Starting with vegetable greenhouses in 1988

Chapter 69 The Highest Bidder Wins
South entrance of Chongwenmen Vegetable Market.

Sun Tao was so cold he kept stamping his feet, his coat collar sticking up, his eyes fixed on the intersection.

Ever since Zhou Qinghe left on the tractor, his heart had been in his throat. It wasn't that he didn't trust Li Zhe, but it was Zhou Qinghe's first time leaving the capital, and he was afraid something might happen.

"Clatter, clatter..." The tractor turned from the fork in the road, and he recognized Zhao Tiezhu's burly figure at a glance, secretly relieved, "Alright."

Before the truck had even come to a complete stop, he eagerly clung to the truck bed, "Qinghe, you're finally back! I was so worried I didn't sleep all night."

Zhou Qinghe jumped out of the car quickly. "What's there to worry about? You're just petty and can't keep secrets. You didn't tell my mom, did you?"

"Am I stupid? Would I go and invite trouble?" Seeing Zhou Qinghe return unharmed, he smiled and said to Li Zhe, "Brother Li, thank you for your trouble. I hope Qinghe didn't cause you any trouble."

"No, she's more popular than me in our village. When I'm less busy, I'll take you to visit our village."

"Oh, that's great! I'll learn something too." Sun Tao rolled up his sleeves to help unload the goods, but Li Zhe pulled him aside. "Brother Sun, don't rush to work. I have something to tell you."

Sun Tao squinted. "Brother Li, just let me know if you need anything."

“I’ve been coming to Chongwenmen Market for a while now, and I’d like to invite some familiar stall owners to get together. You can come over tonight if you have time. We’ll meet at Lao Wei’s Lamb Soup Restaurant.”

After spending some time with Li Zhe, Sun Tao had come to know him well. This man was different from ordinary farmers; sometimes he even felt that Li Zhe knew more than he did. And one couldn't just take Li Zhe's words at face value. "Brother Li, is there something you want to say?"

Li Zhe considered it for a moment, "Every time I transport cucumbers to the market, it causes a commotion, which not only disrupts the market's order but also delays other vendors' business. From now on, I will no longer transport cucumbers to the market for distribution; I will distribute them directly at my residence."

Sun Tao blurted out, "My goodness, with a dozen or so people going to buy goods every day, it'll be noisy and chaotic. Your house will turn into a vegetable market. Won't the neighbors have something to say?"

“Don’t worry, it’s just a storefront facing the street.” Li Zhe rubbed his hands together and continued, “Also, I’m planning to change the way the goods are distributed. I’ll select a few reliable stall owners to come and collect the goods at fixed times and in fixed quantities every day. What do you think?”

Sun Tao thought about it and realized that it didn't seem to have much impact on him. Based on his relationship with Li Zhe, he should be one of the 'reliable' people. But then he said with some concern, "Brother Li, there are at least a dozen, if not twenty, people who have taken goods from you. How do you plan to select them? Those who are selected will definitely be happy, but those who are not selected may not be satisfied."

Li Zhe agreed, "That makes sense. Do you have any good ideas?"

Sun Tao himself is a vegetable vendor. He may not be an expert in other things, but no one knows the ins and outs of the vegetable market better than him. He also knows how to deal with these vegetable vendors.

Although this is a bit of a bias, essentially standing against the class, it's clear from the last joint price increase that these competitors have started to isolate me and treat me like a lackey of the Li family. If that's the case, why not go all the way?
“Brother Li, you can’t choose directly, that would offend people. And you can’t let them choose either, they’ll definitely band together.” Sun Tao gritted his teeth. “The best way is a bidding process, the highest bidder wins.”

"Brother, that's a great idea." Li Zhe smiled and patted his shoulder. "Let's go sell vegetables first, and when we have some free time, you can tell me about the stall owners."

By speaking out, Sun Tao had essentially made a decision, and he felt relieved. "No problem, I'll go deliver the vegetables to Cuihualou first, and then I'll come find you when I get back."

"Okay." Li Zhe loaded the weighed cucumbers onto the tricycle and told Sun Tao to deliver the goods first.

After greeting Zhou Qinghe, Li Zhe led his men into the vegetable market. As soon as they reached the vicinity of the stalls, they were surrounded by a group of vegetable vendors, which inevitably aroused the dissatisfaction of some stall owners.

