Reborn 92's Business Tycoon

Chapter 512: Chapter 512: An old place you won't recognise

'Stay with us for a few days before you go back to school. Don't worry, you won't have to help make noodles,' said Feng Yiping's uncle, smiling, at the village entrance.

The distinguished guests had come and gone quickly. They had seen off the leaders of the city, county and town, and Feng Yiping's uncle and grandfather had to go back too.

The sun was very strong and hot these past few days, and there were not even any showers to cool things down, but for the noodle workshop, it was good weather for high production.

In the past, for such an important event, Grandpa would have stayed for at least a few more days, but these were different times, the road was open, and there were cars, so it was very convenient to come and go.

'I'm not afraid of hard work, as long as you don't mind the extra work I do,' he says. Making noodles is a skilled job.

The family is still busy at home. Although the guests have gone, the villagers are still here. Xiao Zhijie suggests, "Let's go and have a look at the place where you once fought. I hear you were a good cowherd.'

'That's fine, let's go for a walk in the mountains. To be honest, I haven't been to the mountains for years,'

'You've forgotten your roots," says Wang Changning.

This was immediately countered by Wang Changning, 'You're no different,'

and it was only when they started walking that they realised just how much change there had been.

The hill behind the old house was covered in reeds, wormwood and shrubs. This was a sight Feng Yiping had not seen since he was a child. As far as he could remember, the hill had always been bare. How could the weeds have grown so tall when they were either trodden on by pigs or pecked at by chickens as soon as they emerged?

In the past, when Feng Yiping went to his grandfather's house or to junior high school, he had to take the mountain path. Now, because few people use it, it has been taken over by weeds. Looking from the hill, the path is now just a thin line.

When they reached the small river, they were both holding a stick in their hands, which they had pulled from the fence of their family's vegetable garden. There was no other way. The grass along the way was so deep and dense that there must have been a lot of snakes and insects in it.

'The changes are huge,' Feng Yiping said, standing by the river with his stick.

The river in front of him was so different from the one he remembered. How should he put it? It was as if he had been rejuvenated.

For example, the narrow riverbank was now overgrown with wild celery, growing well and strong, with white stalks and green leaves, and reaching a height of 50 to 60 cm.

You can pick celery along this river? How could this be possible a few years ago?

Before, not only were there no wild vegetables, not even weeds could grow deep. If they grew a little, they were either eaten by cows and sheep or cut by people. Now the reeds along the bank are luxuriant, averaging more than a metre high. Even if you hid a fat Xiao Zhijie inside, it would be hard to see.

After standing by the river for a short while, they could see small shrimps and fish the size of a thumb swimming inside. This would have been impossible just a few years ago, when every now and then someone would come along with an electric battery on their back, sending electric shocks back and forth along the river. The river was basically devoid of fish and shrimp, and even the small crabs that walked horizontally managed to avoid them.

After resting their feet for a while in the shade by the river, they continued walking up the mountain.

Although they hadn't been to the mountain in a few years, they still had all their basic skills. When they reached the stone slope where Feng Yiping and his sister had rolled the pine tree down the hill, Xiao Zhijie, who had sweated the most, scooped up some cool mountain spring water and washed his face. 'So comfortable!'

'You can tell just by looking that you guys are really rich now,' said Wang Changning.

One of the most direct changes brought about by the gradual affluence of life in the village is that no one is willing to farm the fields in these mountains next to it, whether they were later cultivated by themselves or distributed to households in the village. It's too much trouble, so it can be considered a kind of spontaneous return of farmland to forest.

He looked around and couldn't find a trace of the fields that his family had worked so hard to open up. Back then, not only were the fields full of crops, but sorghum was also planted in the cracks of the ditches, and a patch of gourd was planted on the top of the ditch. Every day, when Mum returned home from the mountains at noon, she would pick a suitable one, go home, cut it into small pieces and cook it, and then bake a wheat cake for the family's lunch.

Xiao Zhijie poured the water in his hands over them, 'So those people who clamour for ecological protection and prevent soil erosion are going in the wrong direction. As long as you make the farmers rich, so that they no longer ask these mountains for benefits, or feel that it is not cost-effective to ask these mountains and these lands for benefits, the ecology will naturally recover,'

This makes sense. In fact, Feng Yiping later watched some foreign landscape films, such as those from the UK, and he couldn't understand why. Large tracts of land on both sides of the road were just left to grow grass, which was such a waste!

Apart from the fact that they may have a relatively small population, Xiao Zhijie's point is probably the main reason.

For example, nowadays, the people in the village work in factories, and their monthly salary is higher than the income they used to earn from working hard on the fields in these mountains for most of the year. So how could they possibly spend so much energy growing these fields?

If it weren't for the peace of mind that comes from eating food you grow yourself, and if it weren't for the need for raw materials in food factories, it is estimated that many of the fields near the village would be abandoned.

Feng Yuxuan was sweeping the ground in front of the door with a broom. As soon as she saw the celery in their hands, she liked it. 'Who grew this? It's so fresh and better than the ones I buy at the farmers' market,' she said, eating a small piece of celery stem raw. "It tastes so good. Mom, fry some for me tonight. Did we grow this at home?'

