Her Cultivation Diary
Chapter 296 - Chapter 296 296. Maotai and Tobacco_1

Chapter 296: 296. Maotai and Tobacco_1 Chapter 296: 296. Maotai and Tobacco_1 Zu Jun said it made sense.

So Song Tan also nodded, “Not bad.”

“After all, it’s Qiaoqiao’s first time promoting products, and we didn’t set high expectations. A sale of 4100 units is satisfying.”

Zu Jun also started to smile, “A sales revenue of 4100 is really not–wait, is it sales revenue or quantity sold?”

Song Tan smiled honestly, “4100 units.”

Zu Jun: …Every beginning is… hard???

She cleared her throat, words of encouragement stuck in her mouth, unable to be spoken, so she simply changed the subject, “Right, about the subsidy we talked about earlier, a portion of it has already arrived.”

“But some of it requires time to verify, like whether the peach trees on your mountain are properly harvested, to ensure they aren’t just randomly planted to scam subsidies. Someone will come to check on this later.”

Song Tan nodded, “Okay!”

Compared to the current income, although the subsidy is not small, it doesn’t stand out much anymore. However…

She still owed the village seventy thousand yuan.

After all, who asked her family to build the house first?

Fortunately, although Zu Jun is a university graduate serving as a village official, she has a thorough understanding of rural conditions.

The months of May and June are naturally an awkward time, the green and yellow not yet bridging, not yet the harvest season.

Honestly, the various income-generating channels Song Tan’s family has come up with from the beginning of the year till now have already been a delight to her.

Now looking at this inscrutable girl of the same age, what she saw was all potential–for this year the money might not be readily available, but she has leased 20 acres of forest land.

But the hill behind is shaped like a bowl, much more than 200 acres when all directions are added up!

Should this year’s harvest go well, isn’t it normal to continue leasing more land next year?

With more land, the family’s manpower won’t be enough, and since this area isn’t suitable for machinery, doesn’t that create job opportunities for the village?

If the villagers’ quality of life improves, eventually every household might come up with something else, and slowly the village’s vitality will return, and then there will be more leverage to request road repairs from the authorities.

Once transportation improves, won’t the village’s vitality naturally return?

All of these long-term plans had been made in Zu Jun’s mind.

Now facing Song Tan, a villager with her own sales channels, she’s filled with nothing but joy–who cares whether the money is repaid a day sooner or later?

Originally, the contract stipulated repayment in six months, and it’s only been two, so there’s no rush!

Moving on, she brought up another matter:

“You’re keeping a close watch on the mountain, right?”

Song Tan nodded.

Surrounded by an iron fence, planted with a ring of Golden Sakura, and guarded by two dogs.

If it isn’t safe now, then it would mean half the village was out to steal things.

Zu Jun smiled, “I saw the fungal sticks you gave to the village’s elderly at Grandma Hongying’s house the other day, and they’re growing very well.”

“I suppose your Silver Ear mushrooms must be even more flourishing by now, I just worry someone in the village might be tempted to take advantage.”

Those Black Wood Ear fungal sticks were also cut from the chestnut trees on the mountain, with holes drilled and spores inserted, from the same batch as those on the mountain.

Initially, it was Song Sancheng and Song Youde who had decided to give each of the elderly who came to help a stick along with food.

Needless to say, just propping it up somewhere in the corridor, it would yield enough for an occasional dish for oneself after some time.

It was because of this seemingly trivial consideration that when the Song Family needed labor, they always had an eager response.

–The countryside has a unique social system that is different from the city.

In the village, without enough good will, even if you offer money, getting people to help out with work can be a challenge.

Lao Song’s family was able to rally the community to join in whatever endeavor they took on this year, a testament to the way they conducted themselves.

It was exactly because of this style that Zu Jun was absolutely certain: they would never just focus on their own prosperity!

Therefore, when it came to affairs related to Lao Song’s family, she also showed great enthusiasm.

However, beyond all this, Song Tan noticed something amiss–

The business was dealt with, so why was the young secretary still lingering, chatting and not making a move to leave?

Song Tan glanced at her, “Director Zhu, have you not had your dinner yet?”

Zu Jun immediately burst into laughter, “I am an official after all, I can’t always take advantage of your hospitality–how embarrassing it would be to come over for dinner!”

Song Tan: …Do you call this being embarrassed?

But Secretary Xiaozu had been genuinely working hard in the village, so Song Tan still led her back to the courtyard.

Zu Jun, true to her word, didn’t take advantage of them. She took out two bottles of alcohol from the trunk, which made Song Youde’s eyes light up the moment he saw them!

“This is too much; taking such fine liquor… I can’t accept this, you should just come over…”

If only he hadn’t glued his eyes to the bottles so firmly while saying “I can’t accept this,” it might have been more believable.

Yet Zu Jun smiled affably and with a touch of greenness, as if she were indeed a junior: “Grandpa Song, don’t be so polite. It’s taken from our home stock, it didn’t cost a thing. We hardly drink at home, it would be a waste to just leave it there, wouldn’t it?”

Wow!

Song Tan glanced at the bottle of Maotai and thought to herself, your family really is quite wealthy.

But thinking about it, they are the type to drop 20,000 yuan on tea leaves without batting an eye, so it figures.

The gifted liquor clearly struck a chord with Song Youde, leading the old man to hesitate for a long while. After some pushing back and forth, he finally took the bottles with an embarrassed yet joyful face, and then asked gleefully, “Director Zhu…”

“Grandpa Song, if I stay for dinner at your home, we’re all family here, just call me Xiaozu.”

Secretary Xiaozu wore an honest expression.

“Xiaozu, does anyone in your family smoke?”

The sight of good liquor had the old man all animated: “Let me tell you,” he pulled his stool a bit closer, “Tantan planted several rows of tobacco for me on the field ridges this year, and we’re about to cure a batch soon, golden and shiny, and full of aroma!”

“Just for these two bottles of liquor, if anyone in your family smokes, I’ll share some with you!”

Zu Jun blinked and quickly reviewed the legal issues related to cultivating tobacco in her mind before smiling,

“No need, Grandpa Song, a gentleman doesn’t covet what others enjoy. You like it so much, keep it for yourself to smoke.”

“In my family, my dad and grandpa are used to smoking cigarettes.”

However, Song Youde was a stubborn old man.

He found the young secretary to be sincere!

And he wanted to reciprocate with sincerity!

Giving her tobacco in return for her wine was a fair deal!

His face full of disagreement: “Cigarettes may be called cigarettes, but they stink when you smoke them! Our local tobacco, on the other hand, is fragrant when smoked–”

“Smoking is harmful to health!!!”

Before he could finish, Qiaoqiao stood beside them and shouted loudly.

Song Youde: …

Looking around, he saw several children glaring at him angrily, obviously none of them in favor of smoking, while his son and his Seventh Uncle sat quietly aside, looking at the sky, the ground, the stove–anywhere but daring to speak up.

Song Youde: …

With an awkward smile, he didn’t persist in his promotion but whispered to Zu Jun,

“Just wait a little longer, once it’s cured I’ll save the best for you.”