1994: Vegetable farmers strike back

Chapter 153 Reluctant Customers
"Two hundred jin it is then."

Hong An chuckled but didn't give a direct answer, and Chen Jiazhi didn't seem to care.

Then they started packing the food again.

It was still that same blue Jiefang van with two rows of seats, but today it only had 400 jin (200 catties) of vegetables, so it felt a bit empty.

The scene when Xiao Jiefang left also looked quite desolate.

Yi Long: "This car is really good-looking!"

Even if it looks nice, I won't buy it.

Chen Jiazhi laughed and said, "I need to buy a bigger one, at least a single-row seat. This double-row one can't even fit 100 dishes."

Yi Long curled his lip: "100 pieces a day, that's 3000 catties of vegetables, Uncle, you're really confident!"

"Young man, just watch carefully, and learn well."

Chen Jiazhi took out a scale again and started weighing the plastic basket. The basket and vegetables together weighed 35.5 jin (17.25 catties). Ao Dehai and the other two helped load it onto the truck.

Actually, the basket doesn't weigh 5.5 jin (2.25 catties), it's usually around 5.3 jin (2.55 catties), so Chen Jiazhi's vegetables are weighed correctly.

The bok choy was short and thick today, and it was also more tender than before, but I couldn't accurately estimate the weight of the whole basket.

The vegetable workers were very accurate in estimating the weight a few days ago. Each bunch of vegetables weighed a little over 3 jin (1.5 catties), and each basket had 3 layers, with 3 bunches per layer. So each basket had 9 bunches of vegetables, which was about 30 jin (15 catties).

Today, I harvested four layers of vegetables in one basket, a 5-5-5 structure, totaling 15 loads. However, each basket was still about 2.5 pounds short.

It's mainly too short.

I brought back 22 packs of bok choy, and after making up for the shortfall, I only had 20 packs left.

The yield was lower than expected, almost half that of the previous batch of vegetables.

Ao Dehai said, "Boss, let's go and get two more baskets of vegetables. It'll be quicker to collect two baskets."

“Okay.” Chen Jiazhi nodded and said, “We promised 22 items in the market, so we need to make up the difference.”

With experience, the weight of the next two baskets of vegetables was very accurate, with the weight including the baskets both within 35.7 jin (12.8 catties), and the error was no more than 2 liang (100 grams).

The cook is quite skilled.

The iron fingernails also played a role; with these little gadgets, cooks could more accurately control the length of the vegetables.

At midnight, Chen Jiazhi and Yi Long were driving again, with the night wind blowing, on a somewhat lonely and empty road.

In those days, there were many vegetable farmers like them who traveled between the vegetable fields and the wholesale market every day.

Panyu, in particular, has 7 mu of vegetables year-round, and there are many small vegetable farmers like them.

But it's actually far from its peak.

It wasn't until two years later, after 1996, that the supply of vegetables in China gradually exceeded demand.

Back then, vegetable prices were generally quite low.

The market hit rock bottom in 1998, then began to rebound, gradually showing seasonality and patterns of agricultural boom-bust cycles.

Of course, these are all speculations by Chen Jiazhi based on his memory and his long-term understanding of policies through listening to the news.

It should be generally accurate.

The "vegetable basket project" should start to show its power.

As we approached the wholesale market, the traffic picked up, and there were many people buying and selling vegetables; it was quite lively.

The market now has a lot of vegetables from other places, which has eased the pressure of vegetable shortages. Apart from Chen Ze, no one else is waiting for him at the door anymore.

Chen Ze brought 5 dishes today: 3 pieces of bok choy, and 1 piece each of kale and mustard greens.

As soon as the car stopped, Yi Long skillfully began unloading the goods, while Chen Ze opened the side door of the van. In less than three minutes, they had finished loading the van and collecting the money, all with remarkable efficiency.

"Mr. Chen, I'm out of mustard greens tomorrow, but I can keep the bok choy for two more days. I won't have any bok choy on the morning of the 24th, but I still have kale. Also, cowpeas can be harvested now, and I should be able to get about 200 jin a day."

"Hmm~" Chen Ze sighed, "I've gotten so used to your bok choy, it's a little sad to suddenly lose it. When can we get it again?"

"On the morning of the 30th."

"That's six days. How are we going to get through those six days?"

Chen Ze paid the bill, a total of 330 yuan, and drove away with a bitter face.

He was indeed a little worried. Although there were more vegetables on the market, their quality was unstable, and their appearance was not as good as that of Chen's cabbage. Even the good-looking ones had the hidden worry of excessive pesticide residues.

These days, it's rare to find a channel that offers both high-quality products and a stable supply.

Chen Jiazhi also drove his Shifeng tricycle into the market. There weren't many people yet, so he went to stall number 18 first. Old Wu wasn't there, but there were workers busy at work.

"I've left Lao Wu's bok choy here."

"Okay, wow, the bok choy looks good today, it looks very tender." A worker glanced at it.

Chen Jiazhi laughed and said, "It tastes very tender. Tell Lao Wu later that the bok choy can only last for two more days at most, so he can prepare in advance."

"Boss Chen, you're even going to lose your bok choy?" the worker asked in surprise.

"Okay~" Chen Jiazhi and Yi Long waved and left after unloading the vegetables.

Just then, a square-headed truck came into the passage, causing a sudden blockage. Chen Jiazhi looked over and saw that the truck was carrying vegetables such as eggplants and bitter melons.

It took me a while to get back to stall number 56, where there were people waiting.

It's Curly Hair and a Monk.

Xu He joked, "I saw your car earlier, why did it take you so long to come? If you hadn't come soon, we would have gone to buy someone else's car."

