Therefore, in addition to running all over the world to buy goods, Li Tongfu can only stand at the counter with Yanhua by himself. At the same time, due to the change of goods, the integration of some professional knowledge is needed, so he and Yanhua learned from scratch what positive and negative electrodes, what lighting color temperature, the wattage of the bulb, the wattage of various electromechanicals, the use of multimeters, how big the cable and wire, how to configure the switch, how many screws, how many inches of nails, how many models of pliers, open-end wrenches, live wrenches, pipe pliers, vises, etc., not to mention selling goods, the two of them only kept remembering these thousands of goods were busy all day.

And their newly bought truck can't stay idle, after all, when the truck starts, it's a lot of income every month. It happened that Qin Jiajun was doing odd jobs, and he was also driving in the army, so the two could only entrust the truck to him after discussion. In addition to a monthly salary of 500, he is also given a 1% commission.

After Li Tongfu entrusted the truck to Qin Jiajun, he began to give full play to his business talent and devote himself wholeheartedly to the operation of the sales department of the supply and marketing cooperative. Because the set of counters they contracted was relatively close to the door, he went to the Yellow River Market to find someone to weld a mobile counter, that is, to weld the counter with angle iron, and then install universal wheels underneath, and put wires, cables, bicycle tires, power tools and other goods on the mobile counter early every morning, and push them to the outside of the store to operate.

All the goods in the store are small profits and quick sales, and they can be sold if they can make money. In the original supply and marketing cooperatives, Yanhua's service attitude was very good, and now their service attitude is even better. And the whole supply and marketing cooperatives are the first to provide bulk commodity home delivery, sometimes in order to make an extra dime, they have to deliver to customers when it rains.

Qin Jiajun has been driving trucks to haul goods recently, and also helping them sell business. Sometimes when I run a construction site, I will communicate with the janitor or the person in charge of the project, saying that my wife is in the supply and marketing cooperative, and she can get the goods at a low price, etc., and sometimes they will talk more if they have needs. Xizhou Waterworks wants to buy a large number of temporary distribution boxes, helmets and wires and simple fire tents, each small fire tent is equipped with fire extinguishers, fire shovels, fire buckets, fire extinguishers, etc., requiring door-to-door delivery, and to advance procurement.

Some of these goods are available in their stores, and you can string the goods, so that the funds advanced are less, and some of them can only go in with real money. The rental counter buys out the goods, they are all loan sharks borrowed from the association, and now they have no money to buy the goods, so they have no choice but to go to the association to raise funds.

This batch of goods made a total of 20,000 yuan in a single transaction, deducting the interest of the meeting, and paying the cost of the string goods, there is only a profit of 8,000. Everything is difficult at the beginning, and when your ability is insufficient, you can only give up profits step by step, and grope your way forward. When they came back from receiving the check from the water company, Li Tongfu and Yang Liufang discussed and still gave Qin Jiajun 500 yuan. They want to convince the people around them that everyone's hard work deserves to be recognized.

On New Year's Day in 1988, snowflakes fell in the sky, and Yang Liufang gave the workers in the furniture factory a holiday, and even the master of the canteen went home. Yang Liu let himself go to the supply and marketing cooperatives to see Li Tongfu and Yanhua, came over from the counter of the supply and marketing cooperatives, and opened the door to operate until now, he has not been here. Got off the train at the station of the Chengbei Supply and Marketing Cooperative, and saw Li Tongfu wrapped in a military coat from a distance across the road, the collar of the military coat stood up, and he wore a leather hat on his head.

"Brother." Yang Liufang stepped forward and called Li Tongfu.

"Brother, why are you here?"

"Today is New Year's Day, I gave the factory a holiday, come and see you."

"Come in, it's cold outside." Li Tongfu let him into the back of the counter of the sales department, and he saw that Yanhua was also wrapped in a military coat, with an obvious bulge in her abdomen, at this time Yanhua was three months pregnant and was still insisting on standing at the counter.

"Sister-in-law Yanhua, your body is inconvenient, so don't move. If you really can't do it, don't come to work. ”

"Our own business, if we don't go to work, who will greet us. Your brother is alone outside, and I can help a little from inside. Yang Liufang was very moved. The salesperson of this supply and marketing cooperative, which was once regarded as God by customers, used to be able to get the latest product news when standing at the counter here, because of this internal convenience channel, Yang Liufang also enjoyed the convenience of "someone inside" in the process of purchasing goods.

