Chapter 909

When Bai Xiu Ming came over, it was morning, and Li Long happened to be free.

During this period, melon seeds were collected quite a lot, and Liang Dacheng had to make two or three trips back and forth almost every day; otherwise, there would be too many piled up in the warehouse.

Hauling more meant earning more; not only him, but Tao Daqiang and the others were also very happy.

Originally thinking of helping out, who could have thought that using that machine at home to press melon seeds would earn as much money as harvesting wheat!

Bai Xiu Ming came over directly with trucks—three trucks!

Li Long was a bit surprised. He thought that if Bai Xiu Ming didn't come in these two days, and then waited until Dong Zhi Chao and the others hauled away the sunflowers and melon seeds, and then came over, it wouldn't be good if they bumped into each other.

In case they didn't bump into each other, and Dong Zhi Chao and the others came to haul them twice, then the melon seeds he left for Bai Xiu Ming wouldn't be enough.

Of course, such a thing wouldn't happen. Li Long would definitely leave enough melon seeds for Bai Xiu Ming, but he would just have to spend some words with Dong Zhi Chao and the others.

"Driving over directly?" Li Long smiled, "How much are you buying this time?"

"How many do you have in the warehouse?" Bai Xiu Ming also asked with the air of a wealthy person.

"With these three trucks of yours, hauling 30 tons shouldn't be a problem." Li Long smiled, "The sacks can be stacked higher."

"You have 30 tons of spot goods?" Bai Xiu Ming was a bit surprised, "If you have them, I'm naturally willing to haul away 30 tons."

"I have more than 30 tons in the warehouse now. If you didn't come, I would have found a place to call you." Just as no one came to sell melon seeds, and Sun Jia Qiang was in the front, Li Long didn't call him, but took Bai Xiu Ming into the warehouse to show him the goods.

"Hey, there really are quite a few!" Bai Xiu Ming looked at the hundreds of sacks stacked neatly in the large warehouse and sighed, "Are they all flat-mouth?"

"Of course, very clean, you can inspect them bag by bag!" Li Long was very confident.

"Naturally, I have to inspect them. Shall we start now? 30 tons is quite a lot; it'll take half a day to toss about."

"No problem, I see you brought a lot of people, just right to help. We two just watch the scale and watch the melon seeds, and record." Bai Xiu Ming didn't just come himself; each truck was equipped with two short-term workers to help load the vehicle, which was convenient.

"Good."

The trucks were blocked directly at the warehouse entrance, and the scale was placed inside the door. Someone inside pulled the sacks over, poured them onto the sieve on the scale, and Bai Xiu Ming and Li Long directly looked at the quality of the melon seeds, while also looking at the numbers on the scale and recording them.

Li Long let someone go to the front to tell Sun Jia Qiang that if anyone came to sell melon seeds, tell them they were temporarily not collecting goods this morning.

After all, they were too busy.

Sun Jia Qiang just responded, and then went out to prepare to tell the people queuing outside, when he saw Tie Lanhua pushing a bicycle over.

This time there was only one sack of melon seeds on the bicycle, which made him a bit surprised that Tie Jinbing wasn't following behind.

"Not collecting today?" Tie Lanhua was a bit surprised, "Why?"

"Because Boss Li has something to do today; there are customers inside, and he is shipping goods, so he has no time."

Tie Lanhua felt a bit disappointed when she heard this.

Gu Bo Yuan saw it inside, and he also wanted to help Sun Jia Qiang, saying: "Little Sun, tell her that if she really wants to sell, then queue up in the back; it's just one sack, we can collect it here."

"Good." Sun Jia Qiang hurriedly responded.

Actually, Tie Lanhua heard this too, and she immediately became happy, then propped up the bicycle and placed it aside, and she herself queued at the very end of the line.

The price at which Li Long collected melon seeds was relatively open and transparent, but how much they were sold for, these people didn't know.

Some people, like Fan Mingcheng, really wanted to inquire, but couldn't find out. Li Long definitely wouldn't say, and Gu Bo Yuan and Sun Jia Qiang naturally wouldn't say either. Those interior merchants wouldn't deal with them at all—they knew very well that the things they wanted were only available from Li Long, so there was no need to cause trouble for Li Long.

30 tons of melon seeds, including inspection and loading, took the whole morning. Lunch was eaten in shifts at the state-run canteen.

This time, Li Long received 105,000 yuan at once—although it was gross income, it was almost the most he had earned in a single time this year.

Did he have something similar when dealing in fritillaria?

