Chapter 11: The Frenzy Continues

The night passed without incident, and Li Yi was up bright and early the next morning!

Since he had to not only set up his stall to sell liangpi but also go into town to sell mushrooms today, he had to get up early.

Given how booming business had been yesterday, Li Yi had made sure to prepare extra flour today.

With practiced ease, he kneaded over 30 pounds of flour, made more than 150 sheets of liangpi, packed the washed and chopped toppings, and once again set off for the county seat on his bright red mule.

Since mushrooms lose a lot of moisture once they’re exposed to the sun, Li Yi decided to sell them in the town center first before setting up his stall outside the sugar factory.

Instead of selling the mushrooms at the street market, Li Yi headed straight for the state-run restaurant in the center of the county town.

As far as Li Yi knew, in this era of scarcity, the vast majority of ordinary people still preferred slices of meat packed with fat; very few people liked to eat mushrooms.

If he sold these mushrooms at a street stall, he wouldn’t make much money at all.

But the state-run restaurant was a different story. It usually catered to officials or the wealthy, and these people considered wild mushrooms a rare delicacy.

In recent years, the state-run hotel had been making occasional trips to the countryside to buy mushrooms, and they paid quite well—at the highest, as much as 50 or 60 cents per pound. The only catch was that they didn’t buy mushrooms from just anyone.

So, Li Yi decided to try his luck at the guesthouse first—who knows, he might just become one of their mushroom suppliers!

The state-run restaurant was located on Xinglong Street, not far from the county government building—the busiest street in Qing Shan County.

Although it was only a little past ten in the morning, the street was already packed with people. It was hard to believe such a tiny county town could attract so many people.

Arriving at the State-Owned Restaurant, Li Yi tied his mule to the large poplar tree by the entrance and walked toward the restaurant.

As soon as he reached the entrance, he was stopped by a girl with two braids: “Comrade, who are you looking for?”

Li Yi hurriedly replied, “Hello, I’m from a nearby village. I heard your guesthouse is buying mushrooms, so I came to ask about it!”

“Buying mushrooms? I haven’t heard anything about that,” the girl said, furrowing her brow.

“It’s no big deal if you don’t know. You can ask your boss. If you really aren’t buying them, I’ll just take them somewhere else—it’s just a matter of a word, don’t you think?”

The young woman was kind-hearted. She looked at Li Yi, who was covered in dust from his long journey, hesitated for a moment, but then nodded.

She first asked Li Yi to wait at the front desk and poured him a cup of hot water before hurrying upstairs.

Soon, the girl returned with a middle-aged man wearing a Zhongshan suit.

Standing before Li Yi, the middle-aged man spoke directly: “Comrade, my name is Liu Jingshan. I’m the director of the state-run restaurant. I hear you’re here to sell mushrooms?”

“Yes, authentic wild pine mushrooms, and some trumpet mushrooms!” Li Yi replied.

“May I take a look at your goods?”

“Of course!”

With that, Li Yi led Director Liu over to his mule-drawn cart and lifted the straw mats covering two large wicker baskets.

Upon seeing the mushrooms in Li Yi’s baskets, Liu Jingshan was slightly surprised.

It wasn’t that Li Yi had a large quantity of mushrooms, but rather that the ones in his baskets had clearly been processed—every trace of dirt and debris had been removed from each mushroom, making them look incredibly appetizing.

Over the years, people had occasionally brought wild mushrooms to the restaurant to sell, but the mushrooms they brought were covered in dirt and weeds, looking filthy, and were a hassle for the kitchen staff to clean up.

“How much are you asking per pound?”

“How much are you willing to pay?” Li Yi asked in return.

Liu Jingshan thought for a moment and said, “Currently, the market price for fresh mushrooms is mostly between 40 and 50 cents per pound, with fluctuations not exceeding 5 cents. Your mushrooms look great—clearly handpicked. I’ll give you 70 cents per pound. What do you think?”

“That high!”

“I’d say these mushrooms have been processed. They’re all uniform in size, and all the dirt and impurities have been removed. You probably wouldn’t get even a pound of premium mushrooms from two pounds of raw ones, would you?”

Li Yi smiled and said, “You really have a keen eye for quality!”

“Let’s weigh them!”

With the help of several restaurant staff members, the two large baskets of mushrooms were weighed directly.

57 jin, totaling 39.9 yuan!

Liu Jingshan was a straightforward man; he handed Li Yi four 100-yuan notes right away!

After the transaction was complete, Li Yi, in high spirits, drove his mule cart away from the state-run restaurant!

