Chapter 10 Are you crazy?
"Yes, we can't send it to them! Otherwise, it would be like throwing meat buns at a dog!"
"Indeed, if you send one basket, they will be eyeing the other baskets. All the ones we baked today will be taken away by them!"
When people mentioned the county food factory, they all looked unhappy.
Guo Dajun hesitated and said, "But if we sell them all, how can we prove that we have baked better tiaozi cakes? Can we continue to run the food factory?"
Everyone thought the same and looked at Cheng Hui.
Cheng Hui...Birds of a feather flock together, no wonder these people can get together like this! They are all honest people.
"I only used 20 kilograms of flour today, and there are still a few dozen kilograms left. I can bake more later," she said.
"But we have no more eggs and not enough sugar," said the old black man who was in charge of the fire.
"You can buy sugar at the supply and marketing cooperative, and as for eggs, I'll go to the production team to get them. How about setting the price at 8 cents each?" Cheng Hui said.
Nowadays, when ordinary people pay 7 cents for eggs to the government, they sell them on the black market for 7.5 cents each.
The government usually sells it for 1 yuan per pound.
The price she offered was quite reasonable.
But now everything is unified purchasing and marketing. For example, this commune food factory cannot purchase raw materials on their own and must wait for allocation from above!
I’m so used to just waiting for food that I never thought I could buy it myself.
But now I have no other choice but to go out and buy it myself, and I’d be lucky if I can buy it.
"But we have no money... We haven't received our salary for several months, and all our savings are almost gone. If you hadn't given me the 4 yuan, I wouldn't have had the money to buy milk powder just now..." Guo Dajun said embarrassedly.
Cheng Hui...she still wants her 4 dollars back! She is poorer than them!
"It's okay. I still have a few dollars in my pocket. I'll use it as a buffer and collect some eggs for tomorrow. Once these trough cakes are sold, we'll have money." Cheng Hui said.
When everyone looked at the baskets of tiaozi cakes, their expressions did not improve. Instead, they became even uglier after they sobered up.
Cheng Hui baked 4 batches, using about 4 kilograms of flour for each batch, a total of 16 kilograms of flour.
If you sell caozi cake, it will cost 16 kilograms!
40 cents per pound, a total of 5.6 yuan can be sold, which is actually not much money.
This is how the weight of pasta is calculated now, 1 jin of steamed buns, 1 jin of noodles, 1 jin of dumplings. The "1 jin" here does not refer to the weight of the finished product, but the weight of 1 jin of the raw material flour!
For example, 1 jin of dumplings means 60 pieces, because 60 dumpling skins weigh 1 jin.
Cheng Hui smiled and said, "As long as everyone listens to me, I guarantee that everyone's salary will be paid before the New Year. This New Year's welfare will be the best in the county!"
Everyone looked at her and the pile of cakes behind her. Their expressions were distorted. The left side of their face showed belief, while the right side showed doubt!
Cheng Hui took out a dollar from her pocket and handed it to Gao Zhi.
"Go to the supply and marketing cooperative and buy 20 large sheets of kraft paper, and they must be intact," she said.
Gao Zhi walked out and asked, "What do you need so much brown paper for?"
"It's not me who wants it, it's the factory. Where's the accountant? Put it in the books. When the factory has money tomorrow, remember to pay me back. Oh, and the 4 yuan from before." Cheng Hui said.
When Gao Zhi heard that it was not his own money, he stopped asking questions and left quickly.
The small food factory has everything it needs. It has an accountant and a cashier, both of whom are young men in their 20s. They offended people due to their youthful energy and were driven here.
Now the expressions of both of them are very interesting.
This is 1 yuan, that is 4 yuan, why not just not sell these tiaozi cakes, and let Cheng Hui take them away to pay the debt!
"Do you have brushes and fountain pen ink? I need black fountain pen ink. If you don't have it, you have to buy it." Cheng Hui asked again.
"Yes, yes, yes!" Guo Dajun said quickly.
He was afraid that it would be too late to answer, and all these trough cakes would not be enough to pay off the debt, and they would have to pay out of their own pockets!
He hurriedly went to look for a brush and ink.
Over there, the nimble Gao Zhi had already returned with a large roll of kraft paper.
There are several types of kraft paper now. This window-sized one costs 5 cents per sheet, and 20 sheets are a lot.
And Gao Zhi took back not just 20 tickets, but 25.
"These are all cracked or rotten at the corners. They are worthless, but I insisted on getting them! They can be used, right?" she asked for credit.
Cheng Hui smiled. This was the benefit of not bargaining when buying the scarf. Otherwise, even if she begged on her knees, no one would give it to her.
"Well done! Now help me cut them." Cheng Hui asked for the scissors again.
Then he drew a size, cut out a few samples and gave them to others, directing everyone to work together.
No one knew what she was up to, but the room was filled with a sweet, milky aroma. She, the newly appointed deputy factory director, was doing a relatively good job at the moment.
Soon the kraft paper was cut according to her requirements, into two sizes, one large and one small.
Cheng Hui folded the cut kraft paper and made it into a kraft paper bag.
The big bag can hold 10, while the small one can only hold 1.
Everyone suddenly realized.
Tao Juan praised: "You know what, this packaging is pretty and convenient, much more fashionable than just packing it up with a rope..."
She didn't say the last word because she saw the words Cheng Hui wrote on the unfolded packaging bag, and her eyes got wider and wider! They are all going to fall down!
Cheng Hui's handwriting is very beautiful, with rounded small regular script and standard characters, just like those printed.
But what is written is too scary!
"Chiffon Cake".
"Date of production: January 5, 1973".
"Shelf life: 3 days".
“Retail price: 1 yuan.”
This is written on a small brown paper bag that can only hold 1!
Tao Juan just stared and waited.
Sure enough, Cheng Hui wrote on the big brown paper bag again. The first words were the same, and the last words were "Retail price: 10 yuan".
"Are you crazy?" she exclaimed.
Others had the same expression!
One dollar each?
Even if they are crazy about poverty, they dare not write like this!
"The key point is that you are crazy, but the common people are not! Who would buy one at 1 yuan? Are you a fool?" Tao Juan said.
Cheng Hui smiled and said, "During the most difficult times, candies were sold at 20 yuan per pound and were sold out. It's not uncommon to sell cakes at 20 yuan per pound before. You don't have to make such a fuss, right?"
She was telling the truth.
In this era of planned economy, you need a ticket to buy anything. If you don’t have a ticket, we won’t sell anything to you.
Only city dwellers had tickets, while rural residents only had cloth and oil coupons.
There are no other scarce tickets, such as sugar tickets, bicycle tickets, TV tickets, plane tickets, etc.
Rural people do have some money, and a little bit of it adds up to a lot.
There are also those city dwellers who earn a lot of money but have no tickets and cannot spend it.
For example, if you are paid 80 yuan a month, and all the tickets are spent, you can only spend 30 yuan. The remaining 50 yuan is like waste paper. It is a pity to throw it away, but it is useless to keep it.
This is a huge amount of uncirculated funds.
In order to recover this part of the funds, starting from the 1960s, there were high-priced candies, high-priced cakes, high-priced cigarettes and alcohol, all sold for money without tickets, and they sold quite well.
"But what we make are not the high-priced pastries stipulated in regulations. The supply and marketing cooperatives won't accept them, and ordinary people don't recognize them. I hesitate to sell them at 50 cents a pound, and I can't sell them at more than 20 yuan a pound!" said Guo Dajun.
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