Chapter 8: Unaware of the Gathering Dark Clouds

  Some businesses are actually easy to do, especially when you have goods that are both beautiful and cheap, and a market with strong demand.

  The sauce donkey meat in Shijia Village belongs to this category. With the help of Genwa, it has increased from over 400 catties per day to 500 catties and 700 catties. In just a few days, it broke through 1,000 catties. The village's braised meat workshop added four large pots, and the daily slaughter increased to five heads. Sometimes they couldn't keep up with the work, so Shanyong secretly asked Dabiao from the workshop for help. As it turned out, these two guys who looked like they could fight were actually quite popular in the chaotic market. Shanyong's worries didn't come true.

  In just over a dozen days, sales had more than doubled again, and Shan Yong was over the moon with joy. Selling over a thousand catties of meat per day meant that daily profits would be in the thousands, and even after deducting expenses for oil, food, and labor costs, his daily earnings were equivalent to a salaried worker's monthly salary. The greatest pleasure at the end of each workday was counting his money; if he weren't so exhausted, he'd probably laugh out loud in his sleep. Not just Shan Yong, but all the old hands at the braised meat shop were grinning from ear to ear - selling meat was far more profitable than selling whole donkeys. The only thing that didn't make sense was why Old Shi refused to do this good business, and would even occasionally pour cold water on their enthusiasm at the butcher's stall, saying: "You're laughing now, but you'll have your time to cry."

  Every time this happens, the younger generation is laughing and not taking it seriously. Every day, they slaughter a few more heads and earn an extra hundred or so yuan per person. How can they not be happy?

  It's that time again, another day of delivering goods. The village east head's Egg Egg his mother pulled a long face to the slaughterhouse to reason with Shi San Hai, because the slaughterhouse's donkey did not pick up her family's goods. These days, the amount of slaughtering has increased and the purchase price is high, every day there are many villagers who can line up to deliver their donkeys. Those who were picked got cash, those who weren't had their faces pulled down. The men said that Egg Egg's mother couldn't sit still, she went into the slaughterhouse and scolded Shi San Hai, saying "this donkey is really not human, my family's Egg Egg uncle is always calling out, why didn't you use our livestock?"

  Shi San's craftsmanship is good, but his mouth is clumsy, and he can't get along with the old ladies; The remaining young people are noisy, saying that someone's family has a long whip, your family has a short one, obviously different by a section... If you don't make trouble, it's fine. Once you do, those old ladies will point at Gen Wa, Da Biao and others, take off their pants, and see who is longer than mine.

  After a lot of shouting, the villagers, with red faces, said some jokes and scolded again. The old women were fierce, you can't afford to not give in, directly send over the donkey, if you dare not want it, there will be no end to this. This dispute is hard to reason with, the whole village's butchers are making less money because of the expansion of the braised meat business, these butchers have become rich and arrogant, usually they would fawn on people to send over livestock, but if you can't get any, they will start scolding. Shi Sanhai was originally a timid person, he didn't dare say no when the old women forced two donkeys on him. A group of young people who were watching the commotion persuaded them for a while, promising to use Egg's family's (donkey) tomorrow, only then did the woman stop scolding and leave.

  However, when they went out and met Dan Yong who came to stock up, the woman gave this little god of wealth a good face. Dan Yong had heard for a while, entered the braised soy sauce shop with a smile, and asked directly: "Who's going with me today?"

  I, I, I... Genwa, Da Biao, Lao Zhu all rushed to say, but carrying things, taking care of food and flowers, and salary, that little life in the eyes of rural people is not considered a big deal.

  "Third Uncle, why don't you bring the kids and Da Biao along with me? We've got a lot of road to cover today." Shanyong said, secretly relieved that he had chosen an extended van when renting the vehicle. The master of the house, Sanhai, nodded in agreement, saying they should all go together, anyway there was nothing to do until this afternoon.

  Meat is scooped out, taken out of the pot, placed on a plate, and then put into a large stone mill. After being coarsely ground into small pieces, it is pressed into shape in a wooden mold. The pressing process requires four strong men to simultaneously exert force while holding onto thick pillars as big as their arms. After being removed from the mold, it becomes a large square block. Once cooled, it can be sliced with a thin knife and seasoned to become delicious and savory sauce donkey meat.

