Reborn in 80: Starting with hunting in the mountains to get rich

Li Ju'an called out to Da Hu, and carrying the prepared raw hide, they went to the village head's office to ask to borrow Captain Yang's phone to make a call.

The village office used a hand-cranked telephone, which was the main communication tool in rural areas in the 80s. He cranked the handle to produce dial tones, and then dialed the number given to him by Pang Duolai.

No one answered the first time. He dialed again, and this time a young woman answered. She said that Pang Duolai had gone out and would be back soon. He asked the woman to tell Pang Duolai that the goods had arrived—the mountain civets. The voice on the other end of the phone was a little unclear; these kinds of phones were easy to operate, but call quality was often affected by the line quality.

Less than ten minutes later, Pang Duo returned the call.

Li Ju'an sat next to Captain Yang's office, intending to haggle with Pang Duolai. Last time, he had poached Pang Duolai, Zhang Yingnian's patron, and sold the fresh bear bile directly to Pang Duolai, a merchant from the south. Now he was going to negotiate directly with Pang Duolai. Unexpectedly, when Pang Duolai heard it was him calling, he readily agreed, asked about the weight of the raw bear hide, and then quoted 2600 yuan.

The price was so generous that Li Ju'an was speechless.

In his previous life, when he went south, he had seen the boss taking his lover to buy wildcat pelts. The finished leather was priced around 2800 yuan, and the pelts were not large and were pieced together. Now, Pang Duolai was offering 2600 yuan, and he specifically requested raw pelts. It was obvious that he planned to process and tan them into high-quality leather, and then sell them abroad.

In this era, making money in business is a matter of the bold getting rich and the timid starving. In his previous life, Li Ju'an was also lured by business, going into the mountains everywhere to collect goods and then reselling them. Now that he has been reborn, he understands that hunting is far better than business. The pelts he hunts can be sold through legitimate channels. As for who Pang Duo sells them to and how, he doesn't need to ask or care; he just needs to collect the money.

"Master Li, you wait at the entrance of the village with the leather bag. I'll send a car to pick you up in a bit."

Upon hearing this, Li Ju'an exclaimed, "Why is there a car coming to pick me up? It seems Pang Duolai values ​​this mountain fox pelt very much!"

Half a day later, a car actually came to the village.

The vehicle belonged to the ginseng factory. Back then, the ginseng factory in the county was quite large and wealthy, so it set up a small transport team. Pang Duo used his connections to pick up a driver from the transport team to collect the mountain raccoon pelts.

There is still no road to Lijiatun.

The ginseng factory's truck swayed and rattled along the old dirt road into the village, attracting the attention of many villagers. Sun Weimin curiously tucked his hands into his overcoat and peered inside.

His father, Sun Quande, also looked on with suspicion, his hands in his pockets. The villagers were all curious: why was the ginseng factory making such a commotion to pick up someone? They looked over and saw that Li Ju'an had met up with the convoy and even got into the car to chat for a while.

Pang Duolai settled the cash payment with Li Ju'an in the car.

Southern merchants are known for their generosity. Having lived two lives, Li Ju'an naturally understood what these merchants were thinking: how much profit they could make from this deal, and when they could make money from the next one. He and Pang Duolai hit it off immediately, agreeing that if he had any more raw hides, he would contact Pang Duolai again, but the quality had to be excellent—the hides had to be large and intact.

Although Pang Duolai was the major investor, he was also facing a headache. The hides from the mountains were mostly defective and varied in size. If he bought them to make patchwork hides, he definitely wouldn't make a profit. Therefore, he preferred to spend more money to buy high-quality, large hides. Good quality meant a higher selling price, allowing him to earn more in the process. He felt that Li Ju'an was an experienced craftsman, and the quality he delivered was excellent, so he paid him readily.

Li the Cripple came to divide the shares and split the money.

This time, Li Ju'an brought a dog with him into the mountains. The dog was the leader, and could take four shares, while Li Guaizi could take two. Besides the venison and wolf meat, he could now get 866.67 yuan. Naturally, he clapped his hands happily and shouted, "This is definitely a big job! Li Pao, next time there's work, call me again! I'll work for you again!"

The women around them jeered, "So Little Li has managed to trick Old Li into getting on the bus? He's definitely going to get a big job."

"This time, you'll make at least eight or nine hundred, right?"

