bookrandom Chapter 302 He doesn't have the financial resources, does he?
Chapter 302 He doesn't have the financial resources, does he?
Lin Qingchuan patiently explained, “Don’t worry, everyone. We’re all from the same village, neighbors. I promised to buy your turmeric as long as you plant it, so I can’t go back on my word and just watch your turmeric rot. Don’t worry, Shuisheng and the others have already shipped their goods. Once they’ve collected their money and have some cash on hand, they can continue to buy your turmeric.”
Someone scoffed, "We haven't even seen a trace of Shui Sheng today. Who knows if you're lying to us? What if Shui Sheng doesn't come back, and you leave too? Who are we going to turn to?"
"Yes, nobody knows where your house is in town. You've run away, who are we supposed to look for?"
"that is……"
The crowd chimed in with their own opinions, none of them willing to back down. They didn't care whether Lin Qingchuan was genuinely short of money or not; they were just eager for him to buy up their turmeric immediately.
Lin Qingchuan felt a chill run down his spine. He was just a small-time buyer with little money. How could he possibly buy up all the turmeric grown in Guihua Village in just one day?
If he really had tens of thousands of taels of silver, why would he work from dawn till dusk every day? He would have hired people to do business for him long ago, and he could have directed everyone to make money from the silver.
The key issue is that he doesn't have the financial resources, does he?
"Everyone, calm down and listen to me. If you trust me, we'll weigh the turmeric for you today. I'll write you all an IOU, and once Shuisheng returns with the silver, I'll give it to you immediately. As for the turmeric we've bought, I'll need your help to deliver it to the village head's house. I only have one cart, and it won't be enough to carry it all in three or five trips. You'll feel more at ease leaving the turmeric at the village head's house."
If you don't trust me, then take the turmeric home yourselves. I'll come back to collect it again tomorrow. I'm making this clear today: whether we make a profit or a loss, we'll buy all the turmeric grown in our Osmanthus Village this season.
The villagers looked at each other, hesitant and unsure of what to do.
The current situation is that Qingchuan doesn't have enough money, but he's willing to continue buying, while everyone else is afraid to sell turmeric without seeing the money.
As the saying goes, "Don't release the hawk until you see the rabbit!"
However, if they took the turmeric back, they were afraid that Lin Qingchuan would run away, and then everyone's turmeric would just rot at home.
If you don't want your turmeric to rot at home and you can't sell it to Lin Qingchuan, you can only sell it to Feng's Pharmacy in town. However, Feng's Pharmacy's purchase price is lower than Lin Qingchuan's purchase price, so you will definitely lose money.
More than a dozen villagers sighed and lamented that they were definitely going to lose money this time. They thought they should have harvested earlier and sold the first few batches to Lin Qingchuan instead of standing here wasting their time. They couldn't sell the turmeric and couldn't get any money.
After a long standoff, someone couldn't hold back any longer and said, "Ever since Qingchuan went to town to do business, their family's life has gotten better and better. They've also gotten closer to the village head. It's because the village head trusts him that they planted two fields of turmeric this season and sold them forty taels of silver. Back then, we weren't bold enough to plant more. Look at how little we've harvested so far. Even if Qingchuan could harvest it for us, how many taels of silver would he give us?"
"That's right. If we were as bold as the village head, planting four or five acres at a time, we could sell them for several dozen taels of silver now. Alas, what a pity."
"Well, let's be content. If we could grow turmeric, we'd still be honestly growing rice. How much is rice worth? After paying taxes, we'd be lucky if we had enough left to feed the next season."
One honest-looking villager hesitated and said, "Qingchuan said we should weigh the goods for him first, and he will give us an IOU later. But can we really trust him?"
"Because we didn't trust him enough before, we didn't dare to plant a lot of turmeric. Now we only have this little bit, which is far inferior to what the village head's family grows. If we hadn't been so hesitant to fully trust him, we could have made a good profit this season."
More than a dozen villagers began to have different ideas. Some insisted on selling to Qingchuan only after receiving silver. After all, it was not easy to grow turmeric for a season. If they sold the turmeric to Qingchuan and did not receive silver, then their entire season's planting would have been in vain.
We are all native country folk who have never left the village. At most, we go to town to buy some household items, and we only go a few times a year. Because we have never seen much of the world, our minds are naturally quite rigid.
Several villagers, seeing Lin Qingchuan's boldness and daring, and how he had achieved such success in just over a year, easily producing dozens of taels of silver, were tempted to believe in him.
