Starting with vegetable greenhouses in 1988

Chapter 45 Chance Encounter
The room fell silent immediately.

Lin Dingyuan's chopsticks were suspended in mid-air.

Lin Qiaomei lowered her head even further, her neck tense.

Only Yin Yin was unaffected, happily eating the Four Happiness Meatballs.

Zhang Yuzhen gripped the hem of her apron tightly. "How much do you want?"

"Five thousand."

Lin Dingyuan's right hand trembled, and the chopsticks fell to the brick floor with a "clatter". He composed himself, bent down to pick them up, and wiped them on his trouser leg. "Yongqiang, what big business are you planning? You need so much money."

Zhou Yongqiang hesitated for a moment, then asked, "Dad, have you ever heard of treasury bonds?"

Lin Dingyuan nodded, "I've heard about it from people going to the city to buy goods, but I don't really know much about it."

Zhou Yongqiang laughed and said, "Treasury bonds are a good thing. Now that the country has liberalized trading, they can be bought and sold at bank counters. The price of treasury bonds varies from place to place. For example, they sell for 95 in Tianjin and 100 in Shanghai. You can buy them in one place and sell them in another to make a profit. The more capital you have, the more you can earn."

Lin Dingyuan roughly understood, and frowned, saying, "Isn't this just speculation and profiteering?"

Zhou Yongqiang leaned forward and said, "Dad, this is allowed by the state. It's called financial reform now. There aren't many people doing this business yet. It's just that my childhood friend was willing to take me under his wing. Otherwise, I wouldn't know what's going on."

Zhang Yuzhen looked worried. "Yongqiang, is this reliable? Don't be fooled."

“Mom, don’t worry. My childhood friend’s family is rich. He has tens of thousands of yuan in capital and looks down on my meager earnings. In his words, we’re making money from information asymmetry, which is a sure thing! Once I make money, I will definitely take good care of you two.”

Lin Dingyuan lit a cigarette with a match, took a few puffs in silence, and said, “Back in the spring, Kuai Zui and I went to work in the south together. We were in a long line at the Langfang City train station to buy tickets. When it was finally my turn, I reached into my pocket and found that I had no money. In the end, Kuai Zui left, and I didn’t make it.”

Zhou Yongqiang chimed in, "Absolutely! Those pickpockets at the station are even more cunning than rats. Next time you go out, I'll have my mom sew you an inner pocket; it'll be safe to put it in there."

“Yongqiang, you didn’t understand.” Lin Dingyuan threw his cigarette butt on the ground. “Trading these coupons requires carrying money all over the country. You’re lucky if you don’t run into trouble eight or ten times, but if you do, you’ll be in big trouble. Nowadays, there are not only pickpockets but also highway robbers. If I lend you money, I’m not helping you, I’m harming you.”

Seeing that her son-in-law's expression was a bit off, Zhang Yuzhen quickly nudged her husband's arm, signaling him to stop talking. "The food's getting cold. Let's eat first, and we can talk about business later."

Lin Qiaomei, the daughter, placed some fish meat into her husband's bowl and said, "Try this braised fish. My mother made it especially for you."

The originally joyous family reunion dinner became somewhat tasteless.

……

Early in the morning.

Li Family Greenhouse No. 1.

Li Zhe and his cousin Wang Jianjun were picking cucumbers in the vegetable garden. Old Li squatted in the broccoli patch, touching the thick leaves. "Second brother, the broccoli has already formed heads. How much longer until we can harvest it?"

"About half a month to twenty days." Li Zhe also found it difficult to give an exact time, as the types of vegetables varied greatly from different eras.

Take broccoli as an example. In later generations, after harvesting the main head of broccoli, the secondary heads could also be harvested. However, the quality of the secondary heads from that era was not high.

"Hey, that's great. Once there are more kinds of vegetables, we won't have to sell radishes and potatoes anymore. It's such a waste of effort to make those things." After making a few trips to Beijing, Old Li's standards have risen, and he no longer cares about such small amounts of money.

"Clatter, clatter..." The sound of a tractor came from outside. Li Zhe called out to the vegetable garden, "Brother Jianjun, we've picked enough, let's go."

"Here you are." Wang Jianjun came out of the furrow carrying a basket of cucumbers.

Several people put the freshly picked cucumbers into baskets, loaded them onto the tractor, and wrapped them in thick cotton quilts.

