Chapter 75 Pilot Liu Weiguo had to shout "Expert"

Qu Mingli was not exaggerating. Not to mention that there was Director Liu in the bureau who was at odds with him, even if there was no Director Liu, there would still be considerable resistance to his new attempts.

After all, new attempts mean the unknown, and the unknown means risk. It used to be okay, but in recent years, no one has dared to take the risk and actively hand over the handle to others.

It was only after he arrived at the town bureau that he discovered that the cadres in some local units were seriously aging and would rather do less or no work than do more and do practical work.

They get paid the same regardless of how much they work. They're older and can't get promoted, so why bother? Working more makes them more likely to make more mistakes.

Sure enough, once the matter was brought up for discussion at the meeting, opposing opinions became the majority, and even those who had previously not taken sides expressed their disagreement.

Director Liu even asked Qu Mingli directly: "You wanted to modify the tractor before, but before you even finished, you're going to plant some wood ear mushrooms. Aren't you taking a big step?"

It is obvious that Qu Mingli is eager for quick success and instant benefits, and acts on impulse. Although other people did not say it out loud, it is estimated that many of them also think so.

This made Qu Mingli pause. "Let's wait and see. I think this is indeed feasible."

He proactively flipped to the page about production in the business plan. "A single log can yield four or five pounds of wood ear mushrooms, and if dried, it can yield six or seven ounces. Isn't that better than burning the wood as firewood?"

"What about the investment?" Director Liu asked. "Just the culture of the bacteria requires three times, plus the subsequent labor. Can you guarantee such a high yield?"

This time he looked directly at Secretary Lang, "Have these data been verified by your forest farm, or did your comrade say it himself?"

"This..." Secretary Lang hesitated, a little guilty. "Yan Xue is a good comrade. It's impossible for her to give false data to the bureau."

Apparently, he hadn't verified it either. Director Liu immediately frowned, "Is this a matter of seeing if she's a good comrade?"

Director Liu flipped through the plan and quickly found another loophole. "Besides, she's only been planting for a year, right? How can she be so sure that one planting will yield three years of harvest?"

Secretary Lang was even less confident now. "They must have seen it on the mountain, right? It seems the wood ear mushrooms on the mountain don't only grow for a year."

When Director Liu heard this, he became even more certain that he was exaggerating. After all, this kind of thing had happened before, and there were many exaggerations that were even more outrageous than this.

This made him sneer in his heart. He was about to seize the opportunity to criticize Qu Mingli, but when he looked up, he saw Secretary Lang secretly looking at Qu Mingli with a look of help.

As expected, Qu Mingli spoke up immediately, "I think Lang Zhongting's suggestion is worth considering. Their forest farm made a lot of contributions last year."

In fact, it was not very convincing, but after listening to it, Director Liu actually paused and said, "It's actually not impossible to consider it."

This was very surprising, especially for the few people who had a good relationship with him, who immediately looked towards him.

He seemed unaware of how abnormal his behavior was. "But since Secretary Qu insisted on doing this, then Secretary Qu will be responsible. I really don't have the energy to take care of this anymore."

Everyone understood as soon as they heard it. He wanted Qu Mingli to take full responsibility, and if things went wrong, it would have nothing to do with other people in the bureau.

They don’t care about that. If something goes wrong, they can just say that Qu Mingli acted on his own will, and they can’t do anything about it.

Seeing that no one objected, Qu Mingli hesitated for a moment, and finally made up his mind, "Okay, I'll take responsibility."

Director Liu seemed to be afraid that he was feeling too good about it. "But you wanted to modify the tractor before, and you bought a lot of parts. The bureau doesn't have much spare money right now..."

This meant that they didn't even want to transfer the funds. Qu Mingli's face turned pale. "Do you still want them to bear their own profits and losses?"

They were responsible for their own profits and losses, much like the agricultural teams at the forest farms today. Every year, they sold grain and vegetables and divided the profits according to their work. If the surplus was high, they'd get more; if the surplus was low, they'd get less. Last year, for example, the floods flooded the crops of several forest farms, leaving the agricultural teams with barely enough income to buy food.

Director Liu hadn't thought about it at first, just holding it back out of habit. But then he thought it was a good idea. "It can't be helped. It's not easy in our bureau either."

After much haggling, the matter was finally settled. Jinchuan Forest Farm became the first pilot project for wood ear cultivation in the bureau, and was responsible for its own profits and losses.

