Gu Chunmiao casually mentioned to her mother-in-law that she had arranged to have some items brought over in two days.
Li Xiufen immediately started making arrangements: "Then the day after tomorrow, I'll ask the production team to lend us an ox cart for half a day. Is it a lot of stuff? If it's a lot, ask Uncle Baoguo and Second Great Aunt to help. Many hands make light work; we can move it in two or three trips."
Gu Chunmiao shook her head: "As you said, it's the first time, so I didn't get too much. Just two baskets of apples, one basket of bananas, a large fifty-jin bag of loose brown sugar, and additionally, two hundred jin of soybean oil."
"Fifty jin of crushed biscuits of various flavors, and about two hundred jin of crushed dried noodles."
Li Xiufen did some mental calculations and nodded: "Good! This amount of stuff, we mother-in-law and daughter-in-law can bring it back ourselves. It's the first time doing this, so the fewer people who know, the better."
Although her daughter-in-law was generous, Li Xiufen didn't want to always spend her daughter-in-law's private savings. Moreover, she noticed that since the second half of the year, the commune's crackdown on the black market wasn't as strict as before. Some people working in the commune had even secretly acquired some goods and had their family members resell them on the black market.
Li Xiufen had a premonition that since the college entrance examination had been reinstated, the free markets of the past would eventually be restored too.
If nothing else, look at their production team; this year, they weren't restricting the number of chickens and ducks raised. As long as a household had enough grain to eat and could afford to raise them, no one would care even if they raised a hundred.
Furthermore, they in the countryside could exploit a loophole: among relatives and friends, exchanging items or buying things they didn't have with money wasn't considered speculation and profiteering.
Li Xiufen was the type of person who acted as soon as she made up her mind. The very next morning, she went to the production team to borrow an ox cart from He Jianqiang.
"My daughter-in-law's classmate in Beijing City is having someone send some things over. We need to borrow our team's ox cart for half a day. I'll use it to bring them back the day after tomorrow in the afternoon and return it the next day."
He Jianqiang's eyes lit up: "Auntie, didn't Zhanjun's wife reportedly fall out with the Gu family? How does she have acquaintances in Beijing City...?"
Li Xiufen gave him a glare: "What are you saying! Even a rotten boat has three pounds of nails. So what if my Miaomiao isn't Commander Gu and his wife's biological child? No matter what, she grew up in the Military Compound and is a high-achieving student at Tsinghua University."
"You know Tsinghua University, right? Everyone who graduates from there is destined to become a high-ranking official. It's very normal for my Miaomiao to know some influential people, isn't it?"
He Jianqiang repeatedly nodded: "Yes, yes, yes! I was thinking wrongly before. Just take the ox cart; you only need to feed it some fodder after use and then return it."
Li Xiufen didn't intend to get something for free from the production team. According to the team's rules, she paid two cents and contracted the production team's old yellow ox for three meals of fodder. As she was leaving, she also gave He Jianqiang's wife two large apples and two bananas.
"These were sent to me by my daughter-in-law's classmate from Beijing City a while ago. You all try some too."
"Oh, right, the matter of the experimental field has been approved by the Agricultural Technology Station. You should quickly get it approved at the commune too, don't delay my Miaomiao's job."
With Li Xiufen, the impatient one, urging him on, He Jianqiang went to the commune after breakfast and got the approval.
When he went to Li Xiufen's home to "deliver the good news," he even received five preserved eggs.
Now, everyone in the entire production team knew that He Zhanjun's daughter-in-law, the "false young lady" who was kicked out of the Military Compound, was still far superior to all of them despite her fallen status.
Gu Chunmiao's popularity within the production team immediately improved again.
..
Two days later, Gu Chunmiao, carrying the dinner her mother-in-law had prepared – three large steamed buns with sophora flower and egg filling – went to the agreed-upon intersection ahead of time. Taking advantage of the fact that no one was nearby, she moved out the supplies she had prepared in her space.
Before long, Sister Xia arrived on a tractor to pick up the goods.
Seeing the high-quality rice and flour that Gu Chunmiao brought, which were even better than those from the grain and oil store, Sister Xia secretly speculated that these items were likely special supply goods that Gu Chunmiao had obtained from "internal channels."
She had originally intended to haggle for a lower price, but fearing that the other party might have some influential figure behind them, she didn't dare to negotiate.
"One thousand jin of high-quality rice, two thousand jin of flour, five hundred jin of soybean oil, one hundred jin of milk powder, two hundred jin of brown sugar..."
"Five large rolls of labor cloth, ten large rolls each of black and blue plain cloth..."
"A total of three thousand five hundred and sixty-seven yuan. Ni'er, please check if it's correct?"
Gu Chunmiao took out a small notebook, scribbled a few lines, and nodded: "That's right. Tell them to hurry up and move the goods. I have someone else coming to pick up goods later. Please be quick so you don't run into each other."
Sister Xia understood. It seemed that Sister Chunni was no novice at being a speculator; she was clearly an experienced hand.
They were buying a large quantity of goods this time, and Chunni gave them a favorable price, which was even ten percent lower than the price of goods they obtained from the factory.
However, the person picking up goods later was likely buying a smaller quantity, so their price would definitely not be as good as theirs.
Chunni asking them not to run into each other was probably to avoid any awkwardness if the prices were discovered to be different when the two parties compared notes.
But this was normal; who wouldn't get a better price for buying in bulk?
Sister Xia had just left when, about ten minutes later, Li Xiufen also arrived with the ox cart.
"Miaomiao, have you been waiting long?"
"No rush. I just chatted with my classmate's brother. By the way, Mom, I heard from him that there's a way to get a batch of frozen lard soon. Although it's frozen, it's almost the same as fresh after thawing, and it's two cents cheaper per jin than the lard sold at the food store. Should we get some to sell?"
"Lard? That's great! When will you reply to them? I'll go ask them how much they want first, and then we can combine the order and give them a total."
Lard was hard to buy even with connections at the food store. Li Xiufen did some mental calculations: buying it at two cents cheaper than the food store and selling it for five fen more per jin, she would net a profit of two and a half cents per jin of lard.
If she could get three hundred jin of lard, she would net seventy-five yuan from this deal alone!
That was enough to earn back the money for building the bathroom and adding the kitchen at home in one go!
Li Xiufen became happier the more she thought about it, and Gu Chunmiao was also quite pleased.
Her space warehouse was almost full of lard. In the blink of an eye, the next batch of pigs would be slaughtered, so it was a good time to clear out some inventory.
Most importantly, the pork cracklings her mother-in-law made were too delicious!
Especially when the pork cracklings were chopped and used to fill steamed buns with shredded radish or pickled mustard greens, they were incredibly fragrant.
Gu Chunmiao actually wished her mother-in-law would ask for more lard. If it didn't sell, it could all be rendered into lard, and she'd have enough pork cracklings for steamed buns every meal with the leftovers, hehe~
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