Ruling the Historical Romance Novel as the Female Supporting Character-Chapter 114: Want to Buy Oil? Help Sell Skin Whitening Lotion First
A thug who had been stealing things and harassing village girls all year round must have a lot of unscrupulous friends. After such a long time, he had enough time to gather these people.
This is when she felt that she might have lived too long or been too naïve.
"Okay, so when can you come with the money?" When Peng Kun heard that she didn’t have the money with her, he lost the urgency in his attitude.
"Next week. I have some things to do this week," Su Yijia replied, not in a hurry to get the evidence. Even if Su’s family members had thought of this, given Peng Kun’s character, he was likely to increase the price rather than sell it directly.
So, it was more important to work hard to earn money. She couldn’t afford to have just a few hundred yuan left in her pocket.
As for Peng Kun...
If he was honest and just wanted those 500 yuan, she would give it to him. But if he tried to raise the price, she wouldn’t hesitate to let Ke Zeming arrest him for a thorough interrogation.
This wasn’t considered abusing a public tool for personal gain. After all, if her biological father was also in the military service, he should be thoroughly investigated for whether he abandoned her mother and her for personal or national interest. Be it a matter of morality or a matter of national interest, he should pay the appropriate price. It didn’t have to be committing an unfilial act to uphold justice. It was just a matter of seeking revenge for her mother. If he hadn’t disappeared suddenly, the biological mother of the original host wouldn’t have died so tragically, and her grandparents wouldn’t have been sent to the farm. Therefore, unless the original host’s biological father had died, there was no reason for him to escape blame.
Once she had organized her thoughts, Su Yijia left the village and took a bus back to the city. However, instead of going directly back to the Qin family, she made a detour to the black market.
After making a few turns, she finally found an old man selling fresh corn.
This person was selling too little corn, with a rough estimate of just about 5 kilograms.
"Uncle, how much is this corn?" Su Yijia squatted down in front of him and asked.
"Three cents per pound. I just picked them from the field this morning. They’re very fresh, and look at how plump each one is," the old man explained enthusiastically, holding up some to show her.
Su Yijia examined the corn and nodded in satisfaction. She had already started calculating.
To extract corn oil, you needed the small embryo inside fresh corn kernels. From 50 kilograms of corn-on-the-cob, you could get about 30 kilograms of corn kernels. And 50 kilograms of corn kernels produced only 3 kilograms of oil. That was, 85 kilograms of corn-on-the-cob for 3 kilograms of oil. So, one pound of corn oil cost a3.6 yuan, while one pound of soybean oil was priced at 0.85 yuan.
Although the cost was higher, she would still make a substantial profit.
"Please weigh the corn. I want all of it."
After paying, Su Yijia went to find the person who had sold her plastic buckets last time. She purchased two large-capacity plastic buckets from him before leaving the black market.
When she stepped out, she saw Qiu Yanqing leaning against a tree, smiling at her. Although no words were spoken, the meaning was clear.
Su Yijia nodded, and they headed back to the small courtyard from the last time.
"Hello, I’d like to purchase oil from you on a regular basis. I’m offering 3 yuan per pound. I want all you have. Is that acceptable to you?" Qiu Yanqing stated his purpose directly.
As business regulations became more relaxed and competition intensified in the three black markets in Hu City, getting more and better scarce goods had become the top priority for establishing a foothold.
In this era of scarce resources, who could obtain more and better items was the most critical factor in securing market dominance. Oil was the only commodity they could see as a potential opportunity in this environment.
"I sold to you at 3.21 yuan per pound last time. That was because I didn’t know the market, and I was offering it cheaply. If I were to hang around the black market for a while, I could easily sell it for 3.5 or 3.8 yuan or even 4 yuan per pound," Su Yijia expressed deep disdain for his price-cutting tactics.
She had just circled the black market and noticed someone selling two pounds of oil for 3.61 yuan per pound. Not to mention ten cents less, even one cent less was unacceptable to sellers. Su Yijia watched for ten minutes, and the oil was quickly sold out. Four people bought one pound respectively and didn’t even argue for a lower price.
Her previous 28 kilograms of oil had easily earned her 11.20 yuan less, and it pained her deeply.
Qiu Yanqing hadn’t expected her to know the black-market prices so quickly and felt embarrassed as he touched his nose. "When doing business, it’s natural to want to lower the price. Go ahead, state your price, and we can discuss."
"3.80 yuan, and I also have other conditions," Su Yijia raised her price slightly.
Qiu Yanqing’s face darkened a bit upon hearing the new price. "This price is a bit high. But let’s not discuss the price right now. What conditions do you have?"
"I have ten bottles of skin whitening solution that, when applied on the face in the morning and the evening for one week, result in visible whitening. I plan to sell them for 6 yuan per bottle. I need you to find a way to successfully sell them and help me earn repeat customers," Su Yijia stated her requirements directly.
"Your product is expensive, your demands are many, and you set the oil price so high. I won’t gain much from this," Qiu Yanqing frowned and immediately refused.
"What kind of joke are you telling?" Su Yijia looked at him with her head tilted. "This skin whitening solution is my exclusive formula. No one else will know about it except me. And it has visible effects within a week. Do you think anything you apply to your face can achieve that? The state-owned stores sell Snowflake Cream for 2.50 yuan per bottle, and Ya Cream for 3.70 yuan. Do you think they have whitening effects or work within a week? As long as this product can be launched, won’t you want to buy it in bulk from me? Let’s set aside that. My oil price is indeed high, but do you really think you won’t be able to sell it, or you won’t make any profit if you do? I have scarce goods in my hands. If you buy everything from me, how much traffic do you think you can bring to this black market? Don’t you calculate that in your hearts?"
"You’re quite clear," Qiu Yanqing realized her straightforwardness and didn’t push for a higher profit anymore.
"You should reduce your price. I can’t just take whatever you offer, right?" he suggested.
But Su Yijia didn’t fall for that. "The price can’t be reduced. It’s not easy for me to make some money, don’t you know that? Just haggling over the price without knowing the costs is already unnecessary. In fact, with these two items I’m offering, you should be very clear about what they can bring to your market."
It’s impossible to make it cheap. She needed the money now, but setting this price was already quite a fair deal.
Even though the official price for a carton of Chunghwa cigarettes was 7.50 yuan, plus ten cigarette coupons, such a price was virtually impossible to obtain. She had just inquired about buying cigarettes, and they were mostly around 3 yuan each pack. She didn’t have the skills to purchase them at the original price, and she didn’t want to have Kaize or Uncle Xia use their connections for such a small matter. Who knows if someone might try to profit from them and buy at a high price to sell to them? It seemed like she wasn’t taking advantage of it, but if you really examined it, it was not a good deal. Moreover, she owed too many favors, so it was impossible not to repay them. Who knows if they would be coerced into doing something shady in exchange for those favors?
