Chapter 4 Everything is irreversibly heading towards mediocrity
On March 1989, 3, Haizi, who was only 26 years old, committed suicide by lying on the railway tracks in Shanhaiguan, carrying four books with him: The Old and New Testaments, Thoreau's Walden, Heyerdahl's Knockabout, and Selected Novels of Conrad. In his suicide note, he wrote: "My death has nothing to do with anyone." Although Facing the Sea, Spring Blossoms has been widely praised in later generations, Zhang Yunqi believes that his death heralds the end of an old era and the beginning of a new one.

The red-hot 80s were idealistic, the entertainment-driven new century was consumerist, and the utilitarian and secular 90s should be pragmatic. In the words of the writer Wang Xiaobo, who died of a heart attack at the age of 1997 in 45, "everything is irreversibly heading towards mediocrity!"

Yes, in the mediocre 90s, making money was the main theme, and getting rich was the life theme of all Chinese people, but this is not worthy of contempt or ridicule. A society oriented towards success is an upward society. In short, in this era, not many people are interested in talking about great ideals. Everyone is working hard to make money.

After a night of consideration, Zhang Yunfeng finally made up his mind to make money by becoming a cigarette dealer.

He spent the entire morning at home discussing the matter of becoming a cigarette dealer with his brother.

Zhang Yunqi has been planning for a long time and has a complete plan. The first thing to do now is the transportation problem. Zhang Yunfeng said: "It's okay. Li Da's mother is seriously ill and can't get out of bed. She is now hospitalized in the city. Li Da has no time to drive a car during this period. Let's use his car and give him more rent per day."

Zhang Yunqi nodded and said yes.

The two brothers discussed it some more, had lunch, and then went to the countryside to harvest tobacco.

At present, there are no tobacco dealers in Fengyang area, at least Zhang Yunqi has never encountered any. Most tobacco farmers carry their own loads to the city to sell cigarettes. It is particularly inconvenient for tobacco farmers in remote areas. They should be more motivated to sell cigarettes to tobacco dealers, so he chose Liangjiazhuang, which is located in a remote mountainous area.

The two brothers went door to door in the village asking, but none of the tobacco farmers they met had any intention of selling cigarettes. Perhaps they had no experience of selling cigarettes to tobacco dealers, and they did not trust them or were afraid of the risks of reselling. Finally, after wandering around for more than half an hour, exhausted, the two brothers met someone who was interested in selling cigarettes. He was a widowed old man who did not want to go to the city because it was too troublesome, so they asked him how to sell flue-cured tobacco.

Zhang Yunfeng was unsure.

Zhang Yunqi said that the purchase would be made according to the standards of Fengyang Tobacco Station.

The old man didn't believe it and said to Zhang Yunqi, "How can you make money according to the tobacco station's standards?"

Zhang Yunqi smiled and said, "I have relatives at the tobacco station."

The old man put down his pipe and showed Zhang Yunqi and his brother the flue-cured tobacco: "I have more than 200 kilograms of flue-cured tobacco here, you guys grade it."

Zhang Yunfeng is an expert at picking flue-cured tobacco. He had a total of 243 kilograms of flue-cured tobacco, of which he divided into 40 kilograms of middle-grade first-grade tobacco, 130 kilograms of middle-grade second-grade tobacco, 50 kilograms of upper-grade second-grade tobacco, and 20 kilograms of inferior last-grade tobacco.

Among the three types of flue-cured tobacco, only the second-grade flue-cured tobacco can be upgraded and sold at a higher price at the Jiangchuan Tobacco Station, while the first-grade and last-grade flue-cured tobacco cannot make money. Zhang Yunfeng didn't want them, so he said, "Grandpa, I want all these 180 kilograms of second-grade flue-cured tobacco."

The old man understood Zhang Yunfeng's implication: "You don't want the first and last levels?"

"We only purchase Grade 2 flue-cured tobacco." Zhang Yunfeng is a straightforward person and he revealed his true identity directly.

The old man was not happy: "You can't do business this way. You only accept the good cigarettes and don't accept the bad ones. I will lose a lot of money then."

Zhang Yunqi quickly replied, "When we do business, we want to make it easy. Old man, let's put it this way. We want the second-grade cigarettes, and your 20 kilograms of the last-grade cigarettes will be a bonus. They're one yuan a kilogram. Do you like them?"