Li Yi was delighted not only because he had made 40 yuan selling the mushrooms, but more importantly, because just before he left, Liu Jingshan had made a promise: if Li Yi ever had mushrooms of this quality again, they would buy them all.

It’s safe to say that through this transaction, Li Yi had found another path to prosperity.

Moreover, unlike his solo venture in the liangpi business, selling mushrooms wasn’t something he could do alone—he needed his friends to help out. This way, he could lead his friends toward prosperity together.

In high spirits, Li Yi soon arrived at the sugar factory gate. Although it wasn’t even 11 o’clock yet, a crowd had already gathered there—judging by their attire, they were clearly factory workers.

As soon as they saw Li Yi approaching, the workers quickly gathered around him, clamoring for liangpi!

Li Yi didn’t hesitate; he quickly set up his stall and got today’s business underway!

Thanks to the workers’ word-of-mouth promotion the day before, many people at the factory had heard about this delicious dish and were eager to try it, so business was booming right from the start.

Although Li Yi had anticipated this and made extra portions, he still underestimated the workers’ enthusiasm.

In less than an hour, all 156 servings of liangpi were completely sold out.

What’s more, there were still plenty of people who hadn’t managed to get any, and they were all complaining that Li Yi hadn’t prepared enough!

Hearing this, Li Yi could only bow his head repeatedly in apology, promising that everyone would get to eat liangpi tomorrow, before finally packing up and leaving!

After packing up, Li Yi returned to the Supply and Marketing Cooperative.

However, he didn’t go inside right away; instead, he looked around at the entrance.

Although today’s earnings were good, he realized that buying things at the Supply and Marketing Cooperative still posed a problem: a shortage of ration tickets.

In an era where coupons were required for every purchase, having money didn’t necessarily get you very far.

For the same pound of grain, those with ration coupons paid only a few cents, while those without had to pay double the price.

Moreover, without ration coupons, some items—such as bicycles, sewing machines, and watches—were simply unavailable, no matter how much money one had.

But where there’s a will, there’s a way. There were always people with coupons but no money, which gave rise to a group of coupon scalpers.

They prowl the entrances of supply and marketing cooperatives and state-run restaurants, selling various ration coupons to those in need.

Li Yi was now on the lookout for just such people; he needed to exchange some ration coupons.

Soon, Li Yi’s gaze settled on a young man in his twenties.

The young man was leaning against a utility pole, a blade of grass clenched between his teeth, his eyes darting constantly over the passersby with a distinctly furtive air.

After parking his mule cart, Li Yi strode purposefully toward the young man!

Li Yi didn’t beat around the bush or test the waters; as soon as he reached him, he cut straight to the chase: “Hello, comrade, do you have any ration coupons?”

The young man’s eyes lit up instantly, and he hurriedly replied, “I do. Do you want grain coupons, cloth coupons, or industrial vouchers?”

“Can you get me a bicycle ticket?”

“I can, but it’ll take a few days!”

“How much per ticket?”

“10 yuan each!”

“Alright, I’ll take one. Also, I need 50 jin of flour coupons, oil coupons for 20 people, 2 jin of sugar coupons, and five jin each of vinegar, soy sauce, and salt coupons!”

Hearing Li Yi’s request, the young ration ticket dealer was stunned.

In his small-time business, he’d never encountered such a big customer—and most importantly, he didn’t have that many ration coupons!

“Bro, I… I don’t have that many coupons!” the young man said honestly.

Li Yi furrowed his brow and asked, “Just tell me—what coupons do you have?”

“Forty jin of flour coupons, twenty jin of rice coupons, twenty jin of meat coupons, over ten bolts of cloth coupons, and some oil, sugar, vinegar, soy sauce, and salt coupons—but not many of those!”

“I don’t want the meat or cloth coupons. I’ll take everything else. Just tell me how much it’ll cost!”

“Okay, I’ll round it down to 5 yuan!”

To be honest, that price is really not cheap. After all, a pound of refined flour costs just 16 cents these days, and rice is only 18 cents a pound—you could buy over 30 pounds of flour for 5 yuan!

But he had no choice—if he couldn’t buy cooking oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and other seasonings, he wouldn’t be able to set up his stall tomorrow.

Compared to that loss, this little bit of money is nothing!

“Deal!”

Money for tickets—once the transaction was complete, Li Yi told the young man he’d be back tomorrow and asked him to bring more tickets if he could get any.

Then, with a wad of grain coupons and cash in hand, Li Yi walked into the Supply and Marketing Cooperative!