Chapter 51: Planning

Sun Jinshan, despite having an ordinary appearance and height, is a plain passerby. However, he enjoys various trendy things and often dresses up when he has free time. In recent days, dealing with the local officials, he maintained a fashionable look with impressively tidy hair.

Yet today, he didn’t bother to dress up. Since last night, he has been extremely busy, even sleeping at a brick factory, resulting in a dishevelled and dirty appearance resembling that of an ordinary factory worker.

And then there’s the matter of his hair… Sun Jinshan’s hair is thin and soft, a bit long for styling purposes. After applying a thick layer of styling mousse, it looked good, but without anything, the long hair fell limply on his scalp, giving off a particularly unsophisticated vibe.

The Red Star Township government sent four people to Shanghai this time: the Red Star Township secretary, the deputy township chief in charge of the economy, the chairman of the Red Star Township People’s Congress, and the township veterinarian.

Originally, only the first three were supposed to go, but concerned about potential issues with the chickens en route, they brought the veterinarian along. These individuals, like Lu Weishan, were somewhat hesitant to recognise Sun Jinshan in his current state.

Sun Jinshan: “It” looks like he really should have dressed up!

The chicken cages brought back by Sun Jinshan and Jiang Lihai from Shanghai were somewhat insufficient, but some chicken farmers lent them cages, allowing them to transport all the chickens.

Secretary Lu and the other two officials were arranged on another cargo ship, while Jiang Lihai, Sun Jinshan, and the veterinarian stayed on a barge filled with white feather chickens.

The environment on the boat was unpleasant, and the smell was foul. Fortunately, they were close to Shanghai, so despite the slow tugboat speed, they would reach Shanghai by the end of the day.

As the tugboat departed from the dock, the veterinarian initially expressed enthusiasm about playing cards with Sun Jinshan and Jiang Lihai. However, before long, he became seasick, vomiting profusely.

Having spent several years on the transportation team, Sun Jinshan was experienced and comfortable on the boat, unafraid of the wind and waves. Jiang Lihai couldn’t match his ease, but after putting on a life jacket, he managed to perform his duties.

The veterinarian, on the other hand, not only vomited intensely but also exhibited great fear, even avoiding the edge of the boat to avoid vomiting overboard.

After cleaning up the mess left by the veterinarian, Jiang Lihai tied a rope around his waist, as per the veterinarian’s request, allowing him to lean over the side and vomit freely.

They set off in the early morning and arrived in Shanghai in the evening, just as the sun was setting with a spectacular glow. Jiang Lihai stood at the bow, observing a massive ship approaching from a distance.

Their boat was quite rudimentary, resembling a paper-folded boat with a deep cargo area in the middle. It was low, especially compared to the massive ship approaching—a colossal entity to them. Jiang Lihai even noticed foreigners on board.

“That’s a foreign ship, so huge!” exclaimed Sun Jinshan.

They had seen foreigners before, but this was their first close encounter with a foreign ship.

The ship was truly enormous.

“I wish I had a ship this big,” Sun Jinshan remarked.

Who wouldn’t want such a large ship? Jiang Lihai thought the same!

As Sun Jinshan, Jiang Lihai, and others on the barge were marvelling at the massive ship, the people on the giant vessel were also observing them.

“I didn’t have time to change clothes,” Sun Jinshan commented, realising how bad they looked at the moment.

However, compared to others on the barges loaded with bricks, he and Jiang Lihai were relatively well dressed. Some crew members on those brick-loaded barges looked quite sloppy. One old sailor even sat on a pile of bricks, huddled with a bamboo pipe, smoking dry tobacco.

Just as Sun Jinshan started to relax, he saw a foreigner on the giant ship throw a box of cigarettes towards the sailor smoking the pipe.

The box landed on the bricks, and the smoking sailor swiftly grabbed it.

Another crew member on their boat saw this and gestured, wanting some too.

Observing this, the foreigners on the giant ship threw down another pack of cigarettes. Soon, everyone on the barges began waving and making gestures to get something.