How big the scale can be depends entirely on how much Jinchuan Forest Farm can invest. The bureau is only responsible for obtaining approval documents from above for them.

Of course, since no money was invested, this pilot project did not have to hand over all its income like other factories, and it did not have to receive a fixed salary. It only had to pay 20% of the fungus tax like the rural brigades.

In this era, rural areas that grow grain generally pay 10% to 25% to the state based on local production. Some provinces, such as Henan and Hebei, may even pay up to 30%.

But growing crops doesn't cost much, and the rest of the crops can be divided among the families. However, if the yield of wood ear mushrooms is too low, they may lose money.

After the discussion, Qu Mingli didn't look too good, Secretary Lang also looked solemn, but Director Liu seemed to be in a good mood.

Anyway, the pilot project failed, it was Jinchuan Forest Farm that had to pay the losses, and Qu Mingli was responsible, so it was definitely not his turn.

He was worried that he couldn't find any evidence against Qu Mingli, but he didn't expect that Qu Mingli was so eager to make achievements that he wanted to hand them over to him.

But as soon as he returned to the office, the expressions of Qu Mingli and Secretary Lang were completely different from what he expected.

Qu Mingli even poured Secretary Lang a glass of water and said, "If I really praise this matter too much, it will be difficult to succeed."

He then asked, "If you are responsible for your own profits and losses, will the funds in the market be sufficient?"

"That depends on whether Yan Xue is willing to sell the fungus strains to the farm on credit," Secretary Lang said. "It's already March, and there's no time to start over."

Apart from the fungus strains, the biggest remaining expenses are building the site and paying salaries, which Jinchuan Forest Farm can still afford for the time being.

Secretary Lang went back and told Yan Xue about it. Yan Xue didn't object, "Then we can wait until the autumn to settle the accounts together. There's no rush."

Since she couldn't grow the mushrooms herself, she had originally planned to sell this batch of half-cultivated mushroom strains to the Forestry Bureau.

"Let's set the price and write a receipt when the time comes." Secretary Lang is fair and has never thought of taking advantage of Yan Xue.

"Then it's fifty cents a can," Yan Xue said. "One can can probably inoculate three or four logs, but I'm not sure how many can be produced."

"Okay, but your formalization will have to wait until the official pilot document comes down before you can transfer over."

Developing a new industry is not like modifying a tractor. It is not enough for the town bureau to make a decision; a report must be submitted to the county.

Secretary Lang and Yan Xue finished talking and were about to leave when Qi Fang came back carrying a bunch of chickens.

There was really a lot of them, and he even made a simple chicken coop to put them in.

The road was completely blocked, and Secretary Lang couldn't get through for a while. "Are you planning to raise chickens?"

Qi Fang said "hmm" casually and stepped aside. After Secretary Lang left, he asked Yan Xue, "Which one do you want to eat first?"

Qi Fang was taking a day off today, so the two of them went to the town hospital to see a doctor and feel her pulse, and it turned out that she was pregnant.

Yan Xue felt that the man was even more nervous than the last time she went to see the doctor for her arm, so she asked the doctor if there was anything wrong with her.

This doctor was the same one who had prescribed Chinese medicine for them before. He was clearly not used to his terse way of speaking. "What do you mean?"

Qi Fang pursed his lips, regretting the cold war he had with Yan Xue before. "Before, I didn't know she was pregnant..."

Before he could finish his words, the doctor understood instantly, "It's nothing, your husband is in good health, just don't be too intense."

At first, the two of them didn't react, but then the doctor added, "But you have to be careful in the future. If it doesn't work, wait four months."

At that time, the couple's expressions froze. If they explained, it would seem that they were trying to cover up the truth, but if they didn't explain, it would not make the situation right.

Fortunately, neither of them was easily embarrassed. They quickly turned their expressions to what others needed to pay attention to, and left after asking questions for a while.

As soon as they got home, Qi Fang actually went out to buy so many chickens. Yan Xue was speechless, "Who did you buy these from?"

"Aunt Liu's house, Aunt Guo's house, Uncle Xu's house..."

Qi Fang listed a series of names, leaving Yan Xue even more speechless. "How did you tell others?"

Qi Fang's tone and expression were very calm. "Say you need some chicken to replenish your energy, and ask if they want to take it out."

