Return to 1983 Hunting Xing'an Mountains

Chapter 780 Qing'an Butcher Shop's Bee Sales Are Good
The sun hung low in the sky, white clouds drifted lazily, and a gentle breeze carrying a chill swept through the village streets, though the wind was not biting; it was truly a rare and fine day.

Inside the Xu family home, the air was thick with warmth. The clash of hot and cold air created plumes of white smoke that instantly enveloped the kitchen, making it feel like being in a fog.

Liu Lizhen poured hot water into an aluminum basin with a ladle, Li Fuqiang sat on a stool plucking feathers from a flying dragon, and the others were also busy with their own tasks...

Seeing that it was still early, Xu Ning and Wang Hu drove to the farm to deliver the pigs. The workers were very enthusiastic when they saw Xu Ning. When they learned that there were two wild boars in the truck, they called out a few times and six or seven people came. While they were unloading the wild boars, Xu Ning and Wang Hu had already entered the shed.

He hasn't bought any sorghum liquor for Ma Liu recently. Ever since Ma Liu learned that he had a minor health issue, he's been paying more attention to his lifestyle, wanting to enjoy a few more good days.

When Xu Ning was chatting with Ma Liu, he wanted to take him to live in the city for a while, but Ma Liu refused without hesitation. As for the reason, he didn't say anything. Seeing that he was determined, Xu Ning didn't try to persuade him or ask him why he didn't go.

Life in Lengchang is dull and monotonous. The routine and routine make many people feel soulless, like walking corpses!

But when they returned home with their money at the end of last year, they saw the genuine smiles of their families and the joy of smelling and eating meat. This touched most of them, and this year they wished they could sleep on the mountain all the time, and preferably not have to go through spring and summer, so that they could work hard all year round!

Ma Liu called Pan Yan and Feng Ye over to unload the meat. During this time, Xu Ning chatted with them for a while and learned that Wu Haitao had been working at the 17th workshop recently, so he silently nodded...

Half an hour later, Xu Ning and Wang Hu left Lengchang and drove to the east entrance of Qing'an Village. Turning around, they saw Lao Jiang and Li Feng sweeping the yard and repairing the wooden fence with brooms in their hands.

He parked the car and got out when he saw Big Horn carrying a washbasin out of the house, waving his head at him with a grin.

The three of them were quite satisfied with the mud-brick house. Although the room was small and dark, the advantage of the house was that it was cool in the summer. The walls and roof were made of large-leaf camphor and small-leaf camphor, which are wild grasses. Soaking and kneading them in mud made the grasses tough and gave them a corrosion-resistant effect after they were stretched into braids.

Of course, some people also used straw to braid the fabric, but straw was relatively scarce in the past, unlike wild grasses like camphor trees which were plentiful. You could easily find some people to go to the meadow and cut two or three cartloads of straw, so the material was easy to find and the cost was quite cheap.

The outer room of this braided house has a cellar of more than 10 square meters, which is just right for storing the remaining livestock meat. However, it is fine in winter, but once summer comes, the cellar cannot preserve the meat for long. It will spoil after two nights at most.

I heard that Old Jiang wanted to hang a sign at the entrance of his courtyard called "Qing'an Meat Shop," and also hang some small signs on the wooden fence indicating the meats sold that day.

The loudspeaker argued that the price should be written down so that people could understand it at a glance, but Li Feng said that if the price was written down, no one would come to buy it...

The three men each had something to say, and in the end, Lao Jiang asked Xu Ning about the feasibility of the solution. Xu Ning pointed out that all three men's questions were valid, and since problems had arisen, they should be addressed with solutions rather than stubbornly arguing with each other.

“We should put up a big sign, that’s a must. Secondly, you’re selling meat, you can’t sell out every day, so you should offer a special price on the remaining meat the next day. If a piece of meat originally costs more than 3 yuan, then you should sell it for 2 yuan. At this price, you won’t lose money, and you can also clear it out quickly.”

"Also, remember to promote it. Spread the news of the opening of the butcher shop to all twelve family villages in Qing'an. But you two still need to ride your bikes to each village. The price you sell the meat at should be a little higher than the price at the butcher shop. The idea is to attract people from each village to the butcher shop."

"After the butcher shop opens for business, it needs to come up with some attractive gimmicks for the first three days. What can attract people? Mainly, it's the low price. For the first three days, all meat can be 20% off. Can you make money at that price?"

Old Jiang listened silently, and nodded upon hearing this: "I can still earn a little, but not much."

"We'll only have a 20% discount for the first three days, and then the price will go back to normal."

The loudspeaker nodded and asked, "Brother, what if selling discounted meat becomes a habit, and people stop wanting to buy meat from that day?"

"Even discounted meat varies in quality. It's not spring yet, so the meat can be frozen. But what about in the summer? It can only be kept in the cellar for one night. So we can only boil the meat and make it into salted or smoked meat. We'll sell it if we can, and if we can't, we'll just eat it ourselves."

