Chapter 39 A small sum of money
"Okay, thank you, Boss Liu, I wish you a prosperous business. I still have more than ten kilograms of eels here, including a particularly large one." Lin Heng said with a smile.
"Okay!" Liu Yu took the eel with a smile, his expression even more enthusiastic than before.
"It's 9.8 jin in total. I'll count it as 10 jin for you and give you 8 yuan, which makes a total of 23." Liu Yu took the initiative to add the scale and gave Lin Heng 23 yuan.
"Have a drink of water before you go, and let's chat for a while longer." Lin Heng was about to leave, and Liu Yu wanted to keep him.
"Forget it, we still have things to do." Lin Heng waved his hand and left the hotel with his eldest brother.
After coming out, he handed the 12.5 yuan to his eldest brother and said with a smile: "Brother, this is your share."
Lin Yue didn't take the money, but looked at him curiously: "What did you say to Liu Yu that made him buy this turtle for 15 yuan?"
Lin Heng smiled, knowing that his elder brother would ask this, and replied with a smile: "Nothing, I just told him that the father of a leader in the town was ill and needed something tonic, so he accepted it."
"How do you know this?" Lin Yue was even more shocked.
"Because I heard it from the village chief when I was playing with his son." Lin Heng lied. This was something he knew in his previous life.
Not long after, the old man died, and his funeral was a grand affair.
"Okay." Lin Yue admired his brother and thought that he was very smart. Even if he knew the news, he probably wouldn't be able to use it.
"I'll only take ten dollars of this money, and the rest is earned by your own ability." The eldest brother stuffed the extra money into his hand.
Without waiting for Lin Heng to speak, he said forcefully: "Don't say anything more, just take it if I tell you to. I took advantage of you in the first place."
"Okay then." Lin Heng opened his mouth and agreed, not bothering to argue any further.
He calculated that, including the money from selling snakes, mushrooms, and herbs, the total was 32 yuan, which was quite good.
This is the normal two-month salary for a worker in the city. Rice costs about 1.5 cents per pound, which can buy more than 200 pounds of rice. Sugar costs 70 cents per pound, which can buy 45 pounds.
Xiulan only makes about 70 or 80 yuan a year from selling mushrooms and herbs, which can be said to be a considerable sum of money.
However, this is far from enough for Lin Heng. It is completely unable to make his family wealthy. He needs to work harder.
"Do you want to buy something?" asked the eldest brother Lin Yue.
"There's nothing to buy. Let's go buy some tiles first and talk about it after we're done." Lin Heng shook his head. Of course, he would save the money and use it as capital to buy Coriolus versicolor to make some money. At most, he would spend a few cents to buy some candy for his daughter.
"Okay, let's go buy some tiles first." Lin Yue nodded. There were three brick factories in the town, two of which also made tiles. They had to go and ask about the prices separately.
The two first went to the nearby Tuanjie Brick Factory. Thick smoke was billowing from the huge chimney of the brick factory, and many red bricks and tiles were placed on the open space outside.
In this era, there was no glazed tile in Huangtan Town, and all tiles were made of yellow earth. Glazed tiles, which are very common in later generations, are also very difficult to make in this era, and ordinary small brick factories do not know how to make them.
When Lin Heng and his elder brother came over, many workers were making tile blanks. They used sifted yellow mud to make a cylinder, and then divided it into four petals, which became four tile blanks.
"Excuse me, are you here to buy bricks?" Seeing Lin Heng and Lin Yue come in, a middle-aged man in his thirties put down his tile-making work and walked over to ask.
"We are here to buy ceramic tiles. How much is one piece?" Lin Yue asked first.
When he heard about buying tiles, the man immediately became friendly, wiped his hands quickly, and smiled and invited: "Come in, let's have tea and chat slowly."
Lin Yue was impatient and didn't like nonsense. He shook his head and said, "Just tell me how much it is. After asking you here, we still have to go to Hongsheng Brick Factory to ask for the price."
Upon hearing this, the boss pulled the two of them to a slightly farther place and asked with a smile, "How many watts do you want to buy?"
