Manager Yang fell silent, and Xie Sui also said nothing, waiting for him to ponder his thoughts. He was no longer the slick and vulgar person he used to be, but possessed a steadiness and composure that inspired confidence and reliability.
Agile, willing to humble himself, ambitious, and bold – this was Manager Yang's impression of Xie Sui.
"Manager Yang, you're a manager now, haven't you thought about your future?"
Xie Sui offered another cigarette and began to persuade—no, paint a rosy picture for him—no, point Manager Yang toward a bright future.
"What do you mean?"
Who among officials doesn't want to be promoted? Manager sounded good, but there was still the station chief above him, and advancing further was as difficult as reaching the heavens. Collective economy—these were things that hadn't been experienced before; only merit mattered.
"The grain station is easy, but it's also a dead end. If you can achieve merit, can you move to a different position?
If nothing else, I can generate revenue for Manager Yang. The village's specialty products need to be turned into money. When the economy thrives, the villagers' lives will improve, and they will be grateful to you. If the leadership sees your efforts, they will surely be willing to promote you. If you stay here motionless, to be honest, you'll just wait for retirement and collect a pension."
"Your age is precisely when you have both the seniority and the capability. Are you willing to let the next few decades slip away for a mere pension?"
Manager Yang smiled. "You rascal, just tell me what you need my help with. The production line is definitely out of the question; I don't have that much power."
"We've caught some scorpions and cicada molts at home. Can we sell them to our county's Traditional Chinese Medicine station?"
"That's easy. Both of those have always been in high demand. I know the head of the TCM station. Go there and mention my name, and he'll give you a good price, no rip-offs."
"Thank you, Uncle Yang, you are truly my benefactor. I still want the production line. Please keep an eye out for me. I'll be going now, and I'll visit you again next time."
"Alright, you go on and be busy."
Manager Yang didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He was calling him uncle again, what a slippery kid!
Thanks to Manager Yang's introduction, the TCM station offered a high price of four yuan for the scorpions. The cicada molts fetched even more, ten yuan per jin. However, they were very light; a bag weighed less than a jin, and it sold for eight yuan and ninety cents.
But Xie Sui had used child labor, so there was almost no cost involved, it was like picking up money for free.
Finally, only the canned fruit remained. Zhang Wenfeng was distressed; the supply and marketing cooperative wouldn't accept canned fruit without a trademark!
The shelf life was only two days. If they couldn't sell them, they'd have to be thrown away.
Xie Sui hid the money close to his body. Along with the money from the grain, it was over three hundred yuan, which was a huge sum in this era.
"Let's go to the primary school gate. School should be letting out around this time."
The primary school and middle school in the county were on the same street. When the dismissal bell rang, over a thousand children poured out like birds released from a cage.
"Canned fruit, yellow peach preserves, three for fifty cents, selling cheap!"
Xie Sui skillfully hawked his wares, attracting the children's attention. The golden yellow peaches, with about a quarter of a peach in each piece, selling three for fifty cents wasn't too expensive.
"Uncle, how much for one piece? Three is too much, I don't have that much money."
"Two cents for you, and I'll add some syrup. It's very cheap."
In those days, there weren't many formalities. He took two bowls, poured in about two spoonfuls of syrup, added a piece of canned fruit, and two cents was indeed not expensive.
"Okay, I'll take two cents worth."
"Alright, Wenfeng, get to work."
The children who could study here were all from well-off families, and everyone had three to five cents in pocket money. There were even more middle school students, and some bought a whole bottle directly.
The two of them worked up a sweat, and their stall was surrounded. In less than half an hour, all the remaining canned fruit was sold out.
Xie Sui's throat was parched. He drank half a pot of water to recover.
"It was too crazy. All I saw were hands, like they were going to tear me apart."
Zhang Wenfeng was still trembling with lingering fear. He collected the empty jars; they could be reused at home. That left another dime.
"As expected, the money of children and women is the easiest to earn. This little bit of canned fruit could stump you, Brother Xie? You could sell even more, it just depends on how you sell it."
"Brother Xie is amazing."
Zhang Wenfeng gave him a thumbs-up, genuinely impressed.
"Hey, who are you talking to? Who allowed you to set up a stall here? Don't you know this is private property? You're not allowed here next time, or I'll flip your stall." Su Dan Novel Network.
They were happy, but the small shop owner was not. All the money had been spent on their canned fruit, so the children wouldn't buy candy, and how would they make money?
"I'm sorry, sister, for disturbing your business. Do you think my canned fruit sold well?"
The woman at the small shop was over thirty. Xie Sui put on a smiling face. He was good-looking and spoke sweetly, which diffused half of her anger. "You sold out, so how could it not sell well?"
"Then, sister, do you want to do this business?"
The woman's eyes lit up, and her face immediately broke into a smile. "It's a hot day, come in and have some water."
Her mood changed faster than flipping a book.
"Sorry to bother you, sister."
When Xie Sui came out again, he had gained another partner, a woman named Hu Lan'er, who became the first agent for his canned fruit.
Zhang Wenfeng was dumbfounded. "From now on, we'll give her our canned fruit to sell, and we won't have to sell them ourselves, right?"
"That's right. We'll give her a two-cent profit per piece. We save time and manpower, which is quite cost-effective. However, she needs to pick them up once a day. We absolutely cannot sell anything overnight; if someone gets sick, our business will be ruined."
Xie Sui reminisced about the jelly from his past life. The business he was doing now was essentially the prototype of jelly, but without packaging, it was entirely handmade.
Thinking of jelly, Xie Sui slapped his forehead. "I can make it now! How did I not think of that?"
All the goods on the mule cart were sold. The two of them ate two large bowls of noodles at Ma Jia's noodle stall, filled their stomachs, and then went to the county hospital.
Hu Zi had already completed surgery and was in good spirits. He was pestering Xie Lan for food. Xie Lan was coaxing him; they had already spent so much on medical expenses, where would they get money to buy candy?
"Sister, is Hu Zi feeling better?"
Xie Sui entered. Hu Zi turned his face away, not wanting to look at him, and didn't greet him. This uncle was too mean; he had scammed him out of his New Year's money.
"You child, quickly greet your uncle."
"It's okay. It's just the candy and snacks I bought. Some people definitely don't want to eat them."
"Uncle, I want candy. Even Gou Sheng gets brown sugar water when he's sick. I have nothing, and I only eat corn porridge. I'm so pitiful."
Xie Sui smiled. The thoughts of children were so simple; they wanted to eat good food when they were sick, and some even pretended to be sick just to eat something good and get their parents' sympathy.
"We have to ask the doctor. If the doctor says he can eat it, then we'll eat it, okay?"
Xie Sui naturally didn't come empty-handed. He brought canned fruit, candies, snacks, brown sugar, and also bought some eggs, setting them all on a table.
"Xiao Sui, why are you wasting money like this? The child is just greedy; coaxing him is enough. It's too much."
Xie Lan was heartbroken. She hadn't slept soundly for nights worrying about the remaining medical expenses. What if they refused treatment?