  At that time, Dan Yong was still helping with the chores and doing some physical labor. This method is similar to that of the villagers in Shijia Village, with a rough and rustic flavor. In fact, according to Shi Sanhai's introduction, the earliest sauce meat was not a folk food, but... a way for bandits to make military rations. Legend has it that when the fierce bandits in the Tianji area went down the mountain, their military rations were always a piece of sauce meat in each person's pocket, so even if they lost their hands, they could guarantee that they would not starve. Over time, this strange method of making sauce meat was passed down.

  It's hard to imagine that such a rough method can produce meat that is so delicious, and the texture of the whole piece of braised meat is smooth.

  Several large blocks were formed and placed squarely on the case. When Dan Yong opened the trunk of the car, Shi Genwa covered it with a large lid, and together with Da Biao, they carried the case to load it onto the car. During the busy moment, someone shouted from afar. Dan Yong turned his head to look, and Shi's eldest sister, Bao Ying, was waving at him. Those few masters of the braised meat shop were smiling ambiguously and urging Dan Yong: "Go on, go quickly."

  The father and daughter of the Shi family had different attitudes towards this business trip. Not only that, but from the concerned expression on Miss Shi's face every time, it could be seen that there was some meaning to it. Shan Yong smiled and didn't dare to explain, rushing over and asking with a smile: "Sister Shi, what's wrong?"

  "How have you been these days?" Shi Bao Ying asked with concern.

  "This is not bad, it's pretty good. With this broken car, we can deliver over a thousand catties a day. Why don't I just take the order from that restaurant in town and deliver for you guys? It'll save trouble, won't it?" said Danyong, pointing to the few people on the truck.

  "Hey, don't worry about it... I heard my dad say... hey." Shi Bao Ying seemed to have something difficult to say, speaking intermittently, occasionally glancing at the cargo being loaded onto the truck, and looking at Shan Yong with a troubled expression. Shan Yong asked in surprise: "What's wrong, Shi Jie, your face looks so worried."

  "Come..." Shi Baoying pulled Shan Yong with a sudden force, walking towards a secluded place. With that rough hand pulling him, Shan Yong suddenly lost his balance and was dragged along, stumbling. Following this, they arrived at the back of a house, where Shi Baoying let go and said very seriously: "Do you know why my dad has always disagreed with us doing this business?"

  "I don't know." Yun Yong shook his head.

  "I also learned from my mother that my father used to be in this business, slaughtering and processing in the village before selling it in the city," said Shi Baoying.

  "I know this." Dan Yong said unexpectedly.

  "Do you know?" Shi Bao Ying asked back in surprise, and then asked again: "Then what about afterwards?"

  "Several people from your village were taken to the police station, and San Ge Shu was beaten so badly that he had to be hospitalized. In the end, nothing came of it." said Shan Yong, who had heard about this from Shi San Ge.

  "What else can you do?" Shi Bao Ying asked in surprise.

  When it came to this, Shanyong smiled. In the past, Shi Sanhai and Lao Zhu were in charge of delivering goods. They got into a fight with someone while delivering goods, but they didn't even find out who the other person was. Shi Sanhai suffered a big loss and stayed in the hospital for over a month before recovering. Later, when they delivered goods again, they got into another inexplicable fight. This time, they were prepared and brought more than 20 people from the village, but unexpectedly, the fight escalated, and many villagers were taken away by the police station. They were all given administrative detention and fines. After that, it was still inexplicable. Either they were inspected by the industrial and commercial bureau or the epidemic prevention department, if they didn't resist, they would just be fined, but if they resisted, they would be arrested. The men from Shijia Village were tough, but after all, they were mountain bandits, and they couldn't beat the city bandits. In the end, no one could afford to continue, so the business stopped.

  This trick of deceiving rural people can be seen at a glance, is it the black hand behind the scenes that snatches business? Find someone to smash your stall, and then go to the police station with you, make a fuss, and your good business will still turn yellow, until finally no one knows who is behind the black hand.

