In 1959, what's wrong with me pedaling a tricycle?

Wang Yongli picked it up and weighed it in his hand. He took out a small iron rod, tapped it on the small yellow croaker, and held it to his ear to listen to the sound.

After setting the small yellow croaker down, he smiled and said, "This is fine; it's pure gold. Because it has a stamp on it, its price will be calculated at 92% of 240 yuan. Mr. Shi, do you have any objections?"

Master Shi nodded in satisfaction and said, "No objection. The price is fair. I still need to buy some things. I'll bring them over later and settle the bill together."

Wang Xingguo smiled and said, "Please feel free to come and settle the payment anytime."

Master Shi left to go shopping.

Small yellow croakers with a stamp can be priced at 240 yuan. The stamp is actually a steel seal, and in the past, small yellow croakers with stamps were officially minted. Small yellow croakers without stamps are actually privately minted, and the purchase price will naturally be lower, because the quality and weight of privately minted small yellow croakers cannot be guaranteed.

In reality, it can still be sold for 240 yuan, but the difference of 92% off is their profit.

Actually, buying and selling hard currency is quite profitable. Just by handling it, you can make a profit of 19.2 yuan.

Before long, Master Shi had bought a bunch of things, including chicken, duck, dog meat, tobacco, alcohol, and brown sugar. When the bill came, he had spent a total of eighty-three yuan, so he paid Master Shi the remaining one hundred and thirty-seven yuan and eighty cents.

People gradually came to pay their bills. Although it wasn't as lively as last night, there were still quite a few people tonight.

Most importantly, people dressed as officials came tonight.

At this time, there were two types of cadre uniforms. The first type was officially called the local administrative cadre uniform. It had a small pointed lapel, a single row of five buttons, and four flap pockets on the upper garment, two on the chest and two on the hem, all with concealed flaps and snaps. This was the mark that distinguished cadres from ordinary workers and handymen.

The uniforms worn by janitors and factory workers only had two pockets on the chest, and no pockets at the hem.

They are very easy to tell apart: those with four pockets are cadres, and those with two pockets are workers.

The second type is the Type 55 officer's uniform, which is based on the Zhongshan suit and is military green with four pockets. This type is called the military cadre uniform.

So if you encounter someone wearing a garment with four pockets, they are either a government official or a family member of an official.

Upon receiving the notification, Wang Xingguo immediately rushed to personally greet the man, who was in his fifties. With a broad smile, he asked, "Sir, what would you like to buy? Would you like me to show you around?"

The old man in the cadre's uniform nodded and said, "I heard that they sell pork here? I'd like to order a dozen or so kilograms for a banquet, do you have any?"

Wang Xingguo was taken aback for a moment, then quickly explained, "Sir, I'm so sorry, but because of the weather, pork doesn't keep well, so there's no pork tonight. But there will definitely be some tomorrow; I wonder if it will make it by tomorrow night?"

"No problem, of course there's plenty of time. I'm having my banquet the day after tomorrow at noon. Can I order fifteen catties of pork for tomorrow night?"

Wang Xingguo readily agreed and offered a discount of four yuan per kilogram, because he had promised that people from this area would get a 10-20% discount compared to others.

The old man was naturally very happy. He went and bought six more chickens and six more ducks. After paying, he carried the chickens, whose legs were tied together and strung together with rope, in one hand and the ducks in the other.

Wang Xingguo instructed his clansmen: "When you encounter someone with four pockets, they are basically from this alley. Whether they are a cadre or a cadre's family member, we should be polite and give them a 20% discount on all their goods."

The clansmen all knew that these were rules set for their territory by others, so naturally they had no objections and nodded to show that they understood.

It was as if this old man had flipped a switch; half an hour later, several people dressed in official uniforms arrived, including not only old men but also old women…

These people weren't afraid of Wang Xingguo and his group. They bargained with the clansmen just like they would in a market.

The clansmen didn't mind at all, and they happily bargained with them, treating it as a way to have some fun and relieve boredom. They didn't mind getting a bigger discount.

After all, they could only sell a hen for two and a half to three yuan before, but now they can sell it for five and a half to six and a half yuan in the market.

If we sell it to them cheaper, we can still make a profit of four and a half to five yuan.

However, the haggling scene still made Wang Xingguo's eyelids twitch. He wondered how his black market had turned into a vegetable market...

Generally speaking, items sold on the black market don't have clearly marked prices; the price depends on the customer.

People who don't understand the market are easily taken advantage of. They usually ask for prices 20-30% higher than the market price, then pretend to have successfully negotiated a lower price, and finally complete the transaction at a price 10-20% higher than the market price.

Don't ask Wang Xingguo how he knew, because the first time he went to the black market to buy things, he was taken advantage of and fleeced!

A tin of imported Hong Kong cookies sells for twelve dollars a box, but usually only costs nine or ten dollars.

Imported goods were so expensive at that time, and Wang Xingguo spent a lot of money to pursue Li Xiuping.

Liu Dadan came to buy fish tonight. Of course, the price for competitors can't be calculated based on the retail price. He bought more than 30 catties of fish, and the settlement was based on an average price of 1.5 yuan.

The main reason is that Liu Dadan wanted a variety of fish, not just the valuable crucian carp and snakehead, so we gave him a discounted average price.

After settling the payment, Liu Dadan had his underlings take the fish away, while he stayed behind to have a couple of drinks with Wang Xingguo.

Wang Xingguo still ate fried loach and peanuts with his drinks. Nobody bought the loach, but now that he was feeding eels and fish and there was snail meat, he simply put in the effort and used some oil to fry them and eat them with his drinks.

Liu Dadan ate a fried loach, then asked in a low voice, "Wang Er, I have a batch of smuggled cigarettes. Do you want to trade me some eels and pork?"

Wang Xingguo's eyes lit up, and he quickly asked, "What kind of cigarettes are they? How much do they cost?"

Liu Dadan chuckled and said, "It's Henan Golden Leaf. I'll trade it to you for four yuan a piece, but you'll have to give me the cost price for your eel and pork. How about that?"

Golden Leaf cigarettes couldn't be bought with cigarette coupons in Beijing. Although the official price was 26 cents a pack, they actually sold for 60 cents a pack on the black market.

In other words, if the price is four yuan per piece, he can make two yuan profit from selling one piece. It's not a highly profitable business, but you need a lot of goods to run a black market.

Wang Xingguo readily agreed, "How about this: I'll give you a live pig weighing over 150 jin (75 kg) and two hundred jin (60 kg) of eels, and you give me two hundred golden leaves. How about this exchange?"

Liu Dadan did the math in his head: a 150-pound pig would yield at least 105 pounds of meat, which could be sold for over 500 yuan. Eels were currently priced at around 2 yuan per pound, so 200 pounds of eels would be worth around 400 yuan.

He could earn more than a hundred yuan more than he would by simply selling cigarettes, and he felt that the price was acceptable, so he agreed to the deal.