Chapter 224: Excited Villagers

Village Chief Wang was also standing by to count and report the weights. After all, if only the steel factory kept the numbers and there ended up being too big a discrepancy, it could cause unpleasantness, which wouldn’t be good.

“Two hundred and eighty jin,” Village Chief Wang announced loudly.

It was actually two hundred and eighty-two jin, but he rounded it down for a whole number. Not only was it easier to keep track of, but it also left a good impression on the steel factory.

Seeing this, Zhang Yi felt much more at ease. If it had been somewhere else, they’d be lucky if the number wasn’t inflated—let alone deliberately lowered.

Zhou Yimin couldn’t help but sigh. Village Chief Wang really knew how to handle people. It looked like it would be worthwhile to deepen their cooperation. He couldn’t keep sourcing from here without a clear origin; if someone got jealous and reported it, an investigation wouldn’t go well.

And so, the procurement process continued in an orderly fashion.

Because the goods needed to be loaded onto the truck, two people stood at the back to help get the yardlong beans on board. Since they had enough manpower, an eighth of the load was packed up in no time.

Li Feng said, “Team Lead Zhou, it’s really much easier transporting with you. At this rate, we could have the whole truck loaded in just an hour or two.”

“I wasn’t expecting this either. There are still quite a few vegetables here too. Looks like we’ll be coming back a lot,” Zhou Yimin said with admiration.

It was a real pleasure to work with such a reliable partner.

The two of them kept chatting casually.

Village Chief Wang would report a few jin less each time. Some of the villagers didn’t quite understand why, but given the chief’s authority, no one spoke up. They trusted that he’d explain it later.

There’s power in numbers, and throughout the harvesting, weighing, and loading process, nothing went wrong. The progress was excellent.

After two hours of work, they had finally loaded all eight thousand jin of yardlong beans.

Village Chief Wang said, “Accountant Zhang, the total is eight thousand one hundred and fifty jin. Does that sound right?”

“That’s correct. At six cents a jin, that comes to four hundred and eighty-nine yuan. Let’s round it up to four hundred and ninety,” Zhang Yi replied.

They’d expected such a large batch to take all morning to handle, but to their surprise, it was done in just over two hours. Being able to go back and report early, the extra one yuan wasn’t a big deal. Besides, the factory was still making a profit—each batch weighed in slightly under, and added up, it probably came out to more than that one yuan.

Village Chief Wang quickly expressed his thanks: “Much appreciated, Accountant Zhang.”

Back when they sold to the supply and marketing cooperative, it was only four cents per jin—and they were still picky, treating people poorly. At the time, with no other sales channel, they had to grit their teeth and accept it. But now, the steel factory was not only easy to work with, it even paid a higher price. It seemed betting on Zhou Yimin had paid off.

Zhang Yi took out a bundle of cash from her briefcase and counted out four hundred and ninety yuan. Normally, the payment would only be made after the goods were taken back and logged into inventory, but with Zhou Yimin as a guarantor, she was able to pay on the spot.

Seeing this, Village Chief Wang was a bit stunned and asked, “Accountant Zhang, I heard payment usually comes after the goods are received?”

For such a large order, it was customary for the buyer to call the seller to collect payment after logging the goods.

“Village Chief Wang, you should thank Team Lead Zhou. If not for his guarantee, we wouldn’t be paying on-site. He said your Shangshui Village has a tough situation, so this is a special case,” Zhang Yi explained.

Once again, Village Chief Wang felt reassured about placing his bets on Zhou Yimin and quickly said, “Thank you, Accountant Zhang and Team Lead Zhou.”

You could tell she worked in finance—the way she counted money was different from others, much faster too. In no time, she had the amount ready and said, “Village Chief Wang, please count this to make sure the amount is correct.”

She then handed the money over.

Village Chief Wang took it and began counting carefully, though he definitely wasn’t as fast as Zhang Yi. He counted once, then again, and upon confirming there was no mistake, he said, “The amount’s correct.”

The villagers nearby, seeing all this, broke into broad smiles. After all, they would share in the profits from these vegetables.

Shangshui Village had fewer than a hundred households. Even if only a quarter of the earnings were shared, each family would get over a yuan.

Don’t look down on that one yuan. You could harvest a few times a month, right?

That meant several yuan per month.

How much could they even earn in a month from work points?

At that moment, someone sighed, “If only all that money went to me—I’d die happy!”

“Wang Lao’er, you’re dreaming. That’s public money. Keep talking like that and someone’ll feed you peanuts,” someone retorted.

Punishments were still pretty harsh for misbehavior these days.

Wang Lao’er rolled his eyes. “I was just saying, can’t even joke anymore?”

The others were already used to Wang Lao’er’s loose tongue.

Wang Jianguo said, “Didn’t expect the steel factory to be so generous—six cents a jin! That’s two cents more than the supply and marketing cooperative. That’s over a hundred yuan more in total!”

“No wonder you’re the most educated one in the village—you figured it out just like that,” someone nearby said.

Shangshui Village was practically buzzing with excitement. Seeing the earnings made all their fatigue vanish. It was like they could work another all-nighter without issue.

Zhang Yi walked over to Zhou Yimin and Li Feng and said, “Procurement is complete. We can head back now.”

Li Feng nodded and didn’t dawdle—he got straight into the truck, ready to leave.

Zhang Yi also got in, but seeing that Zhou Yimin hadn’t followed, she asked, “Team Lead Zhou, you’re not coming with us?”

“I won’t be heading back just yet. I’ve got something else to take care of,” Zhou Yimin replied.

He still had to return to Zhoujiazhuang to check on how the chicks were hatching.

Li Feng said, “Alright then, Team Lead Zhou, we’ll head back first.”

After all, the more trips he made, the higher the allowance. Long-distance trips had a daily allowance of about one yuan, and urban trips earned about sixty cents per run. Add that to his base salary, and he could easily make fifty to sixty yuan a month.

That was one reason why people envied truck drivers.

“Alright, travel safely,” Zhou Yimin said.

Village Chief Wang watched the truck leave before stepping forward and saying, “Yimin, we really owe you one. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have gotten paid so quickly—and at six cents a jin, too.”

Zhou Yimin waved it off. “No problem. I’m just doing what I can within the rules. If you really want to thank me, let me handle all the village’s future procurement.”

After all, procurement was his job. The more he could source, the better.

As for promotions, Zhou Yimin wasn’t too concerned.

If it weren’t for how little time he’d been on the job, he probably would’ve been promoted already. Several of his small inventions were still pretty useful to the country in its current state.

(End of Chapter)