Faced with Dong Zhichao's "plea," Li Long shook his head and said:
"I can't give you a definite answer. First, other buyers are also offering three yuan fifty, so your price has no advantage.
"Second, I don't know how many watermelon seeds I'll be able to buy this year, and I don't know how much the other buyer wants yet, so I can't make any firm promises.
"Of course, we could actually cooperate in other areas too. We don't just produce watermelon seeds here; we also grow confectionery sunflowers. Northern Xinjiang has long daylight hours and plenty of sunshine, so the quality of our confectionery sunflower seeds is very high. Would you be interested?"
Last year and at the beginning of this year, when they decided what cash crops to grow, Li Long hadn't thought that watermelon seeds could reach beyond Northern Xinjiang and be sold in Inland China.
So although many people on the Team had planted seed watermelons, those on good terms with the Li family hadn't. They had all switched to confectionery sunflowers, including Tao Dayong.
Since he had made the suggestion, Li Long felt he had to find a market for their sunflower seeds. He couldn't let the people working alongside him lose out.
Of course, he could buy all their sunflower seeds himself at a high price, but he would still have to sell them afterward. Wouldn't it be better to find buyers from Inland China willing to pay a good price directly?
"Confectionery sunflower seeds?" Dong Zhichao shook his head. "We have no shortage of those where we're from. Plenty of people in Inland China grow them, and the prices aren't high..."
Before he finished, Ye Lanlan tugged at him. Only then did Dong Zhichao catch on, and he hurried to amend his words: