Chapter 26 Chapter 26 This guy is quite good at acting
Yu Guoliang looked even more haggard and shabbier than the last time we met, but his eyes were bright and his spirits were high. Although he lowered his voice, his excitement was unconcealed: "I bought the fertilizer, and in full!"
Liu Mianmian led the group to Courtyard No. 9 and asked as they walked, "How did you buy it?"
Looking at his mysterious look, it doesn't look like he bought it through normal channels?
Yu Guoliang grinned almost to his ears. "It was also luck. The guys lining up with us had connections. The fertilizer was about a quarter more expensive per ton than at the fertilizer plant. It's a bit more expensive, but I'm lucky to be able to buy it. The wheat has been harvested and the rice seedlings have been planted. Buying it back is just right for use and doesn't delay the farming season."
Liu Mianmian asked about the price of fertilizer.
If purchased through the formal channels of the fertilizer factory, ammonium nitrate is 270 yuan per ton and urea is 400 yuan per ton. However, through the channel mentioned by Yu Guoliang, ammonium nitrate is sold at 330 yuan per ton and urea is directly sold at 500 yuan per ton.
Qianjin Township plans to buy 30 tons of ammonium nitrate and 20 tons of urea. The original price was 16,100 yuan, but now it costs 19,900 yuan.
Yu Guoliang and his colleagues called the township leaders for instructions. The township leaders also knew that under the current circumstances, it was good enough to be able to buy it, and there was no way to avoid spending more money. Moreover, when the fertilizer was resold to farmers, the price would be three cents more per catty for ammonium nitrate and five cents more per catty for urea, which was a price acceptable to everyone.
The amount distributed to each person is indeed not much, but what Liu Mianmian saw was the difference in price earned by this "channel". The amount earned in Qianjin Township alone was 3,800 yuan. How many Qianjin Townships are there outside the fertilizer factory?
If it's a little less, even if he can get ten like the ones in Qianjin Township, there will be a difference of 30,000 to 40,000 yuan.
In a previous life, Liu Mianmian had read online that someone had said that during the dual-track pricing system of the 1980s, anyone with connections could become rich overnight by reselling goods. Regardless of whether the netizen's claim was true or not, Liu Mianmian knew that in this imaginary world of fiction, there were many such speculators and profiteers who embezzled public funds for their own benefit.
Liu Mianmian suddenly remembered the day when she went to see Yu Guoliang and saw Shen Weihong at the gate of the fertilizer factory.
At that time, Shen Weihong was walking and talking and laughing with Section Chief Hu, the hotshot of the fertilizer factory.
Liu Mianmian recalled the plot of the original book again. At this point in time, it should be the time when the heroine of the original book went south to look for business opportunities but encountered obstacles everywhere. She returned to Nancheng in disappointment, only to find that the white moonlight in her heart was already married and had been angered to death by her eloped wife.
This trip south was the second biggest setback in the life of the heroine in the original book. She failed in her career and the person she loved died again.
The first major setback was the death of my father and my mother's remarriage.
After returning to Nancheng, she was indeed depressed for a while, but the career-oriented nature in her bones was further stimulated. She turned her grief and anger into motivation, summed up the reasons for her failure in starting a business in the south, and began to be down-to-earth and steady, looking for business opportunities in Nancheng.
As the saying goes, after bad times come good times, good luck seems to be starting to favor her.
During this period, she accidentally obtained the gold and silver jewelry that was stolen from Xu Haitang.
In the original novel, Xu Haitang, who married Liu Mianmian on the same day, had her gold and silver jewelry stolen by a good friend. They didn't discover the theft until two weeks later, and despite reporting the case, the jewelry was never recovered. Her good friend, afraid to leave the stolen items at home, hid them somewhere, and then they were accidentally found by the original novel's heroine.
In the original book, the heroine sold some things through the second male lead and obtained a sum of money, which she gave to the first male lead, Shen Weihong, to "invest". Soon, she made several times the profit.
