I am farming in the real world

Chapter 37: Things Change, People Remain the Same

Shannan Elementary School was located at the entrance of Huang Village, named for its geographical position at the southern foot of the undulating mountains nearby.

Back then, every morning, the children from several villages in the nearby mountains would carry their small schoolbags, wearing red scarves, and go to school together.

Passing by Huang Village's old noodle shop or the breakfast stalls next to it, they would take out five mao or one yuan for a simple meal.

At that time, prices were very low, schoolwork was easy, and the rural environment was carefree, allowing them to run wild all over the mountains, with laughter everywhere.

And the girl in front of him, named Huang Ruomeng, was one of the children from Huang Village, and also Chen Jue's deskmate for six years at Shannan Elementary School.

It wouldn't be an exaggeration to describe them as "childhood sweethearts, innocent playmates."

However, when they went to junior high school, Chen Jue went to Ruixian to study with his parents, and since then, he had never met or contacted Huang Ruomeng again.

After all, in the face of the vast road of life, the concept of time becomes very vague, and no one could have predicted that the former deskmates would meet again when they were almost 30 years old.

"You're Chen Jue? It's been almost seventeen or eighteen years, hasn't it?" Huang Ruomeng's voice was very soft, just like her quiet personality in elementary school.

"Yes! Long time no see, Huang Ruomeng." Meeting an old friend also plunged Chen Jue into a wave of memories.

Seeing the two of them reunited and reminiscing, the old lady who was cooking noodles also sighed: "You are Chen Yan's grandson! I remember when you were little, you often came to find Ruomeng to eat snacks together. Back then, you kids were the liveliest when you were together, and in the blink of an eye, you've all grown up."

Hearing this, Chen Jue couldn't help but look sideways.

From the old lady, he saw the figure of the middle-aged aunt who had just opened the noodle shop in the past.

Almost 20 years have passed, the noodle shop and the people in his childhood memories are still there, only the taste of the soup noodles and ordinary people like the old lady have changed.

While he was pondering and sighing, the old lady, who had already brought a bowl of cooked rice noodles to the table, joked: "You two kids are so old, haven't you fallen in love and gotten married yet?"

"Why don't you get to know each other again?"

Huang Ruomeng probably had some kind of close relationship with the old lady, and her face turned slightly red as she protested softly: "Auntie! Don't joke around!"

After protesting, she awkwardly took off her black-rimmed glasses, took off the hair tie from her wrist and simply tied up her messy hair, then carefully looked at Chen Jue with a pair of equally dazed eyes, and finally asked softly: "Chen Jue, what are you doing now? Are you back to visit relatives? Or are you planning to go out to work?"

Chen Jue looked at his childhood playmate, and without bragging or hiding anything, he truthfully replied: "I've been living in Chen Village, doing a little business for the time being."

When Huang Ruomeng heard about his current situation, she showed a thoughtful expression.

Because in Wenshi, whether it's in the city or the countryside, people like to use "doing business" as a polite greeting.

When visiting relatives and friends, the first thing they ask you at the dinner table is what you're doing, and saying "doing business" is as useful as a panacea.

"Doing business is good! It's free and you can make money! I've been unemployed for almost half a year, and I can't find a job after submitting my resume, and my family is urging me to death." Huang Ruomeng started to slurp her noodles and continue the conversation, completely lacking the coyness that a girl should have in front of Chen Jue.

Chen Jue was surprised to hear her complain about her unsuccessful job search, and also about the fact that she was the same age as him, 29 years old, and hadn't gotten married yet.

Because in Ruixian, once girls graduate from university, they quickly throw themselves into the marriage market under the influence of the surrounding environment.

Frequent blind dates and making friends, marrying a well-matched husband with a house in the city as soon as possible, has become the mainstream norm for rural girls to achieve rapid class leaps.

As long as they are not too outrageous in appearance or as heavy as a tank, they basically get married around the age of 25.

It is rare to see someone like Huang Ruomeng, who clearly has good looks but has dragged herself into being a 29-year-old leftover rural woman.

"It's really hard to find a good job now." Chen Jue squeezed out an awkward smile.

For some reason, in front of Huang Ruomeng, Chen Jue felt like he had been poisoned by a zombie in MC, his whole body stiff.

Moreover, he found that Huang Ruomeng's current situation of lying flat in the countryside seemed very similar to his own situation before.

One was a failed entrepreneur who went bankrupt and returned to the village to lie like a corpse, and the other was unemployed and stayed in the village, turning day and night upside down.

Because it was already past 10 o'clock, normally no rural person would come out for breakfast at this time.

In this awkward atmosphere of reminiscing, a white van stopped in front of the noodle shop.