They thought it was worth a try. Qingchuan was known for his honest character; he wouldn't lie to anyone. Selling turmeric to him would definitely be more profitable than selling it to Feng's Pharmacy. The villagers who had already sold him turmeric yesterday had already received their money.
Someone whispered, "Why don't we weigh the turmeric and give it to Qingchuan first? Didn't he say he was going to leave the turmeric at the village head's house? If he can't come up with the money for us tomorrow, we can just go to the village head's house, get the turmeric back, and sell it at Feng's Pharmacy."
Even if Feng's Pharmacy's purchase price is lower, it's still higher than the price of rice. No matter how you look at it, we won't lose much. We didn't plant much this season anyway, right?
"Yes, whether we sell to Qingchuan or not depends on whether we want to make more money. If we don't want to make more money, we can go to Feng's Pharmacy to sell immediately."
One villager's eyes lit up, and with a determined clench of his teeth and a stamp of his foot, he immediately stepped forward. "I'll do it. I'll weigh it first. Qingchuan, you absolutely have to give me an IOU!"
He thought to himself that everyone was hesitant now, and maybe someone would weigh the item first and give Qingchuan an IOU.
If that's the case, it would be better for him to be the first to weigh the silver and give it to Qingchuan. Once Qingchuan has the money to work with, he'll definitely be the first to return the silver to him.
Just like that villager said, if he doesn't give me the money tomorrow, I can just go to the village head's house and take all the ginger back home. It'll just take a little effort.
With Li in charge, Lin Qingchuan wouldn't dare to act recklessly!
The remaining dozen or so villagers were unsure of what to do when they saw that some people were willing to weigh the goods for Lin Qingchuan. They wanted to make money, but they were also afraid of not getting the money, and they were also afraid that Lin Qingchuan would actually be able to produce the money the next day, and that they would end up losing money if they sold the goods to Feng's Pharmacy.
Seeing that someone was willing to support his suggestion, Lin Qingchuan secretly breathed a sigh of relief, a smile appearing on his face as he happily said, "Okay, let's weigh it quickly then."
He and the villager carried the turmeric bags together, weighing them one by one. Then he took out a pen, ink, and paper from the carriage and began writing IOUs.
Back when he lived with Old Shen, Lin Qingchuan had never been to school and knew how to read or write; this was common knowledge throughout Guihua Village.
Everyone knew that Mr. Shen favored his son born to his second wife and did not allow his son born to his first wife to study and learn to read. Therefore, it was no longer a new rumor in Guihua Village that Lin Qingchuan was illiterate in his twenties.
Now, seeing him take out a pen, ink, and paper and actually write an IOU in a very professional manner, everyone was astonished.
Unexpectedly, after more than a year of doing business outside, Lin Qingchuan had even learned to recognize and write characters.
Sure enough, once this person has money, everything gets better!
Someone asked in surprise, "Wow, Qingchuan, you can actually write now? When did you learn?"
Lin Qingchuan grinned, somewhat embarrassed, and said, "When I go out to do business, I see the shop signs on the road, ask passersby, and try to remember them. Over time, I've learned a few characters. It's nothing much; I can barely write an IOU."
"Wow, you're amazing! You can read just by recognizing the signboard. I thought you were a dullard, but I didn't expect you to be so smart. We really underestimated you. No wonder you've managed to make your business successful."
Everyone was filled with envy, feeling that their brains were not as smart as Lin Qingchuan's. They were envious and jealous of Lin Qingchuan's ability to recognize and write characters just by recognizing signs, and wondered why they didn't have such brains.
If you could read, you wouldn't have to stay in Guihua Village and toil away farming all this time!
Sigh, you really can't compare people!
Lin Qingchuan quickly wrote an IOU. Although his handwriting wasn't very good, he only wrote a few simple sentences and there were no typos. It was quite acceptable.
Actually, the few words he learned in the past year or so were not entirely from seeing signs on the roadside. Most of them were taught to him by Tang'er. However, Tang'er had never attended school. If people told them that his daughter taught him, they would definitely doubt that Tang'er was so capable at such a young age.
He remembered that when he wrote a contract with Manager Su before, they used ink to leave their fingerprints, but there was no red ink here. What should he do?
With a heavy heart, he bit his finger until it bled and pressed it onto the IOU.
To everyone's surprise, Lin Qingchuan was willing to bite his finger to leave a fingerprint. They thought he was too honest. Everyone had seen the IOU. Even if he didn't leave a fingerprint, they wouldn't forgive him if he didn't pay the money.
The first person to be weighed received the IOU, but after looking at it from top to bottom, he still couldn't figure out what was written on it.
He didn't even realize he had it upside down.
