The moment Ning Jie began packing his things, Lai Xingfu could no longer sit still.
He hurriedly pressed down on Ning Jie's hand and said with a smile, "Brother, no need to be so hot-headed. Doing business is all about me naming a price and you making a counteroffer. If the price isn't right, we can always keep talking."
Lai Xingwang nodded, pulled out a pack of Zhonghua cigarettes, and offered one to Ning Jie.
Ning Jie felt a slight pang of surprise. In 1985, tobacco and alcohol sales were still tightly controlled, and cigarettes like Zhonghua could only be bought with Foreign Exchange Certificates. He remembered a carton of these cost around seventy-odd yuan.
Back in 1985, an ordinary worker's monthly salary didn't even reach seventy yuan. To be able to smoke these casually meant the Lai Family was far from ordinary.
He had done business with southerners before, but people from the south were generally low-key; you could never quite tell how much they were worth. Unlike the flamboyant northerners, southern merchants were usually unfathomable at first glance.
After lighting the cigarette, Lai Xingwang asked, "Brother, how much do you want for these two wild ginseng roots?"
Ning Jie thought it over. A two-liang root went for eleven thousand, and this one weighed over three liang—almost four liang. It had to be at least thirty thousand upwards.
He had heard the two men talking earlier about the old man. Presumably, the family patriarch was ill, and they needed this wild ginseng to prolong his life.
"Fifty thousand per root."
Lai Xingwang decisively shook his head. "Brother, that's too expensive."
Ning Jie looked at Lai Xingwang. "You name a price, and let's talk it over."
Lai Xingwang pondered for a moment before saying, "Fifty thousand for both roots, at most."
"Sixty thousand. Take it or leave it."
Lai Xingwang glanced at Lai Xingfu. The two of them conversed in Cantonese for a moment before Lai Xingwang said, "Brother, the two of us only brought a little over fifty thousand in cash. The absolute most we can give you is fifty-five thousand. If that really won't work, there's nothing more we can do."
Cash transactions were still all the rage in this era. Although credit cooperatives existed, remittances and the like were terribly troublesome, so cash remained king.
It wasn't until the 1990s that wire transfers gradually became the mainstream way of doing business.
Judging by their demeanor, they didn't seem to be lying. Fifty-five thousand yuan was pretty close to what he had expected, and dragging it out any longer probably wouldn't get him anywhere anyway.
He had been away from home for several days, and his family must be worried sick by now. Besides, he still hadn't gone to find Lin Yuezhi, and going back and forth would take who knew how many days—he couldn't afford any more delays.
"Fine. Let's consider it making a friend. Fifty-five thousand."
The brothers breathed a sigh of relief. They pulled out a leather suitcase and opened it to reveal stacks upon stacks of brand-new ten-yuan bills.
After counting the money, Ning Jie shoved it straight into a cloth bag, causing the corners of the brothers' mouths to twitch involuntarily.
"Brother, this is my number. If you get your hands on any more good merchandise in the future, give me a call."
Ning Jie accepted the business card handed to him. In this era, business cards were still quite a rarity.
Tucking the card away, Ning Jie said, "Alright, I'll be in touch."
Refusing their invitation to dinner, Ning Jie left the guesthouse and headed straight for the rural credit cooperative.
There weren't many people at the credit cooperative, and the teller was chatting idly with nothing to do. When Ning Jie arrived and dumped his bag onto the counter, the teller's brows instantly furrowed.
"Comrade, what kind of business are you here for?"
"Depositing money."
"Do you have a passbook?"
"No. I have my ID card and household registration booklet."
The female teller glanced at Ning Jie, and the annoyance on her face flashed and vanished. "Alright. How much are you depositing?"
"Fifty-five thousand."
"Oh, fifty... how much?"
Every staff member in the room turned to look at Ning Jie, their expressions a mix of astonishment.
Ning Jie opened the bag and poured all the cash out onto the counter. The teller handling the transaction swallowed hard, her mind racing with other thoughts.
