Chapter 27: Sell Apples for Gold!
Because in 1990, everyone's requirements for academic qualifications were not high, and dropping out of school was even more common in rural areas, since Jia Lei was determined to do business, Su Renfeng would not stop it.
"Here are a thousand sentences I wrote in common Russian, with Russian and Chinese meanings and Chinese pronunciation, you take a good look at it and try to memorize it." Of course, it doesn't matter if you can't memorize it, you just need to hold it and understand it and read it out loud. Su Renfeng handed Jia Lei a small handwritten notebook and said.
It was a very small notebook, about the size of a wallet, and could be put in your pocket, and it was a particularly popular phone book at the time.
"Hello—Zdras is the business, good—Hala is less, bad—Where's the toilet—Where's the latrine—Gerje Tu Lahlet?Bread—Horre, drink—Sock
You're welcome to Nirvana, yes, no. What kind of stuff is this, it sounds weird to pronounce?" Jia Lei said as he looked at the Chinese pronunciation booklet in his hand.
"You won't be afraid if you don't speak Russian with this thing, so take it and sell it with me today! Su Renfeng said with a smile.
Jia Lei pouted and put the booklet in his coat pocket, he was really embarrassed to follow the opening written on it.
"Where are we going to sell apples in a moment? Is it the legendary black market?" Jia Lei asked with bright eyes, what a black market! He has been curious about this kind of place for a long time.
"Yes! Now the Soviet Union has a planned economy that is similar to ours in the seventies, everything is state-run, and you need tickets and rolls to buy things. Su Renfeng said.
"It's impossible, isn't it? It's the 90s now......," Jia Lei said.
"How is it impossible, China now needs food stamps to buy rice!" Su Renfeng said, Jia Lei was embarrassed this year, because of political reasons, the food stamps that had been withdrawn from the market for several years returned to China again.
"I'll take you to the black market, and we'll sell apples together. You have to watch how I do it, you have to study hard!" Su Renfeng touched Jia Lei's head and said.
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In fact, the black market is not black, it is opened in a remote but well-developed traffic block, here is a small park, there are people guarding in front of the gate to see familiar faces will be put in, Su Renfeng is obviously a frequent visitor here and paid 10 rubles for the entrance fee and drove in.
Don't look at this place, it seems deserted outside, as soon as he enters the inside, Jia Lei sees people everywhere, Su Renfeng's truck found an empty seat and stopped under the leadership of the person leading the way.
"There are a lot of people here, and there are many people, so don't go far, if you are abducted, you will be in trouble. Su Renfeng told Jia Lei.
"I'm not a three-year-old child, don't worry, I understand!" Jia Lei said, his soul age is already in his thirties.
"Zdras for Ye Su!" (Hello Sue)" A Russian stall owner next to him greeted Su Renfeng.
"Zdras is the business, Legler!" replied Su Renfeng.
"Zdras is the industry, hello!" Jia Lei carefully discerned what they were talking about according to the small notebook.
(For everyone's convenience, all the conversations have been changed to Chinese!)
"What good goods did you bring with you this time?" asked Leegler.
"Fruit, apple!" Su Renfeng said with a smile, and then he opened the canvas on the truck and brought down a basket of apples from it.
"Oh my God, you've got an apple, it's in demand. You're going to get rich today!" said Legler enviously.
"Your goods today are also good, this wild boar is about 80 kilograms, right?" asked Su Renfeng.
"Good eyesight, this wild boar weighs 81 kilograms!" said Legler with a smile.
Jia Lei curiously glanced at the wild boar that had lost its hair, and found that what he didn't clean up was not very clean, and there were still many long black pig hairs left on the pig.
"Does anyone buy this wild boar that hasn't faded clean?" Jia Lei asked suspiciously.
"Of course, some people buy it, and the price is still very expensive, now in the Soviet Union, except for Moscow and Leningrad, there is another big city, and the supply of meat per person per month in other cities is limited, and each person is probably less than a pound of meat a month, but now many people are qualified and may not be able to buy meat. The meat distributed to the grocery store every day is counted, and you can't buy it if you go late. Su Renfeng said.
"You don't have to explain, I know, it's about the same as we did more than ten years ago. Jia Lei said.
"Of course, when the Chinese State was first established, both the economic model and the social system were copied from the big brother of the Soviet Union. And this planned economy is almost exactly the same! You can see this, it's really smart!" Su Renfeng praised Jia Lei.
"Then how much does this pork cost in the store?" Jia Lei asked.
"About two rubles, beef sells for two rubles, and pork is a little cheaper than it. Su Renfeng said.
"But his sign says six rubles a pound!" Jia Lei said with a glance at it.
In the minute or two they were talking, someone had already come over, and the Russian didn't care about the wild boar that had not been cleaned and bought two kilograms of pork at once, pointing at the particularly fat pork.
"Two kilograms of meat are actually sold for 12 rubles, which can be exchanged for 12 US dollars, which means that a pound of pork (500g) can be sold for more than 50 yuan in Russia, which is too expensive!" Jia Lei said in surprise while covering his mouth.
