1994: Vegetable farmers strike back

Chapter 176 Tell her not to waste her time
Busy as the morning dawns once again.

As Chen Jiazhi went out, he saw Yi Dinggan, Li Mingkun, and Guo Mancang squatting on the steps by the door, smoking.

"What's going on?"

"Jiazhi, are your vegetables selling well this morning? Vegetable prices have dropped again; water spinach is selling for 8 cents now."

"Well, I couldn't calm things down yesterday either. A bunch of people surrounded me and started cursing, so I had to lower the price to 45 yuan per piece."

If the price of one item drops by 10 yuan, I'll lose 200 yuan in sales per day, and it hurts me too.

But there's nothing I can do; I've had too much food these past few days.

Yi Dinggan nodded and said, "We're worried that prices will continue to fall, so we're discussing harvesting ahead of schedule and collecting more vegetables to sell these next few days. We'd like to ask for your opinion."

"If you need me to help bring vegetables, I definitely have no problem. It's not a loss to buy them in advance now; the profit margin for water spinach at 8 cents a piece is pretty good."

Li Mingkun: "Jiazhi, what about you? Do you want to start harvesting earlier?"

Chen Jiazhi shook his head and pondered, "I'll stick to the current pace and take some risks. If a typhoon comes, vegetable prices will definitely go up."

Li Mingkun: "What if something happens?"

“If you want to sell at a high price, how can you do it without taking any risks? I’m quite confident.” Chen Jiazhi smiled. “I’m going to inspect the fields now.”

Because the Chinese kale and mustard greens were not harvested in advance, five batches of the Chinese cabbage hearts prepared for the end of August were planted in the same field repeatedly.

In particular, two of these batches were harvested just one day and the land was prepared and sown the next.

These two batches of vegetables also grew the worst.

The other three batches were spaced 3 days, 5 days, and 7 days apart, respectively, and all of them underwent disinfection and sun exposure, resulting in much better growth of the seedlings.

As for the Chinese cabbage in the first and third groups after crop rotation, it grew even better.

After inspecting the fields, Chen Jiazhi used the three groups as a comparison and gave a brief lesson.

After each crop of vegetables, it's important to let the land dry in the sun after tilling. His reckless behavior is unacceptable; it not only damages the soil but also results in poor-quality vegetables.
Qi Yongfeng grimaced upon hearing this.

Chen Jiazhi called out, "Yongfeng, just say what you want to say."

Qi Yongfeng, head held high, said, "Brother Zhi, these two batches of vegetables may not grow well, but they'll definitely sell for a lot of money. Hehe, otherwise you wouldn't have planted them like this. I'm thinking of doing the same thing."

"This is advanced content, which is considered unorthodox. You haven't reached this stage yet. First, learn the basics well."

"I think I've arrived."

"Then I'm going to start criticizing you."

"..."

With a stern face, Chen Jiazhi asked, "How many packages of bok choy did you harvest after you finished planting them yourself?"

Qi Yongfeng lowered his head again.

Chen Jiazhi cursed, "You brute! You don't even have 40 cabbages per mu (unit of land area), and you have the nerve to say you've mastered it?!"

Someone like you, besides me, who else would let you be a team leader outside!

Having not cursed for a while, Chen Jiazhi felt quite comfortable using his language again, so he also cursed Ao Dehai and Ao Deliang.

Ao Deliang is too slow and meticulous, insisting on doing everything to the absolute standard. Doesn't he even know what it means to save time?!
Ao Dehai has actually improved quite a bit and doesn't have any major problems. He's good enough at managing his own little corner of the world, but couldn't you remind the two people next to him?!
The insults weren't particularly harsh, and how much of it the three of them would take to heart was entirely up to them.

Few bosses can do what he does: inspect the fields every day and often teach tips and tricks.

That's indeed a very fast pace of progress.

He trained in the same way in his previous life. During those years in Shanghai, the boss not only took time out of his schedule to train them on how to manage daily operations, but also frequently took them to listen to field experiment classes taught by experts and professors.

Moreover, the area they manage starts at 100 acres, and those who can persevere are all capable of handling things independently.

Unfortunately, although many people were trained, few stayed, and all the Sichuanese left, which angered the boss, who lamented that the Sichuanese cooks were disloyal.

The boss is currently in Guangdong and is likely a senior executive at Dongsheng Agriculture Company.

When he left Dongsheng and headed north to Shanghai, he invited Yi Dinggan, who in turn brought along Chen Jiazhi and Li Mingkun.
But this life is different.

Over the past two days, the female workers have been busy thinning seedlings, while Chen Jiazhi has been organizing the male workers to improve measures to cope with typhoons and rainstorms.

Reinforcing facilities, securing plants, clearing ditches, applying fertilizer and pesticides...

In the early morning of October 20th,
The Luoxi Bridge was faintly visible under the bright moonlight. The Pearl River, which is not usually very clear, appeared clear and gentle under the moonlight, with the moon nestled on the water's surface, trembling slightly.

After paying the bridge toll, Chen Jiazhi thought about the moonlight he had just seen, but muttered to himself: There's no sign of a typhoon at all.

All preparations were completed in the vegetable field, and the main ditch outside the market was also cleaned.

However, there were still no typhoon warnings in newspapers or news reports.

With the good weather, leafy greens are growing rapidly, and Chen Jiazhi's vegetable production has recovered significantly, but vegetable prices have dropped a bit again.

Daily income was only 1300 yuan.

On the day she criticized Qi Yongfeng, her daily income dropped to 1100 yuan, the lowest in more than half a month.

We harvested another 25 bok choy today, but we were actually harvesting them while they were still growing, as they were mostly still in bud.

If we delay for another six or seven days, it will be difficult to control the situation, as he planted a very dense crop in early August.

