My 1978 Hotel

"How about it?"

By 3:30 p.m., there were hardly any people left in front of the power plant; even the vendors who had set up stalls had gone home.

"I have two login addresses here, and my purchase intention is quite strong."

Gao pointed to the small notebook in his hand. "There are also seven or eight people who are interested in buying, but they are not willing to register their addresses, and they are probably still hesitant."

"It's about the same on my end," Gao Cheng said, looking at Wu Tong and Qin Yue.

“We’re a little better off,” Wu Tong and Qin Yue said. “We have three registered addresses, and about ten others who want to buy but are reluctant to register their addresses. Their intentions aren’t that strong, but I think as long as we get things done in the early stages, we’re not worried about them not buying.”

"Let's organize the registration addresses first. There's no use talking to those who haven't registered yet. Only if we get the first batch sorted out and establish a reputation will it be easier to contact them later." Li Feng looked at Dong Qing, Wu Yu, and Cheng Cheng.

“We’ve registered one, and there are about ten more who haven’t registered yet.”

The three of them were a little embarrassed, because the number of people registered by the two smaller teams was less than that of the other two teams, especially the brothers Gao Jiu and Gao Cheng, who each registered two people.

"Based on this calculation, there are only about ten registered buyers with a strong intention to purchase."

"There are about forty people who have expressed their intention to buy but have not registered."

Are they all sets?

“Yes, we register sets here, and they include combination furniture and desks together,” Gao Jiu and Gao Cheng said. The others also indicated that they would generally want two sets of these.

"What does this mean? It means they have money, and we went in the wrong direction from the start," Li Feng said excitedly. "Second brother, what do you think?"

“That’s right. Although some cadres in the county town have decent salaries, they are a minority. Unlike the power plant, which has thousands or even tens of thousands of workers, the average salary is sixty or seventy yuan. And almost all of them are dual-income families, or even three, four, or five-income families. Such families may earn two or three hundred yuan a month.” Gao Yue became more and more excited as he spoke. “Moreover, some of the better ones are people who were sent from Shanghai. They have higher requirements for their quality of life than ordinary county town cadres and are willing to spend money to improve their lives.”

"The second brother is right."

Li Feng said with a smile, "We didn't stay for very long this time, and it was around noon. Some workers didn't go home and ate at the factory. Even so, we still received nearly ten sets. Each set costs two or three hundred yuan, and there are nearly forty other people who are interested in buying."

"These people probably make up one-tenth, or even one-twentieth, of the power plant."

Li Feng roughly estimated that about a thousand people passed by at noon, but considering the number of people working at the power plant and surrounding factories, this was only a very small fraction. "The market potential here is huge."

"Haha, I was worried that what I said might not come true until next month."

Li Feng did the math in his head. Goodness, even selling just 100 sets, let alone 400, would be 20,000 to 30,000 yuan. "Let's go back and discuss this properly."

"Mr. Li, let's discuss this further when we get back, okay?"

Dong Qing rubbed her fingers together, and Li Feng, after a moment of surprise, smiled and said, "Okay, commission, right? One yuan per set."

"No, how about that counts as two sets?"

Wu Yu muttered to himself, after all, they were registering for a set of furniture and a desk.

"Row."

Li Feng smiled and took out his money. He was very happy to do so at this moment. You know, the system will subsidize him with 10% of the furniture factory's sales. If ten sets are registered now, it will cost nearly three thousand yuan. He will get at least two or three hundred yuan in commission.

This doesn't even include the 5% publicity budget they'll receive later. All things considered, this trip could bring in a little over 500 yuan. He really didn't care about the few yuan Dong Qing and the others received.

"Thank you, Mr. Li."

Wu Tong and Qin Yue said with a smile that they had three sets, two of which were large sets, which cost a total of five yuan. This was the only time they had earned more than one yuan in all their trips here.

"Come."

Li Feng had already given the Gao brothers a lot, and seeing that Chengcheng seemed embarrassed to ask Dong Qing for money, Wu Yu said with a smile, "Chengcheng, you can take this one first, and I'll get you another set later."

"Thank you, Mr. Li."

Chengcheng quickly took it. As a finance student, she naturally wanted to know about the current price situation. Also, as a finance student, she was more aware of the value of stamps and coins than the average person. One yuan could be used for quite a lot of things.

Buying ten or so stamps shouldn't be a problem; everyone wants to make money.

Everyone was overjoyed, waiting for Professor Wu and Cheng Xue. When Mu Yang returned, he immediately drove the empty oxcart and donkey cart back to the county town, arriving back at almost 5:30.

"Why don't you all take a look around?"

At this time, the county town was somewhat similar to some small cities abroad in later times. Generally, there were not many people after six o'clock. Department stores and other shops usually closed for the day, except for state-run restaurants which stayed open a little later.

