Chapter 51: Xu Xingtao’s Invitation

Wang Jinju stayed for the morning and went back to make lunch around noon.

Chen Tao happened to be back from the orchard with two baskets of fruit.

The Chen family’s orchard had apple, pear, and orange trees.

It was now the autumn harvest season, and all three types of fruit on the trees were almost ready to be picked.

When he went to take a look today, he picked some of the ripe and large ones and planned to send them to the Qin family in the afternoon.

“Mom, you’re back. How is it? Is everything okay at Da Qin’s?”

Chen Tao put down the shoulder pole and took off the towel around his neck to wipe his face and head.

Wang Jinju came over, picked an orange, peeled it, and took a bite, then frowned.

The weather this year had affected the fruit trees a little, and the oranges had less juice and were a little dry.

“It’s good over there. You should worry about yourself. Da Qin already has a wife, and their life is getting better. Look at you, a big man, you’re getting old and still don’t have a girlfriend. In a couple of years, you’ll be old and no one will want you. I wonder what you’ll do then.”

Chen Tao had heard these words so many times that he was used to it. He skillfully changed the subject, “Mom, you saw Sangluo today, right? How is she? She’s very capable, isn’t she?”

Wang Jinju was led by the topic and nodded, about to praise her.

But halfway through nodding, she suddenly felt something was wrong, and her expression changed.

Then she raised her hand and patted her son’s arm, “You little rascal, what do you mean? Don’t tell me… a friend’s wife is not to be coveted. You little scoundrel, don’t you dare have any bad ideas, or I’ll break your legs.”

Chen Tao quickly dodged her hand that was about to twist his ear, his mouth twitching, “My dear mother, what are you thinking? I was just mentioning it because you didn’t believe me before. Really, you don’t know what kind of person your son is.”

In fact, he was just thinking about cooperating with Xu Sangluo in the future.

If his mother approved of Xu Sangluo, then she wouldn’t help them in the future, but at least she wouldn’t stop them.

After all, his mother still had some say in the family.

Wang Jinju didn’t really think her son was so unprincipled, she was just casually warning him.

After all, Xu Sangluo was beautiful, and after spending a day with her, she learned more about her and felt that she had a very attractive quality.

Not only men, but even women would easily become close to her.

“Alright, what do you want to eat for lunch?”

“Didn’t Sangluo bring dumplings yesterday? Let’s have dumplings for lunch. Mom, I’m telling you, Sangluo’s cooking is really good, it’s no worse than the chefs at the state-owned restaurant.”

“Alright, alright, stop it. No matter how good she is, she’s someone else’s wife. When will you find me a daughter-in-law? While your mother’s bones haven’t rusted yet, I can still help you take care of the kids for a few years. Otherwise, you’ll have to do it yourselves later. Your niece can already go to elementary school, and you… “

Chen Tao got a headache when he heard these topics, and he quickly found an excuse to slip away.

Wang Jinju laughed and scolded him a couple of times, then took the dumplings out of the cellar.

The dumplings were wrapped in cloth, neatly stacked in circles in the basket.

Each pleat was the same, white and plump, about a little less than an ounce, quite heavy.

She couldn’t help but sigh,

She even felt a little envious of her friend.

This was a case of suffering turning into joy.

The next day, Xu Sangluo received two pieces of good news.

One was a message brought back by Qin Zhishu from Manager Fang, saying that the ten sewing machines had been ordered, and he had arranged for them to be delivered directly. They would arrive around noon tomorrow.

The other good news was that the letter from Dongtai Garment Factory had arrived.

The letter contained a notification and a badge.

Her application had been approved, and Dongtai Garment Factory agreed to let her participate in the sales conference.

However, because she was an individual business, she would only be given a place, and she would need to arrange her own booth.

She also needed to submit some documents, such as her personal ID, a letter of introduction from her place of residence, a business license, etc.

These things were not difficult to obtain, and she had even prepared many of them.

As for the booth, it didn’t matter, as long as she could get in, she could just lay down a piece of cloth.

So, the next day, she directly sent a full letter back, and she could start mass-producing clothes.

She had already decided on the styles of clothes she would sell at the sales conference, and the patterns were already made.

Just these past two days, she had also successfully recruited four female workers who could operate sewing machines proficiently.

Although they were a little older, their work was not sloppy, and Xu Sangluo was quite satisfied.

However, the autumn harvest had also begun in the brigade, and everyone was starting to get busy.

Every year at this time, the entire commune would be busy for almost a month.

Fortunately, the Qin family only had two acres of land, and they didn’t have any relatives who needed help.

Qin Zhiyi and the younger ones, Qin Zhishu and the others, could take a day off and basically get it done.

The two acres of land yielded over 700 pounds of wheat. Some of it was turned in as grain, and the rest was not sold. It was directly ground into wheat flour and transported back.

Qin Zhiyi also took the opportunity to plow the six acres of land again to nourish it.

Because Xu Sangluo said she wanted to borrow these few acres to plant some things.

At the workshop, the impact was not great because many people in the town didn’t need to harvest in autumn.

