Rebirth in 1984, starting from beekeeping in the mountains

Chapter 27: One dollar and five cents per pound?
Qianmaping is located at the foot of the eastern ridge of Tianmang Mountain.

Shiwan Village is one of the most prestigious villages in the entire Tianmang Mountain Dongling Mountain area.

The mountain road to the market is nearly 20 miles long.

This is also the reason why Fang Hongan and Wang Tong got up so early.

However, with the 180 kilograms of honey pulled on the donkey cart, both of them felt that this long mountain road was a golden avenue full of hope.

The donkey cart moved forward. Although it was market day, other people in the village had not arrived so early.

It was not until they had left the village that they saw lights on in the houses of several families in the village.

Perhaps because of the donkey's bray, someone actually started shouting towards this side.

Asked to wait.

Nowadays, most families go to the market by carrying things on their shoulders or walking on foot.

If you have less stuff with you, just carry a bamboo basket.

If you have a lot of things, a shoulder pole and two baskets are the standard configuration.

It would be very tiring to carry a lot of things on a mountain road of more than ten miles, so some people bought donkeys and harnessed them to donkey carts, one for their own convenience, and the other for carrying goods for others.

Of course, this costs money, and is considered a very primitive freight service.

However, in the entire Tianmang Mountain East Ridge area, except for a large village like Qianmaping at the foot of the mountain, most of the villages are small.

Generally speaking, not every village or market can attract so many people using donkey carts.

Therefore, many donkey cart owners will visit several villages in succession on market days to solicit business.

There were no donkey carts in the entire Shiwan Village, so the people who called them probably thought they were here to solicit business.

In response to this, both of them naturally chose to remain silent and not respond.

Wang Tong even pushed harder to make the donkey cart go faster.

Although there is still some space on this donkey cart for carrying other things, compared with the precious honey listed above, the little money earned from helping others carry goods is not worth mentioning at all.

Not to mention, he is from Shiwan Village.

Wang Tong remembered Fang Hongan's instructions very well.

At this stage, nothing about wild honey is made public.

He hurried out of the village, and seeing that there was no one in sight, Wang Tong lowered his voice with excitement and asked, "Brother! How much can this honey be sold for per pound? Can I have one piece?"

"piece?"

Fang Hongan smiled and said softly, "White sugar in Qianmaping is sold for 1.35 yuan!"

"Wow!"

Wang Tong exclaimed in ecstasy: "Then can it be sold for 1.5 yuan?"

In his mind, honey is much more delicious and precious than white sugar, so a slightly higher price is not excessive.

"more or less!"

Fang Hongan nodded.

Although he was reborn, he was muddle-headed during those years and didn't care about the prices. Also, because his memories were a bit distant, he didn't have a definite idea in his mind.

But later I seemed to have read some relevant information, and vaguely remembered that the price in the country in the mid-80s seemed to be more than two yuan?
Xiaonan is considered a poor area in the country, so let’s be conservative and give a low price!

After all, the 80s was still an era when agriculture supported industry, and the prices of primary agricultural products were generally much lower than those of industrial products.

Even a rare commodity like honey can only be sold at a similar price to industrially processed products like white sugar.

It is far from being like in later generations, where it can be sold for ten or even dozens of times the price.

One dollar and fifty cents per pound should be the minimum price you can get, but it probably won’t be much higher.

"180 jin, yuan per jin, that can be sold for ..." After listening to Fang Hongan's statement, Wang Tong pinched his fingers and started to calculate.

However, he was born wild and had never been good at studying. He was forced to finish the third grade of primary school with great difficulty. He could recognize words tolerably well, but was really bad at arithmetic. After calculating for a long time, he still couldn't figure out anything and could only look at Fang Hongan for help.

Fang Hongan felt sorry for him and said, "Idiot!"

"Two...two hundred and seven?"

Wang Tong repeated the sentence in a choked voice. His feet froze and he was almost pulled down by the rope that tied the donkey. After he stabilized himself, he still looked at Fang Hongan in disbelief, "Brother, it's... two hundred and seventy yuan?"

"right!"

Fang Hongan nodded.

“Oh my god!”

Wang Tong’s eyes widened, his face filled with ecstatic horror.

He felt very satisfied with the harvest these days, and he also knew that honey was quite valuable.

But I never thought it would be worth this much.

All in all, it took about three days to dig.

I only took a part of it to sell, but I could actually earn more than two hundred dollars in one trip.

This is... too shocking.

More than two hundred yuan is almost as much as their family’s annual income.

"All right!"

Worried that the boy would get too excited and drive the donkey cart into the ditch, Fang Hongan quickly spoke to calm him down: "It hasn't been sold yet, don't think too much! Otherwise, the cart will flip over and you won't get any money from it!"

"Yes! Yes!"

Wang Tong nodded quickly and his attitude immediately became cautious.

But the corners of his mouth were so raised that he couldn't suppress it no matter what he did.

The two of them walked down the mountain road. The sky gradually brightened. After walking for about an hour, they began to see farmers carrying loads on their shoulders and hurrying along the way.

When they saw the two men driving the donkey cart, they all looked over with longing eyes.

As they were all villagers from this area, they could naturally see that Fang Hongan and Wang Tong, the two young men, were not like those old whippersnappers who used donkey carts to solicit business and carry goods to make money.

It is most likely borrowed.

Nowadays, being able to borrow a donkey cart to go to the market is truly enviable.

Some people also wanted to strike up a conversation and take the opportunity to sell their own goods on the rails.

But seeing that Fang Hongan and Wang Tong were walking by themselves, and the donkey pulling the cart looked half-grown, they didn't dare to bring up the matter.

After walking for a while, when they arrived at a village called Xichongling, a figure caught Fang Hongan's sight.

It was a man about the same age as Fang Hongan, carrying a pair of baskets.

One side of the basket was covered with a dense layer of kudzu leaves, but based on Fang Hongan's experience, it was unlikely to contain kudzu roots. On the other side were some dried bamboo shoots, dried mushrooms and other dry goods.

He seemed to have some problem with his legs, and he walked with one foot higher than the other, which looked extremely strange.

When Fang Hongan noticed him, he obviously saw the donkey cart at the first moment.

He stared at the donkey cart for several seconds. The light was dim and the expression in his eyes could not be seen.

But from the time that gaze lingered, it could be inferred that those eyes were full of desire.

Just when Fang Hongan thought he would speak to him, he gritted his teeth and got tangled up in confusion. Finally, he drooped his eyes, turned his head away stubbornly, and continued to walk forward with difficulty carrying the heavy burden in his weird posture...

(End of this chapter)