20 years of restarting life

Chapter 3733 Xiang Yong
The banquet was held at the same hotel as last time. Everyone was seated in a private room when the hotel manager hurriedly pushed open the door with a smile.

After Xiang Juan's introduction, Zhao Chang'an learned that the owner of the town's guesthouse was Xiang Juan's younger brother, Xiang Yong.

This is also understandable. Even if an ordinary person were to take over the business, they wouldn't have the guts. This is because many hotels nowadays keep accounts with departments and units on an annual basis and settle accounts at the end of the year. If they don't do this, a hotel in a remote mountain town with very few outsiders would have no business at all.

Everyone's all smiles when we eat and drink, but it's a different story when it comes to collecting debts at the end of the year. If you're not satisfied with hygiene and food safety, the electricity company has a hundred ways to get you.

Xiang Yong is a young man in his late twenties, wearing glasses and exuding a scholarly air. He said he was a graduate of the mathematics department of Shancheng Normal University. After graduating, he worked as a teacher at Pengzhou No. 1 Middle School for two years before resigning to go into business.

Upon hearing that Zhao Chang'an was going to create a new tea brand for Pengzhou, they were so excited that their eyes lit up, and they kept praising and flattering Zhao Chang'an.

When Zhao Chang'an last came to the hotel for dinner, the proprietress was a young woman in her late twenties holding a baby a few months old. She was pretty and charming, and although she was not as good-looking as Lin Xiaojie, she was not too far off.

At the time, the young woman was breastfeeding her baby at the counter. When she saw the customer come in, she quickly pulled the baby out of the breast and stopped the baby from feeding. Before standing up, she pulled up the breast cover and put down her sweater.

However, Zhao Chang'an had sharp eyes and was tall. With a single glance, he saw her entire left side and indeed, it was very voluptuous.

Zou Xiaojun walked alongside Zhao Chang'an at the very front, only slightly shorter than him. He probably saw it too, but he certainly didn't have Zhao Chang'an's sharp eyes, and his view wasn't as direct and clear.

Ignoring her child's wailing, the young woman called out to Qiao Zhanhai, the secretary of Qiaojiashan Town, and busied herself greeting the guests. She was cheerful, efficient, and capable, with a charming and alluring air about her. Zou Xiaojun's eyes were practically glued to her.

Including the previously charming traditional Chinese beauty Feng Caiwei, the teacher Lin Xiaojie from the mountains, and the even more outstanding and beautiful Wu Juan, Zou Xiaojun never looked at them a second time after the first glance. Instead, he looked at this young woman with a different eye, probably because her stunning white hair touched his heart.

It turns out she was Xiang Yong's wife, which is quite interesting.

I wonder if this kid usually eats it. If he does, he's really lucky. If he doesn't, he's a complete idiot who wastes good food.

Moreover, looking at his delicate features and his frail, scholarly appearance, he resembled Xiang Juan somewhat. If this were ancient times, he would definitely be the pageboy that young masters would take with them when they went to the capital for the imperial examinations.

Zhao Chang'an knew that Xiang Yong was the contractor of the tea plantation, so he chatted with him for a while and soon learned that the more than 600 mu of tea gardens that Xiang Yong contracted would produce about 10,000 jin of pre-Qingming tea, dried tea leaves, and tea leaves, as well as tea leaves, each year. In the past, they would sell directly to Xinya Tea Company. Last year, because he misjudged the market and quoted the tea pickers too high a price, he ended up losing more than 100,000 yuan.

"I was stunned when the tea price first came down. But these tea pickers were all aunties and girls recruited from our hometown. We can't go back on our word and send them away, or lower the price."

This year he learned his lesson and contacted New Sprouts beforehand, but they never discussed pricing, saying it would be based on market conditions. But the market is what it is now, and anyone with eyes can see it's worse than last year.

