1994: Vegetable farmers strike back

Chapter 97 Lonely Curly

The sound of raindrops hitting the asbestos tiles made a crackling sound.

Chen Jiazhi woke up.

Hearing the noise, Li Xiu also woke up: "Jiazhi, it's raining again."

"Well, it's raining quite a bit. Luckily, I spread all the seeds last night. You can go back to sleep. I'll get up and get ready to go."

"Go slowly on the road and be careful."

"Ah."

In his past and present lives, Chen Jiazhi has long been accustomed to living in the dark.

Without turning on the lights, he groped his way out of bed. There were four eyes flashing with dim light in the room, and the two puppies were also awake.

When I opened the door, the sound of raindrops outside became clearer and the rain was quite heavy.

Li Mingkun and Guo Mancang had already gotten up and were smoking under the eaves, staring blankly into the dark night.

Seeing that he had gotten up, I greeted him and started serving the food.

After a while, Yi Dinggan and Qi Yongfeng, who heard the noise, also walked out of the room one after another.

Chen Jiazhi still has to bring Qi Yongfeng with him tonight. After all, there are nearly 1000 kilograms of vegetables, and it would be tiring to do it alone.

And also give people the opportunity to make money.

Today was much easier than yesterday starting with packing the vegetables. Not only were a few hundred pounds less cabbage hearts, but the amaranth was completely gone.

Fortunately, there are still more than ten or twenty kilograms of loofah and bitter gourd.

I will cry if I continue.

Even these dozen or twenty kilograms of loofah and bitter melon are all crooked and cracked, and who knows how they will be despised behind people's backs.

The tricycle only had two layers of cargo to load all the vegetables.

At about the same time, Yi Dinggan, Li Mingkun and Guo Mancang had also finished packing the dishes and were ready to go.

Chen Jiazhi patted the frame of the car and said, "Brother Yi, you guys go ahead. No need to wait for me. My car is so fast, I can catch up with you in a minute."

Yi Dinggan was so angry. He couldn't stand Chen Jiazhi's smug look.

But his brothers only show off to a few of them.

It's not like this outside.

At the same time, if he has the opportunity, he will show off.

But he's been feeling depressed lately.
Especially since it was raining again today, not long after they set off, Chen Jiazhi overtook them on a tricycle.

The plastic sheet on the driver's seat of the tricycle looks weird, but it is very useful. At least you don't have to get wet in the rain like them.

Thinking this way, the plastic sheeting suddenly seemed more upscale.

They set out very early today.

Arrive at the market early too.

Chen Jiazhi didn't have to be blocked at the door like he was yesterday. Although it was cool that the customer made way for him, he actually didn't want to be in the spotlight.

Today is much more peaceful.

The dishes were not packed that full and not stacked that high, so naturally they were not that noticeable.

Chen Jiazhi also successfully arrived at his familiar location.

As he walked in, he also noticed that the stalls in the market were deserted and there were still few large trucks.

The stalls selling vegetables basically sell potatoes, winter melons, and pumpkins.

Some stalls are simply empty.

This is normal. After all, transportation has been cut off and vegetables from other places cannot be brought in.

And it started raining again, so it wouldn't be easy to recover.

As soon as he stopped the car, a customer came up to ask the price. It was a stranger.

"How much is a pound of choy sum?"

"3.5 yuan." Even at this early hour, Chen Jiazhi didn't hesitate and directly quoted a higher price.

However, the visitor didn't hesitate and said directly: "Put 30 kilograms in it for me."

"Okay, boss."

Chen Jiazhi didn't expect the store to open so soon. There were hardly any people in the market.

However, looking at the empty vegetable stalls, he could understand the current market conditions.

Lack of food!

Extremely short of food!

Although Huacheng is a major agricultural city, it is also the only one of the four first-tier cities in the future that can achieve self-sufficiency in vegetable supply.

But we have also suffered a disaster recently, with vegetable production reduced and harvested completely, and now external transportation has been cut off again.

And there are still millions of people in the city who need to eat, drink, defecate and urinate.

Even if the price of vegetables rises to four or five yuan per catty, Chen Jiazhi will not find it strange.

This era is so magical.

"Here, here's the money, 105 yuan, click it."

Chen Jiazhi took a handful of banknotes. There was no hundred-yuan note, only a fifty-yuan note, five ten-yuan notes, and one five-yuan note.

"Okay, that's right. Take care, boss."

After seeing off the first customer, Yi Dinggan and a few others arrived, but Chen Jiazhi hadn't even put the money in his bag yet.

"Hey, Jiazhi, are you open again?"

It's probably only half past twelve now.

Normally, the vegetable wholesale market is not open yet, but he opened it.

Chen Jiazhi nodded and said, "I'm still selling it for 3.5 yuan per pound. I think I can raise the price again today."

"Damn, it's so expensive?!"

"No wonder that person just took away a bag of vegetables and gave over 100 yuan."

“This dish is really selling well!”

"Increase, increase, increase. The price must increase again today."

Before they even started getting off the car, the tone for the day had already been set.

Price increase! Price increase!

The price is also increasing!

For them, price increase is the best stimulant, and several people communicated excitedly.

Only Qi Yongfeng was unloading the truck silently.

Chen Jiazhi saw this and said to Yi Dinggan and the other two, "Sell it at this price."

Then he also went to help unload the truck.

Just as he was trying to find some topic to chat with Qi Yongfeng, another guest arrived.

“How much is the choy sum?”

"Three dollars and a half per pound."

The man shone a flashlight on the vegetables, checked their appearance, and after confirming they were good, he said, "Pack 20 kilograms. Vegetables are too expensive these days."

