For several months, the couple became the factory's breadwinners. They no longer worried about not being able to sell the porcelain they produced, and the goods no longer rotted in the warehouse, which greatly increased their income.
Dong Qing was the only one hauling goods, and even so, no one dared to raise prices. Would they dare to raise prices if Dong Qing was the only one hauling goods? They would try raising prices, but Dong Qing's two tractors couldn't stay idle at home for more than half a month before they came knocking on his door themselves.
Prices in those days were like lukewarm water, seemingly never fluctuating. Workers could barely earn two yuan a day, and a meal outside cost three or four mao. With little money earned, consumption was pitifully low. However, everything except food was extremely expensive in those days. A fourteen-inch color television set cost more than a thousand yuan, and it would take several workers in a family a year to buy one.
In short, electrical appliances were very expensive in those days. Forget about watching TV, even a transistor radio cost tens or even hundreds of yuan. In the summer, you could hardly find any electric fans in the whole village, and there were hardly any bicycles in the village either.
Back then, mechanical appliances weren't expensive; the main problem was the lack of sufficient supply. You needed a license to buy a bicycle, and without a license, you couldn't buy one even with money.
Things got much better in the 1980s. At least you could wear clothes without cloth coupons. In the 1970s, you couldn't even buy a few feet of cloth without them.
An adult receives 14 feet of cloth ration coupons per year. The cloth is 2 feet 4 inches wide. 14 feet of cloth is obviously not enough. For example, a person who is about 1.7 meters tall will use up all their cloth ration coupons in a year to make one set of clothes. What will they do with the cotton clothes left over?
So people in those days wore clothes patched upon patched. Even if you had money to buy cloth to make clothes, no one would sell them to you without cloth coupons, and besides, people didn't have much money to begin with.
Things got much better in the 1980s. Cloth coupons gradually became useless, but grain coupons continued to circulate in the market until the 1990s.
But at that time, grain coupons were not so important. You could buy flour without grain coupons, but it would cost twice as much if you bought it on the spot.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, many farmers rode bicycles to big cities, traveling more than 100 miles, just to buy some coarse grain coupons from city dwellers at a low price. They would then buy some flour from local grain stores to take home and eat. This way, it was much cheaper. However, coarse grain coupons could only be used to buy coarse grains, which were some darker flours. Even the darkest flour was still white flour, which tasted much better than cornmeal. It's not hard to imagine how hard life was for farmers in those days.
At noon, they drove to the residential area where their second sister lived, parked the tractor by the roadside, got out of the car, locked the door, and walked with their wife towards their second sister's house.
When I arrived at my second sister's house and knocked on the door, it opened instantly.
Dong Ermei said, "You're back."
Dongqing replied that he was back, and he and his wife followed his second sister to sit down on the sofa in the living room.
Dongqing asked, "Hasn't my brother-in-law come back yet?"
Dong Ermei said, "Your brother-in-law won't be back at noon. There's a house for sale in the urban village; do you want it? The house itself is so-so, but the yard is very large. It's an heirloom, and there's a property certificate."
Dong Qing said, "The quality of the house doesn't matter, as long as there's an empty yard, I can start building next spring."
Dong Ermei said, "Okay, I'll take you there this afternoon. It's my colleague's house. The whole family lives in the staff and family quarters. They don't need the old house anymore, and their son is sick and they need money, so they want to sell it. But the house is on the main street, so it'll be more expensive. It's not on a main street, so it won't be much more expensive."
Houses in this era are generally not very good; they are mostly houses left by ancestors. Dong Qing's goal is to buy an empty house and build a house according to his own housing requirements.
Dong Qing said, "As long as it's on the street, it'll be convenient to get home."
After lunch, Dong Ermei led the two of them out of her house and called her colleague to walk together towards the urban village.
The four of them arrived at an urban village, where every household lived in a very simple house.
They arrived at a gate facing the street. Dong Ermei's colleague took out a key from her bag, opened the gate, and they walked into the courtyard together.
This place must have been uninhabited for a long time; the yard is covered with fallen leaves, and if the ground hadn't been paved, grass would have grown there long ago.
The courtyard is indeed very large, about 800 square meters. She said, "This house is my family's ancestral home, but we don't need it anymore. Your second sister probably told you that my son is sick and we urgently need money. If you want it, I'll sell this house to you."
Dong Qing asked, "Okay, how much do you want for it?"
She said, "With your second sister here, she won't overcharge me. Let's round it up to a whole number. How about you give me ten thousand yuan?"
Real estate wasn't worth much back then, so her asking price was a bit high, but not outrageously so. Such a house was a rare find, so Dongqing agreed to buy it and paid her 10,000 yuan in cash at the time.
The woman rested for half the afternoon and cooperated with Dongqing to transfer the property certificate. From then on, the house would belong to him.
After the woman left, Dong Ermei asked, "Little brother, are you planning to move in with us?"
Dongqing said, "There's nothing to move from our old house. We can stay here for a few days if we want, or stay in our old home if we don't. I'm going to demolish this house next spring and build a villa. This house is very long from east to west, so I plan to build four villas. Each of my four siblings will have one. I just want our family to live together."
Dong Ermei wasn't surprised by her brother's words. She knew perfectly well how much money Dong Qing made, and said, "I never imagined you'd achieve what you have today. On behalf of my eldest sister and third sister, thank you."
Prices were low in those days, and building four villas wouldn't cost much. Dongqing and his wife could earn back the money for four villas in just half a month. Giving each of their three older sisters a villa was nothing; that's what you call being rich and powerful.
For thirty days in January, the couple was never idle. They ran their business in an orderly manner, and their days passed by in a flurry of activity.
By raising the cargo beds of the two tractors, profits doubled. Each trip yielded around 100,000 yuan in profit for both tractors. Several factories vied to have him transport their goods, making it easy to lower purchase prices. The lower the purchase price, the higher the profit—it's a mutually reinforcing cycle.
With each car generating at least 500,000 yuan in revenue per month, the couple earned over 2.2 million yuan by the end of the year, finally seeing hope for their future.
On the 21st of the lunar year, after returning from his trip, Dong Qing walked up to Su Wei's tractor, got on, took out 1,000 yuan from his bag, and handed it to her, saying, "I won't be driving anymore before the New Year. I'll give you an extra 500 yuan this month. Take it home and have some New Year's celebrations."
Su Wei reached out and took the money, saying, "Thank you!"
Dong Qing said, "You're welcome. Take this car back and park it in front of your house. It's too cold, so remember to drain the water from the radiator."
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