Chapter 828: This Is the Largest Single Income of the Year

Three days before Li Long went to Beiting for a meeting.

Jia Jia Tianlong called the Supply and Marketing Cooperative the day before to find Li Long, saying he would come this morning to collect medicinal herbs.

Zhou Yuan had come yesterday afternoon to notify Li Long personally, which made Li Long feel somewhat embarrassed. After all, the man was a proper Section Chief, yet he acted like Li Long's errand boy every day; so when Zhou Yuan left, Li Long went to the kitchen and fetched two strips of air-dried yellow sheep meat for him.

Quite a few strips of air-dried meat were now hanging in his own kitchen, all slowly accumulated over time. This stuff, rubbed with salt and air-dried, could be kept in baskets covered with steamer cloth; because of the heavy salting, it did not attract insects or flies and could be stored for a long time.

Zhou Yuan left cheerfully carrying the meat. He did not lack for it, but Li Long taking the initiative to give it meant something? It meant their relationship was solid.

In front of Li Long, Zhou Yuan never put on the airs of a Section Chief—as the favorite of the Supply and Marketing Cooperative directors at both the prefecture and county levels, Li Long wielded considerable influence. If Zhou Yuan really tried to pull rank on him, he would never have become a Section Chief in the first place.

Since Jia Jia Tianlong was coming, Li Long naturally had to prepare well; he had originally planned to go into the mountains again today, but postponed that until the afternoon—waiting until after Jia Jia Tianlong departed.

A little past noon, Jia Jia Tianlong arrived with a truck—the same one as last time, driven by the same silent driver.

The truck drove into the courtyard; Li Long closed the gate, and upon getting out of the vehicle, Jia Jia Tianlong's first act was to apologize to Li Long:

"Xiao Long, let me tell you, I'm truly sorry this time. I should have come a week ago, but as you know, I'm responsible for purchasing medicinal herbs across this entire northern frontier region. Right now, the state-run purchasing stations in our various counties have been dismantled, and in other counties, old acquaintances are operating on their own, constantly urging me to go collect their herbs; only after the payment for those goods arrived and was immediately hauled away could I come here."

"I understand, I understand," Li Long said with a smile. "It's perfectly normal. Old Jia, you're different from us; I'm only responsible for one county, so I can do as I please, but the area you cover is vast, so you certainly can't consider only my side."

Seeing Li Long's understanding, Jia Jia Tianlong was quite moved. After all, few people understood him; most others thought that as a boss, he was just putting on airs by delaying things.

As usual, Jia Jia Tianlong first went to offer incense before that piece of jade, then played briefly with Mingming and Haohao, before finally following Li Long into the side room to inspect the fritillaria and other medicinal herbs.

Sister Yang kept Mingming and Haohao entertained, preventing the two children from crawling out of the bed-truck.

Although not yet one year old, the two children's "naughty" nature was gradually revealing itself; that bed-truck could no longer satisfy their exploration and longing for this world, and they were constantly thinking about "escaping."

If the large truck hadn't come in, Li Long would have let the two children out; after all, the ground was paved with bricks, swept clean daily, so there was no harm in letting the children play on the ground and absorb some earth energy.

But now with the large truck present and needing to load goods, the two little ones would just have to endure some hardship for now.

The side room was mostly filled with various kinds of sacks.

"These are fritillaria; this entire section is dried, roughly one point three or four tons," Li Long said, pointing to the fritillaria. "This is licorice root, which you can recognize; this pile of sacks contains codonopsis, about four or five hundred kilograms; and this pile contains cynomorium, also over three hundred kilograms."

The cynomorium and licorice root were mainly purchased by the purchasing station; the bulk of the codonopsis came from inventory brought over by the Forestry Team, though the purchasing station had acquired some as well.

Jia Jia Tianlong went over to inspect the fritillaria first; he casually lifted a sack, untied the mouth, reached in to grab a handful for a look, and then sighed with emotion:

"Xiao Long, let me tell you, I've purchased medicinal herbs from five counties these past few days, and comparing them all, the quality of your fritillaria is the best. Those old fellows really have no principles; whatever state the goods were in when they collected them is exactly how they sold them to me, without any processing at all. There's lots of debris at the bottom of the sacks, mixed with dirt, and they don't even sieve it... Only your fritillaria looks pleasing to the eye."

"Hehe, if this stuff is processed cleaner, the price you give me will be better too," Li Long said with a smile. "Shall we look at the fritillaria first?"

"Good, let's weigh the fritillaria first, same as last time?"

"Naturally," Li Long nodded, turned, and walked out of the side room to prepare the platform scale and large flat baskets.

