Chapter 908

Dong Zhi Chao and Ye Lanlan arrived earlier than Bai Xiu Ming.

When they arrived at the acquisition station, they saw bicycles or tractors heading to the backyard, bustling with activity, much livelier than the last time they came.

The queue in the front yard was actually slightly smaller—of course, it was also because some people had moved to the side of the courtyard wall to make way for those going to the backyard, making the courtyard appear emptier.

When the two were walking to the backyard, they happened to see two tractors pulling two full carts of melon seeds coming out, which made them a bit strange.

Were these hauled over and not sold? Dong Zhi Chao was a bit suspicious, but looking at the two drivers, it didn't seem like it! Both of them were smiling and looked quite happy.

With a puzzled mood, the two circled to the backyard.

Li Long was checking the cart of melon seeds Fan Mingcheng had hauled over together with Sun Jia Qiang.

As usual, the melon seeds were poured onto the sieve, and Sun Jia Qiang spread them out to look at the quality.

Dong Zhi Chao and Ye Lanlan happened to come over, and seeing the melon seeds on the sieve, they both sighed.

The melon seeds on top were in their natural state, with flat ones and crooked ones, clearly not meeting their acquisition standards.

"These will probably be returned, right?" Ye Lanlan thought to herself. The two carts that just drove out should be the same as this one, right?

What they didn't expect was that after Li Long finished looking, he said to Fan Mingcheng: "Still First grade. Old Fan, can't you be a bit more ambitious and haul me a cart of Premium grade?"

Fan Mingcheng laughed: "That's really not easy. I want to, but I really can't find any!"

Then came the weighing, recording, and paying.

After Fan Mingcheng's cart of melon seeds was collected, Li Long stood up and went over to greet Dong Zhi Chao:

"Manager Dong, Miss Ye, hello."

"Hello, hello, hello." Dong Zhi Chao responded, his eyes still fixed on those melon seeds, and asked: "Boss Li, you're collecting these melon seeds..."

"Taking them back for processing." Li Long said, "After processing, they'll be what you need. But for now, I think we can talk about the sunflowers."

Fan Mingcheng was still starting the small four-wheel tractor. At this moment, hearing Li Long talking to two guests who were clearly not from Maxian, he pricked up his ears.

Helplessly, someone else came over and urged him to leave so they could free up space for melon seeds, so Fan Mingcheng drove the tractor away.

After leaving the acquisition station, Fan Mingcheng didn't drive far; he parked the small four-wheeler nearby and waited patiently.

During this period, over 30 tons of melon seeds had been collected just from this acquisition station, so Li Long wasn't worried at all that Bai Xiu Ming wouldn't have enough melon seeds. All he needed to do now was hope that Dong Zhi Chao could buy the remaining sunflowers of the Fourth Team. Of course, he could also spare some of the later melon seeds for them.

He figured Bai Xiu Ming probably wouldn't need that many goods.

"What are the characteristics of your sunflowers?" Although Dong Zhi Chao was very reluctant, he still asked. He knew that if he didn't buy some sunflowers, Li Long probably wouldn't give him any melon seeds.

"Little Sun, you go ahead and inspect this boss's melon seeds; I'll accompany Manager Dong and the others to see the sunflowers." Li Long said to Sun Jia Qiang, "Let's go, Manager Dong, you'll know once you see them; they definitely won't disappoint you."

Bai Xiu Ming's place was a food company, and roasted goods were a major item, but they weren't doing roasted goods for everything.

Dong Zhi Chao's roasted goods factory, however, was completely doing this, so Li Long believed they should be able to buy the remaining few sunflowers.

Entering the large warehouse, Li Long pointed to some full fertilizer bags and said:

"These are the sunflowers. Which bag do you want to see? By the way, those over there are flat-mouth melon seeds; you can take a look at those too."

There were dozens of bags of sunflowers, while there were several hundred bags of flat-mouth melon seeds next to them.

Originally, those sunflowers were kept at each family's place in the team. Because Liang Dacheng and the others drove tractors over to haul the large melon seeds back, Li Long simply had them haul the sunflowers that each family had cleaned up together and store them at the acquisition station for easy sale later.

Although Dong Zhi Chao was considered an old hand, seeing so many raw materials he wanted, his breathing still quickened.

Watching Li Long untie the sunflower bag, a thought moved in his mind, and he said to Ye Lanlan:

"Lanlan, you check the sunflowers at Boss Li's place to see if they meet our procurement standards; I'll look at these melon seeds."

