Return to 1983 Hunting Xing'an Mountains

Chapter 783 Xu Huaiyu and Xu Huaijin's Brand Agency in Three Cities
Xu Long held Xu Wenxiao carefully and stood beside the bed, moving gently so as not to rub Xu Wenxiao's delicate skin until it turned bluish-purple.

Wang Shujuan lay on the bed covered with a quilt. The curtains in the room were drawn, and the door was tightly closed. Guo Hongxia carried a thermos and poured a bowl of chicken soup, which she placed on the bedside table to cool. She planned to let Wang Shujuan replenish her strength first, as she had been in the delivery room for nearly two hours and was already exhausted and weak all over.

There were four women in the room, and the other one was Wang Yuanjun's girlfriend. After Xu Long put down the child and left the ward, he met up with Xu Ning, Wang Yuanjun, Xu Laonian, and Wang Minfu. The men all looked very happy.

They discussed in the corridor whether to hold a full-month celebration or a 100-day celebration. In the end, Xu Laonian decided to hold a full-month celebration and then hold a 100-day celebration after Xu Ning's child was born. This way, they could have a three or four-month break, which would also give their relatives and friends some breathing room.

Wang Shujuan didn't invite Meng Ziyan to come today because she was afraid that Meng Ziyan would startle the baby, since her due date is not far away.

After the baby's one-month celebration was set, Xu Ning drove his old Dongfeng car home to pick up Xu Feng, while Xu Long drove his Jeep 212 to his workplace to announce the good news. After Xu Ning brought Xu Feng over, she immediately started clamoring to hold her nephew. Liu Lizhen kept reminding her to be gentle and careful, but Xu Feng, being both bold and careful, easily picked up Xu Wenxiao.

The child didn't cry when held in Xu Feng's arms; instead, he looked at Xu Feng and giggled. Guo Hongxia said from the side, "This child recognizes his family! That's wonderful..."

As darkness fell, Xu Laonian made arrangements to go eat. Liu Lizhen naturally stayed to keep Wang Shujuan and the children company, so she had Guo Hongxia, Wang Minfu, Wang Yuanjun, and others go with them to Yang's Home-Style Restaurant for a meal.

Xu Ning quickly shoveled down a couple of mouthfuls of food, then took the takeout container back to the family dormitory. Meng Ziyan hadn't eaten yet. He handed the container to his wife, and heard Meng Ziyan mutter, "Then I'll go check on our nephew tomorrow, okay..."

She wasn't sure herself, mainly because she was afraid Xu Ning wouldn't be happy, but how could Xu Ning not be happy about something good?
Seeing him nod, Meng Ziyan smiled and chatted with Xu Ning for a few heartfelt words, meaning that she was not afraid of having children.

Xu Ning understood what she meant, but after seeing Xu Wenxiao today, he felt that the child looked a bit like an old man, wrinkled and not plump at all. Especially a few hours after birth, his head was covered with yellow scabs. He was afraid that Meng Ziyan would be affected if she saw him.

In the evening, Xu Laonian, Xu Long, Xu Feng and others returned. Xu Long had already called Du Shoucai to inform him that Xu Wenxiao had been born. Du Shoucai happily asked how much he weighed. Xu Long said that he weighed six pounds and four ounces. This weight was not very fat, which was why he looked like an old man.

The next day, Xu Ning took Meng Ziyan to the hospital. She was happy to see Xu Wenxiao, but he was sleeping at the time, so she didn't pick him up. Afterwards, Xu Ning took her to see Aunt Qu for a check-up, mainly to check if the heads of the two babies were in the correct position. If they weren't, someone would have to adjust them, otherwise, the legs coming out first could easily cause a difficult labor.

Xu Ning specifically instructed Aunt Qu that if Meng Ziyan's delivery didn't go smoothly, they should prepare for a C-section. Aunt Qu, however, waved her hand confidently, saying, "Don't worry, I've helped more than ten women give birth to twins over the years, and they all had smooth deliveries. Besides, a C-section isn't good for recovery. That long scar would require five or six layers of stitches. Let alone five or six layers, even for a normal person, a cut on their skin looks pretty bad..."

Xu Ning isn't a professional, but Aunt Qu is, so listening to her is generally a safe bet.

Seven days later, Wang Shujuan recovered well and was discharged from the hospital. In fact, she was able to get out of bed and go to the toilet by herself four hours after giving birth, but it was a bit difficult to move around. After all, the pelvis opens up during childbirth, and it will definitely take a month or two to fully recover. This is why we need to observe the postpartum period.

Today, Xu Long drove his Jeep 212 back to the village with Wang Shujuan, Liu Lizhen and their child, and Xu Laonian. Since there were many people in the family, Guo Hongxia was not allowed to go back with them. Liu Lizhen would have to come to the city in a month, and Guo Hongxia could take over for her then.

