Chapter 239 Opening a Store

After returning home, Xu Hexiao changed his clothes first. Lin Qi looked at Jian Tong and others who were absent-minded, raised her eyebrows in surprise, wondering what had happened.

"It's noon now. Do you want to stay for lunch?" Lin Qi asked Jian Yi and others.

"No, I won't stay. I originally agreed to treat you to a meal." Ming Kangjian hastily refused. "When we came here, we saw a state-owned restaurant not far from here. Let's go there to eat."

Jian Tongyi also nodded. "You have made the greatest contribution to our admission to university. We have agreed to treat your family to a meal."

Others also echoed.

Unable to refuse the invitation, Lin Qi and Xu He took their seven children and went to the state-owned hotel with Jian Yi and others.

The state-owned restaurant doesn't have many dishes, but the portion of each dish is very large.

Jian Tongyi and Ming Kangjian were in charge of ordering the dishes. Even if they ordered all the meat dishes the restaurant had, there were only eight. The dishes in state-owned restaurants were different every day. They usually had whatever was available, and sometimes there were only two or three meat dishes.

After ordering the meat dishes, they ordered six vegetarian dishes and two soups, and the staple food was steamed buns and cakes. The large table of dishes was very rich, which showed that Jian Tongyi, Ming Kangjian and others were very sincere in asking for leave.

At the dinner table, everyone's topic revolved around the Anliang Brigade, and they talked about when they first arrived at the Anliang Brigade, and then talked about the changes in the Anliang Brigade in recent years.

"After you left, everyone missed you very much." Jian Tongyi looked at Lin Qi with deep eyes.

"You must miss the prey that Qiqi hunted." Xu Hexiao had a blank expression on his face.

Jane said with an embarrassed expression, "Both."

"Not only Lin Qi, everyone else often mentions you." Ming Kangjian said with a smile, "The team members know that we are coming to the capital, so they asked us to say hello to you on their behalf and told you to come back and visit when you are free."

"In fact, there is also someone from Anliang Brigade who was admitted to the capital. He is a boy named Luo Antu. Do you remember him?" Jian Yitong asked.

Lin Qi nodded, "I remember him."

"He should also know your home address and may come to visit you." Jian Yitong said.

Lin Qi hummed, "Come on."

The meal took more than forty minutes. After the meal, Jian Yitong invited Lin Qi and Xu Hexiao to go to school to play.

Lin Qi wasn't interested. "Let's talk about it later."

"Your children are all grown up now. Why didn't you two take the college entrance examination?" Jian Tongyi was a little curious.

"I don't want to study." Lin Qi didn't feel embarrassed at all.

Xu Hexiao said, "I'm busy, there are many things to do, and I can't spare the time."

"You don't have to go to school to study. You can learn by yourself or with a teacher. You can learn anywhere. The three old men in the team before, they must be your teachers, right? I saw them in school." Ming Kangjian couldn't help but envy Xu Hexiao. Any teacher he recognized would have an extraordinary status. Now all three of them are teachers at Capital University. It is said that their status in the school is not low.

"They are now the children's teachers." Old Man Weng and Old Man Mu have their own descendants, and now it is Old Man Yi and the other two who teach the children more.

"Your children said they are in the military camp and not going to school. Is that true?" Ming Kangjian still didn't quite believe it. What could such young children do in the military camp?

Xu Hexiao nodded. "They went to the military camp when they were very young. It's a secret, so I can't say much. But in addition to training, they also learn cultural knowledge in the military camp, so there's no need to worry about them becoming illiterate."

They can not only receive training but also learn cultural knowledge, and the children they recruit are very young. This should be very unusual, right?

Ming Kangjian and others felt that they were getting further and further away from Lin Qi and Xu Hexiao's family.

At the beginning of March, the Yuan family came knocking again.

"We will leave the capital in a few days," said Mr. Yuan.

Lin Qi thought, I thought you guys had left a long time ago.

"Your medicinal wine is very useful. My wife and daughter's cold body problems are cured. But I don't know if it will recur in the future, so I plan to buy some medicinal wine to take away." Mr. Yuan explained his purpose.

"It's not convenient to carry alcohol on the road, right?" It's not convenient to carry alcohol whether you're taking a train or a car.

"We plan to take the train to leave the capital first, and then take a boat to Hong Kong City. We may settle down in Hong Kong City, or go to Europe from Hong Kong City." His family has relatives in Hong Kong City and Europe, so he plans to buy more wine, which will also be a good gift for relatives.

"In addition to wine, I also want to buy some of your preserved fruits. It would be boring to take a car or a boat, so buy a hundred kilograms." The preserved fruits tasted very good, but it was a pity that they couldn't bring too much, otherwise he would like to buy more.

