Back to 2008: I Helped My Dad Become the Richest Man

The 342,000 yuan in cash was piled up on the Luo family's octagonal table for an entire night.

Luo Xinde and Li Minxia, ​​a married couple, barely slept all night. They would pile the money up and count it, then spread it out and count it again, afraid of making a mistake, and also afraid that the money would suddenly grow wings and fly away.

"Xinde, why do I still feel uneasy?" Li Minxia said softly, touching the thick wad of banknotes. "Do you think this money came too fast? I feel like I'm dreaming."

"What are you panicking for!" Luo Xinde was now full of confidence. He patted the pile of money, making a dull "thud." "This is money we earned through our own hard work! Every penny is clean! Stand tall, what are you afraid of!"

Even so, he would stand up from time to time and walk around the room, glancing out the window and touching the door lock, always feeling unsafe.

Luo Xiyuan looked at her parents. She knew that this huge sum of money had been a huge shock to them.

They need time to adjust to the change in status from a farmer who has been poor all his life to a wealthy person with hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash.

The next morning, Luo Xiyuan gathered the whole family together for a family meeting.

"Dad, Mom, we've made the money. But we can't just leave it at home. We need to spend it and make it generate more money," Luo Xiyuan said bluntly.

"Yes, yes, yes!" Luo Xinde responded immediately. "Xiyuan, tell me, how should we spend this money? Dad will listen to you!"

"I've made a plan; we need to do a few important things right now." Luo Xiyuan held up three fingers.

"First, pay back the money."

She looked at her parents and said earnestly, "We borrowed 50,000 yuan in interest-free loans from the credit union to start our pig farm. Although the repayment deadline hasn't arrived yet, we have the money now, so we should pay it back as soon as possible. If you borrow and repay, it's easy to borrow again. We need to maintain a good credit relationship with the bank; we'll need their support if we want to do bigger things in the future."

Luo Xinde and Li Minxia nodded repeatedly.

"The second thing," Luo Xiyuan continued, "is profit sharing."

She glanced at Master Liu, who had been sitting there drinking tea since morning, looking quite relaxed.

"As per our original agreement, Grandpa Liu contributed his technology as equity, taking 20% ​​of the net profit. This time, our net profit is 219,000 yuan, so 20% is... 43,800 yuan."

After Luo Xiyuan finished speaking, Li Minxia immediately counted out 43,800 yuan from the pile of money, put it in an envelope, and handed it to Master Liu with both hands.

"Uncle Liu, this is what you deserve. We owe you so much this time. Without you, we wouldn't have made any money, we might have lost everything long ago," Li Minxia said sincerely.

Looking at the thick envelope, Mr. Liu waved his hand and said, "It was agreed beforehand, so I won't stand on ceremony with you. However, I can't use this much money by myself."

He took out ten thousand yuan from the envelope and pushed the rest back.

"I'll take ten thousand. The rest you can consider as my additional investment and continue to put it into the pig farm. I'm old, and seeing you all make this farm thrive makes me happier than any amount of money I could get." The old man's eyes were sincere.

The Luo family tried to persuade him further, but Old Liu's face hardened: "What? You look down on this old man? Or do you think my skills are only worth this much money? I said I'd invest, so I'll invest! From now on, I'm in the same boat as you!"

Seeing that Master Liu was adamant, the Luo family didn't say anything more.

"Okay, Grandpa Liu, we'll consider this money as your new share. From now on, we'll have to recalculate your profit-sharing ratio," Luo Xiyuan said with a smile.

"Alright, alright, you guys handle it." Master Liu waved his hand and said no more.

"And what's the third thing?" Luo Xinde asked eagerly.

"The third thing," Luo Xiyuan looked into the distance, "is to expand production!"

"You...you're expanding?" Li Minxia asked in surprise. "Isn't our pig farm doing just fine?"

