Return to 1983 Hunting Xing'an Mountains

Chapter 549: Bear Bile Exceeds Ten Thousands, Big Hammer Can't Make the Decision

Procurement from pharmaceutical factories is the most lucrative, or as the Northeastern dialect says, it is called outside profiteering.

If Manager Li collects the gall himself, he will get the lowest price from the pharmaceutical factory. Taking grass gall as an example, medium-quality gall is charged at 2800 yuan per catty, high-quality gall is charged at 3100 yuan per catty. Copper gall is a higher level than grass gall, so it is charged at half a catty plus 200 yuan. In general, the price is estimated according to quality, and the price is weighed after it is agreed upon.

So what if he lowers the price of high-quality bile to the price of medium-quality bile? Then he can keep 300 per catty, and after deducting the introduction fee, tea and water fees, etc., he will have more than enough to keep 150.

Manager Li's meaning was very clear just now. Except for the brown bear gall and the small grass gall, which were priced lower, the quality of the remaining five bear galls was about the same. They were all green and yellow, and of relatively high quality. He was thinking of leaving some introduction fees for Xu He, and some hard work fees for himself...

Manager Li said, "The price of bear gall has risen a lot now. Our pharmaceutical factory buys this kind of large quantity from the municipal channel at 3100 per kilogram, and the pharmaceutical factory also gives this price to our purchasing department. Since Lao Xu doesn't offer anything, I won't take it either. Our relationship is here. I will buy these five bear galls at 3100, the brown bear gall will be 400 cheaper, and the small bear gall will be 300 cheaper..."

Xu He smiled and said, "That's about right, Er Ning. This is the base price the pharmaceutical factory gave to Lao Li. I don't think the price will increase this year."

Although he worked in the transport team and didn't know much about the price of medicinal materials, he sometimes heard about it because he worked in the pharmaceutical factory. Now that Xu Ning asked him to do something, he had to take it to heart. When he got home yesterday, he told Xu Pao about it. Xu Pao had met Manager Li before and felt that this person was used to doing business and would be very careful, so he asked Xu He to go back to the pharmaceutical factory to ask for the price.

It was exactly as Xu Pao said. Manager Li was indeed cautious, but it was also understandable. He was doing a lucrative job, so it was natural for him to take advantage of it.

Xu Ning didn't think Manager Li was playing tricks, because if he were doing business, he would be even more outrageous than Manager Li if he sat in his position...

At this time, Manager Li nodded and said, "We definitely can't raise the price this year. The pharmaceutical factory has already collected enough bear bile. Maybe we can raise the price a little next year. Based on my experience, in three years, the price of bear bile will rise to about 4000 per kilogram! Brother, why don't you keep a few and sell them later when the price goes up."

Xu Ning smiled and shook his head when he heard this: "That's terrible, let's sell them all. Although the price of gallbladders will continue to rise, the money we have is getting thinner every year. It's just right to sell them now, so that we can have some extra money to do some business."

Xu He was stunned and advised: "Brother, doing business is not that easy. If you don't do it well, you will have to pay."

Xu Ning said: "We can just do a couple of sessions in front of our house."

"You're so dumbfounded? Oh my god, there's nothing to say. This business won't lose money no matter how you do it!"

Manager Li said with a smile: "Brother, you are really insightful. Your courage has reached the top. Then let's soak the bear bile first?"

"Okay!" Xu Ning agreed immediately.

He and Manager Li had no objection to the quality of the bear bile, and Manager Li had indeed given the highest price, so there was no haggling. Besides, business nowadays is based on interpersonal relationships, and most people are quite trustworthy, unlike in later generations when people would rip off their acquaintances.

Manager Li smiled and picked up the scale, saying, "In this case, there's no need to borrow a scale. Let's weigh them one by one. I have the formula, so there will be no difference in the amount."

"Okay, just weigh them one by one. I also need to keep an account. These bear galls are stored by us, and we have to divide the accounts when we go back."

"Yeah, it's easier to remember this way."

Manager Li squatted down and sat cross-legged in the carriage. After opening the scale, he placed the first bear gallbladder on the plate. He squinted his eyes and pulled the scale hammer, saying, "6 taels and 4... According to our decimal scale, it is 4 taels and 4. The quality of this gallbladder is medium. At 2900 yuan per catty, this gallbladder is worth 1276 yuan."

The scale is in the hexadecimal system, but the decimal system is commonly used nowadays. However, with the conversion formula, this is not a difficult task for Manager Li. He has been doing this for many years and can basically calculate the price just by looking at the weight.

Xu Ning gave a thumbs up and said, "Brother Li is a genius!"

"Hahaha, you definitely need to practice your eating skills."

Generally speaking, after the wild bear bile is dried in the shade, including the bear bile powder and gall bladder, its weight is about half a catty. Taking a black bear weighing about 250 catties as an example, the wild bear bile is around taels, while the artificially bred bear bile is only a little more than tael, and the larger ones do not even reach taels. Why is there such a big difference?
The reason is caused by the environment. If people are locked in cages, they will not want to eat, drink, defecate or urinate, let alone animals. In the mountains, animals are freer and have few natural enemies, so they are naturally more courageous.

