1988: Back to the human world for a few years

Chapter 512: Mu Family’s Wife Family

Customs vary from place to place in China, and are particularly evident on the fourth day of the Lunar New Year.

It is said that in some places you cannot wash your hair on this day;
In some places, people have to welcome the Kitchen God at home on this day and cannot go out to visit relatives.

However, this does not seem to be the case at the Dongying Command. The fourth day of the Lunar New Year is not only a time to visit relatives, but it is also the peak time to visit non-blood relatives and close friends.

Therefore, the Mu family, which was the most popular family last year, is really lively today.

Of course, although New Year's Eve is a time for all to be done without any taboos, the threshold of the Mu family is there after all. So although there are as many visitors today as pilgrims queuing up to worship Buddha, most of them just knock on the door, hand over the New Year's gifts, and then briefly introduce themselves, say a few auspicious words, and then leave very consciously.

However, although most people are not qualified to enter the house and sit down, it does not mean that everyone is like this.

Therefore, it was less than nine o'clock in the morning. When a certain son-in-law, who had caught up on his sleep, finally finished washing up and walked out of the room, he had already found that the living room of the Mu family was full of people. It was because the living room of the Mu family was quite large, otherwise, there might not be enough space.

But what surprised Yang Mo was...

These guests were not the important allies of the Mu family as he had imagined, such as the Song father and son, the Lin father and daughter, and even from their clothing and temperament, they did not look like people from the headquarters;

In addition, the host who was enthusiastically moving among the guests was not Mu Siyuan, the head of the family, but his usually very low-key mother-in-law.

"Xiao Mo, go over and talk to them. These are the relatives from your mother-in-law's hometown... Your uncle Song and his family will probably arrive before dinner time."

It seemed like a role reversal. Today, Mu Siyuan personally dealt with those ordinary guests knocking on the door to wish a happy new year. He placed two boxes of local specialties that were not over the standard in size in the corner of the living room. He smiled and gave instructions to his son-in-law, then turned around and faced the door where there was another knock.

Mother-in-law’s hometown?

...Tribesmen from Yangxin County?
Yang Mo suddenly realized, I mean these people look so unfamiliar and their accents are so different.

After responding softly, Yang Mo walked over, and under the guidance of his mother-in-law, he first called out "Uncle Ma", "Uncle Su", and "Uncle Sha", and then sat obediently next to his wife like an ordinary junior.

………………

"Alia, is this our foreign uncle?"

A skinny old man in his early fifties looked Yang Mo up and down, then tilted his head to look at his old mother-in-law next to him.

The old mother-in-law, who was pouring milk tea for her son-in-law, laughed when she heard this: "Shaihai, how is it, young man, are you energetic enough?"

Yang Mo raised his eyebrows subconsciously.

If I remember correctly, the old man who was first introduced by my mother-in-law seemed to have the surname Ma. Why did my mother-in-law call him "Shaihai"?
Moreover, these two words, "old mother-in-law" seemed to be pronounced in Persian. It doesn't sound like a clan name, right?

Although the old man was small and thin, he had a strange dignity between his eyebrows that Yang Mo was quite unfamiliar with.
After looking Yang Mo up and down with his hands propped up, the old man nodded, then stretched out his middle finger, dipped some milk tea in the silver cup in front of him, flicked it three times towards Yang Mo in the air, and picked up a hand-grabbed lamb rib from the plate on the long table and handed it to him: "Very energetic son-in-law, not bad... carry on!"

Looking at the rib that was standing straight in front of him like a knife, Yang Mo was a little dazed.

What's the matter with this kind of reward-like behavior?

and also……

Eating hand-pulled lamb early in the morning, are the eating habits in Yangxin so rigid?
Seeing Yang Mo in a daze, Miss Mu beside him quickly whispered: "The elders' gift cannot be refused, take it quickly... remember to take it with both hands."

Yang Mo glanced at the fat lamb chop with a circle of fat in front of him, and forced himself to suppress the twitching of the corners of his mouth. Then he bowed his head slightly to show respect for his elders, took the lamb ribs with both hands, said thank you, and at the signal of his wife's eyes, he ate it clean in no time.

Well, although it is a bit greasy to eat such a big fat lamb chop so early in the morning.

But there is no way, this is probably a custom of their nation;
Since it is a national custom, we should fully respect it, right?