Could this guy be a thief or a robber?
"Comrade, where did you get all this money?" the female teller asked, trying to sound nonchalant. Her colleague instantly caught on, grabbed a jacket, and headed out the door.
"Sold some ginseng."
The female teller wore an "I knew it" expression. Sold ginseng?
Her relative worked at the supply and marketing cooperative, and an old ginseng root only went for eighty or a hundred yuan. How much ginseng would he have to strip to make this kind of money?
Eight chances out of ten, it was stolen or robbed.
Seeing the teller freeze up, Ning Jie frowned and asked, "Is there any problem? I'm in a hurry to deposit this and go home."
"Wait—" Before she could finish, the female teller suddenly stood up, pointed at Ning Jie, and shouted, "Officer, it's him!"
Ning Jie turned his head and was instantly rendered speechless.
Damn it, the cops show up just for making a deposit?
The police officer looked at the counter piled high with cash and shuddered. His own monthly salary was only 65.8 yuan. Good grief, how much money was this? He must have looted the credit cooperative!
"Comrade, where did you get this money?"
Ning Jie sighed and said speechlessly, "I sold wild ginseng. If you don't believe me, you can go to Room 308 at the guesthouse and ask. There are two merchants from the south there—one is called Lai Xingwang, and the other is Lai Xingfu."
"The credit cooperative should have a telephone. You can call the guesthouse and check. My name is Ning Jie."
The officer looked at Ning Jie and said, "Wait here a moment. Zhang, keep an eye on him. I'm going to the guesthouse."
After ten minutes or so, the veteran policeman returned with an apologetic expression. "Sorry about that, Comrade. We had a misunderstanding."
Ning Jie smiled bitterly and shook his head. Carrying fifty thousand yuan in a woven sack to make a deposit in this day and age really did invite suspicion.
Who could have imagined that just a few decades later, a few taps on a mobile phone would be enough to transfer millions, tens of millions, or even hundreds of millions?
After finally finishing the deposit, Ning Jie carefully tucked away his passbook and walked out of the credit cooperative.
He found a restaurant, spent nine yuan and eight cents on a meal of hazel grouse stewed with mushrooms and braised pig head meat, and then strolled toward the railway station.
From afar, Ning Jie spotted that fat man wearing a tattered sheepskin jacket, an axe tucked into his waist, sitting on a flatbed cart and bragging to someone.
This fat man was Old Zhou, a notorious hoodlum in City B during this era and the undisputed tyrant of the railway station area.
This guy was also a good brother who would stick by him for decades to come.
Following his memories, Ning Jie bypassed the railway station and walked into the family quarters of City B Forestry.
The neat wooden fences, brick-tiled houses, and towering piles of firewood taller than a man filled Ning Jie with a wave of emotion.
The forestry station was still quite prosperous in this era. Lin Yuezhi lived in the third house in the middle row, and around this time of day, she should be getting off work soon.
When he met Lin Yuezhi in his past life, she was already engaged to someone else. According to Lin Yuezhi, her mother fell ill in the winter of 1985, and a colleague of her mother's helped pay for the medical treatment, incidentally arranging an engagement between Lin Yuezhi and that colleague's child.
Later, in May of the following year, a fire broke out in the forestry station's residential compound, and her fiancé burned to death trying to put it out. From then on, the entire compound branded Lin Yuezhi a jinx, and things between her and her southern in-laws turned completely upside down.
Ning Jie had imagined all sorts of scenarios for their reunion. Having spent so many years supporting each other through thick and thin, the thought of it still overwhelmed him with emotion.
Would Lin Yuezhi panic at his sudden appearance?
What excuse should he use to get close to Lin Yuezhi this time?
As his mind wandered, a woman's voice pierced into Ning Jie's ears.
"Let go of me! Zhang Fan, don't test me or I'll go back and hack you to pieces with a kitchen knife!"