Journey 1995:Non-Stop

Chapter 31 The Secret of Density

Yan Hui always does things from beginning to end. As long as he thinks something is right, he will stick to it and his belief will not waver.

Song Zhiyuan had been there for three days and had not made any deals, but he still forced Song Zhiyuan to pay him 20 yuan as wages.

Of course, 20 yuan for three days is not a high wage, but Song Zhiyuan still feels a little embarrassed.

Yan Hui felt that Song Zhiyuan had to keep it, otherwise it would be difficult for such a young child to hold on. In fact, Yan Hui gave the 20 yuan to Song Zhiyuan on the third morning, fearing that Song Zhiyuan would run away and it would be difficult for him to find such a small amount.
Such cheap workers.

Yan Hui didn't feel embarrassed. He firmly believed that as long as Song Zhiyuan followed him, he would be better than weaving baskets.

Thinking of basket weaving, Yan Hui immediately thought of the fourth brother. The fourth brother was the first of his brothers to go out with his parents to do business, mainly making bamboo products. At first, Yan Hui joked with the fourth brother, saying that he was going there to weave baskets. Now that he hasn't seen him for more than half a year, he misses him a lot.

That day, Yan Hui, as usual, talked to Song Zhiyuan about some techniques. After the conversation, he returned to his second brother's place and was called over by Lao Guo.

"Lao Guo? Did you come here specifically to see me?" Yan Hui first looked at the parking space to make sure there was no car, then he took the initiative to walk over.

"Old Yan," Old Guo pulled Yan Hui aside, "I want to ask you something."

"Well, you said."

"The last time we met, when we ran into Xiaobao at the East Gate, there was a tall guy next to Xiaobao. Do you know him?"

"Yeah, I used to work for Uncle Li. I always called him Dakai."

"Oh, you worked here before. I was wondering why he looked so familiar. The last time I saw him, I felt like I'd seen him somewhere before. It looks like I've seen him here."

"What's wrong with him?" Yan Hui was a little confused.

"I was walking around the market last night and saw him from a distance, carrying a piece of wood. I didn't think much of it at the time, but when I returned to the store, I discovered that the wood had been stolen from our doorstep, and he must have taken it."

"Ah? Someone took a piece of wood?" Yan Hui was really surprised. This timber market was full of wood. Although wood was valuable, it was not something that could be stolen.

It’s not that there are no thieves in the market. In the past, people who stole wood would push carts to steal them. After all, one or two pieces of wood are not very interesting.

"My family works with redwood."

"The question is, how could your redwood be left outside?"

"You're right. The wood piled outside is just scraps without cores, but I guess he doesn't know that."

Upon hearing this, Yan Hui nodded: "He may really not know."

Dakai always gives people the feeling that he is out of his mind. He is mainly selfish, but not very smart.

"Well, do you know what his family background is?"

"I know his father. His name is Wang Chenggui. He works as a porter at the freight station."

"Without any background, who would he sell this wood to?" Lao Guo said helplessly. "He might as well take it, but I'm afraid he'll still want it in the future."

"I think it's okay. He must have taken it to sell it. It's not a good thing, he can't sell it. Who would have the time to collect such a scrap? Since he can't sell it for a good price, he probably won't steal it."

"It's hard to say. My dad told me that if I can catch him stealing next time, he'll give me 200 yuan."

"200?" Yan Hui was stunned. "Is this piece of wood worth 200 yuan?"

"The wood is definitely not worth much. My dad probably wanted to kill a chicken to scare the monkey or something. And you said this Dakai has no background, so why should we be afraid of him if we catch him?"

"That's true." Yan Hui nodded. He had no feelings for Dakai, and it wasn't a bad thing for this kid to be caught.

"It's just a piece of broken wood. There's no point in calling the police to arrest him. This amount of money is not even enough to treat the police to a meal. But it's definitely okay to vent your anger in front of the people around you."

"If his father were to go, he would probably help you beat up his son. Even though his father is a snob, he still wouldn't do such a thing."

"Yeah," Lao Guo nodded. "Okay, you keep an eye on him for me. If you see him heading our way next time, remember to tell me. If you catch him, I'll give you 10 yuan."

"Okay." Yan Hui nodded. You are still the blackest, Old Guo.

After talking, Lao Guo left. The car from his second brother's side also arrived, and Yan Hui started working immediately.

Near noon, Song Zhiyuan ran over and told Yan Hui that the driver was calling him.

Yan Hui left Song Zhiyuan in the store and ran over.

