Starting with vegetable greenhouses in 1988

Chapter 17 New Experience

"Hey, is that corn bubbling in this big iron pot? It smells delicious!" A middle-aged woman from Beijing, carrying a bamboo basket, approached the tractor, sniffing the air.

Li Zhe deftly tore open the corn husks. "Look, ma'am, we picked these fresh this morning, the dew is still wet."

"How do you sell it?"

"One-sixth of an ear of grain."

"Wow! Your way of selling is quite novel. Everyone else sells by weight, but you sell by the piece."

"We are farmers from Langfang Daying Village, and we don't rely on this business for a living. It's the perfect time of year for fresh corn, so we picked some to sell so that the people of Beijing can have a taste of its freshness."

After a few days, the corn kernels will harden, and you won't be able to eat them anymore. Since you came early, you can pick the bigger ones; they're all the same price.

"That's not cheap either, five cents each, if that's okay, give me six."

"We just set up our stall, and you're our first customer. It's a great start, so we're giving you a discount. I won't accept you if you leave this stall."

The woman laughed, "Don't worry, if anyone asks me, just say it's six cents each."

The old woman was rummaging through the corn in the truck bed, and Li Zhe didn't stop her. The quieter the stall, the fewer people there were, but when people gathered together, business would pick up, just like hiring people to queue up in later generations.

Sure enough, just as the older woman put the selected corn into her basket and paid, the woman in the polyester shirt leaned over and asked, "How much for the cooked ones?"

"One cent each."

"Oh my goodness, why is it so expensive?"

"Sister, raw corn is cheap, only six cents a piece. If you have children at home, you can steam it to eat; it's good for their spleen and stomach."

An old man wearing a cap came over with his hands behind his back. "You think you're so green? Are you trying to fool me?"

"It's so fresh and tender, you don't have to pay if you don't like it."

The old man snorted, "You're not being honest. If I buy it today and can't chew it, and you run away tomorrow, where am I supposed to find you?"

Li Zhe scooped an ear of corn out of the pot, cut it into several pieces with a fruit knife, and handed it out to passersby, saying, "Freshly picked corn, free to try, no charge if you don't like it."

Li Zhe then asked the old man, "Grandpa, how's the taste? I wasn't lying, was I?"

The old man broke the corn kernels off one by one with his fingers, threw them into his mouth, and said, "Not bad, give me five."

"Alright! Three cents, you can choose for yourself!"

The older sister said, "There are many people in my family, give me ten."

"You paid six cents. I'll open a new bag and let you pick the bigger ones."

The older woman smiled and said, "Young man, you know how to handle things. Your business will be good."

"Give me five raw corn cobs too."

"My family is small, can you sell two?"

"Any number is fine, I'll sell just one."

With more and more people gathering around, Li Zhe couldn't handle it all by himself. "Zhu Zi, help with the promotion. Dad, you collect the money."

"Okay, okay." Old Li took the change, counted it, and was surprised to find that it had already sold for more than a dollar in such a short time!
He couldn't believe it.

"Newly harvested corn..." Zhao Tiezhu blushed at first, but after shouting a few times and getting into the swing of things, he became less hesitant.

Chongwenmen Market was established in 1976 and is known as one of the "Four Major Markets in Beijing" along with Dongdan, Xidan, and Chaonei Markets. As one of the important "vegetable baskets" of Beijing, it not only has a wide variety of goods but also a huge flow of customers.

The aroma of the cooked, tender corn wafted far and wide, and a crowd gathered around the tractor. Zhao Tiezhu didn't even need to call out to sell it; customers from the surrounding area came in a steady stream.

At first, Li Zhe greeted the guests and his father collected the money, but later they were too busy to keep up. They were busy with one customer after another, and when they were busy with one customer, they couldn't keep up with the other.

Later, the three of them simply sold the goods together and each kept their own money.

As noon approached, the market gradually thinned out. A short young man in bell-bottoms approached, pulled out a pack of cigarettes, and said, "Hey buddy, wanna have a Fragrant Hills cigarette?"

Li Zhe waved his hand, "I've quit. What's up, brother?" He had noticed this person wandering around nearby earlier. In fact, it wasn't just him; the surrounding stall owners, seeing that Li Zhe's business was doing well, were all glancing at him intentionally or unintentionally.