"This price is not expensive, wild boar meat is not delicious, if it is beef, it can be sold for about ten rubles a catty!" Su Renfeng said.
After Su Ren said this, he took away the canvas covering the apple basket, and the fragrance of apples suddenly wafted into the distance.
"Apple!", "There are apples!", "It's so fragrant!" The crowd nearby suddenly began to stir, and many Russians twitched their noses and smelled the smell and turned their eyes to the apple basket in front of Jia Lei.
Jia Leizi saw that the crowd was buzzing and suddenly chaotic, and then ran over like he was hula, and in less than a minute, he and Su Renfeng were surrounded by the crowd.
"Fresh apples have just been picked from the tree, and they cost only ten roubles a pound. Su Renfeng shouted in Russian, but he didn't expect the crowd to be even more excited after hearing this price.
"Did I hear me right? Second cousin, did you just say that these apples will cost ten rubles a catty?" Jia Lei asked in surprise.
"Yes, you know the rubles, right? There are numbers on them, and in a moment you help me collect the money and I'll call them apples." After Su Renfeng said this, he didn't look back and began to weigh apples to the guests.
"Don't worry, I will still calculate addition, subtraction, multiplication and division!" Jia Lei patted his chest and promised.
"Two pounds of apples are 20 roubles, find him 30 roubles. Su Renfeng threw 50 rubles to Jia Lei and said that Jia Lei took the money and gave the guest change.
"Eight taels of apples for a pound, eighteen ruins! Su Renfeng said.
"30 grams is exactly two kilograms, Jia Lei is looking for him 30 kopecks!" Su Renfeng said.
"What is Kobe, what is Kobi?" asked Jia Lei blankly.
"It's a coin in a money bag, and it has numbers on it, you can find them 30 kopecks. Su Renfeng turned around and said a word to Jia Lei, Jia Lei opened the money bag and saw that there were many large and small coins at the bottom.
Jia Lei took out a few large and small coins and handed them over to thirty kopecks, and the woman on the opposite side carefully counted them several times before putting them away.
After being busy for a while, four baskets of apples had been sold in less than half an hour, and the people who came to buy apples only saw more than a few, and now Jia Lei can't wait to grow three heads and six arms.
"Get out of the way, you all get out of the way! Mr. Amy Volga has arrived. Suddenly, a few big Russian men from behind the crowd began to drive the crowd away, and they drove the people in front of them, men, women, and children, to the side, revealing a path.
"Dear Mr. Amy, why are you here today?" Su Renfeng hurriedly put down the apple in his hand to greet Mr. Amy, Jia Lei glanced curiously at this middle-aged Russian man with a belly as big as Zhu Bajie.
"I heard from my subordinates that there is a batch of rare and good goods in the market, so I came to take a look! These are the Chinese apples you brought from your hometown, right?" Amy Volga picked up a red Fuji apple and sniffed it.
"Yes Mr. Amy, these are the apples I ordered directly from the orchard in Huaxia, and they have only been picked for three days, and even the leaves are green. Su Renfeng replied with a smile.
"Yes, it's fresh!" said Amy, who broke the apple stalk in her hand and checked the freshness of the apple stalk.
"Mr. Amy, if you think it's good, do you need to come some?" asked Su Renfeng cautiously.
This Mr. Amy Volga is the brother-in-law of one of the partners of the underground black market, and his brother-in-law is a high-ranking official in the city government of the Soviet Union.
In this case, Su Renfeng doesn't know Amy's specific purpose, and he can't say that he can buy it or give it away, in case Mr. Amy wants to spend money to buy it, if you say it's a gift, it's like looking down on people!
"Yes, of course I do, who doesn't need such good goods? Amy Volga said.
Although he can buy at a low price or with his reputation and strength, they are not the only black market in this city, and if they offend these merchants, they will run to other markets to do business. How else do they take a rake!
Anyway, Amy wants to transport these apples to Vladivostok to sell, where they can be sold for at least eighteen rubles, and he can completely stop these people at a high price.
"12 rubles a catty, the price has risen again after a while, and the buyer has raised the price!" Jia Lei said in surprise, don't take it, Jia Lei doesn't understand, but he can understand the gesture of 12.
"Mr. Amy is still okay, when I sell this apple in my hand?" asked Su Renfeng.
"Yes!" said Mr. Amy, who was the son-in-law of the Kesbull family, and he didn't want to have an unnecessary dispute with Su Renfeng.
I heard that Mr. Amy had bought all the apples in front of me, and those who had not yet bought the apples in line began to regret that they didn't come sooner.
It is not often possible to see such high-quality and inexpensive fruits on the black market, and those foreign fruit merchants especially like to sell fruits to big cities with higher prices, and small cities like Shuangchengzi cannot buy cheap fruits if they are not at the border crossings.
Su Ren sold all the remaining baskets of apples to Mr. Amy, and Mr. Amy also hoped that Su Renfeng would find some more identical apples to buy for him, and the price could be raised to fifteen rubles a kilogram.
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"The price of our apples in Russia has increased by more than 50 times, where is this still an ordinary apple, this is simply a golden apple!" Jia Lei said at home at night, counting the rubles in his hand.
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