1994: Vegetable farmers strike back

Chapter 242 Hoarding
Strictly speaking, it hasn't frozen yet; it's just that the weeds are covered with a layer of white frost, and the crystal-clear frost needles look like rock candy, which is very beautiful.

Even this level of frost is enough to cause severe frost damage to winter-grown vegetables.

Chen Jiazhi jogged into the market, stopped to ask the price of the snow peas, and after a little bargaining, he bought them.

After only taking a few orders, they met with Chen Zhengxu again and discussed the matter. They estimated that they could fill more than half the truck, and there was still a lot of snow peas in the market.

"Uncle, take as much as you can. Even if you bring a few more cars, we might not be able to buy them all!"

"It's heartbreaking. I see opportunities to make money, but I don't have the ability to take advantage of them."

Chen Zhengxu, however, was not so optimistic: "It seems like everyone else isn't worried."

The market was bustling with vendors, all of whom were warming their hands, but they remained as cautious as ever when buying goods, haggling over prices as needed.

It was just the two of them who, seeing that the goods were good and the price wasn't too high, would quickly grab the vegetables. Chen Zhengxu suddenly felt a little guilty.

I bought all snow peas today; hopefully they'll end up stuck with me.

Chen Jiazhi also noticed that there hadn't been any major changes in the market yet, and said, "Ignore them, they'll regret it sooner or later."

Chen Zhengxu stamped his foot: "Should we keep getting the snow peas, or buy some vegetables?"

Chen Jiazhi pointed to a patch of asbestos-tiled roofs diagonally above and shook his head.

"It's only 10 a.m. and the frost is already so thick. The temperature may drop even lower in the early morning, and the leafy greens may get frostbite. Don't buy them for now!"

"Buy some more snow peas to make this truckload enough. I'll go ask if there's any warehouse space available for rent so I can try to buy even more."

Chen Zhengxu advised, "Uncle, why don't we play it safe and check the situation again tomorrow?"

Chen Jiazhi said coldly, "Everyone will realize it by tomorrow. Now we just need to be decisive. When the opportunity comes, we must act decisively!"
You're just too cautious, you know? If you don't dare to act now, how will you make big money in the future!

After a two-second silence, Chen Zhengxu said, "Then I'll go buy it first."

"Hmm~" Chen Jiazhi calmed down a bit. "Be careful with your eyes. Don't buy anything with quality problems."

The two continued to split up. Chen Jiazhi, unwilling to give up, went to the management office of the Jiangnan Market and was told that because it had just opened, there was no warehouse for temporary storage.

"You don't even have a warehouse, what kind of wholesale market are you running?!"

Even if he bought them, there was nowhere to put them. Chen Jiazhi complained loudly in the market office and prepared to leave.

As soon as he turned around and went outside, he saw a man with a crew cut, who was not very tall and didn't look very old.

The visitor asked, "Brother, what do you need a warehouse for?"

Chen Jiazhi said matter-of-factly, "For storing vegetables, I don't even need a cold storage facility, surely there should be a regular warehouse, right? But there isn't one. The market only makes a little money from the stall rent!"

The visitor frowned; it was the first time he had ever heard of a wholesale market offering warehouse rentals.

"Brother, come sit in my office. Maybe I can help you with the warehouse issue."

"you are?"

At this moment, the man who had previously greeted Chen Jiazhi in the office said, "This is our market's General Manager Ye, who is also the boss."

Chen Jiazhi was surprised, and looked back at the ordinary-looking round face. This was the future big boss of the agricultural wholesale market.

"Hello, Mr. Ye, I've heard so much about you."

"You've heard of me?" Ye Canjiang led the way to an office next door, his voice tinged with surprise.

Chen Jiazhi laughed and said, "I've heard about your story of selling garlic sprouts."

"The past is too painful to recall. I lost more than 10,000 yuan on the 8 tons of garlic sprouts I bought from Guangxi. It was a huge blow at the time, but fortunately I made it through in the end."

