novelraw Chapter 34 Black Market Sales
Chapter 34 Black Market Sales
When the morning market opens, there are buyers who make large transactions, and Tong Yuheng wants to find such buyers. She can't sell so many vegetables little by little, so naturally she wants to find a big customer who will buy them all at once.
She still looked like a middle-aged woman with a dark complexion, wearing a black cloth jacket to cover her clothes and a headscarf wrapped tightly around her head. She took samples of each vegetable and fruit and put them in her basket, then slowly walked toward the black market.
First, I found a spot, took out a plastic sheet, and laid out various vegetables, including cucumbers, tomatoes, bok choy, eggplants, green peppers, and so on. You have to understand that this is the dead of winter, and greenhouse vegetables are not yet widespread. These vegetables, which are very common in summer, are rarely seen so fresh in winter.
Soon someone came over, shining a flashlight around, and quietly asked about the price. Tong Yuheng simply broke off a small piece of the vegetables for them to try, and then said, "These vegetables are imported from the south. I won't sell them for less than ten catties! We can talk about the price after you've tasted them."
"Your dish is delicious, I want ten pounds of cucumbers!" said an older woman after tasting a piece of cucumber.
"Cucumbers are two cents a pound, no coupons required." In summer, five or eight cents a pound is considered the best, but this is winter. Even if it's five cents or a dollar a pound, where are you going to buy them?
"Okay, I'll take ten pounds. I'll also try some tomatoes. How much are the tomatoes?" The woman seemed to be well-off.
"Tomatoes are 35 cents each, and they're so sweet you could eat them like fruit." Tong Yuheng broke open a tomato, tore off a small piece for her, insisting she try it before buying.
The woman bought ten pounds of cucumbers and ten pounds of tomatoes, filled her basket, and left. It was too heavy to carry, and she wanted to buy some other things, but the basket was too small to fit them all.
After she left, several more people came to buy vegetables. Some tried them but still felt they were a bit expensive and left. Others bought ten jin of a certain vegetable, and the huge basket next to Tong Yuheng was already half empty.
A short while later, the young man guarding the gate arrived, tasted her vegetables, and asked, "Auntie, how many of these vegetables do you have left? If you sell them all to our boss, can you give me a smaller price?"
"There are plenty of vegetables, and I can't lower the price any further. My transportation costs for these vegetables are high, so I won't make much profit selling them at this price. If you accept this price, I'll talk to your boss."
"Okay, can I take a sample over for our boss to try?" The young man was very polite, it seemed he was serious about doing business.
"Sure, take one of each! There's some fruit here too, you can try some." Tong Yuheng took out a handful of strawberries and gave them to him, about five or six. These strawberries weren't very big, only about the size of quail eggs, but they were very fragrant and sweet. She didn't know how to price them, so she planned to let them name their price.
The two young men returned shortly after, saying they would take her to the boss to discuss the price. Tong Yuheng slung her basket over her shoulder and went with them, not at all worried that these men would rip her off.
She knew the black market boss; he was a powerful figure. They didn't rely on entrance fees to support their men; their main income came from buying and selling. If someone on the black market had good stock, they would buy it and profit from the price difference.
"How should I address you?" The black market boss was a young man wearing a mask, and his tone was somewhat flippant.
"It doesn't matter what you call me. If you want to buy my stuff, let's talk about the price. I have at least 500 catties of each of these vegetables, and even more tomatoes and cucumbers, about 1,000 to 2,000 catties. I also have more than 300 catties of strawberries. In addition, I have some watermelons here. Do you want some?" She took out a large watermelon and gestured for them to open it and try it.
The half-acre melon patch in the space has gradually yielded over a thousand catties of melons. Every day, several large melons weighing ten or twenty catties ripen. We should clear them out quickly, as they are taking up too much space!
"Wow, you have this good stuff? Xiaoqiang, cut it open and have a taste!" Several people opened the melons and each took a slice to eat. The sweet juice burst in their mouths, it felt so good!
Tong Yuheng couldn't help but laugh, remembering the "Xiaoqiang" that person had mentioned. The skinny guy really did look like a cockroach, hahaha!
The black market boss found her laughter somewhat inexplicable, but it didn't stop him from buying the goods. So he simply said, "The vegetable prices you mentioned are acceptable. Strawberries are one dollar and fifty cents a pound, and watermelons are eight mao (0.8 yuan). How about that?"
"Sure, these things can last me another five or six days. Strawberries will last a week, and watermelons will last ten days. If they spoil after that, I can't control that."
"Where is your goods? Are you delivering them, or should I find someone to pick them up?" the man asked.
"Come to the woods next to this black market in half an hour. Bring your men and baskets across the border, and we'll exchange money for goods!"
Having agreed, Tong Yuheng left to put her things away in the woods outside. She didn't have enough baskets to hold the vegetables, which were scattered around in her storage room anyway, so she just lined them with some tattered felt and canvas and piled them up in heaps.
She packed the strawberries in cardboard boxes to prevent them from getting bruised; one large box weighed forty or fifty pounds and was piled up in two layers. The watermelons were simply placed on the ground, with hundreds taking up a lot of space.
The black market boss was quite particular; he didn't send anyone to follow her. Instead, he arrived at the appointed time with about twenty people, pushing several tricycles or carrying baskets.
Seeing so many vegetables and fruits in front of me makes me a little dizzy. How long will this last?
"You guys pack it properly, or it won't sell well and it'll all be ours!" Xiaoqiang directed everyone as they packed the baskets, while counting the contents next to the scale.
The weight of the baskets was uniformly deducted: 1000 jin of cucumbers, 1200 jin of tomatoes, 400 jin of rapeseed, 300 jin of eggplant, and 500 jin of green peppers.
At the price she asked for, these vegetables would cost a little over 1000 yuan. Except for tomatoes, which were a bit more expensive, the other vegetables were only about twice as much as they were in season, so her asking price wasn't high. These people would probably double the price if they sold them retail. But she couldn't control that, and she wouldn't be doing business here long-term.
There were exactly 300 jin of strawberries, but nearly 2,000 jin of watermelons. It was right around the New Year, so people would be buying them; Yan City was never short of wealthy people. After calculating, the fruit cost over 2,000 yuan, and Tong Yuheng rounded it down to the nearest whole number.
The black market boss probed for her information several times, but seeing that she didn't want to reveal anything, he gave up. This small amount of stock would be gone after a few distributions within their compound and among some friends; why bother selling it in smaller quantities?
What Tong Yuheng didn't know was that this black market boss's surname was Zheng, and he really did live in the government compound. He was the grandson of some big shot!
That self-important, charming Fan Yaqing has been trying to find out about him these past few days, and she almost got arrested by the security guards at the gate, mistaking her for a spy, which made quite a fool of herself.
Fan Yaqing knew that Tong Yuheng had tricked her, and she was so angry that she jumped up and down, vowing to trample her underfoot!