Chapter 247: The Food Crisis
As October began, temperatures in North Sai Province dropped rapidly!
Before mid-October had even arrived, frost had already settled across the fields, and every morning, ice shards would even appear along the small river outside the village!
As temperatures dropped, the Li family’s business was hit the hardest.
On October 5, Li Yi personally used the village’s public address system to announce that, effective immediately, the Li family would cease purchasing mushrooms.
In fact, as the weather grew colder, mushrooms in the mountains had largely stopped growing; even if people ventured into the mountains, it was difficult to find mushrooms of acceptable quality.
Moreover, the villagers didn’t have much time to go mushroom picking these days, so when they heard the Li family had stopped buying mushrooms, although they were reluctant to see it end, they didn’t say a word!
Besides, now that the harvest was nearly complete, everyone had to haul firewood and sort hay, hand in their grain quotas, and distribute rations to the commune members—they were swamped!
Li Yi hasn’t been idle these past few days either. Since he no longer has to make daily trips to the county seat, he’s been busy every day with a few of his younger brothers working on the new house!
They had to pack the previously sun-dried mushrooms into bags and stack them neatly in the storage shed.
On top of that, they had to go to Second Sister’s house to bring back the dried mushrooms stored there.
On the one hand, Second Sister’s family didn’t have a storage room—they only had three small rooms in their entire house, so there was nowhere to store all those mushrooms.
On the other hand, storing dried mushrooms requires specific conditions—they must not get damp or be exposed to water, and his second sister’s home doesn’t meet those requirements.
Since there were simply too many mushrooms, Li Yi and six or seven of his younger brothers worked tirelessly for over ten days before they finally finished processing all the dried mushrooms.
At the same time, Li Yi weighed the dried mushrooms that had been sun-dried.
Wow, in just three months from July to now, they’d managed to dry over 100,000 pounds of mushrooms.
If you calculate that five pounds of fresh mushrooms yield one pound of dried mushrooms, that means in just three months, they had harvested over 500,000 pounds of fresh mushrooms.
Seeing these figures, Li Yi was somewhat stunned.
But upon reflection, he understood—this was the result of over three months of hard work by the villagers from both villages. He had intentionally limited the quantity; otherwise, the yield would likely have been even greater.
For now, all the dried mushrooms have been stored in the warehouse. Next, they just need to wait for the price of dried mushrooms to rise before shipping them out!
One hundred thousand jin of dried mushrooms could normally fetch over 200,000 yuan!
Yet Li Yi’s total costs didn’t even reach 100,000 yuan—a 100% profit margin!
It’s just a pity that the price of dried mushrooms isn’t high enough yet; he’ll have to wait at least one or two months before he can sell them.
Once these matters are settled, the trip to the capital must be put on the agenda.
Although the relevant decree was issued by the capital on November 4th, it would be too late to go there at that time.
Since the newly issued administrative order only permits ordinary citizens to engage in food service and small commodity trade—a rather narrow scope—the market is relatively concentrated.
It’s easy to imagine that once the decree is officially announced, prices for shops and storefronts in the capital will inevitably skyrocket, and arriving too late might mean he won’t be able to secure a lease.
Therefore, Li Yi needs to go ahead of time to secure a storefront!
After some deliberation, Li Yi decided to set out before October 25th, giving himself 10 days to secure a storefront!
However, just as Li Yi was about to discuss this matter with his family, he noticed that the atmosphere at home felt off!
The Li Family’s Old Mansion!
Night had fallen, and the streetlights were just coming on!
When Li Yi returned from the new house, he saw his third older sister cooking at the stove, with his mother helping her nearby!
His father was crouched on a small stool by the door, his brow furrowed!
He didn’t see Tang Xue, but the light was on in the western room—she must be inside reading.
Ever since she’d made up her mind to get into a prestigious university in the capital, the girl had devoted all her energy to her studies. Aside from mealtimes, she spent almost all her time reading and studying—she was incredibly diligent.
As soon as he walked in, Li Yi sensed that the atmosphere at home was a bit off. Everyone was silent, unlike the usual chatter and laughter.
“Dad, Mom, what’s going on? Why aren’t you saying anything? Did you guys have a fight?”
His father glared at him and said irritably, “If we’re not talking, does that mean we’re fighting? Can’t you give us a break?”
“Then what’s really going on? Why are you reacting like this?” Li Yi asked with a smile.
His father sighed and said, “The commune posted the ration plan today. It’s a 50-50 split between per-capita rations and work-point rations, and each person’s food allowance is only 180 jin!”
“180 jin? That’s so little?”
No wonder Li Yi was so surprised. After all, even though last year’s harvest wasn’t great, each commune member still received 225 jin of per capita rations.
Add in the work-point rations, and any able-bodied worker could get about 420 jin.
But who would have thought that this year’s ration would be only 180 jin!
Don’t underestimate a mere 45 jin—in the village, that’s equivalent to an adult’s food consumption for a month and a half.
And that’s just for one person. Some families in the village have ten or twenty members—that means a shortfall of several hundred pounds of grain.
Father sighed and said, “We had little rain this summer, so the crops missed their growing window. Then the first frost came early in the fall. Both the wheat and the buckwheat yielded only sixty percent of last year’s harvest.”
“And after deducting the grain quota for the state, the village’s surplus is already minimal, so we have no choice but to cut back on the per-capita rations!”
Li Yi paused for a moment, then said to his father, “Dad, if we have to get by with less, so be it. We won’t go hungry anyway, so please don’t be upset!”
However, Li Shankui shook his head and said, “I’m not worried about our family going hungry. It’s just that when I think about the other families in the village, with such meager rations, many of them are going to have a hard time.”
“It’s not that bad,” Li Yi replied. “Everyone’s made a decent profit working with the Li family these past two months. They shouldn’t go hungry.”
“That’s true, but right now most people have money but no ration tickets. It’s not very cost-effective to buy grain with cash!”
Then Old Man Li continued, “Besides, there are some families in the village with lots of kids. With so few rations and so many children, they’ll have a really hard time getting by!”
“It’s come to this—there’s nothing we can do about it,” Li Yi sighed.
“Aren’t you supposed to be pretty resourceful? Can’t you think of a way?”
Before Li Yi could speak, Zhang Yuehong, standing nearby, snapped, “You old fool! How dare you drag your son into this thankless task?”
“If he does a good job, others reap the benefits; if he messes up, our son gets the blame. Have you lost your mind?”
Meanwhile, Third Sister Li Na, who was cooking nearby, chimed in, “Dad, this is food for hundreds of people in the whole village. In the middle of winter, where do you expect Xiao Yi to go and conjure it up?”
Faced with his wife and daughter’s words, the old man fell silent as usual, sitting on his little stool with his head bowed, saying nothing!
Li Yi thought for a moment and said, “Dad, do you really want me to help the villagers?”
“Is there a way?”
“There is a way, but it requires everyone’s agreement!” Li Yi said.
“Tell me your idea!” his father said, his face full of hope.
“Hmm!”
Immediately, Li Yi briefly explained his idea to his father.
After hearing Li Yi’s plan, Li Shankui immediately stood up from his small stool and, grabbing Li Yi’s arm, headed straight for the front gate!