Chapter 904: The Clever Wang Money-Grubber and the Panicked Watermelon Growers

Although he knew Li Long was extremely strict about product quality, upon entering the warehouse and casually opening a sack to grab a handful of melon seeds, Bai Xiu Ming felt, just by looking at their size, that these flower sunflower seeds were acceptable for purchase!

Big, truly big!

Big meant they were easy to crack; this was the same principle as why flattened watermelon seeds were easy to crack.

Not only were they big, but they were also plump. In this handful of over a dozen seeds, Bai Xiu Ming examined each one; there was not a single shriveled seed, not one with insect holes, and absolutely no impurities.

Was the top layer just too clean?

He was a bit skeptical, so he put this handful back into the sack and reached his hand down deeper.

Li Long handed him a grain-probing spear of the type used by the Grain Bureau:

"Manager Bai, use this."

Bai Xiu Ming took it, switched to another sack, thrust the probe down to the bottom, then pulled it out, pouring the seeds from the probe into his hand to examine them carefully.

Usually, impurities, especially clods of earth and stones, are heavier than melon seeds and gradually settle at the bottom during the transportation of the sacks.

Yet, in this handful in his hand, there was not a trace of impurity.

How miraculous!

He tried several more sacks; out of these dozens randomly selected, every single one was free of impurities and showed no signs of insect holes.

Finally, he stopped testing, cracked open a seed, and found the kernel inside was equally very plump, carrying a faint fragrance.

"So, Manager Bai, what grade would you assign these melon seeds?"

"Special Grade, absolutely Special Grade!" After cracking and eating a few more seeds, Bai Xiu Ming stated clearly: "Comrade Li Long, I truly didn't expect the quality of your flower sunflowers to be this good! At first, I really didn't pay much attention. Hmm, if all your flower sunflowers are like this, then I will buy them at two yuan!"

This year, Li Jianguo had planted thirty mu of flower sunflowers; this crop wasn't as picky about soil as watermelons. When planting at the beginning of the year, he knew the price would definitely not be as good as watermelon seeds, so he planted more.

Besides the Li family's five-plus tons of flower sunflower seeds, there were also over seven hundred kilograms from Liang Liang Wenyu's side. Since Liang Liang Wenyu and his group had less land, they farmed more intensively, resulting in a good yield as well.

"I have about six tons of flower sunflowers here," Li Long said, "and nearly twenty tons haven't been brought over yet; I wonder if you can take them all?"

"No, I cannot buy that many." Bai Xiu Ming shook his head and said; he hadn't expected Li Long to have so many flower sunflowers either. After thinking for a moment, he said: "I can buy at most twenty tons; the rest must still prioritize buying watermelon seeds."

Twenty tons would have to do.

Li Long thought about it; he could ask Dong Zhi Chao about the remainder, and if he could buy them, that would be best.

While Bai Xiu Ming went to hire vehicles, Li Long went to the Fourth Squad. These few families had planted varying amounts of flower sunflowers, some more, some less. Li Long calculated that, besides his own family, there were the Lu family, the Xie family, Tao Daqiang, Tao Tao Dayong, the Liang family, the Jia family, and Squad Leader Xu Chengjun's family.

Seven families; if each provided two tons of seeds, and adding the Li family's, that would make twenty tons.

So he went from house to house notifying them to prepare two tons of good quality first, then transport it to the county procurement station by tractor.

"What about the remaining sunflower seeds?" Everyone who received the notice asked Li Long.

Most of these families had planted ten to twenty mu of flower sunflowers, with yields between two and three tons; only Tao Daqiang, who followed Li Long closely, had planted thirty mu, harvesting slightly less than the Li family.

"Store the rest at home for now and wait for my notice; we'll see the situation with the other buyer," Li Long said. "You can also try contacting people yourselves to see if anyone wants to buy."

The others all agreed; Xu Chengjun directly stated that he had contacted a trader, who offered at most 1.1 yuan, and that was only because the Xu family had cleaned these flower sunflowers very thoroughly. There was nothing else for it; they would just have to wait.