Only big customers can hire cars. Today, someone wanted to buy 5-square-meter boards. He visited several stores and the quality of the boards was similar, but they couldn't agree on the price.

Based on a lot of information, Yan Hui calculated the costs of warehousing, cutting, raw materials, losses, labor, electricity, etc., and figured out that the cost of this board is 970 yuan per cubic meter. The quote from the owners of various stores is around 1200 yuan per cubic meter.

"How much does the customer want to spend?" Yan Hui asked.

"900," said the driver.

"Ah? Where is the client? Let me meet him." Yan Hui was a little surprised. There was such an unprofessional client?
Soon, the driver found the customer.

"Sister, I definitely can't negotiate this price. This kind of board costs over a thousand."

"He said he could bargain, otherwise why would he come to you?" The elder sister pointed at the driver.

"I am confident that it can reach around 1100." Yan Hui said patiently.

"Do we still need you at 1100?"

"This is the best I can do," Yan Hui said, looking at the driver. "You should understand what I mean."

The driver nodded. Even if he didn't know much about the timber market, he knew the wholesale profit wasn't that high. Five square logs were a lot, so the price wouldn't be too outrageous.

"Okay, okay, then I'll go find someone else." When the eldest sister heard this, she prepared to leave.

"It's okay, sis. Feel free to contact me if you need anything."

After a few words, the customer ran away. The driver was a little unhappy, but he couldn't blame Yan Hui. He could only say that this customer was really not good.

Yan Hui had no choice but to leave again. It was lunch time, so Yan Hui took Song Zhiyuan to buy some steamed buns.

After dinner, Yan Hui began to take Song Zhiyuan to find clients little by little.

The most troublesome thing now is that Yan Hui only has clients when he's at work. There are very few clients at noon and in the evening. Especially at night, it's impossible to meet any clients there.

Seeing a man coming out of a lumber store, Yan Hui followed him.

This customer visited three or four stores but failed to reach an agreement. He was about to go have a meal when Yan Hui came over and stopped him.

"Brother, do you want to buy wood?"

"Yes, what's wrong?" The elder brother looked at the two of them warily.

"I just saw you go to several stores. Did they not have what you needed, or did you not agree on a price?" "I just want a dozen white pine planks. You can find them everywhere. What? Do you have a bargain?"

"Of course, otherwise I wouldn't have come to you." Yan Hui said with a smile, "What's the quote you got? How much do you plan to pay for it?"

"Two yuan a pound, I think one and a half yuan is about right."

"Dry planks?"

"Nonsense, who would do it at this price?"

Yan Hui nodded: "There is indeed hope that we can negotiate a price of 1.5 yuan."

The density of dry white pine wood is about 400 kilograms per cubic meter, or 800 catties. Based on a cost of over 700 yuan per cubic meter, the cost per catty is about 1 yuan. A retail price of 2 yuan is not unusual.

"What do you mean? You're not the boss's son?"

"I'm not, but I can help you bargain. If you like any wood in any store, I'll go and help you negotiate the price."

"Is it really that way?" The man thought for a moment and decided it was unlikely he'd be scammed. He pointed to a store and said, "This is it."

"How many boards do you need? Be specific."

"Let me count," the eldest brother said, using his fingers to count, "14."

"Okay, I get it. That's about half a square of wood." Yan Hui moves this kind of thing every day, so he can calculate it in just one second.

In fact, this buyer was too unprofessional. If he had gone to a store to ask how much a square meter of wood cost, and then bought half a square meter, he could have easily negotiated the price to 1000 yuan a square meter, which is about 1.4 yuan per pound.

But if he asks how much it costs per pound, I'm sorry, it's two dollars.

So it was really easy to make this deal.

Yan Hui asked the buyer to wait at the door, and he took Song Zhiyuan in to chat. It only took three minutes and the deal was done.

The boss is willing to sell it for 940 yuan per square, and half a square is 470 yuan.

The buyer was willing to pay 530 yuan, and Yan Hui made a direct profit of 60 yuan.

All three parties are happy.

"Let's go, there are still customers, let's try again." After leaving the store, Yan Hui set his sights on another customer.

However, this time, as in most cases, the customer was very knowledgeable and offered a price that left Yan Hui with no profit margin at all.

According to Yan Hui's experience, it would be considered good if he could succeed half of the time out of ten customers.

"Let me put it this way, 8 out of 10 people will reject you on the spot. Among those who can communicate, more than half must be knowledgeable in the business, which means there is no profit margin at all. As for laymen, not all negotiations can be successful. For example, the older sister today was too much of a layman and it was impossible to negotiate directly." Yan Hui taught Song Zhiyuan as he walked.

