Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Huang Lei came to Wucheng by car with excitement.

When he arrived in Wucheng, he handed a pack of cigarettes to the driver after getting off the car. Instead of unloading the car first, he went to the outside of the bus station and found three people in a small restaurant. They agreed to pay one yuan each to help him carry the dried mushrooms to a nearby hotel - this was where he lived. Although there were no private rooms, it was cheap because he was a regular customer.

After the market was liberalized, small private restaurants and hotels sprang up one after another, but at least they gradually increased in number around the South Railway Station.

Huang Lei was not the only one living in the hotel. When he and his men carried the bags of dried mushrooms into the hotel, not only did the waiter get surprised, but other guests in the hotel also heard the noise and came out.

"Hey, Xiao Huang, you got a lot this time?" Someone's voice was quite loud, and if you listened carefully, it sounded a bit weird.

"No, no, it was just luck. My gain is not as great as yours, Comrade Liu." Huang Lei still had that smile on his face, three points brighter than when he looked at Li Long, but it lacked a bit of sincerity.

"How can I compare with you? This time I only collected 300 kilograms of straw mushrooms, barely enough to cover my accommodation expenses. I see that what you collected don't look like straw mushrooms. Come on, let me see what they are and help you identify them so you don't get cheated..." The man called Comrade Liu was not polite at all. He came up and tried to grab the bag in Huang Lei's hand, but his words were still for Huang Lei's own good.

"No, no, I've checked them all." Huang Lei quickly stepped aside and took his people to his room quickly. After the waiter unlocked the door, he asked someone to put the things in.

Comrade Liu was not giving up and was trying to pull the bags carried by the people behind him. However, the others were not as afraid of him as Huang Lei was. Some people glared at him, and a taller person pushed him directly:
"What are you doing? Get out of the way!"

Although Comrade Liu was slightly taller than Huang Lei, he was not as strong as those odd-job workers. He staggered when he was pushed. Then those people came in one after another and put the bag of mushrooms into Huang Lei's room.

Huang Lei looked at these people with gratitude, gave money to each of them, and then sent them away with a smile.

"I have to deliver these goods to the train station tonight. Are you free to come and help me move them? The price is the same as before?"

"What time in the evening?" The man who pushed someone just now turned his head and asked.

"Nine o'clock!" Huang Lei said hurriedly.

"Okay, we'll be there then." The man replied, "Lock the door and don't let anyone steal your things, otherwise we'll have made a wasted trip." He glanced at Comrade Liu, turned around and left.

Huang Lei quickly turned around and locked the door. He had originally planned to take a good rest in the room, but seeing that Comrade Liu would definitely keep pestering him, he decided to go out and hide away.

The man surnamed Liu was still chattering to Huang Lei. Huang Lei responded with a smile on his face. He went to the waiter to complete the formalities and left the hotel on the pretext of not having eaten.

He was indeed hungry.

Comrade Liu is Liu Xinjun, and like Huang Lei, he came from the same province to collect food. Huang Lei went to southern Xinjiang to collect dried mushrooms because of his instigation. Currently, southern and northern Xinjiang are rich in resources, but in the eyes of those people, this is a bitter and cold place outside the Great Wall, with Gobi deserts everywhere and nothing good.

So few people come here.

On the contrary, it is a few people who are not well-known or have inside information and know that there are actually a lot of resources here, so they come here to find ways to make money.

Huang Lei came here because he couldn't make it in his hometown anymore. However, Liu Xinjun had heard the news a long time ago and knew that there were a lot of resources here and they were cheap. As long as he could find them, he could make a lot of money by reselling them.

He and Huang Lei met on the train, and after learning that they were in the same business, they went to Wucheng together.

Liu Xinjun tricked Huang Lei into going to southern Xinjiang, while he himself stayed in Wucheng to purchase supplies.

Fortunately, Huang Lei had made some preparations before coming here, and Qi Zhigang was one of his contacts. Although he collected some things in southern Xinjiang, there were few Han people there, and most ethnic minorities did not deal with wild food, which resulted in Huang Lei's trip to southern Xinjiang being almost in vain.

In desperation, he called Qi Zhigang - he got Qi Zhigang's phone number when he was in his hometown of Kouli, and he contacted him once when he was in Wucheng. At that time, Qi Zhigang had returned to Beiting and was unhappy at work, so he could not provide any help. After all, the purchasing station had been withdrawn.

Otherwise it might be helpful.

It was Chen Hongjun's move that stimulated Qi Zhigang and made him think of Huang Lei's line.

