svetikya Chapter 150 In the blink of an eye, they became rats crossing the street.
Chapter 150 In the blink of an eye, they became rats crossing the street.
On the outskirts of the crowd, Liu Xiaocui hunched her shoulders and hid behind a crooked willow tree.
As she munched on the half-eaten cornbread she had brought from home, her heart pounded like a drum.
Looking at the dense crowd in the courtyard and the menacing Zhan Laosan on the truck, her usually sharp and quick-witted lips seemed glued shut.
She wanted to go out and protect her daughter-in-law, after all, Xiao Tao was the golden phoenix that would bring wealth to the Li family.
But when she saw Li Fugui's murderous gaze and heard the insults around her that seemed to pierce her spine, Liu Xiaocui chickened out.
"What...what should we do?"
Liu Xiaocui's triangular eyes darted around, her mind racing with calculations. "If I go out, not only will I have to give back all the money I've earned these past few days, but I might even lose the old hen at home. No, no, I have to see if my father-in-law can hold out."
Just then, Li Xiaotao had already passed through the crowd and stood in the eye of the storm.
"Aunt Jing, what are you doing?" Li Xiaotao reached out to help Aunt Jing, who was about to kneel down.
Aunt Jing was an honest and simple farmer. Her husband died early, and it wasn't easy for her to raise three children. She relied entirely on these few acres of melons to make a living.
Her face was streaked with tears and snot, and she grabbed Li Xiaotao's hand as if it were a lifeline: "Tao'er, Auntie isn't trying to force you, it's just... it's just that we're starving! If Boss Zhan doesn't accept the tuition, my kids' school fees will be gone!"
Several women around also wiped away tears, creating a suffocatingly oppressive atmosphere.
Li Xiaotao exerted force and steadily supported Aunt Jing.
Those clear, bright eyes swept over the crowd: "Aunties, uncles, and aunties, don't worry. These melons are the fruits of our hard work, not rotten roadside vegetables. As long as the melons are good, there's no reason they won't sell! If even one melon rots in the field because of this, I, Li Xiaotao, will compensate you double!"
These words carried weight and silenced the previously noisy crowd for a moment.
Li Fugui was about to shout again when someone pulled him back: "Let's hear what Xiao Tao has to say first. If she's willing to pay, it means she has the confidence!"
Everyone quieted down. Although Li Xiaotao was just a young girl, she was backed by the Party Secretary; they couldn't let her deceive them.
After calming the villagers down, Li Xiaotao turned around, and that gentle expression vanished instantly.
She looked coldly at Zhan Laosan, who was standing on the truck's running board shaking his leg.
"Boss Zhan, since we've come this far, let's have a proper discussion."
Li Xiaotao took two steps forward, approaching the front of the car. "You say I broke the rules and cut off your source of income. Well, I'd like to ask you, how much do you plan to give to the villagers for this pound of melons?"
Old Zhan's eyelids drooped, two plumes of smoke billowed from his nostrils, his face full of disdain and arrogance: "Hmph, didn't I just say? Same old rules, three points!"
Seemingly to demonstrate his "benevolence," he raised his voice again, waving at the villagers: "Go ask around the surrounding villages, I'll only give other villages a maximum of two and a half cents! That's only because we've cooperated with your Li Family Village for many years, that I'm giving you an extra five cents! What? Still think it's too little? These days, you have to have a conscience!"
"Conscience?" Li Xiaotao exclaimed as if she had heard the biggest joke in the world. "Boss Zhan, your conscience must have been eaten by dogs, and what's left is probably just something you find disgusting."
"What did you say, you brat!" Zhan Laosan's expression changed, and he clenched his fists, about to swing them, but stopped himself.
He recalled the scene when he came to Lijia Village last year, and saw Li Xiaotao beat the village hooligans so badly they were running for their lives.
This little girl looks thin and weak, but she's quite skilled. He's not even sure he can beat her.
"Isn't that right?"
Li Xiaotao didn't give him a chance to interrupt, her voice suddenly rising, "Fellow villagers, you may not know the market prices in town. But I've been keeping an eye on it every day these past few days! Right now, watermelons are selling for one cent a pound at the town market! Even the slightly lower quality ones are eight or nine cents! Even if you take them to the county supply and marketing cooperative or the factory canteen, the wholesale price starts at six cents!"
"What?! Six points as the starting point?!"
"My goodness! That's doubled in value with just one transaction!"
The crowd erupted in uproar again. The villagers' eyes shifted from panic to shock, and then slowly turned to anger.
Seizing the opportunity, Li Xiaotao stretched out her right hand, fingers spread wide, and gestured fiercely in the air: "Buy at three cents, wholesale at six cents, and retail at ten cents. Boss Zhan, even if you're going wholesale, you'll still make at least three to four cents profit just from reselling this pound of melons! If you take it to the city and set up a stall, that's a whopping seven cents profit per pound!"
"Seven-tenths profit per pound!"
Li Xiaotao pointed at the Jiefang truck, "Your truck can carry four tons, that's eight thousand jin! You make several hundred yuan a trip for the villagers! Is this what you call 'not making money'? Is this what you call 'having a conscience'? I think your heart is blacker than unburnt coal!"
Once the accounts were settled, everyone understood perfectly.
So exciting.
In the early 80s, a strong laborer could only earn a few cents a day working in a production team. Hundreds of yuan? That was a huge sum that many families couldn't save up for several years!
The villagers' eyes reddened, not from the wind, but from anger. They toiled from dawn till dusk, tending to these melon seedlings like royalty, working tirelessly for half a year, only to have the lion's share of the profits go to this fat man smoking there?
"Zhan Laosan! You son of a bitch!" Someone in the crowd shouted, followed by a chorus of curses.
"It's so dark! It's way too dark!"
"No wonder you change your shoes every year; you're just sucking our blood!"
Just moments ago, Zhan Laosan was regarded as a "god of wealth" by the villagers, but in the blink of an eye, he became a pariah.
Zhan Laosan panicked, not even noticing that the cigarette butt in his hand burned his fingers.
He hadn't expected this country girl to be so quick-witted, tearing the thin veil of secrecy to shreds.
In the past, these peasants were completely clueless, accepting whatever they were given without knowing anything about the market rates.
"Bullshit! What do you know, you little brat!"
Old Zhan jumped up and down in a fit of rage, his fat body jiggling. "Is this how you calculate things? Huh? My big truck doesn't need fuel? Doesn't it need maintenance? Doesn't it need drivers and loaders? Doesn't it need to be bribed at checkpoints? If the melons rot on the way, that's my loss too! After deducting all the labor and fuel costs, how many coins will I have left?"
His face flushed red, and spittle flew everywhere as he tried to quell the situation with these seemingly reasonable "costs."
"Besides!" Zhan Laosan stared at Li Xiaotao with a sinister look. "Your Li Family Village is just a bunch of peasants. Without my truck, would all those tens of thousands of pounds of melons have run to the city on their own? They'd just rot in the fields without earning a penny! I'm giving you three cents; that's to save your lives!"