Return to 1983 Hunting Xing'an Mountains

Chapter 767 The Bandit Leader Called: Oranges from the South Turn into Tartary Oranges from the North
Although the reform and opening up is now a certainty, it is still impossible to vigorously promote private enterprises. Even though last year, 1984, was called the first year of private enterprises, and the first private enterprise, Guangcai Industry, was specially approved, followed by the emergence of well-known companies such as Lenovo, Haier, and Vanke, it is still somewhat like feeling one's way across a river if one wants to start a private enterprise in a small city far from the capital or key development cities.

Of course, small vendors have long been allowed to set up stalls along the streets or in planned areas, and private shops can also open their doors for business. However, what Xu Ning wants to set up is a car repair shop, which is a private enterprise. It is not advisable to hire too many employees, otherwise problems may easily arise.

That's why Xu Ning thought he should officially start this year. Even if it's like feeling his way across a river, he'll eventually reach the other side, where opportunities will abound!

Xu Ning chatted with a group of guys in the west room for quite a while. Since there were so many people, they chatted in groups of three or five. Xu Ning chatted with one group for a bit, and then chatted with another group for a bit, keeping him very busy.

Just before noon, two children rushed in through the gate, shouting, "Second Uncle! Second Uncle!"

Wang Erli thought they were calling him, so he turned his head to look and slapped his thigh, saying, "Hey, what are these two little brats doing sneaking around here?"

These two children were Du Shoucai's two eldest grandsons. Hearing Xu Laonian calling from the east room, Xu Ning stepped out of the west room to greet them. At this moment, Xu Feng had already rushed out and hugged the younger one, giving him two kisses on the cheek, and asked, "Why did you two come here? Do your parents know?"

"How could I not know? My grandpa told me to come and find my second uncle, saying someone called him."

Xu Feng stood up, turned around, took Xiao Er's hand, and said, "Second Brother, the master said someone called you."

Xu Ning nodded, pinched Da Bao's cheek, and said with a smile, "You two go inside with your aunt. Your aunt has some good food. Go ahead."

"Alright, Second Uncle, tell my grandpa, otherwise they'll be looking for us again."

Xu Ning had just turned around and was about to walk towards the door when Guan Lei, Chen Hedong, and Li Zhuang followed him out. Chen Hedong said, "I'll go with you to the village office to call my father-in-law, otherwise the old man will be worried."

"Okay, let's go together. Let's drive, otherwise we'll have to walk for a while."

They then got into a car on the outer edge and drove to the village.

Standing under the eaves, Du Shoucai only saw a few of them and asked, "Why hasn't my eldest grandson come back?"

Xu Ning laughed and said, "Feng'er kept them. A lot of friends came to my house, and they brought a lot of snacks. Feng'er led the two of them to eat them inside."

"Ah, they'll be enjoying their meal now, they won't need to eat dinner. Come inside, it's warm inside. There's a call from Ma Lian, tell him to hang up, you can answer it first."

Xu Ning entered the room, picked up the microphone, and said, "I am Xu Ning from Qing'an. And you are?"

"Er Ning, it's your second brother! Haha, Happy New Year!"

"Hey, second brother, Happy New Year! How's everyone's New Year?"

Liu Eryin laughed and said, "That's great! The other day, the five of us brothers spent the New Year together, but these past two days we've been eating at the eldest brother's place. Have you eaten yet?"

"The family has arrived today, and I reckon the feast will start around 11 pm."

"Ah, well, this call wasn't just to say hello, there's another reason."

"Go ahead and say it, Second Brother. With our relationship, what can't we just say openly?"

"Here's what happened. Before the New Year, when Chief Guan was escorting us home, we ran into a group of robbers on the road, right? Chief Guan was leading the group..."

Xu Ning interjected, "I know about this. The leader is called Wei Lai, his underling is nicknamed Xiao Liu, and there's another guy called Lü Mazi. What's wrong? Is he dissatisfied?"

Liu Eryin laughed awkwardly, "No, it's not that. Guan Batou took him and his master to the hospital for treatment out of kindness. How could he be dissatisfied? He just wanted to talk to you."

"Oh dear, I was thinking he was going to issue a challenge to Qing'an to beat me up, hahaha, second brother, this is getting a bit tense."

"That's right, your fourth brother didn't want me to make this call for you. He just gave Wei Lai and the others a good scolding."

"It's alright, it's alright. We didn't lose anything anyway. The bullet didn't hit me, so it doesn't hurt. Where's Wei Lai in front of you?"

"Yeah, we've been waiting here for ages."

"Let him answer the phone."