Huang Lei called Qi Zhigang for the second time, hoping that he could introduce him to a way or even a place. After all, he had never been to the northern Xinjiang and didn't know what resources there were.

At that time, there was no Internet to check, and if you didn’t have acquaintances, you couldn’t ask for some key information. Even 30 or 40 years later, some locals didn’t know about some of the special local resources.

Without any guidance, Huang Lei's trip to southern and northern Xinjiang was destined to be in vain.

In fact, it shouldn't have been like this, but he trusted Liu Xinjun too much and felt that people from the same province could at least help him in this unfamiliar place in the northwest.

He didn't expect to be cheated. Most of the money he brought with him was spent on the trip to southern Xinjiang. If he hadn't been ruthless and bought a piece of jade to bring back, he probably wouldn't even have money left to buy mushrooms.

But buying jade is not something you can just do. On the way back, there were several groups of people coming from Kou to buy jade. Huang Lei was more cautious and never revealed that there was jade in his bag, but those people didn't care.

When they arrived in Wucheng, those people went to the jade carving factory together, and only then did they realize that they were all in the same industry.

It’s just that what Huang Lei got was real jade and he sold it for a lot of money. Those people were cheated and were defrauded of a lot of money by people who used kava stone as jade.

Huang Lei himself was sweating and scared. He himself couldn't tell the difference between kava stone and jade. He originally thought that if jade could make money, he would make more trips. It was hard work, but he could make money after all.

Although they were lucky this time, they didn't dare to run away. After all, those people had lost everything - it was more than a thousand kilometers away, and it would be difficult to find them if they turned back.

Huang Lei even called Qi Zhigang directly, thinking that if he couldn't find the source of supply, he would just go back.

But I didn't expect to meet Liu Xinjun here again. Huang Lei's personality is like that, he can endure, otherwise he would not have been able to carry more than ten kilograms of jade all the way from southern Xinjiang for thousands of kilometers - he smiled all the way, and took it as a blessing when he was bullied.

But Huang Lei was somewhat wary of Liu Xinjun. He didn't want to deal with Liu Xinjun anymore, fearing that Liu Xinjun would intercept his goods. If Liu Xinjun knew that he got the dried mushrooms from Li Long, he would definitely go to Li Long and cut off his own supply.

Huang Lei's capital not only comes from his own money, but also from money borrowed from his family.

I had almost lost everything after struggling in southern Xinjiang. I took a gamble against my nature and got a piece of jade, which made up for my investment. Now I have these dried mushrooms. If I send them back, if the partner there is reliable, I can make at least 30% profit.

Then he went back to Li Long and bought the remaining dried mushrooms, and could make at least another 30% profit.

Huang Lei felt that as long as he could secure the supply of goods from Li Long, this year's trip to Northern Xinjiang would be a success.

The premise is that no one will steal the market. Liu Xinjun was unwilling to accept this, so he brought Huang Lei to southern Xinjiang to prevent him from competing with him for the market.

Although Liu Xinjun does not have much capital, he, like Huang Lei, sets his sales targets in the province where his hometown is, so they are actually in competition with each other.

Only Huang Lei, who had just arrived, foolishly believed that fellow villagers could help each other.

Liu Xinjun doesn't believe this!

He's the kind of guy who shoots people in the back!

So the large amount of dried mushrooms Huang Lei brought made Liu Xinjun very upset. But now the dried mushrooms were in the hotel, and he couldn't steal them, so he started to find out where Huang Lei got them from.

I have to say that Liu Xinjun is quite smart. After Huang Lei was on guard against him, he ran to the bus station. No matter where Huang Lei came from, he could not escape the bus station. He did not go to the Nianzigou bus station because the time was wrong. He found out from the hotel that Huang Lei had just left this morning, so he could only be nearby. He went to the bus station of the Bayi Guesthouse, and then spent two boxes of cigarettes to find out that Huang Lei unloaded the dried mushrooms from the bus from Ma County.

Huang Lei had no idea that Liu Xinjun was asking about him. After going out for dinner, he went to the train station to arrange for a train carriage to be transported to Kouli.

He couldn't transport these bags of dried mushrooms separately, nor could he transport them by himself on a passenger train as there were too many of them. So he had to share a carriage with others, which was still relatively cheap at that time.

After Huang Lei contacted the carriage, he went to the Bayi Guesthouse again, called up the same people, and went to the train station carrying the dried mushrooms - the distance was not far, so it was not cost-effective to hire a car.

It takes three to four days for the goods to be shipped to my province, and the people there will refund me the money only after inspecting the goods.