After wandering around for a while, the group returned with steamed buns and some stir-fried dishes they had bought from the state-run restaurant (no meat), along with some eggs and other items they had bought from Li Feng's food station. "Luckily, there are still vegetable vendors in that alley."

"But I didn't expect this black market to be so blatant."

"This can't really be called a black market; it's more like a food restocking station."

Li Feng said with a smile, "What we really lack right now is food. Did you see that just now? We don't even have cornmeal."

"Yes, I didn't see any dried sweet potatoes."

The group then realized that the alleyway only sold vegetables and fish and shrimp caught from the Yangtze River. Although the drought was severe and caused huge losses, it was not bad news for the fishermen along the Yangtze River, as they had caught quite a lot of fish.

Fish and shrimp are selling better now, since they are much cheaper than meat. As for vegetable farmers along the Yangtze River, the drought hasn't had a significant impact on them either, since the Yangtze River hasn't dried up and water supply isn't an issue, so the impact is relatively small.

Some even had the clever idea of ​​going to the dried-up river at night to collect some silt, hoping it would help the vegetables grow better.

"Currently, cracking down on grain trafficking is even more severe than cracking down on speculation and profiteering in industrial products."

Li Feng learned about this from Han Guofu and Wu Shengnan. He said that food control is very strict now, and anyone who dares to sell it will be shot if caught. He was not kidding.

"Isn't this going too far? We're short of food here; we need to get more food, right?"

"The government is trying to find solutions, such as providing relief grain and buying back grain."

Li Feng didn't comment on these policies because he didn't understand them; he was certain the government was doing things in the best interests of the majority. "Let's go, don't keep Lao Er and the others waiting." Gao Jiu, Gao Cheng, and Li Muchen hadn't gone shopping.

Back home, Li Feng cooked a braised fish, made an egg drop soup, and laid out the side dishes and steamed buns he had bought from the state-run restaurant. "Let's eat."

"smell good."

"Mr. Li, your cooking skills are getting better and better."

"Stop flattering me, or I'll get carried away."

Li Feng took a big steamed bun. "Everyone, eat up, the steamed buns are pretty good today."

"This steamed bun is truly honest."

"That's right. Although the service at state-run restaurants isn't great, and the food sometimes doesn't taste very good either, the portions are never compromised." Each steamed bun probably weighs three or four ounces, and that's sold by the dry flour.

After dinner, Li Feng, Gao Jiu, Gao Cheng, and Li Muchen had a short meeting to discuss their next steps in selling furniture at the power plant and steel mill. "If things go well, it could be more than ten thousand yuan, a hundred thousand yuan, or even more."

"We'll take two oxcarts and load up some furniture over to the steel mill. We didn't bring enough this time," Gao said. "Otherwise, we could probably sell ten or eight sets."

"We should proceed slowly with the power plant project."

Li Feng tapped the table. "After all, it's not far from the furniture factory."

"I also went to see the furniture factory, and it was all outdated furniture."

Gao Cheng looked on with disdain.

"By the time they realize what's happening, it'll probably be almost Chinese New Year." Gao Cheng was getting a little cocky, but it's true, state-owned enterprises, especially furniture factories, are now in short supply.

"Don't relax too much. We can't compare to the equipment of a furniture factory."

Li Feng thought to himself, "This is hard to say. Although the furniture factory doesn't have to worry about selling its products, if they find out that a furniture factory run by a production team dares to steal their business, then it won't just be about furniture; it might also affect their reputation."

“We can keep a low profile at the power plant, but the steel plant is in the mountains, far from the county town. We can be more high-profile there, setting up a few sets of modular furniture at the factory gate.” Li Feng was getting excited. “We’ll get on with it when we get back.”

"The seminar in the county town can be postponed for a few days, which is perfect. I need to invite everyone one by one, and the magazine also needs to be published and sent over, so I still need some signed copies." Li Feng said helplessly. Holding seminars here is actually quite time-consuming and expensive.

Back in the 1980s and 90s, when Lu Yao's "Ordinary World" won an award, he borrowed money from his younger brother to get an autograph. Nowadays, whether you publish a magazine or a book, you don't get royalties.

People don't really care about publishing. It's similar to getting published in a magazine. They don't even have the money. Who cares about sales? Whether it sells well or poorly, they don't get a penny more or less.

Back then, buying books cost money. I would buy several hundred copies myself, and then organize a seminar and invite people. All in all, it cost a lot of money.

The seminar could be postponed for a few days. The main purpose was to sell furniture, and now that there are better options, we should definitely focus on capturing the better market first. As for building a brand, that can wait. The next morning, after breakfast, the group set off back to Hanjiaba in oxcarts and donkey carts.