"Mom, a pig farm can only produce two batches of pigs a year. We were lucky this time, catching the price increase. But the market is volatile. What if the price drops next time? We can't put all our eggs in one basket."

Luo Xiyuan pointed out the window and revealed her plan: "My idea is to split the operation into two groups. One group is to continue expanding the scale of the pig farm. I suggest that we immediately start the second phase of the project, build four more pigsties, and increase our annual output from the current four hundred pigs to one thousand pigs! In this way, even if the price of pork fluctuates, we can rely on our scale advantage to guarantee our total profit."

"The other way," her voice grew stronger, "is to start building our own brand! I'm going to open a pork specialty store in town, our own Rothschild farm!"

"Open a shop?!" This idea startled Luo Xinde and Li Minxia even more than expanding the pig farm.

"Yes, let's open a shop!" Luo Xiyuan nodded. "We can't always be just suppliers, dependent on others. We need our own sales channels, directly facing consumers. Our pork is of such high quality; we can definitely sell it at a higher price than others. Let's open a clean, well-decorated specialty store called 'Luo's Safe Pork.' So that when people in town think of buying good pork, our store will be the first one they think of!"

Expand pig farming and open a pork specialty store!

One side handles production, the other sales. They operate on two legs.

Luo Xiyuan's plan even conjured up images in Luo Xinde's mind of their family's pork shops opening all over the county, and even the city.

"Alright! Xiyuan, let's do it this way!" He slammed his hand on the table. "You come up with the ideas, and I'll do the legwork! You tell me where to open the shop, and I'll rent it for you! You tell me how to build the pigsty, and I'll find the workers!"

"Then...how much will this cost?" Li Minxia was still most concerned about the money.

"I've done the calculations," Luo Xiyuan said. "After paying off the 50,000 yuan bank loan and giving Grandpa Liu his dividends, we'll have about 280,000 yuan left. The second phase of the project, building four pigsties, including equipment, is budgeted at around 100,000 yuan. Renting a decent shop in town, decorating, buying a freezer, and getting the licenses—the initial investment should be enough at 50,000 yuan. So, we'll still have 130,000 yuan left as working capital and a risk reserve. That's more than enough."

She keeps track of every single expense.

After hearing their daughter's plans, Luo Xinde and Li Minxia were completely relieved.

As soon as the family meeting ended, the Luo family members immediately got to work.

The first thing to do is pay back the money.

The next morning, Luo Xinde took 50,000 yuan in cash and went to the town's credit union. When he slammed the money on Director Zhang's desk in the credit department and said, "Director Zhang, I've come to repay the loan," everyone in the credit department was stunned.

How long was the loan? It was paid off in less than six months!

Looking at the farmer before him, whose face was ruddy and whose back was ramrod straight, Director Zhang immediately completed the repayment procedures for Luo Xinde. He then patted Luo on the shoulder warmly and said, "Mr. Luo, if you ever need any funding in the future, feel free to come to me! Our credit union will fully support a valued customer like you!"

Luo Xinde walked out of the credit union with a much lighter step.

The second thing is dividends.

Luo Xiyuan took charge and gave a large red envelope to all the workers involved in the construction and breeding of the pig farm. In particular, Chen Bo, who had been with them from the beginning, received a red envelope of two thousand yuan directly from Luo Xinde.

Uncle Chen's hands trembled as he held the thick red envelope: "Xinde, this...this is too much."

"Not much! Brother Chen, this is what you deserve! In the future, we still have to do big things together!" Luo Xinde patted his shoulder hard.

When the news spread, everyone in the village was incredibly envious. Those who hadn't come to help before and had even gossiped behind their backs finally realized that working for the Luo family really meant there was something to be gained.

The third thing is expansion.

Luo Xinde immediately began preparations for the second phase of the project, finding workers and buying materials, keeping himself extremely busy.

Luo Xiyuan, on the other hand, set her sights on the bustling town center. She was going there to find the best location for Luo's Safe Meat Specialty Store.