Chapter 25: I Want to Make Progress?

Section Chief Wang waved at him.

Zhou Yimin quickly walked over and greeted, “Section Chief, Department Chief!”

Department Chief Zheng patted Zhou Yimin on the shoulder and introduced the middle-aged man wearing glasses standing to his left.

“Yimin, this is Director Ding from our logistics department. The watch voucher you received came from him.”

Zhou Yimin immediately greeted him, “Director Ding, hello! Thank you for the watch voucher. I was just planning to buy a watch but was short of a voucher!”

This was the boss of his boss’s boss!

Director Ding also observed Zhou Yimin with a gentle demeanor and smiled, “Good job! You’ve brought honor to our logistics department. Keep up the good work—the watch voucher is well deserved.

Do your best, and strive for a promotion in the second half of the year.”

“Yes, Director Ding, I’ll do my best!”

When a leader tells you to work hard, what else can you do but respond with “Yes, sir!”?

He wasn’t like that fool from a certain TV drama, always talking back to his superiors—that would be a really dumb move.

Although, in this era, as long as you didn’t make a serious mistake, even the factory director would have a hard time firing you. But still, a leader was a leader. If you showed complete disregard for them, who else would they make things difficult for if not you?

The master butcher sliced open the wild boar and black bear’s stomachs. The next step was weighing them.

The wild boar weighed just over 109 jin (about 54.5 kg), so they rounded it up to 110 jin. The black bear weighed 262 jin (about 131 kg), but a black bear wasn’t just valued for its meat—its paws and gallbladder were worth extra money.

Director Ding had already made arrangements: the bear gallbladder was to be given as a gift, and he planned to take it with him.

The butcher had already removed the bear gallbladder. It hadn’t reached the level of a “bronze gallbladder” yet—it was just an “iron gallbladder.”

Bear gallbladders were categorized by quality. The best ones, golden-yellow, translucent, and as bright as amber, were called “golden gall” or “bronze gall.” The black, solid, and brittle or thick, paste-like ones were known as “ink gall” or “iron gall.” The yellow-green, dull, and brittle ones were referred to as “cauliflower gall.”

Director Ding handed 160 yuan to Zhou Yimin and took the bear gallbladder with him.

Neither the bear gallbladder nor the bear paws were recorded in the inventory. The bear’s front paws were priced at 10 yuan each, and the hind paws at 15 yuan each, with Department Chief Zheng taking them later.

As for the wild boar meat, Section Chief Wang instructed the butcher to cut 12 jin for him to take back to his section to distribute among his subordinates. Of course, he would still pay Zhou Yimin for it.

These extra items taken away wouldn’t be recorded in the inventory.

Zhou Yimin clicked his tongue internally.

As expected, “If you don’t take it and I don’t take it, how will the commissioner take it?”

It didn’t matter to him since he wasn’t losing anything, so he couldn’t be bothered to care.

In fact, this was relatively fair—they at least paid for what they took instead of outright taking it for free.

After totaling up, the black bear brought in 460 yuan, and the wild boar 110 yuan. Zhou Yimin earned a total of 570 yuan—quite a large sum.

To support the local farmers, the wild boar meat had even been raised to 1 yuan per jin this time.

“Yimin, I know you’re eager to make progress, but don’t push yourself too hard. Be careful when you go out in the future,” Section Chief Wang advised Zhou Yimin with a serious tone.

Zhou Yimin: “……”

I want to make progress? Why don’t I know about this?

“Alright, Section Chief, I’ll head back now.”

“Wait, don’t forget your 1 jin of meat,” Section Chief Wang reminded him.

Zhou Yimin waved it off, “I don’t need it, you can keep it, Section Chief! I already kept two wild chickens.”

Hearing that this kid had kept two wild chickens, Section Chief Wang didn’t insist anymore and took the meat for himself.

Leaving the steel factory, Zhou Yimin started thinking about how many sweet potatoes and potatoes he should give to Shangshui Village. After all, he had just made over 500 yuan.

