Chapter 49 Dinner Party
"Family, I'm back!"
Zhang Ailun and Simone rode their bicycles back to the Qiaodong base camp.
Upon hearing the noise, Sig came running and seeing the large and small bags of items that he was carrying, he immediately trotted over to share some of the burden.
"You bought so many things?"
Dominic was also a little surprised. This meal was equivalent to the money he had spent collecting cans for several days.
After taking the dishes, I found that they were all in fresh-keeping boxes and needed to be heated to make them taste better. I also decisively took out the spoils I picked up during today's hunting, a food heater I picked up in front of an apartment in the community.
According to the local custom, any old items that the owner no longer needs will basically be thrown at the door to be given to someone in need.
Cleaning up furniture and junk appliances is a very troublesome task. You need to call professional tow trucks and shippers to transport those things to the scrap yard for recycling. Each item also requires additional transportation fees based on weight and individual items, which is another large sum of money. It would be better to just leave it at the door and give it to others to use.
Dominic originally wanted to sell it as scrap for recycling someday, but now it can be put to use. Although this food heater is a bit old, it was produced last year and still has all the functions.
"Leo, how was your day?"
Zhang Ailun also looked at the homeless man Leo and the unfamiliar woman beside him.
"Not bad, at least I wasn't bullied today, thanks to your help, Mr. Jin. I got a stable job."
Leo was grateful and introduced the homeless woman next to him, "This is Monica."
"Hello Monica." Zhang Ailun greeted her with a smile.
The other person was also a white man, about the same age as Leo, but not as old as him. He was dressed very neatly, wearing a red scarf. He just looked a little haggard, and his golden hair seemed to have faded. This is what it's like to wander around outside and sleep in the open. Not every homeless person can live as safely as in the camp under the bridge.
I don’t know what method Leo used to convince the other party to join the scavenger team.
"Hello, Hamburg." Monica seemed a little restrained. She also learned about Zhang Allen's deeds from Leo. She understood that he was a prestigious person and was very cruel to the black people on the street.
But as one of our own, he was still very nice. The other party even generously gave the land to other homeless people to do can recycling work, giving them the opportunity to make money, and he only took a small part of the dividends. This was simply incredible.
You can tell at first glance that he is a man who can do great things!
"Don't be shy. It's like being at home here. No one here is a bad person." Zhang Ailun comforted the other person.
"Thank you for giving me this opportunity and this job." Monica said with gratitude.
Zhang Ailun waved his hand, indicating that he didn't need to be so polite. The purpose of our Beggar Gang is to let every member of the Beggar Gang live a better life!
Pull out the smoke-blackened oil barrel, use lighter to ignite firewood and waste newspaper, sit around the bonfire, take out your phone to play soothing music, put snacks and various foods in front of you, talk and laugh, the atmosphere becomes hot and lively.
Soon, Jason and Fitz also came back.
The former was carrying two boxes of energy drinks that he got for free from somewhere, while the latter was carrying large and small bags of daily necessities.
After saying hello, Jason sat next to Zhang Ailan, handed him a bottle of energy drink, put his arm around his shoulder, and immediately put a big glass of wine on it, "Don't worry, drink it, this is the spoils we got from participating in an errand activity today!"
"Errand activity? Which street?"
Simone asked in surprise, "Why didn't I receive any notification about the zero-dollar shopping event?"
"It's not what you think. It's a 24-hour supermarket that went bankrupt. There were many things in that store that they couldn't handle, so they opened their doors to the public for discounts. The most expensive item was only $12, and many were even free. Jason and I happened to pass by, so we took away a household electric kettle, six bars of bath soap, two pairs of slippers, and two boxes of energy drinks."
Black girl Fitz immediately explained: "There are quite a lot of zero-dollar shopping activities on the streets recently, and they are increasing day by day. There are also more police officers from the South Branch patrolling the roads. We don't want to lose the big picture for the small one!"
"Fxxk! Why didn't you call me when there was such a good thing? I always miss this kind of opportunity!" Simone was a little annoyed.
"How's your business going?"
Zhang Ailun asked, "I heard from Simone that you are working with others to grow leaves? Are those people reliable?" Jason and Fitz looked at each other, both feeling helpless, "Let's just leave it that way..."
"It may be due to technical reasons that the leaves withered when they germinated. We plan to find someone to buy another bag of seeds and try to plant them again. If it still doesn't work, forget it."
The two obviously haven't given up yet.
Who can feel balanced if they invest hundreds of dollars and then lose it all?
Zhang Ailun remained silent. In fact, he wanted to ask if he was being tricked. Is it so difficult to grow a leaf? Is it a problem with the raw materials?
As long as the greenhouse is built well, the results should be seen soon. As long as there is a suitable growing environment, that thing will grow as fast as weeds!
But seeing that the two of them were determined not to turn back until they hit the wall, it was not a good idea to discourage their enthusiasm.
Simone sat over, and the three of them huddled together and began to communicate in low voices.
Zhang Ailun was not very interested in their business, so he turned around and joined the Beggar Gang team to communicate with Dominic and others.
"Dominic, how many cans have everyone picked up today? You should have already counted it, right?" Zhang Ailun leaned over and asked.
Dominic immediately smiled and said, "Of course, I was just about to report the results to you. We now have four streets to pick up cans. We picked up a total of 2869 cans today. On average, we can pick up to cans on each street. This is more than I usually pick up in half a week!"
"I also went to the street where the pawnshop is located, but there weren't that many cans there. There were basically no cans on the roadside. Even after all the trash cans were emptied, there were only about 400 cans, many of which were glass bottles. However, Leo did pick up half a box of good quality leaf candies. David and Gate have already gone to sell them to people on the street."
"There are eight or nine hundred cans that can be found on Wapson Street."
It sounds like a lot, but when divided among six people working in the wild, it's actually not that much.
On average, each person picked up more than 400 cans a day, which is about $20.
But this is already a very good income level. Rio’s previous income was basically less than 15 US dollars, and most of the time he was robbed. It was all in vain and he couldn’t make any money at all.
Picking up cans has never been the main way for scavengers to make a fortune. The rare drop rate of treasure chests is where you can really make money. Otherwise, it will take a long time to earn a thousand dollars just by picking up cans.
Dominic and Leo both got something else. The former picked up a usable food heater, which might be worth $5 to $10 if sold, or he could keep it for his own use.
Leo picked up half a box of leaf gummy candies of good quality and content, which should be worth dozens of dollars.
Leaf products sold in regular stores include leaf oil e-cigarette boxes, leaf gummies, smokable leaf flowers and other types of leaves. The prices range from US$16 to US$200, which is much higher than the street selling prices. The stores only accept cash, which is not affordable for the poor. Most people still prefer street shopping.
One gram of leaves generally costs more than a dozen dollars, while the cost of growing leaves indoors is only dollars per gram. Most of the added cigarettes only contain a small amount of leaves, and the price is not high.
I have to say that this business is extremely profitable!
Zhang Ailun also did not have any mandatory requirements for recycling the small items they picked up on the street.
Unless you are participating in a mission at his request, such as conducting a sweep of a community or a wealthy area, the valuable items found will be handed over and confiscated.
Just like the Vandini gold necklace he picked up today, and the Cartier watch Dominic picked up before, these valuable items must be handed in for recycling.
For other worthless gadgets, a symbolic 20%-40% dividend is enough. The dividend of the jar will not be adjusted, and the stable 20% will be taken.
After all, even if a person works himself to death, he can only pick up a few thousand cans at most after running around all day.
If you are even more unscrupulous and take away half of the profits, who would be willing to work for you?
(End of this chapter)
