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

Wang Jianguo asked, puzzled, "Dad, what's wrong?"

"Are you stupid!" Wang Deli glared at his son and said, "That kid has been spending money like water lately. He bought a new bicycle, and I heard he even installed a coal stove at home for heating. And when I went to see Liu Weidong last time, I found that his family was eating better than ours. All that money is gone!"

Reminded by his father, Wang Jianguo suddenly realized, "Oh right, that kid and his sister are even wearing ski jackets! Those two outfits alone cost over a hundred yuan!"

Wang Deli said in a deep voice, "You do the math for him. The bicycle, the stove, his usual food and clothing, plus today's two hundred, this kid has spent far more than five hundred yuan. This can only mean one thing!"

Wang Jianguo immediately widened his eyes and said, "I understand!"

Seeing that his son had finally grasped the point, Wang Deli nodded with satisfaction, waiting for him to continue.

Under his father's encouraging gaze, Wang Jianguo revealed his thoughts: "Actually, you gave him more than five hundred back then, probably more, maybe a thousand!"

Wang Deli's blood pressure spiked. He glared at his dim-witted son with exasperation and said, "You idiot! This means that kid has other ways to make money, we just didn't know it!"

Wang Jianguo was still baffled: "Even so, what does that have to do with us?"

“We can earn the same money as Liu Weidong, and all this money should belong to our family!” Wang Deli said sinisterly. “Looks like we need to find an opportunity to remind this kid who’s really in charge of Hexi Village!”

In Wang Deli's eyes, Liu Weidong was just an ordinary villager under his command. With a little manipulation, he could not only get Liu Weidong to honestly reveal his money-making methods, but also make him hand over all the money he had earned before!

Liu Weidong was unaware that he had been targeted by Wang Deli, who was eyeing his money.

Of course, even if Liu Weidong knew about this, he wouldn't be too worried. He's no longer an ordinary farmer who can be easily manipulated; if Wang Deli dared to do this, he'd definitely make him regret it!

Over the next week, Liu Weidong made two more trips to Gonggeng Village.

With the foundation laid by the previous visits, the village chiefs of each village trusted Ma Yongxian more and more, sending him more eggs in exchange for national grain coupons.

Therefore, Liu Weidong also reaped a considerable harvest, collecting a total of eight or nine hundred catties of eggs in two separate transactions. Apart from selling some to state-run restaurants, he took the majority to state-run stores.

Liu Weidong had previously agreed with Wang Hao to supply some eggs to the state-run store to alleviate their immediate financial crisis. Since that was the case, they had to keep their word, especially since they planned to sell sunflower seeds here in the future; they couldn't let Wang Hao down.

Wang Hao had already given instructions to his sales staff, who had previously been skeptical of his claims. Right now, even the supply and marketing cooperatives weren't selling eggs, so it was even less likely that private individuals could obtain that many.

To everyone's surprise, Liu Weidong actually brought the eggs. This surprised and delighted everyone, and they quickly began to weigh the eggs.

After all the eggs were weighed, everyone was even more surprised. This young man had actually brought a full 450 jin of eggs!

In this era of scarcity, even state-run supply and marketing cooperatives can only provide this many eggs to their stores each month. It's truly astonishing that Liu Weidong was able to obtain so many eggs through his private connections. At this time of egg shortage, he has genuinely helped the state-run stores a great deal.

Moreover, Liu Weidong sold these eggs to the store at the supply and marketing cooperative's price, which left those who were dissatisfied speechless and unable to find any fault with him.

Li Jingpeng, who was in charge of the agricultural products counter, confirmed that everything was correct and handed a stack of RMB to Liu Weidong, saying, "Comrade Liu, our Manager Wang has already instructed that as long as you bring the eggs, we will pay on the spot. Today, the price of eggs at the supply and marketing cooperative is 1.2 yuan. This totals 549 yuan. Please count it."

Liu Weidong was quite generous, simply stuffing the money into his pocket and saying, "No need to count it. Manager Wang and I are friends, so I trust you won't cheat me."

At this point, Liu Weidong looked around and frowned slightly, saying, "Isn't Manager Wang in the store today? I haven't seen him."

A sales clerk told Liu Weidong, "Someone came to talk to Manager Wang, but he's busy with someone. Should I go and call him over now?"

Liu Weidong wasn't that arrogant. He smiled and said to the others, "No need, I'll go to Manager Wang's office, say hello, and then I'll leave!"

This young man solved a major problem for the store while remaining humble, earning the admiration of others. With such interpersonal skills, it's no wonder he managed to get so many eggs!

Conditions were tough back then. Although Wang Hao was the manager of a state-owned store, he had to share an office with others. Several people were working inside, while Wang Hao sat behind his desk talking to people.

Liu Weidong was taken aback when he arrived at the office door. The person who came to talk to Wang Hao was none other than Wei Wanqing!

Liu Weidong and the businesswoman had originally agreed to meet with Wang Hao after they finished roasting the melon seeds to discuss selling them in state-run stores. Liu Weidong had even made a point of informing Wang Hao beforehand when they last met at the state-run restaurant.

Liu Weidong was surprised that Wei Wanqing had come to negotiate with Wang Hao alone behind his back. He wondered what this woman was thinking. So Liu Weidong simply stood at the door and listened to what the two were talking about.

Wei Wanqing noticed Liu Weidong behind her and said to Wang Hao with anticipation, "Manager Wang, our sunflower seeds are really popular. Before the Spring Festival, we were selling hundreds of kilograms every day at the market..."

Wang Hao wasn't interested in what the strong woman was saying; he just kept talking to her in a bureaucratic tone: "Comrade Wei, this is a state-run store, so we're not allowed to sell private items!"

In fact, Liu Weidong knew that Wang Hao was just making excuses, because he had just sold more than 400 catties of eggs to the store in his private capacity, and Wang Hao should thank him!

However, Liu Weidong did not rush to step forward, but instead planned to see what Wei Wanqing would say.

The strong woman seemed surprised that Wang Hao would refuse so decisively, and for a moment she was at a loss.

Although Wei Wanqing knew perfectly well that Wang Hao would immediately agree to all her demands as soon as she mentioned her father's name, she didn't want to rely on her father for success. Instead, she wanted to see her own true abilities, but reality gave her a harsh lesson.

Seeing that Wei Wanqing had nothing to say, Wang Hao stood up and said, "Comrade Wei, I'm sorry, please go back!"

The strong woman instinctively stood up; the blow of failure left her disheartened.

Just then, Wei Wanqing heard Liu Weidong's familiar voice: "Manager Wang, what a coincidence! Since the three of us are all here, let's take this opportunity to finalize what we discussed last time!"