Siheyuan: It’s so nice to be Lao Liu

The village chief saw Liu Dashan still standing aside. He had finished moving the things but did not go to call the villagers over. He glared at him and shouted, "Dashan, what are you still doing over there? Go and call for help."

Liu Dashan was also stunned when he heard the call from the village chief. He quickly reacted, scratched his head embarrassedly, and smiled awkwardly: "Village chief, I'll go right away."

He looked at Yan Jiefang and smiled innocently, "Thank you, Purchaser Yan. Please wait a moment. I will go and call someone."

After saying this, Liu Dashan ran out in a hurry.

At this moment, the old woman came out with two bowls, one bowl was filled with prepared milk powder, and the other was a bowl of steaming water.

After handing the milk powder to the young woman, the old woman took a bowl of water and handed it to Yan Jiefang, saying, "Young man, there is nothing at home to treat you. You can only drink some water."

Yan Jiefang also stood up and quickly took it, saying, "Thank you, grandma. Just water is fine."

Because when he entered the house just now, Yan Jiefang took a quick look around and found a few steamed buns, a plate of pickles, and some cornmeal porridge in the kitchen.

From this we can see that even after the three-year famine, life in rural areas is still very difficult.

Yan Jiefang has made up his mind to investigate the situation of the villagers. If they are of simple character, he would not mind helping them. But if they are opportunistic and buy shoddy prey, he would put away his kindness.

Before anyone outside arrived, Yan Jiefang asked the village chief, "Village chief, is there enough food in our village? What kind of food do we grow?"

Hearing Yan Jiefang asking about this topic, the old village chief sighed helplessly and said with a worried look on his face: "How can we eat? Most of the land in the village is mountainous, and there is not much land that can be used to grow crops. We can't grow wheat, but can only grow corn and sweet potatoes. Sometimes we also grow some beans according to the requirements of the commune and help raise some pigs and sheep."

Yan Jiefang continued to inquire: "Wouldn't it be enough to eat the coarse grains sold by the villagers?"

The village chief shook his head and replied, "If we meet buyers, we sell the game we hunted in the village to them. If there are no buyers, and we don't dare to sell it privately in the city, we will be arrested for speculation, so we can only sell it to the supply and marketing cooperatives. But the price they offer is too low, and we can't even have enough food to eat if we exchange it for food."

Yan Jiefang also knew the general situation and nodded to show that he understood.

Yan Jiefang lowered his head and thought for a while. The food in his space had been harvested one after another. If he ate it all by himself, he would not be able to finish it even if he spent ten thousand years. He planned to take it out slowly.

The two chatted for a while, and then they heard the voices of villagers outside. They looked at each other and realized that the villagers were arriving one after another.

Yan Jiefang was the first to speak: "Village Chief, how about we go out and take a look?"

The village chief nodded, agreed with a smile, and followed Yan Jiefang out.

Sure enough, there were already several dark-skinned, slightly rustic country men who brought some mountain products, game and some dried meat.

Yan Jiefang looked around carefully and examined everyone's goods carefully. Because of his culinary heritage, he had a clear understanding of the identification of ingredients. He could tell at a glance that the things the villagers brought were all good stuff, and could be said to be of upper-middle quality.

As the number of people increased, each person carried at least ten kilograms of goods.

After waiting for ten minutes, the village chief stood up and counted the number of people. When he saw that everyone was present, he said, "Everyone, please be quiet. Purchaser Yan brought a lot of tofu. I tasted his tofu and it tasted better than others. As long as you sell him five kilograms of meat, you can get one kilogram of tofu."

"He also promised to teach our village the craft of making tofu, but the prerequisite is that we sell the prey we hunt to him. He agreed and will give us the same price as other buyers and will not treat us unfairly."

"I didn't even ask for your opinion, I just agreed to it. I don't think Purchaser Yan will treat us unfairly."

"Do you have any objections? If you don't, let Purchaser Yan have a say."

After the village chief finished speaking, he looked at Yan Jiefang, meaning that it was his turn next.

Yan Jiefang also walked out of the crowd and introduced himself: "Hello everyone, my name is Yan Jiefang, and I am a buyer at the Red Star Steel Rolling Mill. The village chief has talked to you all, so let me directly talk about the issues we are concerned about!"

"I've taken a look. We mainly sell meat and mountain products here. I won't try to make money from you. Fresh game is sold at 80 cents per pound. The air-dried meat is also of good quality and is sold at 1.5 yuan per pound. The mushrooms are sold at 0.1 cent per pound. If there are other products, I'll tell you the price."

"Also, I just looked around at the things our villagers brought. To be honest, they are all good things. No bad things were added to fool me. I am very grateful to the village chief and everyone for their support."

"You have been honest with me, so I cannot let you down. I have talked to the village chief. We all sell goods for money and food coupons and then sell food. There is no need to be so troublesome. If you want money, I will give you money directly. If you want food, I can also exchange it for food of equivalent value."

"In Pigeon Market, white flour is 30 cents a pound, coarse grains are 10 cents a pound, and sweet potatoes and pumpkins are 5 cents a pound. I'll give you a 1 cent discount on them all."

"But there is a prerequisite. You have to help me pull these goods you sold to me to the city. I will give you food and you can pull them back by yourselves."

As soon as Yan Jiefang finished speaking, the originally silent crowd suddenly became noisy. This was a great thing for them. They hunted and sold their prey for money just to buy some food to fill their stomachs. Now, the buyer in front of them could buy their prey at a high price and sell them food at a low price. They all felt that happiness came too suddenly and it was a little hard to accept.

One of the young men, about 21 or 22 years old, stood up and asked, "Purchaser Yan, are you serious? Can we exchange all of it for food?"

Yan Jiefang looked at the young man who was speaking. He looked about 40% similar to Liu Dashan. Without giving it much thought, he said firmly, "Of course, as long as you have enough prey and mountain products, I can provide enough food."

The young man suddenly became ecstatic. He squeezed through the crowd, carrying two fat wild rabbits and a dried chicken, and ran to Yan Jiefang, saying with a smile: "Purchaser Yan, my name is Liu Xiaoshan, I will sell it to you first. Please weigh it for me, and I will exchange it for corn flour."

Yan Jiefang thought to himself, "Good fellow, no wonder he looks a bit like Liu Dashan, they must be brothers."