1994: Vegetable farmers strike back

Chapter 381 Running in both directions
The Buji wholesale market was also brightly lit.

Zhou Xiaoxiong parked the light truck loaded with mustard greens in front of Ye Xingwen's stall.

"Boss Ye, I almost got into a fight with my colleagues because of this extra 900 jin of chicken heart mustard you added at the last minute!"

He exaggerated the facts slightly, and it worked very well.

Ye Xingwen came out, first offering a cigarette, then smiling and saying, "Thank you for your hard work, Manager Zhou."

"But it's also because your mustard greens are so good. After I recommended them to my friends in Hong Kong, they praised them highly and immediately ordered more. I really couldn't refuse."

Zhou Xiaoxiong smiled and said, "I understand, I understand. Our boss wants to ship more goods to Hong Kong, so he gave me special permission to deliver goods for you."

Ye Xingwen said, "Don't worry about that. My friend has a lot of influence in Hong Kong. As long as he can get things going in the market, he'll definitely need your goods in the future."

"Then I'll wait for Mr. Ye's good news."

Zhou Xiaoxiong and Ye Xingwen had a pleasant chat. He had a feeling that chicken heart mustard would soon make a breakthrough in Hong Kong as well.

...

Jiangnan Market.

Stall number 63 gradually calmed down, and by four or five in the morning, it had sold out about 40 tons of vegetables again, with its sales volume still in the middle to upper range among all the stalls.

However, tonight, the 63rd tier once again became one of the market's focal points.

Mustard greens have seen a significant price increase.

It's 6 mao (0.6 yuan) more per jin than the market price.

Such a striking difference has drawn the attention of many in the industry, who are speculating about how well it will sell next.

As the number of people in the passageway gradually decreased, Zhang Qiren, a merchant at number 62, walked to the next shop after he had some free time.

"God of Wealth, you're selling very quickly today too."

Li Cai was hunched over his desk organizing receipts when he looked up and said, "Not bad, you're not bad either."

Zhang Qiren's product range is still quite diverse. "Compared to Kaopu Fresh, I'm far behind."

After reminiscing, he handed Li Cai a cigarette and asked, "God of Wealth, how's your order for those mustard greens that cost 6 cents more?"

Li Cai raised an eyebrow. "What's up? You want to buy it?"

"No, I'm just curious." Zhang Qiren leaned closer and smiled, "A lot of people are curious now, waiting to see if you can sell your vegetables."

Li Cai took out a pre-order receipt and said, "It's written here, so why can't it be sold?"

“That’s not what I meant,” Zhang Qiren said. “There will definitely be buyers, but the volume has to be good. If the volume is small, it’s a waste to sell it at a high price if you can’t sell it all.”

Moreover, I heard that several vendors are planning to bring in more mustard greens today to compete with you for business. Are you confident you can sell them all tomorrow?

Li Cai stopped writing. "Do you really think I'm a god? How could I possibly know what will happen tomorrow?"

Zhang Qiren then asked, "How are the bookings going?"

"So-so." Li Cai smiled dismissively. "It's fine. If they want to see a joke, let them wait and see. I'm handsome, I don't mind making a fool of myself in front of the market."

"..."

Zhang Qiren suddenly felt offended and fell silent.

Li Cai shook his head and busied himself organizing the documents. Although the booking situation was not good, he was still quite optimistic.

Despite the intense conflict last night, many long-time customers have clearly stated that they will continue to support us.

This gave him confidence.

Besides, Chen Zhengxu and his gang are like livestock anyway; if we can't sell them all, we'll just dump them on them.

The worst outcome would be nothing more than falling into the river.

So what if I make a fool of myself?
Besides being handsome, No. 63 doesn't need to be careful in his business dealings these days; being a trendsetting heartthrob is pretty good too.

After finishing organizing the documents, it was almost dawn, so he took out his pager and contacted the office.

A short while later, a deliveryman arrived at the stall in a van, and Li Cai took the receipts and cash and drove back to his office.

He didn't bother to calculate how much cargo to ship today; the base was only harvesting 33,000 jin (11,500 kg).

I woke up in the afternoon.

It rained a little while I was sleeping, and the roads looked muddy from the window. However, the murky sky brightened considerably, and the air felt a bit fresher.

The environment near the wholesale market is really not good. Since the Spring Festival, he has not been able to feel the breath of nature. He has been living in darkness, next to the market, and surrounded by vegetables for a long time.

When Xue Jun mentioned the beautiful environment of Pengcun Base, he also felt a longing for it.

If you just want to build a career, you can't be free. And then there's Chen Zhengxu, that beast, he's full of energy, always out running around the market, he hasn't come back for days. We can't let him outdo us.

Actually, he also wanted to run away.
For some reason, he thought of Lianzhou, which also has beautiful scenery.

Perhaps when the rice seedlings are transplanted, I can go to the Lianzhou cooperative base to relax.

After being busy for a while, Li went downstairs to the office and found Wen Rong.

"How much watercress did you leave me today?"

"From now on, we'll call it Chicken Heart Mustard." Wen Rong said with a smile, "The company has already registered the trademark, so from now on, we'll all call it Chicken Heart Mustard."

Li Cai nodded and then asked, "How much stock is going to the stalls?"

Wen Rong's eyes darted away slightly, and she said softly, "You didn't leave a list this morning saying how much you wanted~"

Li Cai wasn't buying it anymore. "It's okay, just tell me how much you left for the stalls."

Wen Rong: "Hmm~ There are still about 7000 jin left."

"Another 3000 jin gone!" Li Cai almost laughed in anger. "They really are beasts. Luckily, I was mentally prepared."