Seeing Yang Mo finish eating the lamb chops, the old man showed a hint of satisfaction in his eyes, and tilted his head to look at his mother-in-law: "Alia, Fatuma has worked very hard in the past two years. We have seen her achievements and are very pleased... You not only have a good son-in-law, but also a good daughter!"

It seemed that the old man's identity was very special. Upon hearing this, the old mother-in-law quickly bent down respectfully and said, "Ara said, how can cattails grow without mud? How can reeds grow without water? Although Fatuma is a promising child, she owes more to your guidance, Shahai, and the strong support of the tribesmen."

Hearing this, the old man nodded with satisfaction: "The river flows into the sea, but the sea never becomes complacent... Alia, you are the pride of our people!"

The old mother-in-law's expression became more respectful: "Knock on the door, and the door will open eventually... ...Shai Hai, your wisdom is more valuable than pearls."

The old man laughed but shook his head: "Wisdom comes from Allah's teachings, but Allah also taught us that the more wisdom we have, the more troubles we have; the more knowledge we gain, the more sorrow we have."

The old mother-in-law understood the meaning of the song and smiled softly: "Allah taught us to walk in the light... Fatuma has opened up many channels in the past two years. The little eagle has finally learned how to hunt and is now able to feed the chicks in the nest."

Miss Mu interrupted consciously: "Whatever good you do for yourselves, you will find its reward in Allah... Shehai, please allow me to do a little for my people."

Yang Mo was really not used to this way of speaking where one had to quote from classics for every sentence. He felt that this was simply self-abuse.

But after hearing this, he finally understood who this old man was, and also finally understood the purpose of these people coming to visit him.

When the old man saw Miss Mu's statement, a trace of relief flashed across his face, but he hesitated for a moment and said, "Allah taught us that every era has its own books... After all, I am already old, so you will be the ones to write the chapters of the new book."

After saying that, he turned his head and glanced at the other people on the sofa: "Allah teaches us that we must cultivate our own fields and have enough to eat; but we cannot follow vanity and be poor!"

The others were shocked when they heard this, and they quickly touched their chests and bent over: "We will follow Shahai's teachings!"

After the ceremony, one of the old men, surnamed Su, thought for a moment and spoke first: "Fatuma, there aren't many products in Yangxin. The only famous product is the local pear. But in the past two years, the reputation of Laiyang pears has grown. Merchants who come here to buy them always compare the prices with those there... Many tribesmen who contracted the pear orchards have suffered greatly. They have worked hard to get a good harvest of pears, but their income is even lower than before. Especially last year, the pear orchards increased production by nearly 20%, but the money they earned was only 70% of the year before. If this continues, the livelihoods of those tribesmen will be in trouble!"

At this point, the old man surnamed Su looked at his younger generation cautiously and said, "Fatuma, you know a lot of people in the island country now. Can you help find some island country merchants to buy the pears of these tribesmen?"

In the eyes of the Chinese at this time, the island country was definitely an example of "stupid people with a lot of money". No matter what it was, the price sold to merchants in the island country would definitely be much higher than in China. Therefore, it was completely understandable that the old man surnamed Su wanted to target the island country.

Mu Liya looked at the old man in surprise, with a slightly puzzled tone in her voice: "Uncle Su, I remember that last year I organized and invited representatives of island companies to visit Yangxin County. Among them were many fruit import and export wholesalers. Didn't they go?"

The old man surnamed Su looked a little embarrassed. "I came here, and I also visited the pear orchards of the tribesmen, but... they were unwilling to take all the pears. They only took the big pears with good appearance... Who are the tribesmen going to sell the remaining pears to?"

When Mu Liya heard this, she knew where the problem lay.

At this time, the domestic public still generally does not understand, and even rejects, the grading of agricultural products. They are used to selling large and small fruits together, and when they encounter a situation where merchants are only willing to purchase large fruits of the first and second grades, they find it emotionally difficult to accept, even if the other party's offer is very good.

After a moment of hesitation, Mu Liya looked at him seriously and said, "Uncle Su, although I have made some business partners in the island country, these partners can indeed use their influence to greet those buyers and even ask them to buy all these pears."

"But……"

"Uncle Su, you may not be very clear, but in island countries, and even in many foreign regions, most fruits are sold by grade. The price difference between special-grade fruit, first-grade fruit, and second-grade fruit is huge, and can even be as much as three times... But at the same time, once the grade is lower than the second grade, it will be like those defective fruits, and it will be difficult to sell in the fruit market. It can only be used as a raw material for juice."

"Each region has its own reality. This is the rule of the market. We can force people to do this once or twice, but can we do it three or four times?"

