Chapter 27: Countdown to Baoshan
Chicken in the city always has a certain taste that's hard to pin down: fishy, rancid, and tough. The chicken in big restaurants might be better, but not by much.
Qi Miaomiao had previously eaten a dish of braised chicken with vermicelli noodles at a Chinese private restaurant in Beijing. It was said that they only served ten tables of guests a day, and the dishes were decided by the chef. There were seven or eight dishes on a table, and the price was less than ten thousand yuan.
Beijing has a lot of everything, and even more rich people. Many people come here to visit, and they have to wait in line.
Qi Miaomiao was fortunate enough to have eaten there once, and it tasted really good.
But compared with the taro chicken I ate today, it was far inferior.
She couldn't tell for a moment whether Liu Guizhen's cooking skills were so good or the quality of the dish was so good.
The chicken has a distinct chicken aroma, not a fishy smell. Anyone who has eaten free-range chicken or pheasant knows the difference between it and a chicken raised on a feeder. The meat is firm, the skin is bouncy, and the texture is chewy, yet not dry.
Qi Miaomiao was given a chicken leg, which was so delicious that she picked it up and ate it with her hands. The other chicken leg was originally intended for Xia Wu, but she gave it to Shen Beiyang and ate the chicken wing herself.
"There's too much chicken thigh meat. Chicken wings are more delicious. If I rent a house to raise chickens in the future, I'll kill more and save enough to stew a pot of chicken wings and feet to go with wine."
Xia Wu felt like drooling just thinking about it.
Qi Miaomiao originally doubted Xia Wu's plan to lease the mountain, but after having this meal, all her doubts disappeared. She only wanted to ask when she could lease the mountain and raise chickens.
"Seriously, Auntie's cooking is so delicious! This is definitely the best chicken I've ever had in my life!"
Liu Guizhen was so overwhelmed by the praise that she covered her mouth and laughed, "It's not that I cook well, it's that the chickens raised in the mountains are good. You probably haven't eaten them in the city."
Qi Miaomiao talked about the sky-high-priced dishes she ate at a Jingshi restaurant, saying it was easy to make money from rich people. "If they could eat such delicious chicken, I think they would be willing to buy a pot of chicken like this even if it cost thousands."
"How could it be possible? It's just a chicken. Who would really buy it?"
"Of course!"
Seeing that her father didn't believe her, Xia Wu quickly told him how luxurious and wasteful the lives of rich people were.
A few thousand dollars for a meal is nothing.
Yang Guojun and others could not imagine how high the barriers were between the lives of rich people and ordinary people.
Shen Beiyang worked all afternoon, and now he ate like a vicious dog, scooping a large spoonful of thick taro soup and pouring it on the rice. The rice eaten by the Yang family was also produced by their own family. The combination of carbohydrates and carbohydrates exploded in the mouth, and the person who ate it felt physically and mentally satisfied.
Compared with the taro chicken, the braised fish on the side was a little inferior, but it also became a snack for everyone to eat and drink. As they talked and laughed, ate and drank, the food on the table was soon almost gone.
After finishing three bowls of rice, Shen Beiyang leaned back in his chair and took a deep breath. He also drank a glass of medicinal wine, which made him feel a little drunk.
Qi Miaomiao was not bad either. She usually always talked about losing weight, but today she didn't mention it at all and just ate a big bowl of rice.
After dinner, Xia Wu invited them to go for a walk, and Yang Hongwen followed.
The night view in the mountains is not full of bright lights and women. The solar street lights on both sides of the road are like buoys on the sea, so the night road is not too scary.
After strolling outside for half an hour and not seeing anyone, they went back home and shared a watermelon and a small bowl of strawberries before taking a shower and resting.
Tonight Shen Beiyang and Yang Hongwen sleep in the same room, while Xia Wu and Qi Miaomiao sleep together.
After closing the door, Xia Wu wiped her hair and curled up one leg to sit on the bed. "Can you reach it? If not, let me wipe it for you."
"It's okay, the injury is almost healed." Qi Miaomiao applied the medicine and reached out to Xia Wu for his phone. "Let me see the self-media account you created."
Xia Wu gave her his phone, and they could unlock each other's phones at will. Their relationship was so good.
"You have a lot of messages on WeChat," Qi Miaomiao clicked on the Kuaishou video, and WeChat message reminders kept popping up in the background.
"It should be the netizens in the group, what are they saying?"
"I'm asking you what stage the greenhouse construction has reached."
"I took some photos. Tell them it's finished and we're just waiting to plant the strawberries."
Qi Miaomiao did as she was told, and then looked through the group messages curiously.
There are more than a dozen people in the group now, with new members added compared to a few days ago. Qi Miaomiao thought about it and used Xia Wu's account to add herself and Shen Beiyang in.