They could still steadily provide the county with 6,000 to 8,000 hair accessories per day.

So far, Chunsheng Supply and Marketing Cooperative could still handle it.

And other supply and marketing cooperatives were also envious.

Unfortunately, Xu Sangluo hadn’t been to the county for a while, so they couldn’t find her and couldn’t get any information about her. They could only watch helplessly.

But Manager Fang was anxious, afraid that Xu Sangluo would really cooperate with other stores.

He immediately approached Xu Sangluo to discuss wholesale cooperation.

To get priority supply rights, Manager Fang even took the initiative to reduce the original 10% wholesale price by 2%, showing his sincerity.

The two of them discussed the specific terms of the cooperation, and Manager Fang applied for it. It took two days of negotiation with the city supply and marketing cooperative before it was approved.

So, today Xu Sangluo was going to the city to sign the contract.

Qin Zhiyi wanted to accompany her, but she didn’t let him.

Qin Zhiyi had also been busy recently.

Liu Boss had been operating here for many years, and he had a wide network and strong connections.

He had dealings with many factories.

Although the repair shop had just opened and was not large, it had taken on many orders.

Plus, Qin Zhiyi’s skills were solid, and his repair prices were not high, so he got even more orders.

Liu Boss’s scrap yard also expanded, and there was more and more scrap. The repair shop got a batch of second-hand goods from it, which also sold well.

While transporting steel to the county, he also brought back a few hundred rolls of new cloth from the textile factory for her.

So, although it seemed like they were making a lot of money during this time, it was all being reinvested.

This was the biggest difficulty of starting a business. In the early stages, you basically didn’t have much money on hand.

The contract was signed smoothly, with Liu Jingli, the manager of the city supply and marketing cooperative, signing it.

This was also the first time Xu Sangluo had met Liu Jingli.

She was a fashionable woman in her forties, with her hair slightly permed, wearing a beige velvet cheongsam and a thin long coat. She was efficient and composed.

Xu Sangluo only learned later from Manager Fang’s casual mention that the cooperation between them was actually initiated by Liu Jingli.

It was said that when the two managers were talking on the phone about how to improve the efficiency of the supply and marketing cooperative, Manager Fang was complaining about how individual businesses were becoming more and more prominent, and he casually mentioned that recently another individual business selling hair accessories had taken away a lot of customers.

Liu Jingli was curious and asked about it, then asked Manager Fang to collect some of the best-selling products from individual businesses and send them to her.

Then she fell in love with Xu Sangluo’s hair accessories and decided to have Manager Fang try to cooperate with her or buy a batch of goods to put in the supply and marketing cooperative to see how they sold.

The subsequent popularity of the hair accessories further convinced Liu Jingli of the potential of this new product.

She was basically the one who ran the signing process, otherwise, it wouldn’t have been approved so quickly.

After all, the profit margin per unit was really too low.

Xu Sangluo also gave them pricing power and didn’t set a fixed retail price.

However, Liu Jingli still showed her the new retail prices they had set.

After reading it, Xu Sangluo couldn’t help but admire the other woman’s boldness.

The prices of all products had basically doubled or more.

Some of the pure white stone bead and jade-like hair accessories even had a unit price of twenty to thirty yuan.

Of course, this was the price at the city supply and marketing cooperative.

The price in the county was only slightly higher.

After signing the contract, Xu Sangluo went to the eastern goods warehouse area to rent a small warehouse.

This was also mentioned by Manager Fang when she asked, and Liu Jingli also helped write a letter of introduction.

The warehouse was used as a cover.

She planned to get a container of fruits and vegetables first, then send them to the county and have Chen Tao sell them.

The first batch was just to test the market. If it went well, she could plant them on a large scale next year.

After completing the warehouse rental procedures, she went directly back to the county.

Seeing that it was still early, she went to Dongfeng Hotel to wait.

Yesterday, when she confirmed that she would be coming over today, she specially borrowed a phone from the community and called Xu Xingtao, making an appointment for him and Liang Yu to have lunch together.

Although they are now working directly with the textile factory, it was initially because of his connection.

She hadn’t been to the county for a while, and now that she was finally there, she naturally had to get in touch.

She couldn’t let people think she was using them and then throwing them away.

At noon, the textile factory’s bell rang, and in less than five minutes, Xu Xingtao was standing inside Dongfeng Hotel.

His gaze was fixed on the person in the corner, who was looking down at a newspaper.

Since she didn’t have to be a model anymore, Xu Sangluo didn’t bother to dress up.

Her hair was simply tied up in a high ponytail, and even her bangs were secured with a headband, revealing a smooth and full forehead, which highlighted her delicate features.

She was wearing a white long-sleeved turtleneck sweater with a brown nylon short jacket on top and a pair of slim-fitting jeans.

Her whole person seemed even more refreshing and beautiful, a beautiful sight wherever she went.

Xu Xingtao’s sharp phoenix eyes behind his glasses had a hint of a smile, but when he noticed that diners were secretly looking at her, his brows furrowed.

