Chapter 233 - 198: News, One After Another...

Chapter 233: Chapter 198: News, One After Another...

Wang Fulong’s main task today was to organize the tender documents according to the requirements of the three bidding companies and to participate in the bid meeting for Haiya Primary School’s lunch service. To his surprise, the venue for this meeting was an actual classroom!

It was a real classroom. The blackboard still had a teacher’s summer homework assignment on it, along with the three large words for "Happy Summer Vacation." In the drawer of the desk where Wang Fulong sat, he found two brand-new summer homework workbooks, neither of which even had a name written on them. ’School’s starting in just a few days,’ he thought. ’I wonder if this kid is panicking, searching everywhere for their lost homework.’

Most of the others attending the bid were suppliers who specialized in school lunches and rarely dealt with retail. Their clothes were neat and respectable enough, but it was all casual daily wear. This made Wang Fulong, dressed to the nines in a suit and leather shoes, stick out like a sore thumb. He found the situation rather amusing.

The bids he’d attended in the past on behalf of the Brocade Hotel were always at city or provincial conferences, or large-scale events like the Hai City Machinery Equipment Exhibition.

Those events were held in conference rooms with full projection systems. Everyone, from the organizers to the bidders, would be in professional attire. You’d shake hands with people whether you knew them or not, make some small talk, introduce yourself, and then settle into a cordial, "let’s all get along" atmosphere.

It was nothing like this. Here, everyone seemed to be sizing each other up with disdain. Whenever two people made eye contact, they would, with a shared, unspoken understanding, give each other an eye-roll.

Watching all this, Wang Fulong assumed they must all be on bad terms. But once the bid meeting was over, they were all slinging arms over each other’s shoulders, making plans for dinner or a late-night snack. A couple of them even invited Wang Fulong to join them for a late-night snack, to get to know each other...

He pulled out his phone and glanced at the time. It was 6:30 PM, well past quitting time. Wang Fulong hesitated for a moment before agreeing. He joined them, and they walked with their arms slung over each other’s shoulders toward a nearby food stall.

"Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant has been on a roll lately, huh? I did the math—you guys are putting out over three thousand meals a day just for the lunch rush." One of the men took a swig directly from his beer bottle and chuckled. "Good thing you only do lunch, or the rest of us would be out of business!"

"Hardly, hardly. We’re just trying to make a living. Our restaurant’s business model is different from yours; we mostly serve individual customers..."

"I wouldn’t say that. If your business model was so different, why would we be running into each other here today, right?" another man cut in. His tone, expression, and gestures all seemed perfectly normal, but to Wang Fulong’s ears, the words had a strange, underlying meaning.

"Hah!" Wang Fulong said, feigning frustration. "We’re a small company with a lot of mouths to feed. We have to explore every possible avenue to see what works."

"If you ask me, that delivery service your restaurant is doing is a great idea. I overheard some of the younger guys at my company talking yesterday. They said there’s a platform in Hai City now where you can order online, pay, and get food delivered. One of them tried it last night around eight. He ordered some barbecue for a late-night snack, and it showed up at his door in under half an hour." As he spoke, the man gave Wang Fulong a thumbs-up. "Incredible, absolutely incredible!"

The moment he heard "after eight p.m.," Wang Fulong felt something was off. When the man mentioned a barbecue snack delivered in under half an hour, he snapped out of the casual mood, a flicker of confusion in his eyes.

"Our restaurant only delivers between eleven in the morning and two in the afternoon," Wang Fulong said, waving his hands dismissively. "An order after eight at night? That definitely wasn’t us." He then turned to the man who had spoken, his face a mask of curiosity. "Hey, do you happen to know the name of that platform? Or have a link to the website? I’d like to check it out."

Wang Fulong picked up his teacup, emptied the tea onto the ground, and filled it to the brim with beer. He raised the cup high with both hands. "If I hadn’t come out to eat with you all tonight, I never would have known a competitor had popped up right under my nose. Come on, this one’s a toast to all of you. I’m finishing mine, you all drink as you please!"

With that, he downed the beer in a single gulp, then turned the cup upside down to show the others he had drained every last drop.

Wang Fulong had shown them a great deal of respect, and besides, a delivery platform wasn’t a direct competitor to these other suppliers. So, the man immediately pulled out his phone, called one of his employees, and got the name of the delivery platform—Flash Delivery.

Xu Family Village.

After checking that everything was running smoothly at Xu’s Braised Shop, Xu An headed back to Xu Family Village.

The addition of Tang Wen and Wang Fulong had lightened Xu An’s workload, allowing him to get home before the two little ones, Xu Kang and Xu Le, went to bed. He could even have breakfast before heading to the shop the next morning. But that routine lasted less than three days. The opening of Xu’s Braised Shop shattered it, and he was once again so busy he barely had time to breathe.

’Who knows how long it’ll be this time before I can get back to a normal schedule—leaving at eight or nine in the morning and being back in the village by three or four in the afternoon.’

Lost in thought, Xu An steered his small three-wheeled cart onto a path in Xu Family Village. He had gone less than ten feet when he heard Uncle Guosheng’s voice. "Anzi, is that you?"

"Yeah, it’s me. Uncle Guosheng, did you need something?"

"Second Grandpa needs to talk to everyone about something. You’re the only one missing. Hurry over!" Uncle Guosheng said. He then nimbly hopped onto Xu An’s slow-moving cart, causing the entire vehicle to dip by a centimeter.

