Chapter 24: From Then On, He Became the King of the Mountain

“Hold a meeting, notify all villagers, and still need the Village Committee to vote.” Cao Shujie listened to these new terms from Cao Jiangang and felt it was too troublesome.

But he also knew that some things had to follow ‘procedures’ to reduce future trouble.

“Uncle, putting everything else aside, I’m going to lease that entire mountain. The later stages of planting, maintenance, harvesting, etc., will all require people to work. At that time, I will prioritize hiring people from our village, and wages will be paid daily,” Cao Shujie added.

When Cao Jiangang heard Cao Shujie’s words, he felt relieved: “Alright, Shujie, I’ve got this matter covered. Want to have a drink at my place tonight?”

Cao Shujie naturally refused.

Cao Jiangang saw Cao Shujie out, watching his receding figure, and pondered the matter of Cao Shujie leasing the mountain: “How does this look like someone who couldn’t make it outside? A bunch of ignorant old women just babble nonsense all day long.”

He had been the Village Party Secretary for over ten years, and was clearer in his mind than most people. Leasing mountains for fruit cultivation or farming was not a simple matter.

The rent was actually the lowest cost here. The remaining costs, such as fences, land repairs, transplanting seedlings, various later-stage maintenance, and fertilizer input, were the major expenses, far exceeding the rent.

Otherwise, why would no one be willing to lease the mountains, despite them having grown Kiwi fruit and apples here for so many years?

“Is he truly a newborn calf unafraid of the tiger, or a real tiger?” The Village Party Secretary Cao Jiangang, who was already over sixty, couldn’t quite tell.

…

When Cao Shujie returned home, his wife, daughter, sister, and his sister’s classmate Deng Miaoshan were all back, chatting at home. Seeing them chatting so animatedly, Cao Shujie didn’t disturb them.

Mengmeng suddenly saw her dad return, she broke free from her mother’s embrace and ran over: “Daddy, hug!”

“Mengmeng, did you have fun?” Cao Shujie asked her.

“Happy!” Mengmeng said: “Auntie, me, puppy, took photos.”

Cao Shujie understood, it must have been Deng Miaoshan who took photos of her and the two puppies.

“Brother, what were you busy with? Why are you just getting back?” Cao Huifang stood up and asked.

Deng Miaoshan also stood up, and called out ‘Brother Jie’.

Cheng Xiaolin knew her husband had important business, she blinked at him, exchanging glances, as if asking: “How did things go?”

Cao Shujie also blinked back at her: “It’s OK, don’t worry!”

“Brother, you and my sister-in-law are exchanging glances, have you considered my feelings?” Cao Huifang suddenly blurted out.

“…” Cao Shujie looked at his sister, and was instantly speechless.

In the evening, his mother Wang Yuelan prepared another table of dishes with a mix of meat and vegetables to entertain their guest Deng Miaoshan. Mengmeng was eating meat with great enthusiasm.

But she had a habit: she would swallow fatty meat, which was easy to chew, very quickly.

But with lean meat, which was hard to chew, she couldn’t chew it thoroughly, so she would keep chewing it in her mouth without swallowing, and wouldn’t eat the rest of her food either.

Night!

“Honey, this afternoon when we were on the Mountain, Fangfang’s classmate mentioned a few ideas, let me tell you about them.” Cheng Xiaolin saw that their daughter, who was by the wall, was already fast asleep. She carefully told her husband about the ideas Deng Miaoshan had brought up.

But before she could finish, she felt a hand moving around in the quilt, touching, rubbing, caressing…

“What are you doing?” Cheng Xiaolin felt as if she had been electrocuted, her whole body went weak.

Cao Shujie said matter-of-factly: “In the middle of the night, why talk about mountains? Let’s talk about life.”

…

The next morning, a little after six, while most people were still asleep, Cao Shujie got up.

He got dressed and was about to get out of bed, when he heard the loud speaker of the Village Committee blare. It was playing Peking Opera, with its characteristic wailing sounds, and soon it switched to Cao Jiangang’s voice: “Folks of Cao Family Village, listen up! There will be a meeting at the Village Committee at ten o’clock this morning. Important matters will be announced.”

Cao Shujie suddenly had a feeling that this meeting was being held specifically for his mountain leasing matter.

Coming out of the room, and hearing Cao Jiangang still shouting on the loudspeaker, he stopped guessing; he would know once he went there later.

“Owooo!”