As soon as they arrived home, relatives and friends from the village came to visit. Liu Lizhen didn't even have to lift a finger to cook dinner; Yang Shuhua, Han Fengjiao, and others took care of all the food. However, Guan Lei was the only one missing. At the end of last month, he went to Malian with Da Zhi and Feng Ye to join Wei Lai's ginseng gang and go into the mountains to carry ginseng with sticks.

Before Guan Lei left Qing'an, he, along with Da Laba, Lao Jiang, and others, went to the town and caught 30 chicks, 20 ducklings, 20 goslings, and six piglets. Although there is a saying in the countryside that "nothing is perfect," such as catching 9 or 19 chicks, catching even numbers makes it easier to calculate. Besides, after Liu Lizhen, Han Fengjiao, Yang Shuhua, and Wu Qiuxia divided the chicks among themselves, each family received a single-digit number.

To ensure timely feeding and easy management, they threw the chickens, ducks, and geese into the gap between the Xu and Wang families, while the piglets were raised in the backyard of the Wang family, where a pigsty was built near the back mountain.

During this period, Lao Jiang, Da Laba, and Li Feng made a lot of money. The butcher shop was doing very well. Even people from Nanxing Village would ride bicycles to buy meat. However, Da Laba's income from selling meat from village to village on his donkey had decreased. This was normal, since each pound of meat was two cents more expensive than at the butcher shop. Many people were willing to walk more than ten miles to save a few cents.

Meanwhile, the loudspeaker was also in charge of collecting bear bile. Because of his reputation throughout the Qing'an area, many people were willing to sell their bear bile to him because of him and Xu Ning's name. The most important reason was that Xu Ning added 50 yuan to each bear bile, which meant that it was always 50 yuan more expensive than the supply and marketing cooperative and pharmacies.

The loudspeaker has already collected eight bear gallbladders, and there are many other smart people with plenty of money watching from the sidelines. These people are simply optimistic about the rising price of bear gallbladders, and it might be difficult to get them to make a move.

When Li Fuqiang left the city, Xu Ning gave him 4 yuan to give to Dalaba to collect bear gallbladders. Xu Ning also told Dalaba to add 50 yuan to each bear gallbladder and to give an extra 50 yuan to the eight bear gallbladders that had been collected before. After these eight people publicized this matter, those who had bear gallbladders at home were even less willing to sell them!
Why? Because when they saw the price of bear bile being increased from 50 to 100, they all knew that the price was going to rise again. But where did they get inside information? Those with inside information often went to pharmacies and supply and marketing cooperatives to inquire. At the end of June, after hearing that the price of black bear green bile had plummeted and dropped by 60 yuan in a week, they started to panic.

Some people may find this unreasonable, but Xu Ning, Li Zhuang (who specializes in collecting bear bile from pharmaceutical companies), and Chen Hedong, through a phone conversation, based on their experience of collecting bear bile every spring, Li Zhuang judged that June and July are the off-season for bear bile and various types of hides.

Because of a surge in bear bile production at the beginning of spring, all the bear bile in Heilongjiang Province was concentrated in pharmaceutical factories. The pharmaceutical factories had enough stockpiled, which caused the price of bear bile to drop.

As a result, everyone in the Qing'an area who owned bear bile received the news of the price drop. Some of them immediately went to the loudspeaker and asked if he would buy bear bile or add 100 yuan. The loudspeaker shook his head, saying that the price of bear bile had dropped, but he was still willing to add 50 yuan to buy it.

The group chattered amongst themselves, saying that the eight people selling bear bile ahead had made 100 yuan for nothing. The loudspeaker grinned and said, "Back then, even if I had added 100 yuan, you wouldn't have sold it to me. Weren't you all waiting for the price of bear bile to go up?"

Upon hearing this, the group of people all looked embarrassed. How could the loudspeaker let such an opportunity pass? He continued the conversation, and after a few words, the two sides went to the village office or brigade to find someone to sign a contract. Then the loudspeaker rode his donkey home and called Li Fuqiang and Wang Hu. With the money, they got the bear bile.

In four or five days, all 4 yuan was gone, and they managed to scrape together 26500 yuan from Liu Lizhen, Han Fengjiao, Yang Shuhua and others.

On July 20, Li Fuqiang drove Yang Jun's car and took Liu Lizhen, Xu Laonian, Liu Fenfang, Meng Quezi, and Meng Yinhe to their residential building in the city. He also brought all the bear gallbladders collected by the loudspeaker, a total of 27 bear gallbladders. Each bear gallbladder was worth only 2500 yuan on average, because there were five brown bear gallbladders and a few small bear gallbladders.

