Chapter 175
Fangyuan Construction Company started several new projects in the second half of the year.
The demand for building materials at construction sites is increasing, making transportation teams busier and busier.
Lei Tingjun is taking a transport team to the suburbs today to pick up a batch of cement.
This batch of cement isn't much; it only requires four people and four vehicles to make one round trip.
There was still some time in the afternoon. A-Qiang would go to visit Xie Laosan at the hospital. Lei Tingjun thought for a moment and decided to drive back to his hometown from the suburbs. It would only take another two hours to get there.
He told his brothers to go back and rest first, while he changed course and drove to see if the brick factory in the village was still there.
Lei Jun hasn't been back to his hometown for almost a year.
The last time he went back was on the anniversary of his grandmother's death, and he went back to pay his respects and burn incense.
After arriving at the township market, it would take another hour and a half to drive back to his old home in the mountain village.
The old house is now uninhabited. The earthen walls and tiled roofs of the farmhouse will start to rot if no one lives there for many years, the roof will leak, and moss will grow in the cracks of the bluestone slabs in the courtyard.
Lei Tingjun comes back once a year to repair it, but the old house still can't withstand the daily erosion of wind and rain, and it is gradually becoming dilapidated.
Lei Tingjun didn't have time to go back to the mountain village this time.
He went to the brick factory first, planning to go home and take a look later when he had time.
Lei Tingjun attended junior high school in this township and lived with a distant relative.
Lei Tingjun remembers that the brick factory had twenty or thirty workers back then, and it was quite profitable. Many families in the village worked there.
When Lei Tingjun returned, he found that the brick factory was still there.
It's just that only middle-aged and elderly people are working there; you can hardly see any young people.
Lei Tingjun parked his car by the roadside, walked into the brick factory, and glanced around. He saw a large number of red bricks piled up in the brick kiln, and the old workers firing the kiln were sweating profusely. The heat from the coal stove, which was several hundred degrees Celsius, made people feel as if their skin was being burned even before they got close.
The workers in the brick factory all had dark red skin, tanned and shiny.
"Fellow villager, who is in charge here?"
Lei Tingjun stepped forward and handed a cigarette to one of the workers.
The worker took the cigarette and pointed to an old man dozing off in the opposite shed, saying, "Look, that's him, Old Cui."
Lei Tingjun turned and walked towards the shed, asking Old Cui, "How much does each brick from your brick factory cost?"
Old Cui yawned and quickly got up: "Four cents a cartload. If you want more, I'll sell it for three cents too."
Only three cents? Lei Tingjun was slightly surprised. It was about 50% cheaper than the bricks that Zhao Yingda and his team bought from other brick factories.
Lei Tingjun put a cigarette in his mouth, walked to the pile of bricks in the shed area, picked up two bricks at random, and tested their quality.
He used his bare hands and a bit of force to break the brick in half.
Upon seeing this, Old Cui instantly woke up, his eyes bulging out of their sockets: "You! Our bricks are made of genuine red clay and coal rock, they won't break easily! Why did you deliberately break the brick? Are you trying to drive down the price? Our Honghe Township brick factory already has the lowest prices in the surrounding districts and counties!"
Lei Tingjun flipped the cross-section of the head over, looked at the burn hole in the middle, took a puff of smoke, and said calmly, "Don't worry, I'm just checking the quality of your heads."
"It's not a problem with the quality of your bricks, it's just that I'm stronger than others."
Old Cui was speechless.
Lei Tingjun walked to the other piles of bricks, randomly picked up a brick, broke it open, and took a look.
Old Cui said with concern, "Brother, don't worry, the bricks from our brick factory are of excellent quality."
Lei Tingjun had already made up his mind, so he asked Lao Cui, "If that's the case, then why can't your brick factory sell so much inventory?"
For brick factories with a lot of orders, trucks often come to pick up bricks at their gates.
Since Lei Tingjun came in, not a single brick-hauling truck has been seen.
Old Cui waved his palm-leaf fan and sighed, "These days, everyone's rushing to the city. There aren't many young people left in the countryside, and the roads out of the village are difficult to travel. Those big construction sites find it troublesome to come all the way to our area to get bricks, so they all go to the brick factories in the county to buy them. Business is bad, there aren't many orders, and the brick factories' profits are declining. That's why there's so much inventory."
Lei Tingjun said, "I remember your brick factory was run by the township cooperative, right?"
"How did you know?" Old Cui asked, puzzled.
Lei Tingjun gave a faint smile: "I'm also from Honghe Township. My home is in Xiahe Village."
"Oh, so we're from the same hometown!" Old Cui immediately became much more enthusiastic.
Lei Tingjun said, "I'm here today to discuss a business deal with you. I'll buy all the bricks from your brick factory, but we need to negotiate a suitable price."
Old Cui's eyes widened, his excitement overflowing: "Our brick factory has quite a lot of bricks in stock, are you sure you can take them all?"
“I’ll take as many as you have,” Lei Tingjun said.
“Alright, since you’re so straightforward, I’ll be straightforward too!” Old Cui said. “I’ll give you a price of 2.8 cents, how about that? I can’t go any lower. The brick factories in the county sell them for 5 cents.”
Lei Tingjun nodded. He could accept a price of 0.3 cents, and he could accept 0.28 cents even more.
Besides, they were all from the same hometown, and he didn't want to drive the price down too much, leaving the older workers who worked there without making any profit.
“Okay, that’s the price, deal.” After finishing the negotiation, Lei Tingjun said, “You can also go back and ask the head of your township cooperative if the brick factory is for sale. If the factory is willing to sell, I can take it over as well.”
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