Song Tan's Notes

Although we ask our leaders to make decisions, many things cannot be accomplished simply by their decisions.

For example, the purchase of grapes is a purely commercial matter. If it is interfered with arbitrarily, it would be difficult to explain.

Besides, how could he possibly interfere?

Can we ask the buyers to raise prices, or can we ask the villagers to improve the quality of their produce?

At this moment, everyone was at a stalemate in the village office courtyard, and no one was willing to leave.

The buyers were afraid that if the villagers attacked in a fit of anger, they would be beaten.

Getting beaten up is fine, since you can always get compensation these days. What's scary is that some people don't know what's important—you know, life is a big deal sometimes, but sometimes you can't withstand it.

The villagers didn't want to leave either.

They agreed on a price of three yuan per kilogram for the entire farm, and even if the leaders were here, they would still try to squeeze a hefty cut from the buyers.

Otherwise, everyone else in the village would sell their grapes at high prices, while they would have to sell them little by little at a stall. Wouldn't that be incredibly embarrassing?

I'm not going to steam buns, I'm just trying to save face.

However, this stalemate couldn't continue, so the leader wiped his sweat and led the person to the village office.

"Don't just stand there. Come on, let's go inside, enjoy the air conditioning, have some water, and talk it over slowly."

The weather was so hot that the villagers were intrigued by this suggestion.

To everyone's surprise, the buyer jogged all the way and ended up next to Gu Laosan.

"Boss, this fellow villager seems really friendly—hey fellow villager, do you have any grapes? Shall we talk about it?"

Gu Laosan was startled, but also delighted.

Seeing that the leader's expression wasn't very approving, I didn't care about anything else and quickly agreed.

"Okay, let's sit down and discuss it. I also have grapes at home, and my grapes are quite good too."

Upon hearing this, the Party Secretary's wife rolled her eyes and cursed inwardly: "Idiot."

Isn't he an idiot?
Your boss is giving you meaningful glances, but you just won't listen. Why are you always trying to find loopholes?
If it were that easy to exploit such a loophole, wouldn't there be many people in the world who would become rich?

Doesn't the buyer know what price he offered after staying in the village for a few days? Does he expect the streamer to offer a high price so he can also offer a high price?

Dreaming!
They won't even give you three yuan for renting the whole garden here; I know everyone's trying to get a bargain. Sellers want to take advantage, and buyers want to take advantage too!

Besides, the group of people entangled with these buyers are all notorious tough guys in the village.

He likes to meddle in things, and so far he hasn't been able to accomplish anything.

You said they had a dispute, and you interfered. Since you're from the same village, they can't really do anything to you.

While this group of people can't interfere with getting things done, they can make it impossible for people to get anything done!
I'll go pick some vegetables from the field today, and then I'll go gather some scallions tomorrow.

We're all neighbors, it's not worth getting angry over such a small thing; but if we don't get angry, they'll keep coming.

Of course, these aren't things you can just take from anyone.

If that were the case, the village would be the first to not tolerate it.

But it is precisely because they are cunning yet know how to handle things that they are even more difficult to deal with.

The secretary's wife rolled her eyes at the mistake Gu Laosan made in his haste, then, remembering the grapes that hadn't been packed yet, she snorted and walked away briskly.

Little did she know that the leaders were watching her retreating figure from behind, wishing they could just walk away too!

Otherwise, with this mess in front of us, only the person who cleans it up will know what to do.

Then look at Gu Laosan; he's completely absorbed in the prospectus from the acquirers, oblivious to the subtle signals from the leaders.

These days, after discussing yield and grape quality in a few words, the next thing to talk about is price.

Those three buyers are truly birds of a feather! Bah! Birds of a feather!
They spoke as if they were telepathically connected, one praising the other, and at the end they both held up three fingers:
"Brother, I can tell you're different. You're really sincere! We love doing business with people like you."

"A man's word is his bond. If I say it's three dollars, and your quality is really as you say, then I'll definitely give you three dollars!"

How spirited and resounding those words were! Anyone who didn't know better would think he was giving away 300!
The villagers fell silent, only glancing at them with cold smiles.

Gu Laosan was first delighted, then startled:
Three pieces?

His voice held a hint of despair and disbelief, "My grapes... my grapes..."

He trembled, both angry and desperate:
"That streamer's rating system was like that; I had over a hundred orders that were all around 40! The rest were only around 30 or 20..."

The negotiations here went so well, so opportunistically, why only three dollars?

I could have let it go with the three yuan before, but this was verified by the streamer, and the link was even posted!
“Yes,” the buyer said calmly.