"Would you like to buy some medicinal herbs? The herbs I have here are of good quality that are not available elsewhere." Lin Qi was promoting the medicinal herbs she grew herself. Others might not be able to afford to buy expensive herbs, but Mr. Yuan did.

"Medicinal materials for making medicinal wine?" Mr. Yuan was somewhat interested.

"Yes, the herbs used to make medicinal wine. But there are also more expensive herbs, such as dendrobium and ginseng, saffron and Panax notoginseng. I'll show them to you, and you can make a decision after you have read them."

Mr. Yuan had a feeling that he would have to spend a lot of money today, but he couldn't refuse. The things from the Xu family were too good. Although the price was expensive, the quality made him very satisfied. After leaving, he was afraid that he would not be able to buy such good things in the future. So he had to spend a lot of money.

The result was just as Mr. Yuan had expected. He bought a lot of medicinal herbs, especially two ginsengs, which he couldn't put down after he picked them up.

"This is a hundred-year-old ginseng!" He had seen a hundred-year-old ginseng before. His grandfather had one before, which was a circle smaller than the two in front of him. His grandfather treasured it very much at that time. He only took it out occasionally to look at it on weekdays and never used it. Later, it was bought by someone at a high price. It was said that it was used to save lives.

"This is not cheap." Lin Qi said. Some time ago, they went to the drugstore and sold a similar one for more than three hundred yuan.

"I want them all. Just name your price." Mr. Yuan was determined to get them.

"Two for a thousand dollars." Lin Qi said calmly. Selling to a pharmacy is different from selling to a private individual. They sold to the pharmacy to make friends with the old doctor in the pharmacy. The children were in the military camp and would inevitably get hurt. If they made friends with the old doctor, they could ask him to make some medicine powder for them.

The old doctor was very good at medicine and had a high level of medicine making. The old doctor was very interested in the medicine she grew and agreed to make medicine for them, but he would take one-fifth of the medicine. In addition, the old doctor also gave Lin Qi a lot of medicinal seeds, hoping that Lin Qi would grow them. Now these seeds have grown in Lin Qi's yard.

"One thousand is one thousand, I'll take them all." Two hundred-year-old ginsengs were not as expensive as a hundred kilograms of medicinal wine, and Mr. Yuan felt that he had made a good deal. When they arrived at the port city, the resale price could be tripled, five times, or even ten times. Of course, he would not sell these two hundred-year-old ginsengs easily. These were hundred-year-old ginsengs, which were hard to come by, and could be used to save lives at critical moments.

In addition to the two century-old ginsengs, Mr. Yuan also bought more than 20 ginsengs that were several decades old. Mr. Yuan spent 10,000 yuan just on ginseng.

"This ginseng is a very nutritious food. You bought so much. Are you planning to feed your family?" Lin Qi was worried that they would have problems after eating it.

"Not all of it is for my family." Mr. Yuan said with a smile, "I won't hide it from you. I'm going to keep some of this ginseng for my own use, give some to others, and sell some of it when I get to Hong Kong. I should have no problem selling it at double the price."

Lin Qi: “….”

She changed her mind and wants to raise the price. Is that okay?

"Do you want other medicinal herbs? You can buy more and sell them when you get there." Lin Qi reminded.

"Okay. The medicinal materials are not heavy, so it's okay to bring some more." Mr. Yuan said.

On this day, Mr. Yuan spent 20,000 yuan with Lin Qi. Lin Qi was very satisfied, and so was Mr. Yuan.

Time flies. After 1979, many people started running small businesses on the streets. Most of them sold food or homemade bamboo and wooden products.

When Xu Hexiao saw people setting up stalls to sell things, he also started to get excited. He handed the task of supervision to Zhao Shu and bought a house facing the street himself.

The house is not big, with only two rooms, and it cost five thousand yuan.

"The front room can be used as a shop, and the back room can be used as a warehouse. They can be used after a simple cleanup." Xu Hexiao said.

Lin Qi and Xu Hexiao went to the store to measure the size, and then came back to start making shelves. They planned to sell wine, some rice, flour and preserved fruits first, and as for other commodities, they would slowly add them later depending on the situation.

The store opened in autumn, when the policies were already very relaxed.

On the first day of opening, people from the Chu family and Cao Zheng all visited the restaurant.

"Do you want me to tell the people in the factory to take care of your business?" Chu Guoan asked. Xu Hexiao is handsome and capable, and he has a good relationship with people in the machinery factory.

"No need. I have confidence in my things." Xu Hexiao said.

Chu Guoan smiled, "Yes, the things you sell are unique. Do you want to sell some vegetables as well? If you have vegetables, we will buy our vegetables from you in the future."

"I'll go back and discuss it with Qiqi before making a decision."

