My 1978 Hotel

"Secretary Gao, Secretary Wu, why didn't you tell me you were coming? Look, Uncle Fuguo, I happen to have some beef jerky, canned meat, and sausages sent by my readers. I'll have Daya bring some over later. We'll have to treat Secretary Gao and Secretary Wu well at noon. It's been a long time since they've visited Hanjiaba." Li Feng entered the brigade with a big smile, completely ignoring the winks exchanged between Han Fuguo and Han Futian.

“I just overheard them talking about timber, and I really wanted to say that the timber from the surrounding mountains is a bit lacking. It would be great if other villages could send some timber over.” Good heavens, Han Fuguo and Han Futian stared wide-eyed.

This kid says whatever he shouldn't say, what am I going to do? Why didn't I stop him earlier? Now I don't even know how to stop him.

"What's wrong? You don't like the timber that Anbing and the others sent?"

Han Fuguo glared at him. "Besides, with the furniture factory's small orders, how could you possibly ask someone else to deliver timber?"

"We just got some more orders, didn't we?"

Han Futian really wanted to cover Li Feng's mouth. How could this kid be so oblivious to the situation? Didn't he see that Secretary Gao and Secretary Wu were all smiles when they heard this?

"Captain Fuguo, look at that, Comrade Li Feng has a higher level of awareness."

"In that case, I'll send two production teams to help you with the timber," Secretary Gao said.

"Two are possible, at least three battalions."

Li Feng said with a smile, "We've had a lot of orders lately, and we're afraid we won't have enough if we don't have enough."

"Alright, alright, the three of you have agreed."

Secretary Gao was even happier, but Secretary Wu was a little worried. After all, Han Fuguo was his in-law, and his child was getting married in a few days. He was afraid something might go wrong. Han Fuguo was about to speak when he saw Li Feng wink at him. Had this kid found some connections?

"Sigh, whatever, I'll help if I can. They're all pitiful people."

Han Fuguo still said, "Let's take it for two months and see. Secretary Gao, Secretary Wu, we've agreed, but you'll have to be more understanding about the furniture."

Li Feng secretly gave Han Fuguo a thumbs up. He was so forward-thinking! Not to mention that the power plant might encounter the county furniture factory next, and who knows how they would handle it. This was one of the reasons why Li Feng was thinking of partnering with other production teams.

Another tragedy involved a family of eight. Although Li Feng didn't know or had never met this family, he felt quite helpless and offered to help if he could.

"Don't worry about that, the commune will take care of everything."

Secretary Gao made the decision immediately. Nothing is more important than having enough to eat right now; having enough to eat is paramount. He would dare say that even if the county revolutionary committee director came. With the commune's guarantee, Li Feng breathed a sigh of relief and could go all out for a while. In addition, the timber supply was not lacking, and some of the young people in the team could also join in furniture polishing and simple wood processing.

The deal was settled, and it was almost noon. Li Feng called for people to go to his house to get canned meat, sausages, and dried meat. Meanwhile, Han Fuguo's family had already prepared lunch: scrambled eggs, stir-fried dried small fish, salted pork stir-fried with pickled bamboo shoots, vegetables, and mixed grain rice.

There was no other way; we weren't prepared. The eggs were laid by our own chickens, the dried fish were small fish caught from the reservoir a few days ago and then dried, the salted meat was mutton from a hunting trip a few days ago, and the pickled bamboo shoots were, needless to say, a staple in our family.

This time, Li Feng brought over beef jerky, red sausage, and canned meat—large chunks of meat in a can, which was the first time Wang Lihong and her two young wives had ever seen. "Even the writing on it is different from what we have here."

"Of course, it's imported canned food."

"And this batch of red sausage, look at it, it probably weighs more than a pound."

"There are quite a few meat lumps."

And then there's beef jerky, truly good stuff! Writers are so lucky, readers send them everything. I really don't know what kind of family they come from.

"What a feast!"

There was fish, meat, and eggs on the table. Gao Tianmin and Wu Feng exchanged a glance. "Captain Han, this is way over the limit."

"Secretary Gao, you've wronged me."

Han Fuguo pointed at Li Feng. "These were all gifts from readers to this kid. I didn't know you and Secretary Wu were coming, so they all came out."

"Haha, I thought I was just benefiting from Secretary Wu's influence."

Gao Tianmin was in a pretty good mood, at least he had achieved his goal of coming here: the three villages could earn some more money and get through the winter a little longer. That's why he started joking with Wu Feng.

"I benefited from Secretary Gao's influence."

Wu Feng laughed and said, "I'll do it. This kid wouldn't be willing to contribute so many good things."

Li Feng chuckled. "What are you talking about? You're here, so what? You're related to Uncle Fu Guo by marriage. What do you have to do with me? Do you think you can eat my food?"

