Siheyuan: Starting from a Truck Driver

"Remember to find two more flatbed trucks tomorrow. We have a lot of cargo this time."

"Don't worry, Pengzi has a flatbed truck at home. I'll arrange it right away."

After confirming everything, Li Weidong stood up and prepared to return to the steel mill. Before he walked out of the gate, he saw Uncle Yu stumbling in. When he saw Li Weidong and the fat man, his eyes flickered and he pulled up the collar of his cotton coat to cover most of his face.

"Oh, Weidong is here. I'm not feeling well.

With two whistles, the train slowly stopped and passengers from the Northeast got off. Li Weidong signaled Pengzi to pull out the banner that had been prepared long ago. Soon, a young man in a blue railway uniform jumped off the train. "Comrade, are you here to pick up Zheng Juan?" "Yes, I'm her brother." The young man was obviously accustomed to such scenes, and without asking much, he waved to Li Weidong. "Follow me, Zheng Juan's things are in the dining car." The dining car was located at the front of the train. Li Weidong led everyone in, and the staff were busy carrying food. The young man entered the dining car and soon came out carrying a large bag of things. The package seemed quite heavy, and the young man wiped the sweat from his forehead: "You help me, there are seven or eight more bags." With the assistance of Pengzi and others, the goods were quickly unloaded onto the flatbed truck. After Li Weidong thanked the young man, he returned to Fatty Yu's house with the goods. Fatty Yu's family has a courtyard alone, with many empty rooms, which is very suitable for storing goods. Untying the sack, Fatty Yu took out a wild ginseng more than ten centimeters long from it and looked at it carefully. After a moment, his eyes lit up: "Brother-in-law, this ginseng is at least ten years old, and it can be sold for at least twenty yuan per piece. We've made a fortune this time!" "Ten years old, how did you tell?" Li Weidong asked curiously. Fatty Yu pointed at the ginseng and explained: "Look at these lines, called iron wire lines. The denser the lines, the older the ginseng." Li Weidong picked up a ginseng and observed it carefully, and found that there were indeed fine iron wire-like textures on the surface of the ginseng, which were intertwined and incoherent. Not only ginseng, but also winter dates, pine nuts and hazelnuts are also excellent choices. It seems that Cai Xiaoguang has taken great pains to raise these supplies. Fatty Yu became more and more excited as he looked at it, and kept muttering in his mouth: "We've made a fortune, we've really made a fortune this time!" The value of this batch of goods is far greater than before, and it is more precious than what Cai Xiaoguang provided. Fatty Yu asked Li Weidong about the purchase price, and Li Weidong consciously added 20% to the original price. But in Fatty Yu's opinion, this is still ridiculously cheap. Things like wild ginseng, as long as they are of a certain age, will be incredibly expensive. This batch of goods was provided by Cai Xiaoguang, and they are of high quality and will definitely sell for a good price. "Brother-in-law, your friend is really nice." Li Weidong smiled faintly. With Cai Xiaoguang's background, he can be said to be unrivaled in Jichun. How could he not be helpful? "Just know the situation in your mind. Pay attention when shipping, especially those wild ginseng." Fatty Yu patted his chest and guaranteed: "Leave it to me. This batch of goods will be sold out in two days at most." This time, Fatty Yu was not lying. Although twenty kilograms of wild ginseng may seem like a lot, in the huge city of Beijing, this amount is not worth mentioning at all. "Okay, then I'll leave it to you! Remember, sell it as soon as possible and don't think about hoarding it." Fatty Yu nodded repeatedly under Li Weidong's repeated instructions. As soon as Li Weidong left, Fatty Yu immediately and carefully packed the ginseng into several small bags. Cheap goods such as winter dates and pine nuts can be handed over to Pengzi, but wild ginseng must be handled by him personally. These things are too conspicuous. If they meet someone with bad intentions, they may use despicable means. Or someone may be jealous and report Fatty Yu directly. With the wild ginseng he has now, he is afraid that he will suffer. Qiao Zhuang dressed up carefully and put on a heavy coat. Fatty Yu put his hands in his pockets and went out. He didn't even ride a bicycle, just in case someone followed him, and the bicycle would become a burden. It was midnight when he arrived at the East Market, which was the time when the pigeon market was open. After looking around, Fatty Yu chose an empty seat to sit down, took out a piece of rag, and casually sketched a few strokes on it. At a glance, you can tell what he is doing for a living. For those who don't know the business, Fatty Yu will not easily make a move. Next to the stall, a tall figure was bending over and walking towards this side. It was Xu Damao. He looked around carefully. Although he had wrapped himself tightly and even his mother might not recognize him, he still remained vigilant for fear of meeting acquaintances. Once acquaintances know what you want to buy, those private matters will spread quickly. How can you show off your prestige in front of your neighbors and colleagues in the future? With the help of the weak kerosene lamp on the stall, Xu Damao checked each stall one by one. Nowadays, most ginseng diggers will send ginseng to the national purchasing station, and wild ginseng is extremely rare in the market. Just when he was about to give up the search, he finally found his target. The light was dim and he couldn't see the other person's appearance, but it didn't matter. Finding the right thing was the key. Xu Damao stood in front of the stall and asked in a pinched voice: "Do you have any goods?" Fatty Yu didn't expect business to come so quickly, and raised his eyebrows and asked back: "If I don't have any goods, why set up a stall?" Xu Damao smiled awkwardly, mainly because he was nervous and his mind couldn't turn around for a while. "I want the best!" Fatty Yu was silent for a moment, took out a ten-year-old wild ginseng from his pocket and put it on the stall. When he stopped, Xu Damao dared to touch it. With the help of the faint light, he carefully examined the ginseng, and the more he looked, the more satisfied he was. This is really good stuff! Xu Damao had bought it privately before, but he had never seen such good quality. He put the ginseng back to its original place and asked in a low voice: "How to trade?" In the pigeon market, transactions usually use "me, an, sou, sao, wai, liao, qiao, ben, jiao, shao" to represent numbers. Here, "an" represents twenty. A hint of joy flashed across Xu Damao's face. Considering the quality of this ginseng, twenty yuan is indeed not high. However, Xu Damao is not a generous person. He dared not touch the gold, silver and jewelry stored in the Lou family. His monthly salary was only thirty-five yuan, two yuan and a half less than Sha Zhu. It was really painful for him to take out twenty yuan at once. But he wanted this wild ginseng very much. The effect of using wild ginseng that has been used for years as medicine must be stronger than before. Maybe after taking the medicine, he can make Lou Xiao'e pregnant! Wanting to get it but also wanting to save money, Xu Damao began to think about it. He whispered: "Comrade, I'm afraid this thing is of unknown origin?" Upon hearing this, Fatty Yu knew that Xu Damao wanted to bargain. He had seen this kind of thing many times, so he said directly: "Buy it if you want, otherwise get out!"

