Rebirth of a Portable Space: Transforming My Hometown

Chapter 17 Liu Meili and Li Aiguo's Holiday

When Yufei's mother and father saw the three-wheeled vehicle, they were filled with surprise.

The last time I came back was during the Chinese New Year holiday. What happened in just five months? How did the old man even buy a three-wheeled vehicle?

Yufei's mother, dragging piles of sacks, didn't even bother to complain about waiting at the dock for over an hour, and exclaimed in surprise...

"Dad, what's this?"

"Haha! That's right, this is our new three-wheeled vehicle. We'll talk about the details when we get home," Grandpa Yufei said, beaming.

When they got home, Yufei's grandfather briefly recounted the opportunities that had arisen over the past two months, leaving Yufei's mother, Liu Meili, and father, Li Aiguo, feeling as if they were in a dream.

My only feeling is that they're about to make a fortune!

But at this time, Liu Meili was filled with love for her teaching job.

So Yufei discussed with her mother whether to sell white jade radishes full-time, but when other new products came along that she could sell, she chose to refuse.

Yufei then remembered that she would have to wait until the teacher reforms, because her mother didn't have any connections and was eliminated from the teaching profession, before starting her business.

Her mother was always chasing after money, but in the end, she accomplished nothing and even lost all of her father's savings from his time as a teacher.

This made my father, who came from a previous life, extremely cautious about everything, and he would avoid discussing anything related to business.

Yufei looked at her father, whose eyes were sparkling. Her father wasn't as opposed to her mother going into business as he had been in her previous life.

Now, Yufei just needs to wait until the rural teacher system reform in a year, and then she can persuade her mother again, and everything will be fine.

After her hungry parents finished eating, Yufei took the two of them to the vegetable garden.

Grandpa and Grandma were already working inside. Looking at the vegetable garden where planting had begun, Yufei's mother asked...

"Are they going to plant the same radishes we just ate here?"

She and her husband had just finished eating when they tasted the radish her parents were talking about. She initially thought, "It's just radish, even if it's delicious, it's nothing special."

But to her surprise, after taking a bite, she exclaimed that it was really fragrant and delicious. She had vaguely heard rumors back when she worked in Longyuan Town that the county was going crazy over a single radish, but she had previously thought it was an exaggeration.

Only now did she realize that the radish that had driven the entire Longyang County crazy actually belonged to her family. This radish certainly had a cost that drove people mad; Liu Meili thought that even the emperor's delicacies were probably no match for it.

So when Liu Meili saw that she was going to plant white jade radishes in her large vegetable garden, she was still very excited.

"Hmm! Except for a small plot of 3 mu (approximately 0.2 hectares) reserved for me to experiment with growing the same type of watermelon, the rest will be planted with radishes."

Yufei answered her mother's question, while also saying with a hint of regret.

"It's a pity we still don't have enough land. We're currently in debt because of buying a three-wheeled vehicle. Grandma insists on waiting until we pay off that debt before renting land. Otherwise, I'd like to get more land to grow radishes and chili peppers."

Yufei's mother stared speechlessly at the vegetable garden, which was several times larger than that of an average family's garden. Was her daughter being a little too ambitious?

Yufei's father agreed wholeheartedly, saying, "The land is still too small!"

They're insane! This father and daughter are crazy, but Yufei's mother couldn't help but think, "A little more land wouldn't be so bad."

Liu Meili and Li Aiguo felt that this year's summer vacation was the most enjoyable they had ever had.

Although only a month has passed, and although they have been extremely busy during this month...

But every night when they tallied up their earnings, they were like they'd been injected with adrenaline.

Grandpa doesn't have a summer vacation because he has to continue working, while Grandma has to stay with him.

So now it's Yufei's mom and dad who take Yufei to sell radishes.

They have provided Zhu Xiangui with more than one ton of white jade radishes.

But for Zhu Xiangui, it was still not enough. However, one shouldn't be greedy, so he tried his best to allocate the white jade radishes to major consumer cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong.

It made him incredibly wealthy, and the Renhe Restaurant where he worked also rose to a higher level because of him.

Zhu Xiangui's actions made the Baiyu radish famous throughout the country, but they also caused a severe shortage of Baiyu radishes from Longyang County, the radish's place of origin.

In order to maintain a market demand exceeding supply, Yufei has always sold limited quantities of her white jade radishes.

She also introduced new products, golden corn and the first serving of cooked spicy snails.

Golden corn is a bit pricey, at 1 yuan per jin (500g), but that doesn't dampen people's enthusiasm.

Zhu Xiangui's supply is the same as the market price; there has been no price increase, and the quantity supplied to Zhu Xiangui remains at about one ton per week.

They couldn't offer Zhu Xiangui any cooked spicy snails, but initially he didn't mind, since spicy snails are a snack and didn't fit their restaurant's positioning.

But after they had been selling them for almost 10 days, Yufei's family invited him to dinner. After tasting the spicy snails, he was amazed and shamelessly begged Yufei to supply him with spicy snails as well.

Yufei said that making spicy snails is too time-consuming; just selling them themselves takes too much time, so they simply can't provide spicy snails from other places.

Zhu Xiangui originally wanted to buy Yufei's recipe for spicy snails, but then he thought better of it. Money can't be earned forever; if he asked Yufei to sell him the recipe, she would definitely do so because of their friendship.

But how much money should he give her for the vegetables? Giving too little would hurt their relationship, while giving too much would make the board think he was abusing his power for personal gain.

To avoid hurting their relationship, he kept his thoughts to himself, knowing that if Yufei ever offered to cooperate, he would definitely make sure she didn't suffer any losses.

This month, they not only paid off the money they spent on the three-wheeled vehicle, but also saved 3000 yuan to lease 10 mu of land for 10 years.

Yufei was so shocked by the contract her grandfather brought that she was speechless.

She knew that land contracts in 94 shouldn't be expensive, but she never expected them to be this cheap.

"This is fertile land that I got from the village chief; otherwise, it would have been cheaper," Grandpa said with a smile.

Being debt-free is a relief; he never imagined that in such a short time, he would not only pay off his debts but also be able to contract 10 acres of land.

If it weren't for the fact that his three daughters and sons-in-law were all government officials, he would have wanted them to come and help him.

Speaking of three daughters

The eldest daughter is Liu Yufei's mother, who is now a teacher at Hongxin Village Primary School, and her son-in-law is a teacher at the junior high school in Huiwei Town.

The second daughter married well and her family arranged for her to work at the supply and marketing cooperative in Longyuan Town, which was the most enviable job in the 90s. Her husband was a manager in the cotton and linen industry.

His youngest daughter was assigned to a gas station this year, and his youngest son-in-law, who was originally his biggest worry, also passed the civil service exam this year, making him the person he worries about the least.

On the contrary, the eldest daughter, although she teaches in a rural area, is a contract worker.

He was constantly facing the possibility of being laid off, and at that time he was always thinking about what would happen if his eldest daughter was fired.

But now there's no need to worry anymore. It seems that since Xiaoyufei arrived, their lives have been getting better and better. She's truly Grandpa's little lucky star.

Grandpa looked at Yufei with a kind smile, which made Yufei's scalp tingle. What was wrong with Grandpa? Why was he smiling like that at her?

After preparing the land, Yufei's father and grandfather hurriedly went to arrange some things for planting radishes and corn.