Yan Qingqing entrusted Li Xiangping with the responsibility of planting sweet potatoes and potatoes. She thought that Li Xiangping had already cultivated her thirty acres of idle wasteland, and it was impossible to let it go to waste.
Yan Qingqing thought that once Li Xiang'an returned, she would ask him to go to the fruit tree shop again to see if they could buy another batch of trees. If that didn't work, they could still plant sweet potatoes and potatoes.
Before Yan Qingqing could explain the matter, Wei Laosan and his daughter-in-law Jia arrived. Upon hearing this, Yan Qingqing immediately put down what she was doing and went to entertain the two.
Jia was a gentle and shy woman. As soon as she saw Yan Qingqing, she was about to bow. Yan Qingqing quickly helped her up and scolded her, "We're not strangers, why be so polite? I'm already so familiar with Brother Wei. You're the younger generation. If you don't mind, just call me Auntie."
In fact, Yan Qingqing's words were somewhat opportunistic. Jia Shi was about the same age as her, but since she called Wei Laosan "Brother," she could no longer address Jia Shi as "sister." Therefore, she had to make Jia Shi feel like a junior.
Upon hearing this, Jia smiled and said, "Auntie has been very kind to our family. We have been thinking of thanking you, but we have been busy with things at home and we were afraid of bothering you."
Yan Qingqing chatted with Jia Shi for a few more minutes. Seeing that he couldn't get a word in edgewise and that he was just getting in the way, Wei Laosan got up and said, "My benefactor, I'll go back to the farm first. I've been home for two days and I'm still a little worried about the chickens and ducks."
Yan Qingqing smiled and nodded, then asked A'da to see him out.
With Wei Laosan gone, Jia Shi felt much more at ease. Yan Qingqing smiled and said, "I suppose Brother Wei has already told you why I asked you to come. I wanted to ask you what your thoughts are."
When Jia saw Yan Qingqing sitting up straight as she got down to business, she said, “To be honest, I don’t know much about this. I just remember the general steps from my great-grandfather’s frequent mentions when I was little. But my great-grandfather said that the steps for growing this kind of fungus are basically similar, only the habits and growing environment are slightly different.”
If my aunt trusts me, I might give it a try.
Yan Qingqing said with a smile, "If I didn't trust you, I wouldn't have asked Brother Wei to invite you here. Let's select a few high-value fungi for testing first. If the tests are successful, then we can start large-scale cultivation. What do you think?"
Jia replied, "Auntie is a knowledgeable person, so this is naturally good. I'll go into the mountains to collect mycelium whenever I have free time these past few days. However, this kind of fungus might be a bit troublesome, and we'll need to build a special house for it."
Yan Qingqing was naturally aware of this. In her previous life, mushrooms were generally grown in plastic greenhouses, but she did not intend to get involved in this matter and thought she would leave it entirely to Jia Shi.
Finally, Yan Qingqing signed a contract with the Jia family. Yan Qingqing would provide the money and personnel, while the Jia family would provide the technology. The profits would be split 20/80. Yan Qingqing originally planned to give the Jia family 30%, but the Jia family refused to accept it, saying that they would only take 10% at most. In the end, Yan Qingqing insisted and only accepted 20%.
After seeing Jia off, Yan Qingqing got up and headed to the village chief's house. Since she wanted to build a mushroom shed, she needed a place. She asked the village chief to approve a piece of land for her. In addition to growing mushrooms, she also wanted to do something else.
When Yan Qingqing arrived, Li Kaishan was entertaining guests, several village chiefs from neighboring villages. Li Kaishan sat there with a mixture of joy and worry. One of the village chiefs, Dayang Village, spoke up, saying, "Village chief, you are now a village chief. You can't just focus on making money in your own village. You also have to take care of our lives."
The others chimed in, "Yes, Brother Li, you're eating meat, you should at least let us have some soup."
Li Kaishan cursed inwardly. Back in the day, Canghe Village was the poorest place. When they ate meat, they couldn't even smell the meat, let alone drink the soup. But he was also a little smug that these old guys had finally come to him for help.
But he couldn't say that. After all, he was now the village head and had to be sensible; he couldn't stoop to their level.
Seeing that Li Kaishan remained silent, the others pressed him even harder, all talking at once.
Just as Li Kaishan was about to be overwhelmed, he heard Jiao Shi outside say enthusiastically, "Oh, Qingqing, what brings you here?"
Yan Qingqing smiled and said, "I came to see Uncle Village Chief. I don't know if he's free?"
Before Jiao could speak, Li Kaishan jumped out of the house, grinning, and said, "You're free, you're free, come in and sit down."
Yan Qingqing glanced at Li Kaishan and sensed something was off. She felt that Li Kaishan was unusually enthusiastic towards her today. Although Li Kaishan was usually enthusiastic towards her, today he seemed a bit obsequious.
Yan Qingqing listened for a while and then said, "Uncle Village Chief, we have guests here. I can come another day."
Having finally grasped at a lifeline, Li Kaishan was unwilling to let her go, so he whispered, "They're not really guests, just a few village chiefs from the village next door. They heard that our village has some rare, high-yield crops and they all want to get a share. What am I supposed to do about this?"
Li Kaishan was in a real dilemma. He knew that their village had benefited greatly from Yan Qingqing's influence, which had even been acknowledged by the county magistrate. However, this matter was currently kept secret, and Li Kaishan hadn't dared to mention it even when he held meetings with the villagers.
Now these village chiefs have somehow heard about this and have come to him collectively asking for sweet potato and potato seedlings, but he can't make that decision on his own.
Yan Qingqing laughed and said, "This is not a good thing. My eldest son has only cultivated a small number of seedlings, which is not enough for our village to share."
Li Kaishan chimed in, "Yes, that's exactly why I find it difficult."
The village chiefs, who had been waiting anxiously inside, came out to look for Li Kaishan. They saw him talking to Yan Qingqing, and their eyes lit up.
Yan Qingqing is now a celebrity in the surrounding area. Almost everyone knows her, and they also know that the high-yield crop originated from Yan Qingqing's family. They immediately surrounded Yan Qingqing and started talking all at once.
Yan Qingqing felt surrounded by noise. She suddenly remembered someone saying in her past life that one woman was equal to five hundred ducks, but now she felt that these village chiefs were noisier than five hundred ducks.
Finally, Yan Qingqing couldn't stand the noise any longer and shouted, "Stop! Stop! You're too late. The sweet potato seedlings and potato seedlings are all sold out. If you want to plant them, wait until autumn. These things can be planted twice a year. I promise you that we villages will be given priority consideration then."
Also, my family is hiring a batch of workers in a few days. If there are any suitable people in your village, you can apply. But please make it clear beforehand that I will only hire suitable people, because our village chief knows that backdoors don't work with me.
Upon hearing this, the village chiefs exchanged glances, and the last one left faster than the last. Seeing this, Yan Qingqing muttered, "Could it be that my family is paying too little, and they're unhappy? That shouldn't be the case."
Li Kaishan: ......
He thought that Yan Qingqing was such a smart person, how could she not understand that they were rushing back to deliver a message, afraid that if they were too late, the job openings for Yan Qingqing's family would be snatched up by other villages.
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