Wei Lai then took the microphone and said quite politely, "Boss Xu, the fault lies with me. Don't be like us. I admire Guan's work. I just wanted to make friends with him. I really didn't mean to retaliate. Besides, we're people who barely have enough to eat. What right do we have to fight with you?"

Upon hearing his words, Xu Ning immediately understood what was going on. It must have been Wu Haiquan and Xiao Liu who leaked the information to him, and then Wei Lai called to apologize during the festive New Year period, because this was the time when apologies were most easily accepted.

Wei Lai also behaved very maturely, unlike the petty thugs who completely disregarded their reputation; at least he was able to swallow his pride.

"It's definitely your fault. My brother may have been immature in his actions, but you deserved to be shot. Do you agree with that?"

Wei Lai paused for a moment after hearing this, and then said, "...I agree, I agree, I really deserve it."

Then he heard loud laughter coming from the microphone. Wei Lai frowned slightly, thinking that Xu Ning was crazy. But after Xu Ning finished laughing, he said, "I was just kidding with you. My brother took you to the hospital and found someone to treat you and your master. It wasn't because he was kind-hearted. Do you know why?"

Wei Lai nodded to himself, which was similar to what he and his master had guessed these past few days. However, he also admired Xu Ning's composure. He had never encountered many people who could be so open and honest, even though he had carried a gun before.

"Is it because of my master?"

"Yes, if I hadn't heard that your master was a senior ginseng master, I wouldn't have been so kind as to have my brother spend money to save you. That's the truth. Take it or leave it..."

Wei Lai raised his hand to rub his cheek and laughed, "I'm quite happy to hear this. Although what you said makes me a little uncomfortable, I admire your frankness. Boss Xu, there's a reason why you've built such a large business and why so many people remember you so well."

"Don't flatter me... Judging from your tone, you seem to be fully healed?"

Wei Lai said, "He's not quite fully recovered yet. He still needs a cane to walk, but my master can walk around now."

"That's good. So you made this call to sell ginseng?"

“I don’t have any ginseng right now. I just heard that you know the ginseng buyers, so I thought that having more friends means having more options. If we go up the mountain to collect ginseng this year, and maybe we can get a large quantity, then we’ll have a channel to sell it.”

Xu Ning pondered for a few seconds and then said, "Friendship requires give and take. If you want to talk more deeply, bring two people with you when Brother Liu and the others come to Qing'an Lengchang. We can chat then."

"Alright! It's fine to chat when we meet, but I'm broke right now. I can't pay back the money Guan paid for my medical treatment." "Hahaha, consider that money a small gift. Besides, my brother really went a bit too far. We've become friends through a fight."

"No problem, you become friends after a fight..."

Afterwards, Xu Ning chatted with Liu Eryin for a bit more, informing Liu Eryin to organize people to wait at his house on the seventeenth day of the first lunar month, estimating that someone would come to pick them up around eight o'clock in the morning.

After hanging up the phone, Chen Hedong asked in confusion, "Why did Lei Zi shoot someone?"

Guan Lei grinned and said, "Yeah, before the New Year, I was driving the workers home when we ran into a bunch of robbers on the way, and then I got shot..."

After telling the story, Xu Ning continued, "I had Shi Tou take the leader to the hospital, mainly because of this phone call today. Dong Ge, you should let your father-in-law know that everything is alright first, and I'll talk to you later."

"to make."

Chen Hedong nodded, picked up the phone, dialed a number, and waited a while before finally getting through to his father-in-law. Only after learning that the young couple had arrived safely did his father-in-law feel relieved.

Five or six minutes later, Xu Ning invited Du Shoucai to come to his house for a meal, but Du Shoucai declined, saying that there was still a lot of leftover food from yesterday that needed to be cleaned up.

"Uncle, since you're not going, then let our two nephews eat at home. We'll have Feng'er bring them back after we finish eating."

"Okay, go back and eat."

As they walked out of the village office, Xu Ning sat in the driver's seat, while Chen Hedong and Li Zhuang sat in the passenger seat.

Xu Ning continued the conversation that had been going on inside the house, saying, "Brother Dong, how's your ginseng buying business going?"

Seeing how serious he was, Chen Hedong didn't boast. He just said apologetically, "It's mainly a matter of supply. If you hadn't given me a whole batch of ginseng last year, I could only have collected a dozen or so seedlings. But someone like you who produces ginseng is someone we don't see in our industry even once every five years..."

Xu Ning asked, "Where do you get your goods from? From the countryside around the provincial capital? Or from other dealers?"

Chen Hedong didn't pay any attention and told the truth: "Sometimes I go to the countryside to collect them based on news, sometimes I get them from dealers, sometimes Brother Li helps me keep an eye out, and my father-in-law's friend has also introduced me to sources of goods..."

