Lin Hongjun lit another cigarette, a look of worry on his face: "What you said does seem like a path."
Anning smiled.
Lin Hongjun continued: "It's just that our family doesn't have that much money, ah. Growing these vegetables requires greenhouses, and wells need to be drilled for irrigation. All of this costs money."
Anning thought for a moment: "Uncle, let's take out a loan."
Lin Hongjun was greatly startled.
Though his mind was a bit more agile, he hadn't seen much of the world. In his mind, you buy things if you have money; if not, you try to borrow some. If you really can't borrow, then you don't buy. He had never thought about taking out a loan from a bank.
"This, this won't do. What if we can't pay it back..."
Anning said firmly: "We will definitely be able to pay it back. If growing vegetables doesn't make much money, I can think of other ways to make money. The market is lively now, and there are many ways to earn money."
Lin Hongjun was still uncertain: "But is obtaining a loan feasible? Would the bank be willing to lend to us?"
"Yes."
Anning had seen some things about the past few years in the original host's memories. These years, banks were encouraged to lend, and many credit cooperatives were unable to lend out their money, even actively seeking people to take out loans.
Moreover, Anning remembered that not long ago, a classmate's father, who worked at a bank, had complained about the lack of borrowers to meet his loan quota.
Anning then shared this piece of information with Lin Hongjun: "Uncle, I can ask that classmate of mine to have his dad help us with the loan."
Lin Hongjun hesitated.
Anning laughed: "Uncle, grandpa often said that boldness leads to prosperity while timidity leads to poverty."
After a long while, Lin Hongjun slapped his thigh: "Alright, let's take this gamble. It's just what you said about greenhouse vegetables, I don't know if they will work out. Our family will first experiment for two years. If it turns out well, we'll then lead the people in the village to grow together."
Once Lin Hongjun decided on something, he wouldn't change his mind. Seeing that he had made his decision, Anning also felt relieved.
After that, Lin Hongjun called a meeting with Lin Aiguo and Lin Aimin, the three brothers.
When Lin Aiguo returned home, he sighed heavily looking at Anning.
Anning knew what Lin Aiguo was thinking.
Lin Aiguo was steady and timid by nature, not fond of taking risks.
He didn't really want to grow greenhouse vegetables, but since it was Anning's suggestion and Lin Hongjun was willing to give it a try, he truly couldn't oppose it.
Once things were settled, Anning accompanied Lin Hongjun to get help from her classmate to take out a loan in the following days.
Anning not only helped Lin Hongjun with the loan, but also took out a loan for herself.
When the loan was approved, it was time to submit university applications, and Anning, without much contemplation, directly chose the Capital's Agricultural University.
After submitting her application, Anning told Lin Aiguo she was going to buy a few books in the City and also had some other matters to handle, as well as doing some market research on the side.
Lin Aiguo was worried about Anning going alone and insisted on accompanying her.
After much persuasion, Anning finally convinced Lin Aiguo to stay.
With the loaned money, she went to the City, and then bought a train ticket there to travel south by train.
Anning went to Yangcheng, where she stayed for several days, mainly to scout the market. She first surveyed the small commodities market, and after a day of wandering, found a factory that produced small commodities and purchased some goods. She didn't go far to resell these goods in the surrounding areas.
Then, with the money she made, she found a small factory that manufactured electronic watches, where Anning provided some designs for watches and asked the factory to quickly produce a batch.
After paying the deposit, she went to the wholesale market to buy some trendy clothes, took these clothes around to various places, and when she had sold all the clothes and made a profit, the watches were produced.
After paying off the remaining amount for the goods, Anning took these watches to several nearby cities.
The workmanship of these watches was quite good, and their styles were particularly modern and elegant, making them look very upscale; Anning attracted quite a few customers by setting up her stall around the area.
Watches priced at over a thousand yuan each were sold out by Anning in less than five days.
The cost of the lower-grade watches she purchased was three yuan each, while the higher-grade ones were five yuan each, yet she sold them for a good price: fifteen yuan for the lower-grade ones and twenty-five yuan for the higher-grade.
Even after she sold out, people were still looking to buy from her.
Anning could only regretfully tell these people that they were sold out.
After that, Anning didn't go back to dealing in watches; instead, she bought some clothing and other small merchandise and headed back home.
Once she reached the city, Anning set up a stall to sell these items. After selling everything, she spent two more days in the city, bought some books, and did some market research before heading back.
Her return was met with a good amount of complaining from Lin Aiguo and Wang Cuixhua.
Especially Wang Cuixhua, who kept on saying that Anning went out and didn't seem to know how to come back, did not care how worried the family was, and even mentioned that Lin Aiguo was about to go looking for her in the city.
As Wang Cuixhua nagged, Anning listened quietly, smiling, neither arguing nor becoming angry.
Only when Wang Cuixhua was too tired to continue did Anning act playful and quickly managed to appease her.
Then, Anning sought out Lin Hongjun and discussed the situation of the city's vegetable market and the material costs for building greenhouses.
Lin Hongjun had also made a few trips to the county in those days and was aware of the county's prices.
After making a budget with Anning, they found that the city had slightly cheaper prices than the county.
However, going to the city to buy materials required hiring a vehicle for transportation, which would also cost money.
Nevertheless, even with the cost of the vehicle and round-trip expenses for food and drink taken into account, it was still cheaper to buy from the city.
Anning and Lin Hongjun decided to buy materials in the city.
It was not until Anning and Lin Hongjun had nearly finished their discussions that she had time to rest.
Additionally, Anning quietly calculated the income from her trip to Yangcheng.
She had taken a loan of two thousand yuan from a classmate and made around a thousand yuan from dealing in small commodities and a bit more from clothing, around three thousand yuan. Of course, the most profit was made from dealing in watches.
For the thousand-plus watches, the gross profit was twelve yuan on the lower-grade ones and twenty yuan on the higher-grade.
Anning had around five hundred of the lower-grade watches and about six hundred or so of the higher-grade.
By this accounting, just the gross profit from the watches was about eighteen or nineteen thousand yuan; adding the clothing and small commodities, she made over twenty thousand yuan.
This didn't include the things she had brought back with her.
Those items had an even higher profit margin when sold in the city, making her several thousand yuan in total.
Now, Anning had around thirty thousand yuan on hand.
Thirty thousand yuan, during the early eighties, was a huge sum.
Anning stored the passbook safely. For now, she didn't plan to use the money, nor did she plan on telling Lin Aiguo and his wife about it.
She was afraid that telling the couple would shock them too much.
By the time Lin Hongjun had bought all the materials from the city, the admission notice should have arrived.
And at this time, Lin Anjie had returned to Xiaogou Village.
This time, Lin Anjie's return to the village was in a grand and impressive manner.