At four in the morning the next day, Li Yi got up early to make liangpi!
He had no choice—his family was building a house these days, so Li Yi had to get up a bit earlier to avoid being seen while making the noodles.
After all, street vending was currently prohibited, and he’d been making quite a splash lately. If anyone saw him, some narrow-minded folks might go behind his back and report him to the commune.
Although Li Yi wasn’t afraid of that, it would still be a hassle, so it was better to be cautious!
By a little past seven, when the commune members helping out arrived at the Li household, Li Yi had already finished making the liangpi and the white flatbreads.
Plus, with the abundance of mountain produce lately, no one had any idea that the mule cart carried other “contraband” besides mushrooms and wood ear fungus.
At nine o’clock in the morning, Li Yi showed up right on time at the entrance of the state-run restaurant!
The staff at the restaurant had long since become familiar with Li Yi, and upon seeing the bright red mule cart, they immediately came out to greet him.
They knew just how highly Director Liu regarded this young man from the countryside.
As usual, they weighed the goods and settled the bill. By the time Li Yi stepped out of the state-run restaurant, all those baskets of wild produce had been exchanged for “Great Unity” banknotes.
With another 650 yuan in his pocket, Li Yi was in high spirits.
At this rate, it wouldn’t be long before he became the first person in the village to earn 10,000 yuan.
Of course, what Li Yi valued wasn’t the title of “ten-thousand-yuan household” itself, but the initial accumulation of capital.
As a successful businessman, Li Yi understands all too well why some people—despite having the ability and no shortage of opportunities—end up spending their entire lives as corporate drones, stuck in a nine-to-five routine.
A key reason is their inability to achieve the initial accumulation of capital. Without that seed money, even the best ideas and the strongest abilities cannot be put into practice.
With the curtain on reform and opening-up now raised, it is expected that Wenzhou will launch pilot reforms for the private economy this year, leading to a surge of individual businesses springing up like bamboo shoots after rain.
Seizing this opportunity, the national economy will enter a fast track within just a few short years.
From that point on, success in business would no longer depend on who was the boldest, but on who had the deepest pockets and the sharpest vision.
Consequently, Li Yi secretly resolved to accumulate sufficient capital before that time.
After leaving the state-run restaurant, Li Yi headed straight for the supply and marketing cooperative.
With the house under construction these past few days, he not only had to pay the workers but also provide meals.
After all, they had invited people to help, and since the wages weren’t high, the food had to be decent.
So Li Yi decided to buy some tofu, glass noodles, and other items to take home; he couldn’t let people say the Li family was too stingy.
With over a dozen people cooking at home, the daily consumption was simply enormous, so Li Yi bought quite a lot of supplies today.
In addition to about ten pounds of tofu and seven or eight pounds of dried glass noodles, Li Yi also bought 10 pounds of meat, two large bags of nearly 100 pounds of Fuqiang flour, and a 50-pound bag of rice. All told, he filled nearly half a cart.
But he didn’t mind; at the rate he was making money these days, a mere few dozen yuan was really nothing.
Just as Li Yi was busy making a big purchase at the Supply and Marketing Cooperative, Xu Hong arrived at the state-run restaurant on his bicycle.
After returning home yesterday, he had called over a few educated youth he was close with and told them he’d found a way to make money.
Learning that Xu Hong had a way to sell the unwanted mushrooms from the back mountain for three mao a jin, these educated youths were overjoyed. Immediately after finishing their assigned tasks, they headed straight for the back mountain.
However, over the past few days, Dongzi, Shitou, and their crew had already picked clean every hilltop near the village. The mushrooms that had once covered the ground were now few and far between.
With no other choice, Xu Hong and the others had to venture deep into the mountains to search.
Since Li Yi had strictly forbidden the children from venturing deep into the woods to avoid danger, Xu Hong and the others actually managed to find a few patches of mushrooms.
After a Herculean effort, Xu Hong and the others finally gathered several baskets full.
Thinking that so many mushrooms could easily fetch fifty or sixty yuan—and that even after sharing some with the other educated youths, he’d still make twenty or thirty yuan for himself—Xu Hong was so excited he couldn’t sleep all night.
Early the next morning, he borrowed a bicycle, tied the mushrooms to the back seat in a plastic bag, and headed straight for the county seat.
To keep Li Yi from finding out he was poaching his business, Xu Hong didn’t go to the state-run restaurant first. Instead, he waited until Li Yi had finished delivering his goods before sneaking up to the restaurant entrance.
When Xu Hong pushed open the door, the restaurant staff immediately asked, “Comrade, we don’t serve breakfast here…”
Xu Hong hurriedly replied, “Hello, comrade. I’m not here to eat; I’m here to deliver mushrooms!”
“Deliver mushrooms?”
The staff member immediately realized this man was there to sell mushrooms. Recalling Director Liu’s notice from the previous day, he said, “I’m sorry to inform you, but we’re no longer accepting mushrooms here!”
“You… aren’t accepting them anymore?”
Xu Hong was momentarily taken aback and hurriedly asked, “But everything was fine yesterday. Why have you suddenly stopped accepting them?”
“I’m sorry, that’s our boss’s decision. I don’t know the details!”
“That can’t be right. I just saw someone else come in to sell mushrooms. Why are you accepting his but refusing mine? This isn’t fair…”
“Comrade, whether or not we accept mushrooms—and whose mushrooms we accept—is our state-run restaurant’s own business. Please don’t make a scene here!”
The staff member was getting a bit annoyed by Xu Hong’s persistence, and his tone had involuntarily grown a bit harsh.
Just then, Liu Jingshan happened to be coming out of his office. Hearing the commotion, he immediately came over to check on the situation.
“Little Li, what’s going on?”
“Director, this comrade came to sell mushrooms. I told him we don’t accept mushrooms here anymore, and he got upset!” Little Li reported honestly.
Liu Jingshan glanced at Xu Hong and said, “It’s like this, comrade. Our state-run restaurant isn’t very large, and the mushrooms we’ve already purchased are enough to meet our needs, so we’re no longer accepting mushrooms from outside sources. You’d better try somewhere else!”
“How can you do this? They’re the same mushrooms—why do you buy others’ but not mine?” Xu Hong was furious inside, and his voice involuntarily rose.
Liu Jingshan thought it best not to make a scene, lest it tarnish the state-run restaurant’s reputation. Plus, feeling sorry for him since mushroom picking wasn’t easy, he immediately asked, “How many mushrooms did you bring? If the quality is decent, we’ll buy them today—but this is a one-time exception only!”
Hearing this, Xu Hong felt a sudden sense of relief.
Although being able to sell them only once wasn’t quite what he’d hoped for, at least he’d managed to sell the mushrooms he’d picked yesterday, and he could now give the other educated youths a satisfactory explanation.
Besides, Xu Hong was already scheming: once that good-for-nothing was out of the picture and no one else was delivering mushrooms to the state-run restaurant, they wouldn’t be able to refuse his supply then!
With that in mind, Xu Hong immediately went out to his bicycle and carried the tightly bound plastic sacks into the restaurant.
When Liu Jingshan saw that he was actually using burlap sacks to carry the mushrooms, a sense of foreboding instantly welled up inside him!