Chapter 54: The

Li Xuewu's question was considered an outsider's question to Seeing Wen San'er.

Seeing Wen San'er had an expression of "you don't know the inside story" and said with a cigarette in his mouth, "You don't understand the doorway here. The maximum difference for exchanging grain tickets is 2 mao 5 fen. Generally, the difference is 5 fen. For example, grain tickets—if you exceed 5 fen, no one will exchange them. But meat tickets are not, and oil is not. These are exchanged at the highest rate because they are rare."

Li Xuewu looked at Seeing Wen San'er, who was talking eloquently, and felt that only by using people to their full potential could talents play an important role.

Tomato Novel

If you let Seeing Wen San'er go to the factory to turn parts, he could turn two a year, and that would be with someone watching him with a whip.

Let him do some crooked things, and he could be capable, and even put his hands on his hips.

"Alright, let's talk about the pork later. I'm going on a business trip to the Northeast today, by train. There's a special mission, and part of the carriage is empty. You can't sleep anymore. Think of a way to get some scarce materials, and I'll bring some things back from the Northeast. This way, our initial accumulation will be there."

Seeing Wen San'er stood up with a thud.

"Damn! Xuewu! You're really awesome. You can even get a train carriage."

Li Xuewu waved his hand and said sternly, "Time is a bit tight. The train can only wait for us until 10 o'clock at night. Think about what way you can collect scarce materials in such a short time."

Seeing Wen San'er was calculating on the kang with his fingers.

Li Xuewu looked at this guy, who didn't look like a second-hand dealer, but rather like a fortune teller.

After thinking for a while, Seeing Wen San'er said, "It's freezing cold in the Northeast now. What's missing? Fruit, huh? There's nothing missing there. Instead, we're missing things from the Northeast: rice, white flour, timber, hazel mushrooms, wide vermicelli, soybean paste, leather, overcoats, medicinal materials, soybeans, peanuts, apples, pine mushrooms..."

Li Xuewu interrupted, "Are you reporting the menu to me? Think about what to bring first."

Seeing Wen San'er said definitely, "What we can get in a short time is big white pears. We've seen them when we went to the countryside to collect eggs. This thing was picked just a month ago, the moisture hasn't been lost, and it's especially cheap."

But immediately he slapped his thigh again and said, "But there's a problem, which is that transportation requires attention. If it's bumped or bruised, it will freeze to death in one night. It must be sold as soon as it arrives, otherwise, it will freeze."

Li Xuewu smoked another cigarette, thought for a while, and asked, "How much money and how many bicycle tickets do you have now?"

Seeing Wen San'er took out the money bag under the pillow, flipped through it, and said, "There are 2 bicycle tickets, and the money and other tickets add up to more than 1400. The big head is the pig from last night, which sold for about 450 yuan."

Li Xuewu nodded and said, "That pig counts as my investment. We're partners in business. Brothers settle accounts clearly. When I come back from this trip, we'll sit down and discuss the share distribution. Now, you take Seeing Lao Biaozi, Guodong, and Erhai, go to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy two bicycles. You buy them separately, don't go to get the license plates first, just go to the countryside to collect big white pears. Seeing Lao Biaozi takes Guodong, contacts the village chief after arriving at a village, asks him for help, finds a room at the entrance of the village, leaves Guodong there to collect, and you go to find the next village. This way, the four of you can collect from four villages."

"No problem. We collect eggs by covering that area of villages. Both Biaozi and I have relatives there. We grew up in the village, and we are familiar with the village chiefs."

Seeing Wen San'er agreed readily, but asked again, "We're all going to collect, who will transport them back? There's no car to transport them, and it's too late. Your horse-drawn carriage won't be enough to run until tomorrow afternoon."

Li Xuewu waved his hand and said, "You don't need to worry about transportation. I will arrange for people to transport them. Just wait for me at the entrance of the village after collecting them. I will also go to collect them myself. Five villages, even if 80 households in one village, even if 30 households want to sell, we will have enough to collect."

Seeing Wen San'er thought about it and understood what he meant. He kicked the few people who were still snoring on the kang with his feet.