"Buy 5,000 first, and then buy more if it's not enough." Lin Yue said.
"This is a large quantity. I can give you three and a half dollars. This is the lowest price." The boss said with a smile.
When Lin Heng heard this, he felt that the boss was an honest man. Indeed, looking at the situation in the brick factory, it was a brick factory that had just been built not long ago, so it was normal to lack orders.
"Will you sell it for three cents?" Lin Yue asked again.
"That's really not possible. Three and a half cents is just hard-earned money for me." The boss said with a wry smile.
"Then let's go to another brick factory." Lin Yue turned and left.
Half an hour later we arrived at Hongsheng Brick Factory, a large brick factory. When I asked the price, it was four cents, with the lowest being three cents and eighty cents. If the order was for more than ten thousand pieces, it could be as cheap as three cents and a half.
While Lin Heng supported his elder brother to ask about the price, he went to check the quality of the bricks and tiles.
"Forget it, let's go to the Tuanjie Brick Factory to buy it." Lin Yue shook his head. After half an hour, the two returned to the Tuanjie Brick Factory.
"Brother, I'll talk to you later." Lin Heng said as they walked.
"Okay, come on." Lin Yue didn't think much about it.
As soon as he saw the two of them coming back, the boss hurriedly greeted them and said with a smile, "How about it, isn't my price low enough?"
Lin Heng didn't say anything. He walked into the brick factory and looked at the equipment, then looked at the tiles and bricks. The quality was a little worse than that of Hongsheng Brick Factory. No wonder there were not many orders.
"Boss, the quality of your tiles and bricks is much worse than Hongsheng's." Lin Heng said with a smile while holding a brick.
Upon hearing this, the boss couldn't help but smile and said, "It's a little bit worse, they have a big factory, the temperature of the kiln is high, and the firing is good.
But ours will not affect the use, don't worry, you can use it for hundreds of years without any problems."
"How about this, 3.2 cents?" Lin Heng began to bargain.
"The minimum price is 3.4%. If it's any lower, I might as well not do it. I won't even earn the hard-earned money." The boss' attitude is very firm and he will not lower the price anymore.
"Okay then, it's 3.4 cents. Let's order 5,000 first at this price. We'll pay a 10% deposit first, and you'll issue a receipt. When everything is delivered, we'll pay the balance. How about that?"
Lin Heng asked.
I just remembered one thing. In the previous life, the Tuanjie Brick Factory was eliminated by the Hongsheng Brick Factory because of its small scale and poor quality. It seems that there was more than a year left, which seems to be the end of 1984.
In his previous life, he got into debt and worked in the city. He had worked in various factories, including the brick factory.
He saw the problem with the brick at a glance: no stone powder was added, which resulted in the sintering temperature being too high, which the small brick kiln could not meet.
He even knew the production process of glazed tiles, but chose not to say it out.
It’s not the right time yet. Let’s wait until the brick factory is about to go bankrupt. Besides, it will be difficult to explain to my family how I knew this if I say these things suddenly.
"No problem, five thousand yuan is 170 yuan, just pay a deposit of 17 yuan first." The boss was a little excited and calculated the price in one breath.
Then he went into the house to write a receipt. When Lin Heng took out the receipt, he did not take it. Instead, he asked, "What did you use to transport the goods? A horse or a donkey?"
It is impossible for this small brick factory to own something like a tractor. The prices of industrial products in this era are ridiculously high. The cheapest small tractor costs thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars.
"Carriage, our factory has two horse-drawn carriages, and each carriage can carry about 2,510 tiles." The boss said immediately.
"Then load the car immediately and come with us. We will lead the way for you," said Lin Heng.
"Okay, I'll arrange it right away." The boss seemed to have become a worker, doing things completely according to Lin Heng's arrangements.
"Then when you finish loading the car, come directly to the bridge in the center of town. We will be waiting for you there." After Lin Heng finished speaking, he motioned to his elder brother to give the money and take the receipt.
The money my father gave me to buy bricks is with my eldest brother.
(End of this chapter)
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