Chapter 171: Procurement Matters

However, problems quickly followed.

Building a reservoir isn’t just about manpower; you also need materials—like rebar, cement, and at the very least, stone. Even the smallest reservoir requires some of that, right?

Which means, of course, that you need money.

The village doesn’t have much. All they had left was a little over a thousand yuan from selling the wild boar. Once the wheat and other grains are harvested, there will be a bit more income, but still nowhere near enough.

Trying to raise money from the villagers? That would be tough.

It might be possible to scrape together ten thousand yuan or so from the whole of Zhoujiazhuang, but villagers aren’t going to throw in their last savings. Even if they were willing, the old Party secretary and the team leader wouldn’t dare allow it.

That meant they could only rely on the income-generating projects Zhou Yimin had led them to start.

Someone raised this crucial issue.

Everyone’s gaze immediately shifted to Zhou Yimin.

Zhou Yimin said, “I’ve personally inspected that valley. From above, it’s shaped like a gourd—broad in the middle and narrow at the mouth. The wide part is soil, and the narrow mouth is stone.

So, all we need to do is dig into the center. The actual dam construction won’t be that big of a project and won’t cost too much.”

To be honest, it wasn’t a particularly large reservoir. Even at full capacity, it would only cover about one-fifth of the village. Using stone for the dam would be more than sufficient.

What would cost more later would be building a power station next to it.

But the hydropower station could wait—for now, the priority was getting the reservoir built.

Since Zhou Yimin had already said so, there was no need for everyone to rack their brains over it anymore.

The next morning, Zhou Zhiwen waited for Zhou Yimin at the roadside with a letter of introduction in hand.

“Yimin, I’ll give you a ride,” he said eagerly when Zhou Yimin waved him over.

“Zhiwen-ge, you know how to ride a bike?” Zhou Yimin asked in surprise.

Zhou Zhiwen laughed. “A little, your dad taught me back in the day. I even learned on this exact bike—fell twice while practicing.”

Zhou Yimin had almost forgotten that this guy was his dad’s classmate.

“Alright, you ride then,” Zhou Yimin said, not bothering to be polite. He let Zhiwen take the handlebars and sat in the back himself. If he could save his energy, all the better!

After reaching the city, the two of them went straight to the research institute. Zhou Yimin took Zhiwen to meet Director Huang.

Director Huang welcomed him warmly and quickly completed the onboarding procedures. From then on, Zhou Zhiwen was officially part of the research institute.

Not only that—considering the special nature of the procurement job, Director Huang even assigned him a bicycle.

Although a bit worn, it made Zhou Zhiwen very happy. Now he could commute from the village and didn’t have to stay in the city.

To be honest, he wasn’t entirely at ease leaving home.

He had a mute elderly mother, a wife, two daughters, and a young son still in primary school. If his son were just a bit older, he would’ve asked his sixteenth brother to give the opportunity to the boy instead.

His daughters were old enough to work, but this was a procurement job—too unsafe for a woman.

“Yimin, thank you!” Zhou Zhiwen said sincerely.

This job was infinitely better than earning work points in the village. Even as a low-level procurement officer, he could earn over twenty yuan a month.

It was practically impossible to earn that much through work points.

Zhou Yimin smiled. “Zhiwen-ge, you can stay with Daqiu for now.”

Director Huang had just mentioned that housing was scarce at the research institute, so they couldn’t assign him a place yet, but it would be arranged soon.

“No need. I’ll just stay at home,” Zhou Zhiwen replied. He didn’t want to trouble Zhou Yimin with every little thing.

“Whether you stay or not, let’s go over there first. There’s something I need to discuss with you regarding procurement,” Zhou Yimin said.

The limited output of Zhoujiazhuang couldn’t help the research institute much—for now. Besides, Zhou Yimin had another reason for recruiting procurement officers: to help him “move stock.”

It was a win-win-win situation.

The research institute got the materials it needed, Zhou Zhiwen could easily meet procurement quotas, and Zhou Yimin could sell off his inventory and make money.

Zhou Zhiwen followed Zhou Yimin to a secluded courtyard and met Zhou Dazhong and Zhou Daqiu.

“Dazhong, explain the procurement process to your Uncle Zhiwen,” Zhou Yimin said, not bothering to waste his breath.

Zhou Dazhong nodded and began explaining how procurement worked.

Unlike other procurement officers, they had Zhou Yimin backing them. Sixteenth Uncle had the connections to get all kinds of materials. Their job was simply to “supply” the steel factory and research institute within a reasonable range.

After hearing the explanation, Zhou Zhiwen was stunned.

So easy! A dog could probably do this job!

When the explanation ended, Zhou Dazhong took Zhou Zhiwen to the basement.

Zhou Zhiwen’s eyes widened when he saw the goods in storage.

The basement was packed with rare materials—rice, flour, corn, preserved duck, dried fish, cured sausage, and several baskets of eggs. There were even red sugar, white sugar, powdered milk, canned goods, and more.

It nearly filled half the basement.

“All of this can be used to fulfill procurement tasks?” Zhou Zhiwen asked.

Zhou Dazhong nodded. “In principle, yes, but—”

He hadn’t finished when Zhou Zhiwen understood. He was even more tactful than Dazhong and knew better than to “move” too much stock and risk attracting trouble.

“Things like red sugar, powdered milk, and canned goods—stuff we don’t produce in Zhoujiazhuang—I won’t be touching,” Zhou Zhiwen said.

He began thinking about what to deliver to the research institute in the next few days.

From outside came Zhou Yimin’s voice: “Zhiwen-ge, for eggs and meat, you can deliver twice a week. You can be a bit bolder with the supply.”

Zhou Yimin wanted to do what little he could to support those respected researchers.

Bringing just thirty or fifty jin each time barely made a difference.

“Twice a week? Isn’t that a bit too frequent?” Zhou Zhiwen asked, concerned for Zhou Yimin’s safety.

He was thinking from Zhou Yimin’s perspective and didn’t want his sixteenth brother taking unnecessary risks.

“Don’t worry. We’ve got people inside the research institute. This is just how we’ll handle it for now—once the village’s income-generating projects start producing results, we’ll increase the supply,” Zhou Yimin replied with confidence.

Since his sixteenth brother had a plan, Zhou Zhiwen didn’t argue further.

He decided to start by delivering cured meat and eggs—fifty jin of cured meat and half a basket of eggs each trip. That should be enough, right?

That would be 100 jin of cured meat and a full basket of eggs per week.

At the very least, the researchers would get a taste of meat weekly, which was a bit of extra nutrition.

“Oh, and one more thing! If Uncle Zhang needs anything, Zhiwen-ge, just take it from here and bring it to him,” Zhou Yimin added.

He had introduced Zhou Zhiwen to Zhang Jianshe earlier at the research institute so they’d know each other.

Zhou Zhiwen nodded. “Got it!”

After that, Zhou Yimin received the latest “payment for goods” from Luo Dapeng and Li Youde, and the money in his hands finally broke past the ten-thousand mark.

Now he could upgrade the shop in his head.

No doubt about it—being a ten-thousand-yuan household in this era was a big deal.

Even with his cheat, it had taken Zhou Yimin quite a long time to reach that point.

(End of Chapter)