"My name is Sun Tao, and I also deal in vegetables. May I ask your surname, comrade? I haven't seen you at the market before."

Li Zhe, not understanding his purpose, naturally wouldn't reveal anything, "What do you want?"

"Your corn is piled up like a small mountain, and you can't sell it all in a short time. Could you spare some for me so I can earn some hard-earned money?"

"How will it be evenly distributed?"

"If they're four cents each, I can buy six hundred from you. What do you think?"

Old Li frowned as he listened. "Young man, we can sell them all ourselves. You should try looking elsewhere."

Sun Tao could tell that Li Zhe was in charge, so he continued, "Brother, I'm not trying to steal your business. I plan to buy goods from you and sell them at the Dongdan vegetable market."

Li Zhe countered, "How much are the stall fees at Dongdan Market?"

“It depends on the location. The rent is different in different locations. My relative has a stall there. I take my food to sell there and don’t need to rent a stall. It’s just a hard-earned money.”

"Don't try to fool me." If he really went to the Dongdan vegetable market, it wouldn't affect Li Zhe's business. Li Zhe was worried that the other party was also selling at the Chongwenmen vegetable market.

"Brother, even if I wanted to compete with you, I couldn't win if I bought my goods from you. Don't you agree?"

"Five cents each. If you can accept the price, I'll give you six hundred. If not, then forget it." Li Zhe had brought more than a dozen bags of corn this time, totaling more than three thousand ears. With someone helping him sell them, he was happy to have some free time.

Sun Tao stroked his chin and pondered for a while, "Okay, five cents it is, but it has to be fresh corn, not fresh corn."

"Don't worry, they're all fresh."

After agreeing on the terms, Sun Tao quickly ran off. Not long after, he returned on a tricycle, loaded with three full bags of corn, and gave Li Zhe thirty yuan.

Old Li didn't stop them this time. The wholesale price of five cents was already quite high. Even if they sold it retail, they would get a discount or throw in a couple of pieces if they encountered some customers who knew how to bargain.

By noon, the hottest time of the day, most of the customers at the market had left, and Li Zhe and his two companions were finally free.

More than half of the corn on the tractor had been sold. Old Li gathered the money from selling the corn, counted it, and found it totaled 146 yuan.

"Did I count it wrong? How come it's so much?" Old Li was a little unsure of himself, so he counted it again, and it was still 146 yuan.

Last year, his family planted five mu of land, and only earned a little over 480 yuan in total, which is just over 90 yuan per mu.

The corn was harvested ahead of schedule today. I thought we would lose money, but we actually made a profit.

Old Li immediately felt full of energy, and his previous fatigue vanished.

In the morning, in order to attract customers, they cooked a lot of corn. There were still some left unsold, so the three of them didn't go to buy food. They each ate three or four ears of corn to fill their stomachs.

Li Zhe found a shady spot to rest, and several vendors came over to chat, asking about the market price of fresh corn. Li Zhe politely gave them a few perfunctory replies.

Several vendors tried to get some corn from Li Zhe, but Li Zhe still asked for five cents a piece.

These vendors were very shrewd, using various excuses to lower the price, but Li Zhe refused to budge. In the end, only two vendors agreed. One vendor bought 600 ears of corn to sell at Xidan Market, and the other vendor bought 400 ears of corn to sell at Chaonei Market. They were all there to make money, and no one engaged in a price war with Li Zhe at Chongwenmen Market.

As for how much they planned to sell it for, Li Zhe neither cared nor asked, and only took his share of the money.

At four o'clock in the afternoon, people began to arrive at the vegetable market. The three continued to sell corn, working until five o'clock. The corn in the truck was almost gone. Old Li counted and found that he had sold a total of 224 yuan.

He's made a fortune this time; he never even dared to dream of it yesterday.

He had never done business before and was instinctively somewhat resistant, but this experience of selling corn had a significant impact on him.

He planted an acre of corn, and after three or four months of hard work from sowing to harvest, he only earned a hundred yuan.

The second son earned over two hundred yuan in just one day. While he was overjoyed, he also felt a strange sense of loss...

(End of this chapter)