"If they are forced to drink water with their heads held down too many times, they will stop coming. By then, our reputation will be ruined, and even fewer people will be willing to come and buy the pears... In the medium to long term, using connections to buy all the pears will do more harm than good!"

The old man surnamed Su couldn't help but stiffen his face when he heard this. He glanced at his mother-in-law and then at his own sieve. He found that neither of them had any intention of interrupting him. He immediately looked unacceptable: "What should we do? Just watch those tribesmen lose money? Contracting the pear orchard is expensive, and the investment in various pesticides and fertilizers is even greater. If the losses continue like this, those tribesmen will have complaints."

Yang Mo frowned as he listened.

The old man said it very clearly, it was a contracted orchard, not his own orchard; in this era, if one could contract an orchard, he would definitely not be a small family';
Moreover, although the overall economy has been somewhat sluggish in the past two years, the fruit market has been steadily growing, and even prices have gradually increased.

As the other party said, Yangxin Duck Pear is indeed not as famous as Laiyang Pear. With Laiyang Pear as a price anchor, the purchase price of Yangxin Duck Pear is difficult to jump up.

But one thing is for sure, even if the purchase price of Yangxin Duck Pear cannot be sold at a satisfactory price due to the benchmark anchor, the most you will earn is less... No matter whether it is fruit or any other product, as long as you are in a macro-uptrend, unless you encounter a major natural disaster, if you calculate it equally based on a five-year cycle, those large-scale growers will rarely really lose money.

Earning less means losing money?
Your idea is very dangerous!

Yang Mo's impression of this old man surnamed Su suddenly dropped.

There was no sign of abnormality on Mu Liya's face. She just asked very seriously, "Uncle Su, how much pear orchard area have been contracted by your tribesmen?"

Upon hearing this, the old man surnamed Su thought there was a chance and his face immediately relaxed. After thinking for a while, he said, "It's not that much. The pear orchards contracted by more than 40 households add up to... about two thousand acres, right?" Yang Mo's eyelids twitched.

In this era, more than 50 households contracted nearly acres of pear orchards, with an average of nearly acres per household. Isn’t this not a lot?

You have to understand that the first priority of agricultural production today is to ensure grain production, and the domestic fruit planting industry has not yet entered the era of large-scale professional planting!
Mu Liya hesitated for a moment and said, "It's less than 2,000 acres... that's not bad."

After saying that, he smiled and said, "Uncle Ma, as the saying goes, if the mountain doesn't come to us, we will go to it. Since you and the other tribesmen want to sell the pears you have worked so hard to grow at a high price, and those overseas buyers can't always take the risk of violating market principles and buy both large and small fruits... then why don't we take the initiative to cater to the laws of the overseas market?"

As she spoke, Miss Mu glanced at her husband with a smile and said, "Uncle Ma, you may not know that Yang Mo started to introduce the island country's V-shaped orchard planting technology and planting model in Linyi County two years ago... In short, this is a high-standard orchard planting and management model based on the commodity grading model commonly used overseas; starting from a series of links such as flower thinning, fruit thinning, side branch management, water and fertilizer management, it ensures that the final fruit produced, no matter the size, appearance, or pesticide residue standards, are all at the level of second-level fruit or above. In other words, as long as the fruit is produced using this planting model, it will basically not be rejected by overseas buyers."

At this point, Miss Mu's tone was a little bewitching: "Uncle Ma, since you have been in contact with those island buyers last year, you should know that even the purchase price is very different between first-grade and second-grade fruits, especially for premium fruits. The gap is even greater. Moreover, growers can gain a certain say in the pricing of premium fruits of those popular fruits by being reluctant to sell them. "

"The most interesting thing is that the V-shaped orchards that Yang Mo built in Linyi County had to be built from the seedling cultivation stage due to the lack of industrial foundation. Therefore, it takes 5 years for the fruit to start to grow, and more than 7 years to enter the high-yield and stable period;"

"But the pear trees in our Yangxin County are at least several decades old. Not only have they entered their high-yield period long ago, but the fruits produced by these old trees are also more flavorful;"

"Although it is not realistic to manage these old trees completely according to the standards of a V-shaped orchard, as long as we make some adjustments, appropriately dwarf them, remove and prune the new and old side branches, and do a good job of pulling them horizontally, and then introduce scientific water and fertilizer management and pest and disease control, they will be revitalized in one or two years at most... In addition, if old trees with well-developed root systems are managed well, the proportion of top-grade fruit they produce will be much higher than that of young trees."

