Era: I was a farmer at the foot of Yaoling Mountain

"Don't worry about this. No matter what, the forest land deep in the Dayao Mountains will not be contracted out to outsiders."

Huang Zhigang knew about this matter; the Forestry Bureau's report had already been submitted, but he did not intend to approve it.

You can't just open the door to this kind of thing; once you do, you can't take it back, and in the end, he'll have to bear the responsibility.

Fang Wei felt more confident and immediately got up and returned to the company.

after a few days.

Huang Zhigang called to say that the county had rejected the Forestry Bureau's suggestion at a meeting, and with a blanket ban, no unit or individual was allowed to contract state-owned forest land except for barren mountains.

Fang Wei understood immediately and finally put her worries to rest.

He then gathered up all the documents on his desk, intending to go for a walk and get some fresh air.

Before he could even leave his office, several township officials walked in.

"Secretary Fang, we need to check the cooperative's planting area and variety ratio for this season. Thank you for your help."

“Okay! Now go find Chairman Zhao and ask him to help you complete this task.”

Upon hearing this, Fang Wei immediately nodded in agreement.

But after he finished speaking, none of the men moved, adopting a hesitant posture as if they wanted to say something but couldn't.

Just then, Zhao Jinsheng walked over, and Fang Wei waved to him.

“Secretary, I just refused them. They said they wanted to check the planting area, but then they asked to see our sales data and customer information. How can we give that to them?”

Zhao Jinsheng walked up with a dark face, glanced at the township officials, and spoke directly.

Fang Wei frowned upon hearing this. They hadn't mentioned this to her earlier, so it was no wonder they were still lingering there after finishing their previous conversation.

"Gentlemen, what exactly happened?"

Fang Wei looked at the group and asked.

"Secretary Fang, we've received a document from above asking us to conduct a survey, and we need this data. Could you perhaps make an exception and support our work?"

One of the township officials revealed the truth: it turned out to be a statistical task assigned by the province at various levels.

They had previously tried to get Zheng Xianfa to step in, but Zheng Xianfa didn't care about these specific details. He believed that each person should do their own job, and he knew that the cooperative would definitely not be happy about it.

"No! The township has no right to demand that we hand over our core data. This is not worth discussing; please leave."

Fang Wei was annoyed when she heard this and resolutely rejected the other party's unreasonable request.

The township officials had no choice but to return home and then report to their superiors.

Zheng Xianfa and Zheng Hu were helpless; the cooperative encompassed all the farmers in the township and followed the path of collective development. The power of the collective should not be underestimated, and no one could force someone to do something they didn't want to do.

The township was not entitled to demand this data from the cooperative, and since the other party was uncooperative, the township could only watch helplessly.

Although the matter was left unresolved, the township officials felt that the cooperative was difficult to deal with, and the relationship between the two sides was not very harmonious.

"Who came up with this terrible idea?"

Fang Wei was equally helpless. His original intention was to improve relations with the township, but there were some things he couldn't compromise on, otherwise it would never end, and the cooperative would suffer the most.

Township officials are the ones who actually do the work; if they don't finish their tasks, they'll definitely be criticized, so there's no way to maintain good relations with them.

Fang Wei then drove to the county and found Huang Zhigang to ask which department insisted on having these statistics.

"It was a document issued by the Provincial Department of Agriculture. This matter is not Yaoling Township's fault, and the county has not held them accountable."

Huang Zhigang was equally helpless. He asked Fang Wei to sit down and even had a pot of good tea brewed and served.

Fang Wei was speechless. Why was someone from the agricultural sector involved in the sale of rice seeds? He really didn't understand. However, he couldn't accept others arbitrarily infringing on the cooperative's rights, so he naturally refused such unreasonable demands.

Huang Zhigang shook his head and then changed the subject.

The two chatted for about twenty minutes, and then Fang Wei said goodbye and left because he had a meeting to attend.

After some time, the province suddenly issued a document requiring all breeding units not to sell rice seeds to other provinces on their own, but to sell the rice seeds to seed companies in various regions.

Fang Wei checked the current policies and found that rice seeds are not a monopolized commodity and can be sold independently.

Having figured out the problem, he tossed the previous documents aside.

To be honest, the various actions taken by the province in the past year or two have been hard to understand. It's certainly fine to support the hybrid rice varieties cultivated by the Academy of Agricultural Sciences, but intervention should not be carried out through means other than the market.

But they did exactly that, and as a result, they encountered extreme weather this year and were criticized by everyone.

