Reborn in 1985: From Selling Braised Duck to Becoming the World's Richest Man

As Liang Ming ushered the three into the courtyard, he said, "From now on, you can just deliver the mountain produce and river delicacies before noon every day. You don't need to come so early."

"Brother Liang Ming, we understand." Chicken Boy and the others nodded in agreement.

As they were talking, Liang Ming had already opened the snakeskin bags belonging to Jiwa and Gou Dan. There were three bags in total, all of which had been sorted by the two of them.

One bag contained wild mushrooms, wild fungus, and other fungi; another bag contained wild vegetables; and a third bag contained bamboo shoots, houttuynia cordata, and other similar items.

These three bags of mountain produce are all of very good quality; it's clear that they were carefully harvested by Chicken Boy and Dog Egg.

"Well done, you even knew how to sort the goods properly, which saved me a lot of trouble," Liang Ming praised the kids.

"Brother Liangming, do these mountain products meet your requirements?" Jiwa asked nervously.

"The quality is very good. From now on, you should mine according to this quality." Liang Ming nodded and smiled.

As he spoke, he pushed out the floor scale from the room, carried all three bags of mountain produce onto it, and weighed them.

"Three bags of mountain produce, totaling 84.8 jin, but I'll charge you 85 jin!"

Liang Ming glanced at the weight on the scale and said to the two kids:

"According to our previous agreement, it's 2 mao per jin, which is 17 yuan. You two can discuss how to split the money yourselves."

As he spoke, he took out 17 yuan and handed it to the boy.

Without further ado, the two split the 17 yuan equally.

Looking at the 8.5 yuan in their hands, both Chicken Boy and Dog Egg couldn't help but breathe rapidly.

"So digging for mountain produce can be so profitable!" Gou Dan said with a silly grin after counting the money in his hand over and over again.

"It's not that we make money by digging for mountain products, it's that Brother Liang Ming leads us to dig for mountain products that we make money," Chicken Boy patted Dog Egg's head and said with a laugh.

Upon hearing this, Gou Dan quickly changed his tune and agreed.

That's 8.5 yuan. They wouldn't earn that much even if they worked hard for half a month doing odd jobs.

"There are plenty of wild vegetables and fungi on this mountain. You just got started yesterday. Once you're more skilled, you'll be able to gather even more and make even more money."

Seeing how useless Chicken Boy and Dog Egg were, Liang Ming chuckled.

Seeing that Jiwa and the others had received their payment for the mountain produce, Ama, who was standing nearby, became somewhat impatient:

"Brother Liang Ming, please weigh all these river delicacies of mine!"

"Okay," Liang Ming said with a smile.

Ah Ma caught a lot of river delicacies, including river shrimp, crabs, eels, and some river fish.

To be more accurate, Liang Ming first took a bucket, filled it with some well water, and weighed the water.

Then, he put all the river fish into the bucket, weighed the total weight, and finally subtracted the weight of the water to get the weight of the river fish.

"It weighs 25.8 jin in total, but we'll charge you 26 jin. Based on our previous agreement of 3 mao per jin, it'll be 7.8 yuan in total."

At this point, Liang Ming added, "It's still early. You can continue to gather mountain produce and river seafood. You can make another profit before noon."

The three, still excited about making money, lit up when they heard Liang Ming's words.

"Brother Liang Ming, let's go up the mountain," Chicken Boy and Dog Egg said first.

“I’m going down to the river too. I noticed a nest of snails last night, and I have to get rid of them today,” Ama chimed in.

After saying that, the three of them ran out of the courtyard.

"Where are Chicken Kid and the others? Why did they leave so quickly? I was thinking of calling them to have breakfast."

At this moment, Li Lan brought out a plate of salted radish and scrambled eggs and a plate of peanuts and fish from the kitchen, muttering to herself.

"These guys, as soon as they saw that digging for mountain delicacies and catching river fish could make money, they were all eager to go up the mountain and down to the sea," Liang Ming said with a light laugh.

Looking at the sacks filling the yard, Liang Min said with some concern, "Son, you're selling braised duck, duck feathers, mountain produce, and river seafood. With so many businesses, can you manage them all?"

"It's best to specialize in one business and take smaller, more stable steps."

Liang Ming knew his father was concerned about him, so to put his father's mind at ease, he smiled and said:

"Dad, don't worry, I know what I'm doing. Besides, I only started this other business because it wasn't doing well selling braised duck at my stall."

"Is it difficult to make a living selling braised duck at a street stall? Have you encountered any problems?" Liang Min asked upon hearing this.

Liang Ming then realized that he hadn't told his parents about what happened at the No. 3 Steel Plant in the county town the day before when he had dinner.

He immediately gave a brief explanation of the matter.

"You're not going to let you set up a stall at the factory gate? That's understandable, after all, the factory canteen also needs to make a profit." Liang Min frowned and said after listening.

"However, if even steel mills are like this, then if you set up a stall in front of other factories, you'll probably be driven away too."

"What can we do? If we can't set up a stall, who will buy Xiaoming's braised duck?"

"My mother, Li Lan, said with some concern."

“Mom, don’t worry. I’ve already talked to Director Liu Ming of the Third Steel Plant’s canteen. I won’t set up a stall there, but he will order 100 braised ducks from me every day to sell in his factory canteen.”

Seeing Li Lan's concern, Liang Ming explained.

"And I've also thought it through. If I set up a stall to sell braised duck, I'll only make money from individual vendors. If I want to make big money, I'll have to go for those factory canteens."

He had already made up his mind that in the next few days, he would go to the canteens of several other large state-owned factories in the county to see if he could reach a cooperation agreement with the canteen directors for the supply of braised duck.

Seeing that their son was confident, Liang Min and her husband said nothing more. After breakfast, they went to work.

Liang Ming waited at home for the driver from Shitou Village to deliver 200 ducks and 500 jin of duck feathers. After settling the payment, he started making braised ducks.

After a busy morning, Liang Ming finally finished making the braised duck and loaded it, along with several bags of duck feathers and several bags of mountain produce, onto the mule cart.

The river delicacies were packed in several buckets and then loaded onto a mule cart.

After doing all this, Liang Ming drove the mule cart to the county town.

When Liang Ming arrived at the Xiangmanlou Hotel in the county town, Jiang Meizhuang had already been waiting at the door for a long time.

"Brother Liang Ming, you've finally arrived! I thought you were just joking when you told me yesterday that you were supplying mountain produce and river delicacies!"

Upon seeing Liang Ming, Jiang Meizhuang smiled lightly.

"No way, Sister Meizhuang, look at this..." Liang Ming patted the sacks of mountain goods on the truck and said:

"All the delicacies you wanted are here."

Upon hearing this, Jiang Meizhuang immediately untied a burlap sack and her eyes lit up when she saw it was filled with wild mushrooms, wild fungus, and other wild fungi from the mountain.

These wild mushrooms have a tender and smooth texture, are fresh, and taste delicious no matter how they are cooked. Moreover, city dwellers love to eat them and are willing to spend a lot of money to eat them.

Just this bag of wild mushrooms alone could double the business of her Xiangmanlou restaurant.