Chapter 12: Testing the Waters and Selling Chestnuts
Lin Mai didn't intend to borrow someone else's money for free: "I gave you the money. I'll pay fifty cents for half a day's rent. Do you think that's okay?"
It only costs three yuan to buy a pot with an industrial ticket. If you don't have an industrial ticket, it only costs five yuan to buy it on the black market. It costs 50 cents to rent for half a day. The rent is not low.
The old lady thought about it and agreed.
Lin Mai added: "I don't have any money now. I'll pay as soon as I make money from roasting chestnuts. Is that okay?"
The old lady thought for a while and nodded in agreement, but added: "If you don't make any money from roasting chestnuts, you can pay off the debt with goods."
Lin Mai said hello and said, "Grandma, why don't you lend me another wood-burning stove and provide firewood, and then we'll calculate the money and give it to you, a total of one yuan, okay?"
The old lady didn't suffer at all from this price, so she agreed readily.
Lin Mai was about to help him go into the house to carry the stove. The old lady opened a sack and took out a few chestnuts and looked at them: "How do you fry these chestnuts without any cuts?"
Lin Mai had never sold fried chestnuts in his previous life, so he didn't expect this.
I borrowed the old lady's knife, and then hired the old lady to cut chestnuts with her. The salary was 50 cents a day.
But Lin Mai couldn't paddle chestnuts all day, so she had to sell chestnuts.
After about an hour of rowing chestnuts, she gained almost 30 kilograms, and then she started selling chestnuts at a stall.
The provincial capital has a strong consumption power. As soon as the chestnut smells fragrant, people will immediately come to ask how to sell it.
Lin Mai thought that in his previous life, a pound of sugar-fried chestnuts sold for 20 yuan per pound, which was six to seven times the wholesale price of raw chestnuts.
Her chestnuts are not roasted with sugar, and they are wild, so selling them for 40 cents is not too much.
When the price was reported, many people found it too expensive, saying that it was a wild chestnut and it was so expensive. Why not use the 40 cents to buy 6 taels of meat? Wouldn't it be delicious?
In this era, people prefer eating meat to snacks.
But Lin Mai didn't plan to lower the price. She wanted to make more money while she was in exclusive business.
When others follow the trend and sell chestnuts, the price will have to drop, and the profit will be thin.
She said good-naturedly: "It's just because it's wild that it's sold at this price.
If it's artificially grown, I can't even get the goods, and even if I get the goods, the price will definitely be much more expensive."
This is true, Jiangcheng is a big city, but there is very little supply of chestnuts.
Even if there is some supply, it is only for specific groups such as big cadres, and ordinary people can only take a look at it.
But it was still too expensive, and many people walked away without looking back.
But there were a few children who refused to leave, holding the adults' hands and rolling on the ground, clamoring and insisting on eating fried chestnuts.
Some adults couldn't stand it and had to weigh half a catty.
When selling by kilograms, you need to use a scale. The old lady enthusiastically helped Lin Mai borrow a scale.
There are no plastic bags in this era.
The old lady took out the notebook where one of her granddaughters had written homework, folded it into a triangular bag and put the chestnuts in it.
If a man is buying chestnuts with his children, he usually won't put two more chestnuts in the paper bag.
But if a woman comes to buy chestnuts with her children, no matter what, she has to grab two of them, and she will get a small advantage anyway.
This is how business is done, the more people buy, the more people will follow suit.
After a while, Lin Mai's chestnut stall was surrounded by customers buying chestnuts.
Although most people only bought half a catty of chestnuts, the crowd couldn't handle it, and all eighty catties of chestnuts were sold out in less than five hours.
This was because Lin Mai was unskilled and fried too slowly. In addition, the pot was a bit small and it took the old lady time to carve the chestnuts... These factors delayed the time.
After selling the chestnuts, Lin Mai did not hesitate, kept his word, and gave the old lady one dollar and fifty cents.
