At noon, Li Xiangdong's family ate until their mouths were greasy and their bellies were round. Even Li Yan ate a large piece of goose meat.
Feeling full and sleepy, Li Xiangdong took a sweet afternoon nap.
After getting up, I strolled around and looked at the rehmannia on the floor of the west room. There were seven or eight baskets of it. This was only because of the wheat harvest; during the National Day holiday, they had all been pulled into the fields by the adults to help, and they hadn't been able to dig it up in the last few days. Otherwise, there would have been even more!
Li Xiangdong remembered the fish he had delivered to the supply and marketing cooperative and asked his mother, "Has my father been delivering fish to the supply and marketing cooperative these past few days?"
"How could that delay their work? Your father has been exhausted these past few days. People don't even have time to catch fish these days! To gather three hundred catties, your father and your second uncle went out in the middle of the night to catch them with nets!"
"Oh, my dad and second uncle have really worked hard. We can't let them work for nothing. All the money they made from selling fish these days, besides handing it over to the brigade, should be divided between my dad and second uncle!"
Li Xiangdong now has money in his pocket, so he doesn't care about these few dollars. Fan'er generously gave away money that others might have worked hard for several months to earn.
Of course, this is not for outsiders either.
"It's fine if your second uncle gets a bigger share, but your father doesn't need it. I'll give him all of that thousand yuan."
Zhao Sufang felt that it was only right and proper for her father to help his own son earn money!
Li Xiangdong's focus wasn't on that; he immediately exploded, "You gave that thousand yuan to my dad?"
"Oh, what's wrong? Your dad knows how much money our family has..." Zhao Sufang didn't know why her son was jumping up and down.
"Oh dear, my goodness! Don't you know how to save some money for yourself? As the saying goes, it's better to have your own than your parents' money. Even if your husband has money, you still have to get it from him!"
Li Xiangdong was truly disappointed in him.
Zhao Sufang: ...
Li Xiangdong was so angry that he pushed seven or eight baskets of rehmannia root directly to find Factory Director Yan.
Before even reaching the pharmaceutical factory gate, I saw two familiar figures chatting together in the distance. Upon closer inspection, I realized one of them was Xiao Wang.
The other person was partially obscured by Xiao Wang, making it difficult to see clearly at first glance.
"Brother Wang~" Li Xiangdong greeted loudly.
Xiao Wang paused for a moment, then turned around and said casually, "Isn't this Xiang Dong?"
Unlike the usual warm and polite interactions, this time there was a hint of distance beneath the politeness. Even if Li Xiangdong wasn't particularly perceptive, he could sense the difference.
Upon closer inspection, it turned out that the person chatting with Xiao Wang was Pan Jiwen!
What is he doing here?
Before Li Xiangdong could say anything, Pan Jiwen said goodbye to Xiao Wang and ran away.
Xiao Wang blocked Li Xiangdong's gaze, took a piece of Rehmannia glutinosa from the basket, weighed it in his hand, said, "It's quite big," and threw it back into the basket.
"Brother Wang, is Uncle Yan at the factory?" Li Xiangdong asked.
"Tch~" Xiao Wang gave a barely perceptible snort. "Yes, you can go in now!"
After saying that, she didn't help him push the cart as she usually did, and went inside first.
Li Xiangdong's mind raced, guessing that it was because he had caught him eavesdropping last time that he had angered him.
Also, in the past, whenever I made money from selling something, no matter how much, I would give him a little bit.
Last time, I was in such a hurry to buy a harvester that I completely forgot about this!
Hmph, to erase all the good things done in the past just because of one bad incident, what a despicable person!
Li Xiangdong, of course, didn't care about him and walked towards the factory director's office on his own.
Factory Director Yan was overjoyed to see Li Xiangdong and asked him about the details of his trip to Dongfang City.
After the casual conversation, Director Yan became a little serious, "Now that you've come back on your own, why did you have someone else deliver the rehmannia root for you?"