The bile of artificially bred bears is not easily taken out. The bile is first taken out, about 20-40 grams each time. When the bear can no longer bear it and is about to die, the gallbladder is taken out. This way the weight is not too heavy, only about 50 grams including the gallbladder...

The price of bear bile is linked to its weight and quality, not a fixed price. An experienced person can tell its quality and weight at a glance and can roughly give a price.

Manager Li put the small bear gallbladder down, picked up the brown bear gallbladder, put it on the scale, pulled the weight twice, pinched the rope and passed it forward, saying, "Look, it's exactly ten taels! The scale bar is not high, so it is 6.875 taels, which is rounded up to 6.9 taels. At 2700 per catty, the total is 1863..."

Li Fuqiang, who was sitting at the rear of the car, was quite excited when he heard this. He didn't expect that this bear gall could be worth 1800 yuan. The value of these two galls was more than 3000, and the remaining five galls would definitely be worth more than ten thousand!
However, he and Guan Lei under the car just had bright eyes, did not shout out loudly, but only looked around vigilantly.

After Manager Li converted the sixteen taels into ten taels and calculated the weight and price of each gallbladder, Xu Ning wrote it down in a notebook.

剩下五颗熊胆都是按照每斤3100块钱算的，十进制重量分别是5.5两、5.1两、4.92两、5.7两、6.1两，其中6.1两这颗熊胆是在蟒头山猎的第一头黑瞎子，开膛取出灯笼挂之后，还有400多斤的重量。

Among them, the gallbladders of the black bear hunted in Wanye Camp and those hunted in Sandaohe were not completely dried in the shade. Manager Li deducted a certain weight according to a specific ratio, which was converted into 5.1 and 4.92 taels.

这五颗熊胆分别价值1705、1581、1525.2、1767、1891块钱，七颗熊胆总重量在3斤8两6钱2，拢共价值11611.2块钱！

After all seven bear galls were weighed, Li Fuqiang and Guan Lei looked a little excited, but their faces only flushed, and they didn't even make a sound. Now was not the time to be excited and surprised, because there were still skins, mallets and other things that had not been sold.

Manager Li was not the type to waste time. He put the bear gall aside and took out money from his black leather briefcase.

The stacks were all Great Unity notes, but they were not new. He took out 12 stacks in total and counted out 39 notes from one stack. Then he stuffed the 39 Great Unity notes into his briefcase. When he was about to look for change, Xu Ning said, "Brother Li, that's it."

Manager Li stopped what he was doing and said cheerfully, "Okay, I'll just count it as you giving me 1 yuan..."

"Hey, Brother Li! Don't treat me badly. You gave me fifty or sixty yuan more for the brown bear gall just now. What's this one yuan? I have something to do tonight, but tomorrow night, you and Brother He and Brother Chen come over and we can get together."

"Hahaha, okay, let's get along slowly. To be honest, I was a bit snobbish when we first met, but after we've been together for a long time, I will definitely open up to you from the bottom of my heart."

Everyone looked at each other and laughed. Xu He pointed at the money on the sack and said, "Erning, quickly find a pocket to put the money in."

"Yeah." Xu Ning turned around and picked up a rag bag from the back and stuffed all 11 stacks of half-sized unity notes into it.

Manager Li said with a smile: "We brothers are really not particular about small matters. Look at this cloth bag, there is still blood on it."

Chen Hedong said, "It can't be the blood of the robbers, right?"

Xu Ning held the cloth bag in his hand and said, "No, the blood has dried up. I have forgotten when it got stained."

At this time, Chen Hedong said impatiently: "Brother, can we take a look at the hammer? I am sweating from waiting."

Xu Ning raised his hand and pointed at Guan Lei, saying, "Didn't you hear Brother Chen say that he was sweating from waiting? Go buy some water and popsicles!"

"Okay!" Guan Lei responded, turned around and ran towards Cangmai.

Xu Ning looked at Chen Hedong and asked, "Brother Chen, should we look at the big stuff first, or start with the small stuff?" "Of course we should look at the big stuff first! Didn't I come here just for the seedlings? But I didn't expect you to have four baskets here. How many seedlings are there in total?"

"There are 70 seedlings in total..."

Chen Hedong's brain was a little confused. Although he had guessed that there were forty or fifty seedlings, he didn't expect there were seventy!
"Have you lifted all the mallets that are over 200 years old?"

"OK."

Chen Hedong took a deep breath and said, "So many sticks... the money I brought doesn't seem to be enough."

Xu He smiled and said, "If you don't have enough money, just call home."

Chen Hedong shook his head: "No, I have to collect these hammers alone. I can't let my father and grandfather get involved. I have to give them a surprise."

Xu Ning looked at Chen Hedong's face and estimated that he should be about the same age as Li Fuqiang. If he was already in his thirties, how old would his grandfather be...

Manager Li said, "Please stop it. Your grandfather will be 100 years old in two years. Don't scare him."

"Oh, no, I can't... Brother, show me the big club."

