Chapter 7  : Things Are Going Crazy

“These dates are from the trees I grew on the hill at the back of my house. There were only several trees,” Wang Yao explained to the other vendors, but none of them believed him.

The ancient spring water is so amazing! Wang Yao thought.

Wang Yao packed up and went home before noon. He then went to pick the dates on the hill as usual. At the same time, there had been some whispers of the dates going around the town.

“I have had the dates tested by my friend in the laboratory. He told me the dates didn’t contain any pesticides or hormones. Furthermore, the micronutrients and vitamins found in the dates were twice as much than the average date. They’re much better than golden thread dates and Le Ling dates. This is the king of dates!” Lee told the other colleagues of the laboratory.

“Really?” one of his colleagues asked.

“I’ve got the report with me. I can show you!” Lee responded.

“Hey, I just saw that Li from Agriculture Bureau bought a huge bag of those dates. I think the bag weighed at least 15 kilograms,” another colleague said.

“I arrived too late; the dates were already sold out,” someone wearing glasses said.

“My son is a big fan of those dates. He ate 1 kilogram of them within a day. I should buy more tomorrow!” another person said.

“My family loves them too.”

“I asked the seller; he said he’ll return to the same spot tomorrow,” the person wearing glasses said.

“Then we should leave early. Otherwise, we won’t get any,” another person said.

“I think we should buy the whole bag and divide the dates later on,” Lee said.

“OK, sounds good.”

The suggestion was welcomed by everyone.

...

It started to get dark. Up on the hill, Wang Yao picked about 400 kilograms of dates from three trees.

These should be enough for tomorrow, he thought.

Wang Yao was exhausted after the hard work. He returned home early to ask one of his friends in the village to lend him a van for transporting the dates. Then he returned home, had something to eat and went straight to sleep. The next day, Wang Yao got up when the sun had just risen. He went up the hill to water the herbal field with diluted ancient spring water.

As soon as he finished watering, Wang Mingbao, Wang Yao’s childhood friend, came to look for him. Wang Mingbao was about 25 years old and 1.8 meters tall. He had a square face and big eyes. He and Wang Yao had been good friends since childhood. Wang Mingbao was not a good student; he had to drop out of school and went back to the village while Wang Yao was in college. His father worked for the government. Wang Mingbao had made some money from his own business in recent years and had been helping Wang Yao with the herbal field when Wang Yao was too busy.

“Hey bro, could you help me sort out the dates in the room?” Wang Yao said to Wang Mingbao.

“Wow, you really treat me like family! Jesus, what are you growing? It looks like a tree.” Wang Mingbao was amazed by the outgrown sealwort in the herbal field.

“It’s sealwort,” Wang Yao said.

“Sealwort? You must be kidding! And your jujube tree is crazy! How can a jujube tree grow so many dates!” Wang Mingbao spoke as he stared at the dates.

“Did you eat all the dates I gave you the other day? Help yourself if you want more,” Wang Yao said.

“Sure. Everyone in my family thinks your dates are delicious. Now half of the village knows about your jujube trees. How come the dates didn’t taste that good the last time I ate them?” Wang Mingbao asked.

“I’ve got my tricks.” Wang Yao winked at his friend.

“What tricks?”

“I used bio-fertilizer.”

“Really? What brand do you use? Tell me.”

“It was developed by my old classmate and it’s still being tested. It hasn’t been put into production yet,” Wang Yao was reluctant to lie to his childhood friend, but he couldn’t tell him truth yet because the whole system thing was too mysterious.

“I see,” Wang Mingbao said.

Wang Yao and Wang Mingbao used up all their strength to carry hundreds of kilograms of dates from the hill to their vehicle. They then drove towards the town.

“Hey, are you able to sell out all these dates?” Wang Mingbao asked.

“I think so!” Considering what Wang Yao had experienced in the last 2 days, he was confident that it wouldn’t take too long to sell all the dates.

In less than an hour, Wang Yao and Wang Mingbao arrived at the same spot where the dates were sold in the last 2 days. Wang Yao was surprised to see there were already several cars parking along the street nearby. As soon as Wang Yao jumped out his vehicle, all the people from the parked cars got out at the same time. They all walked towards Wang Yao.

“Hey kid, I’d like to buy some dates,” one of them said

“I want to buy some too,” another person said.

“Hey, I came first, first come first serve,” said a big bloke.

Wang Mingbao was amazed. “What is going on here? Are you guys fighting for the dates?” he asked with a laugh.

“Please calm down, I will serve you all one by one. I have brought enough dates today,” Wang Yao waved at Wang Mingbao to ask him to carry the dates for him.

As soon as the dates were carried to the booth, Wang Yao was surrounded by the group of buyers again.

“Can you pass me a bag? I want a full bag of dates. Here is the money,” someone handed cash straight into Wang Yao’s hands.

“I want 100 kilograms!” another person shouted.

“What? 100 kilograms?!” Wang Mingbao was shocked—Wang Yao was already used to it

.

“I want 50 kilograms,” said a large fellow.

“I want to buy all of your dates. I’m happy to pay 40 yuan per kilogram,” A young man wearing a suit said.

“What!?”

“Who do you think you are?” The crowd was not happy with the young man.

“Don’t worry, and it’s 30 yuan per kilogram. As I said, I will serve all of you and there will be plenty more dates tomorrow. Thank you all!” Wang Yao ignored that young man.

“Good job, young man!” one of the buyers said.

In less than an hour, all the dates—over 400 kilograms—were sold out.

The other vendors were very envious to see that Wang Yao’s dates were so popular.

“Are you kidding me? This is not selling dates, this is robbery! I’ve never seen such frantic buying,” one of the vendors said.

But the vendors still benefited from Wang Yao’s business. Those who didn’t manage to get any dates bought fruits and vegetables from the other vendors instead. Although nothing compared to Wang Yao’s dates’ sale.

Wang Yao put away all the earnings. “Let’s go,” he said as he motioned to the car and pat Wang Mingbao’s shoulder.

“Hey bro, you’ve got to come again tomorrow!” someone who didn’t get any dates called out to Wang Yao

“Don’t worry, I will return tomorrow,” Wang Yao said.

“Let’s go, off you drive,” Wang Yao said to Wang Mingbao.

“You opened my eyes today. Your dates are more expensive than meat. It’s beyond my imagination to see so many people fighting to buy them. Even more crazy than the big sales in the shopping mall,” Wang Mao Ming exclaimed.

“Let’s go home. I’ll still need your help tomorrow,” Wang Yao said.

“No problem, it’s my pleasure,” Wang Mao Ming said.

The two of them arrived home before noon.

“This money is for you,” Wang Yao drew out a number of notes without counting and gave them to Wang Mingbao.

“What do you mean by this?” Wang Mingbao was surprised.

“Take it,” Wang Yao said firmly.

“No way! Take the money back, or our friendship ends!” Wang Mingbao pushed the money back.

After pushing back and forth, Wang Yao eventually put the money away.

After dinner, Wang Yao went back to the hill to continue working in the herbal field. There were still 4 trees with dates all over the places. Wang Yao estimated that all the dates from those 4 trees could weigh over 500 kilograms. He could earn over 20,000 yuan from selling them. While he was busy working, the rumors of Wang Yao’s dates started to spread within small circles in the town. A lot of residents started to know who Wang Yao was—a vendor who only sold expensive but delicious dates. Hundreds of kilograms of dates could be sold out in a blink of an eye.