"Uncle Guosheng, do you know what Second Grandpa wants with us? Did the paperwork for the mudflats go through?"

"No idea. Second Grandma said his expression changed right after he took a phone call. When he called us all over, his face was stone-cold."

Xu An drove the cart straight toward Second Grandpa’s house. Before the vehicle had even come to a full stop, several people emerged from the courtyard. They grabbed Xu An and Xu Guosheng, pulled them inside, and made sure to shut the gate behind them. The entire sequence was as smooth as flowing water, so practiced it was a wonder where they had learned it.

"Ah, Anzi’s here. That’s everyone. I won’t beat around the bush; let’s get right to it." Second Grandpa stroked his goatee. "I just got a call from Professor Yu. He said there’s something a little off about the mudflats, but we won’t know the details until after a proper inspection with professional equipment. This could be a good thing, or it could be a bad thing."

"The reason I’m telling you this before we have the results is that the lease paperwork for the mudflats is nearly complete. One more trip to the city tomorrow to sign on the dotted line, and it’ll be a done deal. We still have a chance to back out before we sign, so I want to hear what you all think."

’A problem with the mudflats? In my past life, those mudflats were perfectly fine right up until they were destroyed. There wasn’t a single thing wrong with them. How could they suddenly become "abnormal" in this life just because Professor Yu showed up?’

’My first reaction is that the inspection results are wrong and the mudflats are actually fine. My second is that this is a chain reaction to Professor Yu’s involvement. Someone thinks that with the professor on board, the mudflats are a guaranteed moneymaker, and now they’re trying to swoop in and steal it.’

But he quickly dismissed that second thought.

’I might not know the exact identity of that simple-looking, middle-aged man, but he’s clearly someone with influence whose words carry weight. Judging by the relationship I saw between him and Second Grandpa the other day, if someone were really trying to hijack the deal, he would have at least given Second Grandpa a heads-up, even if he couldn’t stop it.’

’But it’s also impossible for there to be a problem with the mudflats. In my last life, they were run as a thriving business without a single issue, right up until someone poisoned them with pesticides. Add in the years they lay fallow before that, and they’ve been perfectly normal for a good six or seven years in total.’

"That’s one matter. Now for the second." Second Grandpa stood and walked into the main hall. He returned a moment later, holding a document and a black pen. His expression was grave. "The loans for village collective enterprises are a little different now. To start one, you need the agreement and signature of every villager."

"But that’s not the main point. The main point is this: once you sign, if our village collective enterprise fails to turn a profit and we can’t repay the loan in three years, then every single person who signed will be unable to secure a personal loan until this debt is cleared."

Seeing the villagers’ blank faces, Second Grandpa sighed and explained, "It means if you want to buy a house in the future, or a car, or even start your own small business, you won’t be able to get a loan approved by any bank."

’First, he says there might be a problem with the mudflats. Then, he says if the collective enterprise fails, none of us can get personal loans...’

For a moment, all twenty-odd people in the courtyard fell silent. The sound of their breathing, the whisper of fabric against skin, and the rustling of leaves in the trees became starkly audible.

’There are still a full six years before the mudflats are destroyed. Right now, Xu Family Village is planning to lease the entire area for aquaculture. In my past life, the profits were shared among more than ten villages. Now, Xu Family Village will have it all to itself.’

’Based on the profits from Xu Family Village’s aquaculture in my past life, if we go all-in on developing it this time, we should be able to pay back the loan in about a year. The remaining five years will be pure profit. And if a real problem does pop up down the line, we just won’t renew the lease. Simple as that...’

At this thought, Xu An stood up without hesitation. He walked over to the small round table by Second Grandpa’s side, picked up the black pen lying on it, and was just about to sign his name on the document when Second Grandpa’s hand clamped down on his.

"Anzi, out of everyone here, you’re the one who needs to think this through the most. That money you invested was a bank loan. If this collective enterprise fails, you’ll be saddled with a double debt..."

"Second Grandpa, I’ve made up my mind!" Xu An’s smile vanished, his expression turning serious. "My fast-food restaurant is doing okay, and the new braised shop is off to a good start. A million-yuan loan seems like a lot, but if I just keep paying it down, I’ll clear it eventually."

Xu An paused, cleared his throat, and then continued.

"As for the mudflats, even if there really is a problem with the southeast corner, it’s not like the entire fifteen thousand mu could be affected, right? There has to be some part that’s still usable. Besides, from my few brief interactions with Professor Yu, I’ve gotten the sense that he’s a very direct person. For him to be so vague now, there are only two possibilities. One, there’s a problem, but it’s minor and won’t have much of an impact. The other is that this might actually be a good thing. He’s just not saying more because he isn’t certain and doesn’t want to get our hopes up for nothing."

Xu An’s speech was logical and well-reasoned. Plus, everyone there was familiar with the mudflats. Countless fishermen went there to work every day. If there were truly something wrong or strange about the place, they would have been the first to know, and the news would have spread like wildfire long ago...

Second Grandpa let go of his hand. Xu An smoothly signed his name on the guarantee document and pressed his thumbprint beside it.

He had just sat back down in his seat when Xu Guosheng stood up. He walked slowly but resolutely to the round table, picked up the pen, and carefully wrote his own name next to Xu An’s.

Xu Guosheng returned to his seat, and Aunt Hong stood up. Aunt Hong sat down, and Xu Guoqiang stood up...

No one said a word, but one after another, they signed their names on the guarantee document.