There were many foreigners on the giant ship, and they threw down various items, mainly cigarettes and canned goods.

“What’s that? Foreign goods?” Sun Jinshan exclaimed excitedly, eager to get some.

With that thought, Sun Jinshan stood at the bow, also waving and making gestures towards the foreigners.

Some foreigners noticed Sun Jinshan and the veterinarian besides him, who was still lying down feeling seasick, and tossed down two packs of cigarettes for them.

The cigarettes fell into the cargo hold containing the chicken cages. Sun Jinshan cheered and quickly went down to retrieve them.

The people on the fleet were all delighted, but Jiang Lihai, sitting in a corner, turned red with embarrassment. What were they doing? It felt like they were begging for things!

The Jiang family was very poor, and Jiang Lihai always feared others knowing about his poverty. Even if he wasn’t hungry, Jiang Liping would pretend to be starving and sweet-talk people into giving them food.

But Jiang Lihai was the opposite. Even if he was very hungry, he would claim not to be when asked.

He dreaded others pitying him and didn’t want to ask for things.

When his grandparents were alive, they lived with his second uncle. Occasionally, if his second aunt made something special, like glutinous rice dumplings with pickled vegetables and dried tofu, his grandparents would save a portion for him.

He was young at the time and didn’t think much about it. If his grandparents gave it to him, he would eat it, until one day his second aunt caught him.

She scolded him, accusing him of shamelessly taking things from the elderly. She claimed his grandparents were using his uncle’s things to support his family.

Feeling utterly ashamed, he never wanted to eat anything given to him by his grandparents again.

His two cousins in his second uncle’s family were close in age, but he didn’t want to play with them.

Now, in this situation, he felt especially uncomfortable with the way those foreigners were looking at him, pointing and laughing as if mocking them on the boat.

Fortunately, the giant ship soon separated from them.

Jiang Lihai breathed a sigh of relief, then watched as Sun Jinshan emerged from the chicken cages, holding a pack of cigarettes with two feathers sticking out: “I found one pack, but couldn’t find the other. Jiang Lihai, this is foreign goods. I’ll take it back to show the folks at the factory. In the future, when I buy other cigarettes, I’ll use these packs.”

These days, some people will finish smoking a pack of expensive cigarettes and then refill the empty pack with cheaper ones. Others would keep a pack of good cigarettes in their shirt pockets to show off.

Sun Jinshan was one of them.

Jiang Lihai asked, “Isn’t it wrong to take other people’s things?”

“They gave it to us! Maybe they’re afraid of hitting our chickens? They didn’t throw us any canned goods. I wanted to try those canned goods,” Sun Jinshan said longingly, eyeing the canned goods the crew on the neighbouring boat had received. “Are those cans made of iron? They must be rich. I’ve only had canned goods in glass jars.”

Jiang Lihai hadn’t even eaten canned goods in glass jars; his family didn’t buy such things.

He also wanted to taste foreign canned goods but felt embarrassed.

As they spoke, they heard Lu Weishan’s angry voice from the neighbouring boat: “No one is allowed to eat! Hand over the things to me! I’ll return them!”

Jiang Lihai looked over and saw Lu Weishan’s face flushed with anger.

Lu Weishan was, after all, a township official. He was furious, shouting, and some people gave him the things, but others hid them, causing chaos on the boat.

This incident caused a commotion for a long time. That night, the police came on board to search and confiscate all the items, claiming they would return them to the foreigners.

That evening, as everyone gathered for dinner, Lu Weishan remained angry: “It’s shameful, utterly shameful!”

However, most people on the boat didn’t understand Lu Weishan. Privately, they discussed the taste of those foreign goods.

Some people who managed to grab a can opened it and ate its contents directly. Inside were large beans with a strange taste.

Others opened a can of fish, claiming the fish inside were soaked in oil and smelled particularly fragrant.

Some said the foreign cigarettes were too strong and unpleasant to smoke.

There were various opinions, and some who hadn’t tasted anything felt particularly regretful.

