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Chapter 161 – Do Not Worry About Scarcity, but Rather About Uneven Distribution
Sister Hong didn’t plan on taking a nap, but she couldn’t resist the sleepiness and slept for more than an hour.
Su Danhong walked into the room with a glass of water and said with a smile, “Next time you can’t drink as much as Jianyun. My husband can drink pretty well.”
Sister Hong didn’t care. “My husband and I like to drink a few cups. The next time I come, I will bring you a bottle imported from a foreign country. I guarantee you will like it!” At the end, sister Hong lowered her voice.
Although the reform and the country opening up was happening, the topic of foreign imports was still a little sensitive.
Su Danhong smiled.
She gave sister Hong a basin of water to wash her face. After Sister Hong washed up, they went to the orchard with Qiqi and Renren.
“The more I look at your orchard, the more I like it,” sister Hong stated.
Just look at these fruit trees. Everything was flourishing. It was pleasing to see the trees, and the small fruits they bear. It was really a wonderful scene of abundance.
“The cherries can be eaten next month. If you come again next month, I will pick some for you.” Su Danhong laughed.
“Cherries are good. My family likes them too. I will take you up on that offer,” sister Hong said with a smile.
“Of course. Jianyun planted a lot of cherries in the other mountain nearby. Almost half of the orchard is cherries. It will be ready in another year or two,” Su Danhong said.
“Jianyun has a good eye, and a variety of cherries is a good idea,” sister Hong said. “By the way, is there honey on the mountain? The last few bottles you gave me were given to my husband’s elders. Those elders drank all of the honey, and I think they are bothering us deliberately. They all agree that they want more.”
“There are still some. You can take some later, and you can keep it for yourself. You will find out if my honey is good after drinking it for a month,” Su Danhong said with an eyebrow raised.
“Is it really that good?” sister Hong questioned.
Su Danhong smiled.
The honey from her family was really good. There was an uncle in the village, who was related to Lao Ji’s family. Although he was distantly related, he was still an ancestor.
He used to have an old cough. Later, his grandson came to buy their honey and made honey lemonade for him to drink. It seemed like the old cough had improved a lot.
Later, it spread throughout the village. Some people believed the honey was a miracle, some did not. Those who did not believe just did not. Those who believed, of course, came to buy some and drink it when they had the time. However, her honey was not cheap.
In the end, the amount of consumers in the village was limited. The main consumers were in the college town.
Su Danhong went to fetch the watering can. She then asked Renren to carry the spring water to water the trees. Renren was very happy to do this task. He took the watering can and walked around with his short legs to water the trees.
“The chicken sheds are much bigger,” sister Hong said as she followed her to look at the two chicken sheds.
“It’s a little bigger, but we’re not raising more. We have to build another one or two on the other mountain,” Su Danhong said.
“If the department stores in the town are open, they can be sold at that time,” sister Hong said.
“I’m afraid we don’t have that many consumers over here,” Su Danhong looked at her and said, “Is there any inside information from you, Sister Hong?”
“The inside information might not be totally true. I just heard that there are some children of influential families going out to do business. The factory in our town has already been targeted, and is being purchased at this time. The employment postings will certainly increase and the income will also increase. Our department store is ten minutes away from the factory, and the business is not bad,” sister Hong explained.
“Did you ask how much it costs to buy department stores?” Su Danhong inquired.
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll ask that.” Sister Hong knew that they had just bought a shop in the college town. How could they have more money to spare?
After the department store was complete, she could only leave it to others to manage. She could not trust outsiders with such a big department store.
That’s why it’s not a problem for her to use more money now. After all, a business was being developed.
“I’ll go back to discuss with Jianyun and give you an answer as soon as possible,” Su Danhong said.
“Okay, no rush.” Sister Hong nodded.
Sister Hong went back in the evening and didn’t stay for dinner. Ji Jianyun sent her home with five bottles of honey, all weighing two jin each, and the two pots of chrysanthemum she liked.
Su Danhong wanted to give her a basket of eggs and catch a chicken for her, but sister Hong absolutely refused to let her. If she did, then she would not come next time.
She was already taking other stuff home, and Su Danhong didn’t ask for a cent from her.
Su Danhong smiled, and she didn’t insist on giving her the extra food. She asked Ji Jianyun to send Sister Hong back.
When Ji Jianyun came back, Su Danhong told him about the department store.
“I guess 10,000 yuan is needed for a department store,” Ji Jianyun said. “That is a big piece of land, and the interior decoration of the store must also be good. It’s basically the true cost. For 10,000 yuan, it is not much.”
“Jianyun, are you going to work with sister Hong on this department store?” Su Danhong looked at him and asked.
Ji Jianyun frowned and thought for a moment. He nodded and replied, “This department store should not be a problem.”
That was something he naturally thought. He didn’t have big ambitions like this in the past. He only thought that things would be fine if he could support his wife and son. But, his wife had given him a second child. When he looked at where she stood, he guessed that she wanted to have another child later. So shouldn’t he, as the father, grow their family’s fortune for his children?
Although there are already two fruit orchards, it was still not enough. All the eggs should not be put in only one basket, right?
“Then take 2,000 yuan to invest in it. It won’t give you a lot of ownership to the store, but it’s fine as long as you are successful. As for the land, let’s not agree to sister Hong’s terms. Simply put, let’s just take any extra money earned,” Su Danhong said.
“Okay.” Ji Jianyun smiled.
“But you don’t have time to manage it. You have to hire someone to pick up the goods and transport them. Do you want to ask eldest and second brother-in-law who would like to learn to drive the truck? You can pay them a fee and make them responsible for delivering the goods back and forth,” Su Danhong said.
Since this was an extra department store, they could hire their own relatives.
Ji Jianyun thought for a while and declared, “Let me ask my second brother to do the transportation. We can plan on having eldest sister-in-law manage the department store. She can deal with people, and generally get by well.”
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He didn’t need to worry about his fourth brother, Ji Jianwen. Both him and his wife had jobs, and the other two brothers were older. If they could arrange for these two brother’s families to take the jobs, then they should. Otherwise, they wouldn’t do that at all. If they gave one brother an opportunity, but not the other, then it would pretty much start a feud. This was “do not worry about scarcity, but rather about uneven distribution1”.
That’s why, Ji Jianyun didn’t share much with his brothers since the last fight.
But now that each family had an opportunity, there would be no fights.
There was no need for sister Hong to worry about this matter too. As for his brother and sister-in-law, he would go ask them about it. It was the evening at this point, and both of them would be at home. Thus, Ji Jianyun left to visit them.
Footnotes
idiom from Confucious that basically means worry more about inequality. If wealth was equal, then people would be united and happy