The process was the same as last time: Li Long and Jia Jia Tianlong poured the fritillaria into the flat baskets, inspected the quality, weighed it, and recorded the numbers; the driver did the heavy lifting, carrying, pouring, and packing the fritillaria.

Their movements were not slow.

Although the described process sounded complicated, it was actually very fast; a little over an hour later, the fritillaria weighing was complete.

"One thousand four hundred and eight kilograms," Jia Jia Tianlong added up the total. "And all Grade Special; at sixty-five yuan per kilogram, that's ninety-one thousand five hundred and twenty yuan..."

This was a huge figure, even larger than last time!

Then came the codonopsis, licorice root, and cynomorium, and finally several boxes of snow lotus.

Li Long had cleaned all these medicinal herbs very thoroughly; Jia Jia Tianlong took a brief look and quoted Li Long high prices. Codonopsis was twenty-seven yuan per kilogram, licorice root one yuan and fifty fen per kilogram, cynomorium two yuan per kilogram, and the snow lotus was at the previously agreed price of six yuan per flower, bought in bulk. These prices were all considerably higher than those offered by the Medicinal Materials Company.

The final total came to one hundred and five thousand yuan... just a little short, so Jia Jia Tianlong rounded it up to a neat figure.

"Xiao Long, let me tell you, this time I nearly brought my entire capital reserve for you," Jia Jia Tianlong said half-truthfully. "It was only after transporting the goods from those few counties back to the interior and collecting the payments that I dared to come here to buy your goods."

Li Long didn't quite believe it, of course responding with noncommittal laughter.

"Don't disbelieve me; let me tell you, among the four or five nearby counties, you have collected the most fritillaria. Although people in those other counties also took over the state-run purchasing stations to operate privately, and one was even the deputy station master of the original state-run station who resigned directly to start his own private purchasing station, even summing up their entire fritillaria season, the amount they collected doesn't equal what you have in this single batch!"

Li Long naturally knew exactly what was happening. Since he had partnered with the Forestry Team, the source of fritillaria was naturally abundant—nearly half of the fritillaria being sold came from the Forestry Team. Of course, the small wooden hut in the mountains also contributed significantly; over there, the purchase price was low, and the items exchanged themselves carried a certain profit margin.

So out of this one hundred and five thousand yuan, his profit was over sixty thousand.

This money had come really too easily.

Not to mention in this era, even thirty or forty years later in his previous life, sixty thousand yuan was no small sum; the annual dividends from the land he had invested in the cooperative were only around one hundred thousand, weren't they?

In such a short time, the net profit was already sixty thousand?

This was the 1980s!

Li Long waited for Jia Jia Tianlong to hand over stack after stack of cash; after counting it clearly, he planned to deposit most of this money as soon as possible after Jia Jia Tianlong left.

"Alright, having purchased these goods from you, my cash reserves are now bottomed out; this time I can finally rest easy..." Jia Jia Tianlong himself let out a sigh of relief.

"Then let's rest for a while; later I'll have Sister Yang cook, and we can have a few drinks," Li Long said with a smile.

"No, no," Jia Jia Tianlong waved his hand. "Xiao Long, to be honest, I'm still pressed for time and need to get these medicinal herbs to Wucheng as soon as possible. The railcars I contacted on my end are scheduled to depart today, so I won't be staying here; next time I come, we'll properly share a drink together."

"But it's mealtime now; you at least have to eat," Li Long said. "It's too late to cook at home; let's go to the canteen to eat, and then you can leave?"

"No, no, we'll leave right now and eat after reaching Wucheng," Jia Jia Tianlong insisted on leaving. "Really, there's no need, Xiao Long; our relationship has reached this level, so I won't stand on ceremony with you; I'm truly pressed for time..."

Li Long then stopped pressing the matter. He went over, opened the main gate, and watched as Jia Jia Tianlong's truck departed; Jia Jia Tianlong even leaned his head out from the passenger side to wave at Li Long.

After the truck turned the corner and disappeared, Li Long turned back into the courtyard, where Sister Yang had already let Mingming and Haohao out of the bed-truck; the two children were holding onto the edge of the bed-truck, tentatively trying to walk sideways.

The little lambs occasionally hopped over, jumping up and down to play with them.

Jun Wa Zi had been taken by Li Long to Old Ma's place—these fellows were growing too fast and had already developed a fighting spirit, making them unsuitable as playmates for the children.

Li Long took that bundle of money, put it away inside the house, planning to deposit it in the afternoon. It was not suitable to keep too much cash in the house; now that he had a purchasing station, maintaining a certain cash flow there was more reasonable.

At lunch, Li Long told Gu Gu Bo Yuan that Jia Jia Tianlong had come; Gu Gu Bo Yuan smiled and said:

"That's perfect, I can rest assured now. There are still over two hundred kilograms of fritillaria at the purchasing station, both dried and fresh. When you have time, bring them over here to process them; make sure they're ready before the next sale."