None of the people on the boat had much education, so this incident was somewhat novel to them, and they were impressed by the wealth of the foreigners.

They didn’t think much about it, but Lu Weishan was furious, repeatedly arguing that the foreigners looked down on them.

Unfortunately, the crew didn’t sympathise with him, as they were often looked down upon themselves. Even when they went ashore in Shanghai to buy things, people would avoid them.

That night, their boat docked on the shore.

Lu Weishan and his group, including the nauseous veterinarian, all went ashore to find accommodations.

Sun Jinshan, Jiang Lihai, and the other crew members stayed on the boat.

They had to guard the boat and couldn’t bear to spend money on lodging ashore.

After sleeping curled up on the boat for a night, the next day, Sun Jinshan asked for help from the crew to take the chickens to the wholesaler who purchased white feather chickens.

Lu Weishan initially intended to go, but they all had some seasickness, and after the events of the previous day, they decided not to join.

Their main concern in accompanying Sun Jinshan and Jiang Lihai was to ensure the business went smoothly, fearing that Sun Jinshan and Jiang Lihai might be deceived. Seeing the two handle things efficiently, they decided to let them handle the matter on their own.

They were well aware that Sun Jinshan and Jiang Lihai were in this business to make money, but they themselves benefited from it. They figured Sun Jinshan and Jiang Lihai wouldn’t make too much profit, so they let them take charge.

The bricks for the brick factory were transported in advance, and, not in a hurry to unload them, everyone joined forces to sell the chickens first.

Five thousand chickens were a lot for Sun Jinshan, Jiang Lihai, and their crew, and it was also a significant number for the small town of Jiuqu. It was enough to cause a drop in the price of chicken meat in Jiuqu Town.

However, when these chickens were delivered to Shanghai…

Shanghai had a population of over ten million people, and these five thousand chickens here hardly made a dent.

The only issue was during the weighing process; there were slight discrepancies.

The weights of these chickens had been recorded when they were in Hongxing Township, and Jiang Lihai and Sun Jinshan had prepared for the actual weights to be slightly lighter than the recorded weights.

When the chickens were weighed, they were well fed, but after more than a day had passed, whatever they had eaten before had likely been expelled.

As a result…

Indeed, the weights of some chickens were lighter than the recorded weights, but for others, the weights were heavier.

“Did those village officials intentionally understate the weights when they collected the chickens?” Sun Jinshan wondered.

“It seems like it,” Jiang Lihai replied.

In all likelihood, some village officials were worried that the actual weights would be lighter than the recorded weights and that they might face criticism. So, from the beginning, they wrote down lower weights for these chickens.

In the end, Sun Jinshan and Jiang Lihai decided to use the weights recorded on that day to calculate the payments. They could have used the previously recorded weights, but after some consideration, they decided to stick to the weights measured that day when it came time to pay.

Once all five thousand chickens were weighed, the wholesaler paid them in cash.

If it hadn’t been for the crew helping, and later even Lu Weishan and his group joining in, Sun Jinshan and Jiang Lihai wouldn’t have dared to return alone with so much money.

The next day, Lu Weishan’s group went out for an inspection, while Sun Jinshan and Jiang Lihai stayed on the boat to settle accounts.

They each independently calculated the money to be distributed to the commune’s residents, cross-checked their calculations, and corrected any discrepancies.

After determining the total amount to be paid out and figuring out how much they would earn, the sound of the calculator echoed on the boat. They repeated the calculations several times, and in the end, they realised they had earned a total of 3,620 yuan.

3,620 yuan!

They had actually earned this much!

Sun Jinshan and Jiang Lihai, even Jiang Lihai, would get more than seven hundred yuan!

Jiang Lihai suggested, “My sister thinks it’s best if we take some money and distribute it among the crew members of the fleet.”

“Take out a hundred yuan, buy something for everyone; they’ve helped us pick things today, and it’s quite tiring. Also, take another twenty yuan to buy some meat, and we can all have a meal together.” Sun Jinshan immediately made the decision.

In terms of social relations, he was quite understanding.

