1994: Vegetable farmers strike back

Chapter 246 Climbing
"...And you, you lack confidence."

Suddenly told he lacked confidence, Yi Dinggan put down the fire tongs in his hand.

Why do I lack self-confidence?

"Brother Yi, let me do it. You guys go outside and chat." Li Xiu walked in, intending to take over Yi Dinggan's position of tending the fire.

Yi Dinggan didn't stand on ceremony. He and Chen Jiazhi went into the courtyard, with a cigarette in his mouth, his head slightly raised, his eyes full of resentment.

Tell me, where do I lack confidence?

"Are you so confident that you'll only estimate a yield of 8000 jin?"

Chen Jiazhi, with a cigarette dangling from his lips, came to the fence on the left side of the yard and watched the chickens pecking at a mixture of chopped cabbage leaves and rice husks.

Yi Dinggan remained unconvinced: "Just because the estimated output was slightly higher than the actual output, you conclude that I lack confidence? Besides, this has no impact on production."

“Actually, this is quite helpful for production, and you will do even better.” Chen Jiazhi squinted. “It’s just that I feel you can be more confident, relax a bit, and not be so tense all the time.”

"When it comes to putting pressure on yourself, who can compare to you?" Yi Ding chuckled dryly. "You're developing at such a fast pace that if I didn't pay attention, I probably wouldn't be able to keep up."

Managing a large vegetable market covering hundreds of acres is really exhilarating!

"The area will only get bigger in the future."

Chen Jiazhi didn't talk about the pressure anymore, and it was also the first time Yi Dinggan had managed such a large vegetable market.

Just like in his previous life, he wasn't very good at farming himself, but he could manage things very well when others did it.

In just over six months, progress has been rapid in all aspects.

The level of dedication exceeded Chen Jiazhi's expectations, with him personally handling most of the daily management tasks.

"Haha, it's about expanding and strengthening," Yi Ding chuckled dryly. "I feel that day isn't far off. Right now, if you asked me to manage a vegetable market of thousands of acres, I could handle it just as well!"

“I’m currently looking for a site,” Chen Jiazhi said thoughtfully. “I plan to build a new vegetable market, which will probably cover five or six hundred acres. If you’d like to go, I can entrust you with the production.”

Yi Dinggan remained silent.

Chen Jiazhi said, "Look, you're losing confidence again."

Yi Dinggan flicked the ash off his cigarette slightly. "Five or six hundred acres... that must require a lot of money to invest."

"That's why I wanted you to come over." Chen Jiazhi leaned against the wall, a cigarette dangling from his lips, his eyes squinting. "For the first market, I wanted to find the most trustworthy person."

Yi Ding chuckled dryly, clearly pleased. "I thought you would choose Ao Dehai."

“He has no experience managing a large market; he’s just a backup plan,” Chen Jiazhi said. “If you don’t go, he’ll have to fill in temporarily, and I’ll keep an eye on things. I’ll delegate more of the Jiangxin market to you.”

Yi Dinggan stood on the other side of the fence, just able to see the figure doing homework in the main room, and hesitated slightly.

Chen Jiazhi noticed his gaze, but he wasn't particularly surprised.

"Xiaolong will graduate from elementary school in the first half of the year, so he can go there to find a middle school."

"Let me discuss it with your second sister and Xiaolong again," Yi Dinggan said curiously. "Does Li Xiu know you're building a new vegetable market?"

"She said she'd listen to me."

They chatted for a short while before the meal was ready. After eating, the family watched TV again, but Chen Jiazhi wasn't very interested. He quickly pulled Li Cai and Chen Zhengxu to head to Dongxiang.

Although his family is all there, it can be quite lonely to pursue a career sometimes, as his family members have a kind of Buddhist-like contentment with a modest life.

Upon arriving at the Dongxiang vegetable market, the farmers were watching television together. The first to greet Chen Jiazhi were two dogs, one black and one white.

Even though we don't see each other often, I'm still quite close to him.

Hearing the commotion, the vegetable workers came out and exchanged greetings for a while. Except for those loading the truck, the rest of them went back to watch TV. Chen Jiazhi and Ao Dehai chatted about work in the yard and then took a flashlight to the vegetable field.

The vegetable field was quiet and still at night. The vines climbing the bamboo frame, the dense bean pods, and the cabbage hearts swaying in the cold wind made it easy to walk around the field with a purpose.

Upon reflection, some scenes still linger in my mind, vividly unforgettable.

“Well done,” Chen Jiazhi said to Ao Dehai with a smile. “The output looks pretty good too.”

Today, the Dongxiang vegetable market harvested 7500 jin of bok choy and 340 jin of snow peas, which is a very good yield.

Ao Dehai laughed and said, "The main reason is that we laid a good foundation."

"There's no need to be overly modest; if you do well, you do well."

After thinking it over, Chen Jiazhi also told Ao Dehai about the relocation of the base, including the possibility of appointing Yi Dinggan as the site manager and him as his deputy.

He observed Ao Dehai's expression.

“Mr. Chen, I have no objection. If it really is 500 mu, I definitely can’t manage it. Right now, I’m already struggling with 50 mu and about 20 people.”

Whether it was genuine or feigned, Ao Dehai agreed.

"Don't worry, even as the deputy manager, your commission will not change, and may even increase." Chen Jiazhi patted him on the shoulder: "Moreover, if we want to develop well and build a new vegetable market, you should be the manager, so you need to adapt to the management of a large vegetable market as soon as possible."

"I will."

In truth, Ao Dehai had no qualms whatsoever; in fact, he felt the market was developing too rapidly, from managing a few acres to ten acres, then fifty acres, and soon it would jump to five hundred acres.
Actually, it only took about half a year.