“We’re doing business on mutual consent, right? I only offered this price because I heard that your grapes have already been picked and would spoil if you didn’t sell them quickly. I wanted to minimize your losses.”

“Yes, that’s right!” another buyer chimed in.

"Brother, don't say we're dishonest. We're the most honest people in the world! We've always said it's three yuan, from beginning to end!"

"But...but..."

Old Gu, who was clumsy with words, was now sweating profusely and didn't know what to say.

At this moment, a few tough guys in the village started laughing:

"Old Gu, you should be content. Look at the grapes in our garden. Didn't you hear what people just said? They won't even buy them for 1.5 yuan. At least yours are worth 3 yuan!"

"Hey, by the way, why didn't you sell those for thirty or forty yuan? Did you not want to sell them?"

These words elicited even louder laughter in the meeting room.

The leader closed his eyes briefly. If things continued like this, the villagers would become enemies. He frowned and said, "Alright, we're all from the same village. Let's stick together when things get tough!"

"Hmph!" someone sneered. They were united, but some of them were not of one mind.

Looking at Gu Laosan again, I saw him staring longingly at the leader, tears welling up in his eyes once more.
"Boss, can't you really talk to the streamer again? I'd be willing to give them 15% of their commission!"

That's what they say, but if you factor in the costs of packaging, labor, and shipping, you won't make much money.

But... but it's still better than three yuan, right?
The leader was immediately at his wit's end.

……

The aftermath in Baiyu County only spread vividly in Yunqiao Village three days later when Chen Yuan led his team back.

The dispute involving Gu Laosan, Liu Xiaomin, and three buyers was particularly representative, and it really made everyone jumpy, giving them more to talk about when packing peaches.

"To be honest, Gu Laosan isn't a bad person, he's just stupid."

"Oh dear, that Party Secretary's wife makes so much sense! No matter how great his kindness was, we should just use our own money to make up for it!"

"Yes, you're saying over a thousand orders of grapes, even if they're priced at thirty yuan each, and each order is three jin (1.5 kg), that's over ten thousand yuan—wow! Over ten thousand yuan!"

How much is a mere token of affection from relatives?

Is 20,000 yuan enough?
Now look what's happened; they haven't even received 20,000 yuan for the entire vineyard of grapes.

That's right, Gu Laosan eventually compromised, but not completely.

He bought them for three yuan a pound, and had them all packed up and taken away.

But because Qiaoqiao only uploads the link and then immediately goes offline, even though he claims to have picked a lot, he only harvested a little over 200 jin (100 kg). 600 yuan isn't even enough to cover the various biological agents he used. But what if he doesn't sell?

They couldn't even get 600 yuan back.

But to his surprise, his sale made the villagers dislike him even more.

What about the rest?

What can we do about the rest?
Like other families with a few leftover grapes, they carried baskets to towns and cities to set up stalls and sell them.

As for how much a stall owner can charge?

Oh dear! Qiao Qiao is famous, and there is a screenshot of his link, but it's not so widespread that everyone knows about it.

People who see that some online celebrity has sold this product at such a price feel even more that he is not sincere.

Don't even mention asking for twenty, I'd think even ten yuan is too expensive!
Even if we picked them and let people taste them before buying, the most expensive ones only sold for 6 yuan each, but we only sold a little over 100 jin a day.

The buyers were absolutely unwilling to pay, especially since the previous promises were all verbal and the prices they quoted were indeed the market rates. No matter how much power the leaders had, they couldn't force them to do business.

Ultimately, only this dispute was resolved.

But because Gu Laosan pulled away the business in the middle—

Although it only sold for a few hundred yuan, this behavior clearly showed that this person was not united, and Liu Xiaomin and his friends really remembered him.

When he set up his stall, people would specifically follow him.

They both sell their own grapes for 10 yuan, while Liu Xiaomin and his family sell them for 9 yuan.

He wanted 8 yuan, so we sold it for 7 yuan.

Their motto is to disgust people even if they don't make money.

Moreover, elsewhere it's 10 yuan for 3 jin, they never even thought they could make any money from it.

As for those relatives who were only concerned with personal relationships, after learning that Gu Laosan's grapes hadn't sold, they came forward with great effort, but in the end, feeling ashamed and guilty, they took back the basket of grapes that had been given to them.

Before leaving, he complained, "You should be more careful. What was going to be a great situation has now turned into a mess where neither of our grapes sold."

"Hey, I've been bragging to people that my grapes can fetch a high price!"

The grapevines in the garden are lush and green, with bunches of grapes hanging down, laden with fruit.

