1994: Vegetable farmers strike back

Chapter 146 Awkward
Li Xiu, who was initially a little angry, burst out laughing, "How can you be so shameless!"

Those still harvesting vegetables chatted and laughed, as if the atmosphere had become cheerful as soon as Xu Wenxiang left.

Chen Jiazhi hummed twice: "I'm not bragging, many people can testify that before I got tanned, I was a handsome young man in the surrounding area."

"Hahaha~"

Everyone laughed even harder.

Harvesting vegetables seems much easier now.

Chen Jiazhi continued to pick the vegetables, and the stalks of kale were quickly arranged into a neat shape.

Li Xiu watched for a while, then went home to record her work. Since the vegetable harvesting had been adjusted, the work recording naturally needed to be adjusted as well.

After harvesting the kale, we went to harvest the mustard greens, and finally the bok choy hearts.

"Sigh, we didn't line up properly again, and we've fallen apart."

Pan Dacheng sighed, his hands a jumbled mess of vegetables, some of the leaves even torn.

Chen Jiazhi got up and walked over, shining his headlamp on himself, and said, "It's alright, take your time, don't rush, the more you rush, the more chaotic things will become."

After one night, all eight people were basically able to get the hang of it, although their speed and the quality of their work varied.

Making mistakes is normal.

However, Chen Jiazhi repeatedly emphasized that mistakes can be corrected and damaged vegetables can be discarded, but one cannot try to get away with it by mixing damaged vegetables into the basket.

There are no shortcuts to this.

You can only learn by doing it again and again, just like improving your skill level. The more crops you collect, the more proficient you become.

As for how fast one can go once they become skilled, that depends on talent. Many cooks rely on this skill to raise their children and support their elderly parents.

Some cooks can even do fancy tricks, arranging vegetables from their fingertips all the way to their shoulders and cheeks without making a mess.

Pan Dacheng, Huang Shan, Jin Feng, and Xiao Xia were all still quite inexperienced.

...

Early in the morning.

Heiwa drove up again, and the number of onlookers had decreased significantly. Chen Jiazhi also learned that his name was Hong An.

The vegetables had been weighed long ago, and as soon as the truck arrived, they were loaded directly onto the truck. Then, the calculated bill was given to Hong An.

511 jin of bok choy, 253 jin of mustard greens, and 251 jin of Chinese kale, totaling 3602 yuan.

The price has remained around this level for the past few days with little fluctuation.

Although he learned the true prices of vegetables in Hong Kong from Xu Wenxiang, Chen Jiazhi no longer planned to raise prices.

Too many people and too much attention can be detrimental; maintaining the status quo is fine, and vegetable prices aren't low anyway.

Chen Jiazhi said, "I'm letting you know in advance that I'll be out of bok choy by the 19th, and the kale and mustard greens won't last much longer either."

Hong An hurriedly asked, "How much is left?"

Chen Jiazhi: "It's rare. It might be interrupted for seven or eight days. There was a lot of rain in early July, and there was also the impact of typhoons, so the seeds were not sown."

"Oh~"

Hong An was somewhat disappointed. Let alone a seven or eight-day interruption, even if he lost two hundred catties of vegetables every day, he would feel heartbroken.

But it’s understandable.

Without rain and typhoons, vegetable prices in Hong Kong could not have been inflated to such high levels.

It's remarkable that Chen Jiazhi has been able to persevere for so long; it has far exceeded their expectations.

Hong An counted out a wad of banknotes and gave them to Chen Jiazhi before driving away in his small Jiefang car.

Chen Jiazhi first took the money home and gave it to Li Xiu, then went out again to tell the workers to bring back the plastic vegetable baskets.

It's all bok choy, and the handmade quality is excellent.

Then came the weighing and loading of the vegetables. The custom-made plastic basket weighed 5.5 jin (2.25 kg), and the total weight of the vegetables was only 35.5 jin (17.25 kg), making loading and unloading the truck very easy.