"7000 jin it is, if we can sell them all, we'll make 7000 yuan."

Wen Rong blinked. Why was she suddenly being so easy to talk to?

Li Cai seemed to know what he was thinking and said, "The price of mustard greens at the stall has gone up today; they're selling for 2.8 yuan per jin."

Wen Rong blinked. Actually, there was no need to specifically mention 2.8 yuan, the same price as yesterday's 900 jin. But Cai Zong's competitive spirit was a bit too strong.

"How are today's bookings?"

"Two-thirds less."

"Oh?" Wen Rong became a little worried again, "What if we can't sell them all?"

"If they don't sell out, there's always your CEO Xu!"

"..." Li Cai went out for a meal and then wandered around the area. This time of afternoon was his rest time.

But I'm really tired of staying in the city.

He longed to see mountains and rivers, and to appreciate the beauty of nature.

The only advantage of living in the city might be that you can see beautiful people; there are more beautiful women in the city than in the countryside.

But beautiful women don't seem to be easy to deal with. For example, Wen Rong in the office always has a captivating way of speaking.

If it weren't for the fact that he was on guard yesterday when we tried to steal the chicken heart mustard, I really wouldn't have noticed.

Sigh, handsome people always attract unwanted attention.

Then he remembered his love story in Guangdong last year. Damn it, why think about that? Time to go sell vegetables!

"Mr. Cai, you're here so early again?"

Salesperson Ding Qiao was used to this and got Li Cai a stool; it wasn't that busy in the afternoon.

"come and see."

There's really not much to see; the market is already well-established. But it's still a routine trip to check out the situation of our competitors.

Just as Zhang Qiren said, many people are waiting to see the show.

"God of Wealth, you've come quite early today. Are you worried you won't be able to sleep tonight because you won't be able to sell your mustard greens?"

"It's the same mustard greens, but it costs 6 cents more per pound. Only the God of Wealth would dare to set such a price, but who would buy it?"

"God of Wealth, handsome guys produce good dishes. If you can't sell them all, you have to sell me the leftover, less fresh ones the next day. If you don't sell the inferior goods, I can sell them."

Perhaps because nothing interesting had happened in a long time, the agricultural wholesalers, who were busy from morning till night, were now acting as entertainers.

Everyone who knows him comes up to tease and joke with him, and even strangers remember him after a few words.

After going around the circle, Li felt like he had become a celebrity.

Most people thought he would suffer a loss that night, but there was some consolation in that at least some colleagues remembered that handsome guys make delicious dishes.

This is the stall's motto, and he has to uphold this principle.

In the blink of an eye, it got dark.

The bok choy, Chinese cabbage, and romaine lettuce from the market arrived first, and Li Cai and Ding Qiao were busy selling them.

Other merchants also gradually got busy.

Even when the surrounding merchants are working up a sweat, they still manage to glance in a certain direction, especially when a truck comes in.

"I'm coming!"

He shouted something, without specifying what it was, but those who understand will understand, and those who don't won't find it funny.

Li Cai remained completely calm.

He had already seen customers who had pre-ordered mustard greens walking towards the stall, and the cars that came were not large.

"Mr. Li, please bring the vegetables."

The customer who arrived was the one who had shouted "the price should have been raised long ago" yesterday. He was nicknamed "Hulu House" because he liked playing Texas Hold'em. He used to often miss out on his orders because he woke up late.

I arrived very late yesterday as well.

But today it arrived very early.

Could it be that he's doing this to support me?

Regardless, Li Cai was very considerate and personally helped him pack the food.

The first customer was secured just like that, 300 jin of chicken heart mustard, very smoothly.

Then came the second, the third…

Old Wu, Old Liu, Sanren, 1577, Yaoji, and other long-time customers who have been pursuing high-quality vegetables are all lining up to pick up their produce.

It was as if they came specifically to support him.

Most of these people don't come to pick up their vegetables at this time; for example, Lao Wu is used to coming to the market at two or three in the morning.

These people are here to support him!

As a result, the long-awaited traffic jam occurred in the No. 63 section.

Li Cai quickly took out his pager to call for help, and He Qiang, Sun Peng, and Sun Jianjun came over after hearing the news.

Besides watercress, bok choy, Chinese cabbage, and romaine lettuce are also being shipped in large quantities.

Li Cai smiled broadly as he offered cigarettes and chatted with each customer, thinking that he should treat his old customers even better in the future.

This may be the significance of adhering to high quality and excellent service!
In this chaotic market environment, No. 63 stands out like a ray of light, resolutely adhering to its own path.

This moment is a two-way journey.

For some reason, he got fired up again.

...

"Old Liang, you've misjudged him."

Zhong Chao, from stall number 59, knew without looking up what his neighbor next door was.

He could even sense that other merchants were watching him.

"It's still early. There are only a few people, but they've taken a lot of vegetables. How much of that is that expensive 6-cent mustard green?"

"Hehe, I thought you hadn't been following this."

"Old Zhong, who cares how many people there are, or whether they're buying mustard greens or not? With this kind of customer support, it's totally worth it even if we can't sell them all."

Zhong Chao looked up and glanced at the group. "You keep criticizing me, but aren't you all staring at me with a sour look on your faces too?"

"..."

Zhong Chao quickly glanced at booth number 59; there were at least seven or eight people there, and he recognized two or three of them.

As someone in the same profession, he understands even more how valuable this is.

This mustard greens are 6 cents more expensive than the market price, yet customers still actively go to buy them.

Simply outrageous.

(End of this chapter)