After listening to Secretary He's report, Village Chief Lu's attitude towards Huang Zhiqiu suddenly changed 180 degrees.

"Oh, Sister Huang, I'm sorry to have kept you waiting. Please take a seat. Xiao He, make some cups of tea and bring it in."

"Okay, Mayor Lu."

Township Chief Lu handed the drafted contract to Huang Zhiqiu, "Sister Huang, take a look at this contract. If there is no problem, I will ask Secretary He to print it out, and we will officially sign the contract."

Huang Zhiqiu took the contract, read it word by word, and then handed it to Lawyer Ma.

"Mr. Ma, take a look."

"good."

Before this, Lawyer Ma had remained silent, and Township Chief Lu thought that Lawyer Ma, like Huang Jianjun, was a member of the Huang family.

When he heard Huang Zhiqiu's address, his expression changed slightly.

"Sister Huang, this is..."

In order not to disturb Lawyer Ma, Huang Zhiqiu deliberately lowered his voice. "Village Chief Lu, my elder brother and I are setting up a factory for the first time. We have no experience, so we asked Lawyer Ma to come and help us check things out."

"Haha, so that's how it is."

An expert can tell whether something is good or not with just one look.

Lawyer Ma pointed out several controversial or unclear responsibilities in the contract. Lawyer Ma sharply recited the regulations one by one, and Village Chief Lu had to pick up a pen to make corrections and changes.

After an hour of wrangling, the terms of the contract were finally agreed upon.

Huang Zhiqiu got the school and the land on the hill at the price that had been negotiated before, plus the condition that he would help the village build the road for free.

The lease term is 20 years, with a deposit of 5,000 yuan. The rent for this year, totaling 10,000 yuan, must be paid within half a month after signing the contract.

Huang Zhiqiu finally felt relieved when he saw Township Chief Lu stamp the bright red official seal of the township government on the contract.

After leaving the township government, Huang Zhiqiu immediately paid 50 yuan in labor fees to Lawyer Ma.

"Mr. Ma, thank you so much for taking up so much of your time today. Let's treat you to a simple meal tonight."

Lawyer Ma put the money away and smiled, "No need to eat, this is my duty. However, you made the right choice by inviting me today. There are several points in the land lease contract written by Township Chief Lu that are extremely unfavorable to you. If you sign it directly, you will definitely suffer a great loss in the future."

After hearing what Lawyer Ma said, Huang Zhiqiu and the other two couldn't help but feel a lingering fear.

"But don't worry. I have pointed out the clauses that are detrimental to your interests. Now this land lease contract is in your favor."

After hearing this, Huang Zhiqiu breathed a sigh of relief and thanked Lawyer Ma again.

After seeing Lawyer Ma off, Huang Zhiqiu took the key to the school gate given by Secretary He and went to school excitedly.

After being exposed to the sun and rain for a long time, the surface of the lock was covered with rust, and the lock core was probably stuck with rust. Huang Zhiqiu and the other two tried very hard but failed to open the lock.

In this case, oil must be poured into the lock cylinder for lubrication.

Fortunately, there were two farmhouses not far from the school, and Huang Qingning suggested going there to borrow some oil.

An old woman lived in the first farmhouse. When she heard that they wanted to borrow oil, she turned her face cold and drove them away without saying a word.

"No, no, my family doesn't eat oil, let's go somewhere else!"

Huang Zhiqiu and the other two had no choice but to turn around and go to the second house.

As he walked, Huang Qingning looked back at the old woman standing at the door and glaring at the three of them, and muttered in a low voice: "This old woman is so stingy, she won't even lend me some oil."

"Old people are used to hardship and are more frugal. We can just go and ask in front."

The second house looked to be in better condition, a brick house with red tiles and a 2-meter-high wall surrounding it.

The person who opened the door was a young man. Thinking that young people would be easier to talk to, Huang Qingning took the initiative to explain the purpose of borrowing the oil.

"Just a little bit will do, we'll lubricate the lock cylinder."

After a while, a woman about the same age as Huang Zhiqiu came out.

"What do you do?"

Huang Zhiqiu politely repeated his request to borrow oil.

After hearing this, the woman simply said she didn’t want to lend it to him, and then slammed the door shut.

Huang Zhiqiu and the other two looked at each other.

Although rural areas in that era were not very wealthy, borrowing half a spoonful of oil was not a difficult thing and most people would lend it.

"Could it be that they are unwilling to lend us the money because they think we are from outside the area?"

“It’s possible.”

Since you can’t borrow it, just buy it with your own money.

Huang Zhiqiu knocked on the door again and expressed his willingness to spend money to buy some oil.

Hearing that Huang Zhiqiu was willing to pay, the woman's attitude improved a little.

"How much oil do you want?"

"Just a little bit will do, about half a spoonful, just enough to lubricate the lock core."

"Fifty cents."

When Huang Jianjun heard the price offered by the other party, his eyes almost popped out.

"Half a spoonful of oil for fifty cents, aren't you obviously ripping people off!?"

The woman put her hands on her hips, saying, "It's up to you to buy or not." "Do you want it? If you want it, I'll ask my kid to pour it for you."

Thinking that there were no other houses nearby, Huang Zhiqiu had no choice but to nod and agree.

"want."

Perhaps she felt that she had made a profit, so she finally smiled and said in a cheerful tone, "Okay, wait a moment."

Looking at the half spoonful of bright yellow rapeseed oil in the half-broken bowl, Huang Jianjun muttered in dissatisfaction: "This is too unscrupulous. They charged us 50 cents for such a small amount of oil."

The market price of rapeseed oil is one yuan per catty, and fifty cents can buy half a catty of oil, but the oil in the bowl is less than half an ounce.

Huang Zhiqiu was also a little depressed, but he couldn't care less about that at the moment.

"The money has already been paid, so there is no point in saying this. First open the door and see what parts of the school need repairs. We will discuss this carefully when we get back."

After being persuaded by Huang Zhiqiu, Huang Jianjun stopped complaining.

With the lubrication of oil, the lock was quickly opened, but because there were too many weeds on the playground, the gate was blocked and could not be pushed open. Huang Jianjun took great pains to barely push the gate open to a gap just big enough for a person to pass through.

"I should have brought a sickle to clear the grass at the door."

"It will be the same next time you come to clean it up."

Huang Zhiqiu said this as he looked around the school.

There were weeds everywhere, as tall as an adult, and the view was basically blocked. I could only see the second floor and the roof.

It took a lot of effort for the three of them to walk from the playground to the classroom door.

There is an L-shaped corridor at the door of the classroom. The floor of the corridor is paved with slate bricks. Although no weeds grow on it, the ground is bumpy due to its age. There are cracks in many places that are thicker than fingers, and unknown weeds grow in the cracks.

Huang Zhiqiu pushed open the door of one of the classrooms.

(End of this chapter)