"Children, the Great King has orders. Let's go catch Tang Seng! Wake up quickly, don't sleep! If you sleep, Tang Seng will pass by!"

With this commotion, Shen Guodong and the others were finally woken up.

Seeing Wen San'er explained the matter in a few words and took out 825 yuan.

Li Xuewu added 550 yuan himself, and each of the five people took 275 yuan.

Seeing Wen San'er gave Seeing Lao Biaozi a bicycle ticket and 120 yuan, asking him to buy a bicycle.

This made them very happy. They had long wanted to buy one, but Seeing Wen San'er said it was useless, and money wasn't abundant yet, so he kept suppressing them and wouldn't let them buy.

Now hearing that they could buy a bicycle, these guys also came to their spirits, washed their faces, put on overcoats, and ran out.

The two groups entered the supply and marketing cooperative separately, and after a while, they gathered at the intersection.

Five people and three bicycles, riding in a team towards Daxing. This bicycle team was also a rare situation.

These five people talked and laughed as they arrived at Daxing. After arriving at the fork in the road of the villages that Seeing Wen San'er often visited, Li Xuewu and Seeing Wen San'er set the order of the villages, agreed on the sequence, and the five people and three bicycles separated and went to the target villages.

The villages here had been stepped on by Seeing Wen San'er and Seeing Lao Biaozi's "egg-flipping" troop. Who had what kind of things, Seeing Wen San'er and others were more familiar with than the owners.

Li Xuewu entered the mountain village and first went to pay a visit to the village chief.

At first, the village chief was not very happy, but later Li Xuewu stuffed 5 yuan to the village chief, and the matter reversed.

"Oh, young man, you don't know. How can we plan how many pears can grow on the tree? We are a pear-producing area in Beijing, so where can we sell them? There are no conditions for transportation. Now the supply and marketing cooperative is not willing to collect more, and the villagers have saved several big baskets in their cellars as snacks."

Li Xuewu held the village chief's hand and said, "Village Chief, we know the villagers are suffering. Isn't this it? The factory wants to get some benefits, but there is no channel, so I came. This matter cannot be spread out."

The village chief said in a low voice, "Rest assured, rest assured. As long as the village is satisfied, I will definitely keep it a secret."

Then the village chief went around from house to house. After a while, one after another, people carried big earthen baskets to a dilapidated house at the entrance of the village.

This dilapidated house lived outside the entrance of the village, and the nearest house was more than a hundred meters away.

Li Xuewu deliberately chose this house to be hidden, and also to make the villagers trust him.

Li Xuewu sat at the door of the outer room and collected them at 2 mao per catty of big white pears. A basket of big white pears weighing 24 or 25 catties was given 4 yuan 5 mao. This big white pear is a specialty of Daxing. Every family has trees, and they save them in their own cellars every year to eat all winter.

(Don't question the prices in this book. The author has a daily account book of a middle-class family in Beijing in the 60s and 70s.)

Today is a big deal. Which family doesn't have 3 or 5 baskets? One basket is 4 yuan 5 mao!

Life in the countryside is tight. Having 4 yuan 5 mao is not a small amount.

Picking them and going to the city to sell them is not worth it, and secondly, they don't dare to.

Because they were picked just over a month ago, they were stored very well in the cellar, and the big white pears were fresh and juicy.

Li Xuewu brought 275 yuan. Except for the 5 yuan already given to the village chief, the remaining 270 yuan were all used to collect big white pears.

Li Xuewu collected a basket and pretended to put it into the house, but actually, he put it into the space. He collected it until dark. After collecting, Li Xuewu didn't leave. He told the village chief that a car would come to pull them at night, and asked the villagers not to come out and bump into them.

The village chief took the 5 yuan and naturally guaranteed, "No one will come out. Didn't you see them squinting when they sent the pears? My words in this village are absolutely effective. But young man, will you come again in the future?"

Li Xuewu said definitely, "Yes. If there are any specialties or mountain goods, leave them for me. I didn't bring enough money today. I'll bring more next time." ===== CHAPTER 55 =====