He really didn't say anything, and yet he said everything. If Liu Weiguo were here, he would have called him an expert.

Seeing that he was really going to let her pick one to slaughter on the spot, Yan Xue went to find the second old lady across the street and asked, "Grandma, do you want to raise chickens?"

What to eat? If you eat too well and raise the baby too big, it will be difficult to give birth when the time comes. In this day and age, even a cesarean section is difficult.

When the second old lady heard that Yan Xue was really pregnant, she immediately came back to look for old clothes and fabrics to make diapers and blankets for the child. She didn't pay attention to the movement outside. When she came out and saw so many chickens, she was shocked, "Where did all these come from?"

Hearing Qi Fang say that he bought it for Yan Xue, the old lady was speechless, "It's not good to eat it casually, especially since Xiao Xue is still small."

In the end, these chickens successfully settled in Yan Xue's backyard. After all, Yan Xue was not planning to grow wood ear mushrooms this year, and the remaining space in the backyard was empty anyway.

But one of them was tied up in the main hall at Qi Fang's request, ready to sacrifice himself for the benefit of everyone tomorrow.

Looking at the big rooster happily pecking at the food, Yan Xue remembered something and asked the second old lady, "Grandma, do you want to continue hatching the chicks?"

The old lady obviously still remembered the old skills that she relied on for survival. When she heard this, she immediately asked, "Can you hatch it?"

"When I finish cultivating those bacterial strains next month, the incubation room will be empty, right?" Yan Xue said, "Can you try to use the incubation room to incubate them?"

That would be more convenient than hatching on a kang. The old lady immediately said that she would have to save some eggs and turned to feed the chickens in the backyard.

Yan Xue then returned to the house. As soon as she entered, she saw the man looking at her with his peach blossom eyes.

Although there had been speculation a few days ago, the two had only just had time to spend alone together since it was confirmed that Yan Xue was indeed pregnant.

To be honest, it was a bit strange. With this episode, the cold war between the two seemed to have ended inexplicably, but the atmosphere was still not as good as before.

After a long while, Qi Fang came over and carefully held Yan Xue in his arms, with his hand on Yan Xue's belly.

Although they couldn't feel anything yet, with this little life, there seemed to be an extra layer of bond between the two of them.

After a while, Qi Fang suddenly asked, "Did you say this was from last year?"

Apparently, she still remembered the phrase "it will be there this year." Yan Xue couldn't help laughing. "That's about right. It should be around the New Year."

Qi Fang fell silent. This time, Yan Xue poked him and asked, "Are you not angry with me anymore?"

"Don't give birth yet." Qi lowered his eyes and looked at her.

Originally, he was angry not only because she didn't tell him about her injury, but also because she didn't take care of her body.

Yan Xue raised her eyebrows when she heard this, but before she could say anything, the man whispered, "Yan Xue, we are a family now."

This made Yan Xue pause and say, "What do you mean by not having children first?", and then she lowered her voice and said, "Well, we are a family now."

At least they would be a family that would be angry if she didn't tell them that she was injured, and would be concerned if she didn't tell them that she was in pain.

When Yan Jigang came home from school in the evening, he was so happy to hear that he was really going to have a nephew that he couldn't stop smiling the whole night.

The next day he whispered to Liu Weibin, "I'm going to be an uncle."

He had to save up the new pencils and erasers and leave them all for his little nephew.

"I'm going to be an uncle too." Liu Weibin didn't care much about it. After all, Yan Jigang had a little nephew and he had a little nephew.

But Yan Jigang was still very happy until they went out to play after class and saw Teacher Liu on the playground.

Teacher Liu was scolding a student in her class under the eaves, which immediately reminded him of the student's son and the words the student had said to him when he was scolded in the office that day.

And if she hadn't heard from Teacher Liu, how could her son know all that and even come to him and tell him...

Yan Jigang looked over there, lowered his head and scratched his fingers, then looked over there again, lowered his head and scratched his fingers again.

In the end, he walked away with a tense face. After Teacher Liu finished scolding the student, she was still angry. When she turned around, she saw Yan Jigang staring at her.

Her eyebrows immediately raised, but before she could say anything, Yan Jigang suddenly said, "Teacher Liu, I have good news for you."

The young boy spoke in a small voice, his stuttering even worse than usual, but he still managed to finish his words, "My sister has a little, little baby. We'll have one when we go back that day."

