Chapter 603: Leftover Issues from the Furniture Factory

When Li Long drove his tractor back into the county town, it was already past noon.

The sunlight was intense, yet Li Long felt only cold; at this time, the sun shining on one's body did not make one feel warm, as the perceived temperature was the kind that chills one to the bone.

Even though he wore his sheepskin coat inside out, Li Long felt as if he were nearly frozen through.

There were still two matters to attend to today: first, he needed to go to the Security Section of the Supply and Marketing Cooperative to request bullets, which required a slip signed by Li Xiang Qian.

The second matter was to visit the county's Woodenware Factory to see if there were any suitable small wooden tables.

For now, only Ha Li Mu and Brother Brother Yushanjiang's households needed them; other families already had kang tables, and since they had no school-going children, they had no need.

However, the most urgent task first took Li Long to the canteen, where he paid for a bowl of mixed noodles and specifically told the waitress:

"Bring me a bowl of noodle soup first!"

"Certainly, comrade, please wait a moment." The waitress's attitude was quite good today; of course, she had seen many people nearly frozen stiff like this.

At such a time, the best way to alleviate this cold that permeated from the inside out was a mouthful of hot soup.

Hu La soup would also work, but at this time, there was no authentic version available in Ma County.

Hot noodle soup would suffice as well.

The waitress brought a large porcelain bowl and placed it before Li Long, then lifted a teapot filled with noodle soup and poured a full bowl into it.

After thanking her, Li Long held the bowl and took a gentle sip.

The temperature was just right; evidently, many people came to eat noodles and drink noodle soup, so the staff had ladled out a full teapot in advance to keep it warm, simply scooping another ladle from the pot if it cooled down.

The noodle soup was quite thick, not the kind from boiling noodles once or twice, but seemingly from at least ten batches; in later generations, those with high blood sugar would not dare to drink it.

At present, however, it was an excellent "beverage"; after drinking half the bowl, Li Long felt warmth spreading from the inside out.

Drinking the remaining half after finishing the noodles would feel even better.

To his slight surprise, less than half a minute after he set the bowl down, the waitress spotted it during a break, lifted her pot, and came over to refill his bowl to the brim.

Oh?

He hadn't eaten at this canteen for a few days, yet the quality of service had clearly improved.

The previous attitude of indifference was gone.

With such proactive service, it was no wonder that although it was now past mealtime, there were still quite a few people eating here.

Come to think of it, initially people ate for the portion size, later for the quality, and eventually not just for quality but also for service.

In this era, portion sizes and quality were generally unquestionable, so with the improvement in service attitude, naturally more people came to eat.

When given a choice, everyone preferred to go where the attitude was good; no one liked seeing a waitress wearing a cold expression while eating.

When the noodles were served, the waitress even brought him two cloves of garlic, which made Li Long's experience feel even better.

After hastily finishing his meal and drinking most of the bowl of noodle soup, Li Long wiped his mouth, nodded to the waitress, and walked out the door.

Cranking the tractor, he drove off with a putter-putter-putter sound toward the Woodenware Factory.

The bullets were not urgent; anyway, someone was always on duty at the Security Section, so as long as he arrived before closing time, it would be fine.

If all else failed, there was still some stock at home, which would be enough to tide them over for a while.

The Woodenware Factory was located in Chengnan; basically, Chengnan and Chengbei were divided by the Wuyi Highway. There were no government offices in Chengnan; aside from residential houses along the road, small shops slowly opening up, auto repair shops, and the like, there were two schools and a few factories.

The Woodenware Factory stood beside the nursery; its enclosing wall was not high, and from the road, one could see many logs piled up inside.

Occasionally, people entered and exited, some hauling furniture, others hauling logs.

Li Long drove the tractor into the factory grounds; the gatekeeper merely glanced at the tractor's smokestack, and upon noticing it was relatively high, paid it no further mind.

If a tractor's smokestack pipe was not high enough, revving the engine would spit out sparks, which could easily ignite fires when flammable materials were present.

Therefore, reminders were issued at such times.

The model of tractor Li Long had purchased featured a high smokestack, which was a distinguishing characteristic; a higher smokestack made it less likely for sparks to escape, which was also an advantage.

He drove straight into the factory compound, observing as he went, until he spotted the workshop for finished products and turned toward it.

The main door here was open, and someone was inside making selections—though not in the sense of browsing freely; rather, customers stood outside the counter, pointing at items, while the staff inside would lift them out for inspection.

Li Long shut off the tractor's engine and went over to look.

Scanning the area, he found there were indeed small square tables, but they all looked quite ordinary; that bright yellow lacquer did not match well with households like Ha Li Mu's.

They seemed to prefer furniture in reddish-brown hues like black walnut, adorned with some ethnic patterns.

The person nearby was purchasing a high-low cabinet; after making their selection, they issued an invoice, paid, loaded it onto a horse-drawn cart, and departed.

Seeing Li Long looking around, a worker from the Woodenware Factory asked:

"Comrade, what kind of furniture do you need?"