When these families agreed to transport the flower sunflowers to the procurement station together, Li Long had already sold the Li and Liang families' seeds. Although sold together, Li Long kept the accounts very clear; he planned to deliver the money for the Liang family's seeds over to them after Bai Xiu Ming left.

Bai Xiu Ming inspected very carefully, sifting through sack after sack to check the condition, and the final result basically matched Li Long's expectations.

Except for two sacks from Xu Chengjun's family which contained some impurities and were graded First Grade at 1.5 yuan, all the rest were Special Grade, showing that everyone had taken Li Long's advice very seriously.

Although the money earned wasn't as much as last year's watermelon seeds, planting and harvesting flower sunflowers was easier than watermelons, so everyone was quite satisfied.

Especially Tao Daqiang; although his yield wasn't as high as the Li family's, this year he harvested over four tons, and selling just those four-plus tons of flower sunflower seeds earned him over eight thousand yuan, nearly making him a 'ten-thousand-yuan household'!

Tao Tao Dayong was the same; having planted ten mu of land, he harvested over one ton and sold it for nearly three thousand yuan, feeling both excited and regretful that he had planted too little.

After these people left with their money, Bai Xiu Ming also loaded up his trucks and departed—three trucks made one trip to haul it all away; he needed to first transport these flower sunflower seeds to Wucheng, and only then return to discuss the watermelon seed matter with Li Long.

After all, there was still time for the watermelon seeds.

The first person in the squad to start buying watermelon seeds was Wang Caini.

Yes, Wang Caini's family had planted watermelons this year. Although Li Long had said in the squad that watermelon prices would definitely be low this year, he felt he could exploit a time difference.

So while other families were still preparing to harvest watermelon seeds, he had already taken his family to the melon fields and begun picking melons and pressing out the seeds.

Pressing melon seeds was something he learned from Li Long; all one needed was a large wok and two boards.

Because the watermelon seeds weren't fully ripe yet, there was some white in the middle, but that didn't matter much; anyway, the kernels had fully formed.

Wang Caini hired help and finished harvesting his family's twenty mu of watermelons in just three days; the seeds were spread out to dry in the courtyard, while the melon pulp was hauled back to feed the pigs.

This was actually discovered by Yang Laoliu while herding sheep; sheep quite liked eating watermelon vines, and since Wang Caini currently had no time to plow his own land, he let the sheep eat their fill first.

Wang Caini didn't flatten the melon seeds; he felt it wasn't cost-effective, mainly wanting to dry the seeds as quickly as possible and then sell them.

Once Wang Caini made this move, others started to feel tempted as well, though not many followed him to do the same.

Two days later, once the watermelon seeds were dried, Wang Caini hauled them to the Shicheng Roasted Goods Factory to sell.

Because they weren't fully ripe, the twenty mu of land yielded just over two tons of seeds; since the seeds weren't flattened and were obviously not very ripe, the Roasted Goods Factory offered a low price of only 1.5 yuan.

Surprisingly, Wang Caini didn't haggle at all; he sold them readily, earning over three thousand yuan.

After Wang Caini returned, some people came to inquire, and upon hearing the price, they even mocked him.

"Last year, the Li family sold these watermelon seeds for 3.5 yuan; even if you can't match that, with so much planted and such a high yield this year, the price shouldn't be lower than two yuan, right?" someone said.

Wang Caini just smiled and listened, offering no rebuttal at all.

A second batch of four families harvested watermelon seeds and went to the Roasted Goods Factory to sell, only to discover upon arrival that the factory was no longer buying!

After asking around, they learned that after Wang Caini sold his seeds, people from other places came in succession to sell, and the Roasted Goods Factory quickly filled its quota; this year's planned task had been exceeded, so they stopped buying!

At this, those in the squad who had planted watermelons panicked!

PS: Today I drove from Nalati along the Duku Highway to Tangbula, then turned back from Nileke to Yining; I'm exhausted, so this chapter is a bit short, just make do with it, and tomorrow I'll return to normal. (End of Chapter)