"All that's missing is the wine."

"A friend just happened to give me two bottles of good wine."

Han Fuguo told Han Anmin to get the wine. Li Feng was stunned when he saw it. It was Wuliangye. He had thought that local wines like Xinghuacun would cost a little over one yuan. He didn't expect Wuliangye to be so cheap. It must cost at least three or four yuan a bottle.

"Good wine!" Li Feng exclaimed, getting quite excited. This was the first time he had ever tasted Wuliangye in this day and age. He'd have to figure out a way to get some Moutai and Wuliangye later; maybe he could even bring them back from afar and make them taste even better and purer.

"He's probably brought out all his best stuff, and he still says it's not for you, his in-law," Gao Tianmin teased Wu Feng, who laughed heartily. "Then you're really benefiting from my help this time, Secretary Gao. You'll have to treat us to a meal later."

"That won't do. I haven't kept a single penny in my pocket except for the money I spend on the cafeteria."

Gao Tianmin wasn't lying. He had given all of his salary for the past two months, except for the food expenses paid to the canteen, to the brigade stationed there. Wu Feng had given almost the same amount. Fortunately, both of them were full-time employees and didn't need their salaries to make a living.

As Han Anmin spoke, he had already poured wine for everyone. The first cup was definitely to Gao Tianmin and Wu Feng. Of course, Li Feng's treatment was no worse than Gao Tianmin's and Wu Feng's, especially now that Li Feng's novel had been published.

However, the news from the provincial and regional levels is still a bit behind. We just learned about the publication of the novella, and we probably won't find out about the full-length novel until the next couple of days.

"Come on, let's have a drink."

Li Feng, who had intended to eat quietly, had no choice but to raise his glass. The wine was indeed good; a meal that lasted until 2 PM was perfect. The two secretaries finally left satisfied. Han Anjun didn't linger with them either, as riding a bicycle while drunk could easily lead to an accident.

"Uncle Fuguo, Uncle Futian, I'm going back now."

Li Feng drank quite a bit. Although he wasn't drunk, he was a little tipsy. It was good wine, and the longer it was stored, the stronger it became.

"Wait a minute, kid."

Han Futian grabbed Li Feng. "At the table just now, with Secretary Gao and Secretary Wu present, I didn't ask you any questions. You're quite capable, kid. You can name three villages right off the bat. You must be making at least ten or twenty yuan a day from timber."

"If these three villages put in their full effort, they probably wouldn't even be able to make twenty yuan a day."

Han Futian stared wide-eyed at his boss, muttering a calculation. "That adds up to over a thousand yuan over two months. You've got a really big heart, kid."

"It's only a little over a thousand yuan. These three villages can't afford to cut down so few trees, can they?"

Li Feng muttered to himself, "This guy, let alone Han Futian, even Han Fuguo coughed a few times and almost choked on his water."

"What the hell? You've got some nerve, kid. Over a thousand yuan? Are you kidding me?"

This kid is getting more and more reckless. Over a thousand yuan in cash! How much dried sweet potato would he need to buy? Tens of thousands, almost a hundred thousand jin! That would be enough to feed a small village for two months.

"Uncle Tomita, don't worry."

Li Feng smiled and gestured for Han Futian to sit down.

"Hey kid, what's up? Got another order?"

Han Fuguo put down his porcelain mug, which was printed with the image of a model worker, and looked at Li Feng, who had a smug look on his face, and asked.

"Uncle Fuguo, you're right," Li Feng chuckled. "We just landed a huge order, ten sets just for the initial stages, big sets."

"Ten sets of modular furniture?"

Good heavens, Han Futian and Han Fuguo suddenly stood up, startling Li Feng.

"I'll count this one."

"What do you mean by 'calculate'? Tell me quickly!"

Now, not only Han Futian was anxious, but Han Fuguo, who had been as calm as a rock just moments before, also lost his composure and was almost ready to grab Li Feng and question him.

"Uncle Fuguo, Uncle Futian, this is a long story."

"Long story short."

"You little rascal, you're going to drive me crazy!"

Han Futian was about to make another move when Li Feng quickly said, "Here's the thing, the set they ordered includes a desk and a set of modular furniture. I quoted them 310 yuan per set."

"Does the desk and the modular furniture set count as one set?"

"Wouldn't ten sets cost over three thousand yuan?"

Han Futian suddenly stood up, muttering, "If you add that to what we already had, it'll be almost ten thousand yuan!"

"more or less."

Li Feng said calmly, "But this is nothing. There are still nearly forty people who are interested in buying our furniture. However, I think this is just the initial stage. If we do a good job later, breaking 50,000 or even 100,000 in sales is not a big deal."

"What?"