However, he felt that since Lin Qingchuan was willing to bite his finger and press his fingerprint, there must be no problem with the IOU. He was both worried and happy, and his heart was filled with conflicting emotions.
He comforted himself, deciding to give Lin Qingchuan one night. If he couldn't come up with the money by tomorrow, he would go to the village head's house, carry the turmeric back, and then sell it at Feng's Pharmacy.
He waved the IOU in his hand at the villagers and said, "I weighed and sold it to Qingchuan, and I got this IOU. You can take your time to think about it here. I have to go back now; I still have a lot of work to do in the fields."
Yes, there's still a ton of work to be done in the fields, why are we wasting our energy here?
After some discussion, everyone agreed to weigh the turmeric and give it to Lin Qingchuan, then take the IOU home and wait for the money.
If we don't get the money tomorrow, we'll all go to the village head's house. We'll not only take the ginger back, but we'll also make the village head remove Lin Qingchuan from Guihua Village. We must give everyone an explanation.
Lin Qingchuan could faintly hear the villagers' discussions. If he couldn't come up with the money, they actually asked the village head to remove him from Guihua Village. They wanted to sell him to make money but didn't want to suffer any losses. If anything went wrong, they would remove him from Guihua Village.
These villagers are really... they have absolutely no humanity left!
If the villagers had a limited supply of turmeric, he would have wanted to buy it all; he wouldn't have chosen to do business with them.
He's talked himself hoarse, yet everyone is still so wary of him; it's somewhat disappointing.
Although the initial motivation for encouraging villagers to grow turmeric was to facilitate purchasing and trading, they genuinely wanted to help the villagers get rich together.
In fact, this is the nature of most people. If it doesn't affect everyone's interests, then everyone is fine. But once it does, people may turn against each other.
It can only be said that there are more people who repay kindness with enmity than those who repay enmity with kindness!
"Come on, let me weigh these turmerics for Qingchuan too. Come on, let me weigh them to see how much they weigh."
"Me first, me first. I have less, so weigh me first."
"Who has less or more? We're all in line, so we'll take turns. Nobody can cut in line. Everyone has work waiting for them in their fields. Who isn't in a hurry?"
“That’s right, let’s just follow the queue and stop arguing, since we won’t get any money today anyway.”
Everyone lined up, and Lin Chuan weighed them one by one, writing IOUs for each of them. After taking the IOUs, they looked back at the turmeric in the yard and left with complicated expressions.
After the villagers who were selling turmeric left, Lin Qingchuan looked at the piles of turmeric in the yard and immediately felt a little worried.
Shuisheng and Tang'er haven't returned yet, so how are we going to transport all this turmeric back?
Even if it's transported to the village head's house, he'll have to carry it over cartload by cart. It'll probably be dark by the time he finishes transporting it all. If he can't get the turmeric back to the county, he won't be able to exchange it for money tomorrow. If he can't pay the villagers tomorrow, they definitely won't let it go and will come to make trouble.
His face was full of worry, and he didn't know how to solve the problem.
Lin Xiaotang and Uncle Shuisheng walked for a long time but did not see her father's figure by the ridge of the field. She asked a villager and learned that her father was currently in the small house buying turmeric.
So the two of them drove the carriage directly back to the small house and parked it outside.
The two entered the house and were shocked to see the yard piled high with turmeric, more than twice as much as the day before.
Lin Xiaotang asked, "Father, you only brought 110 taels of silver, why did you buy so much turmeric all at once? Didn't we buy it at two coins per tael?"
Shui Sheng, his face full of disbelief, also asked, "Yes, how come we received so much today? It's really unexpected."
Lin Qingchuan turned around immediately upon hearing his daughter and Shuisheng's voices. He breathed a heavy sigh of relief when he saw them return.
"You two are finally back. I was so worried about you. The reason I collected so much turmeric today is because we ran out of money and the villagers still hadn't finished collecting their turmeric. They insisted that I give them an explanation."
I gave them an IOU and asked them to weigh the turmeric first. I was thinking, how am I going to transport so much turmeric back to the county? If this turmeric can't be sold, it will rot in the hands of the villagers or in our hands.
We need to find a way to quickly transport the money back to the county and exchange it for silver to return to the villagers; otherwise, given their temperaments, they'll definitely cause trouble.
These villagers are not worldly-wise, they are simple-minded and stubborn. If things don't go their way, their impulsive nature will get the better of them and they won't let it go.
After hearing his explanation, Lin Xiaotang and Shuisheng finally understood that these turmeric plants had been purchased with IOUs.