Chapter 12

While the senior students were helping to finalize the recruitment process, the village chief submitted the land requisition documents, and the government's approval documents were also issued.

The land requisition documents had barely been issued when word spread from somewhere, and soon the entire village knew about it.

The villagers of Hongqi Village were incredibly excited. They had previously had their land requisitioned for road construction, and impoverished families had escaped poverty overnight, building modern houses and buying cars, much to the envy of those whose land hadn't been requisitioned.

These past few days, the Xia family has been inundated with guests. Uncles, aunts, grandfathers, and grandmothers from the village have been taking turns visiting, all of them coming to inquire about news.

The core of the conversations among uncles and aunts boils down to two things.

One is.

Coco has been smart since she was little, and she's definitely going to be successful. I heard she's started a business recently? It must be doing very well and she must be making a lot of money. She's so eager to buy it!

The second reason is to seek benefits for one's own children and grandchildren.

My son is very studious and ambitious, hardworking and willing to put in a lot of effort. Coco, is there anything he can help you with? Just tell me!

Whenever this happens, Xia Ke usually doesn't say much; she just sits quietly to the side and smiles.

My parents have lived in the village their whole lives, and they are masters at dealing with this kind of enthusiasm that goes beyond the norm and seems a bit boundless.

The villagers were happy to come to visit, but the busiest people in the Xia family were not Xia's father, mother, or Xia Ke, but Wei Qingyu and her three companions.

Their mission is to protect the Xia family. Now, a huge number of villagers are flocking to the Xia family as guests, and they are afraid that there may be people with malicious intentions hiding inside.

So whenever villagers came, the group would always bring a small stool and sit within 3 meters of the Xia family.

They didn't speak, just like four human-shaped wooden figures.

The villagers, of course, also saw the four people, and whispered among Xia's parents, "Who are these four? I've never seen them before. Why are they staring at me so intently as soon as I walked in? Are they afraid I'll steal your rice?"

Mr. and Mrs. Xia were too embarrassed to tell people that these were bodyguards sent to their family by higher authorities. They felt it was making a big deal out of nothing, so they made up a reason.

“This is Coco’s friend, who came to visit. He’s never seen people from our village before, so he’s curious and wants to take a second look.”

The village aunties pouted, "What's so special about people from our village? Don't we all have two eyes, a nose, and a mouth? You've only washed the mud off your legs a few years ago, and you've already forgotten your roots to the point that you've never even seen what a rural person looks like?"

"Coco's friend is strange. His eyes are like those of a little wolf cub. I hope he's not some kind of scoundrel."

"How could that be? My Coco is such an upright person, her friends must be good kids too." Xia's mother inwardly blamed herself for speaking too quickly and needlessly offending her four children, so she quickly tried to smooth things over.

"That's true. There's no one in the whole village more successful than your Coco. By the way, I heard from the village chief that your Coco is going to build a house on that piece of land. Her uncle used to work on construction sites in the provincial capital. He was very efficient. He's been resting at home recently. You should ask him to help out."

“No problem. There will be many people who need to do the work. Even if you don’t come, Coco’s dad and I will have to go to your house to ask your second brother for help.”

Xia's mother spoke with confidence.

The daughter has already given the elderly couple a set script. In the past two days, if any customer asks about the Space Ring, they should say they don't know. If anyone wants to recommend someone to join the company, they should also say they don't know. But if someone says they want to help out at the construction site, they should agree.

Entertaining guests is truly a tiring task.

Fortunately, the Xia family's commotion didn't last long.

When the village started measuring the land and calculating compensation, the villagers' fun turned into watching and discussing which family had more land and received more compensation, and how much money they received.

During the land measurement process, some people were unwilling to give up their land and wanted to use this as an excuse to increase the compensation amount.

Human greed is insatiable; like a snake trying to swallow an elephant.

When faced with this kind of person, Xia Ke only had one sentence.

Oh, so your family doesn't want the land to be requisitioned, right? Then give up the whole plot and I'll find another one that no one will object to.

There are plenty of overgrown wastelands in the village, and I believe many people would be happy to turn them into something useful.

The family didn't expect Xia Ke to be so assertive. They just thought that Xia Ke was young and thin-skinned, and that she had made money selling space rings, so they wanted to get more compensation from Qiao for the land expropriation. They didn't have any intention of being unwilling.

In recent years, more and more people from the village have gone out to work, and fewer people are farming, which has led to a lot of abandoned land in the village.

That wasteland, apart from Xia Ke being a sucker, unless you hit the jackpot, you'll never have the chance to turn wasteland into savings in your lifetime.

After only two days of being defiant, he privately approached the village chief and said he was willing to requisition the land according to the originally agreed compensation.

When someone backed down, the villagers who had originally intended to emulate his scoundrel gave up their troublesome plans.

The entire land acquisition process went very smoothly.

Xia Ke spent nearly 30 million yuan on land acquisition for these 200 acres, which made Xia's parents feel heartbroken.

The elderly couple would normally hesitate to spend 3,000 yuan, so spending 30 million yuan was something they never dared to dream of in their entire lives.

Now that we've got the land, the next step is to start building.

Although Xia Ke had just spent more than 30 million, with the hot sales of the space ring, her daily income was astronomical, so she didn't feel any pain at all.

Xia Ke went to the village chief again, and the village chief still received her warmly.

"I came here today to ask if it's possible to act as a government intermediary to help coordinate the bidding process for my company's industrial park construction."

To level the hills and fill the land, design the building's appearance, and plan the park's layout, these tasks were definitely beyond the capabilities of the construction teams in his hometown who had only ever built houses. It would inevitably require a specialized engineering company to come to the door. Xia Ke had no connections and was worried about being scammed, so he simply went to the village chief's door again.