Tie Yi rolled down the driver's side window and shouted: "Boss! All the goods have been delivered."

Seeing this, Chen Jue felt like he had met a savior, and hurriedly picked up his backpack, said "See you next time" to Huang Ruomeng, and then hurriedly got into the car.

Facing his elementary school deskmate who knew a lot of his childhood dark history, the awkward and complicated emotions made Chen Jue feel like he was sitting on pins and needles, so it was better to slip away as soon as possible.

Huang Ruomeng found his embarrassed escape a bit funny, as if she was recalling some interesting childhood memory.

However, in the end, the delicate girl's eyes dimmed a little as she stared at the bowl of noodles and muttered softly: "I haven't added WeChat yet."

...

The white truck drove along the village road all the way to the county town, and Chen Jue, sitting in the passenger seat, sighed with emotion.

He felt that as he grew up walking out of the countryside, he had unknowingly lost many precious things.

The joy of childhood, childhood companions, and the fun of exploring nature have all been swallowed up by the pressure of money that adults have to face all the time.

"Forget it, there's no point in reminiscing about the past."

"Let's make money and get ashore first!"

Chen Jue sighed inwardly, first detouring to the Caidie Advertising Shop to load the 2,500 boxes of bayberry gift boxes into the truck.

Using the one-key quick fill function, he imported all the MC bayberries that had been ripened into the gift boxes.

After that, he went to Sweetheart Fruit Wholesale Shop and completed the final bayberry transaction with Fatty Luo Xian.

"Brother Luo, the orchard in Xianju has been closed, this is the last batch of fruit kings."

"If you want to do this 13A Dongkui again, you'll have to wait until next summer." Chen Jue watched Tie Yi and several market porters unload the goods, while pulling Luo Xian aside to chat like brothers.

"Haha! No problem, I've made a lot of money recently thanks to your fruit kings, Brother!"

"I'll find a better restaurant later, I have to thank you, Brother Chen." As he said that, Luo Xian showed off a big gold ring he had just added on his left thumb with a flushed face.

"It's still thanks to Brother Luo's care!"

"I should be the one treating you to thank you." Chen Jue flattered him in return.

It took three trips back and forth to unload all 2,500 boxes, and a total of 243,000 yuan in cash was traded, stuffing Chen Jue's backpack full.

Including the more than 40,000 yuan from selling vegetables in the morning, he has now accumulated nearly 300,000 yuan in working capital.

With this money, there are more things that Chen Jue can do.

After delivering the goods at the Ruixian Farmers' Market, Chen Jue took Tie Yi non-stop to the Ximen Car Dealership where he bought the car before.

When he met the car dealership's Boss Wang again, the other party was very enthusiastic when he heard that Chen Jue, an old customer, had brought an acquaintance to look at the car.

Under the scorching sun, he led the two of them to wander around the parking lot, and finally bought a brand new red Dongfeng medium truck with less than 100 kilometers on it for a price of 178,000 yuan.

The 9.8-meter carriage, with a yellow license plate, can carry more than ten tons of vegetables at a time, greatly increasing the transportation capacity.

Boss Wang and other used car dealers also handle this kind of brand new trucks in stock, and there are several in the parking lot.

There are also more expensive and more powerful heavy trucks.

But considering that it will only be used to transport vegetables and chicken in the future, Chen Jue chose the cheaper medium truck.

Of course, the reason why he bought another truck was also because after contracting the vegetable farmers' produce in Wencheng, a single 4.2-meter light truck could no longer meet the demand for pulling goods.

After looking at the car, negotiating the price, and paying the money to start the procedures.

The car dealership's Boss Wang saw that the acquaintance Chen Jue brought was a bit simple-minded, and he specially pulled him aside to whisper: "Brother, after the transfer is completed and the insurance is paid, I will give you a red envelope. This is the rule in the industry, you must accept it!"

Chen Jue couldn't help but smile when he heard this, and thought to himself: "I'm eating my own kickbacks, is that okay?"

...

Because he came to buy a car near noon.

By the time all the procedures were completed, it was already past 2 pm.

Chen Jue accepted the 5,000 yuan referral fee from Boss Wang, and then he and Tie Yi each drove one straight to the Wanqiang Logistics Park warehouse.

The 15,000 catties of Shanghai greens that had been delivered in the morning made the two warehouses seem empty.

That guy Tie Laoliu was cleaning back and forth with a broom, and when he saw Chen Jue coming, he immediately leaned forward: "Hello, Boss!"

"You didn't even stutter, you bastard."

"As expected of Lao Liu! Can be of great use!" Chen Jue patted the other party's shoulder with satisfaction.

He inspected the warehouse and found no problems.

