Chapter 876: If they really don't know what's good for them, then this business is not worth doing

At the dinner table, Dong Zhi Chao introduced everyone:

"Lanlan is my niece. This time she insisted on coming along to see the world... She graduated from high school, didn't pass the college entrance exam, and didn't want to go anymore. The factory is our own family's, so I think it's quite good for her to follow and work."

So it was a family business.

Li Long nodded and said with a smile:

"Reading ten thousand books and traveling ten thousand miles are both good methods. As long as they are used correctly, one can gain something."

"Hey, how well Comrade Little Li speaks!" Dong Zhi Chao said with a smile, "He's also a cultured person..."

"No, no, no, I'm a rough person." Li Long hurriedly waved his hand, "Come, come, come, please, please, please, try the specialty dishes of Northern Xinjiang."

Although it was midsummer, since guests had come from afar, Li Long still ordered heavy-flavored local and traditional dishes.

Hand-grabbed meat, large platter of lamb offal, spicy chicken, braised pork. At this time, innovative dishes like stir-fried barbecue hadn't appeared in restaurants yet, so they could only follow tradition.

"The taste of this lamb is really not bad." Dong Zhi Chao was someone who knew how to eat. After gnawing on a small rib, he wiped his hands with a paper napkin and praised, "It's been a long time since I've eaten such good lamb."

It's said that the sheep on the grassland are good, but many sheep on the grassland also have a gamey smell. If one wants to say the gamey smell is light, it must be sheep that have eaten grass on alkaline beaches.

So sometimes, don't have a filter for grassland sheep—it's true that the meat is good, but whether one can adapt is another matter.

Because they still had to talk about business, they didn't drink alcohol. Li Long could see that Jia Tianlong, accompanying Dong Zhi Chao and Ye Lanlan, basically didn't say much. It wasn't that his status was inferior to Dong Zhi Chao's, but rather that he felt he had a good relationship with both sides and it was hard to speak in the middle.

Li Long could naturally understand this; he himself didn't plan to rely on relationships, but rather on the product.

Li Long led the three people to the large courtyard of the acquisition station, passed by those who came to sell things, and went to the reception room in the backyard to sit down.

"You all sit first, I'll go get the things." Li Long waited for the three of them to sit down, and when Sun Jia Qiang brought the water, he went out.

When Li Long came in again, he was carrying a plate of watermelon seeds.

Dong Zhi Chao knew that the main event was coming.

Market competition in the interior was much more intense than in Northern Xinjiang. Their roasted goods factory had quite a few competitors in terms of raw material supply, market occupation, etc. There were local ones, and there were also ones from other places.

So when Jia Tianlong contacted him and said there were watermelon seeds for sale in Northern Xinjiang at a low price, Dong Zhi Chao was tempted. For many business people, this area of Northern Xinjiang was an unfamiliar region, and they basically didn't dare to get involved.

Dong Zhi Chao had been to Northern Xinjiang more than ten years ago and knew that the situation here wasn't what the public imagined, so he dared to bring people over to take a look.

Sure enough, even Ye Lanlan, who had been suspicious, had a change of perspective after experiencing it.

Right now, looking at that plate of watermelon seeds, she was quite curious.

"Come, try it, we roasted it ourselves." Li Long gestured to the three of them, and he himself grabbed a handful and started cracking them.

Ye Lanlan watched quite carefully. Li Long didn't throw the watermelon seed shells he cracked onto the ground, but placed them in a small pile on the table in front of him.

Hmm, quite well-mannered.

Dong Zhi Chao was somewhat curious about the meaning of Li Long giving this plate of seeds.

Wasn't the price already agreed upon?

He grabbed a handful and started cracking them, and then Ye Lanlan also grabbed two or three in her hand, but she didn't crack them directly; she observed them first.

Jia Tianlong was not polite at all; he grabbed a large handful and held it in his hand, cracking them.

With Li Long taking the lead, none of them threw the seed shells on the ground, but placed them on the table.

"Roasted quite fragrantly." Dong Zhi Chao cracked two or three and praised it.

Of course, the look of perfunctoriness was quite heavy.

Li Long asked with a smile:

"Did you bring your roasted watermelon seeds? If you did, give me some to try too."

Dong Zhi Chao was cracking seeds. Hearing Li Long's words, he shook his head and said: "Didn't bring any. We are procurement; we don't usually do promotion, so we didn't bring any."