Huang Lei plans to change hotels tomorrow and keep a distance from Liu Xinjun - he also hates his weak character, why doesn't he fall out with others?

But after sending the things away and returning to the hotel, Huang Lei did not see Liu Xinjun, which was a pleasant surprise for him.

When Huang Lei got up the next day, he originally planned to check out and move to another place, but he unexpectedly ran into Liu Xinjun who had already checked out of the room with his bag.

Huang Lei was happy, but a little confused. Where was this fellow villager going now?

Liu Xinjun hurried to the Bayi Guesthouse, bought a ticket to Ma County, and waited for the bus to depart.

He already knew that Huang Lei didn't have the money to go to Ma County to collect the goods, so he planned to go there first to test the waters. If there were still mushrooms there, he would rush to collect them. If not, at least he would find out where Huang Lei collected them and place an order in advance.

When Sun Jiaqiang went to the compound to find Li Long and told him that someone wanted to buy dried mushrooms, Li Long was a little surprised. Huang Lei sold the dried mushrooms so quickly. Did he come to collect the money?
But when he met Liu Xinjun, Li Long was even more surprised. Why are these dried mushrooms so popular?

Hearing that this person had a similar accent to Huang Lei, Li Long guessed that the two might be from the same place.

However, he did not mention Huang Lei, but told Liu Xinjun:
"I'm sorry, I'm out of dried mushrooms."

"All sold out?" Liu Xinjun was a little unconvinced. "Sold yesterday?"

Liu Xinjun rushed over immediately after hearing that there was a private purchasing station here. After seeing people lining up in the yard to sell things, especially one of them holding a bag of fresh morels, he knew that he had found the right place.

Such a purchasing station that collects mushrooms is equivalent to a small transit station. As long as you establish a good relationship with the boss here, you can come here every once in a while, pay the money and get the goods.

"Yes, it has been sold." Li Long said in front of Sun Jiaqiang.

He believed that Sun Jiaqiang would not reveal what he said even though he knew there were still a lot of dried mushrooms in the warehouse.

After all, with Sun Jiaqiang's intelligence, even if he doesn't know why I concealed it, he will definitely keep the same statement as me.

Sure enough, Sun Jiaqiang pretended to know nothing and continued to help Gu Boyuan pack things.

"What's your name, boss?" Liu Xinjun was a little unconvinced, but he knew that he was the boss at that time and would have no problem selling his products. He took out a pack of cigarettes, took out a cigarette and handed it to Li Long: "Here, have one!"

"No." Li Long waved his hand. "What's the matter? Tell me."

"I'm here to buy food ingredients," Liu Xinjun pulled Li Long aside and whispered, "How many dried mushrooms can you buy in a month?"

"Why are you asking this?" Li Long didn't introduce multiple sales channels, but he thought Liu Xinjun's smile was a bit fake. Although Huang Lei looked more like a lackey, at least his smile was more sincere.

"Then I just want to buy your mushrooms." Liu Xinjun lit one for himself and said with a smile, "How is it?"

"Then it depends on your price." Li Long would not push money away. "I buy more Morchella and Black Tiger Paw Mushrooms, and I also buy some Straw Mushrooms. Please quote your price."

"Not bad!" Liu Xinjun was immediately excited when he heard that Li Long was collecting rare mushrooms. "How much can you collect in a month? If the quantity is large, the price here will be good."

"What's the price of 100 kilograms? What's the price of a ton?"

"If you can collect this much in a month, I'll give you... how about 25 yuan for the morels?" Liu Xinjun rolled his eyes and quoted a price, "I tell you, this price for dried morels is not a small amount."

He knew that Huang Lei had gone to southern Xinjiang and had very little money left. He was able to collect so many morels and black tiger palm mushrooms, so it was likely that he didn't spend much per kilogram.

So I think the price I quoted is definitely higher than the one Huang Lei gave.

Unexpectedly, when this price was announced, Li Long's face changed. He shook his head and said:

"I bought it at about this price. If you buy it at this price, what will I make?"

"How is that possible?" Liu Xinjun immediately tried to make amends when he heard that it was going to be bad: "I'm talking about the average price. If your goods are relatively good, then I can still raise the price. For top-quality goods, I'll give you 28 yuan, how about that? If it's really good, 30 yuan is not a problem!"

"Then go get them somewhere else. I don't sell them here." Li Long ruthlessly rejected him.

You want to steal other people's business, but you don't want to pay a high price. What are you dreaming of? (End of this chapter)