773 Net Earnings of A Few Thousands
After Qiao Mei finished making food for the children, Li Gui was almost done with her work. By this moment, all the families had to go to work and people stopped coming by with seeds.
“Sigh… If not for Sister Dong coming to help me today, I don’t think I can cope.” Although Li Gui was tired, she was full of smiles and it looked as if she had done something interesting.
Otherwise, she rarely interacted with the people in the village. She was always worried that others would say bad things about her. She did not take the initiative to talk to others as she was afraid that no one liked her.
“Qiao Mei, what is the price you managed to negotiate yesterday?” Auntie Dong asked curiously.
Qiao Mei thought for a moment and said, “90 cents.”
Auntie Dong was so happy that she kept clapping. She had thought that if the price was 30 cents, she would sell all 800 pounds. If the price was higher, she would save some for the children. The children were in for a treat this time.
If she sold 750 pounds, that would be 675 dollars! It was equivalent to two years of earnings for her family!
“You’re really the big treasure of our village! Oh my goodness! I have to go home quickly to clean up. My children kick up a fuss every day and clamor for me to leave some seeds for them,” Auntie Dong said happily.
“Auntie, stay and eat before leaving,” Qiao Mei said.
Auntie Dong waved her hand and said, “No, no. I have to go home to take care of the children! You guys go ahead!”
As Li Gui watched Auntie Dong leave, she said carefully, “Is it really 90 cents a pound? Doesn’t the supply and marketing cooperative buy goods at very low prices? Don’t overstate the price. If the higher-ups find out about it, you’ll be finished!”
“You’re right, it’s not 90 cents. It’s one dollar a pound! I have found a food factory to sell them in nice gift packs. I won’t be in the village by then. You can be the liaison person with the people in the county city. The extra 10 cents per pound is what we make for our family’s hard work. Even if we pay for expenses like hiring a car out of this amount, we can still make some money,” Qiao Mei said.
In the future, every family would be willing to grow seeds once they knew they could make money. The harvest would not be just a few hundred pounds per family like it was now. By then, the harvest would be by tons and would not even be able to fit into this courtyard.
Nowadays, it would cost 50 dollars to hire a big truck for one trip. If Li Gui only made money from her own harvest, she would lose money and yet have to do more work than the other families.
In the future, they could expand the business so that Zhang Wei and Zhang Chao would have money to get married. The Foshan Seeds could even be sold in the capital in the future!
“How can you do that! Isn’t this cheating everyone of their hard-earned money!” Li Gui said.
“Our family still has to gather everything and hire vehicles to deliver them. Later on, we also have to specially build a warehouse to store the seeds. Do you think 10 cents per pound is a lot of money? Moreover, I’m the one who does all the sourcing and negotiation. The price now is already several times more than the previous 20 cents per pound and it’s also a much more convenient way for everyone to sell it. If they go and sell it at the black market, they may get arrested!” Qiao Mei said.
“Elder sister is right!” Zhang Qin said excitedly.
This girl was quick on her feet. Although she did not carry the seeds together with her two brothers, she had already roughly calculated the amount of seeds in the house. They were all in small bags, each bag weighing 50 pounds. There were already two tons in the house!
In this way, they had already made 400 dollars! Moreover, there were still others in the village who had not sent their seeds over. Once everyone was included, they would make at least 500 dollars!
“But… what if the uncles and aunties find out? Will they bully us?” Zhang Chao asked worriedly.
“No, they’ve already made money. Why would they still bully us? The seeds are only available from our house. If they want to plant the crops, they have to come to our house to buy the seeds. These seeds were germinated in a special way! It’s not seeds that you can plant just by casually scattering them into the soil,” Qiao Mei said mysteriously.
It was not true that the seeds were germinated in a special way. She had simply catalyzed the seeds with energy. After she reached the capital, she would make improvements to the seeds so that no one would suspect that there was anything strange. Otherwise, if the difference in quality with existing varieties was too great, she would not be able to continue with the business.
Now, it all depended on whether Li Gui had the guts. These crops could be grown and harvested three times a year. Based on the current net income of at least 500 dollars, it would be at least 1,500 dollars a year.
In that case, they did not need to work so hard in the fields and did not even have to grow vegetables at home. By then, they would not have to worry about the fees to send the children to university, and the children could even head to the capital!