Liu Mianmian guessed that the author of the original book was probably a romance writer. Although he wrote a career-oriented novel with a female protagonist, he did not spend much time on the specific plot of the female protagonist's career. Instead, he spent a lot of space on the extremely complicated love triangles between the female protagonist, the male protagonist, and the female and male supporting roles.
There is drama anytime and anywhere, and pulling strings everywhere.
Anyway, if Liu Mianmian had a choice, she would definitely not want to look at it at all.
Therefore, the original book only briefly mentioned what kind of investment Shen Weihong made with the money, without explaining it at all.
Instead, passersby A, B, C, and D spent at least a page praising Shen Weihong's outstanding abilities and promising future.
Could it be that Shen Weihong was so capable that he used the money to make fertilizers?
The more Liu Mianmian thought about it, the more she felt that this possibility was very high. After all, as far as the current situation in Nancheng is concerned, there is nothing more worthy of "investment" than fertilizers.
No wonder "Das Kapital" says that when capital comes into the world, every pore from head to toe is dripping with blood and filth.
Although it has not reached the level of colonial plunder and the slave trade that have inflicted public outrage, this kind of behavior of harming the public interest for personal gain and fleecing ordinary people is truly despicable.
"This kind of guy can be the male lead, I feel like I can be the emperor." Liu Mianmian couldn't help but mutter.
Yu Guoliang turned his head in confusion: "Huh?"
Liu Mianmian waved her hand: "Nothing, nothing." She pointed to the gate of No. 9 Courtyard: "This is my mother-in-law's house. Everyone in the family is at work or school. Only Aunt Liu is home during the day."
Aunt Liu received Yu Guoliang with great enthusiasm, bringing him melon seeds, peanuts, and fruits, and also skillfully made two bowls of longan, red date, and egg soup.
Yu Guoliang looked around curiously.
Nowadays, housing conditions in the city are not as good as those in the countryside. It is common for a family in the city to live in a house of 20 or 30 square meters. The countryside may not have anything else, but it has land. A thatched hut can be more spacious than living in the city.
However, even in the countryside, Yu Guoliang had never seen such a spacious yard.
And this is just the entrance to the yard. There is more at the back. There are not so many people at home, so it is empty.
"This family is well-off." Yu Guoliang held the bowl, drank the sugar water cherishingly, and asked Liu Mianmian, "Are the family members easy to get along with?"
He lowered his voice slightly: "Although we are from the countryside, we are not people who can be bullied at will. If they want to bully you, tell big brother and we will go back to the village to call people over."
Liu Mianmian felt a little warm in her heart. She scooped the eggs from her bowl to Yu Guoliang and stopped him from taking them back. “I’ve gained several pounds recently. If I eat more, my clothes won’t fit into my body.”
Then she answered his question: "My family is very good. I work and get paid, and I live and eat at home. My mother-in-law also gives me pocket money."
Yu Guoliang breathed a sigh of relief: "That's good."
Although he said that if the Shen family bullied others, he would go back to the village to call for support, in fact, Yu Guoliang also knew that the family that could afford to live in such a large courtyard was not necessarily one they could compete with. Of course, if something really happened, they would not be afraid of those wearing shoes, but at the end of the day, it was best that the Shen family treated Liu Mianmian well.
Farmers are practical. You can tell whether something is good or not by looking at where the money is spent. Although Liu Mianmian can earn money by herself, her in-laws don't ask her to pay for living expenses, but instead give her pocket money. This is really good.
After drinking the sweet soup, Yu Guoliang took the cloth bag he brought with him and took out two bags from it, one of which was filled with dried wild mushrooms and the other was filled with a set of cotton pajamas.
"Mom said that since you live in the city, the clothes we make in the countryside are not easy to wear, so I made you a set of underwear. The fabric is soft and comfortable to wear."
Liu Mianmian touched the fabric of the pajamas. It was indeed very soft, and the stitches were very fine. It was obvious that the person who sewed it put a lot of thought into it.
"Thank Mom for me." Liu Mianmian thought for a moment and asked, "Are you going back tomorrow?"
