Hunting 81: Gathering Goods in the Mountains, I Spoil My Ex-Wife to the Extreme

"Waiter, the bill, please."

After eating and drinking to their hearts' content, Li Yunshan snapped his fingers, and a waiter wearing the restaurant's uniform quickly walked over.

"Sir, that's seventeen dollars and sixty cents in total."

The waiter took out the bill written in his notebook and said with a smile.

Li Yunshan paid with a smile, but Lin Xiulan was a little confused.

What?

A meal cost seventeen yuan and sixty cents?

This... Lin Xiulan was shocked and found it unbelievable.

Although she knew that eating out would cost a lot of money, she didn't expect that a meal would cost seventeen dollars and sixty cents.

Normally, she would have to work hard in the village for two months to earn this amount of money.

But... this is so much food in one meal...

At this moment, only five words flashed through Lin Xiulan's mind: This is too extravagant.

But Li Yunshan wasn't concerned about the price of the meal; he was concerned about the mutton restaurant itself.

Before the reform and opening up, for a long period of time, restaurants and eateries, apart from state-owned ones, were mostly joint state-private enterprises, and private restaurants and eateries were not common.

While eating, Li Yunshan was taking care of Lin Xiulan and Dou Dou, but he wasn't idle either. He observed the mutton restaurant for a long time.

Li Yunshan observed everything from the interior decoration and furnishings to the service etiquette of the waiters, their words and actions, and even the staff uniforms.

He discovered that although the mutton restaurant was brand new, it was full of antique charm.

Even the interior furnishings are unique.

Another point is that the service staff here are very attentive.

State-run restaurants and hotels have long held a monopoly in the catering market due to certain policies. At that time, jobs in state-run restaurants and hotels were considered secure, which led to their existence. Consequently, employees in state-run restaurants and hotels, whether chefs or waiters, developed an arrogant and condescending attitude towards diners.

But given the circumstances of the past, no one could do anything about these people.

Now that reform and opening up have been implemented and individual businesses are allowed to operate, private restaurants have sprung up like mushrooms after rain.

Judging from the decoration and furnishings of this mutton restaurant, although Li Yunshan did not deliberately inquire, he knew that this mutton restaurant had recently opened.

The food here is good; for him, it's good value for money.

Secondly, the service here is better than that of state-run restaurants and eateries.

In his previous life, Li Yunshan had witnessed the service attitude of state-run restaurants. The waiters practically had the saying "I owe you 200,000 yuan" written all over their faces, and they acted superior to many diners.

Later, with the impact of the private economy, state-owned restaurants and eateries suffered from poor management, unable to make ends meet, and either closed down or underwent restructuring.

The once highly respected waiters at state-owned restaurants have also become laid-off workers.

"It seems that the county is preparing to vigorously support the private economy and encourage individuals to become self-employed business owners."

Li Yunshan thought to himself.

However, he had only been reborn into this era for less than three months, and as the saying goes, "you can't get fat in one bite," so he wasn't in a hurry to start a business.

Now that reform and opening up have been implemented, individual businesses and private enterprises are allowed. As long as you find the right direction and seize the opportunity, it is not difficult to make money.

Moreover, Li Yunshan possesses a level of knowledge and experience that far surpasses that of people in this era by several decades.

There's no rush in doing business.

But after eating stew at the mutton restaurant, Li Yunshan sensed the spring breeze of reform and opening up.

After dinner, Li Yunshan took Lin Xiulan and Dou Dou back to the guesthouse.

In those days, even in county towns, there weren't many entertainment options at night.

In addition, due to the cold weather, the cinemas in the county town had long been closed, as had the department stores.

However, after having a hot pot meal, Lin Xiulan and Dou Dou were satisfied and not particularly eager to explore the county town.

Back at the guesthouse, DouDou took off her cotton shoes and ran around barefoot on the floor of the guest room.

"The guesthouse rooms are clean and tidy, and they're warm inside."

Lin Xiulan sat on the clean, white guest bed, curiously looking around the room.

This guest room is not only spacious with soft beds and clean, white sheets, but it also has a bathroom with 24-hour hot water and heating.

Even after taking off the heavy cotton-padded coat, you don't feel cold in the guest room; it feels warm and cozy, like springtime.

Moreover, the guest room even had exquisite furniture—chairs, coffee table, sofa, dressing table, dressing mirror, wardrobe, each one was exquisite.

"After the New Year, we'll buy a plot of land in the county town, build a house, and decorate our new home like this."

Li Yunshan put down the newspaper he had borrowed from the front desk of the guesthouse and said to Lin Xiulan with a smile.

"That must have cost a lot of money."

"It will definitely cost a lot of money. Buying land, building materials, labor, renovations... all of this will cost a lot of money, but you don't need to worry about the money. I will work hard to earn it."