If delivered to a pharmaceutical factory in the provincial capital, a single bear bile could earn a profit of nearly 500 yuan. However, Xu Ning is not short of money right now. He plans to have Guan Lei and Chen Hedong send the bear bile and chard to the south next year, where the profit can double again with each transaction!
However, these bear bile supplies had to be delivered to Chen Hedong in the provincial capital, because he, Xu Ning, and Guan Lei had set up a mountain products company, which was mainly for profit. The payment for these bear bile supplies had to be settled as soon as possible, otherwise it would be difficult to calculate the profit once the price of bear bile rose.

This is why Xu Ning didn't ask Li Fuqiang to bring his own bear bile. Li Fuqiang, Wang Hu, and Guan Lei had shares in his bear bile, so he definitely couldn't sell it now, otherwise Wang Hu and Li Fuqiang would lose several hundred yuan.

That evening, everyone gathered at Yang's Home-Style Restaurant and enjoyed a few drinks.

Zhang Jinbao and Li Fengxia were also present today. Earlier that morning, Zhang Jinbao delivered some furniture to the auto repair shop, such as desks, stools, chairs, and small wooden beds.

The construction of the auto repair shop is nearing completion; currently, they are installing wiring, lights, and plastering inside.

The building has three floors: the first floor is a car showroom, the second floor is office space, and the third floor is a dormitory area. To the left of the main building, there is a small factory building, which was reserved in advance for repairing cars and jeeps.

Behind the main building is the truck repair workshop, and next to this workshop is the car storage warehouse. There are two such warehouses, one large and one small. The large warehouse also contains more than ten small rooms, mainly used to store car parts.

A few days ago was Xu Wenxiao's full moon celebration. Xu Ning, Yang Yusheng and others went back to the village. In addition to relatives and friends in the village, the Chai family in Wangxing sent Chai Bing, Chai Baotong and Chai Hongyan. The Sun family in Sandaohe sent Sun Jishan, Sun Jiye and Sun Lianjun. The Wu family in Wanye sent Wu Haitao, Guan Mei and Wu Hailong.

Since it is currently the busy farming season, you might ask, what is there to be busy about in July?
In Northeast China, this is the crucial time for weeding and thinning seedlings. Because Qing'an is located in the southern part of Heilongjiang Province, bordering Jilin Province, and is not too far north, the temperature has already risen to 30 degrees Celsius.

Crops naturally grow exceptionally fast, requiring human intervention to achieve a bumper harvest. Otherwise, the nutrients needed by the crops will be absorbed by the weeds, making a good harvest impossible.

At the dinner table, Li Fuqiang said that he and Pan Yan had cleared more than an acre of land in the old forest to the south, but it would take another year and a half to grow crops, mainly because there were too many insects in the ground, so they had to spray some pesticides and set up a fire. Du Shoucai's family had also built five new houses, modeled after the Xu family's layout. More than forty people from the village came to help, with Li Fuqiang and Wang Hu helping to manage the construction. The houses were now completed, and they were tidying up the courtyard, pigsty, and chicken coop.

The next day, Xu Ning took Meng Ziyan to the hospital, accompanied by Liu Lizhen and Liu Fenfang. Xu Laonian and Meng Quezi, who had nothing else to do, were responsible for delivering meals and fetching hot water. When they had free time, they would go to the courtyard in front of the hospital to smoke a cigarette and watch a group of old men play chess.

During this period, Xu Ning was never idle. Before the auto repair shop was about to be completed, he went to his connections to get a loan, transported two truckloads of parts from parts factories and tire factories, and went to Jilin Province and the provincial capital with Lao Qian. He talked with Changchang Factory about becoming the agent for five models of tractors in three cities, and with Songqi Factory in the provincial capital about becoming the agent for the southeastern part of the province.

Behind this Songqi Factory is the Harbin Aircraft Manufacturing Plant, which was renamed Harbin Aircraft Manufacturing Company this year. It entered the automotive field in the 80s, mainly producing small trucks and vans. The minivans produced two years ago were widely praised and became well-known to the public. However, it wasn't until 1989 that this brand of vans became popular nationwide, with a market share of 20% and annual sales of 10 units. By 1995, the sales of this car brand's minivans had reached the top three in the country!

Xu Ning values ​​the brand's future development, believing it will be acquired by Changan Automobile in the future. Of course, the most important reason is that negotiating an agency deal is very cheap now, and there are certain discounts available.

On July 25, Xu Ning brought lunchboxes to his single room to deliver food to his mother, mother-in-law, and wife. He hadn't gone out to do business for two days in a row, after all, his wife was about to give birth, which was a big deal.