Xu Ning turned around and took out a particularly large bark bun from the basket. The bark was wrapped with a layer of original pit soil, four layers of moss, and a layer of bark. Because of the fear of breaking the whiskers, it was wrapped in six layers. So when he took the bark bun, he carefully placed it on the bottom of the carriage.

Chen Hedong quickly pulled the torn mattress over and put it underneath. He stared with his eyes wide open and muttered, "Be careful."

Just as Xu Ning was about to untie the red rope, Guan Lei came back to the rear of the car carrying ten bottles of Arctic Ocean soda and ten popsicles, "Brother..."

Li Fuqiang quickly raised his hand to stop Guan Lei from speaking. Xu Ning looked up when he heard the voice and said, "Let's drink some water first."

"I'm indeed a little thirsty, Hedong, don't be anxious." Xu He said.

Chen Hedong turned around and patted his chest and said, "To be honest, I am a little nervous..."

Li Fuqiang took the soda and popsicles, one bottle of soda and one popsicle for each person, and then Guan Lei carried the bag and gave them to Meng Ziyan and Guan Hua.

Why are people not in a hurry to eat popsicles and drink soda in the car? Because they are sweating and need to cool down, otherwise they will feel dizzy.

"Okay! It's much cooler now, and my heartbeat isn't as fast."

Xu Ning tilted his head back to drink the soda in the bottle and burped, then he bent down to untie the red rope and peeled off the bark and moss layer by layer, revealing the big hammer inside!

"Oh my god! This appearance..."

Chen Hedong just glanced down and exclaimed in surprise. Then he took out a magnifying glass and a flashlight from his briefcase, knelt down with his butt sticking out, and took a closer look.

He stared for two or three minutes, while Manager Li, Xu He and Xu Ning beside him did not say a word. After he stood up, Chen Hedong wiped the sweat from his forehead, took a deep breath with a flushed face.

"Brother, this ginseng has only been brought out four or five days ago, right?"

Xu Ning smiled and said, "Yeah, Brother Chen has good eyesight."

Chen Hedong grinned and said, "I have been playing with mallets since I was a child. How many years have I had this?"

Then, he paused for a moment and said with some embarrassment: "Hey, but I can't make the decision about this seedling ginseng."

Xu He was stunned for a moment and asked, "What do you mean?"

Manager Li smiled and said, "He can't give a price, so his father has to come."

Chen Hedong glared at him and said, "I really can't offer a price. The best six batches of leaves I have received are the broken reed ginseng. The appearance, age, size, and root bark of these seedling ginseng are relatively complete. Brother, it's not that I don't want to pretend, I really have to ask my dad to come over."

Xu Ning nodded and said, "Okay, then go make a phone call."

"OK."

After that, Chen Hedong was about to get out of the car. Xu He said, "Lao Li, you chat with my brother for a while. I'll go with him to make the phone call."

"Go and come back soon, or I will take all your goods."

Xu He and Chen Hedong jumped out of the car, and Guan Lei also went to Cangmai with the soda bottles. The soda bottles had to be recycled, so he left some deposit at Cangmai.

Xu Ning stood there thinking that something was wrong. Before he lifted the ginseng out, he estimated that the maximum value of this young ginseng was 6500 yuan. After he lifted it out, Xu Ning weighed it in his hand and estimated that it was more than four taels. Converted to a scale of sixteen taels, it was just over six taels. As the saying goes, seven taels is a ginseng and eight taels is a treasure. This young ginseng was less than seven taels, and it was a sky-high price to be able to sell it for 7000 yuan.

Why couldn't Chen Hedong give a price? Did Xu Ning make a mistake? That can't be possible...

Thinking of this, he was about to squat down and look at the seedling ginseng, but Manager Li said, "Brother, pack it up quickly, because we may have to go back again later."

"Ah, after Brother Chen makes this call, his grandfather has to come as well, right?"

"No, his family definitely couldn't tell the old man about this huge shipment, for fear that he would get excited. Well, Hedong's father is very cautious and would not check the shipment twice in the same place. You know, these days, besides the unrest in the mountains, our provincial capital is also quite chaotic."

Afterwards, Xu Ning repackaged the six batches of leaves. He still couldn't figure out why Chen Hedong didn't dare to offer a price. Although he didn't deal in large quantities of six batches of leaves in his previous life, he had handled a lot of five batches of leaves, which were pure wild goods weighing three or four taels. If there were not ten seedlings, there would be at least eight seedlings...

"Brother, what do you want to do?" asked Manager Li.

Xu Ning shook his head and quickly changed the subject, saying, "I was wondering if the pharmaceutical factory would accept bear bile, or leopard bile?"

"Leopard gall? Take it! Let me take a look at what it looks like first."

Xu Ning turned around and took out the dried leopard gall. Manager Li took it and said, "This should be a female leopard. The gall is not very big. The pharmaceutical factory gave it a low price. You know that ginseng is the best for replenishing qi and bear gall is the best for replenishing liver, right?"

Xu Ning nodded: "How much courage can you give?"

(End of this chapter)