The plastic basket also comes with a metal handle, which can completely separate the two baskets of vegetables when they are stacked, so that the vegetables underneath will not be damaged.

22 pieces of bok choy, 8 pieces of mustard greens, 8 pieces of Chinese kale, a total of 38 pieces and 1140 jin of vegetables.

The Shifeng tricycles were stacked layer upon layer, and the ropes were tied around and around.

Yi Long smiled and said, "Uncle, have you decided what kind of car you want to get? This car is still a bit too small."

Chen Jiazhi said, "What's wrong? You're complaining now? This car has done a great job!"

Yi Long: "Okay."

He bought it for 4000 yuan, but Shifeng Tricycle earned far more than that. After tying the rope, Chen Jiazhi touched a small dent in the carriage.

He once tapped it with a steel pipe and only later discovered that it had left a dent.

Looking back now, these are all its medals of honor.

In his previous life, he changed four or five vans. Each time he changed vehicles, he was quite reluctant to part with them, as if he were saying goodbye. The vans were his comrades-in-arms.

"Jiazhi, drive slowly on the road."

"Okay, I know. You should go to sleep early."

Tonight, it's just him and Yi Long; Yi Dinggan, Li Mingkun, and Guo Mancang have no vegetables to sell for the time being.

However, the three of them were in good spirits and were preparing for the next batch of vegetables, and they also bought a lot of shade nets.

Chen Jiazhi is also planning the next batch of vegetables. The typhoon season in July is about to end, but there will be another typhoon in August.

I just can't remember the exact time.

It's alright, August and September are the tail end of the harvest season, and the market is not bad anyway.

If another typhoon hits, there will definitely be a shortage of vegetables in late August and early September.

By then, the car will definitely be bought, and it will be able to carry more vegetables at once.

With more land available this time and a well-planned approach, not only can the daily output of vegetables be increased, but it can also be more efficient during critical periods.

But the most important thing right now is to sell all the vegetables in the field. After a few days, the bok choy hearts are starting to bloom.

...

Before 2 a.m., two or three people started to gather at stall number 56.

As soon as Chen Jiazhi drove his car into the alleyway, he saw several of his old customers.

Leafy greens are still scarce in the market, but their notoriously high price deters many people. Only Chen Ze, Lao Wu, and Xu He arrive early every day to wait for him, and these past two days, Fatty Liu has joined them.

After parking, Chen Jiazhi quoted the price as usual.

"As usual, bok choy, kale, and mustard greens are all 90 yuan a piece."

Old Wu, Chen Ze, Xu He, and Fatty Liu all agreed, and the four of them took 15 dishes directly.

In just a few minutes, almost 40% of the vegetables were gone. If four more customers came, the whole truckload of vegetables would be sold out. But it's not easy to build up a good customer base.

After a while, someone else came and asked, "Mr. Chen, are you not selling small quantities of goods anymore?"

Chen Jiazhi looked the man down and recognized him. He usually ordered very little food, only 10 or 15 jin a day.

"Sure, but it'll have to be later."

"If you wait any longer, your vegetables will be sold out."

"Then there's nothing I can do."

Actually, it's just a disguised way of saying they don't want to sell loose goods. Repackaging them is too troublesome. It didn't matter when there were fewer vegetables, but now that there are more vegetables, repackaging them like before is too tiring, especially since it's just him and Yi Long.

Moreover, we haven't had to worry about not being able to sell our vegetables in the last two years.

The person ultimately didn't take any food, and quite a few other individual customers also left.

Because people ordered few vegetables and were unfamiliar with the vendors, Chen Jiazhi insisted on charging a 20 yuan deposit for the vegetable baskets, which deterred many people again.

After a group of people left, Yi Long asked worriedly, "Uncle, at this rate, will we be able to sell everything today?"

"It's still early, not even three o'clock yet."

Chen Jiazhi smiled. Yi Long had been selling vegetables for the past few days and had been going home relatively early, so he hadn't experienced the evening market yet.

