Firecrackers of this era usually came in 100, 200, 500, or 1,000 pops.
A 1,000-pop string was 2 meters long, so a 40-meter "Earth Red" string was simply 20 strings of 1,000 pops linked together.
At this time, the fuses used for Earth Red firecrackers were slow-burning, with a combustion speed of about 3 centimeters per second. This was unlike the firecrackers of later generations, which used fast-burning fuses that burned at over 20 centimeters per second.
Consequently, a 1,000-pop Earth Red string would take over a minute to finish firing.
Therefore, the 20 strings of Earth Reds that Wang An had linked together popped for a full 20-plus minutes before finally stopping.
That being said, while the purpose of setting off firecrackers was to welcome the new year, if the things just kept popping incessantly, it became incredibly annoying.
So, while eating dumplings after the firecrackers, Liu Guilan said to Wang An
"Next year, make the firecrackers shorter. With them popping on and on like that, I couldn't hear a word of what they were saying on the TV."
Wang An gave a hehe laugh and readily agreed.
Mainly, because the constant noise of the firecrackers had become a nuisance that Wang An himself was starting to find unbearable.
Although no one was particularly hungry during the dumpling meal, everyone still ate their fill.
Those who hadn't found a coin in their dumpling wanted to keep eating until they did before putting down their chopsticks, while those who had found one wanted to eat more to see if they could find a few more.
The children at the table were a whirlwind of noise and shouting, making the scene lively; one moment one would yell that he found a coin, and the next, another would shout that he found one too.
The adults watched the children with beaming smiles, occasionally spitting a coin out of their own mouths.
In short, every face wore a smile of satisfaction and happiness.
After finishing the dumplings and clearing the table, Wang Dazhu, as the nominal head of the household, personally pressed the pot for the final course and distributed New Year's money to the children. Only then did everyone head off to rest.
Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, the fifteenth of the first lunar month passed, and the sixteenth arrived.
In the countryside, once the fifteenth of the first month had passed, the New Year was considered officially over. Life gradually returned to its normal track; those who had work to do got back to it, and those who needed to be busy became busy again.
Of course, families who had no side business other than farming remained in a state of winter leisure. However, such families were destined never to become wealthy; they were doing quite well if they could simply solve the problem of food and clothing.
On the sixteenth, Wang An took some gifts and drove to the county seat.
Wang An's purpose for going to the county was to visit Qiao Xiaohu's house and have Qiao Xiaohu look for pharmacies or medicinal herb distributors in various regions to help find more sales channels for Han Xiaomin's family's herbs.
As for the gifts, Wang An had prepared them for Qiao Xiaohu's grandparents.
There was no other way; Wang An had already invested in Han Xiaomin's herb business. If he only took dividends without doing any work, it would be somewhat unjustifiable.
Upon arriving at Qiao Xiaohu's house and offering New Year's greetings to his grandparents, Wang An and Qiao Xiaohu went to the west room.
According to Qiao Xiaohu, the business of flipping goods was no longer what it used to be.
Not only had sales plummeted severely, but the profit margins had shrunk drastically.
The reason for this was primarily because Qiao Xiaohu's initial success had led more unemployed locals in the county seat and surrounding counties to enter the trade.
This issue left Wang An feeling very surprised and unexpected.
In Wang An's previous life at this time, whether in DJ County or the surrounding banner counties, there were very few people flipping goods.
It wasn't until the mid-to-late 80s, when the light industry of the Russians to the north encountered serious problems, that many people began flipping goods.
But now, simply because the wings of this little butterfly named Wang An had fluttered slightly, the business of flipping goods had actually become a "chicken rib"—something with little value but too good to throw away.
Based on Wang An's original estimate, the flipping business should have been able to make good money for at least another two or three years. Yet, as of now, it hadn't even been a full year.
Damn! This was truly frustrating!
However, it had to be said that while the Chinese people's capacity for innovation might be mediocre, their capacity for imitation was incredibly formidable—absolutely formidable, like a bolt of lightning.
Of course, the reason it was so easily imitated was partly because there were too many idle people.
And the other, more primary reason, was that the barrier to entry for flipping goods was simply too low. As long as someone had a bit of capital in their pocket and the courage to make a few trips south, practically anyone could do this business.
Fortunately, while the flipping business had shrunk severely and was likely to collapse soon, the business of collecting mountain produce had already taken off.
Following the methods Wang An taught him, Qiao Xiaohu had sent all his men out to sign contracts with many production team leaders. By now, Li Xinhao's people had already visited twice and taken away two trainloads of mountain produce.
From just these two deals in mountain produce, Qiao Xiaohu had earned a pure profit of over 5,000 yuan.
Of course, half of that money belonged to Wang An.
When talking about the flipping business, Qiao Xiaohu sounded listless and sighed.
But when talking about the mountain produce business, Qiao Xiaohu was cheerful and full of energy.
Consequently, Wang An's interest in mountain produce also increased significantly. This was mainly because the mountain produce business was very different from flipping goods.
While flipping goods had a low barrier to entry that anyone could manage, collecting mountain produce was difficult.
Because every link of the process—organizing the manpower, materials, and money for procurement, the transportation at various stages, and finally selling the produce—was not something just anyone could jump into. If any single link failed, all the collected produce would end up stuck in one's hands.
Listening to Qiao Xiaohu's account, Wang An occasionally gave him tips, telling him solutions and methods for various problems.
Wang An's methods once again proved immensely beneficial to Qiao Xiaohu, who filled several pages of the small notebook he always kept with him.
After finishing the discussion on the mountain produce business, Wang An handed over the price lists for various medicinal herbs to Qiao Xiaohu, as well as the phone number and address of Han Xiaomin's shop, telling Qiao Xiaohu to contact Han Xiaomin directly if any herb business came up.
Furthermore, Wang An promised Qiao Xiaohu a 5% commission on the sales volume of every herb deal.
Qiao Xiaohu naturally accepted Wang An's arrangement. It was a simple task, and any money earned was a bonus; moreover, a 5% commission on sales volume was a decent amount of money.
Before leaving Qiao Xiaohu's house, Wang An took his share of the flipping profits from the past half year, which amounted to 15,000 yuan.
Once Wang An took the money, he was effectively withdrawing his investment from the flipping partnership with Qiao Xiaohu.
Qiao Xiaohu still had over 7,000 yuan worth of goods and over 8,000 yuan in cash earned from flipping.
Once Qiao Xiaohu sold off the remaining small commodities, he had no intention of flipping them anymore; instead, he wanted to focus entirely on the mountain produce business.
The fact that Qiao Xiaohu could earn so much money from flipping small commodities in less than a year showed that he had a great natural talent for business.