Era: Rise from the Wilderness

Uncle Li.

Lü Ruoxi greeted him softly.

"Yes, I'm back."

Li Hongfeng nodded, his voice hoarse and lacking energy.

He started the car, but didn't drive away immediately. Instead, he picked up the half-smoked pack of "Daqianmen" cigarettes from the dashboard, shook out one, put it in his mouth, and then fumbled for a match.

"Dad, you...didn't find a suitable channel?"

Li Yunjing observed his father's expression and tentatively asked.

With a "sizzle," the match was struck and lit, the orange flame illuminating Li Hongfeng's furrowed brows and the anxiety in his eyes.

He took a deep drag of his cigarette and slowly exhaled, the white smoke filling the stuffy carriage.

"I've looked for it."

His voice was muffled. "I went to three wholesale markets, two stationery factory outlets, and... asked a friend I knew from my previous sales days."

He shook his head, a bitter smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. "Either they only do retail, not wholesale; or their wholesale prices are outrageously high, even more expensive than what we found in Fuxian!"

"And then there are those who simply ignore you. As soon as they hear it's a small school store in a small town ordering a small quantity, they don't even bother to quote a price!"

He grew angrier as he spoke, flicking his cigarette ash forcefully with his fingers: "Damn it! People in this big city, they all think they're so important!"

"They're all so arrogant! Back when I was a purchasing agent..."

Before he could finish speaking, he took another deep drag of his cigarette, swallowing back the rest of his complaint.

Times have changed, and his experience and connections in state-owned enterprises seem to be of little use in this unfamiliar coastal city.

As Li Yunjing listened, his heart sank.

It seems that my father's journey to source goods has not been smooth.

This is understandable. In the early 1990s, commercial distribution channels were far from smooth, and many wholesale links were controlled at each level. It was indeed very difficult for outsiders and small buyers to get a share of the pie.

"Dad, don't be too anxious."

Li Yunjing comforted him, "We've only been running around for half a day, how can we find it right away? How about... we find a place to eat first? You haven't eaten since this morning, have you?"

"I'm not eating anymore, I'm too angry to eat anything else."

Li Hongfeng waved his hand and stubbed out his cigarette in the car ashtray: "Have you two eaten?"

"Yes, I just ate."

Li Yunjing said.

"Okay, that's perfect."

Li Hongfeng shifted gears again, and the car slowly drove away from the shade of the trees. "While it's still early, I'll go check out a couple more places."

"Bincheng is so big, I refuse to believe we can't find a place to do business!"

His tone carried a stubbornness that refused to admit defeat, but more than that, it conveyed a weariness and anxiety stemming from being battered by reality and forcing himself to stay upright.

The convenience store was about to open, and the freezer had been delivered. If he couldn't secure a stable and profitable supply of school supplies, his business would suffer greatly. This wasn't just a matter of money; it was also about his confidence in supporting his family.

The bread truck rejoined the traffic and headed towards a wholesale market in another direction of Bincheng.

The atmosphere inside the carriage was somewhat somber, with only the roar of the engine and the cacophony of city sounds outside the window.

Lu Ruoxi sat quietly in the back row, looking at the silent profiles of the Li family father and son in the front row, and felt a little uneasy.

Even someone as capable as Uncle Li encountered setbacks in Bincheng.

Making money is really not an easy thing.

Looking at his father's tense profile and his hands gripping the steering wheel, his knuckles turning white, Li Yunjing quickly made a mental calculation.

Although the treasury bond business got off to a good start, it was ultimately a "niche" business, unstable and risky.

A legitimate source of goods for a convenience store is the only way to ensure long-term success.

Perhaps... he should think of a way to help his father?

However, he knew nothing about the stationery wholesale channels in Bincheng.

"Dad, let's go to Tianjin Street near the train station. It's crowded there with lots of business people; maybe we can find out something there!"

Suddenly, Li Yunjing's eyes lit up, and he finally remembered a place.

"Tianjin Street?"

Li Hongfeng was taken aback. He knew the train station, but he didn't know this street, and he didn't know how Li Yunjing knew the name.

"Dad, I found it by looking at the map!"

Noticing his father's puzzled look, Li Yunjing took out the map he had bought earlier from his schoolbag and stuffed it in front of him.

"Um!"

Li Hongfeng nodded knowingly, reached behind him, grabbed the map, and began searching through it on the steering wheel.

"Okay! Let's go to Tianjin Street!"

After watching for a while, Li Hongfeng felt that there was a chance, so he immediately drove in the direction shown on the map.

"Excuse me, sir, do you know where I can buy stationery wholesale around here?"

After arriving at their destination and parking the car, Li Yunjing and Lü Ruoxi followed Li Hongfeng, moving among the crowds near Tianjin Street. When they saw pedestrians who looked like locals, they would politely approach them and ask, "It's just notebooks, pencils, erasers, and the like."

Along the way, the father and son asked no fewer than twenty or thirty people.

Some people enthusiastically gave directions, some shook their heads when asked, and others pointed in ambiguous directions, making people even more confused.

In mid-July, the weather in Bincheng was hot and humid, with the scorching sun hanging overhead, relentlessly baking the earth.

Li Yunjing felt like his throat was about to burst into flames. His undershirt was soaked and dried repeatedly, leaving a layer of white salt stains.

Li Hongfeng was also covered in sweat. He wiped his face with a towel from time to time, and his eyes revealed anxiety and exhaustion.

"These days, it's really hard to get anything worthwhile!"

Li Yunjing sighed inwardly, deeply appreciating the inefficiency, cost, and difficulty in obtaining information in this era.

It wasn't until after 2 p.m. that we finally got relatively accurate information from an old man at a newsstand.

The father and son were almost overjoyed and wept. They disregarded their exhaustion and, following the directions, drove in a daze, weaving through the complicated streets and alleys for a while. After confirming again, they finally arrived at a courtyard in a relatively quiet street.

The courtyard looked quite old; the iron gate was rusty, and some of the plaster on the walls was peeling off.

The courtyard is about 200 square meters in size. There is a large building that looks like a warehouse, and next to it is a small, independent bungalow with a sign hanging on the door, which is probably the office.

On the outer wall of the courtyard hangs a slightly worn vertical plaque with black characters on a white background that reads: Bincheng Duoyuan Stationery Culture Co., Ltd.

Seeing that the gate was open, Li Hongfeng drove the Dafa bread truck inside.

As soon as the car came to a stop, the father and son, along with Lü Ruoxi, jumped out of the car almost impatiently and walked quickly to the door of the bungalow. They didn't care much about etiquette, knocked on the green wooden door, and pushed it open before waiting for a detailed response from inside.

I was so tormented by the scorching heat outside that I just wanted to quickly crawl into a shaded room to catch my breath.