Reborn in 1981, starting by smashing my iron rice bowl.

Ma Yongxian was overjoyed and exclaimed, "Really?"

"Village Chief Ma, when have I ever joked with you?" Liu Weidong said with a smile, "Let's stick to the price we agreed on before, 45 cents a pound, so 1200 pounds is... 540 yuan, right?"

"Let me calculate..." Ma Yongxian took out paper and pen and calculated for a long time before nodding in satisfaction and saying, "That's right, that's the price!"

Liu Weidong didn't mince words and immediately pulled out a wad of cash, saying, "We're all old friends, so I'll pay right now. But... I have an extra request this time."

Ma Yongxian immediately tensed up and hurriedly asked Liu Weidong, "What are your requirements?"

“Those brother companies are all relatively small and don’t have their own vehicles to come to the village to load the goods,” Liu Weidong said, giving the reason he had already thought of: “So could we trouble Village Chief Ma to use a tractor to deliver the sunflower seeds to the temporary warehouse we found in the county town, and then I’ll have them come and pick them up separately?”

If Liu Weidong had made this request last time, it would definitely have aroused Ma Yongxian's suspicion, and he might have seriously investigated his identity.

However, last time Liu Weidong brought a truck from the machinery factory to load sunflower seeds, which effectively dispelled Ma Yongxian's doubts, so he agreed without much thought this time.

Gonggeng Village does have a hand-held tractor, but it's the off-season for farming now, so it's not really needed. Selling melon seeds is a village-wide business, so using a tractor to deliver the goods is quite normal.

More than a thousand kilograms of sunflower seeds is quite a lot. If Liu Weidong and Hao Jianjun were to transport them by bicycle, they would definitely have to make several trips, which would be tiring and a waste of time.

But having a vehicle to deliver them makes all the difference; you only need to make one trip to get all the sunflower seeds to the county town.

Hao Jianjun always listened to Liu Weidong's every word and never uttered a word since arriving in Gonggeng Village.

After the hand tractor chugged away, Hao Jianjun, who was almost bursting with impatience, finally asked Liu Weidong, "Brother Weidong, why did we tell them we were employees of the machinery factory? We would have been in big trouble if they had found out!"

"Well, we weren't exposed yet!" Liu Weidong said nonchalantly. "What, are you scared of such a small thing?"

Hao Jianjun, of course, wouldn't admit it, and stubbornly retorted, "Scared? You're kidding!"

"Alright, stop being stubborn, let's get to work! Same as always, you chop wood and start the fire, I'll prepare the melon seeds!" Liu Weidong quickly assigned tasks, and the two of them got busy.

The sunflower seed business was even better than Liu Weidong had expected. In just a few days, he sold more than 300 jin (150 kg), accounting for one-third of the raw sunflower seeds he had purchased last time.

That's why Liu Weidong was in a hurry to buy up all the sunflower seeds in Gonggeng Village, so he could sell them for a few more days and earn more money.

Liu Weidong secretly did the math: raw sunflower seeds cost 45 cents a pound, but sold for 1.5 yuan a pound, resulting in a gross profit of 1.05 yuan per pound. Even after deducting the costs of rent, firewood, and seasonings, making a profit of a dollar or so per pound of sunflower seeds was entirely possible.

Liu Weidong bought over 2,000 jin of melon seeds in Gonggeng Village, and after selling them all, he could make a net profit of over 2,000 yuan. In the early 1980s, when even a household with 10,000 yuan in savings could make it into the newspapers, this was no small sum; it was equivalent to several years' income for a regular worker!

Liu Weidong can earn this much money in just one month. Only a fool would work a job if he had such ability!

Liu Weidong and Hao Jianjun's cooperation became increasingly seamless, and they quickly roasted more than 100 jin of sunflower seeds to sell that day.

Before setting up his stall, Liu Weidong made sure to pack a few kilograms of food and deliver it to the neighborhood committee, where he received a warm welcome from the committee director, Aunt Zheng, and several other elderly women.