"Perfect timing." Chen Jiazhi turned off the engine, got out of the car, and chuckled, "I'll be out of bok choy in a couple of days."

"Huh?!" Xu He was taken aback. "No, I was just kidding. If you have food, I'll definitely take yours."

"I'm really going to die."

Just then, Yi Long brought down a basket of bok choy, and Chen Jiazhi pointed at it and said, "Look, in order to ensure your supply, I've harvested even these vegetables that haven't fully grown yet. It rained continuously for a while, and the seeds couldn't be sown, so we were really going to run out of stock."

Curly Hair and Xu He were both stunned for a moment, then squatted down and examined the vegetables in the basket. The quality seemed to be much better than before.

Curly Hair: "Really gone?"

Chen Jiazhi: "No joke, by the morning of the 25th, only kale was left."

Curly Hair: "Aren't there any other dishes?"

Chen Jiazhi: "There are also some cowpeas, not much, about two hundred catties a day."

Xu He: "When will the next batch of bok choy be available?" Chen Jiazhi: "On the morning of the 30th."

"Phew~ thankfully, it won't be long."

Curly and Xu were initially a little disappointed, but then they breathed a sigh of relief. It wouldn't take too long; they could just grit their teeth and get through it.

After chatting for a while, they started getting today's orders. Curly got a pedicab and loaded both of their goods in one go.

"Boss Chen, how come you're out of food!"

Before he had even left, Old Wu came rushing over again, shouting from more than ten meters away.

"I'm a human, not a god." Chen Jiazhi shrugged, somewhat speechless. "You all know how bad the weather is."

We had originally thought of making up for it by transplanting, but in early July we sowed 0.5 mu of seeds on the 1st and 2nd of each month, and half of the next batch was transplanted Chinese cabbage.

There are no seedlings!
The land has just been cultivated, and there's already a serious problem with continuous cropping, causing the quality of the bok choy to decline rapidly.
They simply didn't transplant it.

Agriculture is inherently uncertain; even the most perfect plan can always encounter unexpected changes.

Old Wu complained a few times and then tried to leave.

Chen Jiazhi shouted, "Old Wu, you're already here. If you don't pay, I won't give you credit. If you run away this time, I won't deliver to you next time."

Old Wu froze for a moment, then walked back angrily and obediently reached for the money.

"Total 260 yuan."

Old Wu laughed and cursed, "Damn, you, Boss Chen, are the coolest vegetable seller in the whole market!"

Chen Jiazhi: "Do you still want vegetables tomorrow?"

"Yes, of course I want it! Tomorrow, just like today, two packs of bok choy, one pack of kale, and one pack of mustard greens!"

Old Wu then left with a fierce statement: "As long as you have one day's worth of bok choy, I'll take it all!"

Those who weren't listening carefully might have thought the two were arguing.

This is true love.

This made Chen Jiazhi feel a little guilty.

Old Wu is the customer who has been buying bok choy from him the longest so far.

We met in April, and from May 5th to today, for more than two months, I have been ordering bok choy every day.

Even during the most difficult period at the end of May and the beginning of June, Chen Jiazhi gave him 30 jin of bok choy every day.

This was a very rare thing in 1994.

But it's broken today.

Not to mention Lao Wu, Chen Jiazhi was also very disappointed, but now the temperature is higher than at the end of May, so they can't stay for long.

Indecisiveness leads to disaster.

So it's better to cut ties decisively.

One by one, customers arrived, and upon learning that the bok choy was going to be gone, they all groaned in despair.

Some people are even more regretful than Chen Jiazhi.

"How could you just disappear? How could you just disappear? You were Chen Caixin!"

Chen Jiazhi was speechless. The man was standing right in front of him, how could he just disappear?

This also shows that customers have become dependent on him.

Now, not only has it gained fame, but user habits and stickiness have also been cultivated. Just like following novels in later generations, if one day your favorite novel suddenly stops updating, you will feel terrible and want to send the author a knife.

However, Chen Jiazhi gave us two days' notice, so it was alright.

Once the reasons were explained, the customers understood and said they would come back as soon as he had bok choy.

Chen Jiazhi felt a little proud.

Because there are no decent competitors, although there are more vegetables on the market, the craftsmanship and appearance are not good, the quality is unstable, and the supply is inconsistent, sometimes available and sometimes not.

As for Chen Jiazhi, he's stable.

Except for Lao Wu, who started in early May, most of the others started taking his bok choy from June 10th, which lasted for more than forty days.

That's been going on for quite a while!
Besides, there are also Chinese kale and cowpeas.

Chen Jiazhi didn't actually spend much time selling vegetables tonight; he spent most of his time chatting with customers.

As they chatted, Yi Long loaded the vegetables onto the customer's vehicle, which was a novel experience for him as well.

After seeing off the last older sister, Yi Long said, "Uncle, you're amazing!"

"How is it impressive?"

"I never knew vegetables could be sold like this!" Yi Long stacked the vegetable baskets together and said, "You're so charming!"

"Yes, if you can talk, then talk more. I like listening."

"..."

"Haha, let's go back."

"Uncle, how much money will I get today?"

"Still 8 yuan, what's wrong?"

"Oh, I feel like there are fewer dishes left. Are you going to stop letting me come? It seems like there's not much work left."

Chen Jiazhi was stunned. Taking the goods one by one saved a lot of effort. Did this kid feel guilty?

He really is just a kid.

He narrowed his eyes and smiled, "Come on, it won't affect anything, I won't deduct your pay. If you think it's less work and more money, I'll give you the daily home weighing service too."

"Okay, it's a deal."

"How about I give you a bicycle instead?"

"No, I want to buy it myself."

"You've got ambition, just like your dad."

(End of this chapter)