Chapter 70: Large procurement for the mountains

This time, Li Long took Tao Daqiang to the Old Street Station first.

Approaching the New Year, the flow of people here in Old Street had obviously increased a lot. Cars stopped at the station one after another, like iron monsters spitting out people one by one, and then picking up people one by one and whistling away.

Li Long, like last time, carried the urea bag on his back and asked people when he met them:

"Fellow villager, do you want fish? Fresh large carp, grass carp, caught yesterday, the price is cheap!"

The script was very simple, but it was really useful when said more. Out of ten people, one or two always wanted to see Li Long's fish, and among these people who were watching, one out of four or five always wanted to buy.

After selling more than twenty fish here, Li Long transferred to the agricultural machinery factory family courtyard again.

The first time he sold fish in Shicheng was here, so Li Long was familiar with the road. What surprised him was that the gatekeeper grandpa actually recognized him:

"Young man, you haven't come to sell fish for a while, is it still that price?"

"Yeah, grandpa, do you want one?"

"Alright, give me a five-striped fish!"

Li Long laughed:

"Grandpa knows his stuff, this fish meat is delicious."

"That's right, when I was young, I also caught fish in the Ma River, I definitely know which fish is delicious."

After picking a large five-striped fish for the gatekeeper grandpa, Li Long collected two yuan, carried the bag, and entered the family courtyard.

As usual, he spread out the plastic sheet and laid the fish out one by one. Before he finished taking out the fish, someone came over to ask for the price.

Some people had bought them and knew that the fish Li Long sold were indeed fresh, not the kind of soft "expired fish" after thawing, so they came over as soon as Li Long set up the stall.

Some people hadn't bought them and just wanted to ask, but when the people next to them said something, they decided to buy a fish.

What Li Long didn't expect was that just in the two places of Old Street and the agricultural machinery factory, all the fish he brought were sold out.

Even the crucian carp didn't remain. A hunchbacked old lady wanted ten kilograms of crucian carp and said she would freeze them and eat them slowly—this fish is delicious, the soup is milky white, and it's fragrant when stewed.

Really knows her stuff.

From this moment on, Li Long felt that life was slowly getting better, and everyone could afford fish for the New Year.

Carrying the one hundred and five yuan he just got, Li Long and Tao Daqiang drove the carriage back. At this time, the sun hadn't reached noon.

Today the fish sold relatively quickly, Li Long hummed a song, took out a five-yuan note, and handed it to Tao Daqiang:

"Daqiang, take it, you also need to buy some New Year goods."

"Dragon brother, I still owe five yuan from last time..." Tao Daqiang didn't take it.

"Take it first." Li Long said, "I'm going to the mountains tomorrow, and after I come back, we still have to sell fish two more times. There are quite a lot of people who want to buy fish before the New Year, we'll earn two more trips. You buy some New Year goods first and take them back, and let your dad be happy too."

Tao Daqiang took the money, his mood a bit complicated.

The two drove the carriage to the county town, Li Long first went to the supply and marketing cooperative.

"You watch the carriage first, I'll buy some things, and then we'll go to the department store."

"Alright." Tao Daqiang had no objections.

Li Long entered the supply and marketing cooperative store and started purchasing. This trip was mainly to buy things for Halimu and Yushanjiang. He bought five axes for chopping wood, Li Long wanted one for himself, and the remaining two were for Halimu and Yushanjiang, two each. He also bought quite a lot of saws, ropes, plastic sheets, sickles, and a mattock (a kind of farm tool similar to a hoe but with a round head).

After buying these things, Li Long calculated that it cost a total of thirty-four yuan. Not much.

It was far from the value of that piece of jade.

Li Long thought about going to the black market to buy some grain before going to the mountains tomorrow, and that would be fine.

Seeing Li Long buy so many things, Tao Daqiang was also a bit surprised.

"Friends in the mountains need them, they helped me a lot, so I'll bring them some things." Li Long explained, and Tao Daqiang understood, feeling in his heart that Dragon brother was truly loyal.

Going to the department store, Li Long let Tao Daqiang go buy things first. Tao Daqiang walked around inside for a long time holding the five yuan, and only bought half a kilogram of fruit hard candy, and some peanuts—this had to be set out for the New Year, and also bought two bottles of canned food and two bags of granulated sugar, which were intended to be prepared for visiting relatives.

After Tao Daqiang came out, Li Long went in again.

There were quite a few people in the department store, and Li Long found that some new goods had arrived, and there was also fruit for sale.

Li Long then remembered that his sister-in-law seemed to have put those fruits in the idle room, intending to eat them during the New Year. Although the nephew and niece were greedy, they hadn't taken any.

So he bought two kilograms of frozen persimmons—this kind of millstone persimmon was still rare here. And two kilograms of apples—at this time, Aksu apples weren't as famous as Ili apples.

!.

Fruit was considered a rare item at this time, especially in winter. In summer, there were families in the team who grew hairy peaches, crabapples, plums, etc., and there could be pears, melons, and tomatoes in the fields, but there was really nothing in winter. Some families had good preservation technology and could store melons (the mother melon of black flat melon seeds, similar to watermelon, but the melon pulp is not very sweet) until winter to eat as fruit, which was already very rare.

Fruit was scarce, so it was naturally expensive. One kilogram of frozen persimmons was one yuan five, and one kilogram of apples was one yuan two, the same price as meat.

Coming out of the department store, when the two were driving the carriage preparing to go home, passing by the grain store, Li Long found that the notice board outside wrote "To celebrate the Spring Festival, this store sells a batch of special-priced grain, no grain coupons needed," and immediately let Tao Daqiang stop the carriage and tie it well, and he excitedly entered the grain store.

"How is the special-priced grain sold?"

"Rice is six mao eight, flour is four mao five." Two sales clerks were chatting, and without looking at Li Long, they directly reported the price.

"Give me one hundred kilograms of rice and one hundred kilograms of flour." Li Long opened his mouth.

"What?" The sales clerk was startled!

There were quite a few people buying special-priced grain in the past two days, but they were all buying three or five kilograms, where was there anyone buying by the hundred kilograms?

How much is one hundred kilograms? The largest flour bag now was twenty-five kilograms, four large bags!

"One hundred kilograms of rice and one hundred kilograms of flour, you wouldn't have insufficient stock, would you?" Li Long asked, seeing the sales clerk not speaking.

"Enough, of course enough, but you said you really want to buy so much?" The sales clerk confirmed again.

"Of course it's true." Li Long said with a smile, in this day and age, it was publicly sold without grain coupons, even if it was old grain, he would admit it.

Don't say, it really was old grain, and it was more expensive than the flat-priced grain.

But no coupons needed!

When the eight bags of rice and flour were put on the carriage, all the money Li Long sold fish for today was used, and he even added some.

But he was happy!

At least the family and the mountains wouldn't have to eat coarse grain for a short time! But he couldn't buy too much, grain was easy to get damp during the transition between winter and spring, so he would just continue to buy after spring.

Covering the rice and flour with a plastic sheet, driving the carriage, happily rushing home, Li Long was already humming a song.

And Tao Daqiang followed behind enviously, thinking to himself when he could be like Dragon brother, spending money so generously!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 71 =====