Currently, there was considerable foot traffic at the purchasing station, with people coming every day to sell things; Gu Gu Bo Yuan was busily occupied with this alone and simply had no time to process those medicinal herbs.

"Alright, I'll go over this afternoon to bring them back," Li Long said.

But just after finishing the meal, before Gu Gu Bo Yuan and Gu Gu Xiaoxia had even left, someone else arrived.

Li Long went to open the door, and outside was Zhao Hui, which surprised Li Long somewhat.

"Hey, Boss Zhao, what a rare guest," Li Long reacted quickly, smiling as he welcomed the man in. "Old Jia and I were just talking about you this morning; come in, come in!"

Upon hearing Li Long's form of address, Gu Gu Bo Yuan, who was pushing his bicycle and preparing to head out, immediately knew who this person was.

Li Long introduced Zhao Hui to Gu Gu Bo Yuan; realizing Zhao Hui was an elder of Li Long's, Zhao Hui hurriedly greeted Gu Gu Bo Yuan and then offered him a cigarette.

Gu Gu Bo Yuan accepted the cigarette, listened to them chat for a few moments, then said he needed to go to the acquisition station before pushing his bicycle away.

"My father-in-law is helping me watch the acquisition station," Li Long explained. "There are quite a few people there every day now; we can't be short-handed."

"That's a good thing," Zhao Hui said with a smile. "With the acquisition station, it's much more convenient for you to gather these supplies. I came this trip to see how much fur stock you have here; if there's a lot, I'll hire a truck to haul it away."

"There are about two or three hundred hides," Li Long said. "Now that spring has passed, the quality of the pelts isn't as good as before, but with the acquisition station, we can still collect quite a few."

For ordinary pelts, such as sheepskin or rabbit skin, Li Long stored only a portion before transporting the rest to the county leather factory; what he kept were all high-quality hides like argali sheepskin and red deer skin. Although these were spring pelts, not as good as winter ones, they accumulated little by little, and furthermore, the prices for these wild animal hides were inherently high; even if inferior to winter pelts, the price drop wasn't significant.

"There are that many?" Zhao Hui hadn't expected this. "Then I truly miscalculated; if I'd known earlier, I would have brought a vehicle."

Sister Yang brought water over for Zhao Hui; at this moment, Gu Gu Xiaoxia and Han Fang were just preparing to head out.

Zhao Hui had seen Gu Gu Xiaoxia and the others before, having greeted them when he first entered the door. After they left, Sister Yang watched over Mingming and Haohao, while Li Long took Zhao Hui to the side room to inspect the furs.

In the row of side rooms on the east, two rooms stored medicinal herbs, one room held the furs, and another contained miscellaneous items—specifically those things Li Long considered relatively valuable: unfinished tiger bones, tiger bone wine being steeped, and wines infused with argali sheep heads, ibex heads, and ibex blood brought back from the mountains were all kept here.

As soon as the side room door opened, a pungent, fishy, stinking odor of wild animals rushed straight at their faces.

Even Li Long couldn't stand the smell, yet Zhao Hui felt not the slightest discomfort; he stepped forward to examine the three stacks of furs arranged there.

"This side consists of intact pelts, this side has pelts with slight damage, and this side holds damaged remnants," Li Long introduced them one by one.

The middle category, those with slight damage, was the most numerous, making up the bulk. There were about thirty or forty intact pelts, including argali sheepskin, red deer skin, and wild goat skin.

Spring pelts hardly carry any down, whereas winter pelts do, which is why winter pelts are more expensive.

These furs had not been tanned; they had only undergone simple preservation treatment by rubbing salt on them, so currently they were all stiff boards, nothing like the softness of finished products.

Zhao Hui briefly flipped through the intact pelts, then went to inspect the other two stacks.

"Not bad; the furs are well preserved," Zhao Hui said after finishing his inspection. He clapped his hands, and Li Long led him to the hand-pump well to wash up, casually closing the side room door as he did so.

Mainly, the smell was too overpowering; he feared it might overwhelm the two children.

After washing his hands, Zhao Hui shook off the water droplets and said:

"Comrade Xiao Li, you have quite a number of furs here; I need to go hire a vehicle first. How about we come back this afternoon to load them?"

"Sure thing; how is the price for the furs calculated?" Li Long asked the crucial question.

"Spring pelts aren't comparable to winter ones. These furs vary in size, so basically each pelt is priced differently," Zhao Hui said.

"Let's use an example," Li Long said, feeling that this Zhao Hui wasn't as sharp in business as Jia Jia Tianlong. "What's the price for an intact red deer pelt? What about an intact argali sheep pelt?"