The old man laughed and said, "You sound nice, kid, but can you keep your word?"

Zhang Yunfeng heard the hidden meaning in the old man's words and felt a little unhappy, but after thinking about it, he didn't say anything. He believed that his brother had his reasons for doing so, so he gave the money to the old man.

He took 1700 yuan, all his belongings, with the intention of paying off his debts. His family owed a large sum of money for coal and fertilizer alone. The boss had come to his door three or four times to urge him to pay, but in order to sell flue-cured tobacco, he had no choice but to continue to delay.

After loading the tobacco into the car, the two brothers left.

On the way, Zhang Yunfeng expressed his doubts: "Yunqi, his low-grade flue-cured tobacco is sold at a maximum of 50 cents per pound at the tobacco station. There is no profit at all. We charge one dollar. Isn't this just losing money to gain publicity?"

Zhang Yunqi said with a smile: "Brother, if you buy five catties of pork, the boss will give you a few taels as a bonus. We can earn at least 180 yuan from 100 catties of second-grade cigarettes, and at most lose 10 yuan from catties of low-grade cigarettes. Isn't this a good deal?"

Yunfeng thought about it carefully and realized that this was indeed the case. He scratched his head and said, "I have never been to school and I don't have much vision. I am not cut out for business."

"This is how business works. If you make a big profit, it's only natural to suffer a small loss." Zhang Yunqi pulled a piece of dogtail grass and bit it in his mouth, saying that it was getting late, so let's continue collecting cigarettes.

The farmers in Liangjiazhuang were obviously not easy to get along with. On the one hand, they were warm and hospitable, and would invite you into their homes and serve you good tea and water after just a few words. But they were also very cunning, and when it came to collecting cigarettes, they would want to get every penny out of you. It really took a lot of effort, and Zhang Yunqi knew everything in just one afternoon.

It was past six in the afternoon when he had spent all the money in his pocket and brought home more than 600 kilograms of flue-cured tobacco.

When he entered the room, Zhang Yunqi unexpectedly saw his mother Liu Yufeng busy in the kitchen. Before he could react, a skinny little girl with short legs pounced on him.

This is the fifth child in the family, Zhang Xiaoxiao, six years old.

Zhang Yunqi asked and found out that his mother and the fifth child had come back from visiting relatives this afternoon. She held a piece of hard candy in her hand and handed it to Zhang Yunqi like a treasure: "Second brother, this is very good. I got it from my eldest sister's house."

Zhang Yunqi doted on the fifth child in the family very much. He held her in his arms and said, "Snack, eat it. I'll buy you some tomorrow." The little girl was so happy that she hugged Zhang Yunqi's neck and kissed him non-stop.

At dinner time, the Zhang family's house was very lively.

There was no TV and it was hot in summer, so Zhang Yunqi and his two younger sisters moved the table and chairs to the yard, and the family had dinner under the cool grape trellis. Zhang's mother brought back some rice dumplings from her eldest sister's in-laws' house, stuffed with leeks and pork, which made Zhang Yunqi drool with greed. This was definitely the most sumptuous meal he had since his rebirth.

While eating, Zhang Yunfeng told Zhang Ma about his experience as a cigarette dealer.

Aunt Zhang was listening nearby and didn't know what to say. Now that the flue-cured tobacco had been collected, he had to be a tobacco dealer whether he wanted to or not. She said, "You two brothers should take care of it. It's a good thing to make money, but safety comes first."

When the meal was almost over, a girl ran into the Zhang family's courtyard, shouting "Zhang Yunqi".

Zhang Yunqi looked up and saw that it was his next-door neighbor and junior high school classmate Zhang Xiaomei, Ji Ling's cousin. She was short and fat, and said breathlessly, "Why didn't you go to school to check your grades today?"

Zhang Yunqi then remembered that today was the day when the high school entrance examination results were announced. However, he had been thinking about making money all these days and had not paid any attention to the high school entrance examination. He felt a little embarrassed and said, "I forgot."

Zhang Xiaomei was speechless. This guy was really careless: "The results of the high school entrance examination are out. You scored 625 points, making you the top scorer in our county!"

The Zhang family courtyard suddenly became quiet.