Amidst this bountiful harvest, Gu Laosan stood there blankly, his mind filled with a thousand thoughts, unsure whether to cry first or hurry up and grab his basket to go back to the city to continue setting up his stall.

……

"And what about the buyers?"

While the villagers gossiped, everyone also remembered the despicable buyer:
It's because of these heartless people that the prices of agricultural products in those areas are being driven lower and lower! The key issue is that while the prices are driven down at the production sites, the customers don't get any savings!

Chen Yuan said in a serious and methodical manner:

"It's peak fruit season now. Although they harvested over 200 jin of grapes, they couldn't even leave the village. The villagers held them back for several days. They hadn't even left when I left..."

They didn't hit me, nor did they force me to stay; they just pulled me along and said it was three yuan a pound, all-you-can-eat—

If one side starts talking and the other side starts talking, this is also a business dispute. How should it be handled?

At this crucial moment in business, they managed to pester him relentlessly.

After hearing this, everyone could only sigh in the end:
"Oh dear, what a waste of those two hundred pounds of grapes! Such delicious grapes!"

No!
The Song family brought back a truckload of baskets full of grapes, and apart from the elderly living alone, close relatives also received a bunch.

No wonder people can charge such a high price for that fruit; it really is beautiful!

Uniform, round, large in size, and full of fruit flavor.

The rose scent was so strong that it smelled wonderful on my breath, and I even spoke louder.

The thought of such good grapes going to rot is just awful...

Everyone sighed, and finally leaned forward to ask Chen Yuan:
"What will happen to the remaining grapes in the village when you leave? Will you sell them? How much will they fetch?"

Everyone has earned some extra money thanks to Lao Song's family over the past six months, and they are quite financially secure now.

Now that I've tasted these grapes again, which are so delicious, I'm really itching to try them.

If those grapes were also a few dollars a pound, and many people were buying them, we could hire someone to drive and pick them up!

I wouldn't dare eat such expensive fruit myself, but my children are working hard away from home, some in the city, and my grandchildren are on summer vacation and might want to come over to play...

Chen Yuan paused for a moment, then shook his head:

"I just stayed in the garden the whole time; I don't know anything else."

He wasn't really interested in all the gossip I mentioned earlier, unless the boss kept asking around.

"Oh dear!" Everyone looked at him, disappointed and frustrated.
"Look at you! You're there to keep watch for the boss, so you need to understand everything inside and out!"

But it's okay, it's not a big problem.

Someone else shouted at the top of their lungs, "Boss Song! Tan Tan! Do you have any cheaper grapes from those you brought before?"

Song Tan was surprised to learn that Qiao Qiao's live-streaming sales had a sequel.
But thinking about the taste of those grapes, she understood, but she just wanted to tell everyone again:
"Even if there are cheaper ones, the quality is definitely not as good as the ones I brought back—they were genuinely grateful and sent me the best ones."

The villagers understood, of course:

"Didn't we tell you and Qiaoqiao to pick out the good ones and have them shipped out?"

"We don't need anything too fancy, just something a little more expensive than what's on the market, with a slightly better taste, and most importantly, a stronger aroma!"

They wouldn't be willing to sell it for ten or twenty yuan!

Song Tan thought for a moment:
"Okay, wait a minute, let me ask if anyone else wants it. Everyone send a representative to count it first."

Since the response has been so positive, she should ask her aunt and great-aunt about it!
At that time, the truck was full of grapes. Since we were passing by my aunt's place first, we delivered them to the fruit wholesale market first.

As soon as the trunk was opened, a faint scent of roses wafted out, attracting several fruit vendors nearby to gather around.

"Da Hong! Is this your fruit vendor? Where are these grapes from? They look really good. How much are they?"

Ok!

The fruit market vendors all have a keen eye; just by looking at these grapes, they can tell they'll taste good.

They all crowded around, chattering away, but in the end, it was Song Tan who called out "Auntie" to Wu Fang, which finally got everyone to leave safely.

Wu Fang kept reminding her, "Take this fruit home and eat it. I'm your aunt, I sell fruit. Why did you bring so much?"

Song Tan laughed:

"This was a gift from a fellow villager, it's too much for our family to eat. Besides, Brother Yanping is so busy every day, and my sister and I are good friends, so I was happy to give it to you!"

Hearing this, Auntie smiled broadly, her eyes crinkling at the corners. Seeing Lu Chuan deftly carry a basket of grapes inside, she busied herself telling him to put two more baskets of fruit into the trunk that had been cleared out.

After delivering the goods back and forth, the vehicle's load not only didn't decrease, but actually increased.

Fortunately, my aunt wasn't that generous afterward. (End of Chapter)