Although they had already done business once before, Li Long felt it was better to clarify everything to avoid haggling over accounts later.

"For an adult red deer intact pelt without issues, my acquisition price for spring pelts is seventy yuan; for an adult argali sheep, it's sixty," Zhao Hui said after thinking for a moment. "If the pelt is smaller, the price will be lower. Of course, current prices have risen somewhat compared to last year; do you find this acceptable?"

"This price is acceptable; then go hire the vehicle, and I'll wait for you here," Li Long nodded.

This price was slightly higher than that of the county leather factory. Indeed, as Zhao Hui had said, currently all kinds of supplies changed price every year; if this year's spring pelt prices were roughly equal to last year's winter pelt prices, then by year's end, winter pelt prices would also rise somewhat.

The county leather factory's acquisition price for adult red deer pelts currently ranged from fifty-five to sixty yuan for spring pelts, which was not as high as what Zhao Hui offered.

Hearing Li Long's decision to sell, Zhao Hui was also quite happy; with these two or three hundred furs, after buying and reselling them, he could earn at least five thousand yuan. Even after deducting transport costs, the remainder was still substantial.

Zhao Hui picked up his bag and went out; instead of hiring a vehicle first, he went to the bank to withdraw money. He was different from Jia Jia Tianlong. Jia Jia Tianlong's purpose was obvious—he came specifically to haul away Li Long's fritillaria bulbs; he also knew Li Long had quite a lot of fritillaria, enough to fill a truck, so he had withdrawn the money beforehand.

Zhao Hui had gone north to handle matters first and had already shipped one truckload of furs away; coming here was merely a side visit, yet he hadn't expected Li Long to give him a small surprise as well. Since he hadn't prepared cash in advance, he had to withdraw it temporarily.

After withdrawing the money, he went to the transport company to coordinate the vehicle arrangements, then returned to Li Long's place.

Li Long had already asked Sister Yang to take the two children inside the house; it was precisely their nap time, which conveniently allowed them to avoid that overwhelming odor.

Zhao Hui inspected the furs with great care; he examined every single one closely, checking for tears, assessing fur color and quality, and looking for any signs of splicing.

As he inspected, he explained to Li Long:

"Most of these furs were collected by you from the acquisition station, right? Let me tell you, some people are incredibly skilled at forging nowadays; they splice half-hides together, and if you don't look carefully, it's easy to be deceived."

"The furs didn't all come from the acquisition station," Li Long interjected. "Some were brought directly from the mountains; some are winter pelts, which you should be able to recognize."

"Mm, indeed; this pelt here is a winter pelt, and winter pelts are more expensive," Zhao Hui said. He was quite knowledgeable in this area; even if it were a winter pelt, he would point it out. Li Long guessed he might have been deceived by spliced pelts before. However, here in Northern Xinjiang, that was highly unlikely, because currently resources were quite abundant, making such deception unnecessary.

"Add five yuan for red deer winter pelts, and the same for argali sheep," Zhao Hui said, inspecting the furs while recording them in his notebook, showing each entry to Li Long as he wrote it.

This Zhao Hui was simply more cautious and meticulous in business; his style was completely different from Jia Jia Tianlong's.

Li Long watched and silently made comparisons. Actually, everyone has their own characteristics; it's not about who is better, but rather about differing personalities.

For every pelt Zhao Hui inspected, he quoted a price, asked Li Long to confirm it, and then had the hired driver load the pelt onto the truck.

Although the quantity of furs was far less than that of the fritillaria bulbs, after all this back-and-forth, it took over two hours to completely empty the side room of its furs.

Li Long simply left the side room door open, lit some hygiene incense inside to fumigate the area, and let the smell change.

"In total, there are two hundred and seventy-eight furs; adding up these prices comes to eleven thousand, eight hundred and thirty yuan," Zhao Hui said, holding up the notebook for Li Long to see.

"No problem; that's exactly the figure," Li Long said. He had already added up the numbers himself earlier; it was correct.

"Alright then, I'll pay now; I'll write a receipt, and you sign it, okay?"

"Sure." Li Long naturally had no objections.

Compared to the amount for the fritillaria, this sum was much smaller, feeling like only one-tenth, but it was still a substantial amount. At this time, it could buy two tractors—oh, wait, perhaps two couldn't be bought anymore; reportedly, the price of small four-wheel tractors had also risen.

Li Long thought this while counting the money.

After a whole morning and afternoon, completing two rounds of business, the household's inventory was more than half empty. There was still some undried fritillaria left, but not much.

The amount of money coming in was truly considerable; it counted as the largest single sum since his rebirth.

Worth celebrating! (End of Chapter)