Although he loved money, he was generous in his dealings with people. Over the next few days, he even took the rent refunded by the brick factory and, along with Lu Weishan’s group, toured around Shanghai.

They celebrated New Year’s Day in Shanghai.

In Hongxing Township, no one celebrated New Year’s Day; the widely acknowledged celebration was the Spring Festival.

In fact, apart from Jiang Liyun, who was accustomed to the Gregorian calendar, many people paid no attention to it.

But in Shanghai, the atmosphere during the New Year’s transition was lively, and they even witnessed fireworks.

Jiang Lihai and Sun Jinshan had been to Shanghai many times before.

However, they had never visited those bustling commercial streets.

Even Sun Jinshan, who was somewhat afraid to go to such places, felt that everything there was incompatible with him.

He, at most, studied the attire of people on Shanghai streets and tried to imitate their clothing.

However, this time, following Lu Weishan, he gained exposure to the large shopping malls in Shanghai.

Time passed, and on January 6, 1988, Jiang Lihai returned to Qiaotou Village with 2,100 yuan.

In his entire life, he had never had so much money on him.

Previously, all the savings in his family combined were not this much.

Jiang Lihai thought he would be excited to share his experiences in Shanghai with Jiang Liyun, telling her about how they sold chickens, how much money they earned, and how happy he was.

However, the reality was quite the opposite.

Upon seeing Jiang Liyun, Jiang Lihai blurted out, “Liyun, I met foreigners in Shanghai.”

The items thrown down by those foreigners, even if some had already been opened and eaten, were all taken away.

Jiang Lihai didn’t know how the authorities handled it afterwards, but he knew that Sun Jinshan later found another pack of cigarettes from the chicken cage and cherished it like a treasure.

Jiang Lihai always felt like something was blocking his heart.

His colleagues didn’t think there was an issue, so he could only tell Jiang Liyun, “Those people were just giving charity, and Sun Jinshan and the others were begging.”

Jiang Lihai shared a lot, and besides these aspects, he also talked about how the wages in the foreign-invested factories were particularly high, at several hundred yuan per month.

He also recounted his observations in Shanghai.

Jiang Lihai was not an outgoing person, but he was good at observing. Over these days, he remembered everything he had seen and heard and described it all to Jiang Liyun.

Jiang Liyun knew he was deeply affected.

In the late 1980s, when the country opened up, many people were profoundly influenced when they first encountered the outside world.

During the initial period of opening up, their country had nothing, and when a foreigner came to invest in a hotel, they couldn’t even find the necessary items for the hotel’s decoration domestically.

For example, they couldn’t find the stopper for the bathtub drain in the country, so they had to temporarily replace it with a cork from an electric kettle and then import it.

Now, several years have passed, and the situation has improved a lot, but the gap between them and foreign countries remains significant.

Of course, their country will soar and catch up; the dormant dragon will eventually awaken.

However, that is something that will happen a long time later. Jiang Liyun knows that in the next twenty years, many people in their country will still look up to foreign countries, and countless individuals will do everything they can to go abroad.

The reason for this is ultimately because the people in their country lack confidence.

They have no way to be confident when all the good appliances, small cars, and useful machines on the market are imported.

At this time, people are very enthusiastic about foreign things. KFC is popular not only because its fried chicken is delicious but also because it comes from abroad.

Before Jiang Liyun, she planned to follow the usual path and gradually develop her own business.

She herself prefers to take a steady and slow approach.

But at this moment, a slightly different idea suddenly surged in her mind.

Having relived her life, should she do something different this time?

Would she continue to be just an ordinary businessperson, earning a small amount of money throughout her life?

Jiang Liyun didn’t read books in her previous life and knew little about high-tech.

For example, she had heard people talk a lot about chips and knew that phones needed chips inside, but she didn’t understand the specifics of what a chip was.

Jiang Liyun knew she didn’t have much education, and her capabilities were limited.

But what if she had money and was willing to support others in their research?

Of course, thinking about these things is a bit far-fetched for now.

