A large truck was parked here, and many villagers were helping to load the cages onto the truck one by one. Lu Yuan was talking to a middle-aged man with a slicked-back hairstyle while holding a notebook. There was also a young man standing next to him. He recognized the young man; he was Lu Qianjin, the eldest son of the brigade leader in the commune.
Seeing that they had stopped talking, Yu Shaoheng squeezed forward and called out, "Brother Yuan."
Seeing it was him, Lu Yuan smiled and asked, "Is your mother feeling better? Have you taken them out for a walk?"
"My mom is much better. She and my grandparents are staying with you now."
"Okay, then stay for dinner tonight. I'll be here for a while, you can go ahead first."
"It's okay, I'll just watch the excitement for a bit. Yuan-ge, you go ahead with your work."
Lu Yuan nodded, ignored him, and turned to chat with the middle-aged man with slicked-back hair.
The rabbits needed to be weighed and put into cages, and the loading process was not fast. It took about two hours for all 1,000 rabbits to be loaded onto the truck.
After Lu Yuan and the middle-aged man with slicked-back hair settled the accounts and collected the money, the group from the business office drove away.
Before leaving, Lu Qianjin made a point of thanking Lu Yuan.
As soon as the outsiders left, the villagers erupted in excitement. Money, lots of money! They had just seen Lu Yuan collect a large sum of money and give it to Accountant Zhang.
Zhang Yong'an, holding a military green satchel, grinned from ear to ear, as did Lu Guo'an, whose hands were trembling with excitement.
With a wave of his hand, he said, "Everyone, disperse. Go about your business. Tomorrow morning, each household should send a representative to the threshing ground for a meeting."
"Oh, great, time to divide the money!" The members scattered and cheered.
Lu Guoan left behind the brigade cadres, Lu Yuan, and Hong Xia and He Shenghua, the main persons in charge of rabbit farming. Instead of returning to the brigade headquarters, he held a meeting directly at the rabbit farm.
The group sat down around a small table. Lu Guoan was still excited and didn't know what to say. He said directly, "A Yuan, why don't you say a few words to everyone first?"
Lu Yuan didn't refuse, opened his accounting notebook, and reported the rabbit sales situation directly.
"Today we sold 1,000 rabbits in one go, weighing 8,128 jin (4,864 catties), but we calculated it to be 8,100 jin (4,800 catties). The extra amount is considered a small bonus for the purchasing staff."
Everyone nodded, and Lu Guoan said, "Of course."
Lu Yuan continued, "There's no way around the price; it's all the centralized purchase price. These rabbits cost 4 to 6 mao (0.4 to 0.6 yuan). Our rabbits are well-bred, and with Brother Qianjin's connections, they only gave us 6 mao. We sold them for a total of 4,876 yuan and 8 mao."
Zhang Yong'an was still clutching the military green satchel containing the money, grinning and nodding, "Yes, it's 4876 yuan and 8 mao."
Everyone grinned foolishly. Over 4,800 yuan—it was the first time they'd ever seen so much money. If it were distributed, each family would get at least ten or twenty yuan. And this was just the first batch.
Lu Yuan and the others were happy for a moment before continuing, "Before, many people wanted to sell the rabbits and split the money when they saw that there were too many, but I never allowed it. Now you should know my intention."
"If we really want to make money, we have to keep as many rabbits as possible at once. Now that we've built such a large farm, we have to raise as many as we can."
It took about a year for the entire farm to reach saturation.
Rabbits take about six months to grow to maturity and begin reproducing, so Lu Yuan didn't let any of the rabbits from the first six months be sold; he kept them all for breeding.
The number of rabbits increased exponentially in the second half of the year. Lu Yuan didn't rush to sell them. He figured that if he waited three to four months to breed them once more, he could earn twice as much money.
He doesn't plan to expand the scale for now; he just needs to keep enough breeding rabbits. If he keeps enough breeding rabbits this time, the future production can be guaranteed.
Lu Yuan looked at He Shenghua and asked, "How many rabbits do we have in total right now? How many more can we sell at this stage?"
He Shenghua replied, "There are a total of 7,248 rabbits of all sizes. We can sell about 3,000 more that haven't grown up yet and other breeding rabbits."
“Okay, I’ll contact other companies and we can sell another 3,000.”
Everyone was shocked. They all knew that the rabbit population had increased significantly that year, but no one had ever counted them. They never imagined that the number of rabbits had grown from more than 40 to more than 8,000. This rate of reproduction was simply incredible.
The group rubbed their hands together so excitedly that they almost rubbed off the calluses on their hands.
"Okay, sell another 3,000."
"Ah Yuan, do you think we should build another rabbit farm to raise more rabbits?"
Lu Yuan shook his head. "I said last year that our main goal is to raise pigs. The price of pork is higher, but the key is that the supply of pork in the market is the main source of meat. Only if we can set up a pig farm can we really make big money."
“Okay, we’ll do whatever you say,” Lu Guoan said.
Since the captain had spoken, the others naturally had no objections.
Lu Yuan nodded. "We'll discuss the pig farm issue later. Let's talk about the current situation first. Does the brigade intend to distribute all the money?"
"Do you have any good suggestions?" Lu Guoan asked.
Lu Yuan shrugged, indicating that he naturally wouldn't make the decision; after all, he wasn't the captain.
He simply said, "Keep the money for repairing the pig farm and buying piglets. We won't raise too many at the beginning; let's buy 300 to test the waters first."
Wow, 300 heads and you're not buying more?
"Also, shouldn't He and Hong, the two educated youths, have been working hard for a year and deserve a reward? And what about all the aunties and grandmas who joined the rabbit farming later?"
"Yes, we should give them a reward."
Lu Yuan seized the opportunity to suggest, "Now that the scale is large enough, we need to standardize things and keep the rabbit breeders and pig farm staff on a fixed basis. In addition to a few work points, we should also pay them extra wages."
Several brigade cadres nodded in unison.
"Alright, you'll be the manager of both the pig farm and the rabbit farm, and you'll be in charge of everything."
Lu Yuan hurriedly waved his hand, "No, I really don't have time. The work at the sanatorium and the commune's agricultural machinery station is enough to keep me busy. The rabbit farm is already well-established, and He Zhiqing is perfectly capable of being the factory director."
“Okay, the rabbit farm will be handed over to He Zhiqing, but you can’t just abandon the pig farm. If you don’t take care of it, none of us know how to run it, and it won’t get off the ground.”
Lu Yuan still refused, "I don't know anything about feeding pigs, you should find someone else."
"You don't need to know how to feed pigs, you just need to know how to manage them."
"Yes, you're on temporary assignment as factory manager, but you don't need to manage things every day. Just arrange the work properly."
"That's right, that's right, this pig farm really can't function without you."
Several brigade cadres tried to persuade Lu Yuan, but Lu Yuan was helpless. He pinched the bridge of his nose, his mind racing, trying to figure out who he could shift the blame to.
Xu Dong and Lu Yuanchao are no good, but these two often help me deliver goods now. Sun Maodou is a tractor driver in the village, so who else is there?
"Brother Yuan, are you done with your work? Auntie wants you to come home for dinner." Yu Shaoheng's voice rang out from outside the farm.
Lu Yuan's eyes lit up. Hey, the pig farm manager has delivered himself to his doorstep. He didn't care whether the young master was suitable or not; as long as someone was available, that was fine.
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