Xu Ning thought for a moment and then said, "Moreover, discounted meat can't be sold every day. It's enough to sell it every few days. We also need to be careful when buying meat in the summer. Don't buy too much meat, or it will be stuck in our hands if we can't sell it all."

"understand!"

After talking to them, Xu Ning noticed that it was getting dark and invited the three of them to his house for dinner. However, Lao Jiang said that Zhou Hui and Zhang Guifang were cooking at his house, and the three of them would have a drink tonight.

While they were having a drink, they also needed to figure out how to split the bills and how to run the butcher shop well, so Xu Ning and Wang Hu went home.

In the evening, a pot of Feilong Mountain Delicacies Soup made Meng Ziyan, Wang Shujuan, Guan Hua, and Sun Lianfang sweat profusely as they drank it, exclaiming that the soup was incredibly delicious!

Xu Ning and the others also ate a couple of bites of the flying dragon meat, but they couldn't taste anything when they put it in their mouths. The meat had become tough from being boiled for so long.

After finishing his meal, Guan Lei left the table and took a jar of Feilong Mountain Delicacies Soup that Liu Lizhen had given him to Yang Jun's house. The soup was for Sun Cuiping. Yang Jun was very moved when he found out, and Sun Cuiping was also deeply moved, almost to tears.

Three days later, Xu Ning and his two companions, with their dogs, hunted for two consecutive days. They went to a large flat area between Shetanggou and Liushugou and hunted two deer. They sold one to Dalaba and kept the other for the Xu family to consume.

It was a little after seven in the morning.

After finishing their meal at Lao Xu's house, Xu Ning, Li Fuqiang, and others went to the Tun Dong Meat Shop. A few days ago, Li Feng and Da Laba rode donkeys backwards to promote the shop in all twelve family villages of Qing'an.

After the firecrackers finished popping, the butcher shop officially opened for business.

Old Jiang set up two long cutting boards near the doorway, with various kinds of meat laid out on them.

At this moment, Li Feng and Lao Jiang, holding meat cleavers, rubbed their hands together, eager to try their skills, and occasionally peeked outside.

Xu Ning and others came to help. They kept setting off firecrackers at the gate of the courtyard, and a loudspeaker was placed on the street to greet people who came and then escort them into the house.

Contrary to expectations of large groups, the courtyard gate appeared somewhat desolate and bleak, but the situation improved around nine o'clock in the morning.

Why? Of course, it's because the children and men in the family have all gone to school or work, leaving only the old woman at home. She also heard that meat was cheap today, so she took some money and headed to Qing'an Village.

At 9:30, a long queue finally formed in the courtyard of the butcher shop, stretching all the way to the main road.

Old Jiang and Li Feng, who were cutting the meat, were completely bewildered. Fortunately, Zhang Guifang was inside helping to collect and give change.

As noon approached, after the group of elderly women who had come to buy meat left, Lao Jiang and the others were able to rest. They sat in the warm house, eating noodles and chatting about how much money they had spent that afternoon.

Zhang Guifang counted twice, and when she announced the amount, Lao Jiang, Li Feng, and Da Laba all laughed. Because of the large volume of goods they sold, even with a 20% discount, they still made over 120 yuan! The profit from that was 20 yuan, which was much better than working for someone else!
The loudspeaker suddenly stopped smiling, turned to stare at the meat on the cutting board, and said, "Will we be able to sell the rest of the meat today?"

"Yes! Erning said that although there won't be as many people in the afternoon as in the morning, the amount we prepared today is just right. I estimate we can sell out by around three o'clock." Li Fuqiang exclaimed, "Oh my! All the goods we've collected these past few days will be sold out tomorrow, right? We need to hurry and get more stock!"

Old Jiang laughed and said, "No rush. I contacted Nanxing Village beforehand. They'll bring the goods directly here with their livestock, saving us the trouble of picking them up ourselves."

"This is quite convenient. How about we have them deliver it to us from now on?"

The loudspeaker shook his head: "No, my brother said that we need to go out and meet people often to do business. We can't just stay in this little corner of the world. Otherwise, the outside world will change and we won't even know it."

"Yeah, what if someone sees that our butcher shop is doing well and opens one in their village too? That way we'll be prepared and won't be caught off guard."

"That's right, not at all wrong."

In the afternoon, they sold another 80 yuan worth of goods, bringing their total sales for the day to over 200 yuan, with a profit of nearly 30 yuan, which is almost a month's salary for an average forestry worker.

For three consecutive days, the butcher shop earned a total of more than 80 yuan. That evening, after the loudspeaker returned from collecting meat, he, Li Feng, and Lao Jiang found Liu Daming, who had just arrived home and was about to rest.

When Lao Jiang divided the 80-plus yuan into four parts, Liu Daming was a little confused and asked, "What does that mean?"

“It’s a profit sharing! This is the profit we made from selling meat over the past three days. I thought Li Feng has been working with us for quite a while, so we shouldn’t just make a profit from the price difference. Therefore, Guoxing and I thought we should also give Li Feng a share, and we won’t have to go through him again in the future.”