"There's a new member in the group. Welcome, welcome, join Xia Xia's fan group, we'll be a family from now on!"
It seemed like Zhou Hui was in the group all the time. Qi Miaomiao joined the group one second, and he sent a message to welcome her the next second.
Qi Miaomiao chuckled, and sent the photo of Shen Beiyang digging the ground that he had secretly taken today to the group, and also sent a saluting emoticon.
"Please rest assured, Xia Xia has found a labor force to do the work. It is expected to be completed tomorrow. It will not delay the strawberry planting!"
"Oh my god! The new guy is really good! He actually broke into the enemy camp! @Xia Xia, the group leader, please come out and say something. Why didn't you call us?"
Qi Miaomiao laughed heartily and handed the phone to Xia Wu: "What's going on?"
Xia Wu felt helpless and typed quickly: "Next time for sure!"
"Will there be strawberries to eat while working?"
"Not only are there strawberries, but there are also free-range chickens from the mountains. They're even more delicious than strawberries. Sizzle!"
Qi Miaomiao treated her group members like Japanese people and sent out pictures of tonight's dinner in the middle of the night. The taro chicken exuded an attractive luster, and just looking at it made people drool.
There are also watermelons, strawberries, and braised fish...
"There is definitely something fishy going on," Zhou Hui wailed at the top of his lungs in the dormitory. He was heartbroken. Why wasn't he the one working for Xia Xia?
Seeing that Qi Miaomiao was about to ignite the atmosphere in the group, Xia Wu quickly stepped in to calm it down: "They are my friends. They just happened to ask me to hang out these past two days and help me with work. Don't worry, they will have enough strawberries in less than a month!"
"I want to work for you too!" Zhou Hui pointed his finger at me with an aggrieved expression.
"Next year, we'll be covering the mountain. There's endless work to do, so you must come."
"Is there watermelon, too?"
"kind!"
"Where's the free-range chicken? [color]"
"keep!"
Chen Ming, who had been peeking at the screen for a long time, couldn't help but interrupt: "Xia Xia, if you take over the farm next year, you can set up an experience farm. Then I can take the kids with me. City kids haven't done farm work before, so it's a good opportunity for them to experience it. It can exercise their bodies and develop life skills. You can also make an extra profit by taking over the farm. It's like killing three birds with one stone. What do you think?"
Qi Miaomiao saw the message and nodded in agreement: "I think it's okay. Do you remember when we were having dinner tonight, I told you about eating private dishes in Jing City? Actually, I was thinking at the time, if you really want to rent a mountain to raise chickens and plant crops next year, I would also like to join in. I plan to open a private restaurant in Jing City and buy chickens and vegetables from you. We will definitely make a lot of money!"
Xia Wu thought about it and felt that there was indeed a lot of room for maneuver here.
But Baoshan seems to be a long way off, saying this...
"How about it? Are you moved?" Qi Miaomiao gave her a crazy look.
“A little…”
"How about we form a partnership now?"
Qi Miaomiao began to analyze the situation for her. "Look, I'm not giving you money for nothing. This is a partnership. I'm investing in advance, and then I'll come to you to purchase the goods. That's the exclusive supply. I also have a headache. I'm about to graduate from studying abroad. You know my family situation, so you can only give me money. My brothers and sisters will never allow me to join the company. They're afraid that I'll take more shares."
"I can't just sit there doing nothing all the time. I want to build a career so they can see what it means to look down on others."
Xia Wu knew about Qi Miaomiao's family situation, which was very complicated. In short, Qi Miaomiao's father was very rich, but also very philandering, with several wives. Qi Miaomiao's biological mother didn't even know which wife she was. After giving birth to Qi Miaomiao, her mother divorced Qi's father due to marital discord.
Qi Miaomiao is the youngest child in the family. She has three older brothers and two older sisters. Their relationship is only superficially okay. Although she has no worries about food and drink, because Qi Miaomiao is much younger than them, when Qi Miaomiao grew up, her older brothers and sisters had taken over the company for many years and naturally were unwilling to let their younger sister have a bigger share.
Giving Qi Miaomiao money is fine, but giving her more power is not.
Sometimes the kinship relationships of rich people are more complicated than those of ordinary people.
Xia Wu was indeed moved.
She actually had a lot of things to do in her mind. The two acres of land at the door were obviously not enough for her to do anything. If she really relied on selling strawberries to make money, whether she could save enough money after the winter was another matter.
Qi Miaomiao continued to give her strong medicine.
"Besides, have you ever thought that Xia Wei really doesn't know about your return to your hometown? According to what you said, she's not that kind of heartless person, so she must be in private contact with your uncle and aunt."
"But when I went to find Fu Shilin, he didn't know where you were. This means that Xia Wei must have been secretly observing you!"