What?
Li Xiangdong was taken aback. "I didn't ask anyone to deliver it for me! I just brought over the rehmannia root that I've been saving up for days!"
"Someone just delivered 500 jin (250 kg), saying you sent him."
Li Xiangdong quickly realized why Pan Jiwen had run away as soon as he saw him.
Li Xiangdong pulled Factory Director Yan to his car to look at the truckload of Rehmannia glutinosa.
"Is someone impersonating me?"
"I was also saying that when you come, I'll have to teach you a lesson for digging up such tiny rehmannia roots."
Factory Director Yan examined each basket of rehmannia root by size, even rummaging through the inside to understand its contents before saying, "I guess you made money selling rehmannia root and others found out, so they dug up a bunch themselves and are selling it under your name!"
"There's probably something going on with your people involved here."
...
Xiao Wang glanced coldly at the tightly closed door of Factory Director Yan's room. "Hmph, you take kickbacks but don't include me? I'll find someone myself."
Last time, Pan Jiwen was ripped off for ninety yuan by Li Xiangdong at the county supply and marketing cooperative. In a fit of anger, he almost got into a fight with the sales clerk. It was Xiao Wang who came to break up the fight.
Because Li Xiangdong didn't give him the usual bonus of several tens of yuan, and his attempts to wink at him were all in vain, he got angry and followed Li Xiangdong to the supply and marketing cooperative.
I originally wanted to go up and remind Li Xiangdong, but after seeing the conflict between Pan Jiwen and Li Xiangdong, a new idea suddenly came to my mind.
Pan Jiwen didn't know him, but he knew Pan Jiwen.
Hu Shusong once took Pan Jiwen to the county committee. At that time, he was delivering lunch to his cousin, Deputy Director Zhang, and they bumped into each other once.
It's not pleasant to follow the factory manager around and pick up what others have left over. He wants to eat meat in big bites and drink wine in big bowls!
The two went to a secluded spot and told Pan Jiwen what they had to say. Pan Jiwen was still a little skeptical, but it was good to verify. Wild foxgloves were free, so why not dig some up and try it?
Pan Jiwen, of course, wouldn't do it himself; he directly asked his father to find a few commune members to help him dig up two hundred jin (100 kg).
I never expected it would actually sell for 100 yuan!
He and Xiao Wang each received fifty yuan!
My goodness, it's like a whole new world has been opened up for Pan Jiwen!
I never knew money could be so easy to make!
Pan Dachun was also very excited and specially assigned more than a dozen people to dig up Rehmannia glutinosa. At first, these people only dug up the large ones, but later, when the large ones were almost exhausted, they started digging up the smaller ones.
...
Li Xiangdong tried to calm the angry factory director, saying, "Uncle, those wild clover plants don't belong to our family. We can't stop them from digging them up."
"Alas, only thinking about the present, draining the pond to catch all the fish, draining the pond to catch all the fish!" Director Yan sighed deeply.
“I do have an idea…” Li Xiangdong whispered in Director Yan’s ear.
After listening, Director Yan exclaimed, "You're quite the little sly one! Well, doing this can be considered saving some of the traditional Chinese medicine resources!"
After waiting a while, Li Xiangdong listened carefully and sure enough, he heard light footsteps, which stopped at the door and then fell silent.
Li Xiangdong and Factory Director Yan exchanged a glance.
"Uncle, I always throw away the petals and leaves, isn't that a waste!"
"Yes! Next time, remember to get the whole plant. Make sure the roots aren't broken; it has to be whole!"
"That's going to be tough. Five cents a pound is a bit too little..."
"Kid, let me discuss it with the technicians first."
...
Xiao Wang's heart skipped a beat. The conversation in the listening room was almost over, so he hurriedly and quietly left.
Li Xiangdong opened the door, glanced at Xiao Wang who hadn't gone far, and gave Factory Director Yan a smug look, as if to say, "Just you wait and see!"
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