The old lady was very happy and asked her if she would come tomorrow. The implication was that she still wanted to earn her money.
Lin Mai understood her thoughts and said with a smile: "I can't guarantee this. If I come to the city to sell chestnuts, I will definitely set up a stall in front of my mother-in-law's house."
The old lady poured her and Duoduo a cup of tea for free and told her to keep her word.
Lin Mai responded with a smile, sat down, and counted money while drinking tea.
In addition to the one and a half cents given to the old lady and the purchase cost, the net profit was a few ten cents, which was less than expected.
The main reason is that someone's money may be missed when collecting money, and you have to give someone a piece of scale when weighing, so the money you get will be a few yuan less than the theoretical money.
But Lin Mai was already very satisfied.
At the end of the day, the money earned is equivalent to ten days' wages of an ordinary worker in the city.
Before leaving, he already knew that the old lady's surname was Pang. After saying goodbye to the old lady Pang, Lin Mai took Duoduo to have lunch.
It was already three o'clock in the afternoon. Not to mention Duoduo, she was already hungry, not to mention that Duoduo only ate a few handfuls of dried sweet potatoes.
Lin Mai found a state-owned snack bar and ordered two bowls of hot dry noodles.
A bowl of hot dry noodles costs 15 cents and 20 taels of food stamps.
Lin Mai was in a dilemma. She only had three taels of food stamps and could only buy a bowl of noodles.
The waiter selling noodles at the window asked: "Are the food stamps not enough? I have food stamps, do you want to buy them?"
"How to sell it?"
"Five cents per pound of food stamps."
Food stamps on the black market only cost ten cents a pound. This waiter is really shady.
But if you want to eat noodles, you have to buy these food stamps.
Lin Mai spent 15 cents to buy ten one-tael food stamps, and then he bought two coupons for hot dry noodles.
After getting the ticket, you have to go to another window to get the noodles.
Although people in this era were generally poor, there were too few state-owned restaurants and not many snack bars.
And Jiangcheng is a big city, and it's New Year's Day, so the snack bar was overcrowded, there wasn't even an empty table, and many people were standing to eat.
After getting the hot dry noodles, Lin Mai took Duoduo to a dining table that had no empty seats but was not too crowded. He smiled apologetically at the diners at that table and asked, "Can my child borrow this table?"
Do you want some noodles?"
The diners were all men. They looked at the young Duoduo and then at the two generous bowls of hot dry noodles in Lin Mai's hand.
It would definitely be inconvenient for a three or four-year-old child to eat such a big sea bowl, so he silently moved the stool he was sitting on to the side to make room for Duoduo.
Lin Mai put the bowl of hot dry noodles he bought for Duoduo on the corner of the table and asked Duoduo to stand in front of him and eat, but he had to mix the noodles before eating.
Duoduo was a little timid, but she couldn't resist the temptation of hot dry noodles, so she stood in front of the bowl of hot dry noodles, followed Lin Mai's example of mixing the noodles, and ate it with big mouthfuls.
After eating the hot dry noodles, Lin Mai took Duoduo with him to deliver chestnuts to Grandma Fang's grandson Fang Zhuoran.
Fang Zhuoran is a surgeon who works at Puji Medical University not far from the train station.
Lin Mai followed the address given by Grandma Fang and looked up at a five-story staff dormitory building.
After all, it is the largest and most famous tertiary hospital in central China. Even the staff dormitory is different from other units.
The staff dormitories of other units are generally tube buildings with shared kitchens and bathrooms, but Puji Hospital only builds an apartment building with one staircase and two units.
Lin Mai led Duoduo up to the third floor and knocked on the door of an apartment.
The person who opened the door was a tall and delicate girl. She had big waves, eyebrows and lips, and she looked even better than the stars in the movie pictures.
The girl looked at Lin Mai and Duoduo like a beggar, with undisguised disgust in her eyes, and asked angrily: "Who are you looking for?"