They arrived at Hanjiaba before eleven o'clock, and Han Anmin, who was pulling the oxcart, was a little puzzled. "Why are you back so early?"

"It's urgent."

"It's urgent, what's wrong?"

Han Anmin wondered what had happened.

"Good thing."

"By the way, where is Uncle Fu Guo?"

Li Feng planned to tell Han Fuguo and Han Futian about the good news.

"Secretary Gao and Secretary Wu have just arrived at the team."

"Isn't it tomorrow?"

Li Feng muttered to himself, "Why did we arrive so early?"

"I'm not quite sure either."

Han Anmin sighed. "I don't look well."

Has An Jun returned?

"He's back. I was just about to ask him something when Mingliang came over and called me to come pull the oxcart, which made me late."

"Oh, I see. Let's go take a look too."

The two secretaries who were supposed to come tomorrow have come now; they must have something urgent to attend to.

When I arrived at the brigade's courtyard, I saw Han Anjun strolling outside.

"An Jun is back."

Li Feng called out, and Han Anjun nodded. "What's wrong, inside?"

"Sigh, something happened in the mountains."

Han Anjun said in a low voice, "Secretary Gao and Secretary Wu are worried about this matter."

"What happened?"

"Sigh, someone's family has to take their medicine."

"what?"

Li Feng was stunned. He had taken the medicine. "Dead?"

"A family of eight."

Li Feng was stunned when Han Anjun said this.

"How many adults?"

"Two adults and six children, the youngest being only three years old." Han Anjun sighed and briefly explained that the family was not well-off, and the husband had died last year, leaving behind only a blind mother-in-law and six children.

The widow's life was already miserable, and then the drought caused a complete crop failure. She had no choice but to go to the brigade leader, but the brigade leader was no good person. There's no need to go into the dirty deeds he did. But this beast actually disliked the widow because of her unclean body and set his sights on her two daughters, the oldest of whom was only twelve years old.

"Ugh."

"What should we do with the captain?"

Li Feng looked at Han Anjun, who sighed. "Give him a talking-to, then hand the captain over to someone else."

"Is this the end?"

"After all, we didn't force her..."

After Han Anjun finished speaking, he took out a cigarette and offered one to Li Feng. Li Feng hesitated for a moment before taking it. "Isn't this a bit too light?"

"It is light, but..."

"Why did Secretary Gao and Secretary Wu come here?"

"Furniture factory".

Han Anjun took a deep drag of his cigarette and looked at Li Feng. "The furniture factory has made a lot of money recently. The secretary came to ask if we can buy some timber from other villages so that they can make a little profit."

"What did Uncle Fu Guo say?"

Li Feng was actually quite unhappy. This family was gone, but the captain was basically fine. People like that should have been shot, but now it's basically as if they're safe.

“My dad just heard about that and he was so angry that he slammed his hand on the table.”

Han Anjun threw away the cigarette butt and crushed it hard with his shoe.

"I'll go in and take a look."

Li Feng walked into the courtyard, where Han Fuguo and Han Futian were speaking loudly. "Secretary Gao, Secretary Wu, our furniture factory has made some money, but not much. You've also seen the situation in our brigade..."

"Alright, stop complaining."

Secretary Wu took a drag of his cigarette. "I've learned a bit about your situation from An Jun. You've sold quite a bit of furniture these past few days, probably two or three thousand pieces."

"Where?"

Han Futian thought to himself, "Luckily, An Jun didn't reveal much. I didn't know that the total was now over six thousand."

"Just consider this a favor to the commune."

Secretary Gao sighed. "Now that such a big incident has occurred in the mountains, the county will probably send people over. I'm afraid this incident will affect the county's image, and there might be some problems with the relief grain in our Ma'ya Commune."

"Sigh, tell me, how come this bastard can't control those two rotten things down there?"

Han Fuguo couldn't help but slam his hand on the table. "Eight, and there are still a few children, sigh."

"Now things are even worse, and now our entire commune is being dragged down with us."

Han Fuguo and Han Futian were seething with hatred, and Secretary Gao and Secretary Wu also wished they could strangle the secretary who caused such a big problem. But now they had to find a way, since the furniture factory had made two or three thousand yuan in a short period of time.

The two came over immediately. There wasn't much else in the mountains, but there were plenty of trees. Each brigade had large areas of forest, but the timber factory could only purchase a limited amount each day. They were thinking about whether the furniture factory could buy some to increase their profits.

It's better than causing such a big incident because of not being able to eat. When Li Feng came in, Han Fuguo and Han Futian were still thinking about how to make excuses, since their brigade could supply the wood used by the furniture factory.

Li Feng's eyes lit up upon hearing this. He knew that if the power plant and steel mill markets opened up, the demand for timber would be enormous, and the small workforce in Hanjiaba might not be able to supply it all. (End of Chapter)