Now they want to restrict the right of each unit to sell rice seeds on its own. Sometimes I really don't understand what they're trying to do. Are they just trying to get business for the seed companies?

However, he was too lazy to think about it further and decided to just do what he needed to do in the future, without paying attention to such unreasonable demands.

in the afternoon.

Fang Wei went to the village to pick up Pan Lianhua and they returned home together.

My sister made some delicious food today, including cured pork, steamed pork with rice flour, and live fish.

"Third Brother, shall we take some food to Binbin?"

When Pan Lianhua saw so much delicious food, she thought of her son and decided to send some to him.

"Okay! The school hasn't started serving meals yet, let's go there now."

Fang Wei glanced at her watch and decided to bring food to her son right away.

Xiaojie also insisted on going together, so the couple took their daughter and went to the county town together.

Having a car is so convenient. When Pan Lianhua handed the lunchbox to Binbin, it was still warm. Xiaojie tugged at her brother's clothes, talking to herself nonstop. The two siblings could only see each other once every week or two, and the little one felt very lonely.

After returning.

Pan Lianhua then discussed with Fang Wei, "Third Brother, Yaoling Township Middle School has just been put into use, right? Should we transfer Binbin here?"

"Let's forget about it! Transferring schools halfway through the semester would mean the child would have to readjust, which would be a hassle. Besides, the teaching quality of the new school is definitely not as good as the county's top high school, so we can't do that."

Fang Wei smiled and shook his head, then the family quickly sat down to eat.

"Then I'll punish you by making you bring your son some good food more often. I've never seen anyone as heartless as you."

Pan Lianhua naturally knew that the man was right; she said this mainly because she felt sorry for her son.

Fang Wei nodded repeatedly. Bringing Binbin some food every now and then wasn't too much trouble; it was just a matter of stepping on the gas.

The harvest season has arrived in the blink of an eye.

This year, more than half of the villagers went into the mountains to pick fruit. Now everyone has enough to eat and wear, and it's not that they're afraid of hard work, but mainly because the mountains are quite dangerous, and many people are too lazy to bother.

Fang Wei really liked eating wild camellia oil, so he brought in 20 young men from the Yao village to help him. They not only picked wild camellia seeds, but also wild chestnuts and wild loquats.

"Third Brother, is that enough for you?"

"That's enough! You can take the ones you pick back with you and let everyone have a taste."

Fang Wei's courtyard was full of the things they had picked, so the Yao men stopped and went into the mountains to pick some wild fruits before returning to the village.

Nobody makes money from this; they're just trying it out for the first time.

Fang Wei still needs to press oil and refine loquat syrup. Now that there are so many people in the cooperative, he can't continue to supply loquat syrup to the clinic. At most, he can only leave some for Sun Daoren.

The story of Master Sun is even more interesting. Every time Fang Wei went to bring food to his son, the old Taoist would ask him to bring Binbin some handwritten recipes. He required Binbin to memorize these recipes during his rest time, and he would check them when he went home on the weekend.

Fang Wei felt that Binbin's medical skills had surpassed his own, as he himself was only half-baked and could no longer gauge his son's level.

However, he strictly forbids his son from treating classmates at school, not even for minor ailments, lest the little guy become arrogant and cause big trouble.

morning.

Fang Wei took care of some things in the office, then drove to the countryside.

He first went to Zheng Xianfa's office. The village was much more lively than before, with forty or fifty staff members. You have to understand that the commune only had about ten people back then.

"Secretary Fang, what brings you here today?"

Zheng Xianfa was quite happy to see Fang Wei and planned to brew a pot of good tea and have a good chat with her.

"Director Zheng, I plan to visit the township middle school and stop by to see you as well."

Fang Wei told the truth that his main purpose in coming to the township today was to visit the middle school.

Yaoling Township Middle School is not affiliated with the cooperative, but the cooperative donated 1000 million yuan to the school's construction expenses. It can be said that the school was almost built with the cooperative's donations.

As the school's largest donor, one naturally has the right to come and see the school's specific situation.

"Why call him 'Director' anymore? They've changed it now."

Zheng Xianfa nodded. A few days ago, he met with the principal of the township middle school, who said he wanted to invite Fang Wei to come and take a look.

After all, they are the school's last major financial backer; there's no guarantee we won't need their help again someday.