After waiting for a while, 377 and Curly arrived at the stall at about the same time, and were also confused when they learned that they could only take items by the number of items.

377 asked: "Mr. Chen, are you no longer going to repackage it?"

Chen Jiazhi said, "No, you can take it back and repackage it yourself. Damn, just thinking about this makes me angry. You deliver to so many restaurants every day, and I repackage it all, but you never give me extra money."

377 had no choice but to accept it reluctantly. After looking at the order and doing some mental calculations, she took the four dishes.

"Remember to bring the vegetable basket back, otherwise it won't be so easy to buy vegetables in the future."

Yi Long helped 377 load the vegetables onto the cart. Chen Jiazhi reminded them to return the vegetable baskets before looking at Curly Hair.

"Mr. Mao, how many dishes would you like today?"

"Could I have half a dish?"

Chen Jiazhi's lips twitched: "No, you can buy an extra day's worth of groceries and put them in the freezer."

"Then take two pieces of bok choy."

"Don't you want kale or mustard greens?"

"We don't need that many."

"I'll charge you 180 yuan for two items."

"..." Curly Hair was speechless, feeling that Boss Chen was heartless and ruthless after taking his pants, but he still had to take them.

As it turns out, two people can easily handle the shipments one item at a time.

Even when delivering goods, Yi Long would stay at the stall, and Chen Jiazhi would borrow a human-powered tricycle to make one or two trips.

The recycling of vegetable baskets is not slow either.

He'll be selling a little slower today, while Lao Wu and 377 brought their vegetable baskets back that morning.

It was only in the end that some loose stock was sold before everything was sold out, but there was also an advantage: we were able to reach new customers.

Some new customers also prefer to buy items one by one.

If this trend continues, sooner or later we will accumulate more and more high-quality customers, forming a new virtuous cycle.

By the time we sold the last of the vegetables, it was almost dawn. I checked my watch and it was already 5:40.

The accounts are easy to calculate: 38 dishes, each costing 90 yuan, totaling 3420 yuan. Adding Hong An's 3602 yuan, the total comes to 7022 yuan.

Another perfect day.

"Come on, Xiaolong, let me treat you to some rice noodles. Your dad used to eat two bowls after selling vegetables, and he'd always add an egg."

"An? He can eat that much?!"

"Why don't you give it a try?"

"Just try it."

"A half-grown boy can eat his father to death," this saying is really true. Yi Long also ordered a bowl of noodles and an egg, and ate it all up. He even drank a few mouthfuls of soup before wiping his mouth. Seeing that Chen Jiazhi was staring at him, he said.

"Uncle, you're not going to dock my pay for this noodle dish, are you?"

"Haha, do you think I'm that stingy? I promised eight yuan a night, not a penny less. I can't let you stay up all night for nothing."

Chen Jiazhi seemed to recall his days back in his hometown, when his two nephews, Xiaolong and Xiaohu, were his little followers and he was always very close to them.

It's good to take care of him for a while longer; it can be of some help.

After returning to the market, it was already broad daylight. Yi Long went inside and fell asleep immediately.

Yi Dinggan said with concern, "Jiazhi, why don't we let Yilong go tonight?"

"No, I have to go!"

Yi Long, who had just lain down, immediately sat up again, his eyes resolute.

Yi Dinggan said, "Do I need the little money you earn?"

Yi Long: "Anyway, I don't care, I'm going to go sell vegetables with my uncle!"

Seeing that the father and son were about to start arguing, Chen Jiafang intervened, saying, "Alright, let him go. Let's see how long he can keep it up. He'll get tired of it and won't want to go anymore."

Yi Long lay down again, sulking. His parents didn't quite believe him.

Chen Jiafang called out again, "Xiaolong, get up and have breakfast."

"We've all eaten."

Chen Jiazhi struck up a conversation, turned on the radio, and chatted while listening, though he occasionally felt a little awkward.

(End of this chapter)