Xiang Yong has decided to suspend the tea plantation for a year because his contract with the town's tea farm will expire in a year and a half, and he wants to get rid of this burden.

Zhao Chang'an smiled and glanced at Wu Yudong, noticing that his expression was rather unpleasant.

Xiang Yong's words were a direct slap in the face to him. As a small local lord, the fact that the merchants under his rule had no choice but to waste resources in such a passive way only proved that there were problems with the local management and guidance in this regard.

"What nonsense are you spouting? What do you mean by 'suspending for a year'? Xiang Yong, don't forget that the town's tea plantation is only contracted to you; the ownership belongs to the town. If you're saying the city's water company is also managed by a company, does that mean the water company can raise prices whenever it wants, or cut off the water supply whenever it wants? Contracting it to you doesn't mean you can do whatever you want. The town has the power to supervise and manage, and can terminate the contract with any company that doesn't fulfill its obligations at any time!" Qiao Zhanhai saw that Wu Yudong's expression was a bit unpleasant and immediately reprimanded his troublesome nephew-in-law in a stern tone.

It's not that Xiang Yong can't stop picking tea this year; it's just the company's decision. As long as you pay your contract fee on time and in full, and do the most basic maintenance of the tea plantation, nobody cares whether you pick tea or not.

In recent years, tea market prices have plummeted. Moreover, with the rapid development of the domestic economy, a large number of people have gone to work in developed coastal cities in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai and the Pearl River Delta. In particular, the labor dispatch industry has absorbed a large number of laborers from Chongqing and Pengzhou in recent years. Large areas of tea gardens in Chongqing have begun to be abandoned, not to mention Pengzhou.

You don't have to adopt it, but you can't say it so negatively.

Moreover, Wu Yudong and Zhao Chang'an are both here in this setting.

Xiang Yong was clearly unconvinced, but seeing his wife and father glaring at him with dark faces, he wanted to argue but didn't dare, so he lowered his head and remained silent.

Where is Qiao Yan?

Qiao Zhanhai didn't want to say another word to his nephew-in-law and asked him where his niece had gone.

"She went to buy winter bamboo shoots, she'll be back in a little while."

Xiang Yong gave a dry, unhelpful answer.

"Mr. Yong, do you spray pesticides on your tea leaves?"

Zhao Chang'an didn't have time to beat around the bush with Xiang Yong, so he asked directly.

"No, we don't spray pesticides. After harvesting the pre-Qingming tea, we close the tea gardens for three months. Then, at the end of summer, we clear away all the overgrown vegetation and prune the tea trees to their original shape. This process is the most dangerous. Poisonous snakes, centipedes, venomous insects, and wasps are impossible to avoid. I wanted to spray pesticides, but Qiao Yan said it would pollute the soil. So, every year at the end of summer, I do the weeding, tree cutting, and soil turning at the tea plantation. Otherwise, the villagers would say that I've become rich and learned to order people around and risk their lives. To be honest, if I had followed my method and used pesticides and seedling growth promoters reasonably, I wouldn't have lost money last year."

With a touch of confidence and pride, Xiang Yong said, "Our tea plantation is made from high-mountain, cloud-shrouded, cold-weather tea. Even if we apply a seedling-promoting agent every night, the taste is still no worse than that of tea from small mountains that are not treated with the agent."

Zhao Chang'an nodded, believing what Xiang Yong said.

Last year, Chen Fanping and his team drastically lowered the tea purchase price. Although this was largely a helpless move in the face of the bad driving out the good, they still gave tea farmers enough profit in terms of price. Otherwise, if no one picked tea, everyone would suffer losses, and they would also be left with nothing.

However, this profit refers to the profit that tea farmers can obtain by selling tea after applying seedling growth promoters.

Xiang Yong did not use seedling growth promoters, and coupled with the fact that high-mountain cloud and mist tea naturally grows leaves slowly, he suffered a loss of over 100,000 yuan.

(End of this chapter)