After saying that, he turned around and ran, hiding behind Liu Weibin and the others before he dared to secretly look at her.

Teacher Liu finally reacted and was filled with anger.

What do you mean by "there was something there that day"? Why did this damn kid come all the way to tell her? Was he mad at her?

Yan Xue didn't know that her shy and timid brother had become so successful. He not only knew how to fight, but also knew how to hit people in the face.

Since she decided to sell the fungus strains to the pilot project organized by the farm, she must cultivate more cultivated strains. For this purpose, she collected a batch of cans and also bought a lot from the purchasing station in the town.

The recycling station collects things and naturally sells things. If someone is short of a nail or a screw and doesn’t want to spend money to buy a new one, they can go to the recycling station to buy it.

Of course, buying from a recycling station wouldn't be as cheap as buying from your own, where you could get two cents a can. Yan Xuehua spent over twenty yuan and bought around five hundred cans from various recycling stations.

The items were transported back by the bureau's internal combustion engine, and then completely cleaned and sterilized in a pressure cooker before being loaded with culture medium and placed in the cultivation room.

The four shelves in the cultivation room were all full, and two more were built on the side. Guo Changan had to be extremely careful when entering and exiting, for fear of bumping into anything.

"Why do we suddenly need to cultivate so many?" He was a little puzzled. After all, there was not much space left in Yan Xue's backyard.

The approval document hadn't come down yet, so Yan Xue couldn't say much, but she still smiled and said, "It's okay, there's a place to go."

Guo Changan didn't ask any more questions and went back to feeling around. "The shelves on the sides don't seem to be as hot as the middle, and the bottom of the shelves is also hotter than the top."

"Just keep most of it at 24 or 25 degrees Celsius, and keep the others within the temperature range. You can't grow all the fungus in one day."

As soon as the two of them came out of the breeding room, they saw someone pushing the gate in from outside, looking around amid the barking of dogs. It was Old Man Wang's daughter-in-law.

It has to be said that this was not surprising. After all, the forest clearing progress was more than halfway completed two days ago, and both Li Shuwu and Old Man Wang's family were scrambling to take back their truckloads of tree stumps.

Li Shuwu's wife lost her temper and came over again immediately. Seeing that she was not listening, she left with a dark face.

I just don't know if Wang Lianfu's wife came here for the same purpose. Yan Xue deliberately put on a serious expression and asked, "What can I do for you?"

When Wang Lianfu's wife saw her expression and then looked at the direction she came from, she knew what was going on. She guessed that the tree stump she wanted had not been found yet.

Wang Lianfu's wife knew what was going on and lowered her voice, "I have something I want to talk to you about. Don't worry, it will definitely not be bad for you."

What could she possibly want from Yan Xue?

Guo Changan frowned subconsciously. Seeing Yan Xue hesitated, but still didn't say anything, he went to the boiler room first.

When Wang Lianfu's wife entered Yan Xue's house, she was surprised. "Why is your house so warm?"

Yan Xue didn't explain much, nor did she intend to pour her some water. She just waited to hear her purpose.

Wang Lianfu's wife seemed to be there just to chat with her. "Speaking of which, our two families could have been neighbors, but unfortunately for Lianfu's father... there's nothing we can do."

His tone was quite helpless, as if he had been dissatisfied with Old Man Wang for a long time. It was a pity that he was his father-in-law, so he couldn't express his dissatisfaction.

Yan Xue just listened to what the other person said without agreeing. After the other person couldn't continue for a while, he got to the point, "You haven't bought the tree stump this year, have you?"

Sure enough, it was related to this. Yan Xue paused and said, "There's no rush. The field said they would give me any extra immediately."

"Then how long do you have to wait? What if the field doesn't give it to you in the end? Wouldn't all your efforts have been wasted?"

I don’t know if it was because I stared at her for longer or if I guessed it, but I actually found out that Yan Xue had another kind of wood ear mushroom.

Yan Xue didn't say anything, so the other party lowered his voice again and said, "How about this? You sell the seeds to us, and we'll cover the cost for you."

Their appetite was actually bigger than Li Shuwu's family's. They didn't want to sell her tree heads, but wanted to buy her mushroom seeds.

Yan Xue said that Old Man Wang was so patient, he might not just want to earn money from her for a cart of firewood. She showed a little hesitation on her face, "How much do you plan to give?"

