Era: Rise from the Wilderness

Old Ma's cheek muscles bulged, and finally his shoulders slumped as if deflated.

"Alright!"

He slapped his thigh hard. "I think Brother Li is a genuine man. If we lose money, so be it. Consider it making friends! Thirteen thousand it is!"

"Boss Ma, how can you do business at a loss?"

Li Hongfeng laughed and saw through his excuse: "Just consider it earning a little less, but hoping for a good start!"

"Sigh... I've suffered a huge loss!"

Boss Ma shook his head, looking pained. After a while, he asked, "But you mentioned earlier, Fuzhou Town? It needs to be shipped there? The shipping cost..."

"Such a big iron lump, it would cost at least a hundred yuan to deliver it to town."

"Hiring a car, gas money, labor costs..."

Clearly, this Mr. Ma is no pushover; if the price of the freezer is low, he'll naturally try to make up for it by lowering the shipping costs.

"OK."

This time, Li Hongfeng readily agreed, "One hundred yuan for shipping, that should be added."

"In that case, I'll pay a deposit of two hundred today."

"On July 10th, you deliver the freezer to No. 25 Middle School in Fuzhou Town. I'll inspect it and find no problems, then pay the remaining balance of 1200 yuan on the spot. How about that?"

"become!"

Old Ma's eyes darted around, he pondered for a moment, then gritted his teeth: "Let's do as Big Brother says!"

Their hands clasped together once again.

Li Hongfeng's hands were steady, but Lao Ma's hands were choppy, his palms were sweaty.

The deposit was handed over; it consisted of two crisp 100-yuan bills.

Old Ma took it, squinted at the watermark against the light, carefully folded it, and stuffed it into the back pocket of his capri pants.

Boss Ma took out a crumpled receipt book from the shed, wrote a receipt in crooked hand, noted that a deposit of 200 yuan had been received, delivery was scheduled for the 10th, and the balance was 1200 yuan, and then signed his name, Ma Youcai.

After carefully taking the receipt and putting it away, Li Hongfeng and his family gave a few more instructions before leaving the noisy Jiangwa secondhand market, completely satisfied.

By the time I left the flea market, the sun was already setting.

Once back in the car, He Ling finally let out a long sigh, as if she had been holding it in for a long time: "Fourteen thousand...that's really expensive."

"It's expensive!"

Li Hongfeng turned the key, and the engine hummed to life. "It's almost half the price of a new one. With this, I can sell popsicles and sodas for a higher price in the summer."

"Yes! That makes sense!"

Li Yunjing chuckled and comforted her, "Mom, you can't catch a wolf without risking your cub!"

The car slowly drove away from that noisy and dilapidated area.

Li Yunjing turned around and looked out the back window.

As the sun set, Jiangwa Market gradually blurred, becoming a hazy silhouette.

Only a corner of the blue canvas canopy still reflected a faint light in the afterglow.

Li Hongfeng drove his Dafa van, carrying his hopeful wife and children, on their journey back to Fuzhou Town.

With the car windows open, the warm summer breeze caressed their faces, carrying the scent of the fields and the family's hopes for the future.

Over the next nine days, Li Yunjing's life became regular and fulfilling.

Every morning, without fail, he goes out for a run and exercises to continuously enhance the strength and endurance of his young body.

No matter what you do in the future, good health is the most important asset.

After lunch, he went to play with Lü Ruoxi, Cui Yanyan, Ma Xingyuan, Ma Guofeng, and others. They played soccer, jump rope, cards, marbles, and basketball...

Young people are full of energy and can't sit still all day. This summer, after saying goodbye to high school, everyone has unloaded the pressure of their studies and completely let loose.

After dinner, Li Yunjing would stay in his small bedroom, eagerly reading the "Reference News," "Bincheng Daily," "China Youth Daily," and other publications his father had brought back from work.

In an era of relatively limited information dissemination, newspapers were the most important window for ordinary people to understand the outside world and obtain information. Their information volume and depth were often richer and more relevant to reality than the half-hour news broadcast every night.

He observes things very carefully, not only major domestic and international events, but also economic sectors, policy trends, and even some peripheral social news.

The pulse of the times is often hidden behind these seemingly ordinary words.

Hard work pays off.

Just a few days later, a seemingly insignificant short message in the Bincheng Daily caught Li Yunjing's great interest.

"...The pilot program for the transfer of treasury bonds has been further expanded...Treasury bonds held by individuals from 1988 and 1989 can be transferred at designated financial institutions..."

"Treasury bonds! That's it! The ones I've got!"

He almost shouted it out.

He clearly remembers that in the late 80s and early 90s, due to various reasons, treasury bonds had extremely poor liquidity in many places, especially in remote areas, and holders often had to transfer them privately at prices far below face value.

Meanwhile, in some economically developed cities where pilot programs were implemented earlier, the trading price of treasury bonds is closer to their actual value, and there is even a premium due to the higher interest rates.

There is a huge geographical price difference in this area!

If you can acquire treasury bonds at low prices from the local area or surrounding regions, and then sell them in cities like Bincheng, where the pilot program started early and prices are high, you can make amazing profits with just one resale!

If you're bold and operate properly, it's not a pipe dream to make tens of thousands of yuan or even more in a short period of time by taking advantage of this information gap and policy time difference!

He knew what this meant.

In a small place like Fuxian, treasury bonds were still "patriotic bonds" that were forced into people's paychecks and stuffed into the bottom of drawers, along with grain coupons and old work permits.

Last year, Aunt Wang next door was in a hurry to get money, so she gritted her teeth and sold a coupon worth 100 yuan for 60 yuan.

Meanwhile, in the port city 80 kilometers away from Bincheng, the pilot program started earlier and the market is more active. The same voucher might be redeemed for 95 or even 105.

Geographical gaps, information divides, and temporal rifts...

What flows in between is naked profit.

If you're bold enough, you might make a trip and bring back more than just money; you could save up an amount that an average person couldn't accumulate in ten years of working.

He turned over, and the wooden bed creaked.

In the darkness, I could almost see bundles of treasury bonds, pale green paper, printed with the solemn national emblem, and bound with paper ropes.

But this excitement only lasted a few minutes before being extinguished by the harsh reality.

principal!

The family had just used all their savings and still owed Ma Zhifu a favor to keep the small shop afloat.

The five thousand yuan in savings at home doesn't seem to be enough to do much.

Even more fatal is that the parents will never agree.

In the minds of Li Hongfeng's generation, the "guaranteed salary" of state-owned enterprises was the highest priority, the "planning" was the lowest priority, and working hard in the middle was the place where people should be.

Reselling treasury bonds?

That was "speculation and profiteering," what newspapers criticized as "disrupting financial order," a crooked path that teetered on the edge of crime.

Needless to say, her mother, He Ling, would suffer from insomnia at night whenever she heard the word "risk".

I can't say.

Not a single word can be revealed.