After all, her current situation is meager. She has only a small amount of money in hand, wearing old clothes that Jiang Liping used to wear, and she lacks in many aspects.

But she knows what she can do in her upcoming business!

If KFC can sell hamburgers in China, why can’t she?

This business seems simple to start and particularly lucrative!

In her previous life, their country had witnessed the emergence of some local hamburger brands. Those shops usually opened late, but she could take early action.

Of course, there are several things to handle, such as improving the recipe for the fried chicken. It would require repeated experiments to develop a better formula.

Then there’s the matter of sourcing ingredients, figuring out how to open the store, and various other aspects that need research.

Jiang Liyun suddenly asked Jiang Lihai, “Brother, I remember the food factory in town; does it have cold storage?”

Jiuqu Town had a small food factory specialising in producing soda. It also had a cold storage facility where, during the summer, they produced red bean popsicles, green bean popsicles, and the cheapest sugar water popsicles.

“Yes, there is. In the summer, those selling popsicles get them wholesale from the food factory,” Jiang Lihai replied, still unclear about why his sister suddenly mentioned the food factory.

Jiang Liyun said, “Brother, I have a small goal, and that is to buy the town’s food factory.”

Jiang Lihai was utterly confused, finding his sister’s idea inexplicable. Buy the food factory? Wasn’t that a joke?

Jiang Liyun continued, “Of course, I can’t afford to buy it now, but I can lease it first.”

Before, Jiang Liyun had no intention of getting involved with Sun Jinshan and others selling live chickens to Shanghai. After all, under normal circumstances where chicken prices were not so low, such a venture didn’t make much profit. Maybe even less than what she earned from her stall.

However, now, after selling the chickens, why sell live chickens? They could process them, cut them into chicken legs, chicken breasts, chicken wings, chicken racks, etc., and then freeze and sell them.

This would make transportation more convenient, improve profits, and even create a local industry.

Most importantly, if she wanted to sell fried chicken and hamburgers in the future, she would have the raw materials.

In short, undertaking this venture might not make her rich, but it shouldn’t incur losses. The biggest problem might be… She didn’t have the capital.

But capital is something that can be earned.

She had read in the newspaper about the price situation in 1986. For instance, the planned price for crude oil was 113 yuan per tonnene, while the non-planned price was 560 yuan per tonnene.

During this period, corruption was rampant, and the price situation was somewhat chaotic.

Therefore, in March 1988, Shanghai started a price breakthrough, adjusting the retail prices of nearly three hundred kinds of goods. After that, they also released the retail prices of staple foods such as pork and bean products.

As a result, many things began to rise in price, and pork prices increased by seventy percent!

There was even a buying frenzy.

Their country was vast, and each region had different conditions, but Jiang Liyun had heard people chat about it in her previous life. After the price was released, the price of a one-kilogramme bottle of Maotai rose from 40 yuan to 300 yuan.

Later, the country made readjustments, but the situation in 1988 was indeed quite chaotic. At that time, people withdrew all their money from the bank and bought various things to hoard. The Xie family hoarded a lot of salt, matches, soap, and other items.

She planned to start a business later because she knew these things—during a period of soaring prices and widespread panic buying, it would be challenging to run a catering business.

But now, thinking about it… She could still make money. For example, stocking up on goods and selling them.

Jiang Liyun had many thoughts, and various ideas were swirling chaotically in her mind.

She knew these were all her own ideas, and the specific steps needed careful planning.

In the next few days, she could create a plan, organise her thoughts, and jot down everything she remembered.

She felt the need to read the recent newspapers thoroughly.

“Why do you want to rent cold storage?” Jiang Lihai couldn’t help but ask.

Jiang Liyun smiled. “Nothing special, just thinking about it casually… Brother, tomorrow, after selling pan-fried dumplings in town, let’s go buy some clothes.”

Since her rebirth, she has been busy making money. Even when spending money, it was all for the sake of doing business.

Now, with an additional income of over a thousand, they could afford to buy clothes.

After buying clothes… To save money for capital, she estimated that they still had to live frugally.