Mei Qiuping knew at once, "Do we need to grow this? We should have picked it by the river,'

'Really? Oh, we'll go and cut some tomorrow then. Such good celery, used as a side dish in a noodle restaurant, it'll definitely sell for a good price,'

'You don't know, Yuxuan, there are very few fields growing things along the river now, and there won't be any pesticide or fertilizer residue in the river water. This is definitely pollution-free, pure organic wild celery. You must sell it for a good price,' Xiao Zhijie said.

Lunch was a noisy affair, and there was a lot of food at dinner, but Mei Qiuping was not happy.

'Look at you, you don't touch the fish or the meat, but you fight over that. Haven't you had enough after all these years? What's so good about it?' Mei Qiuping watched as the three of them finished the plate of stir-fried pickled peppers and black-eyed peas in just a few bites, and scolded them with a smile.

'Auntie, this is still the best food to go with rice,' Xiao Zhijie said.

'But you can't just eat that,' Mei Qiuping said, using the serving chopsticks to give him some fish and meat. "It's still your parents who are capable. When you were little, your family had a good life, so you grew up so well. Look at Changning and Yiping, they still can't put on weight,'

Xiao Zhijie looked at Feng Yiping and Wang Changning, and the two of them immediately straightened up, looking very arrogant and elegant. He said with a sad face, "Auntie, I really want to be as skinny as they are,'

'You still have to eat less, there's too much salt,' Feng Zhenchang said, still slowly drinking his cup of wine and smiling at the three young men.

'Yes, experts have said that eating too much pickled vegetables can cause cancer,' Feng Yuxuan agreed, but she also left the fish and meat on the table and ate only the wild celery she had picked by the river.

However, her sister sometimes doesn't think before she speaks, and sure enough, her father immediately began to educate her.

'You, why don't you seek to understand?' Feng Zhenchang was a little upset when he heard his daughter say such things. Nowadays, food factories sell all kinds of pickled vegetables, and they have even gone abroad. Saying things like this is not making things difficult for him, is it?

'Is the pickled vegetable that the expert was talking about the same as the kind we make?'

'Yes, Dad, the kind we make is very good to eat, especially in the summer when you sweat a lot and need to replenish your salt levels. Don't be angry, I'm just going along with what Mum says. Mum, you've led me astray again,'

Feng Yiping laughed to himself, his sister's ability to respond had improved!

Wang Changning was kind and helped change the subject, 'Uncle, this new house is really well built,'

This remark struck Feng Zhenchang's sore spot. 'Well, Yiping, you've been to the villa in the capital, and it's not worse than his,'

'It's better than his,' the two of them said in unison.

'It's busier than his,' Xiao Zhijie said.

'It has a more lively atmosphere than his,' Wang Changning said.

'In short, it's better than his. After we saw it, we both wanted to have our homes rebuilt like this,'

The two flatterers' words made Feng Zhenchang come and say with enthusiasm, 'This matter is really not that simple. You can't just build it if you have money. Our house type was designed by experts from the province. The roads next to it and the various pipes underneath have all undergone scientific planning by experts. If the village cadres are not effective, these things are really not easy to handle. Without bragging, our village should be the first in the province's countryside to have water and sewage.'

Feng Zhenchang couldn't help but share his feelings. Tomorrow, people from Sato Trading Company were coming to visit, and the two factory managers from the food factory and the tea factory were a little worried, so they had come to Feng Zhenchang's house to confirm the arrangements for tomorrow's reception.

'Isn't the reception preparation already in place? Don't be too nervous, just treat them as an ordinary customer,' Feng Zhenchang said, a little impatient.

'You have to have confidence in our products. Our current production volume sometimes can't even supply our own convenience store, so they should be the ones to be nervous,'

Feng Yiping could tell that these two were dealing with foreigners for the first time and were unsure of themselves.

'Relax, food factories and tea factories usually have high requirements in all aspects. As long as you do things as usual, there won't be any problems. You have to think about it: if our products weren't good and attractive to them, would they have travelled thousands of miles to conduct on-site inspections?'

'Yes, but after all, this is the factory's first time receiving foreign businessmen, and they are here to earn US dollars. We are just afraid that something will go wrong tomorrow,'

'No matter if they are foreign or domestic businesses, who else knows as much about our product quality and production requirements as you? Who else is as demanding as you? You all think there are no problems, so what other problems could there be?' These two guys in their thirties and forties actually wanted this young guy Feng Yiping to repeatedly give them confidence.

'Also, regarding the living arrangements, we were wondering if we could decorate that room in the Japanese tatami style?'

Since Sato had come all this way, of course he couldn't just take a quick look and leave. He would have to stay at least one night. There weren't many hotels in town, and it would take four or five hours to go back to the county seat and back, which was impractical.

So Feng Zhenchang arranged for someone to clean out a few rooms in the office building and set them up as bedrooms. The furniture was new, the bedding was new, and the appliances were new. If it weren't for the price he was offering Sato, he wouldn't have gone to such lengths.

'There's no need. This is fine. If we went to Japan for an inspection, they wouldn't change the tatami mats into beds. Don't worry about it,' Feng Yiping sent them off, 'Nothing will happen. Go back and rest well, and wait until after their inspection to place a big order!'