After saying this, without waiting for Ye Lanlan's response, he walked over to the melon seeds, scanned them, and then untied a bag in the corner.

The bag mouth opened, and to Dong Zhi Chao's surprise, he didn't smell any strange odor.

These days, they had also been to many places, entering small acquisition stations and melon farmers' homes. They had seen quite a few melon seeds, but whenever they opened a bag, they could smell a thick or light melon seed odor.

This stuff smells quite good when fresh, but once dried, the smell slowly becomes less pleasant.

But this bag didn't.

Dong Zhi Chao reached into the bag, pushed down hard, and then grabbed a handful of melon seeds from the middle to look at them carefully.

Ye Lanlan actually also wanted to look at the melon seeds, but knowing that her uncle's side was important, she walked to Li Long's side. Seeing that Li Long had already untied the bag and was gesturing to her, she reached in and grabbed a handful of sunflower seeds to look at.

Ye Lanlan originally thought the sunflowers here would be no different from those in her own province, but to her surprise, the sunflowers in her hand were very large and very plump. She couldn't help but pick one, peel off the skin, and see that the kernel inside was also particularly plump.

She had originally intended to help her uncle save some time, but as a procurement officer who often purchased these raw materials, seeing such good sunflowers, she couldn't help but reach in and grab another handful to look at carefully.

They were all quite good.

"Can I change a bag to look at?" Ye Lanlan confirmed that the quality of this bag of sunflowers was excellent and wanted to check randomly.

"No problem." Li Long turned his head to look at Dong Zhi Chao, then turned back to Ye Lanlan and said, "You can look at whichever bag you want."

A few minutes later, Dong Zhi Chao and Ye Lanlan followed Li Long to the entrance of the warehouse.

"These sunflowers are of excellent quality." Ye Lanlan said first, "I think we should consider purchasing them and hauling them back."

After Dong Zhi Chao finished looking at the melon seeds just now and was called over by Ye Lanlan to look at the sunflowers, he was also quite surprised.

Thinking about Li Long being able to produce these unique flat-mouth melon seeds, he felt it was normal.

"Fine, then we'll buy these sunflowers." Dong Zhi Chao knew the quantity of these sunflowers wasn't large, totaling less than 10 tons, so he said generously: "The price is also easy to talk about..." He turned his head and glanced at Ye Lanlan.

"2 yuan." Ye Lanlan reported her price.

Li Long nodded. It seemed that on Bai Xiu Ming's side, the prices of these raw materials were basically transparent, and it was easy to distinguish quality and price.

"That's fine. I can spare you 10 tons of these melon seeds for now." Li Long said with a smile, "You can haul them away together with the sunflowers. As for how many more tons of melon seeds you can haul away later, it depends on the quantity I collect."

"Good, good, good." Although Dong Zhi Chao was still a bit dissatisfied, at least there were goods. And Li Long also said there would be more later.

Li Long could spare 10 tons of goods for Dong Zhi Chao mainly because he could gather 30 tons of melon seeds here today. Even if Bai Xiu Ming came today, he could provide the other party with 20 tons of goods, which was enough.

Dong Zhi Chao let Ye Lanlan stay to watch the goods and inspect them, while he himself went to the transportation company to hire trucks.

As soon as he left the acquisition station, Dong Zhi Chao was stopped by Fan Mingcheng, who came up enthusiastically to offer Dong Zhi Chao a cigarette and said:

"Boss Dong, hello, hello. Let me introduce myself. I'm an acquisition merchant in Maxian, my name is Fan Mingcheng. I'm very happy to meet you..."

"What do you want?" Dong Zhi Chao recognized him; this was the middleman who was selling melon seeds at Li Long's place just now.

Dong Zhi Chao had also seen a few middlemen these past few days, and the impression they left on him was very bad, so his tone was a bit impatient.

"It's like this. I know you are melon seed buyers from the interior. I want to ask, if I provide melon seeds that are cheaper, are you willing to collect them from me?" Fan Mingcheng said in a low voice.

Poaching?

Dong Zhi Chao became interested and asked: "How much goods can you collect? How good is the quality? Are the melon seeds all flat-mouth?" Flat-mouth? Fan Mingcheng immediately understood; so the flat melon seeds Li Long collected were for these people.

"No flat ones," Fan Mingcheng shook his head and said, "I have those that are especially clean, with no impurities, and they are especially cheap—1.5 yuan, no, 1.3 yuan is fine!"

