After hanging up the phone, Tian Tian covered her mouth with her hand and smiled smugly as she looked in the direction the jeep had left. "The Ruan family, the Jing family, the Wu family—three families joining forces, cousin, can you handle it?"

The car stopped in the front yard of the county steel plant. After asking around, we found Director Song's office and knocked on the door. Old Xiang was sitting at the desk, making small talk with a smiling but ruthless man.

Although the other person was smiling, the smile was more fake than if they were wearing a mask.

When he saw that the man had finally arrived, Xiang Hongjun felt a great sense of relief. He was a veteran, not a politician, and dealing with him was a real headache.

"Here you are. Let me introduce you both. This is Director Song from our steel plant."

Then, pointing at Ruan Xianxian, he smiled warmly at Song Jianshe and said, "Hey, this is Comrade Ruan Xianxian, whom I mentioned to you before. She served as your translator during the provincial capital trade fair."

"Really? Nice to meet you."

Seeing the fake smile on this guy's face, Ruan Xianxian knew that Lao Xiang had learned how to play matchmaker, but he hadn't hit the mark.

She glanced at Lao Xiang, realizing she had to do it herself, and enthusiastically stretched out her hands from a distance, "Director Song, right!"

Uncle Xiang always tells me that you are the pillar and benchmark of our county's industry. My small achievements of a million yuan at the exhibition are simply not worth mentioning in front of you.

"I hope my unexpected visit hasn't interfered with your business."

Upon hearing this, Song Jianshe, who had originally extended one hand to make do, hurriedly extended his other hand and stood up.

The moment their hands clasped together, the smiles on their faces became more genuine than the last.

He said jokingly, "It's not a delay. Old Xiang has been bothering me all morning because of you. I haven't been able to work properly because of him."

He gestured for Ruan Xianxian to sit down. A translator who had generated millions in revenue at an exhibition deserved his attention, but that was about it.

Steel mills never lack market demand for their steel products.

What Ruan Xianxian wanted was not to be kicked out with harsh words from the very beginning.

If the other party has a bad attitude and you say a few words to them, and they retaliate, then if we continue to cooperate, neither of us will be happy.

Director Song picked up his teacup and took a sip of water. "I know why Comrade Ruan came. Let me be frank with you."

Wang Guaizi, who watches the boiler, is a distant relative of our factory director. He's unwilling to give you the boiler ash, so coming to me won't help you with this."

Ruan Xianxian waved her hand, "You've misunderstood. I'm not here today to talk about buying furnace ash on credit."

"Oh? Is there anything else?"

This young girl is pretty and has a shrewd look on her face. She keeps implying that she's here for furnace ash. I'll see what she can come up with.

"I'm here to deliver welfare benefits to our steel mill."

Ruan Xianxian: "At a provincial conference, the leaders specifically mentioned our steel plant, saying that the workers were doing the hardest work and their nutrition was inadequate, which made the leaders feel very guilty."

I have kept the leader's words in mind. Now that I've returned from the provincial capital and obtained a pilot quota for a breeding farm, the first thing that came to mind when I started organizing the farm was the leader's concerns.

They've come especially to bring us some benefits from the steel mill.

When a leader expresses concern about insufficient food supplies for workers, it's just something to take with a grain of salt; both sides understand this.

But once the person was carried out, Director Song had to express his gratitude to the leader with a look of deep appreciation.

He was so excited that his hands trembled, his face flushed, and he was completely at a loss for words. "I'm so ashamed that I've made the provincial leaders worry about the workers' meals!"

"It's alright. Director Jia is a good official who gets things done. Listen to me, the work clothes of the scrap yard workers are worn out too quickly."

After the investigation confirmed the facts, the workers were immediately provided with two sets of new clothes, one for winter and one for summer.

"When you have time, please visit them. This isn't a secret in the provincial capital; Director Jia cares about us grassroots employees."

As Ruan Xianxian spoke, Song Jianshe's expression became more and more serious. He had thought it was just empty talk to make a big show of things, but was there really something to it?

He sat up straight, his face serious. "What does Comrade Ruan mean by 'giving out benefits'?"

"That's right," Ruan Xianxian said seriously, "The new factory was just built, and the first batch of chickens and ducks were released using the most advanced incubator technology."

Since the leadership is concerned, and there are many things we can't do ourselves, we'd like to regularly send a batch of chickens and ducks to your factory so that our grassroots workers can also experience the new technologies of our country.

"Such a good thing?" Song Jianshe's eyes darted around, and he stood up to shake Ruan Xianxian's hand warmly again. "No, no, no!"

As comrades in arms, how can the steel mill take your chickens and ducks for free? Perhaps…”

Ruan Xianxian interrupted him righteously, "How can you say it's free? The steel mill has supplied so much good steel to the outside world, building roads through mountains and bridges over rivers."

We are so grateful, how could we say we're taking it for free?

Our small livestock farm can't compare to a large steel mill, but our leaders often say that workers and peasants are one family, so we wanted to contribute something to your factory and society.

You absolutely mustn't refuse.

"Workers and peasants are one family," listen to that, listen to that, how nice those words sound! Even the fake smile on Song Jianshe's face seemed more genuine now.

The young man's implication was that the new factory had just been built, and the number of chickens and ducks that could be sent to the steel mill was limited.

But the factory already had partnerships with several farms. Was he concerned about those few chickens and ducks? No, it was the face Ruan Xianxian was giving him.

When the news got out, even the factory manager had to think more highly of him.

This young comrade is too good at manipulating people's hearts.

After a moment's thought, Song Jianshe said, "Since we've come this far, I'll accept your offer without hesitation. I'll issue a referral so that any furnace ash used by the farm can be picked up from the steel mill in the future."

"Is this alright? Won't it be too much trouble?" Ruan Xianxian pretended to be hesitant, but both sides understood that it was a transaction of exchanging chickens and ducks for ashes, a deceptive scheme.

Song Jianshe put on a stern face, "You talk about workers and peasants being one family, what? You're only allowed to think about the grassroots of our factory, but we're not allowed to do anything for our fellow villagers?"

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