Someone who could arrive driving a tractor naturally must not be short of money.

"Do you have those small square tables? The ones with ethnic characteristics." Li Long pointed to the four-sided small tables displayed at the side; such tables were typically placed in Han households' kitchens to serve as surfaces for placing items or for impromptu meals.

They could certainly be used, but Li Long thought he should try to get something better.

"Ethnic characteristics?" The factory worker thought for a moment and said:

"About the same size? Would slightly smaller be acceptable?"

"That works." Li Long was somewhat surprised; did they really have such things? He had only asked casually; if they didn't have any, he could buy these and then go to the Department Store Building to purchase two tablecloths with ethnic-patterned designs to cover them.

"I recall that there used to be an old Kazakh master craftsman in the factory who made a batch of such furniture. Since there are few ethnic minorities in our county, not many people bought them." That person pointed outside, so Li Long walked out.

This person followed him out, turned to lock the door, and said as they walked:

"After that batch of furniture was completed, the old master retired. The furniture was sold for a period; the large pieces were sold off intermittently, but since few people wanted the small pieces and quite some time had passed, they were stored in a small warehouse."

"Since it's been a long time, will there be any problems?" Li Long asked with some concern, "Having been stored for so long..."

"Rest assured, comrade; the furniture made in our factory is definitely of impeccable quality.

These items are meant to be used in homes for ten or even several decades; how could they break after just a few years of storage? If that were the case, wouldn't that ruin our factory's reputation?"

This comrade from the Woodenware Factory spoke with great confidence, which made Li Long unable to help but sigh with emotion.

In this era, people emphasized quality, credibility, and brand reputation; a single item was expected to last for ten or several decades.

An internet joke from a later era told of a domestic electric fan factory that went bankrupt precisely because its quality was too good; one fan had been used for over thirty years without breaking.

In that later era, whether furniture or home appliances, some were forcibly scrapped after just a few years, while others developed all sorts of problems after only a few years of use.

That later era valued many functions, valued good looks, valued brands, and valued celebrity endorsements.

As for quality, that was relegated to the back burner.

A comrade from the Woodware Factory opened the door to a small warehouse nearby, and Li Long saw small tables arranged inside, placed in pairs, one upright and one inverted.

Indeed, they were black walnut colored, featuring those winding, very attractive ethnic-style patterns.

Even the fixed supports along the edges of the table legs were decorated with patterns.

They were not very complex, but very good-looking.

Li Long counted them; there were six in total.

"How much for one table?" "You want one? One is eight yuan," that person said.

"Then what if I want all six? Counting it as a wholesale purchase, can you make it cheaper?" Li Long planned to take all six.

There would surely be people in the mountains who needed them.

He also saw cabinets with the same patterns, and wooden chests of the same color.

He planned to buy them all.

At that time, he would place them at the entrance of Ha Li Mu's home, and whoever wanted one could just take it away.

The worker from the Woodware Factory was somewhat surprised; he pointed at those tables and asked:

"You want them all?"

"Yes, not just these small tables, but those two cabinets and those two wooden chests as well; I want them all," Li Long replied.

Hey, this time they had encountered a real buyer!

This middle-aged man named Qi Qi Xinzhi became excited and immediately said:

"If you really want them, I will go ask the factory director for instructions and calculate a wholesale price for you... Wait a moment, I'll go find the director right now!"

"Don't rush yet; let me inspect the goods first," Li Long hurriedly called out to stop him.

Boom!

"Go ahead and look; I'll go find someone first!" Qi Qi Xinzhi waved his hand, signaling Li Long to go in and look by himself.

Li Long did not stand on ceremony; watching the other man run off into the distance, he entered the small warehouse himself.

There were only these ten items left in this small warehouse.

He first bent down and shook a small table, discovering it was indeed quite sturdy.

The warehouse floor was paved with red bricks, laid very flat; the small tables were also very stable, with no issue of the four legs being uneven in length.

Come to think of it, this was the County Woodware Factory after all; it was impossible for such a low-level mistake to occur.

The smell of paint on the tables had already vanished, completely dissipated long ago.

He wiped the dust off a table, and the wiped area appeared bright and new.

He curled his fingers and tapped it; the wooden board emitted a dull sound.

The texture should be quite good; the wood felt quite heavy.

Looking at the cabinets and chests again, the materials used were also very solid, with no wood splinters; the planed, scraped, and brushed areas were all very clean, and the workmanship was excellent.

They gave off a feeling of great skill appearing clumsy.

While Li Long was inspecting, he heard footsteps approaching from outside.

That Qi Qi Xinzhi had brought Factory Director He Chang Ming over.

"Comrade, do you really want all these pieces of furniture?" He Chang Ming was also somewhat surprised; these items had been made by the old masters in the factory and had been sitting there for quite some years. To throw them away was a pity, after all, money had been spent on the workmanship and materials.

But to sell them, there were only a few ethnic comrades buying furniture throughout the year, and no one took a liking to them.