The three of them chatted with Xu Ning while eating. Meng Ziyan had only eaten half a box of rice when she suddenly looked up and froze. She blinked and turned her head, saying, "Mom, it seems like my water broke."

Liu Lizhen and Liu Fenfang were stunned for nearly three seconds. At this moment, Xu Ning darted out of the ward. The two mothers came to their senses and hurriedly put down their lunch boxes, and put away the small table and aluminum lunch box in front of Meng Ziyan.

Xu Ning rushed into the corridor to find a doctor and nurses. Aunt Qu heard the commotion and ran out, asking, "Did your water break?"

"Yes! What should we do, Aunt Qu?"

"Don't panic, there's still time. Has your wife had breakfast?"

"I only ate half a box of rice, so I'm probably not full."

Aunt Qu breathed a sigh of relief: "It's better if she's not full, I'm just afraid she'll eat too much! Xiao Liu, go and prepare the delivery room, and find someone else to go to the maternity ward rest room to find Director Han to go to the delivery room."

After Nurse Liu left, Aunt Qu and Xu Ning went to the single room. Aunt Qu nodded to Liu Lizhen, lifted the blanket to peek inside, and said, "It's nothing. Would my niece-in-law like to have some food?"

Meng Ziyan, ever carefree, nodded: "I'd like to eat some more."

Aunt Qu laughed and said, "Don't eat it. Drink less water before you go into the delivery room."

Xu Ning immediately found the thermos and poured some warm water into the teacup. Meng Ziyan had just taken two sips when the nurse rushed in with a cart. Liu Lizhen and Liu Fenfang then helped her up, and she lay down on the cart herself. Before Xu Ning could even catch her breath, she was wheeled out of the single room.

Once inside the delivery room, Aunt Qu turned to her and said, "Your wife seems quite unhurried. I reckon it'll be a while before she gives birth. Don't worry, go back to your room and wait."

"Oh, okay, Aunt Qu, is there anything else she needs?"

"You don't need anything, everything is provided in the delivery room, so don't worry."

After the delivery room door closed, Liu Lizhen grabbed Xu Ning and said, "Hurry up and go find your dad! The baby will be out soon."

Xu Ning regained his composure and said, "Mom, didn't you hear what my Aunt Qu said? There's no need to worry."

"Oh dear, you child, hurry up and go! It's better to be early than late, don't dawdle!"

So Xu Ning ran to the hospital grounds and found Xu Laonian and Meng Quezi. He then called Zhang Jinbao from the shop to tell him that Meng Ziyan was about to give birth and asked him, Li Fengxia, and Meng Yinhe to come over...

When Zhang Jinbao and the other two arrived at the hospital's delivery room, there was still no movement from inside the factory. It was almost nine o'clock, and Meng Ziyan had been in the delivery room for more than an hour.

Just as everyone was wondering why there was no movement, a loud laugh suddenly came from the delivery room. Upon closer listening, it turned out that Aunt Qu was telling Meng Ziyan a joke. The joke made Meng Ziyan laugh so hard that she almost fell over. Not two minutes later, Meng Ziyan felt unwell, followed by a scream.

Xu Ning could only hear a faint sound outside the door, but even that faint sound made his heart clench. About half an hour later, a loud cry came. Xu Ning quickly looked down at the time: 9:46. Ten minutes later, another sharp cry came, this time at 10:08.

Xu Laonian, Meng Quezi, Liu Lizhen, and Liu Fenfang clapped their hands excitedly, while Xu Ning leaned against the wall, feeling a mix of emotions he couldn't quite describe.

"So you're a father now?" Xu Ning didn't know how to describe it; he had a very complicated feeling.

A moment later, two nurses came out of the delivery room carrying babies, and Xu Ning immediately went to greet them.

The nurse had seen Xu Ning several times. When she saw him take out two red envelopes from his pocket, she smiled apologetically and said, "The boy was born at 9:46 and the girl at 10:08. Congratulations."

"Thank you so much! Please share in the joy. You've worked so hard."

Xu Ning stuffed the two red envelopes into their pockets, then took the two children from the two nurses. Looking down at the children, she saw that they were wrinkled and looked like old men.

The nurse said, "The boy weighs 5 jin (7 kg) and the girl weighs 5 jin (4 catties)."

How's my wife?

"It was great. I ate some cookies and drank two cups of sweet milk when I gave birth to them."

Xu Ning smiled, Liu Lizhen and Liu Fenfang exchanged a smile, and Li Fengxia laughed and said, "Giving birth nowadays is such a blessing. I gave birth at home back then, and this baby was so tender..."

"That's right. When I gave birth to Dalong and Erning, I also gave birth at home. I only ate one dry noodle bun at noon, and I was too exhausted to continue."

(End of this chapter)