Reborn in the Great Northern Wilderness in 1982, I farmed and hunted to support my whole family.

“Selling to the supply and marketing cooperative is not as good as selling to me. The price I offer is much higher than what the supply and marketing cooperative would pay.”

Jin Dachuan spoke with an air of magnanimity. The supply and marketing cooperative has always offered low prices for its goods, and it's only now that some people are worried about being arrested for speculation and profiteering that they go there.

Anyone who knows the current policies or has any common sense wouldn't send anything there.

Li Mu was certainly aware of this as well.

Having been given a second chance at life, he had a longer-term vision than anyone else. Rather than selling things to the supply and marketing cooperative, he sold things to Zou Ming.

“I know Chef Jin, you’re not short of money, but if you’re only selling me the little bit I make myself, I’ll naturally sell it all to you.”

"But look at this, just these samples alone fill several sacks. With this batch of goods, you probably won't need to restock for at least a month."

"These are all things that the villagers worked tirelessly to get, so it's not good to just leave them at home to dry."

Li Mu didn't explain, but Jin Dachuan understood the whole story.

"That's true! If you guys can bring this much every time, I really can't handle it."

Jin Dachuan replied to Li Mu with a smile, and then finished inspecting the rest of the goods.

There was a bag of black fungus, two stalks of hazel mushrooms, and two sacks of hazelnuts. All of them were of extremely high quality and clearly carefully selected.

"Keep half for me first, the other half is enough for you to send to the supply and marketing cooperative for purchase."

Jin Dachuan called for someone to bring a bag, and while having half of the contents divided, he reminded Li Mu, "But this little bit isn't enough for us for the New Year. When are you going to send some more?"

"Let's wait a couple of days!"

Li Mu didn't agree to send the goods immediately, even though the village didn't lack them. However, he didn't intend to neglect fishing and hunting wild rabbits because of these things.

"When I come to the county town to sell fish, I'll bring you half a bag of each kind as well."

"Half a bag isn't enough!"

Upon hearing Li Mu's words, Jin Dachuan immediately became anxious and pointed to the remaining items.

"If you can't deliver this much of everything, you might as well quit going to the supply and marketing cooperative."

"Alright! Let the blind daters try a little harder." Li Mu said with a slight frown, looking somewhat troubled.

But Jin Dachuan didn't soften his heart and give him more time. The beginning of the year is the peak season for booking tables, and there are many customers every day.

If Li Mu can't get the supplies, he'll have to find another place to buy them.

He wanted to say these things to Li Mu.

"However, let's get this straight. If you can't deliver on time, I'll just buy from someone else."

"Don't try to play dirty tricks on me then."

Jin Dachuan spoke with a smile, as if he were joking.

But Li Mu took it all to heart. "Chef Jin, don't worry, it's two days as promised. If we don't have it at home, I'll go into the mountains to find it for you."

"Okay! Then it's settled."

Jin Dachuan chuckled and patted Li Mu on the shoulder. Turning around, he saw the dried goods being moved into the kitchen and were already being weighed. He quickly called out, "Come on, let's check the scale. We'll weigh it and pay right away."

However, Li Mu waved his hand and said, "No, outsiders are not allowed in the kitchen. I trust Chef Jin and he won't argue with me over a few cents."

"Not bad! You even know this."

Chef Jin nodded in satisfaction and didn't invite Li Mu in again, but instead personally supervised the weighing.

Outside the door, one of the six burly men who had come with Li Mu, a man with a thick beard, took the opportunity to walk up to him.

"Muzi, they won't shortchange us, will they?"

Li Mu smiled and said, "Uncle Ganzi, it's perfectly normal for them to take a cut. Just like when we buy things, who doesn't want to get a little something for free?"

As the saying goes, "A fool wouldn't take advantage of a good deal."

"As long as we don't lose money, we can do this business."

Upon hearing this, Li Ganzi thought about it carefully and realized it made sense. However, he noticed that the room was full of people from the Lakeside Hotel, and none of them were keeping an eye on the people inside…

"But what if they..."

Still feeling uneasy, Li Ganzi wanted to say a few more words.

Before he could finish speaking, his arm was suddenly yanked by another dark-faced man behind him.

"Alright! What if something happens? Listen to Mu Zi. With him here, why are you worrying about anything?"

"Fourth Master, aren't I worried that he's lying to us?"

Just moments ago, Li Ganzi was suspicious and paranoid, but now he turned around and became like a child who had made a mistake, muttering in a very low voice to the man who was at least seven or eight years younger than him.

Li Siming rolled his eyes at him with disdain, then looked up at Li Mu apologetically, "Mu Zi, you don't need to pay any attention to him."

"There's a saying in business: taking a loss is a blessing. Your great-grandfather used to say these things a lot when he was alive."

Fifth Great-Grandfather, Li Mu does know him.

In the early days, he was a daring street vendor who would go from street to street selling groceries.

Even though you're a street vendor, if you're not good with words, not clever, and don't know how to get things done, you won't earn a single penny.

Both Li Siming and Li Ganzi are from the same branch of their fifth grandfather's family. Li Siming's older brother is also Li Ganzi's grandfather.

This is why the toughest man in the village instantly became docile the moment Li Siming opened his mouth.

"Weighed! The black fungus weighs 29.6 jin and the hazel mushrooms weigh 48.3 jin."

Jin Dachuan came out with the weight, and Li Mu, not having time to reply to Li Siming, turned around and continued his conversation.

"Then one will be counted as 29 jin, and the other as 48 jin."

"No, I can't let you get ripped off. Black fungus is one yuan a pound, so that's 30. Hazel mushrooms are three yuan a pound, so that's 147."

As Jin Dachuan spoke, he began to take out money.

"That's 147 yuan in total, please count it."

When the money was handed to him, Li Mu didn't say anything more.

However, instead of counting the items, he handed them to Li Siming and said, "Fourth Master, please count and put them away."

When Li Siming saw the money handed to him, he didn't refuse and immediately started counting. The five men next to him all gathered around and watched, muttering "one yuan, fifteen yuan" along with him.

Li Mu glanced at it only once before turning back to talk to Jin Dachuan.

"I did find some birch polypore that you mentioned before when I went into the mountains for other business. I don't know if it's the same thing you're talking about."

As he spoke, Li Mu took out a cloth bag from the sled beside him, which looked like it contained four large pears.

Before he could hand it to Jin Dachuan, Jin Dachuan snatched it and quickly untied it to take a look.

"That's right, that's it."

Jin Dachuan spoke with a look of surprise, but he wisely didn't take the items out. Instead, he tied the bag back up and then took out a wad of cash and stuffed it into Li Mu's hand.

"Isn't this too much?" Although Li Mu didn't know the current price of birch polypore, this stack of money must have been at least five or six hundred.