Not only was Liu Weidong generous, but he also had a very pleasant voice, and the older women all liked this young man. One of them even said that her classmate's daughter was working in the countryside and she wanted to find an opportunity to introduce Liu Weidong to the girl.

Many educated youth still haven't returned to the cities these days, and many believe they'll stay in the countryside for the rest of their lives. Given this, marrying a quick-witted and hardworking rural young man like Liu Weidong would be an excellent choice.

However, only Liu Weidong knew that in the next few years, the vast majority of educated youth would return to the city, and even those who were married would get divorced one after another, causing a huge mess.

Not to mention that Liu Weidong has a beautiful, gentle, kind, and considerate god-sister at home, so he has even less interest in going on blind dates with strangers. Therefore, Liu Weidong simply said that he was preparing to get married during the Spring Festival and that selling melon seeds was just to earn money to support his family.

Now the older women completely gave up on the idea of ​​matchmaking for Liu Weidong. Two of them, who had suitable candidates, sighed with regret, feeling sorry that the girls they knew had missed out on such a good young man.

The overly enthusiastic middle-aged women made Liu Weidong not dare to stay long, and he quickly said goodbye on the grounds that he had to go to set up his stall.

The women escorted Liu Weidong to the door, and the neighborhood committee director warmly told him that if he had any difficulties, he should come to them, and the neighborhood committee would definitely find a way to help him.

"Thank you, Aunt Niu, thank you everyone!" Liu Weidong politely thanked the enthusiastic aunties, and then went to the market to set up a stall with Hao Jianjun, who was waiting at the door.

On the way to the market, Hao Jianjun asked Liu Weidong, puzzled, "Brother Weidong, why are you being so polite to those old women, giving them melon seeds and saying nice things? If you take these melon seeds to the market and sell them, you can make ten or so yuan!"

Knowing that Hao Jianjun was straightforward and would find it difficult to understand the intricacies of the situation, Liu Weidong simply said, "This question is difficult for me to explain clearly with your intelligence."

Hao Jianjun's attention was immediately drawn, and he asked Liu Weidong curiously, "What does IQ mean?"

"Don't ask so many questions. Just know that you have intelligence, but not much of it!" Liu Weidong was too lazy to explain. He parked his bicycle and said, "This is it. Let's set up the stall!"

Just like the past few days, the sunflower seeds were very popular today. Customers surrounded the stall in layers, buying two or three kilograms at a time, and the more than one hundred kilograms of sunflower seeds were quickly sold out.

Just then, a man in his forties came over, looked at the remaining sunflower seeds, and said, "I'll take all of these. Weigh them and pack them for me!"

Hao Jianjun was immediately taken aback and said, "The three flavors together weigh more than ten kilograms. Are you really going to buy this much?"

"Stop talking nonsense, it's not like I'm not paying!" the man said impatiently. "How can you turn away customers? Do you even know how to do business?"

Hao Jianjun immediately got angry, frowned and said, "I was just asking you a nice question, how can you talk like that? You really don't appreciate my kindness!"

"Jianjun, don't argue with the customer!" Liu Weidong quickly interrupted Hao Jianjun, and deftly weighed the remaining sunflower seeds, saying, "It's twelve and a half jin in total, so I'll just call it twelve jin for you. Eighteen yuan, thank you!"

The man didn't waste any words; he paid, took the melon seeds, and left.

Hao Jianjun angrily said, "Brother Weidong, you have such a good temper! If you hadn't stopped me, I would have definitely..."

"Alright, there's no need to get angry over something like this." Liu Weidong said in a deep voice, watching the man's retreating figure, "If I'm not mistaken, there's going to be a good show in a few days!"

Hao Jianjun quickly asked, "What good show?"

"You'll find out when the time comes!" Liu Weidong teased, then started packing up his stall. "Come help me out, let's finish quickly so we can go home for dinner!"

The two quickly packed up their stall and rode their bicycles back to the village, chatting and laughing. From afar, Liu Weidong saw a large crowd gathered in front of his house; Zhao Baojun's mother, Li Chunhong, was standing there, cursing loudly!