Chapter 421: Chapter 421: The Strange Farm
After greeting Mayor Liu, he then got up and left the place.
However, this time Liu Zheng did feel a lot more cheerful, and he hadn’t expected that his affairs would progress so smoothly. Moreover, it seemed as if everything were happening in an orderly fashion, without the slightest discrepancy.
Upon returning to the town, he immediately headed to the village committee. With all the busyness over the town’s affairs in the past few days, he had neglected the village committee and wasn’t up to date on the current situation.
After pushing open the door, he saw several people sitting around a long table, their heads bowed, as if discussing something.
When they saw Liu Zheng enter, they quickly looked up as if they had seen a new hope.
"Doctor Liu, you’re back? We were just saying, should we give you a call to update you on the situation here? Now, please take a look at these materials we’ve gathered. We have taken over the task, and the source tracing issue for the two villages has been cleared up through our investigations," said one of the individuals, while Li Dazhuang placed a thick stack of documents in front of Liu Zheng, who accepted it with a nod of satisfaction, then began to read attentively.
Although the handwriting was somewhat sloppy and the documents looked a bit blurry, his record keeping was very clear, from the initial divergences in the village to the subsequent historical events all meticulously documented.
"Good, well done. Are all these gathered materials, and do we still need to verify their authenticity?"
"No problem, we’ve verified everything, so you don’t need to worry too much about their authenticity."
"That’s good to hear. With these materials, I can more or less understand the situation. Oh, by the way, Sister-in-law, how are things on your end?"
"I’ve recorded all the information on the women, including some of the basic current data. Take a look, these are what I’ve compiled over the past couple of days. If there’s anything I’ve missed, just let me know, and I’ll update it right away," she replied.
It appeared that these few individuals were very efficient in their work, managing to compile so much information in just two days. This brought Liu Zheng a great deal of satisfaction, feeling he indeed had some very good assistants.
"Great, you’ve all worked hard these past two days. However, we have only just begun, and a lot of tedious tasks still await us. Moreover, construction on the factory began early this morning. I believe you must have heard some news. Also, we need to start the recruitment in 20 days. The deadline is tight, but if we really want the factory to start operating soon, then we must begin public recruitment. Sister-in-law, you will be in charge of recruiting workers. As for you others, I have different arrangements."
"We’re starting recruitment already?" another asked.
"Yes, it should have already started. Moreover, I’ve roughly discussed it with Liu Jiaxin. She said that initially, we might not need too many people, maybe about 50 to 60. That should suffice, but once the entire production line gets going, we’ll likely need much more than that."
"So should I recruit publicly or let them compete for the positions?"
"You handle the balance. Also, prioritize the villagers for the worker positions. For the elderly, weak, sick, and disabled who can’t work, if we can arrange related positions for them to do things within their capacity, we must also try to accommodate that," he instructed.
"Elderly, weak, sick, and disabled? Doctor Liu, you’re not kidding me, are you? This is a new factory. If you bring a bunch of infirm people there, Jia Xin will have a fit!"
"I’m talking about a certain proportion, not all the workers fall into that category. Besides, what will those weak and disabled people do? Do you expect them to just live on subsistence allowances? I hope they can rely on their own hands to live a better life, understand?" he emphasized.
"Alright, if that’s what you’re thinking, I’ll pay special attention to this when hiring."
"Okay, then you take care of that. Also, you all have a new task now. We need to quickly make changes to the current scale of our farms, and one more thing, we need to build a fish pond in the center of the village. These tasks need immediate execution."
"Building a new fish pond shouldn’t be a problem. You’ve already discussed it at the village committee before, and a detailed plan should be workable after a discussion among ourselves. But, there’s an issue with the farm," another voice pointed out.
"Yeah, Doctor Liu, that farm requires your attention. In the past, it never got much attention, but actually, I worked there once, for about three to four months. They couldn’t even pay the wages, so we left," said someone else.
"I’ve never been to the farm myself, so next, we’ll have to see the situation for ourselves."
"You want to go now?"
"Since we’re at this point, I must face it deliberately. Everyone can back off, but I’m the one who cannot," he stated firmly.
"Okay, then we’ll go with you right away. But Doctor Liu, I have to remind you, don’t talk when you get there. The so-called farm, actually, has nothing inside now. You just haven’t been there recently. They keep the doors shut all day, and no one really knows what’s going on inside," the person warned.
"Right, isn’t there supposed to be a farm manager? I haven’t paid attention to this matter before. Who is their manager?" Liu Zheng inquired.
"His name is Liu Erdong."
"Liu Erdong, that name sounds familiar. Wasn’t he away from the village? I feel like I know the name, but I have no impression of the person," Liu Zheng mused.
