Chapter 7

Everything has its tricks, a principle applicable to all trades and professions, an indisputable fact.

How to do it is actually far more important than how diligently or how hard one works.

Even scavenging is no exception; it’s not just about having strength and courage.

Only wisdom can maximize the efficiency and benefits of labor.

Ning Weimin is the kind of person who loves to ponder tricks and is good at summarizing experience.

He is not like the vagrants who, for no reason, sniff around the garbage mountains like dogs.

He wishes to dig three feet into the ground to find things that can be sold.

He is accustomed to conserving his strength and striking when the opportunity arises, waiting for the car horns to sound.

Only when new garbage trucks arrive to dump the garbage does he stand up and truly get to work.

Even if two garbage trucks come at once, he first distinguishes which factories they are from.

The larger the factory, the more valuable the garbage it brings.

Moreover, Ning Weimin understands the importance of occupying advantageous terrain and securing the upwind position.

Every time the garbage trucks come, he spares no effort to avoid being pushed to the downwind side.

Because the dust from the garbage can turn a person into a mud monkey.

Nose blocked, eyes blinded.

Even the most capable person can't last long in such conditions.

Furthermore, in the specific process of work, Ning Weimin is clearly different from others.

When he pounces on a new load of garbage, he doesn't rush to pick up sellable items like others do.

His habit is to frantically pull the garbage to his side, then spread his limbs to hold it down.

After the car leaves, he calmly picks through the garbage to find useful items and make money.

As for the last key point, Ning Weimin doesn't want just any scrap.

He is very clear that, working alone, his carrying capacity is limited.

He can't accumulate large amounts of scrap like the vagrants and then transport them to the recycling station in a cart.

So, even with the rich resources of the landfill, he can only pick small, high-value items to make it worthwhile.

Waste paper, for example, is the lowest in price and takes up a lot of space.

Even a full sack of waste paper isn't very heavy, but its volume is enormous and often dirty.

For him, that is something to be firmly rejected.

On the other hand, non-ferrous metals are different.

Whether it's copper, aluminum, or zinc, any piece he finds can be worth a whole sack of waste paper.

Even iron is good.

At 12 cents per kilogram, he has a circle of magnets tied to his two-pronged hook.

For him, scrap iron is the easiest to obtain.

He doesn't need to put much effort into finding it; he can easily pick up a lot.

It's all extra profit.

In short, Ning Weimin not only listens to all directions and observes everything, but he also uses his brain.

Therefore, his actions are particularly targeted, and he never does unnecessary work.

Thus, as a person who fully applies his intelligence to scavenging, his creative work methods have repeatedly created miraculous harvests, demonstrating the effect of "one person being worth two."

Within the same working hours, unless someone is particularly favored by fate and has unexpected good luck, Ning Weimin's daily harvest of "minerals" is almost certain to be the top.

Over time, others naturally noticed this significant difference in effectiveness.

Thus, many vagrants began to consciously or unconsciously emulate Ning Weimin's work methods.

At least so far, in the landfill, everyone has a large magnet tied to their iron hook.

Everyone also understands the importance of following the garbage trucks to secure the upwind position and pulling the garbage before working.

This situation inevitably affects Ning Weimin's harvest.

But it doesn't matter.

Because, after all, these tricks are just the surface.

Ning Weimin's most important skill is something the vagrants can neither learn nor have the conditions to learn.

That is his ability to calculate and his knowledge.

He can also expand his profits through bartering, taking advantage of the price differences from the vagrants.

To be honest, from the beginning, after not long of interacting with the vagrants, Ning Weimin discovered their significant lack of knowledge.

Most of them have never been to school and have a particularly poor understanding of non-ferrous metals.

They can't distinguish between raw and processed aluminum, nor do they understand the differences between brass and purple copper.

Let alone tin, lead, and zinc.

For various metal parts mixed together, such as valves, gears, bushings, and door handles, they often can't identify the material or know which parts are copper.

They only know that copper locks, copper wires, cables, and electromagnets contain copper.

This provides a huge loophole for others to exploit, causing them significant losses.

Ning Weimin once accompanied the vagrants to their scrap selling place, a recycling station two kilometers away in the eastern suburbs.

Perhaps because the vagrants prefer the shorter distance or are a bit afraid to enter the city, they always visit this one station.

Over time, the people at the eastern suburbs recycling station have become familiar with the vagrants' situation.

They began to bully the "country bumpkins" for their lack of knowledge, taking advantage of them without mercy.

Whatever the vagrants bring, the recycling station deliberately underweights it.

They also often tamper with the magnets, claiming copper parts are cast iron.

Or, when the vagrants are not paying attention, they secretly steal the copper.

Yes, the recycling station buys at the official price.

But there are still significant price discrepancies.

For example, they give the vagrants the lowest price for aluminum and copper, without distinguishing between raw and processed aluminum, brass, and purple copper.

However, most of the copper the vagrants find is industrial-grade purple copper from factory waste.

The price difference is significant.

And these price differences ultimately end up in private pockets.

Clearly, while the recycling station is state-owned, it is not immune to the lure of money.

In short, everyone at the recycling station likely has issues.

They probably have black hearts, treating the vagrants as their cash cows, colluding to exploit them long-term.

So, despite witnessing everything that day, Ning Weimin kept it all to himself and did not speak out.

He is not foolish; exposing the truth would bring him no benefit and only create unnecessary enemies.

Why bother?

On the contrary, the vagrants' lack of education is also an opportunity for him to fish in troubled waters.

He can use his advantages to "intercept" the goods before the recycling station.

Thus, since that day, he quietly left and began to ponder how to maximize his benefits.

This cannot be done recklessly; he needs to consider two main points.

First, he cannot directly buy the copper from the vagrants to resell for profit.

Otherwise, they will become suspicious.

If the vagrants discover the significant price difference for copper, even their fear of entering the city will likely be overcome by the lure of money.

Then there will be no future...

Second, he must avoid arousing suspicion from the recycling station staff.

This means he cannot take all the benefits for himself.

He must leave some for the recycling station staff to continue their usual practices.

After all, cutting off someone's income is like killing their parents.

People who are used to easy money are particularly unwilling to let others interfere with their profits.

Safety first, a steady stream is best...

In short, Ning Weimin has been silently calculating and weighing his options.

Because he needs to find the most suitable method to earn a stable income, he has delayed until today to begin his actions.