Chapter 240 Peaceful
Yunxi Village was destined to be restless that night.

After Zhang Yunqi finished speaking, he did not stay for long and left the noisy small auditorium directly. Judging from the current situation, he felt that he needed to sort out things with the villagers in private and it was not appropriate for him to stay here. The women who were gossiping and talking nonsense, seeing that there was no more fun to watch, also left in twos and threes with their children. Those who stayed were the young and strong men in the village who were sensible and wanted to make money. They argued in the small auditorium about the cooperation method proposed by Zhang Yunqi until late at night.

The key point of the dispute is still money.

According to Zhang Yunqi's plan, farmers who want to join the cooperative need to collect 120,000 yuan, which means each household needs to get more than 1,700 yuan. This amount of money is definitely not a small amount that everyone can afford. Even workers in the city cannot save such a large amount of money after a year without food or drink, let alone these farmers who work on the crops!
This is really too difficult.

Although Zhang Yunqi made it very clear and reasonable, joining is voluntary and never forced, and those who do not join the cooperative can work and earn wages in the later stage. These farmers are not without scheming. Zhang Yunqi came from the village, but after all, he is now a businessman, representing the interests of the shareholders and workers of the entire cannery. It is not easy to achieve this point, but they are unwilling not to follow along. They have calculated this account. The underwriting contract is real. Zhang Yunqi has already stated that each farmer will collect at least 3,000 kilograms of peanuts and soybeans this year. At the current market price of peanuts and soybeans, as long as they follow, they can get back all their capital in one year. If the efficiency is higher, there will even be a surplus. Within three years, the village will have a large hoard and a small hoard, and every household will become a millionaire!

How many of these poor and helpless farmers would be willing to miss such a good way to make money?

Of course, some families with extra money don't have to worry about this. When the project is launched, they can just buy shares directly, like the new village director Zhang Haijun, the richest man in Yunxi Village. However, these are just a few dozen people after all. Most of the farmers in the village have just escaped from the hardship of not having enough food to eat, and they can't save much spare money throughout the year.

For a moment, the small auditorium fell into silence.

Village Secretary Zhang Guorui and Village Director Zhang Haijun did not say anything else. The enthusiasm that Zhang Yunqi had when he first proposed to set up this professional cooperative was gone. They knew that the current situation was difficult to resolve. If only a few individuals were short of the money, they could still find a way to make up for it, but most families in the entire village could not afford the money. What could they do?

Zhang Haijun watched several men smoking beside him, seemingly thinking about their own future without thinking. In the silence, the sound of gurgling water came from the Crescent River in the distance. He couldn't help but sigh, threw away the cigarette butt, and stood up and left the small auditorium.

The small auditorium in the village was not far from Zhang Haijun's home, only a few hundred steps away. When Zhang Haijun walked to the door of his house with a depressed mood, he saw Zhang Yunqi, Ji Ling and his daughter Zhang Xiaomei soaking their feet in hot water in the main hall. His wife brought a cup of strong tea to him. He waved his hand and said to Zhang Yunqi: "Yunqi, if you have nothing to do after washing your feet, uncle wants to chat with you."

Ji Ling and Zhang Xiaomei both looked at Zhang Yunqi. They noticed that something was not right on Zhang Haijun's face.

Zhang Yunqi nodded and said yes.

He wiped his feet with a foot cloth, stepped on slippers and went to the yard with Zhang Haijun. Zhang Haijun squatted on the threshold of the small yard. Zhang Yunqi took out a Furongwang cigarette and lit it for him, and asked: "Uncle, what do you want to talk to me about?"

Zhang Haijun puffed on a half-smoked cigarette before he said with a worried look on his face: "Yunqi, I want to talk to you about some things at the meeting tonight. There are some things I don't know if I should say."

Zhang Yunqi thought so too: "Uncle, tell me."

Zhang Haijun put out his cigarette butt and said, "Then I'll be frank, Yunqi, what you said at the meeting tonight is indeed reasonable. If I treat you as an outsider, as a big boss who came to Yunxi Village purely to invest and do business, then I can't point out anything wrong, but you are not. No matter what, you are a Yunxi villager and your roots are in Yunxi Village! What you said at the end that if you can't do it in the village, you can go to the township to do it, I don't want to hear it! There are some short-sighted idiots in the village who can't stand others doing well, but you can't kill everyone with one stick."