"Hold on tight." Zhao Tiezhu glanced back and saw that the three of them had all gotten into the truck bed, and then he drove the tractor away.

Li Zhe and the other two were familiar with the road to the capital, but it was Wang Jianjun's first time. Everything looked new and exciting to him. He wasn't bothered by the cold and stood in the back of the cart looking ahead. "Hey, someone's waving ahead. It looks like the carriage has broken down."

"Put-put..." Zhao Tiezhu stopped the tractor and shouted to the mechanic, "Old Han, what's wrong with the tractor? Need help?" "No, it's an old problem, I'll fix it in a bit. Zhuzi, selling vegetables with a tractor again? You've really made something of yourself."

"Hehe, then you do it, we're leaving." Zhao Tiezhu was able to drive a tractor because he had been taught by Li Zhe; otherwise, he would have had to use a horse-drawn cart to haul goods.

Beside the broken carriage stood two adults and a child, all bundled up tightly, looking like a family of three. The man, speaking with a Beijing accent, said, "Master, you've been taking quite a while. If we delay any longer, we'll miss the carriage."

Wang Jianjun jumped off the carriage and stared at the woman wrapped up beside it, only her eyes showing. "Is that Sister Qiaomei?"

The woman in the red cotton-padded jacket pulled off her scarf. "Jianjun? What are you doing here?"

"Haha, it really is Sister Qiaomei! Weren't you in the capital? When did you come back? Yesterday, your uncle's chickens ran into my yard, but he didn't say you were back."

"I only got back yesterday and haven't had a chance to go up yet."

"You've finally come back, why not stay a couple more days?"

Lin Qiaomei glanced at her husband and said perfunctorily, "Yongqiang has things to do at the factory and can't stay too long. Where are you going to buy vegetables? Could you give us a ride?"

“We’re going to the capital too, come on up.” It was Old Li who spoke, and he asked with a smile, “Does my daughter still recognize me?”

“Of course I know him! Aunt Wang went to the store to buy meat yesterday and even gave my Yinyin some money. Yinyin, quickly call him Grandpa.”

"Hello, Great-Uncle." The little girl was very obedient and greeted him in her sweet, childish voice.

"Alright, come on in and have a seat. There aren't many dishes in the car, it's spacious." Old Li and his two companions squeezed in to make room for the family of three.

Zhou Yongqiang handed over a bottle of Daqianmen cigarettes, saying, "Please, have a smoke."

Old Li waved his hand, "Don't be so polite, we're all family here."

"Which market are you all headed to?"

Chongwenmen Farmers Market.

"Oh, what a coincidence! My family lives over there. A few days ago, I even went and stocked up on two hundred catties of cabbage and fifty catties of radishes." Zhou Yongqiang said, glancing at several vegetable baskets. He felt something was wrong. There were seven or eight baskets in total, which could only hold four or five hundred catties of vegetables at most. Even if he sold them all, he wouldn't make enough to cover the cost of the oil.

He felt there was something fishy going on.

"Uncle, what kinds of vegetables do you sell?"

Potatoes, radishes, and cucumbers.

"What? Cucumbers!" Zhou Yongqiang thought he had misheard. "How can cucumbers grow in this cold weather? Aren't they afraid of freezing?"

Old Li laughed and said, "Don't worry, my family built a greenhouse, and it's warmer inside than inside the house."

Zhou Yongqiang didn't know exactly what a greenhouse was, but he could roughly understand what it meant. He asked curiously, "Cucumbers are very precious in the dead of winter. How much do they cost per kilogram?"

Old Li didn't finish speaking before looking at his son beside him.

Li Zhe didn't want the villagers to know the price of cucumbers, lest someone become envious. But Zhou Yongqiang didn't live in the village; he lived near Chongwenmen and often went to the Chongwenmen vegetable market to buy vegetables. If they asked around, how could they keep it a secret?

Besides, Zhou Yongqiang only comes to Daying Village once or twice a year, so they're not in the same circle and it's unlikely that he would spread rumors.

"Five yuan per pound."

"What? Five yuan!" Lin Qiaomei was shocked. She often went to Chongwenmen Market to buy vegetables. In the summer, cucumbers were only two mao per jin, and the most expensive time was no more than three mao.

Zhou Yongqiang's eyes lit up; he hadn't expected such a small village to have such capable people. This trip would earn him at least several hundred yuan, more profitable than trading treasury bonds.

(End of this chapter)