Chapter 875: Otherwise, not raising the price would be a disservice to our hard work!

"I haven't received any sabers." Li Long's thoughts raced, but there was no change in his expression. "To be honest, this set of horse gear was sold by several people; after they were sold to me, I pieced them together myself. I don't know if it's correct. Those people didn't bring any sabers, and I don't know if there are any."

"That's really a pity." Ye Quanfeng didn't see any change in Li Long's expression and was somewhat disappointed. "Among these things you have here, I only took a fancy to this set of horse gear.

If I'm not mistaken, this set of horse gear should be something used by the nobility of nomadic peoples. If one really checks, perhaps it also has a documented lineage.

It's a pity it's incomplete without a saber. If there were a matching saber, I could give you five thousand yuan for this set; without a saber, I can only give you one thousand."

"Then forget it." Li Long waved his hand and said, "I spent eight hundred and sixty just piecing these things together. I definitely won't sell it for one thousand."

When he said this, Ye Quanfeng was also somewhat surprised. He looked at the gold-inlaid horse gear seriously again, and then he discovered that there were indeed inscriptions on the large pieces of the horse gear.

It really did have a lineage.

He had misjudged—of course, one couldn't say he misjudged; he came with a purpose, using the horse gear as a pretext to speak out, and he hadn't looked at the horse gear seriously.

This set of horse gear had a story!

Seeing this, Ye Quanfeng really had the intention to acquire this horse gear.

"Then, Brother Li, speak honestly, for how much will you let this set of horse gear go?" Ye Quanfeng thought to himself that Li Long was also a blockhead; who would really reveal their bottom line?

"Ten thousand." Li Long said, "If it's ten thousand, you can take it."

"What? Ten thousand? You're really greedy!" Wen Chaozong outside couldn't help but say, "This thing isn't entirely made of pure gold; you're asking for a sky-high price?"

"This set of things has an owner." Li Long said with a smile, "Although I don't know much, I know that things with an owner should be sold for a higher price. This thing itself was scattered pieces, and I had a hard time piecing them together; that was my luck.

Since I have such good luck, if I sell it cheaply, then God won't give me such good luck again."

Li Long had always felt that his luck was good. He relied on good luck to get rich, and he also relied on good luck to lead the people in the team to make money, and even to make the small tribe of Halimu live better.

He hadn't used this good luck casually; if he really sold it cheaply, he felt he would be doing a disservice to himself.

Upon hearing this, Ye Quanfeng was stunned; this was the first time he had heard such a reason.

"Since Brother Li is so persistent, then forget it; it means I have no fate with these things." Ye Quanfeng wasn't a sucker. If he were picking up leaks, he could spend money, but as a middleman, he wasn't buying it for collection. He didn't think this thing was worth ten thousand yuan.

Looking around again, not a single deal was made, and neither side had any expression of regret. Buying and selling was like this; it didn't mean it had to be done. After all, everyone's money was real money, especially when the price was high; one had to be cautious about how to spend it.

Ye Quanfeng and Wen Chaozong didn't buy anything. Li Long insisted on treating them to a meal, but the two refused and left.

The business didn't go through. Li Long saw that it was almost twelve o'clock, so he greeted Gu Bo Yuan and returned to the large courtyard. Sister Yang still had to cook, and he had to go watch Mingming and Haohao.

After lunch, Mingming and Haohao slept, and Gu Xiaoxia and the others went to work. After Sister Yang finished her work, Li Long drove the Jeep to the Fourth Production Team.

Gu Xiaoxia and Gu Bo Yuan both knew about the watermelon seed matter, so they basically didn't ask what Li Long was doing.

Li Long drove the Jeep first to the nearest house, Xie Yun Dong's.

Xie Yun Dong and his wife were pressing watermelon seeds in the courtyard. They had soaked the watermelon seeds for a whole night yesterday, and today they mainly had to press the soaked ones flat.

"Brother Xie Yun Dong, can they be pressed flat?" Li Long asked in the courtyard after getting out of the Jeep.

"Yes, yes, it's very easy to press, easier to press than the fresh ones taken out of the watermelon before." Xie Yun Dong said while pressing.

The tool for pressing watermelon seeds was a large flat board with another board on top; two people pulled an iron roller back and forth on top—this thing couldn't be done with a tractor; it was mainly because it was too small.

Li Long thought to himself that if they did it this way, he would have to pave the courtyards of his home and his eldest brother's home with cement before autumn this year. Once leveled, it would be convenient to press watermelon seeds; just put them on the ground with a board on top, and there would be no need to sandwich them between two boards.

Li Long looked at the several large wire screens on the flower wall in the middle of the courtyard, all of which had pressed watermelon seeds on them. A rough estimate was that there were two or three sacks.

It seemed the efficiency was quite good; ten sacks should be finished in two or three days.

"Brother Xie Yun Dong, you two are amazing; you've done so much in just half a day." Li Long grabbed a handful of watermelon seeds and squeezed them in his hand; he could feel they were more than half dry. They should be completely dry by dark.

"Hehe, making money, so naturally there's strength." Xie Yun Dong said with a smile, "This money is so easy to make, Little Long, you won't lose money, right?"

"Rest assured, I won't lose money." Li Long waved his hand. "There's money to be made."

