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Chapter 731: Chapter 721 I’m Keeping My Mouth Shut
Shen Yunfang took advantage of the cooler part of the day to walk around the farm, with Goudan following her like a little tail, front and back, making quite a few people aware that this young man was the owner’s own nephew. (Shen Yunfang was the owner, so naturally, Li Hongjun was the lady boss).
By the time Shen Yunfang and Goudan had returned home for lunch, Hongjun had just recovered his wits when he suddenly leaped up from the sofa and rushed to the kitchen, grabbing his aunt’s hand as she wielded a kitchen knife.
"Auntie, auntie, is all that land yours?" The young man’s voice trembled as he asked.
"Most of it, yes." Shen Yunfang figured the kid must have gotten over the shock by now. As for her farm, the people back home were bound to find out sooner or later, but it was still better for them to be kept in the dark for as long as possible, "Now that you know, don’t go broadcasting it everywhere, alright?"
Goudan immediately expressed his stance, "I won’t blab, I won’t blab. My lips are sealed, I swear I won’t even talk in my sleep." After thinking for a moment, he added, "And I won’t tell my mom either." Subconsciously, he knew his mom was the gossiping type--if she got wind of it, probably even the three-year-olds back home would come to know.
Shen Yunfang was amused by him, "That’s good you understand. Your uncle and I just want to have some peaceful days." She continued chopping the vegetables in her hands.
After the promise, the young man grew excited again, "Auntie, how big is your farm exactly? Just from the bit I saw, it’s bigger than our production team’s land."
"More than eight hundred acres."
"Wow, that much?" Goudan exclaimed in shock, "How did you manage to lease all that land? That’s a lot of money, isn’t it? Was it Uncle who paid for it? Also, I noticed there are quite a few people and vehicles in the farm, are those all yours too?"
Goudan turned into a ’why’ machine, bombarding Shen Yunfang with endless questions.
Shen Yunfang picked some easier things to explain, such as the fact that the money was all borrowed from the bank, and that every year the farm’s yield had to cover a large payroll and repay the bank loans.
Goudan opened his mouth, wanting to say how bold and fearless his aunt was for borrowing such a large amount of money, wondering how she would ever pay it back. Being a farm kid himself, he was well aware of the farm’s yield; if one could become rich from farming, he wouldn’t have left his village to venture out. Hearing that his aunt borrowed millions from the bank, his mind went blank—it was an unfathomable figure for him.
Seeing Goudan with his mouth agape in a daze, Shen Yunfang shooed him into the living room, "Go on, go sit outside. I’m about to start cooking."
It wasn’t until mealtime that Goudan returned to normal, and ever since, he couldn’t help looking up to his aunt with eyes full of admiration. Auntie was too awesome. He had never in his life seen anyone—woman or man—quite so gutsy or fearless.
So in the next couple of days, Goudan became like a little tail, following his aunt to the farm every day. At first, he sat obediently with his aunt in the office, but eventually, he couldn’t sit still and would sneak out to explore, especially drawn to the breeding department. After all, as a rural kid, seeing chickens and eggs felt closer to home for him.
Shen Yunfang indulged this behavior of his; he was going to start a job in the city next week anyway and wouldn’t be able to follow her to the farm.
And sure enough, when Monday came, Li Hongjun took a half-day off work specifically to personally take Goudan to his new job.
"Sister-in-law, the watermelons and muskmelons have all been harvested. Apart from what we kept for the staff’s benefits, everything else has been sold. Altogether, it brought in twenty-four thousand three hundred dollars," Zhang Chunwang came over to report.
"Hmm, alright, just keep good account records, and if all the money has come back, deposit it into the farm’s account," Shen Yunfang instructed.
"It’s all come back, and I’ve already deposited it in the bank," Zhang Chunwang, who had been training for over a year, was now able to hold his own. He was just reporting back on these matters—he had already taken care of everything that needed to be done. "The few dozen mu of land that became available, I discussed with Sun Dawei, and we could grow one more crop of autumn vegetables. What do you think, sister-in-law?"
"That’s fine, you all can make decisions about these things," Shen Yunfang was satisfied with such arrangements. "Oh, and remind the sales department to make a trip to H City when they have a moment. If I remember correctly, ** Pharmaceutical Factory is located there, and we should secure a buyer for our Lingzhi mushrooms before the harvest. Also, see if you can discuss next year’s honeysuckle as well," Shen Yunfang remembered another important matter and quickly instructed it to be done.
"Alright, I’ll have them check out the situation there as soon as possible," Zhang Chunwang took note.
"Phew, we’re gradually moving into the autumn harvest now, and things are going to get busier in the coming months. Besides focusing on production, you must also keep an eye on the staff’s dynamics, I can’t afford any slip-ups at crucial times." People tend to get hasty when they’re tired, and when they rush, they nag, which can easily lead to problems; this needed to be prevented in advance.
"Sister-in-law, don’t worry about that; our farm team is very united," Zhang Chunwang said with a smile. Not to boast, but while the farm wasn’t managed like a military unit, most of them had served in the army and had ample self-discipline.
"Good, when you have time, encourage the team. If our farm does well, I’ll certainly treat our employees fairly."
Afterward, the two discussed the upcoming autumn harvest.
Half a month later, the breeding department dispatched a batch of young roosters, around 3,300 in total. The workload for the dozen or so people in the department was already at full capacity, so Zhang Chunwang coordinated hiring ten military wives to set up huge pots next to the chicken coop to start slaughtering and plucking the chickens.
Shen Yunfang requested that, while slaughtering the chickens, extra soft feathers be collected for her, as she planned to make down jackets for her family in the winter.
Over three days, the ten military wives had all 3,000-plus chickens cleaned up. Even the chickens’ innards were tidied up spotlessly due to Shen Yunfang’s instructions.
After checking the market price for chicken in the city, Shen Yunfang decided to value-add by processing these chickens further.
Since they were already slaughtered and the warehouse was cold, the weather still wouldn’t permit the processed chicken meat to last for many days, which is why Shen Yunfang rolled up her sleeves and, together with a few military wives, worked overtime to produce small food items made from chicken meat.
Because they were pressed for time, they didn’t consider many varieties and went with braising. The chicken was broken down, and so the market saw braised chicken heads, wings, feet, legs, and carcasses, among others.
Chicken breast meat was a bit tough, so Shen Yunfang thought of fried chicken strips from the future and transformed all the chicken breast meat into fragrant fried chicken strips. Some people didn’t like eating chicken skin, so she fried that separately and sold it on its own.
As for the innards, since some people didn’t enjoy that taste, she added Sichuan peppercorns and chili to the braising liquid, making a spicy version that turned out to be the most popular of the lot.
Of course, as these products contained no preservatives and were intentionally salted for a slightly longer shelf life, they had a shelf life of three days.
As soon as the products were ready, they were sent directly to the train for sale. And it wasn’t just three days--the 3,300 chickens were sold out in just a day and a half, bringing Shen Yunfang a profit of over 70,000 yuan, which was more than double the profit of just selling the chicken meat, even with a detour.