When Xu Damao heard the voice, he was startled. He knew it was the voice of the stall owner in the ghost market. Then his face tensed up and he looked behind him involuntarily. A sharp knife was already against his waist. He almost begged for mercy: "Brother, I know I was wrong. You are a magnanimous person. This time I have elderly parents and young children to support. I am the only one who can support them. You must not treat me in this way!"

"Humph, are you scared now? Why didn't you act like this when I went to report you earlier?" Fatty Yu couldn't help but sneer. He applied a little force with the tip of his knife, making Xu Damao feel like he was being sliced. "Stop talking nonsense and tell me your home address and work situation. Otherwise, don't blame me for being rude!"

Xu Damao was trembling, knowing that it was useless, so he could only give a trembling answer: "Brother, my last name is He Yuzhu, I am a chef at the steel mill, and I live in the factory compound."

Xu Damao was not stupid. In fact, he had a very good reputation in the whole town. Faced with this situation, he still found a way to cope with it. At this critical moment, he lied about his name and reversed some information.

After leaving the courtyard, Xu Damao held two wild ginsengs in his hands, and he wanted to cry but had no tears. According to the established plan, he originally thought that going to the police station to report would tie up Fatty, and then use his connections in the factory to get a letter of commendation. In the end, he never expected that he would end up losing more than he gained.

After his plan failed, Xu Damao decided to change his strategy. He decided to be a behind-the-scenes agent, hoping to make a profit.

A few days later, Xu Damao received news from the property management of the steel mill that a patrol team would secretly raid the ghost market. Based on this, he believed that now was a good time to change his luck.

Late at night, the ghost market started to get noisy, and Xu Damao took the opportunity to sneak into the circle. With his sharp eyesight, he found the familiar He Yuzhu in the crowd. In the ghost market, the police suddenly attacked, and everyone was in danger, but He Yuzhu was calm and composed, and walked calmly.

Faced with sudden danger, He Yuzhu was quite calm and adhered to the established trading rules. Even when facing police interrogation, he handled it with ease.

Xu Damao gnashed his teeth. He failed to take the opportunity to overthrow He Yuzhu, but instead made him secretly admire him. After that, Xu Damao changed his strategy and stopped taking tough measures. He began to win over He Yuzhu. He gave gifts, flattered and praised him. In order to get closer to him, Xu Damao used all his tricks.

Time flies, and it is the end of the year. The steel mill is about to hold its annual meeting. Xu Damao plans to compete with He Yuzhu at the annual meeting to avenge his previous defeat. But fate does not seem to favor Xu Damao. Just before the annual meeting, He Yuzhu has been promoted to the head of the factory's logistics department.

Frustrated, Xu Damao had to admit that his plan had already been defeated by He Yuzhu's caution and strategy. Good cannot prevail over evil, and Xu Damao never expected that He Yuzhu was actually a loyal and exemplary trader. His family had been in the underworld for generations, accumulating a reputation that made other trader in the factory look at him with admiration.

As Xu Damao repented, He Yuzhu paid more attention to business quality and management ability after his promotion, and his reputation in the factory was increasing. Xu Damao's failure just reminded everyone that good will be rewarded with good, and evil will be punished with evil. In the end, Xu Damao realized that he needed to sincerely repent and take the right path instead of taking shortcuts.

Hearing this, Fatty Yu was a little confused.