good old days

"In our neighborhood, in autumn, we would go into the dwarf mountains and cut several large bundles of wild hazelnut strips. The wild hazelnut trees are as thick as a finger and as tall as one person. In this season, one month earlier, there can be almost two trees. When the hazelnuts are about three months old, every household in our area will bring a few bundles back, and when they take them home, they will beat them hard with wooden sticks to knock off the hazelnuts and dry them."

When Guo Hong mentioned her parents' life, her local accent and dialect came out, and she even gestured with her hands when she talked about her enthusiasm.

"It's better here in the capital. It only snows a few times in winter, which doesn't prevent you from going out or affecting your normal work. We can't do that. I have an aunt who lives in Shanwowo. In winter, it snows so much that the mountain is covered with snow. You can't even see her in one winter. They, and the same in our village, most of the families don’t go out and stay at home for the winter, so they have to store a batch of food that can be stored for the winter.”

Jiang Xinyu had a longing for Guo Hong's hometown like Xinjiang Province. She had been there in the ice and snow, but she had never lived the life of "cat winter" that Guo Hong said. Such a life might be inconvenient for people who are used to that kind of life. There were a lot of inconveniences and dissatisfactions, but she was a little yearning for it.

"How deep is the snow over there in winter?"

Guo Hong gestured and said: "If it lasts for a few days, I will definitely not be able to go out."

“Is that a high yield of hazelnuts or a high yield of pine nuts?”

Jiang Xinyu only knows that hazelnuts and pine nuts are delicious. She wonders whether the Northeast, like Xinjiang Province, has grown these crops on a small scale that can improve the local economy.

Guo Hong thought: "Pine nuts are not as easy to get as hazelnuts over there. We have to go into the old forest to find the patches of pitch pine forests. The trees are too tall and it is too dangerous to climb up to pick the pine cones, so we use the tied bamboo poles and try our best. Knock, knock down the pine cones. Two big bags of pine cones can only peel out a small bag of pine nuts, which are rare delicacies. I still remember that year I went to knock down the pine cones with my uncle’s brother, and we were so tired. The genius peeled out three scoops of pine nuts.”

Guo Hong knew that Jiang Xinyu's family now opened a dried fruit shop and asked, "Do you want to sell things from our mountains over there?"

Jiang Xinyu nodded, "Do you think it can be done?"

Guo Hong nodded, "We have more wild hazelnuts over there. Now is the time to go harvesting in the mountains. There are definitely not many pine nuts, but there are wild walnuts, but the skin is too thick, unlike the thin-skinned walnuts you brought back from Xinjiang Province. There is too little pulp, so if you want to get some, you can go over there and collect them at this time."

Speaking of this, she scratched her head. They were all students at the school. How could Xinyu go to receive the goods from them?

Jiang Xinyu thought for a moment and asked, "How far is your hometown from Huan County?"

Ding Changhai's uncle's home is over there in Huan County.

Guo Hong had heard of Huan County, which was also in their province, but she had never been there. She shook her head, "I can't tell clearly, but it's only a few hours' drive away."

Jiang Xinyu originally wanted relatives from Guo Hong's family to go to Huan County to collect the goods with Ding Changhai to see what the price was. After thinking about it, she felt that Ding Changhai seemed to be more reliable than relatives from Guo Hong's family in terms of close understanding.

Seeing that she was silent, Guo Hong thought about it and said, "If you want to purchase goods, I can call my uncle to ask about the situation. Do you think that's okay?"

People had helped her, and she wanted to do something for them.

Jiang Xinyu nodded, "Please help me ask you about the market price of hazelnuts and pine nuts over there, and I'll pay for the phone bill."

There is no need to transport walnuts from such a long distance. The skin is so thick and the taste is just the same. Walnuts from other places are not that bad, and the freight is not that expensive.

Ding Changhai is quite reliable, but she still has to find out the price of the product clearly, otherwise the cooperation will easily cause friction.

Guo Hong shook her head and refused: "As long as I pay for the phone call, what's the point of asking you to pay for it?"

Jiang Xinyu: "One code equals one code. You are here to help me." After school at noon, Guo Hong went to the school communication room and called the post office in her hometown. She asked someone at the post office to send a message to her uncle to find out where hazelnuts were sold. What price.

The person who answered the phone at the post office immediately answered this question, "My wife just went to a large market yesterday. There were sellers of acorns, walnuts, hazelnuts and pine nuts. Acorns are not valuable. You can buy two kilograms for five cents. Walnuts cost 28 cents, hazelnuts cost 49 cents, and pine nuts are about to catch up with the price of meat, at 60 cents a pound. These can only be sold at the county fair, but no one in our village buys them."

"Is there a big gathering in our county?"

The operator said: "You didn't watch TV. Even households with ten thousand yuan came out. Now the county allows people to set up stalls on Sundays. Everyone can go to the big market. They sell everything. I heard from my wife that there are people selling mink furs." "

After hanging up the phone, Guo Hong smacked her lips and turned to smile at Jiang Xinyu: "Great, we can also do small business over there."

"Just now the post office operator said that households worth 10,000 yuan have already appeared."

Is a ten thousand yuan household a family with ten thousand yuan? What can you do to earn 10,000 yuan? She was so happy to save thirty dollars a month. She couldn't imagine how excited she would be if she had ten thousand dollars. With money, my brother can marry a wife smoothly, my sisters can go to school well, and there will no longer be so many conflicts in the family.

Jiang Xinyu nodded, "I read in the newspaper that the person who contracted the pig farm has a net worth of more than 10,000 yuan including all total assets."

Guo Hong exclaimed: "Raising pigs can make a household worth 10,000 yuan? Can raising chickens and ducks make money?"

A piglet costs two yuan, and raising pigs is too troublesome. The pig she raises loses weight every year and cannot meet the standards of a first-class pig. Raising pigs is not easy, and the investment is huge. The family may not be able to do it. .

Jiang Xinyu nodded naturally, "Chickens and ducks are both meat, and the females can also lay eggs. If you raise them, you will definitely make money."

Guo Hong's mind came alive, "I want to write a letter home and give my parents advice on raising chickens and ducks."

Jiang Xinyu thinks it's good. If she finds a way to make money, her life will be much easier in the future.

If you don’t think of ways to do business and make money now, it will be too late when others have taken the easy path.

Guo Hong told Jiang Xinyu the price she had just found out, and then said: "I didn't expect pine nuts and hazelnuts to be so valuable. We only need to peel them out when we go into the mountains to get them home. We don't have to spend money to buy them."

Jiang Xinyu said: "If it is shipped to the capital and sold, the price will more than double, which will be even more expensive."

Guo Hong nodded thoughtfully, "What about medicinal materials? Such as wild ginseng?"

Jiang Xinyu didn't know anything about this aspect, but ginseng was definitely not cheap.

"Ginseng depends on the year, and the price is certainly not cheap."

Guo Hong held her wrist, her eyes bright: "My cousin's grandfather is a ginseng picker. My aunt's father-in-law lives in the mountains. I also have two ginseng roots given by my aunt. One is bigger and the other is a ginseng picker. A little smaller, if I tell my dad to sell it to make money and then raise chickens and ducks, is that okay? Xinyu, if I sell it, can I sell it on consignment in your shop? "

(End of this chapter)