  "This is nothing, I have a way to deal with it. Besides, our small business may not be worth their attention. Never mind, Shi Jie, didn't your dad say three months? I'll do it for three years and show him." Dan Yong said lightly, as if he wasn't considering anything outside of the business.

  But Shi Baoying couldn't help but consider it, worriedly saying: "Then you should worry about it a bit, I later heard my dad say that the city and countryside are different, places where people can make money are all concentrated, our Shi family village's breeding is a big household, but if placed in the whole city, not even one of those large meat processing plants' shipments can be supplied, there are five or six major donkey meat households in the whole city, we're just supplying some old customers with good ingredients, if you want to talk about big households, it's still those big households with cold storage that are impressive."

  "I know this." Yun Rong nodded.

  "By the way, where did you get this stuff?" Shi Bao Ying asked.

  "What's wrong?" Dan Yong said.

  "My dad also said that the city people's bases are all divided into pieces, I heard that the most powerful one is Xicheng Qin Junhu, they have a medium-sized cold storage warehouse, and can produce several hundred tons of meat per month; There is also Da Xin Zhuang Lao Kong, when my dad was driving a donkey cart, he was already the boss; And there is Dongcheng's Qian Zhongping, who has a vacuum packaging factory under his control... My dad said that these are all meat tyrants, and none of them can be offended in our Shihai Village."

  Shi Bao Ying said, with a heavy look of worry on his face, being at the bottom of the business, because the bloody and bruised head of the business was not uncommon, but now he was really worried that Shan Yong would fall into this quagmire.

  "Sister Shi, why do you always boost others' morale and undermine your own prestige? If it really comes to a fight, who would dare to mess with the Shi family village?" Dan Yong asked casually. This question made Shi Bao Ying uncomfortable, and she replied, "If it comes to a fight, of course we're not afraid, but I'm worried you don't know who you're fighting against. Besides, they'd love to have a fight, and once that happens, the business would be ruined, and there's no way to do it anymore. The villagers would still come back, and everything would go back to normal, what's the point?"

  It's simple, this futile cycle has been experienced by historians, so there is the old historian who does not want to get involved in commenting on current events. Shan Yong saw Shi Baoying's worry and smiled and comforted her: "Don't worry, Sister Shi, if we can't win a fight, we'll just come back, at worst we'll change our approach, as long as we're alive, we won't be peed to death, with them around, we can still find business."

  It's easy to say, Shi Baoying sighed and reminded a few more words of caution. When the two came out from behind the house, everything was ready here. Da Biao and Genwa squeezed into the car with glee, and Shan Yong drove the car, starting another day's business on the road.

  In fact, he is even stranger than Shi Bao Ying. According to his estimate, it seems that someone should have made a move, but many days have passed and nothing has happened...

  ……………

  ……………

  "It's him!?"

  Mr. Qin sent over the photos and asked his subordinates, who were dressed in suits and looked like good boys, nodded.

  Then Mr. Qin looked at the few photos he had taken carefully again, with a surname of Shan and a first name of Yong, the surname Shan was a big surname in Luzhou but not rare, what's rare is that this robust young man shaved his head like those second-rate guys/street punks, and this elusive person was really hard to find, it took several days to take photos and find out where he came from.

  It's very strange, people are in Yangma Village, and goods come out from Luyuan. This point is no longer in doubt.

  Throwing down the photo, Old Qin thought for a moment, holding his chin and thinking for a long time, seemingly unable to make up his mind.

  The reason for being indecisive may be due to the comfort of having been in business for a long time, rarely asking about downstream sales. In fact, the supply to Roujiamo Factory is only a small part of the business, and this part of the goods are processed and directly put on the citizens' dinner table after being shipped to Roujiamo Factory. As the hometown of donkey meat, the consumption of donkey meat ingredients in Lüzhou is astonishing. The business is not something that one family can dominate, but it's also not something that anyone can eat whenever they want. Several major suppliers have been competing with each other and have more or less formed a fixed pattern. If scattered goods are not a concern, however, several Roujiamo factories came to complain at the same time, threatening to reduce their purchases, so he had to take it seriously.

