Starting with vegetable greenhouses in 1988

Chapter 152 Moving
Evening, the staff quarters of the Beijing TV Factory.

The Wang family lives on the second floor.

Chen Shufang hummed a little tune as she busied herself in the kitchen. Her daughter was home on vacation today, so she had stewed a chicken in advance. A yellow clay pot sat on the gas stove, steaming from the lid.

"It smells delicious! This cooking is impeccable." Chen Shufang boasted, having made a clay pot stewed chicken and a stir-fried plate of shredded carrots. It was just the two of them eating that evening, and they couldn't possibly cook too much.

The meal was almost ready, so she took off her apron and went into the living room. As she passed the bathroom, she heard the sound of running water and muttered to herself, "That girl, she always takes so long to take a bath. No matter how much hot water I boil, it's never enough for her."

Despite her complaints, she didn't rush her daughter. She went into the guest room to help her unpack, changed the sheets, took out a thick quilt that had been aired out beforehand, and tidied up the study desk piled with books...

She was putting several books together, preparing to stack them neatly, when she discovered a letter had fallen out of one of them.

It was a light pink envelope with "To be opened by Wang Ting" written on the front.

Below it reads: Wu Hanping sealed.

The back seal says "Do not fold".

The envelope was still unopened, but Chen Shufang knew from the envelope that it must be a love letter.

Now that her daughter is older and not a child anymore, she doesn't want to open her daughter's letters without permission, so she puts them back on the table and continues doing housework.

After a while, the bathroom door opened, and Wang Ting came out wearing cotton pajamas and with her long hair wrapped in a towel. She placed the two thermos flasks she was carrying on the table: "Mom, I heard that water heaters are now being sold. Do you know about them?"

"What is it for?"

"It can be installed directly in the toilet, so you don't need to go to the public bathhouse anymore."

Chen Shufang said, "Okay, once you graduate from university and start earning money, our family will be settled."

Wang Ting pursed her lips and used a different dry towel to dry her hair.

Chen Shufang suddenly asked, "Tingting, who is Wu Hanping?"

"Oh, it's a classmate, Mom. How did you know him?"

"Really a classmate?"

"What's wrong?" Wang Ting asked instinctively, then realized what she meant: "You saw that letter?"

"Did he write you a love letter?"

Wang Ting blushed: "He gave it to me a couple of days ago. It wasn't convenient for me to look at it at school, so how would I know what he wrote?"

"Where is he from?"

"It seems... he's from Chang'an."

"Chang'an!" Chen Shufang shook her head: "No, no, that's too far. If you really marry into Chang'an, we won't see each other much anymore. I can't bear to part with you."

Wang Ting sat on the bed and snorted, "Mom, what are you saying? I haven't even read the letter yet, what's going on here!"

Chen Shufang felt that although her mother was old and some of her ideas were outdated, some of her experiences were still worth listening to.

Take today's situation for example. Chang'an is thousands of miles away from my home. If my daughter really marries someone from another place, the number of times the mother and daughter will see each other can be counted on one hand.

Although the second son of the Li family is not from Beijing, he owns a house in Beijing. A Langfang native who owns a house in Beijing would never go to another place.

My daughter is nineteen this year, and she's reached the age where she should be dating. If I were her age, I would probably already be married to Lao Wang.

"Tingting, tell Mom the truth, do you have a boyfriend at school?"

"No, if I had, I would have told you."

Chen Shufang nodded. Her second daughter had always been obedient, so she believed her. "Do you have many suitors? Do you have anyone you like?"

"Mom, didn't I say that I don't plan to date during college? I'll focus on my studies first, and we can talk about marriage after I graduate."

Chen Shufang has been through this before; you can't predict matters of the heart. Her daughter might really think that way, but with so many male classmates pursuing her, her feelings might change. If she gets fooled by some bad boy, it will be too late to regret it.

"Tingting, I went to your grandma's house a few days ago, and she wanted to introduce you to someone..."