Then he slapped his forehead—he hadn’t checked today’s 1-yuan flash sale yet!

He immediately opened the “store” and found that today’s 1-yuan flash sale included 100 jin of soybeans and 100 jin of peanut oil. Without hesitation, he snatched them up.

Soybeans were valuable, as they could be used to make tofu and other soybean products.

The 100 jin of peanut oil came in ten 10-jin buckets—quite a user-friendly packaging.

This time, he had a lot to buy before heading back.

Aside from sweet potatoes and potatoes for Shangshui Village and grain for Da Chun’s family, he also needed to prepare some things to bring to his grandparents’ house.

A bucket of peanut oil was a must. He also planned to get 50 jin of sorghum for the construction workers’ meals. As for meat, he’d bring two chickens. Any more than that would be excessive—meat spoiled easily in this weather, and there were no refrigerators.

In this era, even if the meat was a bit off, people still ate it. There weren’t so many strict standards.

After finalizing his shopping list, he was about to head back when he suddenly remembered something and immediately changed direction.

He was going to buy two watches.

That watch voucher—he planned to buy a new watch for his grandfather.

For himself, he intended to check out the consignment store.

Before time-traveling, he had read those novels where protagonists always found second-hand Rolexes at consignment stores—no vouchers needed, and they’d be valuable in the future.

First, he went to the department store to buy a new watch.

At this time, the department store had three floors:

The first floor mainly sold tobacco, alcohol, groceries, and daily necessities.

The second floor had fabric, clothing, hardware, and similar goods.

The third floor stocked high-end and expensive items like watches and radios.

The sales clerks at the department store were just as arrogant as those in restaurants.

Ignoring everything else, Zhou Yimin went straight to the watch counter.

He picked out a Shanghai-brand watch, handed over the watch voucher and 120 yuan, and said, “Comrade, please get me this watch.”

The sales clerk was a bit surprised.

That was fast.

Watches were considered luxury items, costing over a hundred yuan. Most people examined them over and over, hesitating before making a decision. Sometimes, this indecisiveness irritated the clerks.

“You’re sure about this one?”

Zhou Yimin frowned and asked, “Is there something wrong with it?”

“What are you saying? Of course, it’s good—how could a new watch be defective?”

“Then I’ll take it.”

Well then! This kind of decisive customer was rare. The sales clerk took the watch voucher and 120 yuan, counted the money twice, then handed over the watch.

Zhou Yimin tried it on. The band was a bit long—he’d need to remove about 3 cm. He had already noted that his grandfather’s wrist was slightly smaller than his.

Adjusting it wasn’t difficult; a watch repair specialist could handle it.

Leaving the department store, Zhou Yimin headed straight to the consignment store, where watch repairs were also available.

Consignment stores, also called trust stores, were essentially old pawnshops. Their function was to fill gaps in the market and provide emergency financial relief.

They sold all sorts of second-hand goods, including furniture, porcelain, bronze wares, clothing, leather goods, watches, bicycles, and more.

There were many consignment stores in Beijing, and the one Zhou Yimin visited was one of the larger and more well-known ones.

After browsing for a while, he actually found a second-hand luxury watch—a Patek Philippe. When he asked about the price, it was only 80 yuan.

What was there to hesitate about? He immediately paid 80 yuan and bought it.

The watch was well-maintained, and he figured that if he put it up for auction in the future, selling it for over a million should be no problem.

While he was there, he also had the strap of the new watch adjusted, and after finishing everything, he left right away.

Meanwhile, Zhou Yimin was unaware that a group of people had arrived at Zhoujiazhuang, heading straight for his hand pump well. After Village Chief Wang and the others reported it, the relevant authorities were immediately alarmed and rushed to Zhoujiazhuang to verify its authenticity.

—

Some data from the 1960s is unavailable, so we’ll just approximate—please bear with it!

(End of Chapter)