  "Jun Hu, what are you hesitating about? That old donkey has been circling for years, and it looks like it's up to its old tricks again. Same old method, chase it back!"

  On the sofa, a middle-aged man with a goatee lit a cigarette and said casually that even his subordinates knew who the old donkey was referring to, Shi Baquan from Shijia Village.

  He is a fellow, Kong Xiangzhong of Xi Yuan Breeding Farm, doing the same business, born enemies, many years ago they had a tug-of-war, fighting back and forth, and finally Shi Baoquan was driven back to Shi Jia Village to raise donkeys peacefully, no longer competing for business in the city.

  "I'm wondering if Shi Baoquan is trying to snatch the business or if someone from his village is causing trouble. Logically, Old Shi should also be a sensible person and can make a good profit by focusing on breeding, why would he want to come into the processing industry and grab food? " Qin Junhu said with some doubt, wiping his straight-standing hair, any business that was fought out with fists and feet must have some tricks up its sleeve. Qin Boss was undoubtedly a strong player in the middle, and during this moment of suspicion, his eyes flashed with cold light, and those under him knew that things were about to get ugly."

  "It's simple, isn't it? Separating them will make more money, and besides, Shijia Village is just a small place, they've already had their fill, and only his family is supporting them, while the younger masters below are still hungry. If he were to lead a group of mountain bandits into the city to rob and take over the business, wouldn't that be a huge profit?" Kong Xiangzhong said, it seems that fellow practitioners understand each other deeply.

  "It's just one person per car, it can't be helped. Not like Old Shi's style, if he were to lead a team, building an organization would be no problem." Qin Junhu said.

  "It's all messed up like this, can we still take a few more? This is clearly a vanguard, the main force will follow soon... Forget it, Jun Hu, you don't do it, let me and Lao Qian handle it. Just a few people don't need to bother finding the relevant department, come on, be ruthless, let Xiao Diao find some ruthless ones, if we fight, fight to run away, if not, I'll make them disabled, if something happens, I'll pay for it."

  Lao Kong is very aggressively taking over everything.

  Qin Jun smiled and handed the photo directly to his subordinate: "Go, find a few people to chase away, choose the right time, choose the right place, don't stir up other things."

  "Got it, boss." The subordinate nodded and left.

  "This is really beneath you, Kong. You're getting more and more timid by the day," he said with disdain, pinching off the tip of his cigarette.

  "Lao Kong, now is a society ruled by law, not like our years of fighting for business with knives. Besides, we are all so big now, some things are not good to get involved in." Qin Junhu smiled and sat down with his old friend, Lao Kong sneered and laughed: "Come on, if we follow the rules and laws, can we still sit here? We're still a pair of poor guys!"

  Two people looked at each other and smiled.

  Where is this place?

  Under his hands, a three-story small building came out. When he raised his eyes, it was a large factory building. The gray and white cement wall had more than 50 mu of land. He made phone calls and invited people to work together. The boss's words "choose a good place and choose a good time" were very clear, absolutely cannot be careless. When the car drove out of the big iron gate, the name of this medium-sized cold storage was marked on the door pillar behind:

  Xi Yuan Cold Storage

  ……………………

  ……………………

  Sometimes you can't tell why and with whom your life will intersect.

  But everything has a reason, when the time pointed to 22 o'clock, Single Courage looked at the donkey meat in the carriage and saw that there were only a few dozen kilograms left. He was just about to take Shi Genwa and Shi Dabiao to somewhere to have some food together when the phone came. It was Lei Dapeng's. As soon as he answered it, Lei said that he had finished work and was idle, knowing that Single Courage and the two brothers from Shi Family Village were together, so he called them to go to Bayi Square to enjoy the cool breeze and have a few drinks. Single Courage agreed immediately.

  If there was no pressure to make money, the life he yearned for would be nothing more than socializing with a few friends, drinking, and admiring beautiful women. But now it's not possible, only after finishing work can he enjoy this leisurely life, and compared to when he was in school, it's much worse. He can hardly remember how long it has been since he last cooked something delicious for himself, most of the time he just solves his hunger with street food, fortunately, the snacks in Lanzhou are still decent.

