GBP Chapter 517 As expected
Chapter 517 As expected
The more goods he collected, the more uneasy Fatty Ma felt.
This kind of "success" made him feel like he was dancing on a knife's edge.
The figures in the ledger are alarming—for every truckload of goods received, they lose more than twenty yuan.
"Boss, how about we secretly send someone to check on Li Xiangyang's situation?" Wang Jianshe suggested cautiously.
Fatty Ma nodded: "Go yourself and take a close look."
Early the next morning, Wang Jianshe quietly slipped away to the vicinity of Li Xiangyang's purchasing station. He hid behind a tree not far away, observing carefully.
To his surprise, Li Xiangyang's purchasing station seemed calm, with villagers occasionally coming and going, but there were no signs of large-scale purchases.
On the contrary, Li Xiangyang himself was leisurely repairing farm tools in the yard, showing no sign of urgency.
"This kid's really good at pretending!" Wang Jianshe muttered to himself.
As he was observing, he suddenly saw Old Tian from Hegou Village driving a horse-drawn cart over. The cart was loaded with goods, seemingly to be sold to Li Xiangyang.
Wang Jianshe's eyes lit up; this was a good opportunity to learn more about the situation.
Old Tian stopped at the entrance of the purchasing station and exchanged a few words with Li Xiangyang. Their voices were soft, and Wang Jianshe couldn't hear the exact words, but judging from Old Tian's expression, they seemed to be haggling.
After a while, Old Tian shook his head, seemingly unable to reach an agreement, and drove away in his carriage.
"It seems Li Xiangyang really can't receive the goods!" Wang Jianshe thought to himself with glee, and quickly went back to report to Fatty Ma.
"Boss, I checked, Li Xiangyang's side really doesn't have much stock! Old Tian from Hegou Village went to negotiate a deal just now, but they couldn't agree on a price and he left."
Hearing this, Fatty Ma felt much better: "It seems our strategy is working. If we maintain the high price and hold out a little longer, we can completely cripple him."
However, what Wang Jianshe didn't see was that after Lao Tian left Li Xiangyang's purchasing station, he didn't go straight back to the village, but stopped in a grove of trees outside the village.
A short while later, Li Xiangyang appeared, carrying several sacks in his hand.
"Uncle Tian, the goods are all ready." Li Xiangyang put the sacks on the cart. "Remember, when you get there, say they're from your village."
Old Tian patted his chest and said, "Don't worry, Boss Li, don't you trust us to handle things?"
"That's good. Thank you for your hard work; all the money you earn is yours."
Old Tian grinned: "What's with all the hard work? This money is much easier to earn than farming!"
And so, truckloads of mountain goods were hauled to Fatty Ma's purchasing station.
Similar scenes play out every day.
Grandpa Chen from Dongshan Village and several young people from Xigou Village became Li Xiangyang's "shills," continuously delivering goods to Fatty Ma.
Although Fatty Ma found it a bit strange, he was still somewhat proud to see goods coming in every day.
It wasn't until two weeks later that he finally realized the seriousness of the problem.
"Wang Jianshe, calculate how much money we've lost in the past two weeks!" Fatty Ma pointed at the ledger, his face ashen.
Wang Jianshe carefully calculated: "Boss, it's about... about eight thousand."
"Over eight thousand?!" Fatty Ma nearly jumped up. "How much is all our funds?"
"Twelve thousand."
Fatty Ma slumped into a chair, his face deathly pale. At this rate, he'd be bankrupt in another half month.
"No, absolutely not!" Fatty Ma jumped to his feet. "That kid Li Xiangyang is definitely up to something! Where did all this stuff come from?"
Just then, another carriage came in from outside.
"Boss, are you picking up the goods?" It was Xiao Liu from Xigou Village who came.
Fatty Ma, barely suppressing his anger, asked, "Little Liu, tell me, where did all these mountain products come from in your village?"
Xiao Liu was taken aback: "What do you mean?"
"So, how much merchandise does your village typically produce in a month?"
"Normally?" Xiao Liu thought for a moment, "Normally I only weigh about 100 jin a month, maybe a little more this season, but it won't exceed 300 jin."
Fatty Ma quickly calculated that nearly a thousand catties of goods had been delivered to Xigou Village in just half a month!
"Where did all these goods come from?"
Xiao Liu stammered, "It's all...it's all what the villagers saved up over time."
"Saved up?" Fatty Ma sneered. "How many years have you been saving up?"
Xiao Liu was sweating profusely from the questioning and could barely speak: "Um... I'm not really sure about that either..."
The more Fatty Ma thought about it, the more suspicious he became, and he decided to investigate it himself.
The next day, he quietly went to Xigou Village and asked some elderly people in the village about the situation.
"Grandpa, how are the mountain products from your village selling lately?"
The old man chuckled and said, "That's great! Young Liu and his friends are fast runners; they often haul goods to town to sell and make a lot of money."
"Where did all these goods come from?"
"Where did it come from?" the old man asked, somewhat puzzled. "It was gathered from the mountains, of course."
"How much can your village harvest in a typical month?"
The old man thought for a moment and said, "It's probably only about a hundred pounds. There aren't any more in the mountains than that."
Fatty Ma's heart sank; there was definitely something wrong!
He visited several more villages, and received similar answers. Under normal circumstances, the output of these villages could not possibly support his purchasing volume for the next two weeks.
"That bastard Li Xiangyang!" Fatty Ma finally realized he'd been tricked!
But while he understood, he lacked direct evidence. The villagers bringing their goods to sell appeared perfectly reasonable and legal on the surface; he couldn't very well stop them from doing so, could he?
Even more critically, his cash flow is now extremely tight. If he continues to pursue high-priced acquisitions, he will go bankrupt in at most ten days.
But if we lower the price now, all our previous investments will be wasted, and we might even be suppressed by Li Xiangyang.
"Boss, what do we do?" Wang Jianshe asked cautiously.
Fatty Ma paced back and forth in the office, beads of sweat forming on his forehead.
After a long pause, he gritted his teeth and said, "Limited purchase! Only fifty catties per day, no more!"
"Is this appropriate? Won't it offend the villagers?"
"We can't worry about that now!" Fatty Ma said fiercely. "It's better than going bankrupt!"
The next day, a notice was posted at the entrance of Fatty Ma's purchasing station: Starting today, limited purchases will be implemented, with a daily limit of 50 catties of mountain products, first come, first served.
The news quickly reached Li Xiangyang.
When Wang Ergou returned after seeing the notice, he excitedly told Li Xiangyang, "Xiangyang, Fatty Ma can't hold on any longer! He's started limiting purchases!"
Li Xiangyang smiled faintly: "As expected. But this will make those villagers who want to make quick money anxious."
Sure enough, several villagers went to Li Xiangyang's purchasing station that afternoon.
"Boss Li, the purchasing station in town has started limiting our orders, and we can't sell our goods!" Old Tian was so anxious that he stamped his feet.