Zhang Haijun's tone became a little excited: "Uncle is impatient, and what he said was unpleasant to hear, so please don't blame him. You are such a smart kid, you must have seen through the difficulties of the villagers at a glance, but no matter what, they really want to follow you to do something big. It has been so many years, and these farmers in our village have been getting up early and working late to have enough to eat. They are really tired of suffering! In 78, when the household contract responsibility system had not yet been implemented, do you know how poor the people in our village were? They couldn't even afford salt! Many people swept Guanyin soil from the wall of the toilet and mixed it with wild vegetables to eat! Now the village has finally produced a capable person, and there is such a good idea as a cooperative. Who would not be willing to follow us?"

At this point, Zhang Haijun sighed: "Uncle doesn't want to make things difficult for you. Your father and I have been neighbors since the founding of New China. I watched you grow up. If there are any problems in the village, I will definitely protect you. But now that we are talking about this in private, I hope you can be more emotional. Since you are willing to help these poor people in the village, you can't give up halfway. Even if uncle pulls down this old face to beg you, can you come up with a compromise to solve this matter?" Zhang Yunqi was touched by the excited middle-aged man in front of him. After a while, he said: "Uncle, don't think too much, I will solve this matter. How about this, do you know the mayor of Longwan Town?"

Zhang Haijun was startled at first, then he stood up and said, "Are you really going to expand the cooperative to the entire Longwan Town? Will there be a share for our village in that case?"

Zhang Yunqi said, "I am a Yunxi villager after all, and I will definitely put the interests of the village first. I would not have said those things at the meeting unless there was really no one to cooperate. As for the 120,000 yuan for setting up the cooperative, if the villagers want to work together, they must pay for it. If they can't afford it, I will find a way to help them solve it. So uncle, don't worry about it. It's just that this joint-stock cooperative is a new type of economic cooperation organization. In terms of public opinion guidance and policy, we need to bring the local government in. Even if the local government plays a leading role in name, it can save us a lot of unnecessary trouble."

Zhang Haijun finally calmed down after hearing this: "Yunqi, you are still thinking about things carefully. Since you said so, then uncle believes you. I know Longwan Town Mayor Zou Qixian. Will you go to see him tomorrow?"

As soon as he finished speaking, Zhang Haijun realized that it was inappropriate. With the current status of this kid, and nominally coming here to invest, if he really put it on the table, all the high officials in the county would flock to him. There was no need for the kid to go and see an official at the level of a town mayor in person, so he said, "I'll find someone to contact Mayor Zou tomorrow."

Zhang Yunqi nodded and said yes.

The two lit another cigarette at the gate of the courtyard and talked about Zhang Yunqi's father. It was not until the barking of dogs in the deep village stopped that Zhang Haijun returned to the house. Zhang Yunqi was not sleepy. He sat alone on the doorstep, looking at the shabby little courtyard opposite. That was his former home. I don't know why, but a few days ago, when I sent my father back to sweep the grave, I walked around inside for a while. Looking at the weeds growing in the courtyard where I grew up, and the cracks on the walls, I always felt an indescribable emptiness in my heart.

"Why are you sitting here alone?"

Zhang Yunqi tilted his head, looked at Ji Ling who was walking over with his hands behind his back, and said with a smile: "Get some fresh air."

"Did my uncle say something bad to you just now? Did the result of tonight's meeting go badly?" Ji Ling sat on the threshold next to Zhang Yunqi, her black and white eyes blinking, and under the moonlight, her little face was flowing with a bright white light.

Zhang Yunqi said: "Not really. It's normal for the first meeting to have a bad result. Seek common ground while reserving differences, and things will get better slowly."

Ji Ling held her delicate chin with both hands and looked up at the starry sky: "Sometimes I feel that your life is very tiring. If you care about too many people's feelings, you are no longer yourself."

Zhang Yunqi smiled: "How should I put it? It's not tiring, but life is like this. Someone has to carry the burden forward so that the people around him can live a peaceful life."

Ji Ling tilted his head: "Who are the people around you?"

Zhang Yunqi said: "Aren't you right next to me?"

Ji Ling narrowed her eyes and smiled. She suddenly reached out and messed up Zhang Yunqi's hair: "Silly little classmate Zhang, be happy. I don't want you to carry a heavy burden. We all want a peaceful life."

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(End of this chapter)