Li Zhe distributed the cucumbers to the vegetable vendors according to the weight they had ordered the day before yesterday.

After paying the final payment, Hong San smiled and said, "Brother Li, I'd like to order more tomorrow. Could you give me eight jin?"

Li Zhe said, "I won't be making any reservations for tomorrow's dishes. I'd like to treat everyone to dinner tonight at the mutton soup restaurant across from the market."

Li Jinxia, ​​who was standing next to her, asked, "Mr. Li, is there something you want to announce?" "I mainly want to thank everyone for taking care of our business during this time, and also to talk about the future supply of vegetables."

The old man wearing a dog-skin hat shouted, "Mr. Li, are you going to raise prices again?!"

Li Zhe waved his hand, "I said I wouldn't raise prices within half a month, and I won't go back on my word. Everyone go ahead and get busy. See you at Lao Wei's Lamb Soup Restaurant at 7 pm tonight. I'll treat everyone to lamb soup."

The vegetable vendors were full of doubts, but Li Zhe wouldn't say anything, so they were at a loss. Everyone had a lot of work to do, so they could only suppress their thoughts and sell vegetables first.

……

At seven o'clock in the evening, the streetlights on Chongwenmen Street had just come on. The north wind blew coal ash and slag against the glass windows of the mutton soup restaurant, and the water vapor inside condensed into a white mist.

There were more than 20 people sitting in the restaurant, mostly vegetable vendors from Chongwenmen Market. Li Zhe had booked the whole place in advance.

These vegetable vendors all knew each other, and three or four of them sat around a table, whispering to each other.

Seeing that most of the people had arrived, Li Zhe stood up and coughed lightly. "Ahem, thank you all for coming. You've all been out in the cold all day. Let's have a bowl of mutton soup to warm up first, and then we can talk about business after we've eaten and drunk our fill."

Li Zhe waved to the pockmarked waiter beside him, "One bowl of mutton soup and half a pound of flatbread for each person, and one plate of cold dish for each table, hurry up."

"Alright!" the pockmarked waiter shouted to the kitchen, "Bring the mutton soup!"

Li Jinxia took off her blue headscarf. "Boss Li, the mutton soup can be drunk anytime. Please tell me about the vegetables you need. Otherwise, no matter how fragrant the mutton soup is, it won't taste good." There were still wilted cabbage leaves stuck to the cuffs of her cotton-padded jacket, as if she had rushed over after closing up shop.

"Yes, Mr. Li, please tell us. We've been on tenterhooks all day." The other stall owners chimed in, urging him on.

“Okay, I’ll go first.” Li Zhe gathered his thoughts. “Recently, cucumbers have been transported to the vegetable market for sale. Every time they are distributed, they clump together, which affects the business of other vendors.”

I plan to relocate the distribution point. The new location is too cramped to accommodate too many people; it would be best to select six representatives to handle the goods.

As soon as Li Zhe finished speaking, the people below began to discuss it.

Hong San, who was sitting closer, asked Li Zhe directly, "Mr. Li, do you mean that we'll only sell cucumbers to six people, and no one else can buy from you?"

“That’s right, these six people are distributors. Anyone else who wants cucumbers can get them from them.”

The vegetable vendors' discussion continued; this matter concerned everyone's interests, and they couldn't afford to ignore it.

A man with gold-plated front teeth asked, "Mr. Li, how do we choose from these six? Can I join?"

The old man in the dog-skin hat snorted, "Hey, you big gold-toothed bastard, what are you doing here? What are you doing here at Xidan Market? Go cool off somewhere else."

"What's wrong with Xidan Market? Boss Li didn't say I couldn't come. I came anyway, so what?" As he spoke, Big Gold Tooth took the bowl from the waiter, took a sip of mutton soup, and grimaced from the heat. "I drank the mutton soup too, so what, are you going to bite me?"

Hong San said, "Gentlemen, let's make money peacefully, or should we let Boss Li choose the people?"

Li Zhe looked troubled and said in a serious tone, "I've thought about this for a long time. It's not appropriate to choose either one or the other. How about we try a different approach and compete for the distributorship through bidding, with the highest bidder winning?"

(End of this chapter)