1994: Vegetable farmers strike back

Chapter 76: Sheep Among Wolves (Please Read!)
The Yunshan Hotel is a hotel established with investment from local private capital in Huacheng and the Xiangjiang Consortium.

It has been open for just over a year and is positioned as a business luxury hotel. It has a Cantonese theme restaurant and mainly serves domestic and foreign traders.

Before the Dragon Boat Festival, orders for guest rooms and theme restaurants had already been booked out and business was booming.

On the evening of the 11th, Xu Wenxiang, the hotel's shareholder and general manager, convened a meeting of all departments to personally review the menu and room design, as well as check pre-holiday preparations and many other matters.

Xu Wenxiang wore a white round-neck short-sleeved top, revealing her fair neck and forearms, and black trousers and leather shoes. She looked exceptionally tall and had an outstanding temperament as she walked in front of the crowd.

Surrounded by the heads of various departments, he did a great job in everything from guest rooms to restaurant menus.

When she got to the frozen storage, she looked at the inventory list and frowned: "Why are there so few leafy greens?"

The purchasing manager, a middle-aged woman named Liu Xiaoying, dressed in a dark suit, mused, "Xu He, who's in charge of vegetable delivery, has guaranteed fresh greens every day. He says greens arriving that day are fresher, taste better, and are more profitable for the hotel."

People in Guangdong Province emphasize a balanced diet. I don’t know whether people in Fujian eat it or not, but there must be some non-greasy vegetables on the table.

It also has to be leafy greens.

Even though green leafy vegetables are not resistant to storage, they must be placed in the hotel's cold storage 2 to 3 days before the festival to prevent accidents such as insufficient green vegetables.

Xu Wenxiang raised an eyebrow and asked, "What's he up to? What if there aren't enough vegetables? How's the quality of the vegetables delivered these days?"

Wu Yaohua stepped out from behind her and said, "Mr. Xu has been delivering plenty of green vegetables lately, and they're all high-quality choy sum. The diners' response has been very good."

Wu Yaohua added, "Several merchants from Hong Kong Island were also very satisfied."

Liu Xiaoying also said: "Today, Mr. Xu sent 120 kilograms of Chinese cabbage, one-third more than usual, but only a small part is left. Tomorrow morning, Mr. Xu will send 200 kilograms."

Xu Wenxiang was still somewhat dissatisfied and said coldly, "Recent news reports have been reporting that vegetables are in great demand. I heard that the Jiangxin vegetable market was also flooded a while ago. Can he guarantee that he can buy fresh produce tomorrow? Don't let him do what he wants!"

The air was slightly stagnant.

Liu Xiaoying gritted her teeth and replied, "Mr. Xu should have found other sources of supply, so he's more confident."

Xu Wenxiang asked, "Has the purchasing department checked? Are the plantings up to standard? Have they been subject to random inspections? Pesticide poisoning incidents have been frequent in the past two years, so even last-minute purchases must be made with caution! If a poisoning incident occurs at the hotel, you're all doomed!"

Everyone became even more nervous.

"Not yet. I'll send someone tomorrow."

"Forget it, I'll ask Xu He in person tomorrow."

While they were inspecting the cold storage, the warehouse keeper who heard the conversation quietly took out the remaining Chinese cabbage and spread it on the ground.

Xu Wenxiang crossed his arms and looked around for a few seconds. The roots and leaves looked very good, and his cold expression eased a little.

...

Huacheng Shijing Jiangnan Agricultural and Sideline Products Wholesale Market.

Under the dim light, green vegetable baskets filled the aisles and various vegetables were piled up like mountains.

"Make way! Pass a moment!"

On a large truck, He Qiang, He Peng, Sun Jianjun, Luo Xiaoyu and others were sweating profusely as they unloaded the goods.

In the past few days, each person has to move 2 to 3 tons of goods.

Incomes also rose.

After unloading a truckload of goods, He Qiang wiped the sweat off his face with the towel on his shoulder, and said to He Peng, Sun Jianjun and others who were resting:
"Well, I wasn't kidding you, it's much better than growing vegetables. Although it's a bit tiring, but if I keep doing what I did today, I can earn at least 600 to 700 yuan a month. Today, there are trucks queuing outside the market to enter, so you can imagine how much vegetables there are."

He Peng nodded: "It's okay, there is a stable income every day. Yesterday, the two of us earned more than fifty in one day."

