Chapter 396
On the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, the warm sun gently shines on the village, adding a bit of vitality to the land.
Su Hui and Su Yu are about to return to Nanning. The hotel and papaya shred factory will resume normal operations tomorrow and start a busy new year.
Su Miao and his father Su Yuanzheng were not in a hurry to return, as they were shouldering a crucial task - to find a place to dry the papaya shreds.
As the market demand for papaya shreds continues to rise, the small factory, which has undergone two expansions, is now stretched to its limits. The severe lack of drying space has become a major bottleneck restricting production growth.
Su Miao already had a plan in mind. She was considering converting her own yard in the village into a factory and hiring people to make semi-finished papaya shreds.
Specifically, the pre-processing and drying of papaya are completed in the village, and then the dried papaya shreds are transported to Nancheng for subsequent processing.
Su Miao had mentioned this idea to his second uncle before. His second uncle said nonchalantly that they could just use the village drying yard. It was a public place anyway and it didn't matter who used it.
Su Miao felt that it was inappropriate. It was precisely because it was for public use that disputes were more likely to arise.
Using public resources for personal purposes will inevitably cause dissatisfaction among others.
To put it bluntly, it's okay if you do it once or twice, but if you use it like this for a long time, others will inevitably feel jealous when they see that your business is making a lot of money.
Moreover, the papaya shreds business is non-stop, so the drying space has to be used all the time. When villagers also want to dry things, we have to find another place, which is very passive.
Furthermore, papaya shreds factories will be scaled up in the future, and production hygiene and operating procedures must be standardized and controllable. If a public drying yard is used, these requirements cannot be met at all.
So Su Miao's idea was to build another formal venue, recruit a few full-time workers, and have his second aunt manage it.
This would have been a great thing in creating jobs for the village, but several uncles still felt that it was not appropriate to use Su Miao's yard for the renovation.
Second Uncle frowned and said worriedly, "If it's turned into a factory, how will we live there? We still have to come back for reunions during the holidays."
Fourth uncle echoed, "Yes, this is your ancestral home. The incense burner is still there. It's best not to move it. Let's see if there's another suitable place."
Su Miao said distressedly, "I did think about building a small factory before, but it would take a long time to build it from scratch.
Now that our papayas have grown, and we can set up a drying area within half a month, we can expand our production.
Also, the matter of increasing the papaya planting area that Second Uncle mentioned earlier needs to be put on the agenda."
Fourth uncle poked Fifth uncle who was silent and said:
"Lao Wu, you are the village director now. Think of a way. Is there any other ready-made place?"
Uncle Wu was smoking his water pipe, thinking silently for a while. Suddenly, he thought of something and said, "How about the half-built yard of the second son of the Wei family?"
When he said this, several uncles and aunts immediately remembered.
"Oh! Is that the one who said two years ago that the second son of the Wei family wanted to go back to the village to build a big yard, but gave up halfway through?"
“Yes, he asked the villagers for a large piece of land. I thought he was going to build a palace!
"I just threw it away halfway through. Why don't we talk to the two elders of the Wei family? Let Wei Lao Er sell it to me?" Fifth Uncle suggested.
Su Miao and Su Yuanzheng looked at each other, their faces full of confusion. They really didn't know that there was such a place in the village.
Su Yuanzheng couldn't help but ask, "Is it Wei Laoer who also moved out a few years ago?
Don’t they have a yard? Why did they come back to build it, and why only build half of it?
The second uncle said with disdain: "Showing off! Their family went to Liushi. I don't know what kind of business they do, but they made a lot of money in the past two years.
You didn’t see the look on his face when he returned to the village! The cow died, and his nostrils were about to turn up to the sky!
When he returned home, he pointed at the yard where he had lived since he was a child, saying this and that were not good, and that the houses built in our village all looked shabby.
Then he said he had made it big and wanted to come back and build a new courtyard as his ancestral home so his descendants could hold their heads high.
Ah... this... is a bit like returning home in glory, and wanting to make a big move to let everyone know, right?
Uncle Wu took over and continued, "The village director at the time was still Old Wei. Wei Lao Er treated him to two drinks and used 50 yuan to enclose a piece of land of nearly one acre.
He said he wanted to learn from others and build a manor, the kind where rich landlords used to live.
At that time, we said, wouldn’t it be more practical to build a small building with several floors and put in a more comfortable toilet and bathroom if we had the money?
He also laughed at us for being unsophisticated, saying that only our ancestors knew what enjoyment was.
Later, they stopped construction after only completing half of it. I heard that they lost money in a new business and had no money to continue. They probably felt embarrassed and didn’t come back during the Chinese New Year and other holidays in the past two years.
Ah... I heard Wei Yufeng say before that his parents and his second uncle and aunt didn't come back for the New Year. So there is a reason for this.
Su Miao became interested. "Fifth Uncle, has a house been built on that piece of land? Has the ground been treated?"
“Only the main house has been built, the rest is not yet completed, and the walls are not built, but the ground is already prepared!
The first thing he did was to work on the floor. He was really willing to do it and actually used cement to plaster it!
He said that everywhere in the city is like this, clean and easy to clean, and when it rains you won’t get mud everywhere you step. We were so envious at that time!
Having said that, although he didn't finish building it, he was the first one in our village to lay a cement floor.
It’s such a pity. If I had that money, I could have used it to improve my parents’ lives. Now it’s just wasted.
The two elders of the Wei family used to go there to dry grain, but now they don’t go because the drying yard in the village is closer to their home, and it’s inconvenient for them to move things there now that they’re old.”
This made Su Miao's eyes light up! Cement floor! Great! Perfect for a factory! It's definitely cleaner and more sanitary than yellow mud.
Seeing her interest, Uncle Wu waved his hand and said, "Why don't I just take you to see it! Isn't it said that seeing is believing?"
I’ll know if it’s suitable when I see it on site. If it’s suitable, I’ll go talk to Mr. Wei.”
"Is it okay if I just talk to Grandpa Wei? Can't I buy it from Uncle Wei?"
"We first talked to the two elders and asked them to discuss it with Wei Laoer. Because Wei Laoer's household registration had moved out, he used his father's name when he bought the land. Only people with local household registration can buy the residential land in the village."
Su Miao nodded to show that he understood, and then he and his father followed several uncles to look at the land.
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