really?"

Ma Jinlian grinned from ear to ear. She held up two fingers, hesitated for a moment, and tentatively offered, "Boss, Xianxian Fruits sells them for fifty yuan a pound. You can just give me forty yuan a pound!"

"Fifty yuan a pound is the retail price. The wholesale cost doesn't exceed twenty. Look, since this is our first time cooperating, I'll give you twenty yuan a pound, and I'll take as many as you have. How about that?"

Zhao Daqiang rolled his eyes and said.

"Twenty a pound is a bit cheap!" Ma Jinlian hesitated briefly, but then she thought better of it: these were acquired without any capital investment. At twenty a pound, if she could bring in several dozen or a hundred pounds a day, that would be one to two thousand yuan.

One or two thousand a day! Just thinking about it made Ma Jinlian's legs go weak.

"Deal, I'll sell them to you. Weigh them and see how many there are!"

Ma Jinlian agreed after a brief hesitation. Regular strawberries only retailed for ten or twenty yuan a pound; being able to get this price for wholesale was already quite good.

"Hurry up, weigh them!"

Zhao Daqiang cautiously picked a few strawberries from each crate to taste, and only after confirming they were all Sweet-to-the-Heart Strawberries did he instruct his clerk to weigh them and pay up.

"It comes to ninety-six pounds in total. I'll round it up to a hundred pounds—two thousand yuan. Count it!"

Zhao Daqiang generously handed over two thousand yuan, making Ma Jinlian's heart blossom with excitement.

"Thank you, Boss Zhao! Thank you, Boss Zhao!"

After receiving the money, Ma Jinlian cast a flirtatious glance at Zhao Daqiang and even brushed her ample chest against his arm, making his heart itch with desire.

"Sister Jinlian, bring the rest of the goods tomorrow, and I'll treat you to dinner!" Sensing a promising opportunity, Zhao Daqiang impatiently hinted, "After dinner, let's go singing, and big brother will take you out for some real fun!"

"Oh, Brother Zhao, I'm not that kind of casual woman. We'll talk about tomorrow, tomorrow!" Ma Jinlian cooed coquettishly, changing her address to Brother Zhao.

"Sister Jinlian, look at what you're saying, making it sound like your brother here is some kind of casual man. I'm not a casual man either—it's just that when I get casual, I'm no longer human!"

Zhao Daqiang chuckled as he casually reached out and gave her a grope.