However, Zhang Yunqi did not feel surprised. He had participated in the high school entrance examination before his rebirth and knew the result.

In fact, this is not surprising. The Zhang family didn't find it strange. He has been a good student since he was young. He was the first in elementary school and junior high school and never failed.

There was no way. He was a kid from the countryside and his family was poor. In order to let him study, his eldest brother dropped out of junior high school and worked on the farm at home. His mother always told him: If you don’t study hard, go home and raise pigs. It’s not easy for me to support your schooling!
However, due to his weak constitution and childish nature, he hated farm work the most. So, in order to justify his laziness and greed, he could only study madly.

After being reborn, Zhang Yunqi felt that he was quite stupid before. He only knew how to study hard and had no smart ideas. Being the top scorer in the county's high school entrance examination did not give him any sense of accomplishment, but it did not stop his family from being happy. Even his mother Zhang was very happy.

She asked Zhang Xiaomei to sit down and served her a bowl of hot rice dumplings: "My idiot even forgot the day when the high school entrance exam results would be announced. I'm sorry to bother you with making this trip. It just so happens that we're having rice dumplings at home tonight. Xiaomei, please try some."

The fat girl Zhang Xiaomei grabbed the chopsticks and ate without restraint, leaving a little time for herself before saying, "By the way, Yunqi, which school did you apply to?"

Chunlan said: "Xianghua Technical Secondary School in the provincial capital!"

The application was filled out before rebirth. Just like in his previous life, Zhang Yunqi did not choose a high school, but applied for a technical secondary school. Zhang Xiaomei was very envious of this: "Xianghua Technical Secondary School is very famous. Many graduates from Xianghua directly work in state-owned enterprises. However, with Yunqi's grades, Xianghua Technical Secondary School is also a sure thing."

Chunlan's face was filled with pride: "That's right, in a few years, my second brother will be a government employee!"

Zhang's mother said with a smile: "This idiot likes to eat anything and is incompetent at everything. This time he finally made the Zhang family proud."

Zhang Yunqi was choked almost to death.

I was adopted, right? How could you treat your own son like this?

Of course, what my mother said was not without reason. He had grown up and it seemed that he had no glorious achievements to show off except for getting into a technical secondary school. Moreover, technical secondary schools in those days were indeed very cool and popular, with cheap tuition fees and guaranteed job assignments. Just think about how many people rushed to get a civil service position in later generations, and you will know how popular technical secondary school students were at that time.

However, he doesn't want to repeat the same old path now.

After I graduated from technical secondary school, I was assigned to a state-owned food factory. In 98, the factory closed down and I was laid off. Then I worked in the underworld for more than ten years. I did everything, from setting up stalls to opening restaurants. I saw many beautiful women and also visited prostitutes with clients who were full of fat intestines. It's quite emotional to talk about it. In short, I have experienced all kinds of things in this world, the ups and downs of life, but I didn't go to high school or college. It can be regarded as a regret for many years.

Zhang Yunqi knew in his heart that with his high school entrance examination results, it would not be a problem for him to go to high school, but he didn't want to think about that. He only wanted to make money and become a local tycoon as soon as possible. Even if he couldn't become one, at least he would live a vigorous life, just like what was written in motivational books, every day he would wake up and count the money in his pocket, and then rush for more money with a thieving heart.

The next day, Zhang Yunqi got up at five in the morning.

Although he was very sleepy, he had to go to Jiangchuan City Tobacco Station to sell cigarettes today, so he had to get up early. After rinsing his mouth and washing his face, he and his elder brother Zhang Yunfeng covered the tobacco on the car with oilcloth, then started the tractor and set off.

Mother Zhang also got up early. She heated up the remaining rice dumplings in the kitchen. When she heard the car start, she ran out and handed the dumplings to Zhang Yunqi, nagging him, "Drive slowly, be careful, and eat the dumplings when you're hungry on the way."

Zhang Yunqi didn't take it: "Leave it for Xiaoxiao and Chunlan."

The tractor drove all the way out of Yunxi Village. The sky was still foggy at five in the morning, but Zhang Yunqi could vaguely see a dark-skinned, gray-haired woman standing at the entrance of the village, looking at him from afar, like a lighthouse.

Not bright, but warm.

******
(End of this chapter)