Starting with vegetable greenhouses in 1988

Chapter 75 Giving Gifts
Each of the two baskets contained five grayish-white cylindrical mushroom bags. Li Zhe asked, "How many mushroom spawn can these ten bags cultivate? How many kilograms of mushrooms will they produce?"

"One spawn bag weighs 2 jin (1 catties), and the number of spawn bags depends on the size of the spawn bags and the inoculation density. Generally, we produce 15 spawn bags, with each spawn bag yielding about 1.5 jin (0.75 catties) of fresh mushrooms. The total yield of the first batch is between 200 and 250 jin (100-125 catties)."

Sun Tao chimed in, "Girl, this production is too low, it's not even enough for me to sell myself."

"Why are you in such a hurry? Oyster mushrooms can only be harvested for 3 to 5 days. The harvest is concentrated and the yield is large, so they must be planted in batches. I plan to plant 4 batches, with each batch having a harvest cycle of 3 to 5 days. After the fourth batch of mushrooms is harvested, the second batch of the first batch can be harvested. You're supposed to be a vegetable seller, and you don't even know this?"

"It's true that I sell vegetables, but I've never studied any of this." Sun Tao shrugged. He had never even seen a large vegetable field in his life; there were several procedures involved.

Li Zhe had grown mushrooms in his previous life, though not very successfully, but he still had some experience. Zhou Qinghe's planting plan was quite reasonable. "Since we've already brought the spawn, let's go back today and get started tomorrow."

Zhou Qinghe asked, "I brought not only the bacterial strains, but also disinfectant. Are the other materials ready?"

Li Zhe nodded. "My dad bought the culture medium and lime. Now I'll take you to buy plastic bags. You can choose whatever style you want."

“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go.” Zhou Qinghe turned to Sun Tao and said, “Making the mushroom sticks and disinfecting and inoculating them will take at least three to five days. I’ll be staying in the village for a few days. Please help look after my mother.”

Sun Tao rubbed his hands together, somewhat reluctantly, "Qinghe, how about I go with you?" Zhou Qinghe glared at him, "What would you do with me? Quit your vegetable stall?"

Sun Tao was truly in a dilemma: if he didn't go, he was worried about Zhou Qinghe's safety; if he did go, three to five days would indeed be a long time. He really couldn't handle this situation.

"It's difficult."

Li Weidong glanced at the two, his gossipy nature stirring within him. He wondered to himself, "What's the relationship between these two? It doesn't seem like just friends." Sun Tao was being a bit too enthusiastic. However, he wasn't one to pry, so he didn't ask.

Li Zhe ignored the two of them being all lovey-dovey and called his cousin over to give him a few instructions. He wasn't coming to Beijing tomorrow, so his cousin would have to handle things.

After arranging everything, Zhao Tiezhu drove his tractor straight to the LF City Plastics Factory.

Li Zhe had bought plastic film three times before, so he was quite familiar with the business. When he arrived at the store, the same plump saleswoman, Chen Juan, was still there, knitting a scarf, with her usual indifferent demeanor.

Ever since Li Zhe bought plastic film for the first time, she felt that Li Zhe was a big liar. The so-called "building 100 acres of vegetable greenhouses next year" was probably a lie, just an attempt to trick Section Chief Song into selling it to him cheaply.

Section Chief Song, who usually seemed quite shrewd, was completely fooled by his sweet talk and sold him the factory's best plastic film at a low price three times in a row. Her opinion of Section Chief Song plummeted. "So that's all he's capable of? If I had connections, I could be section chief too."

She glanced at Li Zhe, her knitting needles still in her hand. "Here to buy plastic film again?"

"No, I'm here to give your section chief a gift. Where is he?"

"Hey, he's actually not pretending anymore and is here to give gifts. Impressive. No wonder Section Chief Song is selling plastic film at such a low price." Chen Juan thought to herself, but said aloud, "You wait here, I'll go call him."

At that moment, Section Chief Song was sitting in his office reading a newspaper. Chen Juan rushed in, her fat jiggling as she went. "Section Chief, I have something to tell you."

"What is it? Go ahead and say it."

"That guy surnamed Li from Daying Village is here again, the one who grows vegetables in greenhouses."

"Let him come, we'll sell it to him at the same price as before."

Chen Juan lowered her voice, "Section Chief, they said they didn't come to buy plastic film today, they came specifically to give you a gift!" Section Chief Song frowned, scrutinizing Chen Juan as if trying to figure out the meaning behind her words.

Chen Juan quickly tried to clear her name, "Section Chief, what I said is true. If you don't believe me, go and see for yourself."

Section Chief Song hurriedly stood up and strode out of the office. In his memory, Li Zhe was a sensible person and shouldn't have done something so foolish. But Chen Juan didn't seem to be lying either.

Damn it, all I ever do is deal with this kind of nonsense.

Fearing to disturb others, Section Chief Song hurriedly ran to the store through the back door. He saw Li Zhe and a woman in her early twenties squatting by the shelf, examining plastic sheeting.

"Brother Li, what brings you here today? I heard you need to see me about something?"

"Section Chief Song, I brought you something. Please take a look."

Seeing Li Zhe's expression and hearing his calm tone, Section Chief Song felt relieved. This didn't seem like the behavior of someone who lacked tact.

Section Chief Song took the woven bag from Li Zhe, opened it, and saw—

"Ah! It's a cucumber! How can there be cucumbers in winter?" Chen Juan exclaimed. She was standing next to Section Chief Song, craning her neck to look inside, and her exclamation startled Section Chief Song.

"What are you doing? Get out of here." Although Section Chief Song scolded him, his eyes were glued to the spot, his surprise no less than Chen Juan's. "Brother Li, where did these cucumbers come from? Could it be..." He seemed to have guessed something, both surprised and delighted, "You succeeded? These cucumbers grew in a greenhouse?"

"That's right. I brought it especially for you to try. Will you accept this gift? If not, I'll take it."

"I'll accept it, I'll take this gift." Section Chief Song took out a cucumber, rubbed it, and without even removing the little yellow flower on top, took a bite. "It's so crisp and refreshing, really good."

Was he accepting a gift? No, he was receiving orders for tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands, of square meters of plastic film next year. If everything goes smoothly, he'll become a major contributor to the entire plastics factory; that once unattainable position is now… hehe.

He was glad he made the right decision when he first met Li Zhe. At the time, he, like Chen Juan, had doubts about Li Zhe's motives for making empty promises, but Li Zhe's words and actions and his idea of ​​building vegetable greenhouses made him decide to take a gamble.

In hindsight, he won his gamble.

Suppressing his excitement, Section Chief Song readily agreed, "Brother Li, this gift is wonderful. Chen Juan, go and book a table for the banquet; I want to have a good drink with Brother Li tonight."

Chen Juan didn't answer, and reached into the bag for a cucumber, only to be slapped away by him! "Is this something you can eat?"
Li Zhe politely declined, saying, "Section Chief Song, I won't drink today. I already had a drink at noon, and I really can't drink anymore tonight. Besides bringing you a gift, we also need to purchase some other plastic products."

"Pick whatever you want. If the store doesn't have it, I'll take you to the warehouse to choose."

"No need for that. We'd like to buy some plastic sheeting and plastic bags for making mushroom spawn."

Section Chief Song waved his hand, "No problem, we'll still follow the rules for plastic film and offer a 20% discount."

Zhou Qinghe stood to the side, completely bewildered by the situation. She thought to herself, "This guy's got connections; even the sales manager at the plastics factory is fawning over him. If I hadn't been to his house before, I would have really thought he had some kind of powerful background."

(End of this chapter)