Getting them from the prefecture at two yuan per kilogram, even if sold at two-fifty, there was still money to be made. And the freight plus the money for pressing them flat, converted, was less than two-twenty. In other words, for these ten tons of watermelon seeds, Li Long could conservatively earn three thousand yuan.

He didn't want to earn only three thousand yuan—if the other party came and only offered two-fifty after seeing these pressed watermelon seeds, then Li Long wouldn't plan to cooperate with this person again. It was meaningless.

Leaving Xie Yun Dong's house, Li Long went to Tao Daqiang's house.

Tao Daqiang, Tao Jian She, and Yang Pingping were all working. Their family had pressed more watermelon seeds flat; Li Long saw at least four sacks worth drying.

More people meant greater strength!

Seeing Li Long come, Tao Daqiang hurriedly stopped his work and went to pour water for Li Long. The child was playing with a cloth doll at the door of the room; this cloth doll looked like it was sewn by hand in the countryside.

Li Long grabbed a large handful of White Rabbit creamy candies from the Jeep and brought them over to give to the child.

He had bought these creamy candies from the Wucheng Department Store; every family had children, and he kept them in the car, just in case of such situations.

"Hey, Brother Little Long, what kind of candy is this?" Yang Pingping called him Brother Little Long, following Tao Daqiang, and asked, "It looks quite pretty."

"Creamy candy, bought in Wucheng, quite famous, produced in Shanghai, very delicious." Li Long explained and said, "You guys are fast; you can finish this work tomorrow, right?"

"Almost." Tao Jian She stopped his work and said with a smile, "This work went smoothly last year; we have many people."

After finishing, he glanced at his granddaughter who was eating the creamy candy and sighed slightly. If only it were a grandson, that would be great.

It was a pity that the policy didn't allow for another one immediately; otherwise, he would have to make his son work harder no matter what.

At this time, some people were still quite obsessed with having grandsons.

After Li Long drank water at the Tao family's, he walked to a few more houses and had a general idea.

Based on the current situation, if they followed this model, they could process at least three tons a day; this was with ten families working together. If they expanded it and had twenty families doing it, they could process over five tons—this was mainly considering that some families didn't plant watermelons last year, didn't have suitable tools at home, and hadn't done this before, so they needed a process to become skilled.

If this business deal went through and they continued to do it next, they could expand it. If it were forty tons, they could finish it in less than ten days.

Of course, the premise was that the price could be increased; otherwise, there was no need to do it. This thing was just icing on the cake for him; it didn't earn as much as selling dried mushrooms once. If it weren't for the task from the Prefecture Federation, Li Long wouldn't plan to touch this.

But right now, it looked like there was still some hope. If they could open up this channel and the price was okay, then the team could continue to plant watermelons, and he could also collect them.

Li Long went to the Li family to chat with his father and mother for a while, listened to his eldest brother talk about the plan to recycle watermelon seeds, and then returned to the county. Tomorrow, he would come over early to collect the watermelon seeds with his eldest brother.

The collection of watermelon seeds the next day also went very smoothly; families sent the watermelon seeds over one after another. Because they were all acquaintances, knew each other well, and were reliable, the quality was beyond question; otherwise, they wouldn't be able to show their faces. Some even winnowed the watermelon seeds after pressing them flat, blowing away the shriveled seeds.

Although the weight was a bit lighter, the quality had gone up. Li Long grabbed a handful and looked at it; he was very satisfied. After processing, these watermelon seeds were no worse than the ones he sold to the roasted goods factory the year before last.

If the other party still insisted on buying these watermelon seeds at two-fifty, then forget it!

On the third day, all the watermelon seeds were pressed, and then Li Jianguo and the others drove tractors to transport the watermelon seeds to the acquisition station.

The news Jia Tianlong gave was very accurate. The day after Li Long brought the watermelon seeds back, Jia Tianlong accompanied the boss who came from the interior to buy watermelon seeds and arrived in Maxian.

Guests from afar should be treated well. Li Long treated these three guests to a meal at Tuanfeng Tower—that's right, besides Jia Tianlong, there were two people who came to see the watermelon seeds. Of course, these two people were from the same family, one master and one assistant, similar to Ye Quanfeng and Wen Chaozong who came to see antiques earlier.

"Comrade Li is young and promising." The main guest among them was over forty and close to fifty, lean, about 1.7 meters tall and weighing only about 50 kilograms, looking like a clothes hanger. His hair was quite thick, and his nose was quite large. Don't look at how thin he was; his voice was full of energy:

"At first, when Little Jia told me, I didn't quite believe it. After meeting, I could see it—Comrade Li is no ordinary person!"

Li Long said modestly: "Not at all, not at all. Compared to you and Manager Dong, I am a junior and have many places to learn."

Just polite words, everyone knew how to say them.

This person was named Dong Zhi Chao, 48 years old, his zodiac year this year. He was the deputy manager of the procurement department of a large roasted goods factory in the interior. The twenty-something-year-old girl who came with him was named Ye Lanlan, a procurement officer in the procurement department.

This combination was a bit strange. Although Li Long had some other thoughts, he didn't delve into them; he mainly wanted to see what these two would think of his watermelon seeds. (End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 876 =====