The expression representing the total price, in dollars, Malik pays for all the fruit in the baskets is
30x + 24y
The new expression that he created is (5x + 4y)
the first number(outside the bracket) was smeared. By relating both expressions, we can see that the first expression was factorized by dividing each term inside the bracket by 6
30x/6 = 5x
24y/6 = 4y
Thus, the second expression would be
6(5x + 4y)
Thus, the number that was smeared is 6