Chapter 212: Earning Some Extra Money with the System Space
Chapter 212: Earning Some Extra Money with the System Space
In recent months, Deng Shirong had stopped matchmaking for two main reasons:
First, the income from matchmaking was no longer significant to him.
Second, matchmaking was a matter of lifelong happiness for both parties. Unlike the protagonist in the book "In the Matchmaking Business, I Bow to No One," who had a matchmaking system to see the compatibility of couples and could ensure their happiness, Deng Shirong relied solely on his decades of life experience. He couldn't guarantee that the couples he matched would have a happy marriage, so he had to be cautious and not act blindly for the sake of system rewards, which could ruin someone's chances of a happy life.
With matchmaking on hold, his only source of income was the pottery factory. The factory was doing well, bringing in about 600 yuan per month, which was a significant amount in the rural area.
However, the income from the pottery factory alone was not enough for Deng Shirong. After all, he still owed the bank 806,000 yuan. While he could theoretically avoid paying back the loan by being a bit more shameless, as a reborn individual, he had his principles and intended to pay off the debt.
Currently, the restaurant in the county was under construction, and Deng Shirong wasn't entirely confident it would be profitable. Opening a supermarket seemed like a more promising venture, but the timing wasn't right yet.
The saying "a man without foresight will surely have troubles" resonated with Deng Shirong. He couldn't rely solely on the restaurant's success and needed to find a side business to earn some extra money. This way, even if the restaurant failed, it wouldn't affect his family's quality of life.
After much consideration, Deng Shirong decided to use his system space to earn some steady, albeit smaller, profits.
The most lucrative business would be smuggling. With the system space, he could easily outdo anyone in smuggling, but he wasn't willing to take that risk. Instead, he planned to buy and store fruits in the system space, then sell them at a higher price due to regional price differences.
He could also take advantage of time differences for even greater profits. Fruits weren't controlled goods, so as long as he was discreet and didn't overreach, he could earn money without attracting attention.
With his plan set, Deng Shirong began selecting fruits.
His first choice was lychees. Lychees were notoriously difficult to preserve, but with the system space's stasis function, he could keep them fresh for extended periods. Even without taking advantage of time differences, just leveraging regional price differences would be highly profitable. The savings on transportation alone would be substantial.
However, after some thought, Deng Shirong decided against lychees. They were too conspicuous. Given their reputation for being hard to preserve, the regional price differences were significant, and using time differences would be even riskier. Selling lychees fresh in autumn, winter, or even the following spring would be too noticeable and could attract unwanted attention, making the potential profits not worth the risk.
After much deliberation, Deng Shirong settled on longans. In the future, with advanced preservation techniques, longans were available year-round. In the current era, while preservation techniques weren't as advanced, longans could still last for about ten days, which was much better than lychees.
Deng Shirong planned to buy a batch of longan fruits, store them in his system space, and then sell them in the capital city, confident that he could fetch a high price.
With this thought in mind, Deng Shirong couldn't sit still. He hopped on his bicycle and headed toward Bai Ping Farm.
Bai Ping Farm was one of the five autonomous region-run farms, located in the Tan Lian Brigade of Songshan Commune. The farm covered a total area of 46,314 acres, including 137 acres of paddy fields, 477 acres of sloping land, and 45,700 acres of mountainous land.
The farm planted 22,800 acres of rubber trees (284,200 trees), 970 acres of sisal, 250 acres of tea, and 3,033 acres of fruit trees, including lychees and longans.
Of the 3,033 acres of fruit trees, at least 2,800 acres were dedicated to longans, making it the largest longan-producing farm in the county, without a doubt.
Naye Village wasn't far from Bai Ping Farm. Deng Shirong arrived at his destination in less than half an hour on his bicycle.
After asking for directions, he found himself in the office, where he met the farm manager within minutes.
The manager, surnamed Li, was a middle-aged man around Deng Shirong's age.
Bai Ping Farm, being a region-run farm, had a brick factory, a clinic, a store, a primary school, and three junior high school classes. The total area of buildings on the farm was 506,000 square meters, with 199,000 square meters of dormitories, 66,740 square meters of factory space, and 240,000 square meters of other buildings.
The farm employed over a thousand workers and officials, a significant number that highlighted the importance of Li Manager's position.
After exchanging pleasantries, Deng Shirong came straight to the point. "Manager Li, I'm here today to discuss a business opportunity. Have you signed a longan purchase contract with the supply and marketing cooperative this year?"
Manager Li looked at Deng Shirong with surprise. "Not yet. Comrade Deng, are you interested in our longans?"
Deng Shirong nodded. "Yes, I'd like to buy your farm's longans. Is that possible?"
Manager Li replied, "Certainly, but how many longans do you plan to buy, Comrade Deng?"
Deng Shirong said, "I'll buy as many as you have."
Manager Li reminded him, "Comrade Deng, our farm's longan production has exceeded 60 tons for the past few years. Are you sure you want to buy that much?"
Deng Shirong smiled. "Manager Li, I'm sure. No matter how many tons you produce, I'll buy them all."
Hearing this, Manager Li regarded Deng Shirong with newfound respect. Private businesses of this scale were rare in rural areas. He personally poured Deng Shirong a cup of tea before asking, "Comrade Deng, how much can you offer for the purchase price?"
Deng Shirong responded, "I'll offer one cent more per pound than the supply and marketing cooperative. What do you think, Manager Li?"
He had thought this through on his way. He didn't expect to compete with the cooperative on equal terms, as why would they choose to deal with a newcomer when they had a long-standing relationship with the cooperative?
But offering one cent more per pound made a difference. Don't underestimate this small amount. At 60 tons of longans, that's 1,200 yuan, a sum that even a large and prosperous farm like Bai Ping wouldn't ignore.
(End of Chapter)
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