By 3 pm, the person from the accounting firm he contacted yesterday delivered several business licenses and the engraved official seal together.

"President Chen, the certificates and procedures you wanted have been completed, and they are all registered at the addresses of these two warehouses."

"If you need to handle accounting and tax reporting in the future, you can also entrust it to our company to do it together. You just completed the license, so there is a package discount." The young girl from the accounting firm promoted.

"I will contact you if I need to." Chen Jue smiled slightly.

He had run a factory before, and he knew all about these tax reporting matters.

It can be done in minutes by clicking the mouse online, and it costs several thousand yuan a year to hand it over to the accounting firm, which is a waste of money.

So, after paying the remaining balance for the business license, Chen Jue sent the girl from the financial company away.

Then, he opened a few of the file bags and glanced at the names on the newly registered business licenses of the four companies: Chen's Catering Co., Ltd., Tiehan Logistics Co., Ltd., Fangkuai Technology Co., Ltd., and Lifangti Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd.

The legal representative for all of them was Tie Yi, but what Chen Jue cared about most was the business scope covered by the four business licenses.

From catering services, food circulation, food production, food sales, food processing, logistics and transportation, to civil engineering, mechanical processing technology, as well as crop planting, livestock breeding, aquaculture, agricultural product processing, agricultural tourism development, and so on.

It almost covered all the money-making avenues that Chen Jue could currently think of that would work with the MC system.

As for the business scopes he hadn't thought of yet, he could always spend money to add them to the licenses later.

"With these business licenses, I can finally start my business with peace of mind!" Chen Jue grinned.

Before, he was doing business in a haphazard way, secretly and furtively like he was engaging in underground intelligence work.

After all, he was operating without a license, and Chen Jue was afraid of being investigated.

But with the licenses, he felt much more confident and could now openly bring his two businesses out into the open.

......

After collecting the licenses, Chen Jue asked Tie Lao Liu to stay behind and continue to watch over the warehouse.

He himself took Tie Yi and headed to Binjiang Road to look at the storefronts.

Having tasted the sweetness of selling roasted chicken at a stall nearby these past two days, Chen Jue planned to locate the first Chen's store near this upscale residential area.

This would also make it easier to carry out targeted marketing to those old customers who had joined the fan group in the future.

However, looking for a store and finding a suitable storefront was not an easy task. After searching for an afternoon and asking several agents about shop listings, Chen Jue couldn't find one he liked.

Either the rent was too high, or the store location was too remote.

Most of the shops in the prime locations along Binjiang Road had already been taken.

If Chen Jue wanted to pick a good location, he would have to pay a transfer fee, otherwise he could only open the store in a remote corner.

"Finding a suitable storefront is really troublesome!"

"No wonder there are so many live streams online that charge for helping people find shops. I'll take some time to look around again tomorrow," Chen Jue thought to himself.

......

Because he couldn't find a store he liked, Chen Jue wandered around Binjiang Road until evening.

He found a fast-food restaurant and had a quick bite to eat.

When Zhao Xiaoguang brought two classmates to join him, Chen Jue asked Tie Yi to unload the stall from the truck and began the tasting event for the evening.

He first gave the two young men, who had also just graduated from high school, a simple interview.

Both of these young men wore glasses and were dressed quite plainly.

Only after asking did he learn that they, like Zhao Xiaoguang, were from a village near Louqiao and planned to follow Zhao Xiaoguang's path of working and studying.

He asked a few questions and chatted briefly. He determined that these two young men were both quite intelligent and quick-witted. After all, they had just taken the college entrance exam not long ago, and their IQ and learning ability were at their peak.

It was just that they weren't as eloquent as Zhao Xiaoguang and seemed a bit shy when meeting strangers.

Chen Jue didn't have any major objections. Most students who were doing part-time work for the first time were like this. He would have Zhao Xiaoguang demonstrate how to promote the product, and they would quickly get into the role after a few days of adaptation.

However, when Chen Jue and the students began to set up the stall and sell MC roasted chicken to the residents of the upscale residential area, a middle-aged resident dressed casually, wearing a watch, and looking somewhat wealthy, approached with a smile on his face under the guidance of Zhao Xiaoguang and the others: "Young man, excuse me, are you the owner of that Chen's Secret Recipe Roasted Chicken?"

"My name is Lin Youlong. I'm the chairman of Chaofan Catering Group. I think your Chen's Secret Recipe Roasted Chicken is very delicious! It has great market prospects! Would you like to sit down and chat at the coffee shop next door? My treat."

As he spoke, the middle-aged man took out a black metal business card and handed it over.

Second update ~ This chapter is a bit long, and the update was a bit late. Sorry for the wait.