He had only just adapted to the new environment and was about to skip a grade. He was also uneasy, worried that he would not be able to keep up with Mr. Chen's pace or that he would mess things up.

After speaking with Ao Dehai for a while, when I returned to the dam area, the dishes had already been packed.

The truck was more than half full of 250 pieces of bok choy and 340 jin of snow peas. Unlike last night, these were all fresh. As soon as he arrived at stall number 56, Chen Jiazhi quoted the prices to the two or three vegetable vendors who came after hearing his voice.

"Chicken hearts are 45 yuan per piece, and snow peas are 3.5 yuan per jin!"

Someone loudly vented their dissatisfaction: "Yesterday, snow peas were only 3 yuan per jin, but today they're 3.5 yuan per jin! Mr. Chen, your vegetable prices are skyrocketing!"

"It's only been a few days, and the price of vegetables has already doubled!"

Chen Jiazhi calmly directed that only half of the door be opened first, then turned around and shouted, "Today's goods are all fresh, and there are only 340 catties of snow peas left. Once they're sold, they're gone."

"What?! Only 340 jin of snow peas?!"

"Mr. Chen, you're not kidding, there was a whole truckload of that just a couple of days ago!!"

Those who arrived early were stunned; they had suddenly fallen from the sky to the ground!

But today the truck wasn't covered with a tarpaulin, and the vegetable vendors could see the vegetables in the cargo compartment as soon as they came up—baskets full of bok choy.

Xue Jun also handed down two baskets of samples from the car. Compared to yesterday, today's vegetables looked better and were fresher, and the standard plastic baskets were back in use.

In just a moment, the vegetable vendors who had realized what was happening quickly placed orders and picked up the goods, and 340 jin of snow peas were sold out in no time.

Chen Jiazhi didn't bundle the bok choy with his sales today, but everyone still took quite a bit.

Choy sum is now a scarce commodity, especially fresh, undamaged choy sum.

Even after these people left, the number of customers did not decrease at all, and the speed of food preparation remained stable.

During another short break, Chen Jiazhi gave the bag containing the money to Li Cai, and then went to stroll around the market.

It was still very cold at night, but many stalls were also deserted, as the supply of vegetables had decreased due to the cold wave.

Especially leafy greens, although they are still available, they are nowhere near as plentiful as they were a week ago.

Back then, goods arrived in truckloads, and each stall displayed a dazzling array of vegetables.

It's rather bleak now.

Just like Panyu, which he knows well, the area of ​​vegetables is 7 mu per year, of which 1.75 mu are high-quality melons and beans planted in spring and off-season vegetables. It can be roughly estimated that the proportion of greenhouse vegetables is very low.

As we walked, we arrived at the third row, which was the passageway where Curly's stall number 33 was located.

Chen Jiazhi arrived at number 33. There were dishes available, but the quantity was significantly reduced, far less than that at number 56.

He also saw Curly standing anxiously in the stall with his hands on his hips. Then Curly saw him too, and Chen Jiazhi nodded slightly before continuing to walk forward.

If there aren't enough dishes at this time, customers will inevitably be lost in large numbers.

However, Chen Jiazhi doesn't care much about these customers now.

When he returned to stall number 56, there were far fewer dishes available, and he unexpectedly ran into several regular customers who greeted him and offered him cigarettes.

They had only been nodding acquaintances for the past few days.

People in the market are really pragmatic, but that also lessened Chen Jiazhi's reluctance when he left in the future.

There's nothing to miss.

Uh... no, that's not right either. Chen Jiazhi didn't see Lao Wu today. He didn't come to pick up the vegetables when he went to the market to stroll around.

Even when the vegetables were almost sold out, we didn't see him. Old Wu is still tough!
On his first day selling vegetables in the new year, Chen Jiazhi had a great start, earning 1.2 yuan.

Another day passed.
On the evening of January 4th, Jiangxin Market harvested 9800 jin of snow peas and 50,000 jin of bok choy.

The production of snow peas has decreased slightly, but the price has suddenly jumped to 4.5 yuan per kilogram.

In the past few days, information from various places has gradually become clearer. The damage to winter-grown open-field vegetables such as snow peas in various places is indeed quite serious. However, Chen Jiazhi knows that this is only the trigger. Behind the scenes, there are other hands pushing the price to a high point.

Even without him, people would probably still hype up Dutch beans.

His presence, along with the Jiangxin vegetable market, may actually prevent prices from reaching their peak.

But it doesn't matter anymore. Once the money arrives, there's no need to delve too deeply into the reasons behind it.

On that day, Jiangxin Vegetable Market's revenue increased by another 14.41 yuan.

In the early hours of January 5th, Chen Jiazhi also received an extra 12,600 yuan in income.

After selling his vegetables, he didn't rush back. Instead, he took a detour to visit Shijing Town and Jianggao Town in Baiyun District.

These areas are mostly farmland now, but the condition of the fields is not optimistic.

After a frost, vegetable leaves begin to dry out from the edges, and some vegetables even wilt and die.

It was during a time when vegetable prices were soaring, yet many vegetables that should have been on the market were tragically frozen to death.

Chen Jiazhi chatted with several vegetable farmers, and in their words, "The money we had in hand has gone down the drain."

Then, pointing to his truck, he said, "Go back to where you came from. Don't even think about buying vegetables for the next couple of days!"

After months of hard work going down the drain, Chen Jiazhi dared not say anything to provoke the vegetable farmers.

After getting the information they needed, they returned to Panyu. Li Cai and Chen Zhengxu's driver's licenses were issued. After getting their licenses, Chen Jiazhi took people to look at cars. Without much hesitation, they placed an order for a minivan.

(End of this chapter)