On the gravel road leading to the county seat, the atmosphere in the mule cart was somewhat somber!
Tang Xue was in a bad mood, Li Na had something on her mind, and only Li Yi acted as if nothing was wrong.
After a long while, Li Na was the first to break the silence. “Xiao Yi,” she asked, “what are you thinking?”
“What do you mean, ‘what do I think’?”
“Are you really going to take everyone out to gather wild produce and sell it for money?” Li Na asked in a subdued tone.
“Yeah, if they turn us down again this time, I’m afraid it won’t work out!” Li Yi said.
“But… didn’t you say the state-run restaurant doesn’t have a large enough volume to handle that much wild produce?”
Li Yi smiled and said, “That’s true, but mushrooms and wood ear fungus don’t have to be fresh to sell—dried goods are worth a lot too!”
“So you mean if we can’t sell the mushrooms fresh, we’ll just dry them and sell them as dried goods?” Li Na asked in surprise.
“Mm-hmm!”
“But who would buy them?”
“Of course there are!”
Li Yi continued, “It’s currently the growing season for mushrooms and wood ear fungus. There’s no shortage of them in the mountains, so naturally, no one buys the dried ones!”
“But once winter comes and they stop growing, we’ll have to rely on dried goods to get by, so don’t worry about not having a market for them!”
“That makes sense. I thought you were really being pushed to your limits by the villagers, which is why…”
Li Yi smiled and said, “The villagers are certainly a factor, but they’re not the most important one!”
Li Yi continued, “Right now, the idea of ‘equal pay for equal work’ in the collective is still the mainstream. People aren’t afraid of being poor; they’re afraid of others being richer than them. That’s exactly what the saying means: ‘We fear not poverty, but insecurity; we fear not scarcity, but inequality!’”
“Our family has been a bit too flashy lately, so we’ve stirred up quite a bit of resentment. Those few male educated youths are just the beginning. If we keep this up, it won’t be just those few scoundrels who’ll come after us!”
Hearing Li Yi’s words, Li Na and Tang Xue both shuddered.
Villagers are usually simple-hearted, but when they set their minds on harming someone, they can be truly terrifying.
Li Na spoke again: “Aren’t you worried that the villagers will all go foraging and neglect their farm work? How do we solve this?”
“Easy to solve!”
Li Yi continued, “I plan to give each household a daily quota of twenty jin. Don’t take any more than that!”
“What do you mean?”
Clearly, neither Li Na nor Tang Xue understood what Li Yi meant by this “20-jin quota”!
Li Yi smiled and said, “I plan to buy mushrooms from the villagers at a price of 20 cents per jin, but I’ll only accept 20 jin per household per day—and only fresh mushrooms!”
“What if they pick more than that?”
“They can take them home to eat, or throw them away—either way, we absolutely won’t accept any more!”
Li Na’s eyes suddenly lit up, and she said happily, “That’s actually a good idea. No matter how many people are in your family, we’ll only buy a maximum of 20 jin from you.”
“And those 20 jin are exactly what one person can pick in a day. The rest of the family won’t be able to turn their harvest into cash, so they won’t bother spending extra time gathering wild produce!”
Tang Xue thought this was a good idea too, but she added with some concern, “There are over 150 households in the village. If each family gets 20 jin, that’s 3,000 jin a day. At 20 cents per jin, that’s 600 yuan a day!”
“If we can only sell a third of those mushrooms, that means we’ll be stuck with at least 400 yuan in unsold inventory. Can we afford to cover that cost?”
Li Na realized the problem too and turned to Li Yi, saying, “That’s right. Four hundred a day—that’s over ten thousand a month! Where would our family get that kind of money?”
Li Yi just smiled and said, “Don’t worry. Right now, we’re bringing in five or six hundred yuan a day just from the mountain produce, so we can definitely cover it.”
“Besides, it’s already July. In a few months, when the weather cools down, the mushrooms won’t grow anymore. That means we’ll only have to cover the costs for three months at most, and after that, we can just sit back and wait for the money to come in!”
“Three months is thirty or forty thousand yuan! If we lose that, it’ll be like we’ve worked for nothing all year!” Li Na said worriedly.
“It won’t be a waste—just the money we make from the stall alone will let us save quite a bit!” Li Yi said.
Although Li Yi spoke with such certainty and ease, Tang Xue and Li Na were still a bit worried.
After all, to them, even a 10-yuan note was a huge sum; tens of thousands of yuan was simply an astronomical figure.
But what they didn’t know was that Li Yi was absolutely confident about selling dried goods.
In his previous life, this was how he made his first fortune, so he knew exactly what the future held for mountain produce.
Moreover, this was the second year of reform. The economies of some coastal regions were already showing signs of taking off, and people’s incomes were no longer stuck at the “36-yuan-a-month” level; many were now earning monthly salaries in the high tens or even hundreds of yuan.
With money came certain expectations for material living standards, and food and drink became key indicators of improved living conditions.
However, greenhouse technology had not yet become widespread, and in the dead of winter, people had little access to fresh vegetables; the market offered little more than potatoes, radishes, and Chinese cabbage.
Consequently, many turned their attention to dried goods such as dried mushrooms and dried wood ear fungus.
More importantly, the government’s plan to launch pilot programs for individual businesses in coastal regions in a few months’ time has greatly stimulated market activity.
Consequently, starting this winter, the prices of dried goods like mushrooms and wood ear fungus have skyrocketed.
So there’s absolutely no question of losing money!
Li Yi’s only concern now is whether his family can properly store all these dried goods—which is a major reason why he’s limiting the quantity of goods he accepts!
Originally, Li Yi had planned to wait until the warehouse and drying shed were built before starting large-scale procurement of mountain produce.
But now, with the incident involving the male educated youth, he has no choice but to move things up.
Otherwise, he’d end up alienating the villagers who aren’t making any money.
To avoid trouble, large-scale procurement of mountain produce has become inevitable.
Before they knew it, the mule-drawn cart had arrived at the state-run restaurant!
As usual, he unloaded the mushrooms and cold noodles, settled the bill, and then headed straight for the supply and marketing cooperative.
However, to Tang Xue and Li Na’s surprise, this time Li Yi not only bought a few bags of flour but also quite a few chicken cakes, pork, and malted milk powder—he even bought a jar of snow cream.
After leaving the supply and marketing cooperative, Li Na immediately asked, “Xiao Yi, what are you buying all this for? I thought you just bought Snow Cream for Xiao Xue!”
Li Yi smiled and said, “This isn’t for my wife!”
Hearing this, Tang Xue looked up and asked, “Then who are you buying them for?”
“My older sister!”
“Your older sister?”
“Yeah, I plan to head over to Juziwa in a bit to see her. I’ll take the chance to tell her I’m getting married!” Li Yi said.
Li Na nodded and said, “You really should go let her know. Your big day is just around the corner!”
Li Yi glanced at Tang Xue and asked, “Honey, do you want to come with me?”
Tang Xue thought for a moment and said, “I’d rather not. After all, I haven’t officially joined the family yet, so it wouldn’t be proper for me to visit my future sister-in-law’s home!”
Although Li Yi didn’t think it was a big deal, he realized that such customs did exist in the area, so he didn’t press the issue.
“Alright, then you can go set up the stall at the textile factory with Third Sister in a bit. I’ll come pick you up this afternoon!” Li Yi said.
“Okay!”
……..