Journey 1995:Non-Stop

Chapter 81 Trade Process
"Uncle Cheng Gui?" Yan Hui and Brother Liu were chatting when they saw a familiar figure walk by and greeted him as usual.

Uncle Chenggui is Da Kai's father and someone Yan Hui met when he first went to his second brother's place. He is quite tall and stands out in a crowd.

"You are..." Perhaps Yan Hui's hairstyle had changed quite a bit, because Cheng Gui didn't recognize him at first. He stopped and thought for several seconds before hesitatingly saying, "Are you Xiao Yan?"

"Yeah, it's me."

"You're not with Second Brother anymore?" Uncle Cheng Gui stopped, tilted his head to one side, and looked Yan Hui up and down.

Having just washed himself and gotten a haircut, Yan Hui looked very refreshed.

"Yes, I resigned and came here to help my uncle." Yan Hui looked at Uncle Cheng Gui and noticed that Uncle Cheng Gui was not in good condition.

"Huh?" Uncle Chenggui looked at Brother Liu, then at Yan Hui and the movers behind Brother Liu, and immediately understood that the boss had come to supervise the movers loading the truck.

This status is already much better than that of a porter.

"What's wrong, Uncle Cheng Gui? Why aren't you saying anything?" Yan Hui noticed that Uncle Cheng Gui seemed a bit dazed and was slightly puzzled.

"Oh, it's nothing! Your serious business will be a big boss soon, very soon!"

"I'm learning slowly too," Yan Hui said politely.

"Okay, you can keep busy here," Uncle Chenggui pointed to the people in front of him, "I'm going with my coworkers now."

The few words exchanged were utterly meaningless, and Yan Hui watched Uncle Chenggui's retreating figure with some puzzlement. Uncle Chenggui wasn't like this before. Yan Hui used to get a headache just looking at him because he was always asking all sorts of questions.

"Do you know any of the porters around here?" Brother Liu asked curiously.

“His son and I used to be coworkers.”

"Oh, oh, oh." Brother Liu nodded, no longer curious. He's just a porter; asking once is enough.

"Brother Liu, what time will you finish?" Yan Hui asked curiously.

"It'll be at least 10 o'clock by now. The main problem is the large train tickets. We have to get these sorted out tonight. If we lose them," Brother Liu pointed to himself, "I couldn't afford to pay for these two train cars of timber even if I sold myself."

"It can't be that bad, can it?" Yan Hui was taken aback.

"How could it not be? These 120 cubic meters of wood add up to almost 13 yuan. Do I look like someone who owns 13 yuan?" Brother Liu said, almost laughing at himself. "Alright, alright, you don't need to wait for me. Go back and rest. Your work is hard enough."

"It's okay, I'm not in a hurry. I'll stay here and watch for a while." Since such an opportunity was rare, Yan Hui was definitely not going to leave.

Loading and unloading timber doesn't require much technical skill, but the trade process is not simple.

The whole process is roughly like this:

The merchant wanted to buy timber, so he contacted Uncle Si. After agreeing on the terms, he had to pay in full. Once the money arrived, Uncle Si immediately arranged for the shipment to be delivered. At this point, someone needed to be sent to the train station to find a suitable route and wait for the next freight train to arrive.

Once the train arrives, if the goods haven't been loaded yet, a railcar needs to be reserved first, and loading will begin once the goods arrive. During this time, you need to find the train station, pay the freight, and after loading, station staff will come to inspect the loading of the railcar and issue a large invoice.

The freight ticket contains information such as the wagon number, cargo name, quantity, shipper, and consignee. It usually also records pager information or phone numbers. Although pagers are rare now, almost everyone involved in rail transport, whether seller or buyer, had one!
This large invoice consists of two parts: a main page and a stub. The main page travels with the train, while the stub is given to the shipper.

After the sender has packed the goods, paid the shipping fee, and received the receipt, they should quickly find the post office and send the goods to the recipient via worldwide express mail.

Freight vehicles are very slow, so express mail will always arrive before trucks. After receiving the mail with the invoice stub, the recipient can go to the train station to pick up the goods. The information on this stub matches the recipient, so no one else can pick up the goods.

Since the post office is a state-owned institution, and it has postmarks and registration, this express mail is almost impossible to lose. At least, no one has ever encountered a lost package.

Throughout the entire process, the party that profits is definitely the one shipping the goods, such as Uncle Si. The profit for each wagon is at least five or six thousand, and since the buyer pays first, the risk is not borne by Uncle Si, and the cash flow is relatively abundant.

After following the entire process, Yan Hui gained a general understanding of his fourth uncle's earning power. If the factory continued to operate smoothly and orders kept coming in, the annual profit would be no less than a million.

Thinking about this, Yan Hui felt that his monthly salary of 1000 yuan was not much at all.
Yan Hui knew, of course, that his fourth uncle paid a high salary, but working for someone and doing business are two completely different things.

After finishing his work, Brother Liu carefully placed the large receipt stub into his bag, patting it casually as he said, "For us accountants, if we lose this bag, we're dead."

"Someone as meticulous as you will definitely be able to do this well. No wonder my uncle always says that you are the most important person to me," Yan Hui said, flatteringly.

"There's no way around it, you can't do this job without being careful." Brother Liu was quite pleased.

Uncle Si didn't have the capacity to issue train cars every day, so Brother Liu slept at the factory when train cars were being issued, and went home when they weren't.

The two chatted idly, and when they returned to the dormitory, Brother Zhao was already asleep. Yan Hui quickly washed up with cold water and then went to bed.

After moving to a new location and working all day, Yan Hui was having trouble sleeping.

My nose always feels a bit uncomfortable. Although I wore a mask in the afternoon, this handmade mask is really not good. It has gaps at the top and bottom, and it doesn't fit well. It's normal to inhale wood chips.

Especially when the outside of the mask is filled with sawdust as you inhale, the mask becomes less ventilated, and air can easily pass through the top and bottom sides, bringing in sawdust as well.

Yan Hui reached out and picked at his nose, but couldn't get anything out; his nose just felt itchy.

Tomorrow morning, Yan Hui plans to buy a few more masks for replacement. The biggest advantage of these masks is that they can be washed clean, and three or four should be enough for him.

After briefly considering the nose issue, Yan Hui began thinking about shipping the goods.

Could Yan Hui make money through the railway line?
Actually, it's possible. The biggest challenge in the entire transaction is gaining the buyer's trust in Uncle Si, while you yourself certainly trust Uncle Si.

Theoretically speaking, if I went to another city and had 10 yuan, I could buy a whole trainload of timber from my fourth uncle and then resell it in smaller quantities; I would definitely make a profit.

Selling timber in other cities is not difficult in Yan Hui's view.

So the question is, how do you get 10?
(End of this chapter)