Starting with vegetable greenhouses in 1988

Chapter 100 The icing on the cake
Suzhou Hutongs.

At 7:50 a.m., Big Gold Tooth arrived at the Li family's house ahead of time, as agreed upon by the new agreement. Only Wang Jianjun and his dog Jinzi were there. Soon after, Sun Tao and the others also arrived.

Just as Sun Tao suggested going to the alley entrance to pick up the vegetables, a car sound came from outside, followed by a knock on the door, "Brother, open the door."

Wang Jianjun opened the door, and Da Jinya peeked out and saw a Jiefang truck parked outside.

He was quite surprised. This vehicle was not something an ordinary person could use. No wonder Li Zhe delivered the goods more than an hour early; it turned out he had upgraded from a slingshot to a cannon.

Big Gold Tooth hurriedly helped carry the load, and he noticed that there were two more vegetable baskets this time.

Two days ago, the Li family's cucumber production increased by 100 jin, but Li Zhe did not intend to increase their share, so they must have already found a buyer.

Now two new vegetable baskets have been added. Although it's hard to tell what kind of vegetables they contain, Big Gold Tooth feels they're probably not cucumbers.

Li Zhe has introduced a new dish!
However, from the moment they met until the dishes were distributed, Li Zhe didn't mention the two vegetable baskets at all, which made Da Jinya anxious as if a cat's claws were scratching at his heart.

After seeing off Big Gold Tooth and his group, Wang Jianjun had the same question, but without Big Gold Tooth's hesitation. "Zhezi, what's in those two vegetable baskets? Boss Jiang's eyes were practically popping out of their sockets just now."

Li Zhe smiled and lifted the basket, "Lettuce and broccoli."

Wang Jianjun said, "Why didn't you mention this earlier and ask Boss Jiang and the others to help find sales channels?"

Li Weidong chimed in, "That's right, broccoli doesn't sell well in the market. I doubt many people even recognize it, let alone eat it."

"The reason they're hard to sell is because we haven't found the right channels. Once we find the right channels, these vegetables are incredibly valuable. I'm even planning to use them to earn foreign exchange certificates." In those days, it was a dual-track economy; scarce items couldn't be bought with money, only with foreign exchange certificates.

Last time, he bought a ten-dollar foreign exchange certificate, which cost him a total of 25 dollars.

"Where can I earn foreign exchange certificates? Is it even possible?" Wang Jianjun knew that foreign exchange certificates were useful, but he had also heard that ordinary shops were not allowed to accept them.

“Friendship Store, hotels catering to foreigners, and restaurants—these are all major customers who accept foreign exchange certificates.” Li Zhe stood up and said, “Brother, take these two vegetable baskets and come with me.”

Hearing that he could earn foreign exchange certificates, Li Weidong found it strange. He picked up a vegetable basket, placed it on the back of his bicycle, and secured it with a rope.

There are so many people and so much going on in Beijing now, one bicycle is simply not enough. Yesterday afternoon, Li Zhe bought another used bicycle. It's not that he can't afford a new one, but a used one is more cost-effective.

The two brothers rode their bicycles westward, crossed BJ Station Front Street, turned north onto East Chang'an Avenue, and headed straight for the Friendship Shopping Mall outside Jianguomen.

Li Zhe stopped his bicycle and looked at the neat four-story building with six gilded characters on it: "Beijing Friendship Store". This was his first time here.

Looking at the imposing building, Li Weidong's eyes were filled with envy. He lowered his voice and asked, "Second brother, can we go in here?"

Li Zhe pulled out a ten-yuan foreign exchange certificate from his pocket. "It's not as strict as before. This is enough now. Let's go in and broaden our horizons."

Just as Li Weidong was about to strike up a conversation, he suddenly saw a group of blond-haired, blue-eyed foreigners walking towards them. The women were wearing beautiful down jackets and carrying exquisite leather bags, while the men were wearing woolen overcoats. They entered the Friendship Store chatting and laughing.

"Never mind, I'll stay and watch the vegetables." As he spoke, Li Weidong's eyes fell on the black man who was walking out of the Friendship Store. "Wow, it's a shame this guy isn't carrying coal briquettes."

Li Zhe, dressed in brand-new clothes, strode towards the Friendship Store, waving a foreign exchange certificate between two fingers, and swaggered into the store.

A young female server stood in the lobby on the first floor, wearing a uniform and purple lipstick, with a smile rarely seen on state-owned store employees. "Comrade, welcome."

Li Zhe started browsing from the lobby on the first floor...

Changbai Mountain sable fur scarf, Jingdezhen blue and white porcelain hand warmer, special holiday packaging for Moutai liquor, Lindt chocolate gift box, Toshiba electric heater, British wool coat...

You can find almost any product from this era here.

The fresh food section had all kinds of meat, seafood, and dairy products, many of which Li Zhe had never eaten before.

The vegetable section had far fewer varieties. Fresh vegetables included bok choy, carrots, and potatoes, while the rest were canned vegetables and pickles.