However, under the impact of the tide of the market economy, the survival of the supply and marketing cooperatives is as cold as the cold days in Xizhou, and the salespeople who are its employees can only be like Yanhua, either contracting the counter by themselves, or taking leave to rest, and contracting the counter to operate by themselves, even if they are pregnant, they must go to work in such a severe environment, because whether they sell goods or not, they are spending every day.

At noon, in order not to miss customers, the counter is inseparable from people, and they cannot go to the restaurant to eat. Yang Liufang could only buy the dumplings from outside, and the hot dumplings were served, and they had become cold after they were opened by the supply and marketing cooperative. Li Tongfu and Wang Yanhua blanched it with hot water and ate it.

When the three of them were eating dumplings, Qin Jiajun came back in a truck, he is now following a few fellows to decorate the house, because of the convenience of the car, do some transportation work all day long, at noon because he was worried about his pregnant wife, after transporting a cart of lime and paint, he turned in to see. Now he was white and black, with ice in his hair, and when he entered the store, he turned down the fur collar of his military coat, but his face was full of happiness and confidence.

"Oh, look at you." Yanhua affectionately reproached him.

"It's okay, it's nothing to be dirty, tired, or bitter, as long as I look at you and my son, I'm happy." Qin Jiajun said coincidentally.

"You'll say."

Qin Jiajun turned his head and asked Yang Liufang: "Brother Xiao Yang, are you also there?" ”

"Yes, Brother Qin, today is not New Year's Day! I gave the workers in the factory a holiday, so I came to see Yanhua's sister-in-law and my brother. Are you done with this? ”

"What are you busy with, I'm now my own boss, I can be busy today when I have a job, and I can die when I don't have a job. Oh, I also said that I will look for you in the past few days, and the Chinese New Year is coming soon, I moved a new home to a middle school teacher in Xizhou, he and his husband are both teachers, there are a lot of books, and they need to make bookshelves in the new house, I recommended you. ”

"It's better to choose a day than to hit the day, why don't we go and see?" Yang Liufang asked tentatively.

"Okay, let's go."

"Go back and change your clothes, and don't leave a bad impression when you go to the intellectual's house dirty."

"Okay, wife, I'll go back and change my clothes first. Xiao Yang, you come with me, you haven't been to your new home yet. ”

Yang Liufang ate a few dumplings as soon as possible and drank a bowl of half-lukewarm water.

"You slow down, don't be in a hurry." Li Tongfu was afraid that he would choke, so he comforted. Qin Jiajun started the truck, Yang Liufang got into the co-pilot, and the two drove towards his new home.

"The new home is not too far from the supply and marketing cooperative, although it belongs to Beiguan, it is relatively close to the center of Xizhou City." Qin Jiajun said as he drove.

"At this stage, I can make a home in the city."

"Yes, just that little bit of military pay, I have to buy a house, or your sister-in-law and children don't know where to live in this cold day."

Entering a courtyard house, the roof was still the same Soviet-style sloping roof, and they stopped in front of a building near the northeast corner.

"Let's go up and have a look. It's relatively basic. The two of them went up the stairs, and there was ice in some of the stairs.

"Alas, I don't know whose water pipes are freezing and bursting again. This is an old community, and the water pipes are rusty, and some will crack when the heat expands and contracts in winter. ”

"Then why not remodel?"

"There's no property here, there's no unified organizational call, and no one wants to spend that unjust money. It's here. The two stopped in front of a unit door in the corner of the third floor as they spoke, and Qin Jiajun took out the key to open the door.

"Come in, you're the first guest in this house besides Principal Wang. It's a mess at home, don't mind. ”

Yang Liufang walked into the room and saw that the small dining table he had made for him in the army's dormitory was placed in the middle of the living room, and there were still dishes on the table for the morning meal that had not been washed.

"I left early in the morning, it was cold, there was no hot water at home, I was afraid that your sister-in-law would be cold, so I didn't let her wash it. You can sit down for a while, I'll go change my clothes and we'll go." ”

"Brother Qin, it's quite warm in your house."

"yes, that's it, there's heating, and I changed it myself. When I first moved in, the heating was not hot, I asked the market to work together to come and change, a group charged me 200, I was angry and went to your sister-in-law's store to buy some steel pipes and a set of threading machines, and I specialized in doing it, and the result was that the heating in my house in our building was the hottest. ”

"You're amazing." Yang Liufang sincerely admired.

"What's amazing, it's not that you don't have the money to make trouble. Okay, I'm done, let's go. ”

The two went out, Qin Jiajun locked the door of the unit in the back, and drove downstairs to measure the cabinet together.