After pouring him a glass of water, Ye Canjiang asked, "You mentioned earlier that you wanted to rent a warehouse. Are you going to store some vegetables?"

This person has a keen sense of the market, Chen Jiazhi thought, but it didn't seem necessary to hide it completely. At most, by daytime, these people should have all realized what was going on.

"I do have an idea. I've found an opportunity to stock up on some vegetables. Mr. Ye, can you find a warehouse?"

Ye Canjiang pondered for a moment and said, "It depends on how big a warehouse you need. If you want to rent it temporarily and for a short period of time, I do have a place that I can rent to you, but it's small, only thirty or forty square meters."

Chen Jiazhi thought about it for a moment and knew what he was up to.

The claim that he only had 30 or 40 square meters was just an excuse; the other party just wanted to see what vegetables he was stockpiling, and would definitely follow suit if given the chance.

But Chen Jiazhi hesitated only for a moment before agreeing.

Immediately afterwards, Ye Canjiang had someone take him to a corner of the market where there was a simple little house, but it was enough for Chen Jiazhi. He rented it for a week on the spot, and after getting the key, he returned to the parking lot.

Basket after basket of snow peas are being loaded onto the truck, and it will be finished soon. The truck is packed full from start to finish.

After finding Chen Zhengxu and waking up Li Cai who was sleeping, Chen Jiazhi pondered and said, "The temperature is getting lower and lower, so we won't go to sell vegetables tonight. After the truck is loaded, we'll cover it with the tarpaulin and make sure it's well covered."

Then they all went to buy groceries!

"The warehouse has been rented..." Chen Zhengxu felt he had asked a pointless question as soon as he opened his mouth.

Li Cai also realized that if things really developed as expected, he would suffer a huge loss if he sold the vegetables tonight.

The truck was full of vegetables. The three of them first covered the top of the vegetables in the baskets with a layer of velvet before covering the truck with the tarpaulin.

Then Chen Jiazhi let the two of them into the car, and took out three stacks of money from his bag, giving half of it to Chen Zhengxu.

"Tonight's mission: spend all the money!"

"Uncle, isn't this too much money?"

"Don't be a coward, just do it!" Chen Jiazhi pondered, "How much we can buy today will determine how much we can earn in the next two days!" Chen Jiazhi drove the car to the rented warehouse and parked it next to the warehouse. He gave the warehouse key to Li Cai and asked him to guard the car and pick up the vegetables. Then he and Chen Zhengxu ran to the market.

"First, buy the ones with lots of stock, buy them by the truckload. Snow peas are hard to buy, so buy kale and bok choy. Once you've spent the money, you won't be so anxious."

Chen Jiazhi patted Chen Zhengxu on the shoulder and then disappeared into a passageway.

Chen Zhengxu took several deep breaths to suppress his nervousness. He wore thick clothes and kept his money in his inner pockets.

But that was 15,000 yuan, and you just handed it to him like that?
Without giving him much time to think, he embarked on another journey of inspecting goods, negotiating prices, and making deals.

After spending two large sums of money, Chen Zhengxu felt much more relaxed; 1.5 yuan wouldn't make much of a splash in this market.

It's just that vegetables aren't so easy to buy anymore.

The two met again, and at that moment, icy rain began to fall from the sky, landing on their faces with a chilling cold.

"Uncle, how much did you pay per pound for the snow peas?"

"It's 1.6 yuan now."

"So expensive?!"

"If it's under two yuan and the goods are good, I'll make a token offer and then buy it without hesitation!"

But soon, even at 2 yuan per jin, you couldn't buy snow peas anymore.

Fortunately, there wasn't much money left, so Chen Jiazhi bought some more bok choy and finished his shopping trip. He then returned to the warehouse to receive the goods and settle the account.

Baskets of vegetables filled the warehouse. Only after finishing the work did Chen Zhengxu ask in bewilderment, "Uncle, why is the price of snow peas rising so fast?!"