If we could sell our own vegetables here, we could earn foreign exchange certificates directly. It would be great if we could cooperate, but if not, we would only lose a business card. Why not give it a try?

Seeing Li Zhe lingering nearby, a female sales assistant came over and asked, "Comrade, what would you like to buy? I can help you choose."

"Is your food department manager here? I'd like to see him."

The waitress looked wary and instinctively asked, "Is there something you need?"

Li Zhe took out a business card with a white background and black lettering, with his name on it and the address of Suzhou Hutong below: "I am the head of the Daying Vegetable Cooperative. Our cooperative has a batch of fresh lettuce and broccoli to sell. I wonder if your store is interested in cooperating?"

The waitress took the business card and subconsciously said, "This is not in accordance with procedure..." Upon hearing the names of several vegetables, she stopped talking, hesitated slightly, and confirmed, "Are you sure it's fresh broccoli and lettuce?" "Yes."

"How is this possible? How did you grow it?"

"We grow our vegetables in greenhouses. The vegetables we brought are right outside the store. You can go and see for yourself if you don't believe me."

"Comrade, please wait a moment, I'll go get our manager."

A short while later, the waitress brought over a middle-aged man in a suit. The man was portly with thinning hair. He smiled and said, "Hello, President Li, I'm Ma Wenhai, the manager of the food department. I heard you have fresh vegetables to sell?"

"Yes."

"Can you take me to see it?"

Li Zhe gestured for him to leave and led Manager Ma out of the Friendship Store.

The eldest brother, Li Weidong, was squatting next to his bicycle, his eyes darting around at the passersby. When he saw Li Zhe bringing his men over, he stood up.

Li Zhe said, "Brother, this is Manager Ma from Friendship Store. Take out the vegetables and let Manager Ma take a look."

Li Weidong had two vegetable baskets pulled from the back of his car. He lifted the quilt in the left basket, took out a broccoli and a bunch of lettuce, and put them on the right quilt.

Manager Ma touched the broccoli, picked a lettuce leaf and put it in his mouth: "Hmm, not bad, it's freshly picked. How much do you have?"

"The current volume is not large, but we can guarantee a stable supply."

"How much does it cost per pound?"

“The price is negotiable, but we prefer to settle in foreign exchange certificates.”

"I can't make that decision myself; I need to apply to my superiors." Manager Ma asked, "What do you need the foreign exchange certificates for? Are you planning to resell them on the black market?"

"No, we're just consuming it ourselves."

Manager Ma smiled and said, "How about this, bring 10 jin of each of the two dishes. I will settle the payment with foreign exchange certificates. You will not receive cash from these certificates, but you can use them at the Friendship Store."

Since the other party offered a good deal, Li Zhe didn't try to charge a high price: "I'll give you 4 foreign exchange coupons for the lettuce. I'll give you 5 foreign exchange coupons for the broccoli, for a total of 90 foreign exchange coupons."

Manager Ma gestured for you to go ahead: "I'll take you to pick out an item."

Li Zhe patted Li Weidong on the shoulder: "Brother, let's go together."

"I still have to keep an eye on the vegetables. What if someone steals them?"

Manager Ma smiled kindly: "It's alright, we have security guards here, I'll have someone keep an eye on things for you."

Li Weidong chuckled. It would be a lie to say he didn't want to go in. He gave the security guard a few instructions and then followed Li Zhe into the store.

Li Zhe first bought half a pound of White Rabbit candy for his younger sister, and then a box of chocolates—Li Zhe himself was a glutton, and his favorite snack was chocolate. Li Zhe originally wanted to browse around some more to see if there was anything unusual. However, Li Weidong went to the refrigerated section and bought beef, lamb, and pork instead.

Li Zhe didn't say anything. There were too many people in the family and not enough meat to eat. The only reason was that there weren't enough foreign exchange certificates.

Li Zhe couldn't help but ask, "Manager Ma, when can we expect a reply regarding the cooperation?"

"I can't say for sure, we have to follow the procedures." Manager Ma kept staring at Li Zhe as he spoke, as if trying to see his reaction.

Li Zhe smiled and said, "Alright, we won't keep you from your work any longer. We'll take our leave now."

Manager Ma smiled and saw Li Zhe out of the Friendship Store.

After the two brothers left the Friendship Store, Li Weidong put the meat into the vegetable basket and asked, "Second brother, it seems like Manager Ma isn't very interested in our vegetables?"

Li Zhe thought for a moment and then understood: "Friendship Store sells too many things and has no competitors. Fresh vegetables are just icing on the cake."

Li Weidong was a fairly easily satisfied person. He patted the vegetable basket filled with meat and said, "We were able to buy so much meat, so it wasn't a wasted trip. Meat coupons are in short supply at the end of the year, and it would be really hard to buy them without these foreign exchange certificates."

Li Zhe was not discouraged: "There's more than one Friendship Store that deals with foreigners, we can just try another one. Fresh vegetables are icing on the cake for Friendship Store, but for restaurants and hotels, they're a lifesaver."

The two brothers discussed it and then rode their bicycles straight to Maxim's Restaurant.

(End of this chapter)