  All the way, they warned Genwa and Da Biao not to drink too much wine, not because they were afraid of getting drunk, but because they were worried that no one would be able to carry these two big guys if they got drunk. The two laughed and didn't think it was a big deal. They drove to the August 1st Square, found a parking spot, and walked along the west side of the square, searching for Lei Dapeng among the twenty or thirty beer stalls. It was almost the end of the season, and there were only a few people at the beer stalls. Unexpectedly, they couldn't find Lei Dapeng. Just as they were about to make a phone call, they saw him coming. The three fat men were driving a city management law enforcement vehicle, shouting loudly across the street, calling out "Egg Brother".

  "Hey, Da Peng, aren't you supposed to be the team leader? Why are there still only two team members?" Dan Yong asked with a smile. The same two chubby little brothers were following him, and the three chubby city administrators stood together, forming a unique and rare landscape that even Lian Genwa and Da Biao couldn't help but laugh at.

  "Give them a sweep of ignorance, or else they'll think I'm bragging!" said Lei Dapeng with a puffed-out chest.

  "Egg brother, you don't know this, but Lei Ge's team leader was personally promoted by our big team leader at the meeting." Da Pang Li Xiao Li said calmly, and Xiao Bai Shu Guang added: "Especially for the One Ton Team, where there are nail households, they pulled out our One Ton Team."

  "What's with the captain? And the number? One set?" Dan Yong was stunned.

  "Haha, we three... this weight, haha, so it's called the 'One Ton Immobilization Squad', let's do it?" Lei Dapeng said with a grin. Genwa and Da Biao looked at the three fat men, whose waistlines were almost as wide as their heights, and both of them burst out laughing with their mouths agape.

  Six people huddled together, laughing and chatting, until they found a small stall to sit down at. They ordered large beers and generous portions of cold dishes, and also cooked several bowls of noodles. From the car, they took out leftover donkey meat, sliced it up, and seasoned it with some sauce. With the sky darkening, they started eating and chatting loudly, laughing and joking around.

  Not far away, in a new Chang'an business car, seven or eight people were packed inside. The one at the head was looking at the target, three super fat men, still city administrators, two super tall and big men, with thick heads and ears. Looking back at the people he brought, they were all thin and dry, no match in terms of weight; compared to ferocity, they couldn't compare with those two 1.9-meter-tall giants either.

  This is a tough one, the bald team leader directly picked up the phone and asked: "Xiao Ge, what kind of job did you find? This thing inside is thicker than my two fingers, how can we drive people away? Oh right, six people? Oh right, it's also Chengguan. Those people are even more rotten than us... This amount of money won't do, the number of people must be at least doubled."

  When he said this, the men in the car were eating and laughing. The people at the table were all strange-looking, but only two big men looked fierce. The fat one who couldn't walk on the road wasn't scary enough. The leader was complaining and must be trying to raise the price. Sure enough, after some haggling over the price, he hung up the phone and scolded lightly:

  "Hurry up, make a phone call and get 7 or 8 more people here. The boss added 3,000 yuan. We'll smash the car and beat them up, then run away. Mainly that guy with the shaved head, give him a good beating... Move your hands and feet quickly, if we get caught by the police, don't expect me to deliver food for you guys."

  This stimulation, everyone in the car moved, touching their phones, covering the receiver. One said: "Hey, Er Bao, hurry to Bayi Square, there's a fight..." Another said: "Hey, Lao Dou, what's going on? Hurry to Bayi Square, there's a fight, it's worth money, at least 300 per person..." Someone else whispered: "Brother, don't be stupid, come quickly to Bayi Square, good things, can earn money..."

  Bars, billiard rooms, bathhouses, smoke-filled mahjong halls, and dirty alleys, the dregs in dark corners were activated, old black cars came out, ghostly figures emerged, and they continuously moved towards the direction of Bayi Square. Not long after, seven or eight people gathered again, these few people in the car discussed surrounding and deceiving first, then rushed up together, directly targeting their goal, and ran away after finishing.

  At this time, the six targets were still drinking and eating loudly, unaware of the danger that was about to appear...