"Twenty yuan." Wang Lianfu's wife held up two fingers. "Don't think it's too little. You can't get any tree stumps here, so selling it for twenty yuan is better than wasting it."

That was a really generous amount of money. Twenty yuan was enough for Yan Xue to buy two carts of firewood, which could last the whole family for two years.

Yan Xue didn't say anything more, just asked the other party if he had finished speaking, and then drove the guest away.

As Wang Lianfu's wife was being escorted out, she was still saying, "Why are you so angry? It's just a small matter. Who can't get along with money?"

As soon as she got home, she couldn't help but complain to her father-in-law, "I told her that our family has a feud with her and she definitely wouldn't agree, but you still insisted on letting me go."

Old Man Wang frowned when he heard this. "Didn't I ask you to say a few more bad things about me to her? Did you do that?"

"I told her, but she didn't respond at all." Wang Lianfu's wife looked at her father-in-law and asked, "Do you think we gave her too little money?"

Old Man Wang snorted immediately, "Twenty yuan is too little for her. If she can't even get a single tree stump this year, she won't be able to sell it for twenty yuan."

He just didn't believe that Yan Xue wouldn't be anxious at all when the time came. Old Guo Chang'an stayed at her house every day, and she also bought a lot of cans and bottles. She couldn't possibly not give any money back, right?

If Yan Xue sold the seeds to others, he would report her for taking the capitalist road, and the purchasing station would not accept the seeds of wood ear mushrooms, as it was not a sideline allowed by the state.

So Old Man Wang decided to wait a little longer, and while he was waiting, he heard a loudspeaker notifying each household to send representatives to the small square for a meeting.

The men from various families were still logging in the mountains, so why did the farm suddenly have to hold a meeting? Everyone was a little confused.

When we got there and asked each other, we found that no one knew the situation, including the staff at the site.

This is strange. They are not well-informed, so how could the people in the field office not know about it? Could it be that something suddenly happened above?

Amidst confusion, the field office moved out several sets of tables and chairs, and set up a microphone connected to the radio speaker.

After a few "hello" calls and testing the microphone, Secretary Lang finally sat in the middle. On one side sat the newly appointed acting director, and on the other...

Everyone stared with wide eyes, not understanding why Yan Xue was sitting there, especially those who had a grudge against Yan Xue.

If she was caught for committing a crime, how could she sit there? But if not, how could a small temporary worker like her sit with the director and the secretary?

Amidst the confusion, Secretary Lang finally spoke, "I called everyone here today to announce some good news. After a year of diligent exploration and repeated trial and error, Comrade Yan Xue from our forest farm has finally proven the feasibility of artificially cultivating wood ear mushrooms and has contributed this information to the bureau. The bureau has decided to set up a pilot project at our forest farm specifically for growing wood ear mushrooms. We are grateful for their support and for Comrade Yan Xue's dedication!"

After he finished speaking, he started clapping, and after clapping several times, some people in the audience came to their senses and followed suit, but their expressions were obviously shocked.

No, didn't Yan Xue plant the fungus secretly? How did it become a contribution to the bureau and a contribution to the forest farm?

Unexpectedly, there was more. Secretary Lang immediately added, "Director Ning and I will be temporarily in charge of the pilot project. Comrade Yan Xue has made outstanding contributions, so the bureau has decided to make her a regular employee and appoint her as a technician to coordinate the pilot project."

While everyone else was waiting for their chance to become a regular employee in the family team, Yan Xue was different. She was given an exception and became a regular employee after only one year. She was also appointed as a technician in the pilot project, coordinating the work of the pilot project.

Everyone knows that Secretary Lang and Director Ning are busy with forestry farm affairs and have no time to take care of the pilot project. When the time comes, Yan Xue will have the final say on the pilot project.

Sure enough, Secretary Lang then said that each family needed to provide voluntary labor to build the pilot project first. Those who wanted to work in the pilot project could also go to Technician Yan’s home to find Technician Yan and sign up.

This means that there are a lot more job opportunities all of a sudden, and the employees' families immediately became interested. I just don't know whether the work there is tiring or how many jobs are being opened.

Amidst the buzz of discussion, only Old Man Wang had a bad look on his face since he heard that the forest farm was going to build a pilot project.

Li Shuwu's wife was stunned for a long time, then suddenly slapped her thigh and said, "Oh no! She doesn't want to grow wood ear mushrooms anymore, what should I do with the tree stumps at home?"