He turned around and asked about the situation at the counter, then ordered the food and walked over to sit opposite her.

Xu Sangluo finally came back to her senses and smiled when she saw him. She put away the newspaper, “Xu Ge, you’re here. Sorry, I forgot the time. Oh, where’s Liang Ge?”

Xu Xingtao pushed his gold-rimmed glasses, “He has something to do today, he can’t come.”

“Oh, okay. Then I’ll order some food.” She said, getting up.

Xu Xingtao quickly stopped her, “I’ve already ordered. You’ve treated us to so many meals, I’ll treat you this time.”

Xu Sangluo immediately said, “How can that be? We agreed to treat you.”

Xu Xingtao smiled, “Then next time. Liang Yu isn’t here anyway.”

Xu Sangluo hesitated.

Xu Xingtao pressed on, “You can’t treat us every time. I have to give you a chance to show some hospitality.”

Xu Sangluo thought about it and agreed, “Alright, you can’t compete with me next time.”

“Okay.” Xu Xingtao smiled, “How have you been lately?”

He naturally picked up the teapot and refilled her cup.

“I’m doing well, everything is going smoothly.” Xu Sangluo smiled and briefly told him about the workshop and signing the contract in the city today.

The two of them didn’t feel awkward because they hadn’t seen each other for a while.

Xu Xingtao knew a lot about certain things because of his family connections, and he could always give some advice.

Xu Sangluo was happy to chat with him about her various plans and dreams.

When he heard that she was going to sell fruits and vegetables, Xu Xingtao was a little surprised, then nodded approvingly.

“The fruit and vegetable market is still vacant now, there are indeed many opportunities. But it depends on the subsequent supply. In recent years, the shortage of vegetables in the off-season has become increasingly severe. If the supply can keep up, taking over the county market shouldn’t be a problem. You might even be able to expand to the city.”

Because of transportation and logistics, and because China is still facing a food shortage, most of the land is used to grow food.

A small part is used to grow cotton and other practical

Crops, fruits, and vegetables are not grown much, and not many varieties have been introduced.

So, every time the off-season comes, the supply of vegetables can’t keep up.

Even many workers in the county can’t buy a single leaf of vegetables in spring and winter, even if they have money.

In the past, people’s needs were not high, so it was fine.

Now, living standards are getting better and better, and people’s needs are also getting higher, so this phenomenon has become more prominent.

In the past two years, the government has also started to address this issue.

I don’t know about other places, but Fenghua County hasn’t started self-operated fruit and vegetable businesses yet.

If Xu Sangluo can start first, she will definitely be able to make a steady profit for at least the next few years.

He didn’t ask Xu Sangluo where her fruit and vegetable supply came from.

Xu Sangluo didn’t use the same trick she used to fool Chen Tao. She just said that a friend’s family in another province had started growing fruits and vegetables, and she was helping them test the market.

After talking with Xu Xingtao, she was even more confident about the feasibility of this business.

When she decided to start a fruit and vegetable business, she also specifically checked the fruit and vegetable market during this period.

She found that since 1978, the off-season vegetable shortage had become more severe year after year. Every year, as soon as September arrived, even the capital would have to pay a high price to eat vegetables.

This situation would continue until 1985, when the country began to open up the vegetable market, and the Ministry of Agriculture took the lead in establishing vegetable distribution centers, stimulating farmers’ enthusiasm for growing vegetables, and this problem gradually eased.

But to completely solve the problem of difficulty in eating vegetables in the off-season, it would take at least until the 1990s.

So, this market has about ten years of potential.

“Do you have anything else to do this afternoon?” Xu Xingtao suddenly asked.

Xu Sangluo was still thinking about the fruit and vegetable market, and she was stunned when she heard this. She didn’t answer but asked, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” Xu Xingtao pushed his glasses and smiled, “You’ve been here so many times, you should have a good understanding of Fenghua County. Do you want me to take you around this afternoon? Especially the big and small markets, you can take a look.”

Xu Sangluo was surprised, “Don’t you have to work this afternoon?”

She did plan to look around the county this afternoon. Selling fruits and vegetables is different from selling hair accessories.

Fruits and vegetables are not easy to transport or store, and you can’t just do it every other day. It’s best to find a place with a good location.

“I have to pick someone up at the station after four o’clock. I’ve already asked for time off. You’re here today, and I have nothing to do anyway.”

Xu Sangluo heard this and didn’t refuse. She smiled, “That would be great. I was just thinking about looking around this afternoon and finding a suitable place to sell vegetables.”

After finishing their meal, they rested for a while and then went out for a walk.

Xu Xingtao did have some understanding of the fruit and vegetable market.

Because Xu’s father worked as the Minister of Agricultural Production under the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries in Guangcheng.

Although he wasn’t responsible for the agricultural product market sales, he would still pay attention to and understand relevant reports.

Xu Xingtao had read a lot, so he had some understanding and could talk about it eloquently.

He grew up in Fenghua County, so he was more familiar with it.

With him as a tour guide, Xu Sangluo could save a lot of time.