"If you really stay in the country and just plant these two strawberry fields, wouldn't you really become a country girl? What if she lets something slip one day? Do you think they'll laugh at you?"
"But if you take over the mountain, the situation will be different. I see you're doing quite well with your own media. With a little effort, you might become famous. A successful female entrepreneur or a village girl who ran away, which one do you think sounds better?"
This is definitely a provocation.
Xia Wu knew that Qi Miaomiao was setting a trap for her, but she couldn't help but think about it.
"Have you thought about it?"
Qi Miaomiao stretched out her right hand as a symbol of cooperation and kept winking at her.
“It’s better to act than to be moved~”
Xia Wu patted her palm and then held it tightly.
"Stop talking nonsense. Lend me a hundred thousand and write me an IOU."
"Great!" Qi Miaomiao excitedly fell on the bed and kicked her legs and yelled, "Don't even mention 100,000, even if you want 1 million, I'll get it for you!"
"Is one hundred thousand enough?"
Xia Wu nodded seriously. "I've already asked the village party secretary about this. The mountains near the village belong to the village's collective land. Mr. Pu has leased one hill, and there are two more that can be leased out. One of them is too high and too steep. In the past, the villagers had to go up the mountain to chop firewood, so it's not easy to lease."
"There's another hill that the villagers call Yantou Mountain. It's right next to the Mother Mountain, and the slope is just right. Someone once rented it out to grow an orchard there, but unfortunately it didn't last long. There are also some existing buildings on the hill."
"That sounds great, how much does it cost?"
"30 years minimum, 100,000 yuan, 10 years."
"Only one hundred thousand yuan for ten years?" Qi Miaomiao was shocked. This price was really low.
"There's nothing we can do. The village is too remote. If you could make money farming the land, someone would have already done it. No one would leave to work. When I asked the village chief, he was eager for me to make a decision so he could go to town and talk to the government."
One hundred thousand yuan, with so many households in the village, if it is divided proportionally, each person can get some money. The mountain land will be left there to grow weeds, but if it is contracted out, the money in hand will be real money.
"Then let's pack it!"
Qi Miaomiao continued to encourage.
"Really?"
"Bag!"
"Once the arrow is shot, there is no turning back."
"Why look back? You should keep moving forward. Show them the courage you had when you left the Xia family and build something for them to see!" Qi Miaomiao clenched her fists, her eyes determined as she hugged Xia Wu and said, "I support you no matter what you do, and I think you can really succeed. I'm sorry I didn't stay with you. Did you also endure a long time when you left the Xia family and came back here?"
I'm not afraid of sisters laughing, I'm just afraid of sisters putting themselves in my shoes.
Xia Wu's eyes were sore and he hugged Qi Miaomiao back.
She had… nothing left to lose.
But it would be a lie to say I'm not afraid.
"Go ahead, do your own thing, and be a great woman who stands tall and proud!"
The two sisters slept in the same bed and chatted until the sky turned pale, and then they couldn't resist the sleepiness and fell asleep.
When they woke up, the sun was already high in the sky, and Shen Beiyang and the others had been working for half a day.
There was warm buffalo milk in the kitchen, and Qi Miaomiao thought it tasted delicious. "Should we raise some cows on our mountain?"
"Then we can have milk to drink every day."
After breakfast, Xia Wu did not tell his family about the land lease, and took Qi Miaomiao to see the village party secretary.
The village office is located together with the original village clinic. Unfortunately, the doctors in the clinic were not retained, and the courtyard built by the state has been abandoned.
There were only two people in the office: a secretary and a branch secretary. Branch secretary Yang Guofeng was from the same village as Xia Wu's father, and was much older than Yang Guojun, with gray hair.
When Xia Wu arrived, he was on the phone, so they waited for a while.
Yang Guofeng hung up the phone and quickly greeted, "Xiao Wu, you're here. Have you considered the mountain package deal?"
"Come on, sit down and talk."
Yang Guofeng poured each of them a cup of tea water. "This tea is all picked from the hilltops in our village and roasted with our own firewood. You can't drink it outside."
"Thank you, Secretary. I came here this time to ask about Baoshan again."
"Okay, ask me any questions you have. I won't hide anything I can tell you. If I don't know anything, I'll call the people in town."
Although Yang Guofeng is old, he is dedicated to the affairs of the village. The last time Xia Wu came to him to ask about the land contract, he wanted to beg Xia Wu to do it.
What the countryside lacks nowadays is people. Without people, nothing can be done.
Just like Yanggou Village, there was no doctor in the health center, and the number of students in the village primary school was getting smaller and smaller. Finally, it had to be closed down and merged with other villages. Children had to travel a long way to go to school.
It's completely not as popular as before.
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