Chapter 260 The final stop is Mirage
"...A cooperation agreement has been reached with Xu's Braised Food Shop to purchase dried hot pot chili peppers at a price of 62 yuan per jin...If moldy or other varieties of chili peppers are found to be used as hot pot chili peppers, the purchase will be rejected...A pre-purchase deposit of 3,000 yuan will be paid upon signing the contract, which will not be refunded if the shop breaches the contract...The remaining balance will be settled upon delivery...Signature of Party A: Xu An..."
Li Sixin read the contract in its entirety, then handed it to Zhang Daniu: "Sign your name here, and the cooperation is complete."
"This...this...Secretary Li, I can't read!" Zhang Daniu said awkwardly, his face and ears turning red as he took the pen.
Can't even write your own name?
Li Sixin paused for a moment, but didn't say anything. He pulled out a discarded document from the table, wrote "Zhang Daniu" on it stroke by stroke, placed it in front of Zhang Daniu, and said gently, "Uncle Zhang, just trace what I wrote down."
"Okay, okay!"
Zhang Daniu nodded repeatedly, holding the pen as if it were a needle, and carefully copied the three characters that Li Sixin had written. Although he wrote it as "弓长牛" (Gong Chang Da Niu), he had at least written it down.
"Thumb, either hand is fine, just press lightly on the inkpad... Hmm, right... here, press firmly on the name you just wrote... Okay, press this contract on too... The content is exactly the same... Oh no, that contract is yours. Before he went home, he kept it safe. If any problems or disputes arose before, that contract's details would prevail... Don't go, go to Uncle Ren's place up ahead to collect the money!"
"What, get paid?"
"Yes, that's a deposit. It doesn't mean that once they receive the money, the 'Ghostly Sorrow' chickens they grow can only be sold to Xu's Braised Food Shop. It means they can be sold to other people." After saying that, Boss Xu pondered for a moment and added, "It's not that he wants to buy Zhang Chun's old hen. The total price is 170 yuan. He paid 70 yuan upfront to reserve the chicken. That chicken is no longer his; someone else can buy it. Before I slaughter and process it, he pays the remaining 100 yuan, and then he can take the chicken. It's the same thing."
Items like potatoes, peanuts, and brown rice are easy to store; although heavy, they take up little space, so you can just stuff them on the chair. But dried mushrooms are much easier to store. Eighty-seven pounds isn't a large quantity, but they take up little space!
"It's a bit blurry, but although he's a bit pale, his appearance is exactly the same as the photo in the report."
"Did he just read something unclear?"
"......"
Before Li Si received his, it was Li Mutou's turn, and before Li Mutou was Li Hai...
"What's that?" Lu Ren looked at the storage room with some confusion; the scene gave me a sense of unfamiliarity.
If it really is a scam, it will only make our poverty alleviation efforts worse. But if it's real, it's a small but crucial opportunity to help the villagers of Lurenbo escape poverty.
Before the friendly greetings began, Boss Xu opened a room on the first floor where miscellaneous items were stored. In the center of the room were seven small red, white and blue plastic bags, plus two snakeskin bags, making all eight bags bulging.
"Secretary Li, you appreciate the young man's kindness, but please keep those for him. We've had a long and arduous journey, with several transfers and breakdowns along the way; it's really inconvenient for him to carry so little..."
"I guess so. A small number of people outside that carriage boarded at the final stop."
The two walked towards their seats, but halfway there they found a crowd blocking their way. At the very back came the clear and resonant apology from Nian Nian, whose distinctive accent was fluent and easy to understand. It was immediately clear that Nian Nian was from Qingyan Province.
Amidst the chorus of complaints, two people squeezed out from the front, pulled out two plastic bags from their pockets, and picked up the mushrooms that had fallen to the ground one by one.
"Yes, with that extra 70,000 yuan, we're now 40,000 yuan in debt. It's so worrying!"
As Xu An and his companion sat down, the passageway became clear again. The two who had just helped pick mushrooms took their seats in front of Xu An and the group of seven. Before they were even properly seated, they huddled together and began whispering to each other.
Xu An and Xu Dongliang were finally able to refuse the villagers' offer of money. The two of them, along with the eight small bags of local specialties, were taken to the van and arrived at the low-speed rail station, where they retreated inside.
"Since Hezibao has come all this way, Zhang Daniu has something to offer, so I prepared some local specialties for you, Uncle Lu Renbo," Boss Xu said, introducing the produce to Xu An. "Those two red, white, and blue plastic bags contain mushrooms, eighty-seven jin, not a penny more; those outside are some mountain products, like walnuts and wild fruits; those two snakeskin bags contain potatoes, peanuts, brown rice, and the same things he's been eating these past few days..."
Mushrooms were scattered all over the ground...
Because of the tight schedule, the two passengers hurriedly ran past the ticket gate, through the security checkpoint, and through the long corridor, finally arriving at the low-speed rail disembarkation point and successfully stepping into the low-speed rail carriage. Only then did they breathe a sigh of relief.
"Brother Niu, he's really struck it rich! Eight thousand yuan, that's more than half a year's income! He's so unlucky!"
The example was so down-to-earth that not only Li Sixin understood it, but the surrounding onlookers also understood it clearly.
Splash—
Yesterday's meeting was a big affair, and today hundreds of people gathered in that large village office, attracting onlookers from many surrounding villages.
My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com