Li Long was a bit disappointed. Only with comparison can there be harm... No, only then can one see the benefits of his watermelon seeds.

"I brought some." Ye Lanlan said softly, "I was afraid of being bored on the road, so I brought a few bags, and now there's... half a bag left."

"That's fine, take it out and let's try it." Li Long was overjoyed.

Ye Lanlan's face turned slightly red. She didn't want to appear as a gluttonous girl in front of Li Long. After all, from the current situation, this Li Long was capable. Girls were basically quite reserved in front of capable men and didn't want to expose their shortcomings, regardless of whether this man was married or not.

Ye Lanlan still took the bag of seeds from her own roasted goods factory out of her bag and placed it on the edge of the plate.

Li Long simply poured the half bag of seeds onto the table and then said to Dong Zhi Chao:

"Crack ten each, compare and see."

"What's there to compare, it's about the same." Dong Zhi Chao didn't usually crack watermelon seeds, even if they were his own. Today, cracking them at Li Long's place was purely to give Li Long face, but that was what he said, and after saying it, he threw another one into his mouth.

"It's fine, just compare and see, there must be a difference." This time Li Long didn't plan to say it himself; it was better for the customer to taste it.

Although Dong Zhi Chao didn't know what medicine Li Long was selling in his gourd, since he had come, and since it was his own roasted seeds, he would crack a few.

Just ten seeds, it was nothing; he had already cracked more than ten just now.

However, after cracking only three, Dong Zhi Chao saw the problem.

Li Long's plate of seeds, cracking one after another, was smooth and fast; there was no need for any pause, and the seeds cracked out were basically all complete.

As for his own bag of seeds, cracking three meant one couldn't be cracked at once, and after cracking, the seed wouldn't come out completely.

Like a chicken rib; throw it away, and most of the seed was inside; don't throw it away, and it was troublesome to crack.

"This is... your seeds are different, Comrade Li!" Dong Zhi Chao was in procurement. Although he didn't manage shipment quality control, he immediately tasted the difference. "These seeds are not bad."

"Not bad, right?" Li Long smiled. "The seeds I sell to you are all like this."

"Really?" Dong Zhi Chao was a bit excited, but then he calmed down.

He knew this was Li Long's marketing tactic, and he couldn't fall for it.

"Of course it's true." Li Long could see that Dong Zhi Chao was actually quite interested. He stood up and said:

"Come, follow me and take a look at the goods."

Ye Lanlan hadn't spoken. She actually loved cracking watermelon seeds. Just now, she had already tasted the difference, but she hadn't spoken. After all, her uncle was the one making the decisions on this trip.

When Li Long said let's go, she also stood up, but she was still a bit reluctant and grabbed a handful of seeds from the plate to bring along.

Jia Tianlong was fast. He hadn't spoken just now. He walked at the very end and simply poured the plate of roasted seeds into his pocket.

Li Long led Dong Zhi Chao and the others into the warehouse, casually pulled down a sack, untied the rope binding it, opened the bag mouth, held it, and said to Dong Zhi Chao:

"Manager Dong, take a look yourself?"

Saying this, he pulled down another sack and opened the bag mouth as well.

To check this thing, the Grain Bureau had a kind of probe, but Li Long didn't know where to buy it. If he had that, he could just hand it to Dong Zhi Chao and let him probe it himself; how convenient that would be.

Dong Zhi Chao saw that it was time to get down to business, so he put away his smile, reached into his pocket, grabbed a handful, and looked at it carefully.

This handful of watermelon seeds was not only clean, but there were no shriveled seeds, and each one was like the plate Li Long had roasted earlier, flat and neat.

Not bad, beautiful.

Dong Zhi Chao grabbed several handfuls in a row, and the watermelon seeds were all like this. He went to the inconspicuous corner in the back and pulled out a bag himself, but he didn't have enough strength and didn't move it after pulling, which was a bit embarrassing.

Maybe he saw Li Long pull a bag down quite easily and thought he could do it too.

Li Long went over to help him pull it over. Dong Zhi Chao mocked himself: "Sigh, I'm old. When I was young, I was like you, ate a lot, did a lot, had great strength, and didn't feel anything at that time. Now that I'm old, I feel that it's still better to be young."

Li Long smiled and didn't say anything. He opened the bag and let Dong Zhi Chao look.