"Think about it. After an adjustment period of one or two years at most, we can reduce the number of fruits without reducing production. Moreover, the proportion of top-grade fruits on a tree may even exceed 10%... Considering the purchase prices of various grades of commercial fruits given by buyers from island countries last year, is this job worth it?"

Are all the fruits on the tree basically of level 2 or above?
And the proportion of premium fruit is likely to exceed 10%?

Thinking of the huge differences in prices between grades given by the island merchants last year, especially the prices of premium fruits, the old man surnamed Su was suddenly excited... If he had not experienced it himself last year, he could never have imagined that the same pair of pears from Yangxin could differ in value by more than 5 times.

but……

Do we need to introduce some management method called "Wei" or "Wei"?
Do we need to perform surgery on those old pear trees?

Thinking of this, he felt a little uneasy and couldn't help but look at Yang Mo beside Mu Liya.

Feeling his wife touching him with her foot, Yang Mo squeezed out a sales pitch with little interest: "Uncle Ma, the 500-acre V-shaped high-standard orchard in Linyi County has technical support from experts from the Provincial Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Although I don't know if this system can be applied to your old pear orchard, I can ask experts from the Provincial Academy of Agricultural Sciences to come to your site for inspection and evaluation... But Xiaoya's analysis just now makes sense. If you don't copy it, but make some improvements on this basis, and manage those key details scientifically, the chances of producing good fruit should be at least one or two levels higher."

This is not nonsense. What the domestic planting industry lacks most at this moment is refined management awareness and methods. As long as the growers are willing to accept and conscientiously implement this set of things, it will be easy to improve the quality by one or two levels.

Perhaps it was because the battle record of the foreign son-in-law of the Mu family was too fierce, so when he heard Yang Mo's words, the old man surnamed Su immediately put aside his doubts, but his face was still worried: "If a tree can produce good fruits, it would naturally be great... We still trust the experts of the Provincial Academy of Agricultural Sciences."

"only……"

The old man turned his gaze to his mother-in-law. "However, from what Fatuma said, if these orchards want to introduce those new technologies, they will need to go through a one- or two-year adjustment period... Since it will take a year or two to adjust, the fruit production will definitely drop sharply. Those tribesmen were already living a tight life. Now, how are they going to survive in the next one or two years?"

"Also, from what Fatuma said, the cultivation technology of this Weisha Orchard requires the purchase of a large number of supporting equipment, and may even require the use of special fertilizers and pesticides... There is not much harvest to begin with, and now we have to invest so much. Alia, I'm afraid those tribesmen can't afford it!"

The old mother-in-law heard this, and the smile on her face did not change. "You don't need to worry about this. Fatuma used some tricks when she was rectifying the corruption of the management of the tertiary industry units under Dahua Company at the end of last year."

"So far, the arrested factory directors and deputy factory directors have about 18 million yuan of social borrowing funds lying in the accounts of dozens of companies that I asked my clansmen to open under various names;"

"At that time, I will have someone take out three million from the accounts of these companies. I will trouble you to go to the county and lend the money to the county. Then, the county will use the name of industrial support to subsidize the Liyuan renovation project."

After that, she turned her head and looked at her son-in-law: "Xiao Mo, I know you are planning to promote the technological upgrading of DZ City's industrial industry recently. As the saying goes, good things should be kept within the family. The orders for high-quality films, special PVC racks, high-quality water-soluble fertilizers, water-fertilizer monitoring systems, root irrigation pipes, timed automatic irrigation systems and other equipment needed for the transformation of these pear orchards are now handed over to you... This is also a small support from me, as a mother-in-law, to my son-in-law. Please don't despise it."

In fact, out of the 3 million in support funds, at least 1.8 million should be invested in various renovation facilities, and the rest will be compensation subsidies for growers and other expenses.

In 1991, 180 million was not a small amount of money. In the budget of an ordinary county, it was definitely a big sum.

It's just that the son-in-law of the Mu family is really unconventional. For Yang Mo, who often spends hundreds of millions of dollars, this order of 180 million is really not worth mentioning.

However, although the order was not very large, it was enough to represent the mother-in-law's intentions... Yangxin County was not well-off at that time. Like other counties, Yangxin still had many industrial units with some foundation. Therefore, the mother-in-law gave this order to Dezhou, which was indeed a good deal.

Yang Mo actually wanted to refuse instinctively.