Now, Li Yunshan has more than 10,000 yuan in his hands, which is definitely a 10,000-yuan household in this era.

With its thermal imaging and night vision capabilities, Li Yunshan could easily make money. He could take a gun and go into the mountains and always make some gains.

In winter, the grass and trees wither and decay, and the mountains are bare. Precious medicinal herbs that grow deep in the forests, such as wild ginseng and lingzhi, are hard to find. The only way to find them is to go into the mountains to hunt. But when spring comes and the flowers bloom the following year, you can not only go into the mountains to hunt, but also pick the precious medicinal herbs that grow deep in the forests while hunting.

"I'm just worried that you'll work too hard and ruin your health."

"I'm not tired. It's all worth it for you and DouDou."

Li Yunshan said with a smile.

The next morning, Li Yunshan took Lin Xiulan and Dou Dou to stroll around the county town, and their first stop was the department store.

As soon as they entered the department store, Lin Xiulan and Dou Dou were overwhelmed by the sights.

The department store is filled with a dazzling array of goods, including all kinds of food, drinks, and household items.

From the three essential wedding items—sewing machine, watch, and bicycle—or the upgraded four—color TV, refrigerator, washing machine, and tape recorder—to everyday necessities like enamel basins, aluminum pots, thermos flasks, face cream, and blankets, as well as pillowcases, and even needles, thread, buttons, and shoelaces, everything is available.

DouDou stood in front of the TV counter, curiously examining the televisions displayed on the shelf.

In the 1980s, the most common televisions on the market were black and white televisions. Although the screens were small, usually only nine, twelve, or fourteen inches, and the television signals were poor, often filled with snow or distorted images, they were still highly sought after by many people who could afford them.

Above the black and white television set is the color television set.

in the country, color televisions appeared in the late 1970s and began to enter the market in the early 1980s.

However, color televisions were more expensive than black and white televisions. A Venus brand black and white television cost about 460 yuan, a Panda brand black and white television cost 300 yuan, while a Toshiba color television cost as much as 1,500 yuan, and a color television produced by Hitachi in Fujian cost as much as 3,000 yuan. Such an amount of money could buy two houses in the early 1980s.

The department store in Qinghe County does not carry Toshiba or Hitachi color TVs, but it does carry Sony color TVs.

Before Huang Zhifang's 60th birthday, Li Yunshan and Li Yunmei saw him at the counter selling televisions in the department store when they went to the county town.

However, Sony TVs are no longer displayed in the shop windows where televisions are sold. I asked the salesperson and found out that they had been sold.

However, in this day and age, you need meat coupons to buy pork, and buying a television set is not something you can just buy with money; you also need television tickets or "quotas" to purchase one.

Moreover, if you want to buy pork but don't have meat coupons, you can pay extra to buy it; but if you want to buy a television, you can't buy it even if you pay extra.

At that time, television sets were still a scarce commodity.

Because televisions are scarce and difficult to buy, they also have a very important social attribute.

If someone has a television set in their home, they will definitely become the focus of attention among their neighbors, and even the whole village.

Every evening, after finishing their farm work and having a full meal, everyone would bring their small stools and gather at the house of someone who had a television to watch TV and chat together.

The scene was quite lively.

However, to date, none of the hundreds of households in the entire Guapigou Village own a television set.

Although Li Yunshan had the money to buy a television, and was willing to spend it, he didn't have a television ticket or any so-called "quota." Even if he had the money, he couldn't buy one.

"Daddy, what's this big box?"

DouDou stood on tiptoe, trying hard to look through the counter at the display window.

Seeing this, Li Yunshan picked up Dou Dou and said, "That's a television set. As long as it's plugged in and connected to a signal, it can play television images, and the characters on it will move."

"Isn't that like the monsters in shadow puppet shows?"

"almost."

The onlookers couldn't help but laugh when they heard these innocent words.

After leaving the television sales counter, Li Yunshan took Lin Xiulan and Dou Dou to buy clothes.

However, Lin Xiulan was afraid of spending money, so she only looked but didn't buy anything.

Seeing this, Li Yunshan insisted on buying her a down jacket.

"Don't buy this one, it's too expensive. I'll just wear a cotton-padded coat."

Upon seeing the price of the down jacket, which was over 130 yuan, Lin Xiulan quickly stopped her.

One hundred and thirty-odd yuan, that's enough to buy more than ten thick cotton-padded coats.

However, the salesperson smiled warmly and said, "Young lady, clothes make the man, and since your man wants to buy it for you, why don't you take this down jacket?"

If a down jacket costs over 100 yuan, any salesperson will be friendly and helpful.

"Money is meant to be spent, so I'll take this down jacket."

Li Yunshan didn't care what Lin Xiulan said and just took out his money. His generosity made the sales clerk at the counter smile from ear to ear.