Grandma had arranged to meet someone in the grove, to do her makeup when no one was around. As for her figure, needless to say, everyone is dressed warmly in winter.
The newcomers were layered upon layered, their faces covered except for their eyes. Their first words upon arrival were wary: "Who are you? What do you want?"
Liu Yumin said, "Xu Xiaojiao, it's been a long time. You've become a director now. Congratulations."
The person on the other end spoke in an unfriendly tone: "Who exactly are you?"
Liu Yumin suddenly made a complicated gesture and said, "I raise my cup to invite the bright moon."
The person on the other end responded with a gesture: "Sharing Banlangen (a traditional Chinese medicine)? Who introduced us?"
Liu Yumin replied, "There's no need to ask. I'm a friend of the Xu family. They told me that I'm here today to sell grain. Xu Hong, just tell me if you dare to do it or not?"
Knowing that they were on his side, Xu Hong was completely relieved: "How much grain do you have? I need it."
To know his nickname and be able to match the Xu family's secret code, he must be someone very close to the Xu family, and he feels at ease trading with him.
Although he had established himself at the grain station, he still secretly engaged in grain trading, albeit on a small scale. He would buy grain from villagers and resell it to workers' families. The quantities were extremely small, and the profits were low. He kept it a secret very well, and no one had discovered it yet, except for the Xu family.
Liu Yumin bluntly stated: "No limit, I can provide as much as you want, but I have one condition: the grain must be sold to others at half the market price."
Xu Hong was full of questions. Who doesn't sell grain to make money? How could someone be losing money?
However, he said, "I'm afraid that won't work. If the price of grain is too low, people will become suspicious, and if the price is too low, people will buy more, which could cause trouble. At most, the price will be the same as that of the grain store. The price we do privately will be higher than that of the grain store. It's not worth doing if the price is too low."
Liu Yumin was an outsider and didn't understand the ins and outs, but she knew that listening to experts was always the right thing to do, so she said, "I can provide grain, but the selling price cannot be higher than that of the grain store. Be careful in your actions. I won't admit to anything if something goes wrong. It's quite risky, so think it over carefully."
Xu Hong readily agreed: "The grain supply isn't that tight right now, so the inspections aren't too severe. If there's any inspection, it'll be targeting those who resell state grain."
Liu Yumin was relieved. They discussed where to deliver the goods, as well as the quantity and price, and then separated the details.
Zhu Fanfan remained silent throughout. Once they were alone, they switched back to their original faces, and Zhu Fanfan asked, "Grandma, we can't solve the problem with a small batch, and is Xu Hong reliable?"
Liu Yumin explained, "Xu Hong is a member of the Xu family, and he's reliable. The small batch was just a test. The key is that he has friends in the transport team. Do you really think that just because he says he's only doing small-scale operations in Beijing, it's really just small-scale operations? He's incredibly capable!"
Before liberation, Xu Hong's family ran a grain business and knew all the ins and outs. Later, they were exploited too much and had to close down. After liberation, they wanted to continue the business, but their master stopped them, so they found a way to work at the grain station.
Zhu Fanfan didn't understand these things, but she was interested in disguise: "Grandma, can you teach me how to make a human skin mask and glue?"
Liu Yumin chuckled: "These things can't be made in a day. They require many steps, and the raw materials aren't all available right now. You should focus on building a solid foundation before you start learning!"
Zhu Fanfan pleaded sweetly, "Grandma, please teach me! Grandma!"
Finally, Liu Yumin gave in and promised to tell her the secret recipe when she got back, but the ingredients would still need time to be collected.
The Lunar New Year is just around the corner. In fact, there isn't much difference between everyone this year. After all, there is still a food supply, and people don't have to worry about food and clothing. However, people have unanimously stopped setting off firecrackers, and even the couplets are from the previous year. They are unsure of the meaning behind the couplets, so it's always better to keep a low profile. Only the children, who run around every day, are unaffected.
Zhu Fanfan decided that she would farm day and night because the drought would get worse and she would need more food. Her grandmother had arranged to meet someone at a small courtyard. Her grandmother had rented that courtyard for a while before buying it, but it was too dilapidated and a bit out of the way. Now, no one wanted to rent it, and it had been vacant.
Zhu Fanfan persuaded her grandmother to let her go and distribute the grain. She can now use her mental power to change the surrounding magnetic field, so even if she encounters people, they won't be able to see her. She is the most suitable person to go. Xu Hong also has experience in how to retrieve the goods without being discovered.
Now, besides eating and drinking, Zhu Fanfan only has sleep to do. The remaining grain has been planted in batches. As long as she estimates the time well, she can harvest a batch every few minutes. As long as she is diligent enough, the food problem can be alleviated and she can survive until the drought ends.
Zhu Jiabao and Liu Yumin knew about Zhu Fanfan's situation and had been helping to keep it a secret, so no one suspected anything while Zhu Fanfan was resting.
This year was uneventful. After the New Year, things got busy again, and soon the food crisis broke out. Even with the initial grain donations that eased the situation, the food shortage was still put on the agenda. It was as if a switch had been flipped in various places. When one place sent a telegram about a food shortage, a series of information about food shortages came in like snowflakes, finally attracting serious attention.
The grain depot's statistics are not optimistic. The government has stepped in and started allocating grain. Once the government intervenes, things become simple. Zhu Fanfan is just waiting for his grandfather to make arrangements so that he can donate grain again.
Liu Yumin was also working tirelessly on the research of elixirs. Now that people's workload has increased, she has her eye on the formula for a fasting pill. If she can develop it, people can just take one pill when they are hungry and they will no longer be hungry, without interfering with their work. She and a group of doctors have been researching the fasting pill for a long time, but there has been no progress.
The Bigu Pill requires many medicinal materials, many of which are hard to find, and many others are completely unheard of. They need to find substitutes, and extraction is also a problem. They only know how to make pills, but they don't know how to extract the essence.
After repeated research, a group of people asked Liu Yumin to experiment at home. The hospital had a lot of medicinal materials, but they belonged to the state. They were also short of medicinal materials and didn't have enough to treat patients. It was impossible for them to use these medicinal materials for experiments.
Everyone knows that Vice President Liu has a lot of medicinal herbs at home. They are her personal property, and she can decide how to dispose of them.
Undeterred, Liu Yumin added the substitute medicinal materials to the cauldron little by little according to the proportions and steps. Soon after, a "bang" sound indicated that she had failed again. She had never heard any other sound; as long as she heard a sound, she knew that she had failed again.
Liu Yumin was still unconvinced. She had followed the steps strictly, so why couldn't she succeed? She stared blankly at the prescription.
Zhu Fanfan was startled awake and saw her grandmother staring blankly at several pieces of paper. Curious, she walked over and saw that there were many medicinal herbs drawn on them. One of them looked particularly familiar, so she asked, "What kind of medicinal herb is this? I've seen it before but I never knew what it was called."
Liu Yumin immediately snapped out of her daze and excitedly asked, "Where have you seen me before? Are you sure?"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com