Era-Ch39

Chapter 39: A Small Fortune

“Alright, thank you, Boss Liu. I wish you prosperous business. I still have over ten pounds of yellow eel, and there’s one especially large one among them,” Lin Heng said with a smile.

“Great!” Liu Yu smiled as he took the yellow eel, his expression even more enthusiastic than before.

“A total of 9.8 pounds, but I’ll count it as ten pounds for you. That’s 8 yuan per pound, so it’s 23 yuan in total.” Liu Yu weighed the eel and gave Lin Heng 23 yuan.

“Why don’t you have some water before leaving, and chat for a bit longer?” Liu Yu still wanted to keep them around as Lin Heng was about to leave.

“Never mind, we still have things to do,” Lin Heng waved his hand and left the hotel with his older brother.

After they left, he handed 12.5 yuan to his older brother and said with a smile, “Here, brother, this is your share.”

Lin Yue didn’t take the money immediately. Instead, he curiously looked at Lin Heng and asked, “What did you tell Liu Yu that he agreed to take the eel for 15 yuan?”

Lin Heng smiled, having expected this question from his brother. He replied, “Not much. I just told him that the father of a local leader is sick and needs a nourishing tonic, so he took it.”

“How do you know about this?” Lin Yue was even more surprised.

“Because I heard it from the village head’s son when we played together before. The village head mentioned it,” Lin Heng lied. He knew about this from his past life.

Soon after, the old man passed away, and a grand funeral was held.

“Alright,” Lin Yue said, impressed. He thought his brother was very clever. If he knew this news, it was probably something he could never have used.

“I’ll only take 10 yuan from this, the rest you earned through your own efforts.” Lin Yue pushed the extra money back to him.

Before Lin Heng could respond, Lin Yue firmly said, “No more words. Just take it. This eel was originally my gain from you.”

“Alright then.” Lin Heng opened his mouth but didn’t argue further.

He calculated, and with the money from selling the snakes, mushrooms, and herbs, it added up to 32 yuan, which was a good sum.

The typical worker in the city would earn that much in two months. Rice cost about 1.5 cents per pound, which would buy over 200 pounds. Sugar was 0.7 yuan per pound, enough to buy 45 pounds.

Xiu Lan made around 70 to 80 yuan a year selling mushrooms and herbs, so this was considered quite a large sum.

However, for Lin Heng, it was still far from enough to make his family wealthy. He needed to work even harder.

“Do you need to buy anything?” Lin Yue asked.

“Nothing much, let’s buy the tiles first. We can figure out the rest later,” Lin Heng shook his head. The money would be saved as capital to buy桑黄 (a type of mushroom) and make a profit. He might spend a few cents on candy for his daughter.

“Alright, let’s head to the tile shop first,” Lin Yue nodded. There were three brick factories in the town, two of which also produced tiles. They would have to ask for prices at each one.

They went first to the nearby Tuanjie Brick Factory, where a huge chimney spewed thick smoke, and many red bricks and ceramic tiles were placed in the outdoor area.

At this time, the town still didn’t have glazed tiles; they used yellow clay tiles. The glazed tiles, which were common in later years, were very difficult to make in this era, and small brick factories wouldn’t produce them.

When Lin Heng and his brother arrived, many workers were making tile blanks, shaping screened yellow clay into cylinders, and then cutting them into four parts to form four tile blanks.

“Excuse me, are you here to buy bricks?” A man in his thirties, who had been making tiles, set down his work and came over to ask.

“We’re here to buy ceramic tiles. How much are they here?” Lin Yue asked first.

When the man heard that they wanted to buy tiles, he became immediately friendly. He quickly wiped his hands and smiled, “Come inside, let’s talk over tea.”

Lin Yue, who was impatient, shook his head and said, “Just tell us the price. We still need to go to Hongsheng Brick Factory to ask.”

Upon hearing this, the boss led them to a slightly farther place and asked with a smile, “How many tiles do you need?”