Chen Jiazhi laughed, said nothing, and started to serve the dishes. It was better not to be annoying at this time, just make money quietly.

Soon more people came, and the old customers who came to stake out the place also noticed that he had arrived.

One by one, they came to pick up their food and pay the bill.

Chen Jiazhi didn't even have the chance to chat with Qi Yongfeng. He was busy packing the orders one by one and then delivering the goods.

At the same time, Chen Jiazhi also had to calculate the bills and collect money. The vegetable prices were high, so most of the orders were over a hundred yuan, but most of the money collected was still in small change.

In the past, when the price of vegetables was only 30 or 50 cents per pound, many people had few opportunities to use hundred-yuan bills.

Most people haven't adjusted yet.

After receiving the money, Chen Jiazhi could only briefly identify it, then straighten it out and stuff it into his bag.

Before long, my wallet, which was originally a little empty, became a little fatter.

"Chen the vegetable farmer, you came quite early today." Old Wu came again, pulling a cart.

Chen Jiazhi took a look and found that the missing steel pipe on the cart had been replaced.

"Good morning, Boss Wu. Let's talk about how much you want today. Vegetable prices have gone up. Premium vegetables are now 3.5 yuan per catty, and ordinary vegetables are 3.2 yuan."

Old Wu glanced at the baskets of choy sum and said, "Mr. Chen, honestly, you make a lot more money than we do. I'm envious every day."

Chen Jiazhi laughed and said, "It's hard-earned money. Look how tanned I am. I almost blend into the night."

Old Wu also smiled and said, "Take the vegetables, 80 kilograms of choy sum."

"What about ordinary choy sum?"

"No, it's too expensive. I can't afford it."

"Fine-quality choy sum is even more expensive."

"How can ordinary people compare with those rich people? To rich people, there is no difference between the price of one or two yuan and five or six yuan for vegetables."

Old Wu counted out the bills and handed over 280 yuan. Chen Jiazhi suddenly asked, "How much did you sell it to them?"

Old Wu glanced at him and said, "Guess."

Chen Jiazhi wasn't afraid either: "Eight?"

Old Wu's eyebrows twitched, and he said, "How dare you guess?! Let's go, let's go~"

Judging from Old Wu's somewhat flustered steps as he dragged the cart, Chen Jiazhi felt that his guess was probably pretty close.

Old Wu has been buying vegetables for so long, and he has never asked him to package them separately. He always takes the whole amount.

There are always workers at his stall who are packaging the products and processing them at the same time.

Eight pieces of choy sum is a bit outrageous, but if it is placed on clean vegetables, it feels normal.

'Clean vegetables' are vegetables that have been processed according to hotel food standards.

Taking Chinese cabbage as an example, Lao Wu, as the distributor, will process the Chinese cabbage purchased from the market and cut off the heads and tails.

Pinching the top means cutting off a section of the rhizome of the cabbage to ensure that the stems of the cabbage are of uniform size.

The same goes for removing the tail, and also cutting off a small part of the choy sum leaves.

The choy sum processed in this way has the same size, length and weight, and the taste and appearance of the cooked choy sum are also consistent.
Take it back to the hotel, wash it a little, and then put it into the pot directly.

If Lao Wu had the channels, even if the market price was three yuan, he would dare to sell it for eight yuan.

If it's sold for three dollars and a half today, he might dare to ask for ten dollars when he takes it back.
Suddenly,

Chen Jiazhi felt that he had made a loss by selling.

But this is the power of the channel, which is Lao Wu’s way of making money. He can’t learn it yet, and even most delivery people can’t learn it.

As vegetable prices rose, he could feel that many old customers had reduced the amount of vegetables they bought.

It’s too expensive!

It has long exceeded the limits that ordinary people can bear.

But the good news is that the amount of premium Chinese cabbage produced by Heshang and Chen Ze has not decreased. Together with Lao Wu's, they produce 260 kilograms of premium Chinese cabbage every day, which can now contribute 910 yuan in income to him every day.

Although the amount of food in each ordinary order is decreasing, more people are coming to buy food and there are more orders.

It can be seen that rising prices have limited impact on rich people, and they can still eat as they please.

But it has actually affected the quality of life of ordinary people, making it inconvenient to buy groceries.

The increase in small orders also made packaging very difficult. Qi Yongfeng spent the whole night packing vegetables in plastic bags.

When they speak, they always ask customers how the dishes should be packed and what specifications they have for different people.

Chen Jiazhi is not easy either. He has to take care of taking orders, packaging, counting, collecting money, and occasionally he has to check whether Qi Yongfeng has delivered the wrong dishes.
It started raining during the period, and the rain and sweat mixed together, making it impossible to tell which was which.

Both of them are very sour.

Mao Liangcai tried his best to keep his expression calm, then smoothly placed the order, took the dishes, and paid.

The whole process went smoothly.

Everything went smoothly, and Chen the cabbage farmer didn't even look at him. He felt relieved, but also a little disappointed.

Carrying a heavy bag of vegetables in his hand, he walked a few dozen meters and looked back at the corner.

In the rain, Chen the vegetable farmer was smiling as he received the money. The customer chatted with him for a few more words before leaving.
Mao Liangcai turned and left, his back looking somewhat lonely in the rainy night.

He has some backbone, but not much, and always ends up giving in and getting the food.

To be honest, even if Chen Cainong said a few sarcastic words to him, he would feel much better, instead of being dispensable like now.
Chen Jiazhi stood up and stretched, and just happened to see Curly Cabbage Head's back, but didn't pay any attention to it.

When I’m free, I hope the cabbage can provide some entertainment. But when I’m really busy, all I see are orders and bills.

(End of this chapter)