May 22nd, 342. 9:00 AM.
For the past month, after delivering appliances and collecting yesterday's earnings, Tang Li would spend an hour browsing the black market.
She didn't frequent the upscale levels 4-6, but instead stuck to B2 and levels 1-3.
Keeping her eyes and ears open, she would approach anyone looking to buy scarce resources that she possessed.
Though it was in small increments, she managed to earn several hundred to a thousand points daily.
Over time, this accumulated to over 100,000 points in a month.
Furthermore, she had cultivated a stable customer base, regularly supplying them with goods.
Her appliance business, meanwhile, reliably brought in 30,000 points a day, totaling 900,000 points in a month.
From April 22nd to May 22nd, Tang Li had earned over a million points in the black market.
During this period, she had been followed on occasion, but she always managed to lose her pursuers.
On May 22nd, after delivering appliances and collecting her earnings, Tang Li took her usual stroll through the black market.
Unexpectedly, however, she encountered someone she hadn't anticipated.
Despite wearing a protective suit, his injured arm was quite noticeable.
"Song Pinxuan? What is he doing here?"
Tang Li listened intently to his conversation.
It turned out he was looking for materials like alloys.
"Isn't he from the Jiangcheng Research Institute? Why is he looking for materials in the black market? Doesn't the Jiangcheng official institution provide sufficient research materials?"
Tang Li felt a pang of confusion.
However, she happened to have those materials in her spatial storage.
It was free points delivered to her doorstep; she couldn't pass it up. She directly approached Song Pinxuan.
"I've heard about a universal merchant in this black market who can procure any material, no matter what. I didn't expect the rumors to be true."
Song Pinxuan was thrilled when Tang Li confirmed she had the alloys he needed.
For the past few days, he had been busy replicating the mecha developed in his dreams.
However, he didn't want the credit for developing the mecha to remain with the S University Research Institute, nor did he want to use materials supplied by S University. He wished to independently replicate the mecha.
Hearing that there was a universal merchant in the black market who appeared between 9:00 AM and 10:00 AM daily, with all sorts of goods, he decided to try his luck.
He never expected to actually find her!
"What universal merchant? I merely have more channels."
Tang Li said this feigning politeness.
At this time, Tang Li was still using her middle-aged strong man disguise, and her voice was projected through a mental sound device. Naturally, she wasn't worried about Song Pinxuan recognizing her.
"We'll complete the transaction at B1 of the underground parking lot tomorrow, around this time."
After Song Pinxuan paid the deposit, Tang Li told him.
With that, she left without looking back.
She didn't linger to chat with him, even though he was an acquaintance.
After leaving this time, Tang Li didn't go straight home.
Over the past month, water resources had become increasingly precious.
Since early May, areas across the country had begun to experience water shortages, and water prices had skyrocketed.
Jiangcheng, being adjacent to a major river, was in a slightly better situation.
However, the water level in the river, due to the drying up of tributaries and upstream diversions by people, was also steadily declining and becoming insufficient.
Tang Li decided to start selling water resources from this day forward.
But she didn't intend to use her previous guise as the middle-aged strong man.
She drove to a secluded spot and returned her pickup truck to her spatial storage.
From her spatial storage, she replicated a minivan. Then, just like before her first trip to the black market, she applied a young person's disguise.
Afterward, she replicated boxes upon boxes of bottled water from her spatial storage into the back of the minivan.
Driving the minivan again, she returned to the black market.
Upon arriving at levels 4-6, Tang Li had already selected a shop specializing in water sales to partner with.
Similar to her arrangement with the appliance stores for selling electronics, Tang Li only needed to deliver goods daily and collect the previous day's earnings.