The loudspeaker nodded: "Yeah, I've calculated this money several times. The three of us split it equally before, and you still have money in the purchase account, so we'll split it as we agreed before. I came here today for two reasons: first, to split the profits, and second, to ask you how many shares would be appropriate for Li Feng."

Liu Daming said, "Wow, you guys made over 80 in just three days? Holy crap, that's more money than what I make working at the market."

"Of course, we prepared for quite a long time beforehand."

"I agree, but we can't just split the money today, can we? We'll still need to buy more goods later."

"We have enough money to buy the goods. Let's split the profits from these three days today to avoid future chaos in the accounts."

Liu Daming asked, "How many shares did I have before?"

"Three shares! Guoxing and I will split the remaining seven shares."

Liu Daming nodded: "Ah, then just leave me one share. I won't be involved in selling meat anymore; you guys handle all the sales. I only paid a little money..."

Old Jiang glanced at Wu Qiuxia, who was knitting a sweater at the end of the kang (a heated brick bed), and shook his head: "Listen to me, how about we divide it like this first? Let Li Feng put in 300 yuan as a share, and help him buy and sell meat. Give him two and a half shares, then you take one and a half shares, and Guoxing and I will each take three shares."

“Sure! What’s wrong with that? I didn’t do any physical labor. I can earn money just by lying at home. Isn’t that great?”

The loudspeaker laughed and said, "Alright! It's settled then. Or how about we sign a contract sometime?"

"Signing a contract is really good. We're not trying to protect ourselves from anyone, it's just that it makes things look more professional!"

Li Feng grinned and nodded: "I think it's a good idea!"

Liu Daming said, "Yeah, but after we split the money this time, we need to set a date. We can't just split it whenever we want. Otherwise, it'll be a mess."

"That works, let's split the profits at the beginning of each month..."

After they finished chatting, Liu Daming accepted his share of the profits, totaling 12.7 yuan.

The following day, a light rain fell in Qing'an, a mountain valley. Due to the huge temperature difference between day and night, the rainwater mixed with snow and froze into ice overnight, which only slowly melted under the warm sun a week later.

Xu Ning and the others haven't been going hiking lately, not only because the mountain roads are muddy from melting snow, but mainly because one day while hunting roe deer in Heishitang, Li Fuqiang slipped and fell into a crevice, his ankle swelling up like a bun. He got scolded by his mother when he got home, so Xu Ning has stopped going.

But he couldn't stay idle at home. As the weather gradually warmed up, he and Wang Hu went with Ma Liu to the underground cellar in the east mountain. They first sent the queen bee to the beehive in the back mountain, and then followed Ma Liu to raise bees in the back mountain for a few days. It was called beekeeping, but it was actually learning how to take care of the queen bee...

Meng the Cripple had taken all the dozen or so beehives he made to the back mountain, but they were short of queen bees, so Ma Liu urged him to go to the city to buy queen bees as soon as possible.

Xu Ning was efficient and didn't procrastinate. He drove to the city the next morning. This time, he didn't bring his wife and sister-in-law because it was Labor Day in a couple of days, and Xu Long would have to drive back. He would let them go to the city with Xu Long then.

Upon arriving in the city, they immediately contacted friends to inquire where to buy queen bees. That evening, Xiao Du dragged Ye Xu to Yang Liguo's restaurant.

Yang's Home-Style Restaurant has been doing well lately because Yang Liguo listened to Xu Ning's advice and decided not to charge for anything, even if the prices were a bit higher than those with tickets. The customers were willing to accept it. Also, because Yang Liguo's cooking skills are good, there are quite a few repeat customers.

After drinking and chatting with Ye Xu for a bit, Xu Ning mentioned that he would bring her a few queen bees sometime before heading home. Only after Ye Xu left did Xu Ning hear from Xiao Du that Ye Xu's maternal grandmother's village was located on the edge of a mountain, and the entire village was dedicated to beekeeping...

The next day, Xu Ning met with Lao Qian and told him to contact the construction team as soon as possible. He also contacted the brick factory owner, asking Mr. Li to deliver 10 truckloads of red bricks before May 3rd. He also called Sun Weimin and asked him for 10 truckloads of kang stone slabs. The kang stone slabs were not for building the kang, but for paving the floor!

Around 3 p.m., Ye Xu found Xu Ning and handed him seven willow cages, instructing him: "There is a queen bee in each cage. You must take care to keep them warm when you take them home. The temperature has been fluctuating too much these past few days, and the queen bee can easily die."

"Yeah, I'll send them all back tomorrow. Brother Xu, how much do these queen bees cost?"

"Don't worry about money. If you come across a good car in the future, save one for me. My uncle might want to buy a car."

"Oh, absolutely! If you find a nice car, I'll let you know. I'll tell you how much it costs and I'll give you the same amount."

"Okay! If you encounter any problems while you're building the house, just contact me."

"Don't worry, Brother Xu, I can't stand on ceremony with you."

After Ye Xu left, Xu Ning hung the cage containing the queen bee on the car.

(End of this chapter)