Anyway, it was very shocking. Bai Xiu Ming gave cash, and Li Long had to drive the jeep with the money to the bank after Bai Xiu Ming and the others left.

There was a gun in the jeep—although in the county, the possibility of robbery was very low, he had to be on guard.

People in the bank were used to Li Long coming to deposit large amounts of funds, so they were almost used to it. Therefore, as soon as Li Long came, several people processed it together.

Li Long was considered a big client in the county, and the service attitude was clearly different.

After depositing the money and getting the receipt, Li Long felt relieved.

In the afternoon, he collected melon seeds as usual; he was energetic and much better than ordinary people, otherwise, he really couldn't take it.

In the evening, at the Fourth Team's retail department, Bai Qiuka and a few others sat around a table, drinking beer and chatting.

Now the wheat had been harvested, the melon seeds had been sold, and only the corn remained to be harvested.

Slowly becoming idle, with some spare money in their hands, they came over to drink beer together.

"Bai Qiuka? Who did you sell your family's melon seeds to?"

"Who else could I sell them to? The Li family." Bai Qiuka drank a gulp from the bottle, put it down, and said, "Can anyone else collect them?"

"I remember you were bragging earlier that you were going to sell them for a high price? Why did you sell them to the Li family too?"

"The Li family is offering a high price, isn't it?" Bai Qiuka didn't blush at all for his inconsistency, and he said, "The middlemen are offering a lower price than the Li family, so why shouldn't I sell them to their family?"

"Then are you going to grow them next year?" someone else asked.

"Grow my ass, I'll grow sunflowers next year. At least there are many people buying sunflowers, and the price isn't low." Bai Qiuka drank another mouthful of beer, waited a while, burped, and then said, "It's simple to grow, not as troublesome as melon seeds."

Yes, the price of melon seeds has dropped, harvesting is troublesome, and it's not as convenient as sunflowers.

"I heard the Zhao family's melon seeds sold for 1.5 yuan?" someone asked.

"They pressed the melon seeds flat before selling them, so naturally the price is high. You don't want to work, you find it troublesome, but you want to sell them for a high price; how is that possible?" someone who knew the inside story said.

Yes. The matter of pressing melon seeds flat had been mentioned by the Li family long ago. Those who sold them for a high price last year and the year before did so because the melon seeds were pressed flat and processed cleanly.

This year, because the price was low, no one was willing to put in this effort. Now that they saw others earning money, they were jealous.

But what can they do? In doing the same thing, some people always earn money, and some people are jealous.

Li Jianguo was taking stock of today's harvest.

In one day, he collected over five tons of melon seeds, of which over one ton was pressed flat, the rest were normally clean, and there were over three tons that he returned because they weren't cleaned properly and he didn't want them.

Li Long had made it very clear at the time that his family was just providing a floor for these people, not poverty alleviation. If you want to earn money, don't be afraid of being tired; if you are afraid of being tired, don't blame him for not collecting them.

After calculating the accounts and seeing that they all matched, Li Jianguo closed the book and sighed.

How many years had it been since they had enough to eat? And they already started complaining about being tired?

Thinking back to when Li Long first came, in order to earn money, he walked to Shicheng to secretly do small business.

At that time, he wasn't the only one doing this.

Why were they so capable back then? How come now, they felt they couldn't take it? If it were him, knowing that the pressed ones were 0.5 yuan higher than the ordinary ones, even if he didn't sleep at night, he would have finished the work and earned the money, right?

Just as Li Jianguo finished settling the accounts for the collected melon seeds, the tractor outside the courtyard gate started to roar.

Tao Daqiang and Xie Yun Dong drove the tractor over.

The Li family courtyard couldn't park so many tractors now, so the two parked the tractor outside the courtyard gate and turned off the engine, still talking while walking inside.

Tao Daqiang said to Xie Yun Dong: "Brother Xie Yun Dong, if it's not enough for one tractor this time, you leave it to me." "That won't do, no matter how much, our two families will split it in half." Xie Yun Dong smiled, "This money should be earned together."

With the existence of the melon seed pressing machine, the most troublesome part of pressing melon seeds now was just soaking them; after soaking them soft, someone just had to watch the machine, and the machine would automatically spread, press, and pour them out to dry.

Of course, when soaking in water, you also had to pick out the shriveled seeds, and after drying, you had to winnow them to winnow out the stones inside.

For people who often do farm work, this really doesn't count as anything. 0.1 yuan per kilogram, and doing one or two tons a day is like playing. If it were just the melon seeds Li Jianguo collected here, it really wouldn't be enough for these families to split.

