There were at least a hundred people in the entire brigade headquarters courtyard, including those standing outside. Among them, there were definitely some who hadn't signed contracts but had come to join the fun!
Li Baotian arrived breathless, glanced at the room, and immediately understood: "I asked you to come to the meeting, but who allowed your whole family to come?!"
"Leave one person in charge from each household, and the rest of you go back home. Don't cause any more trouble!"
Li Weidong then realized what was happening.
It seems the whole family has come through this together; no wonder there are so many people!
He sighed and said helplessly, "Today is just a meeting to tell you what to do next, not the start of work. What are you all doing here?"
Someone scratched their head sheepishly: "The village chief didn't explain things clearly when he called the meeting. He just said that everyone who signed the contract should come. My family signed the contract, so of course the whole family should come!"
Others chimed in.
Li Weidong was both amused and exasperated, and quickly told them to leave.
With most of the people gone, the courtyard finally felt spacious.
Li Weidong then led Shen Xiaoyan inside, picked up a megaphone, and began explaining to everyone.
It's the height of summer, hot and dry, not the perfect time to grow mushrooms.
We'll have to wait until October to plant them.
The two months in between were mainly spent building mushroom sheds and learning various precautions for growing mushrooms.
Everyone listened attentively, and those who could read even brought paper and pen to carefully write down everything Li Weidong said.
"Two months is enough time for everyone to learn."
Li Weidong said loudly, "We'll start planting mushrooms in October."
"Mushrooms grow quickly. The first batch should grow in ten to fifteen days at most. Once we harvest the mushrooms, we'll have some income."
Let's work hard together and have a prosperous New Year!
The crowd cheered.
Just then, an untimely voice rang out.
"You want to have a prosperous New Year? You think you can rely on this few people? Don't end up losing everything instead of having a prosperous New Year!"
Everyone was stunned and turned to look at it.
But then Tiger swaggered in with a large group of people.
What are you doing here?
Shen Xiaoyan frowned.
She had absolutely no good impression of Hu Zi.
The others also gave him a cold shoulder.
Li Weidong, however, remained calm.
He glanced at Hu Zi and laughed out loud: "I'll pay? Are you still asleep?"
It's still uncertain who will actually lose money!
Tiger curled his lip and said disdainfully, "I'm not talking about you. After all, you're so greedy. Mushrooms sell for a dollar a pound outside, but you only give the villagers four cents."
"A heartless, rotten person like you, no one would ever compensate you!"
"What I'm saying is that all these people who follow you in growing mushrooms are incredibly stupid!"
He raised his chin and looked at the people in the yard, sneering, "Have you thought this through? Li Weidong only pays four cents a pound for mushrooms, but I'll pay six cents!"
"Can't you see who you can make money with, instead of doing manual labor?"
In this signing ceremony, Li Weidong only signed contracts with 33 households in total.
Tiger signed contracts with a total of 78 households!
They came here to mock Li Weidong.
Most importantly, he wanted to recruit a few more households, ideally all 33 households under Li Weidong's control!
Making money is secondary; what he wants most is to outdo Li Weidong!
As soon as Hu Zi spoke, the people he brought along all laughed.
"Even a child can do the math, but you're all being foolish. Following Li Weidong is no different from working for a landlord."
"What kind of landlord or rich man is he? Even landlords and rich men aren't as heartless as him. Everyone knows that, yet he still dares to set the price so low."
"And yet there are still people who follow him; I don't know if they've lost their minds."
"Tiger offered you 60 cents a pound, but you insisted on signing for 40 cents. That's 20 cents a pound less! Did Li Weidong drug you or something?"
Everyone started mocking him.
Li Weidong saw through Hu Zi's thoughts at a glance.
This is blatant poaching!
He was about to retort when he was interrupted.
"Bullshit!"
Zhou Guifang, hands on her hips, immediately started cursing: "Do you think we don't know what kind of person Wei Dong is? He's been honest and kind since he was a child. He must have his reasons for offering this price!"
"As for you..."
She glanced at the people behind Hu Zi and said with a sneer, "Following Hu Zi, this half-baked guy, you'll regret it someday!"
Once she spoke up, the others couldn't stand still any longer and all stood up for Li Weidong.
"Tiger learned his mushroom-growing skills from Weidong. How can an apprentice compare to his master?"
"You and Tiger are definitely going to lose money!"
"If you still want to make money, you probably can't even grow mushrooms! What's the use of a high price then?"
After they said that, Tiger's side couldn't hold back any longer.
The two sides immediately started arguing.
You said my price was too low, I said you couldn't grow mushrooms, we both thought the other was a complete idiot, and we had a really lively argument.
Li Weidong was both amused and touched.
To be honest, Tiger's purchase price for mushrooms was two cents higher per kilogram, which was quite tempting for the villagers who had never grown mushrooms before.
But these thirty-three households, despite being repeatedly instigated by Hu Zi, all chose to follow him without hesitation.
They've even all stood up to defend him now.
From another perspective, he should also thank Tiger for doing a round of screening for him!
My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!
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