If her industrial park is built, it can provide countless jobs for the surrounding villages. Once the park is built, her company will have more employees, which will also boost the local economy. I'm sure the government would be happy to help.

Even though he was just a low-ranking village official, Xia Youping wasn't stupid. After a little thought, he understood the key points, and the village chief, Lian You, agreed without hesitation.

“This is easy to talk about. The government is happy to help people like you who have returned home to build their hometowns overcome their difficulties.”

The village chief was easy to talk to, and Xia Ke was willing to do him a favor. She smiled and said, "We've already hired a finance person for our company. Once she's on the job, I'll give her priority in handling tax-related work. We'll make sure she pays all the taxes due and makes up for any outstanding payments. We absolutely won't shortchange her on a single penny of tax."

Upon hearing the word "tax," the village chief's eyes lit up.

The biggest challenge in rural development is the lack of money!

With no industry and no tax revenue, the village is extremely poor and needs assistance from higher levels of government. Without money, it's impossible to develop anything.

But what he just heard was that Xia Ke's company pays taxes to the country! Although these tax revenues don't end up in the village's accounts, the village under his jurisdiction pays a large sum of taxes to the country, which is his most outstanding achievement!

In Yongzhou City, 800 kilometers away from Hongqi Village, Ma Yan's wife is helping her husband pack his luggage.

His wife's face betrayed her worry and reluctance. "Do we really have to go? The western province is too far away."

“I’ve been interviewing for three months, and only Hongqi Piao offers me a higher salary than my previous job. If I don’t go, how will I pay the mortgage and car loan? Where will my daughter’s school fees come from? My four elderly parents are getting old and their health is not good. If they get sick, where will the money for medical expenses come from?”

Ma Yan is 38 years old this year. He was laid off from his previous company half a year ago and has been unable to find a job that matches his job. Even if a company is willing to hire him, the salary and benefits offered are far worse than before, and that salary is simply not enough to support his high family expenses.

After repeatedly failing in interviews and just when he was about to give up on finding a job, he saw the job posting for Xia Ke's shop.

The new company is a startup where everything needs to be built from scratch, so it will definitely be very tiring. However, the company offers a salary that is much higher than the industry average, and their products are currently gaining momentum. If they can maintain this momentum, he will become a company veteran once he joins.

Judging by hard work rather than merit, he was one of the first people to accompany her through thick and thin, and he shouldn't be dismissed unless he makes a major mistake.

However, a major problem is that the company's address is too remote.

Ma Yan racked his brains but still couldn't figure out why a technology company would choose to locate in such a rural area surrounded by mountains.

However, attracted by the high salary and benefits offered by Hongqi Piao, he submitted his resume.

Hongqi Piao responded quickly, and after asking a few questions, they scheduled an interview.

After the interview, they weren't notified to start work immediately. Instead, they created a group chat where the boss warmly welcomed them and generously offered to reimburse travel expenses for group members. The company then set June 3rd as the start date for these new employees.

According to the new boss, the reason for choosing this time was to allow everyone to have a happy Children's Day.

Ma Yan was quite happy to start his job at Hongqi Village in Shanxi Province at this time, so he would have time to spend Children's Day with his daughter.

“If it doesn’t work out, I’ll go out and find a job to help ease your burden. It’s better than you going to work so far away and our daughter won’t even see you.”

"Don't worry about not being able to see them. The company I'm going to sells space rings. Once I get there and receive my salary, I'll buy a few more space rings. It will only take me an hour to get home, just like my commute when I worked in the city. Don't be upset."

If he had enough money, Ma Yan would buy space rings right now. He had calculated that Hongqi Village was more than 800 kilometers away from Yongzhou, and buying 6 space rings would be enough for him to travel back from the western province.

But six spatial rings cost 30,000 yuan, which is no small amount. He could afford it, but with a bleak future and no stable income, he couldn't bear to part with it.

After a day of traveling by high-speed rail and then bus, he was finally almost at his future workplace.

The scenery outside the car was undoubtedly beautiful. Living in the plains, he rarely had the opportunity to travel among the mountains except for tourism. The mountain peaks stood tall on both sides of the road, and the dense green seemed to stretch endlessly into the distance. Interspersed among them were white, red, or yellow flowering trees, reflecting the sunset on the horizon. Everything in front of him was tranquil and beautiful.

But the beautiful scenery could not soothe Ma Yan's anxiety at all, and he couldn't help but think.

"Does he really have a future in such a remote place?"

Approaching middle age, he can no longer afford to gamble with time. Regardless of achieving great success in his career, he at least needs to save enough for his and his wife's retirement, his daughter's education fund, and his parents' medical expenses before retirement.

With this anxiety, Ma Yan arrived at a small town in the mountains by car. As soon as he got off the bus, he saw a young and beautiful girl holding a sign with a red background, white lettering, and a red flag fluttering in the wind, picking people up.

Several people were already standing around her, their faces showing the same confusion and nervousness as his.

He walked up and greeted them somewhat reservedly.

"Hello, are you an employee of Hongqi Piao Company? My name is Ma Yan, and I'm here to start work."

After he finished his introduction, the girl in front of him immediately broke into a big smile and reached out her hand to him.

"Hello, I'm Xia Ke. I came here specifically to pick you up. You must be tired from your journey. You're the last one. We can head back now. Everyone, follow me."

Ma Yan mingled in the crowd and carefully observed Xia Ke, who was walking in front.

This is the boss of Hongqi Piao, his future superior?

So young, looks like a kid who hasn't been out of college for long.

At this age, other people's products are already selling like hotcakes online, while he is middle-aged and facing an unemployment crisis.

The differences between people are truly vast.