Han Fuguo suddenly stood up, smashing the porcelain jar in the process. He didn't bother picking up his precious jar, but instead stared intently at Li Feng. "You said, how much, how much?" His voice trembled completely, and Han Fuguo was utterly speechless with astonishment.

"Fifty...fifty...ten thousand, or even one hundred...one hundred thousand?"

Han Futian spoke with trembling hands, his eyes fixed on Li Feng as if he wanted to crack open Li Feng's head to see if the kid was making up a lie. They were all excited about ten thousand yuan, but this kid made it sound like ten thousand yuan was nothing.

This time, they actually set off a skyrocket of fireworks, fifty thousand, even one hundred thousand—a number that Han Fuguo and Han Futian couldn't even imagine. It was simply unbelievable; how could this be possible?

"This is an estimate, but it's highly likely to exceed 50,000."

Li Feng spoke in a low voice because the two old men, whose combined age was over a hundred, were practically staring at him with murderous intent. Li Feng was terrified that if he said the wrong thing, the two old men would pounce on him and bite him to death.

"Tell me quickly, how did you estimate this? Let me give you a proper breakdown."

Han Futian didn't care about drinking tea anymore. He swept all the scattered items on the table under the table with a loud clatter. Li Feng was startled. "Wow, Uncle Futian, you're quite irritable."

Han Futian swept the clutter off the table and placed it under the table, then picked up his ever-present leather bag, opened it, and took out an abacus. "Speak quickly..."

"it is good……."

"Seriously, if this guy hadn't said anything, he probably would have been double-teamed by those two old men," Li Feng said helplessly. "Here's what happened. Today we went to the power plant, and we registered ten sets, and there are still nearly forty sets whose names we left."

"These are most likely fine."

"Where did that 50,000 come from?"

"That's not much," Han Futian quickly calculated, "it all adds up to only about 15,000."

"That's right, there are only about one-fifth of the workers at the power plant gate today. If we calculate based on the current ratio, there should be around two hundred sets. Of course, this is probably a high estimate," Li Feng said. "Let's calculate a bit lower, but there should be at least one hundred sets."

"This is just the power plant. We plan to do the same at the steel mill. We'll move some furniture to the entrance and put it up. It should be no less than the power plant. If we're lucky, it might even reach 100,000 or more."

Han Futian quickly calculated on the abacus, the more he calculated, the more likely Li Feng's words were to come true, and the more alarmed he became. "Is this really something I can be sure of?"

"Probably around 60% or 70%."

"good good good good."

Han Futian slammed his hand on the table. "Third Brother, this is something we can do."

"Dry."

Han Fuguo slammed his hand on the table. Good heavens! Han Anmin and Shi Chunhua outside were startled by the commotion. What happened? Something was off just now. Could they have started fighting?

"Da, are you alright?"

Han Anmin had no choice but to bite the bullet and come in, fearing that a fight might really break out. He was shocked when he entered the room and looked around. There was everything on the floor, and the cups were all broken. What happened?

"It's alright, you've come in at the perfect time."

Han Fuguo waved his hand. "Here's what we'll do. These next few days, you'll stick with Li Feng. If he needs an oxcart, you'll bring the cart and get him whatever he wants. Also, have An Bing go over to the furniture factory; he doesn't need to go cutting wood in the mountains anymore."

"Aren't you going to cut wood anymore?"

Han Anjun was taken aback. What's wrong? If we don't cut down trees, can we just buy all the wood from outside? That can't be right. Didn't we just say we'd cut down more and then make excuses to buy less wood from outside?

"I'm not cutting anymore."

Han Fuguo waved his hand. "It's too much of a waste of time."

"what?"

Han Anmin was completely baffled.

“Anmin, just do as your father says.”

Han Futian couldn't stop smiling. This was great! He wouldn't be short of money anymore. He wouldn't have to worry about food and drink this winter, or even for the next few years. Good lad, not only is he a good writer, but he's also a master at selling things.

"When the time comes, you take all those lads from the brigade to the power plant. If the furniture factory messes with us, we're not afraid of them. We have several brigades to deal with," Han Fuguo said. "We'll buy their timber, so they'll have to come with us anyway."

"That's right, they got off easy this time."

Han Anmin listened to what Han Futian and Han Fuguo were saying, but he didn't quite understand what they meant. However, he could tell that Li Feng had done something big again, and it was something good.

"Anmin, did you hear me clearly?"

"Listen carefully, I'll listen to Li Feng, I'll do whatever he says."

Han Anmin patted his chest and guaranteed, and Han Fuguo and Han Futian nodded.

"Also, tell An Bing that all the young men in the team are following Li Feng's instructions."

"Understood, Da."

Good heavens, what has Li Feng done? He actually said those things at this moment; he's practically acting as a deputy captain! (End of Chapter)