Driving on the road, sometimes you can't avoid eating irregularly, Dongqing said, "You must be hungry by now, hurry up and eat."
Su Wei picked up her chopsticks and ate the meat. She was quite fortunate to be driving a truck with Dong Qing, earning a high salary and having meat with every meal. They rarely ate staple food when they went to restaurants, and they couldn't even dream of eating meat at home. Let alone eating meat, they couldn't even afford to eat pure white face masks every day at home. Nobody had that kind of luxury.
The next morning around 7 a.m., some small vendors delivered soybeans. The wholesale company found a large scale for Dongqing. Suwei checked the quality of the soybeans. After the soybeans passed the quality test, they were weighed, and Dongqing sat next to them to pay.
Su Wei is extremely strict about the quality of soybeans; she won't take them no matter the price per pound, and even if she did, she wouldn't be able to sell them herself.
Whoever's soybeans were responsible for loading them onto the truck. Dongqing paid someone two yuan to arrange the soybeans on the truck.
By 10 a.m., the soybeans delivered had been harvested, and the tractor was more than half full. Dongqing said, "We can't wait any longer to harvest; if we harvest from the next house, we won't be able to finish."
Su Wei and Dong Qing closed the back door of the tractor trailer, and Dong Qing turned and walked towards the office.
The local products company had already withdrawn the money and settled the payment with Dongqing.
Dong Qing returned to the car with the money and said, "Let's go."
They drove to the second house in the afternoon and kept talking until 3 p.m. to fill the truck. This trip carried 56,600 jin of soybeans. The tractor was already overloaded, and in the end, they couldn't finish loading all the soybeans they brought. They promised to take them away on the next trip.
If we sell it for 40 cents a pound when we get back, the net profit for this trip will be 14,150 yuan. Even after deducting losses, we can still earn 14,000 yuan. It depends on how well the sales are when we get back.
After settling the payment with the general manager in the office, Dong Qing and Su Wei got into the car and headed back together.
Dongqing asked, "How much does the tofu dregs cost per pound in your village?"
Su Wei said, "The tofu dregs are all sold to farmers to feed pigs. The wet tofu dregs are only one cent per pound. Why are you asking about this?"
Dong Qing said, "Of course it'll be useful. In 1980, a pig farm was built in my village, covering an area of more than 50 mu. Later, we lost money raising pigs, so the pig farm was left idle. I want to buy that pig farm. I've been supplying soybeans to tofu makers for many years, and they sell all the tofu residue to me. I'm sure I can make money by feeding the pigs with the tofu residue."
In those days, the pig feed given by farmers was very simple, consisting of sweet potato flour. The pig feed was also thin and watery, and the monotonous pig feed had no nutritional value whatsoever. A pig was fed for more than two years.
Farmers basically don't make money raising a pig. If you say that raising pigs makes money, it's more accurate to say that the money is accumulated from the black grains they feed them.
The pigs fed at the Dongcun pig farm were all corn and other black grains bought locally. The input costs were too high, and there was no profit to be made by feeding them grains alone. After paying the workers' wages at the end of the year, the farm even lost money. So the Dongcun pig farm went bankrupt after a short time, and later all the old sows were slaughtered.
Last year, local piglets were unwanted regardless of price. At a market fair, a farmer threw all the piglets away, leaving a few on the ground and saying, "Go wherever you want. If someone will take care of you, you'll live; if not, you'll die."
(This story is not fictional; it actually happened in the 1980s. One year, piglets were so expensive that nobody wanted them. During a rural fair in the eighth month of the lunar calendar, piglets were sold for two cents each, but nobody wanted them. It was practically like giving them away for free. They couldn't afford to feed them, so one farmer got angry and threw all the piglets away.)
Continuing from the previous text;
After Dong Qing finished speaking, he started the tractor and drove out of the local products company, parking it in front of an oil mill in the county town. Su Wei asked, "Why did you park the tractor here?"
"I'll get off the bus and ask about the price of soybean cake here. Pigs will gain weight and grow faster if they eat soybean cake. Feeding them only tofu dregs won't work; the nutrition is too limited. They need to be fed mixed feed to grow quickly. Next time, I'll also buy soybean meal, wheat bran, and corn. I'll feed them whatever is cheapest. The more variety, the more complete the nutrition."
After Dong Qing finished speaking, he got out of the car and went into the oil room. Actually, there was no need to ask; the price of soybean cakes was written on the wall.
This price is acceptable. Soybean cake is the leftover scraps from making soybean oil. It's more nutritious than tofu dregs when feeding pigs. I deliver a truckload of it back home, mixing tofu dregs with soybean cake and wheat bran to feed the pigs. Considering all this, there's no reason not to make a profit.
When the shop owner saw Dongqing come in, he asked, "Are you buying oil?"
Dongqing said, "I'm not buying oil. How much soybean cake do you have in stock? Can I get a discount if I buy it all?"
The shop owner asked, "If you buy them all, will you definitely get a discount?"
Dong Qing said, "I'll take as many as you have, but I don't want any soybean cakes that have been stored for too long and have gone bad!"
The shopkeeper said, "You don't have to take the spoiled soybean cakes; the good quality ones are two cents a pound."
The soybean cakes produced locally cannot be sold outside the area, and the local sales volume is so small that it is driving the boss crazy. Every year, soybean cakes are given away for free. No one wants spoiled soybean cakes no matter how much they are sold per kilogram. They can only let farmers take them to the fields to use as fertilizer. They can't get a penny in return. If someone wants them all, they have to buy them even if the price is reduced.
This price is acceptable. Dongqing was just asking about the price today; he won't be coming from another county to pick up soybeans here next time. However, he'll let him take them with him on his next trip to collect soybeans. He asked, "Okay, how much premium soybean cake do you have?"
The shopkeeper said, "About three thousand catties?"
Dong Qing felt that his inventory was too small, and that loading it onto the train wouldn't be a problem. He said, "Okay, find someone to load it. I can take it all for you in this trip."
Loading another 3,000 jin of soybean cake onto the tractor is really nothing. Loading it at this time is too strenuous. We can load the oil cakes at the front so that it won't affect unloading the soybeans on the way back.
The boss hired a few people, and the soybean cakes were piled up in the house. That's how old-fashioned fried dough cakes are, arranged in the house like wheels. These fried dough cakes don't need to be bagged; you can just weigh them, move them, and load them onto the truck. The quality of the soybean cakes is obvious at a glance.
Su Wei weighed and recorded the costs, while Dong Qing inspected the quality.
An hour later, the soybean cakes were all packed up, and the total bill came to 3680 jin (184 catties) of fried dough cakes. Perhaps the owner wanted Dongqing to come back for more fried dough cakes next time, so he waived the 80 jin (40 catties) markup. Dongqing paid 72 yuan.
After paying the shop owner, Dong Qing turned and walked towards the door. Back in the car, he said, "Shall we go?"
Su Wei nodded after hearing this and started the tractor, driving it out of the city.
In the 1980s, there was gold everywhere, and there were ways to make money everywhere. The key was how you did the same business. As the saying goes, there are competitors but not the same profits. For the same business, some people make money and some people lose money. Take pig farming for example. You could buy black grain locally and work yourself to death for the pigs without making any money.
In those days, there were many restrictions. There were no private grain purchasing points, and the communication and transportation of information were relatively weak. Dong Qing took advantage of this loophole.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