Yan Hui didn't ask his second brother when the car would arrive in the afternoon, so he couldn't stay outside for too long and was ready to go back after about an hour.

During this hour, I asked seven or eight customers, but only the first order was successful.

"I'll give you 20 yuan for this order." Yan Hui said, taking out 20 yuan and handing it to Song Zhiyuan. "We agreed on a 30-70 split, so 368. The extra two yuan is a bonus for the first order. We'll settle the bill clearly later."

"Ah?" Song Zhiyuan was stunned. "Brother, this has nothing to do with me. I wasn't the one who called you."

"It's the same as long as you participate. Don't forget, it's more convincing when two people are together." Yan Hui couldn't tell whether what he said was right or not, but he did feel that way.

For customers, meeting two people at the same time is a different feeling than meeting one person.

"Thank you, brother!" Song Zhiyuan no longer refused. This was 20 yuan!
"Do a good job." After saying goodbye to Song Zhiyuan, Yan Hui returned to his second brother early.

After returning, there was no car coming to his second brother's place and there was nothing to do, so Yan Hui took out his bag, took out a pen and paper and started calculating.

Fortunately, the customer he met today wanted to buy white pine, a wood Yan Hui was most familiar with. If he had planned to buy other wood materials, Yan Hui would have had no idea how much a pound of wood would cost because he didn't know the density of other wood materials.

Yan Hui's understanding of wood has always been based on square meters, as this is what he's always been exposed to. Today, he suddenly discovered a blind spot. Of course, this is also normal. If he helped out in Boss Lin's shop, he would probably understand everything.

"Uncle Li, what is the density of red pine?" Yan Hui asked his second brother when he saw him.

The second brother didn't expect Yan Hui to ask this, but he answered immediately: "Red pine is the simplest. We all call it 21 red pine. The density is 0.5."

"Ah? This is what 21 Red Pine means?" Yan Hui certainly knew the name "21 Red Pine", but he didn't expect that it was referring to density.

"Yes, the best density of red pine is 0.5, and there are also 0.45."

After he finished speaking, the second brother suddenly realized: "Why do you ask this?"

"I need to learn more about it."

"Are you planning to go into retail?" The second brother is a shrewd man.

"If this can really be sold in retail, I will buy goods from Uncle Li in the future." Yan Hui followed up with the words.

"Haha, you have your uncle, how could you possibly take it from me?" Although the second brother didn't believe Yan Hui's words, he was still very happy.

"However, when it comes to opening a store, I'm still a long way off." Yan Hui estimated the size of his wallet and felt a little discouraged.

A timber store isn't a small business; simply carrying a large inventory is beyond the reach of ordinary people. Of course, the best business is retail, as it involves fewer inventory issues. For example, if a customer comes to Mr. Lin's store and buys a large quantity, he can simply go back to his partner to pick up the goods. It's incredibly convenient, requiring no deposit.

So, in fact, Boss Lin is also a middleman, no different from Yan Hui.

Thinking of this, Yan Hui suddenly understood that it was not just Boss Lin. All businessmen or middlemen in the world were, after all, middlemen, weren't they all middlemen?

So what is the difference between me and Boss Lin now?
Yan Hui began to ponder again.

This problem is actually not difficult. What is lacking is of course trust.

With the sign hanging there and the entire store front set up there, customers would naturally trust it. However, Yan Hui, when trying to attract customers, naturally lacked trust.

This was inevitable and not something he could resolve in a short period of time. He could only improve his language and build trust with his clients.

"It's okay, I'm counting on you." The second brother laughed. He had so many porters here, switching back and forth, and he was pretty good at judging people.

Yan Hui, a child who knows when to advance and when to retreat and is willing to work, is sure to achieve great things. Dakai will never know that the reason why his second brother values ​​Yan Hui has nothing to do with Yan Hui's fourth uncle.

"Thank you, Uncle Li. By the way, what is the density of elm?" Yan Hui continued to collect wool.

"Manchurian ash? We don't have any here. I don't know. Go ask next door." The second brother shook his head. "Manchurian ash is definitely heavier than red pine. I estimate it's at least 0.6."

"Okay, I'll go ask Uncle Zhang." Yan Hui naturally knew the bosses around him. After talking to his second brother, he ran out.

Soon, Yan Hui finished asking and came back. The density of ash is 0.65, and the density of basswood is also 0.5
(End of this chapter)