Chapter 58: Don’t Disrupt the Market

The next moment, Cao Jiangang’s voice rang out: “After a meeting of the Village Committee, it’s been decided that this money will primarily be used for public works and improvements in Cao Family Village, as well as to further enhance the villagers’ spiritual and cultural life.”

“This includes, but isn’t limited to, paying the electricity bills for the streetlights. Didn’t everyone complain that the village installed streetlights but never turned them on? This time, we’ll light them up.”

“In summer, every evening from seven to nine, two hours.”

“In winter, every evening from six to eight, two hours.”

“During holidays and festivals, from six to ten at night, four hours.”

“Is that clear to everyone?” Cao Jiangang shouted at the crowd.

The villagers below listened attentively, but no one responded.

Cao Jiangang didn’t seem to mind. He continued, “Besides that, we also plan to use this money to build a ‘fitness activity center.’”

“The country is now promoting new rural development, encouraging us to find new directions and foster a new cultural spirit. So we can’t just stay cooped up at home or only work in the fields. After many discussions in the Village Committee, we’ve decided to pave the open space south of the Village Committee Courtyard, buy and install fitness equipment, and set up a basketball court. In the future, when you’re not busy, you can gather here to chat and exercise, improving our cultural and spiritual life.”

“…” Cao Shujie thought the idea sounded pretty good, but he doubted their intentions were entirely pure.

The rest was mostly empty talk, and just then, Cao Shujie’s phone rang again. He saw it was Xia Changhong calling. He hung up, grabbed his folding stool, and headed outside.

Once he stepped out of the Village Committee Courtyard, Cao Shujie called back. When Xia Changhong picked up, he said, “Boss Xia, where are you guys?”

“North end of Cao Family Village? Okay, I’ll be right there.” Cao Shujie stuffed his phone in his pocket and quickened his pace toward the north.

Meanwhile, up on the stage, Cao Jiangang and Gao Weimin acted as if they hadn’t even noticed him leave.

…

As Cao Shujie walked down the main road through the village, he could still hear Village Party Secretary Cao Jiangang shouting from the direction of the Village Committee Courtyard, repeatedly stressing how important the ‘activity center’ was for the people of Cao Family Village.

But Cao Shujie knew perfectly well that only by launching construction projects could that money be diverted—one way or another—into private pockets.

“Forget it, why should I care about that? I just need to focus on taking good care of my orchard,” Cao Shujie muttered as he reached the village entrance and spotted Xia Changhong waiting by the roadside.

Short and chubby, Xia Changhong was easy to recognize.

“Boss Xia, sorry about the wait. The Village Committee meeting ran long,” Cao Shujie explained.

Xia Changhong waved it off. “I just got here myself. Mr. Cao, let’s go check out the orchard first.”

“Sure, follow me.” Cao Shujie turned east at the intersection and led them up the mountain.

At the foot of the hill, seeing the rough little path leading up, Xia Changhong joked, “Mr. Cao, this dirt road could use some work. It’d make it easier to go up and down in the future.”

“You’re right. I’ll talk to the Village Committee about it another day—they should chip in for this,” Cao Shujie chuckled.

He was renting the land, paid for the water himself, and the electricity was handled by the power company. The road, though, should be the Village Committee’s responsibility.

“They just collected my rent, so there’s still some money left. Better go talk to them soon—wait too long and they’ll have spent it all,” Cao Shujie thought to himself.

Xia Changhong had no idea what was going through Cao Shujie’s mind. Once Cao Shujie opened the little gate in the wire fence, the group entered the orchard, and Xia Changhong and his team got right to work.

They inspected the entire orchard, checked the well’s location, figured out where to dig trenches and lay pipes, and where to install the automatic sprinkler connections.

At this point, Cao Shujie couldn’t really help, so he just watched from the side, taking the opportunity to check how the saplings had been growing the past couple of days.

He was already planning that once the automated sprinkler system was fully installed, he’d mix up some nutrient solution and spray all the saplings.

“This time, I’ll up the dosage,” Cao Shujie muttered to himself.

After checking, he went over to the old orchard nearby. The nutrient mix he’d used was definitely working.

The tiny fruits hanging from the vines were showing visible changes after just a few days, which made him very happy—it was as if he could already see the bumper harvest coming.

“Hm, in a little while I’ll need to start thinking about how to promote these in advance,” Cao Shujie mused. He wasn’t foolish—he wouldn’t just sit around waiting for fruit buyers to come knocking. How much money could he make that way?

Now that he’d started using nutrient solution, his fruit couldn’t be treated like ordinary varieties anymore.

Plus, the fruit in his orchard would ripen earlier than anywhere else. He knew exactly what that meant—he had to make the most of this window of opportunity.

“It’s just that this orchard is only seven mu—too small,” Cao Shujie sighed.

With the nutrient solution, he could expect a yield of five to six thousand jin of premium fruit per mu. Even at the high end, seven mu would only produce a bit over forty thousand jin!

“I can’t sell them too cheap,” Cao Shujie reminded himself.

Time flew by as everyone busied themselves. Before long, the sun was high overhead.

Cao Shujie glanced at his watch—it was already past eleven. He walked over to Xia Changhong and his team. “Boss Xia, how’s it going?”

“Mr. Cao, we’ve worked everything out. We’ll start construction this afternoon,” Xia Changhong replied.

“There’s one thing—I’d like to get this done quickly so it doesn’t interfere with your use of the orchard. Mr. Cao, do you think you could find some extra hands in the village? Just to dig trenches and lay pipes along our planned routes.”

He looked over the large orchard and added, “The more people, the better. I figure if we get thirty folks, we can finish in two days at most.”

When it’s private work, efficiency is everything—unlike government projects, where roadwork or landscaping drags on forever, and nothing gets done in a day.

Cao Shujie didn’t object. He asked, “Boss Xia, how much can you pay per person?”

Xia Changhong did a quick calculation. “Mr. Cao, how about fifty yuan for a ten-hour day? That’s a hundred yuan for two days—just to dig a trench, it’s not much work.”

That way, he could keep this part of the budget under three thousand yuan and save a lot of time.

But to his surprise, Cao Shujie said, “That’s too high. Ten hours, forty a day.”

Otherwise, he’d have trouble later on.

Money doesn’t grow on trees, and even what Cao Shujie was offering was already above the local market rate—he couldn’t let it go any higher.

Xia Changhong didn’t argue. Saving ten yuan per person was fine by him, so he agreed to Cao Shujie’s proposal.

“You guys keep working. I’ll go round up some people now,” Cao Shujie said readily. After all, this was his own orchard—the sooner the job was done, the sooner he could move on to the next step!

(End of this chapter)