Chapter 126 - 127: An Idea to Expand the Feed Mill

Chapter 126: Chapter 127: An Idea to Expand the Feed Mill

Zhao Xuechu nodded. "Oh, right, I wanted to talk to you about something..."

"The meat, right?" Li Yang said with a smile. "I can get you some fish starting tomorrow. In about a week, I can start supplying you with ducks, too."

"Really?" Zhao Xuechu’s eyes lit up. "That would be wonderful!"

"Of course!" Li Yang nodded. "Don’t you worry. I’ve already made all the arrangements."

Zhao Xuechu was pleased. "Okay, then I’ll be heading back. By the way, Zhenzhen said she might invite you to a meal in the next couple of days to thank you."

"Why didn’t she tell me herself?" Li Yang asked, a little exasperated.

"She’s just embarrassed!" Zhao Xuechu said, her face full of amusement. "After all, she couldn’t stand the sight of you before, and now you’ve saved her. A girl’s got to have her pride, you know."

"Alright, just have her call me then. But I’ll warn you now, I don’t know if I’ll be free."

"You have to come!" Zhao Xuechu was already leaving as she said this.

「Li Yang headed to Bishui Lake.」

It was around four in the afternoon, and many of the anglers were already taking stock of their haul.

The fishing at Bishui Lake was, admittedly, quite good. There were plenty of fish to be caught.

There were common carp and grass carp, as well as yellow catfish and others. The variety was impressive.

Li Yang walked over and took a look. Very satisfied, he said to them, "Looks like everyone had a good haul."

"President Li, come talk to us! How on earth do you raise your fish to be so delicious?" an old man immediately came forward, grabbing Li Yang’s arm. "The ones we take home ourselves are just ordinary fish. Why are the fish you have here so different?"

The others started chattering, clearly just as curious.

Li Yang chuckled. "Everyone, you can stop asking. It’s my secret! Otherwise, why would you all come here to eat fish, right?"

"Isn’t that the truth!" one of the men slapped his thigh and said. "I just brought my wife and kid to eat here. One fish wasn’t even enough for them! My wife doesn’t call me a spendthrift anymore. She says if I come here to fish, she’ll definitely tag along if she has the time."

The rest of the group burst into laughter.

Li Yang laughed along with them. "Well, that’s great! You’re all always welcome here. Feel free to come by anytime; we’ll be happy to have you."

The others nodded one after another, clearly pleased by his words.

Before long, they were all getting ready to leave.

Everyone went back, except for the eleven people who were staying there.

Li Yang put the fish he had bought back into the pond.

Of course, to keep them separate, Li Yang raised them in two different ponds.

After a moment’s thought, Li Yang went to find Li Min.

"Uncle Min..." Li Yang said with a smile. "I’ve seen you go fishing before. Since you don’t have much going on right now, how about this: from now on, you can help me collect the fish and manage them here. What do you think?"

Li Min’s eyes lit up. "Xiaoyang, are you serious?"

"Of course I’m serious. You’ve seen it—they sell me their catch every time they fish. I can’t possibly handle it all myself. So, you can do this for me. At the same time, I’ll probably be harvesting fish daily from now on, so you’ll need to help me net them every morning. How about this: I’ll pay you a salary of three thousand a month. What do you say?"

"Yes!" Li Min was so excited he practically jumped. "Then it’s settled! I’ll work for you, and you’ll give me a fixed salary."

"Deal!" Li Yang laughed. "It’s settled."

Li Min certainly had a reason to be excited.

Li Yang had now hired three people from their village.

There was Xia Lian, who managed the mushroom house, and Zhou Liyun, who helped Li Yang with the vegetable plot. The last one was him.

His wife cooked for the anglers every day. She wasn’t paid a monthly salary, but by the day.

And don’t look down on that—she earned at least two hundred a day.

Adding his one hundred, that was three hundred a day. Almost ten thousand a month!

In a small mountain village like this, that was a huge sum of money.

He had no reason to refuse.

"Alright, I’m going to head over to Sister-in-law Liyun’s place." With a smile, Li Yang walked over to Zhou Liyun’s house.

As soon as he got to her house, he heard the sound of the feed grinder.

Apparently, Zhou Liyun was still grinding feed.

Li Yang walked up. "Sister-in-law, still at it?"

"I feel like I can’t keep up!" Zhou Liyun said while moving bags of feed. "Now the chickens need to eat, the fish need to eat... I just can’t seem to make enough."

Li Yang quickly went to help her. "Sister-in-law, why don’t we hire a couple of people to help with the feed grinding?"

"Huh?" Zhou Liyun was taken aback. "Is it necessary to spend that money?"

Li Yang smiled before saying seriously, "I’ve already found people in Taomu Village who are willing to raise ducks, but they have to use our feed. When that happens, the demand for feed will be even higher. So, I was thinking, maybe we should expand our feed production equipment."

Now that he put it that way, Zhou Liyun nodded. "Well, if that’s the case... then we really should have people dedicated to grinding feed."