There is no other reason, but anyone with a brain can see how illegal the old mother-in-law's operation is;

Putting aside the question of whether the 18 million withheld from the company's accounts could be considered as sucking the blood of Dahua Company, the practice of first lending the 3 million to the county and then having the county provide special subsidies was a strong case of having the best of both worlds.

It is obvious that this old mother-in-law is far from being as harmless as she appears.

But today is New Year's Day after all. If he directly refuses in front of a room full of important members of the Mu family's wife's family, it would be too hurtful.

Just as he was hesitating about how to start, Miss Mu interrupted with a smile: "Mom, why are you in such a hurry? How much money do we need to allocate and how much can be allocated? We need to talk to all the uncles and aunts before we can have a clear idea. You asked for three million right away. Whether it will be enough or not is not the question for now. What if it affects the plans of the other uncles and aunts? Wouldn't that be embarrassing?"

As soon as this was said, everyone present laughed: "Fatuma is right, let's reach a consensus first, and as for how much money needs to be allocated at that time, we can slowly calculate it later."

The old mother-in-law chuckled and poked her daughter's forehead: "You are the only one who knows how to be a good person. You are allowed to say all the nice things!"

There was a hint of confusion in his eyes.

Being able to become the wife of a powerful deputy-department-level official like Mu Siyuan, she naturally couldn't be really stupid.

How could she not know the purpose of her daughter changing the subject?
Hey ~
Sure enough, girls face outwards!

While she was still sighing, Miss Mu started chatting with another middle-aged man with a rather sturdy build.

"Uncle Sha, you are right. We can't always live off our past achievements, nor can we always rely on policies to make a living. It's time to do something promising to supplement our family's wealth."

"Um……"

"Speaking of which, I have found that they have always had the habit of eating instant noodles in the past few months I have been in the island country. Moreover, with the economic turmoil in the island country, the further accelerated pace of work, and the rising cost of living for the working class, the frequency of eating instant noodles has also shown a significant increase;"

"So, since we have gradually opened up some sinking channels in the island countries, and the popularity of Chinese independent brands in the island countries has not yet declined, can we try to have our tribesmen build an instant noodle factory in Xinyang and then export it to the island countries and South Korea?"

Miss Mu suddenly shook her head and said, "It's not right to only export to island countries and South Korea. This is a one-legged approach, not stable, and the domestic social influence will not be improved... By the way, instant noodles are also very popular in China now, especially among those who travel frequently, but the domestic instant noodle market has always been a rough business structure, and market segmentation has not yet been carried out;"

"How about this, in order to avoid direct competition with leading brands such as Huafeng Sanxian Yimian, Dahongmen, and BJ Instant Noodles, we simply open up another channel and launch a few halal instant noodles to test the domestic market?"

"Everyone knows that our halal food is famous for its cleanliness, hygiene and deliciousness. By clearly displaying the halal brand, we can not only significantly reduce the psychological experience cost of domestic consumers, but also directly target other ethnic groups in the country... You know, it is not easy for people like us to find edible food when we go out. Directly displaying the halal brand can solve this pain point very well. Moreover, our domestic halal community is not only united, but also its number cannot be underestimated!"

At this point, Miss Mu looked at her man with some disbelief: "Yang Mo...what do you think of my idea?"

Yang Mo gave his wife an approving look, "That's a very good idea. If you plan to use Dezhou, the transportation hub of North China, as your starting point, then you have the right time, place and people... It's worth a try!"

Hearing Yang Mo's approval, Miss Mu was immediately delighted, and her whole demeanor was visibly lifted.

Seeing this, Yang Mo poured cold water on her: "However, if you want to get involved in both the Northeast Asian and domestic instant noodle markets, the scale and investment of this factory are really huge. You have to import more than a dozen production lines, not to mention other money-consuming links such as marketing and publicity... Are you sure you can open it with just over 10 million?"

When Mu Liya heard this, her expression looked a little unnatural.

The old mother-in-law at the side interrupted with a smile: "Don't worry, as long as the idea is good, the rest is not a problem, whether it is funding or production line... they are all small problems."

Yang Mo was stunned.

If both domestic and foreign market lines are launched at the same time, then the initial capital budget for this project would have to be at least 60 million to be enough, including building a factory, recruiting people, and overseas advertising.

So much money...

piece of cake?
Are you serious?

Seeing that the wives of the Mu family didn't show any surprise on their faces, Yang Mo couldn't help but frown...

(End of this chapter)