"Even if the machinery factory doesn't tell me, I will definitely inform my relatives. They want to drink your wine so much that they are going crazy."

"Okay, bring them here. We have just brewed a new wine with a lower alcohol content, and the price is cheaper. Now that they are here, it's a good opportunity to recommend it to them."

"Are there any new wines? Give me two kilograms."

When he got home in the evening, Xu Hexiao did not mention to Lin Qi whether he wanted to sell vegetables. Wine and grain can be said to be purchased, and they can sell them for a long time after purchasing them once. Vegetables are different. Their family does not have a vegetable garden. If they sell so many fresh vegetables every day and no one delivers them, everyone will notice something unusual after a long time.

Xu Hexiao originally didn't plan to tell Lao Yi and the other two about his store, but they still found out from the children and asked for the address. One weekend, the three of them, along with a few colleagues, found Xu Hexiao's store.

"Why are you here?" Xu Hexiao asked in surprise.

"Come and see your business. How is it? Are there many people coming to buy things?" asked Lao Yi.

Xu Hexiao smiled. Just then someone came to buy rice. While weighing the rice for the customer, he answered Lao Yi, "We can almost sell out all the rice we bring in every day. Do you think business is good?"

He doesn't bring much goods every day, just a few dozen kilograms of wine, about 100 kilograms of rice and noodles, and a few dozen kilograms of preserved fruits. He goes home after selling everything, and if he can't sell everything, he closes the store on time at 4 o'clock and goes back.

The store has been open for more than half a month and there are very few cases where products cannot be sold out.

"Then we've been worrying for nothing. We were afraid that your business would be bad, so we specially brought a few customers here for you." Old Fu pointed at a few people around him.

"Thank you teachers for your care. I will give you a 30% discount on anything you want to buy." Xu Hexiao did not prepare any water, only wine. He took out a few white porcelain cups, which were usually used for people to taste wine.

"Do the teachers drink alcohol?"

"They all drank. They came just for your wine. You don't know that most of the wine they took from you went into their stomachs." When talking about this, Lao Fu couldn't help but feel annoyed.

Xu Hexiao smiled lightly, "Then I'll pour you some fruit wine. The weather is still a bit hot, so fruit wine is best."

"Fruit wine is good, but we prefer shochu," said one of the teachers.

"Drink whatever you are given, stop talking nonsense." Lao Bi glanced at the teacher, "You can buy whatever you want to drink later."

The teacher didn't mind Lao Bi's attitude. "Okay, I'll try the fruit wine first. Little brother, I want to buy ten kilograms of liquor. I don't have a container. Do you have something to hold the liquor?"

"Yes. There is a 10-jin wine jar here. I will fill it for you right away."

"I want ten kilograms of liquor and fruit wine each."

"I want Bamboo Leaf Green."

"Besides wine, what else do you have here?"

"Preserved fruit, there are several kinds of preserved fruit. I'll bring some for you to taste."

Finally, the teachers led by Lao Yi bought a lot of dried fruits in addition to wine. With the promotion of Lao Yi and the other two, they also bought some rice and flour.

While they were packing things for the teachers, a few more customers came, some to buy wine, and some to buy rice and noodles. In the end, all the things were sold out, and Lao Yi and the other two didn't buy anything.

Xu Hexiao saw off the teachers and walked home with Lao Yi and the other two. It took about half an hour to walk home from the store.

"Are you planning to open a shop and do business in the future? Your calligraphy and painting skills are good. I can introduce you to a university to be an art teacher." Lao Yi felt that Xu Hexiao was wasting his talent by opening a shop to sell things.

"Opening a shop is temporary. I am not interested in teaching." Xu Hexiao said, "I have not given up calligraphy and painting. If there is an art exhibition or calligraphy exhibition somewhere, you can notify me so that I can go and learn."

"It will be held in two months, but it will be held inside the school, and most of the works will be from the school's students and teachers. Go back and find two of your calligraphy and paintings for me, and I'll help you sign up for the exhibition. The exhibition also has awards, including first prize, second prize, third prize and excellent prize. It should be no problem for your work to win an award." Lao Yi said.

"Okay, I'll go back and carefully select two calligraphy and paintings." Xu Hexiao agreed, "Can I take Qiqi to the exhibition then?"

"Okay, I'll give you two tickets." Old Yi still didn't give up and asked, "You really don't want to be a teacher?"

"No. I want to open a store. When the policies become more relaxed, I plan to expand my business nationwide and even around the world." When talking about doing business, Xu Hexiao's eyes lit up.

Seeing that he really had no ambition to do this, Lao Yi gave up and said, "You can also sell calligraphy and paintings in the future. Calligraphy and paintings by great calligraphers and painters are worth a fortune. When you become a great calligrapher, you can also make a lot of money. Don't waste it."

"good."