Dong Zhi Chao reached into the bag, grabbed a handful, and looked at it in the light. The quality was the same. He felt strange, put the watermelon seeds back into the bag, and asked Li Long: "Comrade Little Li, have you found a way to plant this kind of watermelon seed?"

Although he had been sent down to the countryside, he wasn't an expert and wasn't proficient in farming, so he asked this question.

Li Long shook his head and didn't speak.

Dong Zhi Chao couldn't find out even if he wanted to.

Li Long talked to him about another issue:

"Manager Dong, you've also seen these watermelon seeds; there's no need for me to say much about the quality. Now, let's talk about the price issue..."

"Wasn't the price already agreed upon?" Dong Zhi Chao interrupted Li Long's words. "We came here, two-fifty per kilogram. You ship it, three yuan per kilogram. This was already agreed upon; otherwise, we wouldn't have come with sincerity."

"I know, I know." Li Long saw Dong Zhi Chao still playing dumb and said patiently, "The price we agreed on was two-fifty. But the kind of watermelon seeds at two-fifty, like the ones in your bag, that's the normal price.

Now my watermelon seeds have become easy to crack. If it's still two-fifty, do you think it's appropriate?"

"What's inappropriate about that?" Dong Zhi Chao always didn't want to give up the initiative, nor did he want to raise the price. "This is something already agreed upon. The price was agreed upon, and we also coordinated with the finance department when we came. This is the price we offered. Now you want to temporarily raise the price; that's not appropriate, right?"

"Manager Dong, let's talk about the matter itself. Think about it; you buy these watermelon seeds back, then roast and process them for sale. People taste these watermelon seeds, and then eat others', they will definitely buy yours again, right? This invisibly increases your deep customer base.

Your customer base increases, sales increase, isn't your profit also increasing? Let's not talk about the benefits of the quality of my watermelon seeds for now; just in terms of attracting people—Manager Dong, you don't often crack watermelon seeds, evaluate it yourself. If someone gives you a bag of watermelon seeds, would you rather eat mine or others'?"

Li Long spoke very sincerely; he really didn't want to sell his watermelon seeds cheaply.

Last year, they sold for three-fifty. Even if the quantity increased this year, the market actually expanded too—this is the market in the interior; a normal town has a larger population than a county in Northern Xinjiang.

Why can't good things be sold for a good price?

Although Dong Zhi Chao knew that what Li Long said made sense, as a procurement officer, he also had the authority to raise the price, but he didn't want to.

He thought about taking Li Long's words back. If he could buy these watermelon seeds back at the original price and then go back and tell the people in the factory about the benefits, wouldn't his prestige increase?

Ye Lanlan was somewhat moved; it was mainly because what Li Long said did make sense. She said softly: "Uncle..."

"Don't interrupt on this matter." Dong Zhi Chao turned his head and glared at her, saying, "Watch carefully."

After finishing, he looked at Li Long:

"Then what do you mean, Comrade Li..."

"I'll tell you the truth. There are ten tons of watermelon seeds here. I don't think the original price is appropriate. If you raise it, then you can take these ten tons away, and there will be more later.

I won't lie to you either. In the village where I originally stayed, there are now at least five hundred mu of land planted with watermelons. We are doing long-term business. But if you still go by the original price, then this business will basically be a one-off deal, and I won't be able to do business with you again in the future."

Li Long saw that after saying so much, this Dong Zhi Chao was still a person who wouldn't listen to reason. He felt it was meaningless. This wasn't material for doing big business. He originally thought that if the other party could take the initiative to raise the price, he would give the other party a few recipes.

Now it seemed there was no need for that.

Dong Zhi Chao narrowed his eyes upon hearing Li Long's words; he felt the threat in Li Long's words.

There was more than one factory doing roasted goods business in the interior.

Li Long was now begging Dong Zhi Chao to buy these things, and the initiative was indeed in Dong Zhi Chao's hands. But if he really did this, Dong Zhi Chao could see that Li Long's words just now were something he could and would do.

He didn't lack long-term vision; it was impossible for him not to see the benefits of this kind of watermelon seed. It was just that he felt Li Long was young, and he could suppress him with his own seniority.

However, he suppressed it until it exploded.

"Hmm, Comrade Li is right." Dong Zhi Chao was ultimately reluctant to part with these watermelon seeds. He thought for a while and said: "How about this, if this batch of watermelon seeds is all of this quality, how about I buy them at two-seventy-five per kilogram?"