Before Chen Shufang could finish speaking, Wang Ting interrupted her directly: "Mom, I have plenty of suitors, do I need Grandma to introduce me? I really don't have that kind of interest."

“Since your grandma said that you should go and meet her regardless of whether you have any ideas or not, what if you think it’s a good match?” Seeing that her daughter was about to argue, Chen Shufang made the decision directly: “Listen to your mother, it’s settled then.”

Wang Ting: "..."

……

noon the next day.

The front courtyard of No. 7 Hutong, Suzhou.

Li Zhe glanced at his watch and thought to himself, "It's almost time. Why haven't they come back yet?"
Today, Professor Chen Shougeng from Beijing Agricultural University is returning to Daying Village to officially begin his greenhouse breeding research, and Li Zhe sent a car to pick him up on the way.

Li Zhe brewed another pot of tea and waited while drinking it.

"Knock knock..." There was a knock on the door.

Li Zhe went to open the door and was somewhat surprised to see Ji Hongbin standing outside. "It's Boss Ji." Li Zhe stepped aside and said, "Come in and sit down."

"Mr. Li." Ji Hongbin forced a smile and followed Li Zhe into the house.

Li Zhe gestured for him to sit down and say, "Let's talk about it here." He was also a little curious. Logically speaking, since the property deed had already been transferred, there was no need for the two parties to meet. Could it be that the other party was leaving? Ji Hongbin sat somewhat awkwardly across the coffee table and coughed lightly, "Mr. Li, I have something I need your help with today."

"Please go ahead," Li Zhe said, pouring the other person a cup of tea.

Ji Hongbin lowered his voice: "I'm going abroad, and it's inconvenient to use RMB for many things, so I need to exchange some foreign exchange certificates. You have business dealings with restaurants that cater to foreigners, so I wonder if you could help me exchange some?"

"How much do you want to exchange?" Li Zhe had quite a few foreign exchange certificates, more than he could use. If the price was right, he wouldn't mind exchanging some.

Ji Hongbin asked, "I would like to exchange 5,000 foreign exchange certificates. I wonder how much RMB I would need?"

"Oh dear, this is not easy. I don't have that many on hand, and I'll have to ask my friends for help." Li Zhe looked troubled.

Foreign exchange certificates are unpredictable. The official exchange rate is 1:1, but the actual exchange rate on the black market is higher but unstable. So, it can only be said that the price varies from person to person, time to time, and matter to matter.

“I understand, I will definitely thank you properly afterward…” Ji Hongbin also did not believe that Li Zhe could have that many foreign exchange certificates.

Li Zhe waved his hand: "Boss Ji, we're acquaintances, you're being too polite. I'm not helping you for this. How about this, you name a price and let me hear it."

Ji Hongbin tentatively asked, "I'll offer 8,000 RMB to exchange for 5,000 foreign exchange certificates. Is that acceptable?"

Li Zhe laughed and said, "Don't joke around, you can't even get this price on the black market; why don't you go and ask on the black market first?"

Ji Hongbin's expression changed slightly. After his experience traveling south, how could he dare to go to the black market now? "How much do you think is appropriate?"

Li Zhe stroked his chin and pondered for a moment: "Fifteen thousand, I can help you exchange five thousand foreign exchange certificates."

Ji Hongbin quickly said, "No, no, that's too expensive. I can't accept that price. How about 10,000 yuan?"

Li Zhe frowned and shook his head: "Boss Ji, you should have inquired before that foreign exchange certificates are not easy to exchange, especially for such a large amount as yours. It's true that you can't exchange 10,000 yuan."

Ji Hongbin gritted his teeth: "Mr. Li, twelve thousand is the highest price I can offer!"

Li Zhe lowered his head and calculated. He had quite a few foreign exchange certificates, and they were coming in every day. There was no point in keeping too many foreign exchange certificates. It would be good to exchange them for RMB while the exchange rate was high.

Li Zhe still looked troubled: "Alright, then it'll be 12,000. I'll ask my friends for ideas."

"Mr. Li, thank you so much." Ji Hongbin said with gratitude.