Yu Guoliang nodded. "After we deliver the goods tomorrow, no matter how late it gets, we'll be heading back overnight. It's better to go home early than suffer here." After so many days, the few people who came with them were exhausted, both physically and mentally. If they couldn't eat or sleep well, it would be better to go home early. He was relatively well off; the youngest brother had brought him meals a few times, always with meat and vegetables.
Liu Mianmian said, "I'll prepare some things later, and you can help bring them back."
Yu Guoliang did not refuse.
In the year or so since the youngest returned to South City, there had been almost no news from home. No matter how many letters or gifts he sent, there was no response. The problem was that the letters and gifts he sent were never returned. His mother was worried about him, so she still sent things to him from time to time.
It turns out that it was kept secret by my biological mother here.
He would definitely tell his family about this as soon as he got home. His mother would probably feel better knowing it. If he could also bring back something that the youngest had prepared for him, no matter what it was, his mother would probably be even happier.
"You take time to go home and visit your parents, they will be happier."
Liu Mianmian nodded and remembered something: "Oh right, the traffickers have been caught, and Liu Jinshi has also been found. I heard that she suffered a bit and is still in the hospital."
She paused and asked, "Do you want to go and take a look?"
After all, Liu Jinshi is Yu Guoliang's biological sister, and there is another soul living in the body of this non-blood-related sister of his.
Yu Guoliang was silent for a few seconds and shook his head: "She probably didn't see me either."
To say I wasn't curious would be a lie. My own sister, I heard, was an executive at a large state-owned factory like a military factory. But it was obvious that they looked down on them and didn't want to acknowledge them, so why bother to approach them with such a shameless face? To put it bluntly, she was just a stranger with a blood relationship.
Knowing that she was rescued, Yu Guoliang was no longer worried.
The fertilizer issue had been resolved, and they only had to wait until tomorrow to hand it over at the agreed location. Yu Guoliang had nothing else to do, so Liu Mianmian simply let him stay. The Shen family had such a large courtyard, so of course they had guest rooms. It was better to get a good night's sleep here than to go back to the guesthouse next to the fertilizer plant and squeeze into a bed with ten people.
Yu Guoliang felt that it was inappropriate. This was not Liu Mianmian's own home, but her parents-in-law's home. It would definitely not be appropriate for him to stay there like this.
However, he was quickly persuaded by Aunt Liu, who said that if she hadn't kept him, her brother-in-law, Professor Shen and Director Yu would definitely blame her when they came back. So she persuaded Yu Guoliang to stay.
Liu Mianmian went into the house to get new towels and soap, and told him to take advantage of the afternoon when he had nothing to do and go to the state-owned bathhouse in the next alley to take a bath and relax.
Shen Weizhuo was not at home, and it was not appropriate to take his clothes without permission. Liu Mianmian originally wanted Yu Guoliang to put his clothes back on.
Aunt Liu, who had been overhearing this, immediately went back to her room and brought out a set of Uncle Wang's half-new clothes. "These are clothes from a few years ago. He's gotten older and fatter these past two years, so he can't wear them anymore. Comrade Yu, if you don't mind, you can take them and wear them."
Who would dislike clothes without a single patch on them?
Since Aunt Liu said so, Yu Guoliang happily accepted it and followed Liu Mianmian to the state-owned bathhouse in the next alley.
It's different in the big city. There are special shops for taking a bath. It's not like in the countryside where people just take a basin of water in the yard and rinse themselves.
While Yu Guoliang felt fresh, he also felt that he had suffered a lot this time, but he had also gained a lot of experience.
When I get back, I can spend a month or so chatting with others in the threshing ground at the village entrance.
During dinner in the evening, Yu Wan and Shen Bokang both expressed their warm welcome to Yu Guoliang. Yu Wan also cordially invited Yu Guoliang to stay at her home for a few more days and let Shen Weizhuo and Liu Mianmian take him around. Yu Guoliang repeatedly stated that this was a business trip and he had to go back with his fellow villagers, so Yu Wan gave up.
"Is the fertilizer gap so big?" Shen Bokang was surprised to hear that Yu Guoliang had been queuing for more than ten days to buy fertilizer.
He was completely focused on his research and didn't care much about other things. He vaguely knew that the supply of fertilizer was insufficient, but he didn't know it had reached this extent.