The sleeping little husky was probably woken up by the noise from the loudspeaker. It was very annoyed, and after barking once, hearing the loudspeaker still going on and on, it barked again, waking up the other little husky as well.

Now, this was good. The two brothers started squabbling, one barking, the other howling, determined to see whose voice was louder.

Cao Shujie was annoyed. His wife and daughter were still asleep.

“Pfft pfft!”

He went over and lightly patted the cardboard box twice. The two husky brothers heard the movement, and were just thinking of giving the newcomer a warning, but when Cao Shujie’s detestable face appeared in their doggy eyes, the two husky brothers immediately clamped their mouths shut.

The blue-eyed husky snapped its mouth shut too fast—its tongue hadn’t pulled back in time, and it bit down on it. Its eyes rolled from the pain, and it let out a few pitiful whimpers.

Seeing this, Cao Shujie couldn’t help but feel exasperated. He pointed at the husky and scolded, “You useless mutt! You actually managed to bite your own tongue—what are you even good for?”

“Owooo!”

The husky, feeling provoked, forgot all about its fear of Cao Shujie. Ignoring the pain, it barked back at him, startling him.

“Oh? Getting brave now, are we? Still thinking about heading up to the south roof for a little chat?” Cao Shujie shot back.

At that, the husky instantly deflated. It suddenly remembered—this man in front of it was even more of a beast than it was.

After breakfast, Cao Huifang and Deng Miaoshan went out to play again. Deng Miaoshan wanted to see if there were any other beautiful sights in Cao Family Village. They weren’t curious about the village meeting at all.

However, Cao Shujie went with his daughter, wife, and mother.

As expected, Cao Jiangang told everyone present about Cao Shujie’s plan to lease a large area of mountain land. He also announced the results of their Village Committee’s discussion, the rental income, and other related matters, all in front of the villagers.

“According to further communication between our Village Committee and local villager Cao Shujie, he will lease 78 mu of mountain land for 30 years, with a total payment of 431,487.84 yuan. Considering the significant capital required for the initial investment and later maintenance of the mountain land, our Village Committee unanimously agreed after the meeting to collect the rent once every 10 years, in three installments, with all payments to be collected before April 10, 2031. Everyone should be aware of this matter.”

“Additionally, the subsequent use of these funds, whether for public welfare construction in the village or distributed equally, will be discussed in a later meeting.” Cao Jiangang was very familiar with this routine. He subtly changed the subject: “Next, let’s invite Cao Shujie, the contractor of the mountain land, to come up and say a few words to everyone. Let’s give him a round of applause!”

As soon as he finished speaking, he started applauding himself, and then the Village Committee members and the common people followed suit.

Cao Shujie never expected that he would be able to go on stage and speak in front of all the villagers. This made him a little uncomfortable.

This was completely different from speaking in front of department employees at work. Those were his subordinates, but among the more than a hundred people in front of him, many were relatives or acquaintances.

At this moment, the minds of the Cao Family Village residents were also in a jumble, especially after hearing Cao Jiangang say that ‘Cao Shujie spent over 430,000 yuan to lease the mountain land’. Their minds became even more confused.

At this point, some people in the crowd who had previously discussed how he couldn’t make a living outside immediately hung their heads. That was over 400,000 yuan in leasing fees!

He really did make money, and perhaps he truly came back to develop the rural economy!

While the villagers below were still discussing in low voices, Cao Shujie had already walked onto the stage. He cleared his throat: “Dear elders and fellow villagers, I am Cao Shujie, and I am also a member of our Cao Family Village.”

“Many of you here I have to address as Grandfather, Grandmother, uncles, aunts, and relatives. You are my elders. To be honest, standing here today, I feel a bit uncertain…”

Cao Shujie expressed some thoughts, and finally said: “Here, I can guarantee one thing to everyone in advance: for the subsequent leveling, transplanting, irrigation, harvesting, and so on, if I need to hire people, I will prioritize hiring from our village, and wages will be paid daily.”

For Cao Shujie, the help he could offer his fellow villagers was limited to this.

He didn’t have any grand ambition to lead the entire village to prosperity. The joys and sorrows of people are not interconnected, and such an idea was also unrealistic.

But with his promise of ‘hiring workers’, the matter was settled. Besides, they also knew that the investment cost for that mountain was huge, and few people in the village could afford to invest.

Those who could afford to invest found it too troublesome, thinking it was better to do something else that brought in money faster.

(End of this chapter)