Raising the price by one-tenth at once, it could be considered sincere.

Li Long nodded and didn't speak again.

Alright, the price was raised, so let these ten tons go.

In the future, it would be impossible.

After Li Long's mind was set, he cooperated with Dong Zhi Chao and the others to check the situation of the watermelon seeds.

Jia Tianlong took the opportunity to say to Li Long in a low voice:

"I have a friendship with their factory manager, so it's not easy to be a middleman; it's not easy to speak for either side, brother, please don't mind..."

"It's fine, it's fine, I still have to thank you for this matter." Li Long smiled. Now he really didn't feel anything. It was really not easy to open up sales channels for specialties abroad.

He felt that Dong Zhi Chao wasn't a suitable partner, so he needed to change one. But Jia Tianlong only found this one. If he had to find one himself, it wouldn't be as good as Jia Tianlong.

Then let it be for now.

Ten tons of watermelon seeds, selling price two-seventy-five per kilogram, finally converted to twenty-seven thousand five hundred yuan.

Cost twenty thousand, plus over one thousand yuan for pressing fees, freight from Beiting, and treating Dong Zhi Chao and the others to a meal, it was twenty-one thousand three hundred yuan.

Earned six thousand two hundred yuan.

For Li Long, it wasn't much, but it wasn't little either.

Dong Zhi Chao and the others didn't have a truck to transport them, so Li Long went to the transport company to help them pull the strings and found a truck to take them away.

Jia Tianlong had something to do and didn't follow Dong Zhi Chao and the others. On the way back, Ye Lanlan said to Dong Zhi Chao:

"Uncle, is this price a bit low?"

"It's not low. The price was negotiated, and I even raised it by ten percent; it's already very righteous." Dong Zhi Chao was actually quite proud.

"But I can see that that Li Long won't cooperate with us again—at least not at this price."

"They aren't the only ones planting and selling watermelon seeds." Dong Zhi Chao didn't care much. "I don't believe that only they have this kind of flat watermelon seed?"

Ye Lanlan didn't speak. She hadn't been in procurement for long and didn't have much experience, so it was impossible for her to make decisions.

"Besides, these watermelon seeds have no other use besides making roasted goods. There aren't many people doing roasted goods in Northern Xinjiang. If his goods don't go out from us, where can they go? Lanlan, rest assured, I've thought about this long ago. It's not that I'm cruel; this era is just like this. If you aren't cruel, you can't make money."

Ye Lanlan didn't speak. Her uncle had been to many places and experienced many things; maybe there was really some truth to it?

But she felt that that Li Long really wouldn't do business with their side again.

Dong Zhi Chao and the others coordinated a truck, sent the watermelon seeds to the roasted goods factory, and told them to receive the goods quickly.

Dong Zhi Chao was still quite eager to see what reaction there would be after this batch of goods was roasted, packaged, and entered the market.

The flat-mouthed watermelon seeds Li Long provided also gave him some ideas. He didn't go back but started to inquire about the situation of watermelon seeds nearby and even went to the Prefecture Federation once.

But he didn't find that kind of flat-mouthed watermelon seed. Except for Li Long's place, others didn't even know what he was talking about.

Could it really be unique to Li Long's family?

Dong Zhi Chao really didn't believe it. He went to Southern Xinjiang again, and later went to Gansu Province; watermelon was also produced there.

He didn't find it either.

This was really strange!

After Li Long cleared the watermelon seeds here, he drove the Jeep to the Prefecture Federation to find Director Qian and report.

"The other party only gave a price of two-seventy-five..." Although this price also didn't reach Director Qian's expectations, it was already much better than their side.

Director Qian didn't tell Li Long that the watermelon seeds they bought for two yuan in their warehouse weren't even accepted by that Dong Zhi Chao for two-fifty—originally they could have been accepted, but after seeing the flat-mouthed watermelon seeds provided by Li Long, Dong Zhi Chao's vision also became higher, and he wasn't willing to take ordinary watermelon seeds.

So those in the Beiting warehouse weren't sold either.

Li Long didn't know it was his own pot, and Director Qian didn't participate directly and didn't know what was going on.

He only knew that the merchants from the interior had high requirements and gave low prices.

So he had no opinion on Li Long's situation and told Li Long not to worry. In any case, being able to sell them was a good thing. If they couldn't be sold later, that wasn't his problem either.

Then he let Li Long go to his house for dinner at noon. (End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 877 =====