Li Zhuang interjected, "There's basically no profit from buying goods directly from dealers, but that source accounts for half of the profits. I previously suggested that Hedong keep the goods for a few years and sell them when the market price rises, so he could make a profit from the price difference."

"Yeah, if it weren't for Brother Li helping me, I would have lost all the money I had."

The car stopped under the old Xu family bridge. Xu Ning and the others got out and leaned against the wall. Chen Hedong and the other two smoked cigarettes. Xu Ning squatted down and said, "Before the New Year, Shitou met these people. I was thinking of letting Shitou try to get along with them because Wanye is also a place that produces wild ginseng. These people just happen to be a newly formed small ginseng gang."

“If Shi Tou and the others can get along, they will definitely contact us after they finish processing the wild ginseng. At that time, if we offer them a price higher than the market price of Wanye, will they still sell the ginseng to others? In this way, we can also increase our source of supply.”

Chen Hedong clapped his hands and exclaimed, "That's right! You're the one with brains; I didn't even think of that!"

"Brother Dong, listen to me, there are many places in Northeast China that produce wild ginseng, such as the Changbai Mountains and the Greater and Lesser Khingan Mountains, but the South does not produce wild ginseng from Northeast China..."

Chen Hedong grinned and said, "Of course not! Different places nurture different people; there's the saying 'gardenia in the south, orange in the north,' I understand that principle to some extent."

Guan Lei frowned and asked, "What do you mean, 'Southern Gardenia and Northern Orange'?"

Chen Hedong said shamelessly, "Oh, so in the north, oranges are called oranges, but in the south, they're called gardenias..."

Upon hearing this, Li Zhuang covered his forehead, looking utterly bewildered, and said, "Hey, damn it! Stop talking nonsense, okay? That's called 'Southern oranges turn into northern trifoliate oranges'! It's an idiom that means that southern orange trees transplanted to the north will turn into trifoliate oranges, describing how the same species can mutate due to different growing environments, do you understand?!"

"Ah, I see. How did you know that?"

Li Zhuang waved his hand and said, "This is what I do! Before, some people from the south brought black bear gallbladders to sell medicinal herbs. I could tell at a glance that they were from black bears in the south because they are much smaller than the black bears from our Northeast. What are my eyes? My eyes are a detector. I can tell the real from the fake with just one scan."

Guan Lei gave a thumbs up: "Brother Li has a good eye. Brother Dong, do you understand now?"

"Oh dear, you only have a superficial understanding too. Let my brother continue. You go on..."

Xu Ning laughed and said, "What I mean is similar to what Brother Li just said. Since southerners dare to bring bear bile from the south to sell in Northeast China, why don't we send wild ginseng from Northeast China to sell in the south? Brother Li, is the price you give that southerner cheaper or more expensive than the bear bile from Northeast China?"

"Of course it's cheap. You guys didn't see the bear gallbladder. It's only the size of a baby's hand. At first, I thought it was the gallbladder of a baby bear."

“Listen to this, the bear bile here is huge, and the wild ginseng here can’t be smaller than in the south either. So I’m thinking of collecting ginseng and other mountain medicinal herbs in the Northeast and transporting them to the South.”

Upon hearing this, Chen Hedong's eyes lit up, and he said, "You guys are coming with me?"

Xu Ning explicitly refused, saying, "I'm not going with you. I still need to set up my auto repair shop this year. I'm thinking of starting to collect goods this year, and after spring next year, I'll have Shi Tou lead a few brothers to go south with you. You can also take advantage of this free time this year to make more friends in the south."

Chen Hedong said, "My father-in-law knows quite a few friends in the south, and they often exchange letters, but they all go to the south to provide support from our side."

"As long as they're acquaintances, that's fine. Just make sure they don't arrive at the place clueless and act like they're blind. We're not asking your father-in-law's friends to introduce buyers, we just want to find out where there's a demand for wild ginseng and bear bile."

"Okay, I'll ask when I get back."

Xu Ning turned to look at Li Zhuang and said with a smile, "Brother Li, we've known each other for quite a while now. Why don't you think about it... and work with us next year?"

Li Zhuang paused for a moment, then exhaled a puff of smoke: "Going into business? I wasn't prepared for that."

Chen Hedong put his arm around his arm and said with a smile, "You should start preparing now! There's still more than a year to go."

"Then I'll have to think about it carefully..."

"Okay, let's stop here for now and discuss the specifics later."

"Let's go inside, my legs are getting numb from squatting here."

(End of this chapter)