While Bai Xiuming and the others ate, Li Long, Liu Gaolou, and the drivers drove to the Supply and Marketing Cooperative.
The cooperative was already open. Li Long greeted the gatekeeper, then led them out with the vehicles to the Purchasing Station.
When Bai Xiuming and Wei Mancang arrived at the Purchasing Station in their car, unloading was underway, but Li Long was not there.
Li Long had taken a truck to the Big Courtyard to unload the antelope horns.
"When I first came here, I thought this Purchasing Station didn't look capable of supporting a big business, no matter how I looked at it. Now it seems I just came at the wrong time," Wei Mancang remarked, watching the drivers and temporary workers unload.
After Bai Xiuming drove his car back and showed it to him, he had been tempted. Although cars were not particularly rare in their city, cars that cheap were seldom seen.
He had checked its condition and found it excellent.
If he could trade shoes for a car, he naturally wanted to do it too. Competition among shoe factories' products was fierce now, sales were poor, and unsold stock was piling up badly.
Getting a truckload of shoes was fairly easy for him, and he could get them a little cheaper than Bai Xiuming had.
After Bai Xiuming's repeated assurances, the two had brought a truckload of goods over, arriving full of excitement, only to find the man they wanted absent.
There was indeed a brand-new Lada Sedan parked at the Purchasing Station, along with a van, which showed that the place was no ordinary operation.
But seeing only a dozen or so people outside the Purchasing Station each day left Wei Mancang feeling uncertain.
With Li Long absent and Old Gu unwilling to commit