Leaning against the wall and lighting a cigarette, Chen Jiazhi said, "Because it's not just us buying; other people are buying too!"

"them……"

Chen Zhengxu suddenly felt a bit cold. He hadn't felt it while running, but now that he had stopped, the damp and cold feeling came back.

"Will they affect us?"

"No, our cost price is lower than theirs. If they are bold and smart enough, they might make more money than expected this time!"

The other person buying snow peas is definitely Ye Canjiang, who also started his business in vegetable wholesale, and he usually runs a stall in the market.

If you know that snow peas have a chance~
If Chen Jiazhi were in his position, he would definitely take the opportunity to hoard goods and speculate. If he couldn't handle it all by himself, he could join forces with other stall owners.

Ye Canjiang probably did the same thing, which is why the price of Dutch beans rose so rapidly in the end.

After hearing Chen Jiazhi's explanation, Chen Zhengxu and Li Cai were extremely surprised, never expecting that such a publicity stunt could be staged.

Li Cai asked, "Then what should we do?"

"Wait a day or two and see. If the price is right, I'll sell it. Maybe I can resell the vegetables without even leaving this market!"

Ignoring the two who were still in shock, Chen Jiazhi took his and Chen Zhengxu's shopping lists and began to take stock of the inventory.

In the end, the warehouse contained 1.8 jin of snow peas, with an average price of 1.55 yuan per jin and a cost of 2.79 yuan.

In addition, there was a truckload of snow peas, totaling 8600 jin (4,800 catties), at an average price of 1.35 yuan per jin (0.5 catties), with a cost of 11610 yuan.

Therefore, the total weight of snow peas was 39510 jin (approximately 14,250 catties), with an average price of about 1.49 yuan per jin (approximately 0.67 yuan per kg).

In addition, there were 4200 jin of bok choy, with an average price of 0.5 yuan.

Having spent over 4 yuan in one night, Li Cai and Chen Zhengxu's concept of money is gradually becoming blurred.

"Brother Chen, are we going back now?"

The night was deep and cold. Chen Jiazhi didn't speak. He went to the front of the car. A thin layer of frost had formed on the windows, which would probably disappear before dawn.

But it was ice!
Chen Jiazhi stood on tiptoe and managed to pry open the car window, which then chipped it.

"I don't dare to drive right now. For safety's sake, let's wait a while and sit in the car for a bit to warm up."

It was cold inside the car, but it was still much better than being outside in the cold wind.

Chen Jiazhi wasn't worried that the snow peas in the car would freeze. Although it was cold now, the outdoor temperature should be around 0℃, but the perceived temperature was very low.

The container was well-sealed in the car, and since it was made of bean pods, there shouldn't be any problems.

In contrast, snow pea vines are more susceptible to frost, and the taller and more vigorous the vines, the more likely they are to die.

Generally speaking, snow peas may freeze to death in environments below 5°C.

If a plant is kept in an environment below 5°C for an extended period, even if it doesn't freeze to death, its growth will be severely affected, and recovery will be difficult and lengthy.

If the temperature in Guangzhou is already this low, it's likely even lower in other areas, especially in the northern mountainous regions and other parts of South China.

Overnight, many open-air winter vegetables may have frozen to death or been damaged by frost.

bang bang bang~
The car door was knocked on, and Chen Jiazhi saw Ye Canjiang with his round face. He opened the car door and got out.

"Mr. Ye, what can I do for you?"

"Do you sell snow peas?" Ye Canjiang pointed to the warehouse and said, "I can give you 2 yuan per jin."

Chen Jiazhi shook his head. "That's too low. My target price is at least 4 yuan per jin. Mr. Ye, you don't need to worry about me disrupting the market."

Ye Canjiang was surprised and admired the young man's sharp eye. He smiled and said, "Congratulations on your fortune!"

(End of this chapter)