It was only because Liang Dacheng was constantly hauling large melon seeds back from the county every day that it was enough.

"You two came?" Li Jianguo said with a smile, "Just right, the family stewed fish soup, let's eat some together."

"No, no." Xie Yun Dong hurriedly waved his hand, "Take the collected melon seeds back and soak them tonight, and we can press them tomorrow morning. Brother Old Li, how much did you collect today?"

"Collected quite a lot today, over five tons, enough for your two families to work on."

"And my family too!" Jia Weidong, who hurried over, parked the horse cart at the entrance and shouted loudly, "Brother Old Li, don't forget my family."

"Fine, fine, fine, everyone has some, everyone has some."

"Weidong, after this melon seed work is finished, your family's tractor can be bought, right?" Xie Yun Dong asked, "You earned quite a lot this time, right?"

"That can't compare to you; you've been driving this tractor for a year or two." Jia Weidong shook his head and said modestly, "When I go to buy a tractor, you two must follow and give me some advice."

"No problem, definitely no problem." Tao Daqiang smiled, "Do you want to buy a big one? I saw a 28-inch tire one with a driver's cab; that looks so majestic, and it hauls more."

"What's the use of hauling more? It can't plow the land." Jia Weidong said, "I think the one you bought is quite good."

"There are small four-wheelers with high horsepower now." Li Jianguo interjected, "The 12-horsepower one I bought, now there's a 15-horsepower one. It's slightly larger and costs over 1,000 yuan more, but it has more strength, and the rear suspension frame is also more convenient.

Little Long said that a kind of cultivator has come out, and the small four-wheeler tractor can carry it behind, which will save a lot of trouble when weeding next year."

"That's quite good." Xie Yun Dong said, "Weeding in the sunflower and corn fields is really annoying. If there's a machine that can weed, it will save a lot of trouble."

While laughing and talking, the three families started to weigh the melon seeds with a scale and then put them on their own vehicles. When weighing, they automatically recorded the weight. Li Jianguo had a copy of this recorded quantity, and they had a copy themselves, so it would be easy to settle the accounts later.

The tractor hauled more, the horse cart hauled less; Jia Weidong hauled away over a ton, and the rest was split between Xie Yun Dong and Tao Daqiang.

Li Long brought back five machines, plus the original one, totaling six machines.

There was one at the Li family's place. Besides these three people, there was one at Liang Wenyu's place and one at Lu Yingming's place.

Liang Wenyu hauled melon seeds from the acquisition station, pressed them flat, dried them, and then hauled them back. He had a tractor, so there was no problem doing this work. Lu Yingming was across from the Li family, making it more convenient to haul melon seeds; the other three families actually didn't haul as much as his family.

Li Long now had sufficient capital, so when collecting melon seeds, he no longer needed the phased investment like when collecting fritillaria. So after collecting a certain amount, it was basically a real profit after deducting costs. Calculating it, there was a net profit of over 2,000 yuan for every ton collected.

By late September, there were gradually fewer people coming to the acquisition station to sell melon seeds. Originally, they could collect three, five, seven, or eight tons a day, but now it was a few hundred kilograms a day, and occasionally over a ton.

In the middle, Dong Zhi Chao and Bai Xiu Ming each came once more. The two came about five days apart. Li Long guessed that they might have agreed on it, not seeing each other, but actually knowing of each other's existence, and coming to Li Long's place to buy melon seeds was also staggered to avoid embarrassment.

By around September 25th, the melon seeds on the Fourth Team's side had been harvested, so Li Jianguo settled the accounts and sent the account book to Li Long.

This time Bai Xiu Ming hauled away another 30 tons of melon seeds, and Dong Zhi Chao's side wasn't small either, hauling away 20 tons.

By the time of the Mid-Autumn Festival, Dong Zhi Chao came for the last time and hauled away 10 tons.

Scattered around, around National Day, Li Long collected another 5 tons of melon seeds.

This time, both Bai Xiu Ming and Dong Zhi Chao had made it clear that they wouldn't come again this year. Collecting goods again would be next year, meaning their raw materials were already sufficiently stocked.

Li Long thought that these remaining 5 tons of melon seeds could only be stored in the warehouse, waiting quietly for the coming year.

This was also very normal; after all, he wasn't Zhuge Liang, and even Zhuge Liang couldn't calculate everything.