“Let’s start with five thousand, and buy more if needed,” Lin Yue said.

“That’s quite a lot. I can give you three and a half cents per tile, that’s the lowest price,” the boss smiled.

Lin Heng listened and thought the boss was an honest person. Given the situation at this brick factory, which had only recently been built, it made sense that they lacked orders.

“Will you sell them for three cents each?” Lin Yue asked.

“That’s really not possible. Three and a half cents is already barely covering the labor costs,” the boss said with a bitter smile.

“Then let’s go see the other brick factory,” Lin Yue turned around and walked away.

Half an hour later, they reached Hongsheng Brick Factory, which was a large factory. When they asked, the price was four cents, and the lowest they could offer was three and eight-tenths cents. If they bought more than ten thousand tiles, the price could drop to three and a half cents.

While Lin Heng was looking at the price, he also checked the quality of the bricks and tiles.

“Forget it, let’s just buy from Tuanjie Brick Factory,” Lin Yue shook his head. After spending half an hour, the two of them returned to Tuanjie Brick Factory.

“Brother, I’ll speak when we’re inside,” Lin Heng said on the way.

“Okay, you do it,” Lin Yue replied without giving it much thought.

As soon as they returned, the boss hurried over to greet them, smiling, “How is it? My price is already quite low, right?”

Lin Heng didn’t answer immediately. He entered the factory, looked at the equipment, and inspected the tiles and bricks. The quality was worse than Hongsheng Brick Factory’s, which explained the lack of orders.

“Boss, these tiles and bricks are much worse than Hongsheng’s,” Lin Heng said, holding up a brick with a smile.

Upon hearing this, the boss laughed awkwardly and said, “Yes, they’re a bit worse. Their factory is larger, and they use higher temperatures in their kilns, which makes them better. But our bricks and tiles are still fine for use. Don’t worry, you can use them for over a hundred years with no problem.”

“How about three and two-tenths cents each?” Lin Heng started negotiating.

“Three and four-tenths cents is the lowest I can go. If I lower the price further, it wouldn’t even be worth my effort,” the boss said firmly.

“Alright then, we’ll go with three and four-tenths cents. Let’s settle on five thousand tiles for now. We’ll pay a ten percent deposit, and you can give us a receipt. When the delivery is complete, we’ll pay the rest. How does that sound?”

Lin Heng asked.

He suddenly remembered something—this Tuanjie Brick Factory would eventually be eliminated by Hongsheng Brick Factory because of its small scale and poor quality. That would happen in a little over a year, probably at the end of 1984.

In his past life, when he was in debt and working in the city, he had worked in various factories, including brick factories. He immediately recognized the issue with these bricks—there was no stone powder added, which caused a higher sintering temperature requirement. Small kilns couldn’t reach that temperature.

He even knew how to make glazed tiles, but he didn’t mention it.

It wasn’t the right time to talk about it yet, and besides, it wouldn’t be easy to explain to his family how he knew about it.

“No problem, five thousand tiles will cost 170 yuan. You can pay a 17 yuan deposit for now,” the boss said, excitedly calculating the price in one breath.

He then went inside to write the receipt, but when he handed it to Lin Heng, Lin Heng didn’t take it. Instead, he asked, “How do you deliver the goods? By horse or donkey?”

This small brick factory didn’t have a tractor. At that time, industrial goods were extremely expensive, and even the cheapest small tractors cost thousands or even tens of thousands of yuan.

“By horse-drawn cart. We have two carts, and each can carry 250 to 300 tiles,” the boss immediately replied.

“Alright, load the carts now and follow us. We’ll lead the way,” Lin Heng said.

“Okay, I’ll arrange it right away.” The boss seemed to become a worker, following Lin Heng’s instructions without hesitation.

“Once you finish loading, come to the bridge in the center of the town. We’ll wait for you there.” Lin Heng said, signaling his brother to pay the deposit and take the receipt.

The money for buying the bricks came from their father and was with Lin Yue.

(End of this chapter)