He Qiang smiled and said, "There will be more today and tomorrow."

Everyone was in a good mood. They were not afraid of hard work, but they were afraid of not getting any results.

Sun Jianjun listened to the constant shouting of prices and said inappropriately, "I don't know how Chen Jiazhi is doing. Vegetable prices are good recently. If he has vegetables, his income can't be low."

Just one sentence silenced everyone.

The reason they don't grow vegetables is, to put it nicely, because their income is unstable, but in reality, it's because they work hard but get no rewards and can't make ends meet.

However, Chen Jiazhi was reborn in a short period of time, producing one crop of vegetables after another.

The daily income is more than fifty yuan.

Finally, I took over their land~
awkward.

Sun Jianjun rubbed his head. Why did everyone suddenly stop talking? Were they tired? Fortunately, another cargo owner was looking for someone to unload their cargo. It was a large truckload of choy sum from Yunnan Province, packed in foam boxes with ice packs on each layer to keep them fresh. It was very heavy, and unloading was not easy.

However, what stunned them was that buyers came one by one with lists in hand to buy goods.

Even though the price of vegetables was as high as 3 yuan per catty, when only half of the goods were sold, the stall owner shouted in a hoarse voice: "Caixin, Kunming Caixin! Last two tons! First come, first served!"

A truckload of more than ten tons of Chinese cabbage was sold out in just one hour.

The buyers who didn’t find any goods were running as fast as they could, moving quickly between trucks.

However, green leafy vegetables are becoming less and less available.

The buyers became increasingly agitated, shouting, scolding, and cursing, and then they started looking for the goods everywhere.

If there is none in Jiangnan, then go to other markets and look for them one by one...

He Qiang and his colleagues felt the hot market as loaders.

However, Chen Jiazhi was there firsthand, experiencing the bustling festival wholesale market.

The market he works in is in Haizhu, a very old wholesale market, so old that the words on the doorplate are blurred.

But just after 12 o'clock in the morning, many buyers came to the market and continued to buy goods.

Especially leafy greens.

As soon as they arrive on the market, they are sold out in seconds.

Market supervision departments have begun on-site inspections, seemingly intending to control price increases, but it is impossible to prevent price increases during holidays.
At about 1 o'clock, some regular customers of this market quietly came to the temporary stalls in the alley.

In particular, one of the spots near the wall had the largest number of people gathered.

Many people look familiar.

Xu He saw Mao Liangcai, the owner of stall No. 18 in the market, and a few of Chen Cainong's regular customers.
No need to guess.

These people are just like him, afraid that the food will be snatched away by others, so they come early to wait.

In the evening, he received a message on Wu Yaohua's pager, saying that his cousin Xu Wenxiang was interested in the supply of leafy vegetables.

Let him not make any mistakes.

So, although he had a certain degree of trust in Chen the vegetable farmer, he still came early.

Looking at the people around him, he felt that he had come to the right place.

There is a shortage of green leafy vegetables in the market today.
"What the hell, it's already this late, and Diaomao Chen the vegetable farmer hasn't arrived yet. Usually he'd be here by this time."

The owner of stall No. 18, who was also selling choy sum, was complaining, and immediately others followed suit.

"Isn't Chen the vegetable farmer going to fail at this critical moment? Does anyone know where his vegetable fields are and how much land they have?"

"It seemed like there were only a few acres of land," recalled Zhang, a short-haired woman.

Someone said: "Damn, he was so popular a while ago, is he suddenly out of food now?"

The man at stall number 18 said, "Damn it! It's my Dragon Boat Festival! How embarrassing it would be if there were no vegetables at a village banquet!"

Xu He was also a little anxious from the conversation between the few people. If the hotel didn't have any vegetables during the Dragon Boat Festival, he would have to be prepared to get beaten.

"Here he comes, here he comes, Chen the vegetable farmer is here!"

A loud shout of joy drew everyone's attention to the entrance of the alley.

A tricycle filled with things stacked high slowly drove over.

Seeing the full truck of Chinese cabbage, Chen the vegetable farmer's old customers all breathed a sigh of relief.

Everyone looked at each other and smiled.

The stall number 18 laughed and said, "It's okay, it's okay, I didn't trust the wrong person, handsome Chen is still awesome."

Once you enter the market,

Chen Jiazhi felt like a sheep entering a pack of wolves, with captivating eyes staring at him from all directions.

(End of this chapter)