Back in the 1980s, hiking in the mountains was also a way of life

In those days, firecrackers were usually made in sets of 100, 200, 500, and 1000 shots.

The 1000-shot version is 2 meters long, so the 40-meter-long "Earth Red" is made by connecting 20 strings of 1000-shot "Earth Red" together.

At that time, the fuses for Dadihong firecrackers used slow fuses, with a burning speed of about 3 centimeters per second, unlike the firecracker fuses of later generations, which used fast fuses with a burning speed of 20 centimeters per second or more.

Therefore, at this time, the 1000-shot "Great Red Earth" blast takes more than a minute to finish.

Therefore, the 20 strings of red silk cords that Wang An linked together kept ringing for more than 20 minutes before they stopped.

However, it must be said that the purpose of setting off firecrackers is to welcome the new year, but if they keep going off incessantly, it can be very annoying.

So when they were setting off firecrackers and eating dumplings, Liu Guilan said to Wang Andao:

"Next year, you should shorten those firecrackers. They keep going and going, and you can't hear anything on TV."

Wang An chuckled and readily agreed.

The main problem was the constant noise from the firecrackers, which was becoming unbearable for Wang An.

Although no one was hungry when we ate dumplings, everyone still ate quite a bit.

Those who didn't get any coins wanted to get some before putting down their chopsticks, while those who did get some wanted to get a few more coins.

The children at the dinner table were making a ruckus, shouting and making a great commotion. One minute one of them would shout that I had found money in my food, and the next minute another would shout that I had found money in my food too.

The adults watched the children with smiles, occasionally spitting out a coin themselves.

In short, everyone had a satisfied and happy smile on their face.

After finishing the dumplings and cleaning up the dishes, Wang Dazhu, as the nominal head of the family, personally put the pot on the stove and distributed lucky money to all the children before everyone went to rest.

Time flies, and in the blink of an eye, the fifteenth day of the first lunar month has passed, and the sixteenth day of the first lunar month has arrived.

In rural areas, once the Lantern Festival (the 15th day of the first lunar month) has passed, the New Year celebrations are considered completely over, and everyone's lives gradually return to normal, with people going back to work and getting busy as usual.

Of course, families that have no side jobs other than farming are still in a state of winter idleness. However, such families are destined not to become rich; they are already doing well if they can solve their basic needs for food and clothing.

On the sixteenth day of the first lunar month, Wang An took some gifts and drove to the county.

Wang An's purpose in going to the county was to visit Qiao Xiaohu's family and ask Qiao Xiaohu to contact pharmacies or medicinal herb dealers in various places to help Han Xiaomin's family find more sales channels for their medicinal herbs.

As for the gifts he brought, Wang An prepared them for Qiao Xiaohu's grandparents.

There was no other way; Wang An had already invested in Han Xiaomin's medicinal herb business, and it wouldn't be fair for him to just take a share of the profits without doing any work.

After arriving at Qiao Xiaohu's house and wishing Qiao Xiaohu's grandparents a Happy New Year, Wang An and Qiao Xiaohu went to the west room.

According to Qiao Xiaohu, the business of reselling goods is not as good as it used to be.

Not only did sales of goods decline sharply, but profit margins also shrank drastically.

The reason for this is mainly because of Qiao Xiaohu's rise to prominence, which has led to an increasing number of unemployed people in the county and surrounding counties engaging in this business.

This question surprised and surprised Wang An.

It's important to understand that at this time in Wang An's previous life, there were very few people involved in the trade, whether in DJ County or the surrounding banners and counties. It wasn't until the mid-to-late 80s, when the light industry in Russia to the north experienced serious problems, that many people began to engage in the trade.

But now, just because Wang An, this little butterfly, flapped his wings slightly, the business of reselling goods has become a real burden.

The main reason is that Wang An initially estimated that this business of reselling goods should have been profitable for at least two or three years, but so far, it hasn't even been a year.

This is fucking infuriating!

It must be said that while the Chinese may not be very innovative, their ability to imitate is absolutely amazing—it's incredibly amazing, even bordering on the absurd.

Of course, the reason it was so easily imitated is partly because there are too many idle people.

On the other hand, and most importantly, the barrier to entry for trading goods is simply too low. Anyone with a little capital and the courage to make a few trips to the south can do this business.

Fortunately, although the trade in goods has shrunk drastically and may soon be over, the trade in buying and selling mountain products has taken off.

Following the method Wang An taught Qiao Xiaohu, Qiao Xiaohu sent out all his men to sign contracts with many production team leaders. So far, Li Xinhao's men have come twice and taken away two train cars full of mountain goods.

These two transactions of mountain products alone earned Qiao Xiaohu a net profit of more than 5 yuan.

Of course, half of this money belongs to Wang An.

Qiao Xiaohu spoke of his disinterest in the business of reselling goods with a sigh.

But when it came to buying and selling mountain goods, Qiao Xiaohu spoke with great enthusiasm and energy.

Consequently, Wang An's interest in collecting mountain goods also increased considerably, mainly because the business of collecting mountain goods is quite different from the business of trading other goods.

Don't be fooled by the fact that trading goods is a low-barrier business that anyone can do; collecting mountain products is a much more difficult task.

Because the process of acquiring mountain products—which involves organizing manpower, resources, and money to purchase them, transporting them, and finally selling them—is not something anyone can simply interfere with. If any link in the chain goes wrong, all the acquired mountain products will become worthless.

As Qiao Xiaohu listened to his story, Wang An would occasionally offer him advice, telling him many solutions and methods for solving problems.

Wang An's methods benefited Qiao Xiaohu greatly once again, and Qiao Xiaohu even filled several pages of his ever-present notebook with notes.

After discussing the business of mountain products, Wang An handed Qiao Xiaohu a price list of various medicinal herbs, as well as the phone number and address of Han Xiaomin's shop, telling Qiao Xiaohu to contact Han Xiaomin directly if he had any business in medicinal herbs.

Furthermore, Wang An promised Qiao Xiaohu that he would give Qiao Xiaohu 5% of the sales revenue for each medicinal herb transaction.

Qiao Xiaohu readily accepted Wang An's arrangement. It was just a side job, and every little bit counted. Besides, a 5% commission on sales was a decent amount of money.

Before leaving Qiao Xiaohu's house, Wang An also took away Qiao Xiaohu's share of the profits from dealing in goods over the past six months, which was 15,000 yuan.

After Wang An took the money, he effectively withdrew from the business of trading goods with Qiao Xiaohu.

Qiao Xiaohu still had over 7,000 yuan worth of goods and over 8,000 yuan in cash he had earned from trading goods.

After Qiao Xiaohu sold all the small commodities he had, he no longer wanted to deal in small commodities, but instead wanted to focus on the business of collecting mountain products.

In less than a year, Qiao Xiaohu earned so much money by trading small commodities, which shows that he has a real talent for business. (End of Chapter)