He believed that the melon seeds Li Long collected from him for 1 yuan definitely wouldn't be sold to this interior merchant for less than 1.5 yuan.

So he lowered the price.

"1.3 yuan?" Dong Zhi Chao shook his head, "Not interested, I only want flat-mouth melon seeds."

"Flat-mouth, that's fine too! How much per kilogram will you pay?" Fan Mingcheng gritted his teeth. It's just pressing them flat, right? If it really doesn't work, I'll find someone or do it myself. Even if it takes some effort, as long as I can earn more money!

"How much goods do you have?" Hearing that the other party could actually get flat-mouth ones, Dong Zhi Chao was also a bit surprised. Is it true or false?

"This... one ton, how about it?" Fan Mingcheng thought that pressing and picking melon seeds was relatively slow, so he reported a reliable number.

"One ton? Are you playing with me?" Dong Zhi Chao's face changed color instantly, he pushed Fan Mingcheng aside and left in a hurry.

Are you kidding me?

Fan Mingcheng looked at Dong Zhi Chao's back and wanted to shout, but was afraid of being heard by people in the acquisition station, so in the end, he didn't shout.

It's just that he couldn't figure out who Li Long sold those ordinary melon seeds he collected to.

The idea of pressing already-dried melon seeds flat again didn't exist in Fan Mingcheng's mind.

Soon, Dong Zhi Chao hired three large trucks and entered the acquisition station, parking them at the warehouse entrance.

It was fortunate that the backyard of the acquisition station was large enough; otherwise, this really couldn't be done.

Sun Jia Qiang was over there watching the melon seed collection, while Li Long was here looking after Dong Zhi Chao and Ye Lanlan inspecting and weighing the sunflowers.

The overall quality of the sunflower seeds didn't differ much, and in the end, they were all calculated at 2 yuan. Dong Zhi Chao didn't want to pester over this matter, so the inspection was completed quickly, and the trucks were loaded. The main point was that he wanted to hurry up and see those flat-mouth melon seeds.

Having been here for so long, there was finally some progress; how could he not be excited?

"When I went out just now, there was a guy surnamed Fan, the one who was selling melon seeds at your place, who stopped me and tried to sell me his melon seeds."

To get closer to Li Long, Dong Zhi Chao turned around and sold Fan Mingcheng out.

"The guy surnamed Fan called you?" Li Long wasn't surprised; middlemen, after all, do whatever they can to make money. His relationship with Li Long was just a business relationship for money, a normal buying and selling relationship, and poaching Li Long's customers was very normal.

Of course, Li Long wouldn't indulge him. Next time he comes, Li Long will definitely have to give him a warning.

Principles are principles, and initiative is initiative; sometimes you don't have to be reasonable.

"Yeah, he said he could sell me melon seeds cheaper, but I ignored him." Dong Zhi Chao touted himself, "I still recognize you, Boss Li. Although we had some misunderstandings before, this time, it can be considered 'not knowing each other without fighting,' so we should cooperate well in the future!"

Li Long thought to himself, it's only because I have the raw materials that you can look at me straight, right?

Of course, he couldn't say this. He said with a smile: "Manager Dong, don't worry, I have plenty of sources here. When you come back in a while, there will be even more melon seeds."

Just in the Fourth Team, nearly 500 mu of land were planted with melon seeds, with a yield of about 60 to 70 tons—not everyone could tend the melon seeds to produce 170 or 180 kilograms of seeds.

There were issues of whether the care was meticulous or not, as well as the use of fertilizer and materials, and the soil quality, averaging about 120 or 130 kilograms.

Of course, Li Long couldn't collect them all. Collecting 30 or 40 tons would be about enough. After all, some people really didn't believe in evil and would run far away to sell them. As for how much money per kilogram they would finally sell for, it was hard to say.

The acquisition station here also collected quite a lot. Some people who grew melon seeds in the county, or in other places outside the county, were quite content, selling them for 0.8 or 0.9 yuan, because it was better than growing grain.

Based on the current situation, Li Long expected he could collect about 100 tons of melon seeds. If Bai Xiu Ming and Dong Zhi Chao could both eat them up, then he would sell them to them in batches; if they couldn't eat them up, then he would just leave them there. Li Long believed that once the interior market recognized flat-mouth melon seeds, the market would definitely expand and spread.