Liu Mianmian looked at Shen Bokang. "Section Chief Hu from the fertilizer factory's sales department has become quite the celebrity. He's invited to our restaurant every day for steak and expensive red wine. I heard he'll be willing to give us three to five tons of fertilizer if we treat him to a meal."
She pointed at Yu Guoliang with her chin and said, "If you want to invite Section Chief Hu to dinner, you need connections. We in Qianjin Township don't have such connections, so there's no chance even if we want to."
Yu Guoliang sighed. "The people at the fertilizer factory said that the people who invited Section Chief Hu to dinner were all his friends. It's impossible to live without friends and family. Section Chief Hu helped with the three or five tons of fertilizer out of friendship. They also said that since he has connections at the fertilizer factory, he must have heard the news and lined up early. Giving them the quota first is reasonable and legal."
So even if someone makes a fuss, it will eventually be left unresolved.
Shen Bokang frowned tightly and put down his bowl heavily. "This is really a case of trying to cover up one's own faults. You're talking nonsense and acting recklessly!"
Yu Guoliang was startled by him. Yu Wan quickly said angrily, "Just talk if you want to. Why are you throwing bowls?"
Shen Bokang's expression eased slightly, and he waved his hand and said, "Don't be offended, Comrade Yu. This is just my temper."
He thought for a moment and asked, "If that's the case, how do you buy fertilizers?" After all, according to Yu Guoliang, some people had been queuing for a month or so.
Liu Mianmian silently gave a thumbs up to her adoptive father-in-law in her heart. After all, he was a smart man and grasped the key point right away.
Yu Guoliang hesitated. Considering Shen Bokang's hatred of evil and his attitude of speaking incessantly when excited, he didn't dare to say that he had found a "way" to buy the fertilizer.
He was just wondering how to respond when Liu Mianmian took over the conversation: "They found a way through the people who were waiting in line with them. Ammonium nitrate was 60 tons per ton, and urea was 100 tons per ton. They bought a total of 30 tons of ammonium nitrate and 20 tons of urea."
Now not only Shen Bokang's face became darker, but even Yu Wan's face looked ugly.
Yu Wan herself works in the National Defense Industry Office and occasionally interacts with the Commercial Bureau at work. She has a relatively good understanding of the conditions of the major state-owned factories in Nancheng.
She thought for a moment and said, "I remember Director Zhou of the fertilizer factory was a retired soldier, and it seems he was a comrade of Shen Wenshan's. I remember him as a mature and steady man. How could he act so recklessly after joining the company?"
Liu Mianmian hesitated and said, "So, when we went to look for my eldest brother that day, I think we saw Shen Weihong at the gate of the fertilizer factory. He was walking and talking and laughing with Section Chief Hu from the sales department."
She turned her head to look at Shen Weizhou: "Shen Weizhou, right? You should have seen it too?"
Shen Weizhou, who had been silent the whole time, looked at Liu Mianmian deeply, then nodded: "Yeah."
I said so much just to introduce this sentence, and I had to pretend that I suddenly remembered it and was still not sure.
This guy is quite good at acting.
Shen Bokang put the bowl he had just picked up down with a thud. He frowned, thought for a moment, then suddenly stood up and said, "Comrade Yu, just treat it like you're at home. Take your time eating. I have some work to attend to, so I can't accompany you for now."
Yu Guoliang looked bewildered: "Oh, oh, it's okay, it's okay, uncle, please do as you please."
As he said this, he glanced at his half-eaten bowl of rice. City people are different. They would finish their meal and then go to work. But country people don't finish their meal and then go to farm.
Liu Mianmian watched Shen Bokang hurried towards the main house, and thought to herself that her stepfather-in-law was still impatient. He went to his biological father to ask for an explanation halfway through his meal.
Given the relationship between Shen Bokang and "that side", Liu Mianmian didn't think that he would call Shen Wenshan. With his personality, he would definitely scold Mr. Shen directly.
After all, it is the father's fault if he fails to raise and educate his grandson. If his grandson is not educated, both the father and his father's father are at fault.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