The typhoon is most likely to arrive in the next two days.

There's been absolutely no news. If all else fails, we'll just have to prepare the dishes ahead of schedule.

After going around in circles, we arrived at stall number 56.

"Xiaolong, we're here. Get up."

Yi Long opened his eyes, feeling drowsy and listless, not wanting to move.

Chen Jiazhi took a bottle filled with ice from the car window. The ice melted into ice water, but when he put it on Yi Long's face, it still jolted him awake.

Chen Jiazhi laughed and said, "You asked me to make you ice this, so don't blame me."

"Hmm~"

Yi Long took the bottle, pressed it against his body to cool it, and said, "Uncle, when are you free to go fishing for eels again? We didn't catch many last night." "Let's wait for a heavy rain. We'll set up fish traps after a heavy rain and catch even more fish."

"That's a deal then."

"When have I ever lied to you?"

"That's true, you're much more reliable than my dad."

After getting off the bus, Chen Ze was the only one there. He grabbed two pieces of bok choy and left in a hurry. This customer was really reliable.

Then they started unloading, placing the cabbages along the aisle in two rows of eight pieces each.

Overall, there's no worry about selling them.

But with so many vegetables available in the market, customers aren't stupid, and they won't rush to buy vegetables that cost half again as much.

Even if you want to take it, you have to wait a bit longer and come later so that both sides can have a battle of wits over the price.

At 2 o'clock, Chen Jiazhi saw Curly Hair, but Curly Hair didn't take his bok choy. Instead, he went to stall number 57 across the street and bought tomatoes.

Neither of them paid any attention to the other.

A little while later, 377 and Lao Wu also passed by through the passage. They just nodded slightly, didn't say anything, and didn't take any food.

Yi Long witnessed all of this and asked, "Uncle, didn't we just agree on a price yesterday? Why haven't they come to pick up the vegetables?"

"I'd like to talk about it one more time."

"Should we lower the price further?"

"It depends."

"what's the situation?"

"Let's see if there are many vegetables in the market today, especially the good quality ones that pose a competitive threat," Chen Jiazhi pondered. "Anyway, we'll have to wait a while today. Why don't you go to the car and sleep for a bit longer? I'll wake you up later."

"Alright, I'm sober now." Yi Long stood up, patted his bottom, and said, "Uncle, you stay here and watch the stall. I'll go scout out the enemy situation for you."

"install?"

"I go first."

"You little brat, you've gone against the Heavenly Gang!"

After Yi Long left, Chen Jiazhi took out a cigarette and started smoking. Yi Long didn't know how to smoke yet, but he didn't know who he learned it from in his previous life. It seemed like he suddenly started smoking all of a sudden.

That night was really tough.
Perhaps it's because of his fame that he sells it at a high price, which is already common knowledge.

For an entire hour, not a single person asked about the price.

Yi Long has also returned from gathering military intelligence.

The news wasn't great. A large stall delivered a truckload of bok choy. The leaves didn't look fresh, but there were no rotten leaves or insect holes, and the roots were okay. Business was good.

It's more expensive than other choy sum, but not as expensive as Chen Jiazhi's.

"Uncle, should we lower the price?"

Chen Jiazhi shrugged. "Nobody's even asking. How am I supposed to lower the price?"

Yi Long said worriedly, "Then are we doomed today?"

Chen Jiazhi pondered for a moment and said, "Let's wait a little longer. It's only a little past 3 o'clock. Those old customers can't just leave without saying a word."

Yi Long: "What if?"

Chen Jiazhi pondered for a moment and said, "If that day really comes, we'll probably have to take these dishes back and throw them away."

"Sigh~"

Yi Ge felt a chill run down his spine. "How heartbreaking would it be to lose a whole truckload of vegetables?!"

Chen Jiazhi even had the composure to smile and said, "If you're in this line of work, you have to be prepared for this. No one can be lucky forever. What's a truckload of vegetables being dumped? Later on, there might be an acre, ten acres, or even a hundred acres rotting in the ground."

Yi Long still found it hard to accept and hated the new cabbage shop with a passion.

“His bok choy isn’t fresh, and it’s only two cents cheaper than ours, so why does it sell so well?”

"Isn't two cents enough?"

Chen Jiazhi laughed and said, "His vegetables are probably not stale, but they were pre-cooled in the cold storage. Pre-cooling the heart of the vegetable directly will cause the leaves to lose some water, making them look wilted and not fresh."

But it doesn't affect edibility at all, and it keeps fresh for much longer.

Yi Long asked doubtfully, "Is that so?"

"Definitely is."

"I'll go check again." Yi Long ran off to gather intelligence once more.

Chen Jiazhi sighed inwardly, thinking that there were quite a few experts in this era. It wasn't even the end of August yet, and large vegetable markets were already producing bok choy on a large scale.

Only large vegetable markets are equipped with pre-cooling storage.

"Uncle, it really is! I touched the vegetables in the basket, and they were a little cold." A moment later, Yi Long came running back, his face covered in fine sweat.

"It looks like the price really has to be lowered today."

The market is ever-changing, and Chen Jiazhi is not surprised by any outcome; all he can do is prepare for it as soon as possible.

A little while later, Xu He arrived.

He immediately said that Xu Wenxiang had invited him to Spruce Forest and wanted to discuss the matter of appointing him as the field manager.

Chen Jiazhi refused without even thinking.

Xu He said, "This time, the treatment I'm giving you is very generous. If you really grow the vegetables well, you can earn much more than if you grew twenty or thirty acres of land yourself."

Chen Jiazhi smiled and said, "I just don't want to work. I'll never work in my life. Go back and tell Ms. Xu not to waste her time."

(End of this chapter)