What surprised Li Long was that on October 10th, a strange customer came and said directly upon arriving at the acquisition station that he wanted to buy flat-mouth melon seeds. At this time, the acquisition station had already become idle and restored its original rhythm. Gu Bo Yuan and Sun Jia Qiang could handle it completely, so Li Long stayed in the large courtyard, taking stock of the harvest during this period.

Hearing that someone was collecting melon seeds again, Li Long was really surprised. He followed Sun Jia Qiang to the acquisition station and saw this stranger.

This person was a typical Southerner, about 1.62 or 1.63 meters tall, looking quite delicate, fair and clean, in his twenties or less than thirty, dressed like an intellectual, with a smile on his face at all times, and a shrewdness in his eyes.

"Boss Li, right? Hello, hello. I heard you have flat-mouth melon seeds here, so I specifically came over to buy some." The man was very enthusiastic, directly stating his purpose, and also introduced himself, "I'm from Sichuan Province, my name is Qiao Xing; you can call me Little Qiao."

Li Long thought to himself, "Little Qiao is much prettier than you." He smiled and shook hands with the other party:

"Boss Qiao, hello. We don't have many melon seeds left, about 5 tons, want to go in and take a look?"

"Good, good."

Li Long took this Qiao Xing to the warehouse in the back, pulled over a sack of melon seeds, untied the bag mouth, and showed him.

"They really are all flat-mouth, washed clean, not bad, not bad, the quality is very good." Qiao Xing praised them fully, looked at two more bags, and then didn't look anymore.

"There's only this much left. If you want them all, I can make them a bit cheaper." Selling the remaining goods cheaper is a common thing. Li Long didn't want to leave these until next year, because by next year, they would be old goods.

"The price is negotiable. I have a matter to ask Boss Li about: how are your melon seeds pressed flat? Is there any trick to this?"

Li Long thought to himself, "Finally someone is paying attention to this matter."

This was also a matter of time; after all, naturally grown melon seeds couldn't all be flat. It's just that pressing them flat manually is quite troublesome, and many people aren't willing to do it.

Using a machine to press them flat, maybe some people didn't think of the trick.

Of course, Li Long couldn't just tell this guy surnamed Qiao directly. He laughed and said:

"What else can I do? Just take a board and press them like that."

"But aren't melon seeds hard? Won't they break if you press them hard?" Qiao Xing was very eager to learn, with a persistence of getting to the bottom of things.

"Press them when they are just scooped out of the melon." Li Long said with a smile, "If you ask again, it will be a trade secret. Are you here to buy melon seeds or to pry for technology?"

"Hehehehe, just curious, just curious." Qiao Xing laughed awkwardly, "Then the price of these melon seeds..."

"3.5 yuan per kilogram." The smile on Li Long's face faded a bit, "If you buy them all, I can make them 500 yuan cheaper, just as shipping fee."

Qiao Xing finally hauled away these melon seeds and paid Li Long 16,000 yuan.

For Li Long, this could also be considered an unexpected joy. He originally thought these melon seeds were for the warehouse, but didn't expect them to be sold out in the end. Regardless of whether this Qiao Xing really wanted to buy them or really wanted to inquire about the pressing machine, it had nothing to do with him anymore.

Next was the true stocktaking.

Li Long collected a total of 105 tons of melon seeds in this melon seed season. Adding all the quantities together, Li Long himself was also startled; this number was not small.

The cost of collecting melon seeds was basically between 1.1 and 1.3 yuan, meaning the total cost was less than 130,000, the income was about 360,000, and the net profit was 230,000.

Among the costs paid, besides the less than 20,000 yuan in processing fees and shipping fees split by Xie Yun Dong and other families, Li Long also left 10,000 yuan for his eldest brother.

Li Jianguo didn't want to accept it at first, but Li Long insisted on giving it to him. During this period, his eldest brother was also busy to death. After harvesting the melon seeds, he didn't stop to harvest his own corn, then handed in the public grain for corn and oil sunflowers, then drove the tractor to plow the land, sow winter wheat, and looked like he had lost at least 3 kilograms.

Gu Bo Yuan originally told Li Long about an 80/20 split, but now Li Long's income speed scared him, and he only accepted 5,000 yuan after much insistence.

Li Long gave Sun Jia Qiang a bonus of 500 yuan. This money was actually intended to fill in for him, letting him buy a courtyard and add things to it. His relationship with Tie Lanhua was getting better and better, and Li Long thought that maybe by the end of the year, he would be able to eat the wedding candy of the two.

In short, everything looked like it was developing in a good direction.

Who knows what changes will happen later? (End of chapter)