After the three truckloads of goods were unloaded, Liu Gaolou did not settle the payment right away. He told Li Long they would work out the balance after loading the white sugar.
Liu Gaolou went to the guesthouse, while Li Long, Liang Shuangcheng, Sun Jiaqiang, and the others moved the medicinal materials into the warehouse. The antelope horns were still taken to the Big Courtyard.
If Liu Gaolou brought more antelope horns later, he would keep those in the Big Courtyard too.
When Jia Tianlong came over, he would sell him some. As for the remaining antelope horns, Li Long planned to take his time selling them.
Next came the question of the white sugar.
The Supply and Marketing Cooperative had white sugar, but Li Xiangqian could not possibly give him that much stock. After all, white sugar was still rationed in most places. In Ma County, urban residents on grain rations were each allotted half a kilogram a month.
That depended on the sugar supply in each area. Apparently, people over in Ili only got one or two hundred grams each per month... There was no sugar factory there.
But ordinary people in Ma County, Stone City, and Shawan had a much easier time getting white sugar because of the Stone City Sugar Factory. That was why, when children were hard to soothe, people fed them steamed buns soaked in hot water with white sugar.
Most of the sugar the factory produced from sugar beets went toward planned allocations, but a small portion could be sold freely.
So Li Long planned to see Section Chief Hu and ask whether he could get some off-plan white sugar.
After lunch, Li Long took some dried meat as usual. After a moment's thought, he also brought a pair of antelope horns, then