However, he also corrected Fang Wei's way of addressing him, stating that the former GWH had been completely abolished, and the organizational structure from 66 onwards had been restored. Titles like Zheng Xianfa (Secretary of Yaoling Township) and Zheng Hu (Township Head) are now used similarly.

"Oh, oh, it was my oversight. It was just changed, and I'm not used to it yet. Do you have some time now? If you're not busy, how about we go for a walk around the village middle school?"

Fang Wei realized she had made a mistake and quickly changed the subject.

Zheng Xianfa happened to have nothing to do, so he went to the township middle school with him.

Fang Wei toured the school and felt it was quite good. He even sat in on a class and learned about the teachers, which gave him more confidence in the school's teaching quality.

He then pledged on behalf of the cooperative that the previously promised donations would continue, and that he hoped the school would continue to improve.

The principal was overjoyed. The reason the rural middle school could attract some excellent teachers was because of its good compensation. Who would want to come here if there were no better offers than those from schools in the county?

The guarantee for maintaining this treatment is the cooperative's donations, which is of utmost importance.

noon.

Fang Wei and Zheng Xianfa stayed at the school for lunch. They ate the same food as the teachers and thought the school cafeteria food was pretty good.

After the meal, the two left the school.

“Secretary Fang, at most by next year, one of us, Hu Zi or I, will definitely have to leave. You should keep a low profile in the future. There are a lot of people in the township now, and the work is divided into very specific areas. Don’t offend all the township officials.”

After the two got into the car, Zheng Xianfa suddenly dropped a bombshell.

The higher-ups weren't actually very satisfied with his and Zheng Hu's work. The key issue was that both of them came from Xiatang Brigade, which was the soul of the cooperative.

It's normal that some people in the region and province don't like cooperatives, after all, cooperatives are taking a "non-mainstream" path.

But separating Zheng Xianfa and Zheng Hu so soon was still beyond Fang Wei's expectations.

"Why would I offend them? But there's one condition: I'm the chairman of the cooperative, and I must protect the cooperative's interests. If they ask us for core data again, I won't agree."

Fang Wei glanced at the other party, making her stance clear.

Zheng Xianfa shook his head, too lazy to persuade the other party any further; he knew what kind of person the other party was.

Afterwards, Fang Wei saw Zheng Xian off to the gate of the township government and went to the bamboo ware factory alone. He wasn't there to inspect the work, but to pick up his wife and take her home.

"Third Brother, wait for me a moment. I still have some things to finish here. Why don't you go and take a look around the hardware factory or the chili sauce factory first?"

Unexpectedly, Pan Lianhua was still unable to leave at this moment. Fang Wei felt that there wasn't enough time and was too lazy to go anywhere else, so he just looked around here.

The bamboo ware factory is already quite large, having undergone several expansions. Currently, it includes several areas such as production area, raw material area, storage area, and living area, making it the largest unit in the township in terms of land area.

The bamboo ware factory now serves as the furniture company's production base. The company handles all other matters, while the factory focuses solely on production.

He wandered around the factory for more than half an hour when Pan Lianhua came over and called him, saying he could leave now.

So the couple left the bamboo ware factory together and drove home.

After dinner, the family of three went for a walk outside, and on their way back they ran into Uncle Wu at their doorstep.

"Going for a walk?"

"Yes, it's good for your health to move around after eating. Fifth Uncle, please come inside and sit down."

Fang Wei invited his fifth uncle into the house, and Pan Lianhua went to boil water to make tea. The two of them drank tea and chatted about the pig farm.

“Secretary, it’s not so easy to sell high-quality pigs these days. The main reason is that our pig inventory has increased significantly, and the market can’t absorb so many high-quality pigs. If we sell them all as meat pigs, I feel like we’ll lose money.”

Uncle Wu has recently encountered a problem: the demand for high-quality pigs, which used to be in high demand, is now declining.

Moreover, pork prices have been sluggish since last year, putting him in a dilemma.

"Fifth Uncle, the market for improved breed pigs is not large to begin with, and it's impossible for people to import improved breed pigs every year, so the decline in sales is to be expected. However, pork prices should rebound soon, after all, the autumn harvest situation is not optimistic."

After listening, Fang Wei felt that there was nothing to worry about.

The peak of the Yaoling Spotted Pig breed's introduction has passed, and the cooperative has made a considerable amount of money. Therefore, the scale of the improved pig farm can be further reduced, and pigs that meet the slaughter standards should be put on the market as soon as possible.

He predicted a significant surge in pork prices, mainly because they had already bottomed out. (End of Chapter)