By then, it wouldn't just be these two families coming to find him.

Li Long himself hadn't expected that a common thing in later generations would become a dimensionality-reducing strike when placed in the present.

But it was also quite good, at least it could really allow ordinary people to earn more cash. He felt as if he were setting a floor price; if they could sell them for a high price, no problem, they could find their own sales channels.

If they couldn't sell them for this price, then they should properly sort them out and sell them to him, which would also work. At least it guaranteed they would earn money—as for Li Long earning more, he was already very much at ease; that was because he had the ability.

Dong Zhi Chao and Ye Lanlan returned fully loaded with several trucks and left in a hurry.

The less than 10 tons of sunflowers sold for over 18,000 yuan, and the 10 tons of flat-mouth melon seeds sold for 35,000 yuan. Li Long didn't earn money on the sunflowers, but he felt much more relaxed. The cost of the 10 tons of melon seeds was 12,000 or 13,000, and he made a net profit of over 20,000 yuan.

Profiteering!

Bai Xiu Ming hadn't come over yet; he didn't know what had happened. While Li Long continued to collect melon seeds, Zhao Hui came over once in the middle and hauled away the leather collected during this period.

So although Li Long's days were busy, it was also quite good to have money coming in from time to time.

It was just a bit contrary to his original intention. He had originally thought about muddling through these years, and when cotton was planted on a large scale, he would contract several hundred mu of wasteland, lie flat and be a landlord, subcontract the land, and then do what he liked to do.

However, at the moment, the land couldn't be contracted, and he seemed to be getting busier and busier.

Gu Bo Yuan had to watch the daily goods in the front. Sun Jia Qiang had been called over by him to help collect melon seeds, which had already affected the collection of goods in the front.

But there was no way. Even if Li Long had more strength, he couldn't handle collecting these things alone in the back.

He had originally thought about hiring another person, but thinking about it, it was only for half a month, so he would just tough it out. Eldest brother Li Jianguo thought about letting their father come over to help, but Li Long thought that the family was also collecting melon seeds, and that side wasn't any more idle than his side.

He and Sun Jia Qiang could basically handle it.

Li Long thought about giving Sun Jia Qiang more bonuses after this melon seed season ended; he had really been busy to death during this period.

This morning, Tie Lanhua pushed the bicycle over again with two large sacks of melon seeds, and Tie Jinbing was still following behind, but didn't come in when they reached the entrance.

He didn't really want to see Li Long.

During this period, Tie Lanhua had come twice more, each time with two sacks, mostly in the morning. These two sacks of melon seeds were processed relatively cleanly, and the price Li Long gave was also relatively good.

He guessed that Tie Lanhua must have collected the melon seeds the day before, cleaned them in the afternoon, and then came to sell them the next morning.

Sun Jia Qiang saw Tie Lanhua come over, smiled and greeted her, then felt it was inappropriate, and immediately put his smile away.

Li Long was collecting melon seeds from someone else on the side. Fan Mingcheng had come over once in the last two days, and Li Long had given him a dressing down. The more than one ton of melon seeds he hauled over were collected by Li Long at 1 yuan—actually, the standard could reach 1.1 yuan, but Li Long pressed him.

Fan Mingcheng didn't have any temper at all and even accompanied Li Long with a smile.

Because it was a floor price, Li Long didn't indulge others at all. If they wanted to sell, they could sell; if they didn't want to sell, they could leave. He really wasn't worried about collecting goods.

What surprised Li Long was that most of the middlemen who used to collect other goods had all switched to collecting melon seeds.

It could be seen that the audience for melon seeds in the Northern Xinjiang market was really small; they didn't like cracking this kind of hard melon seed.

In the years after the previous life, pumpkin seeds and watermelon seeds had been popular for a while, and large parts of Northern Xinjiang had specifically grown pumpkins for edible pumpkin seeds, but eating melon seeds had always been popular in Northern Xinjiang, and only sunflower seeds had been enduring; others were popular for a while and didn't last long.

After Tie Lanhua propped up the bicycle, she took a gauze bag from the handlebar and handed it to Sun Jia Qiang:

"Take it back and eat it; it's the fragrant bean cake my mom made, it's very fragrant."

Sun Jia Qiang turned his head to look at Li Long, feeling a bit embarrassed.

Li Long smiled and thought to himself, "A girl chasing a boy is separated by a layer of gauze; Sun Jia Qiang is probably going to be taken down." (End of chapter)