"However, you need to give me half of the deposit first, after all, I also need capital to exchange foreign exchange certificates..."

Ji Hongbin “…”

Although he was reluctant, he did need the foreign exchange certificates.

Helpless, he had no choice but to run home and get a deposit of six thousand yuan: "Mr. Li, shall we write a contract?"

“How do you want to write it? This thing can be traded privately, but you have to put it in the open…” Li Zhe gave a knowing look, then sighed, “Actually, I don’t want to get involved in this matter either. There’s no benefit and I’m taking risks. Since you don’t trust me, then forget it.”

"No, no, no, I believe you, I trust you!" Ji Hongbin was afraid that Li Zhe would not be willing to help, so he did not dare to make any more demands and handed over the money directly.

Li Zhe accepted the 6,000 yuan deposit, and the two agreed on a time for the next transaction. Li Zhe then saw Ji Hongbin off.

After closing the door, Li Zhe played with Jinzi for a while, when he heard the sound of a truck outside.

Li Zhe came out of the house and saw Wang Jianjun jump down from the carriage. He asked, "Brother, why did it take so long? Did you bring Teacher Chen back?"

"We've brought them back. Teacher Chen has a lot of stuff, so it took a while to move them."

The passenger side door opened, and Chen Shougeng got out of the driver's seat: "Mr. Li, thank you for waiting."

"Teacher Chen, we're all family, you don't need to be so polite." Li Zhe reached out to shake hands with the other person.

Chen Shougeng opened his hand and showed it to Li Zhe: "I just finished unloading my things before getting on the bus, and I didn't even have time to wash my hands, so I won't shake your hand."

Li Zhe asked curiously, "Teacher Chen, what did you bring?"

Chen Shougeng laughed and said, "The school's teaching tasks are almost finished at the end of the year. I may have to stay in Daying Village for a long time to do research. So, I dug up some vegetable seedlings that I planted in the school's greenhouse and prepared to transplant them into the greenhouse. That way, I won't have to compete with those old men and women for space anymore."

Li Zhe walked to the back of the vehicle and glanced into the carriage. He saw that it was packed full, with cotton quilts covering the contents so he couldn't see what was underneath. "Wow, what are all these things? So many!"

"There are quite a few varieties. Some are seedlings I cultivated before, some are vegetable seedlings I traded with others using the 'land' from that greenhouse, and some are experimental seedlings that others didn't want anymore." Chen Shougeng pointed to the innermost part of the car.

“There are some rose seedlings over there. Originally, a teacher wanted to cultivate a cold-resistant rose variety, but perhaps the cultivation direction was wrong, and the experiment was unsuccessful. The roses didn’t bloom at all in low temperatures. The cultivation was a failure, and he didn’t want those seedlings anymore, so I brought them back. They can be transplanted into the vegetable greenhouse.”

Li Zhe pressed further, "How long will it take for it to bloom?"

Chen Shougeng pushed up his glasses: "I estimate that as long as the temperature is suitable, it should take about a month."

Li Zhe quickly calculated that it would be around Valentine's Day, hey, he could make money off foreigners again.

Chen Shougeng continued, "Didn't you ask me to find some vegetable varieties that Westerners eat? I found one called 'Iceberg Lettuce,' I don't know if you've heard of it?"

"I've heard of it, and it's definitely the kind of lettuce I need." Li Zhe's face lit up with joy. This type of lettuce is very famous in later generations. It has a crisp texture, is very juicy, and has a slightly sweet taste. It is also easy to transport and suitable for preservation. McDonald's and sandwiches in later generations all use this type of lettuce.

Domestic lettuce varieties have loose leaves, and although they are juicy, they have a slightly bitter taste.

Since he planned to make money from foreigners, he naturally wanted to provide them with good service. Li Zhe made up his mind to start cultivating and planting iceberg lettuce once he returned to the village.

After a quick tidying up and saying goodbye to Wang Jianjun, Li Zhe and his group took a car back to Daying Village...

(End of this chapter)