“If my old man were ten years younger, I’d make him go into the mountains with Little Lipao. If he went into the mountains with Little Lipao, he wouldn’t bring back anything less than three or four hundred yuan.”

The villagers joked with each other and burst into laughter.

Sun Weimin was furious upon hearing this. He had previously tricked Lu Zhiqiang of the Lu family and was beaten by his father. He lay on the kang (a heated brick bed) howling for days before finally getting up.

In the Xingan Mountains, children are disciplined in different levels: scolding, cursing, beating, hitting, shaving, punching, and pounding. Pounding is the highest level of discipline a father can give his son.

Now that he could finally walk around normally, he turned around and heard the news that Li Ju'an was hunting wildcats and selling the pelts as raw hides. Moreover, Li Guaizi had received 866.67 yuan just from the share distribution, which made him extremely envious.

He tucked his hands into his military overcoat, shivering from the cold, and said grumblingly, "Why is this guy so cocky? He called the ginseng factory's transport team up? Why are all these people surnamed Li so arrogant?"

He was afraid of Li Guaizi, and now he was also somewhat afraid of Li Ju'an. Li Ju'an was not only ruthless in beating people, but also particularly shrewd in hunting mountain goods, always picking the expensive ones. Now, his father, Sun Quande, would be envious again.

Sun Quande looked at the top-quality lynx pelt in Li Ju'an's hand, admiring the craftsmanship of the raw hide; its thick fur and dense hair provided excellent warmth. He glared at his son, Sun Weimin, and said sternly, "There's no bad person in our Sun family. All our fellow hunters are heading into the mountains in the dead of winter. Why don't you go find your own way in the mountains too? Stop loitering around in front of me all day; it's annoyance."

Sun Weimin objected, shouting, "Niubeitun only has this one wildcat. Li Ju'an has already killed it. What am I supposed to do if I go into the mountains to hunt one? I'm not going."

Sun Quande exploded on the spot. When he got home, he angrily slapped the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed), his eyes blazing with fury: "If you don't have wild leopards, then clean black bear pelts! In the dead of winter, if you don't clean the pelts, you're just sitting at home thinking nonsense all day. Do you think you can find pelts by thinking nonsense?"

Sun Weimin wanted to invite the Sun family to the mountains, but Sun Quande scolded him severely, telling him to find his own people and stop hanging around the family every day, lest they become a laughingstock for their relatives.

Sun Weimin was extremely reluctant, and not knowing who else to send to the mountains, he had no choice but to approach Lu Zhiqiang again. Although he and Lu Zhiqiang didn't get along, they were brothers who had grown up together and knew each other well. Moreover, the more Lu Zhiqiang was scolded by the old man, the stronger his rebellious spirit became, and the more he wanted to go into the mountains to prove himself.

Lu Zhiqiang had mixed feelings of love and hate towards Sun Weimin. He wanted to go hunting in the mountains, but no one had asked him, and he had neither a gun nor a dog. Sun Weimin, on the other hand, had a dog and a hunting rifle; all he needed was for him to provide one person. The two of them discussed it and actually decided to take the old trail from Niubei Village into the mountains. They both thought to themselves, what if they were lucky and found a wildcat in the gully of Niubei Village? Wouldn't that be a windfall?

Qin Pao's team hadn't come down the mountain yet; Qin Pao was still hospitalized at the clinic, while Sun Weimin and Lu Zhiqiang had gone into the mountains.

When the two men talked about how much money Li Ju'an made selling furs, their eyes revealed envy and jealousy. They said, "With so much money, he doesn't deposit it in a bank. Be careful it doesn't get stolen."

"That's right. Last time, Old Qian's son-in-law sold so many hides, but all the money he had was stolen when he went to town. He called the police, but they still didn't know who stole it, and he couldn't get a single penny back."

The two gossiped behind each other's backs, wishing that Li Ju'an's money would also be stolen.

At this time, Li Ju'an was unaware that the two had gone into the mountains. He had just exchanged contact information with the truck driver's team leader and asked the truck to help transport the furniture. The first thing he did after entering the county town was to go to the rural postal savings bank and deposit the money.

People these days don't trust banks. Old people would rather hide their money under the roots of a big tree and let rats gnaw on it than deposit it in a bank, for fear of not being able to withdraw it.

But having lived two lives, he didn't have that kind of thinking about banks, so he naturally saved money.

"Hello, I'd like to make a deposit."