Even if offered at a cheap internal price to the factory's own workers, no one wanted them; nowadays everyone wanted fashionable styles, comparable to Hu De Lu's, and truly very few people liked these old models.

If Li Long could really take them all away at once, it would indeed solve a major problem for them.

"Of course, provided the price is suitable," Li Long said.

"You are..." The factory director was also quite curious; what did this Han comrade want with so many pieces of ethnic-style furniture?

"I have friends in the mountains; they are ethnic comrades, and I am buying these for their use," Li Long did not hide the truth, stating the reason directly.

"Good, then if you want them all... I will charge you five yuan per table," the factory director said; he knew these items very well, as these pieces of furniture were actually made by his own master; the old master had retired, but one could not simply sell the items off cheaply, could one?

Selling them to a suitable person now would make everyone happy.

"Twenty yuan for each cabinet, and eighteen yuan for each chest; how does that sound?"

Thus, the small tables totaled thirty, the cabinets forty, and the chests thirty-six, amounting to one hundred and six in total.

Li Long was very satisfied, but out of habit, he added:

"Then, Factory Director, could you let me take some wood shavings? These pieces of furniture need something to cushion them in the vehicle, otherwise it wouldn't be good if they got knocked or bumped, right?"

"That is certainly no problem," Factory Director He said with a smile, as the Woodware Factory had plenty of sawdust and wood shavings; "You and Old Qi go issue the invoice and pay the money, and I will have someone load the vehicle for you; rest assured, we will load plenty of wood shavings for you."

By the time Li Long returned after issuing the invoice and paying the money, those tables and cabinets were already placed on the vehicle, tied securely with hemp rope, and the gaps in the truck bed were stuffed with wood shavings.

Li Long shook the ropes; feeling they were tied very tightly, he was reassured.

He drove the tractor back to his own large courtyard; at this time, Big Sister Yang had not yet returned from selling meals in the afternoon, and Han Fang was not there either, likely having gone along to help.

Li Long parked the tractor properly, covered the furniture with a plastic sheet, and then drained the water from the tractor.

After finishing these tasks, he rode his bicycle, carrying his satchel, and headed toward the Supply and Marketing Cooperative.

Upon arriving at the cooperative, Li Long discovered that everyone proactively greeted him; even by the time he reached Xiang Qian's office, he was still somewhat bewildered.

"They know you brought in good fish, don't they?" Xiang Qian resolved his confusion:

"The matter of the sewage fish has spread; three people in our cooperative were affected, and it is said that people in the Gongan Bureau and the Education Bureau were affected as well.

Fish in the market are hard to sell right now; everyone is worried. The fish for our New Year welfare were caught by you, and the sewage fish incident was exposed by you; since everyone can now eat safe fish, naturally they must acknowledge your kindness."

Li Long chuckled; so there was such an unexpected windfall.

"What brought you over this time?" Xiang Qian, knowing Li Long never visited without a purpose, took the initiative to ask.

"I went into the mountains this morning; a brother of mine was chased by a pack of wolves and nearly didn't make it back. I want to requisition some ammunition to go with them in a couple of days and clear out the wolf pack in the mountains."

Upon hearing this, Xiang Qian's eyes lit up, but then he shook his head.

He knew clearly that hunting in the mountains was not the same as driving a jeep to hunt gazelles; hunting wolves in the mountains was not only dangerous but also required excellent physical stamina.

With his own physique, his marksmanship was passable, but his stamina and endurance were no longer up to par; he could not compare to the young lads, and although he had the heart to join the fun, he truly lacked the strength.

"Alright, I'll write you a requisition slip... never mind, Director Wei has gone to the prefecture for a meeting; I'll write two slips for you. You speak with the Security Section Chief; let's treat it as separate requisitions. Requisition two hundred rounds of ammunition; will that be enough?"

"Enough, more than enough," Li Long nodded hastily.

"Very well." Xiang Qian took paper and pen from his drawer, wrote two slips, signed them, then stood up and walked outward.

When Li Long reached out to take the slips, Xiang Qian waved him off:

"I'll go with you, lest Old Hou comes running over to complain again."

Li Long obediently followed Xiang Qian to the Security Section.

Section Chief Hou was in his office, gluing together bullet casings; it appeared he intended to craft an ornament.

Looking at the base Hou had already glued, Li Long blindly guessed it was meant to be a tank.

"What are you looking at? What do you need?" Section Chief Hou set the bullet casings down on the desk and asked in an ill temper.

"Requisitioning ammunition. You're gluing these things yourself? Couldn't you just find someone to glue them for you?"

"My son wants them; how could I let someone else do the gluing?" While retorting at Xiang Qian, Section Chief Hou glanced at the slips. "Two hundred rounds?"

He turned his head to look at Li Long:

"Are you going into the mountains?"

"Mm, the wolf packs in the mountains are rampant; today they nearly tore my brother apart. They plan to clear out the wolf pack."

"Alright, Brother Lao Li, but don't make a habit of this."

That settled it. (End of chapter)