Those Years When I Was Forced to Top the Forbes List

Chapter 60 Every matter has a cause, and every debt has a debtor.

The next day, I was woken up by a rooster crowing.

The crowing of roosters in the countryside is truly a magical thing.

The landlady's family didn't raise chickens, and we didn't see any chickens along the way, but the clucking of chickens was everywhere.

As soon as I got downstairs, the proprietress in the courtyard heard the noise and hurriedly came out of the kitchen, smiling ingratiatingly:

"Boss Chen! I'll cook noodles for you this morning!"

The truck deal went smoothly last night. Chen Xiaobo is a straightforward person. The price for transporting soil and the price for internal transfer were agreed upon. The only issue was the price for hauling goods. When he heard that they wanted to contact the sand and gravel plant themselves, he refused to help them find other places to haul goods. He just gave them the phone number of a sand and gravel plant and said that if they didn't get sand and stones from this place, they should find their own trucks to deliver them.

Chen Xuebing didn't bother to find out the reason; it was nothing more than feelings and interests. He could only ask Lao Tan to contact the sand and gravel plant first and ask for a price.

“Ah…” Chen Xuebing yawned: “Sister Wu, your child is too noisy. He cries several times a night. My brother is even younger than him. He stopped crying when he was three years old.”

Wu Jiuhong chuckled, her eyes darting around: "Isn't it because you took his room? If you let that girl sleep in the east wing, he definitely wouldn't make a fuss."

The landlady, having finished her business, started complaining about the room again, but Chen Xuebing ignored her.

"Hey, Sister Wu, if we can't reach an agreement on the sand and gravel plant, don't spit in my food!"

"Ouch!" Wu Jiuhong patted her legs with both hands: "You're really at a loss for words! If I did this kind of thing, I'd get hit by a car and die! The noodles you ate this morning and the vegetables you washed were washed twice more than what we wash at home! Oh, right! If there are a lot of you, buy some bowls for yourselves, I don't have enough."

"Okay, okay! Make sure you live a good life. When it gets hot, we'll even buy you two electric fans! It's all yours when we leave!"

Chen Xuebing is serious about important matters, but he's quite generous with these small expenses; after all, life is about comfort.

"Okay, okay! Mr. Chen, just because you said that, whether you buy it or not, I'll fry you an extra egg for breakfast from now on!"

"Never mind, eating too much will cause kidney stones."

After saying that, Chen Xuebing assumed a horse stance in the courtyard and began practicing health preservation.

In the countryside courtyard, the morning is the most pleasant time. The fresh breeze, the smell after the rain, and the slow-burning fire can soothe all the restlessness.

No, most of them.

A few minutes later, Ren Ying came out of the room and hurriedly handed him several sheets of paper with many humanities knowledge points handwritten on them.

"Quickly memorize it, you have to go out later, you need to finish memorizing all of this today. I'll give you some practice questions later, you can do them tonight!"

After saying that, he rushed to the toilet.

Chen Xuebing: ...

Wellness retreat complete.

……

It's exactly 10 o'clock.

The town government's small high-rise building.

Ren Kaiping, Chen Xuebing, and Tan Maoshui sat on a cold bench outside an office for 20 minutes before someone finally came to open the door.

The newcomer was a middle-aged man with a receding hairline and glasses, wearing a suit and sweater. Ren Kaiping recognized him, stood up, and extended his hand.

"Mayor Luo!"

Mayor Luo shook hands with him politely, but what he said next was a bit hurtful.

"You are... Manager Li, right?"

Ren Kaiping paused for a moment, then said, "Ren, Ren Kaiping."

"Oh, oh, oh!" Mayor Luo patted his head: "Look, I've had so many local projects coming to me these past few days! You projects are such a hassle."

Township and village cadres' speeches are limited to this level; they can find topics to talk about, but they mostly use them to vent their emotions indirectly.

Ren Kaiping's expression was unfriendly, but he still patiently said:
"Heh, Mayor Luo, this is for you too. It's a project subsidized by the Municipal Water Resources Bureau, isn't it all for the benefit of your local people? If you solve the road problem, we can finish the repairs sooner, which will also be good for your local environment!"

“We didn’t say we wouldn’t fix it!” Mayor Luo pointed to the sofa: “Please sit down, I also have something I’d like you to help me with.”

After saying that, he took out a cigarette from his pack, threw the pack on his desk, sat down behind it, and started puffing away without saying a word.

Ren Kaiping could only sit down.

Chen Xuebing had been waiting for an opportunity to introduce himself, but the two of them were a bit awkward when they arrived. Moreover, it seemed that Deputy Mayor Luo didn't want to get to know him, so he could only sit quietly to the side.

"Uncle! They're here..."

The door opened.

Mayor Luo immediately glanced outside, and the man's voice abruptly stopped.

The man who came in had a bowl cut hairstyle, what we would call a special forces soldier in later generations. He was big and burly, wearing a gray suit with a red lining.

Ren Kaiping looked at him with obvious impatience: "Why are you here again?"

The man scoffed, "You guys shook my house to its foundations, how could I not come?"

Ren Kaiping slapped the armrest and stood up abruptly.

"Nonsense! It collapsed due to the earthquake. Go ahead and sue us! We'll pay compensation as long as the court rules in our favor!"

Everyone heard the man with the pot lid shout "Uncle" when he came in. Ren Kaiping wasn't stupid; he knew there was no hope, so he immediately prepared to leave.

Chen Xuebing also got up, ready to leave.

"Hey? Manager Ren!" Upon seeing that Ren Kaiping had stopped talking, Mayor Luo immediately stood up and quickly stepped forward to pull him back.

He had initially thought that Ren Kaiping, who had been very polite during his last visit, would be easy to talk to, and that he would try to put him in a low position today. However, he found that this man was quick to anger and immediately changed his tune.

"Close the door."

Mayor Luo waved his hand at the man with the pot-lid hairstyle, and after he closed the door, he smiled at Ren Kaiping and said:
"I told you last time, we'll definitely find a way..."

After saying that, he turned to his desk, took out a form, and handed it to Ren Kaiping: "Look, I've already filled out the application for road repairs. It's just waiting for the leadership meeting. As long as the leadership meeting approves it, the Party Committee meeting won't be a problem." Ren Kaiping took it and looked at it.

It is indeed an application form, but the last comment section is not signed yet.

The atmosphere became quiet again.

Chen Xuebing realized something, and with one hand on the sofa armrest, he waited for the other party to bring up the matter of dividing his section, and immediately got up.

Why only his section?

Because of this project, all other sections are already more than halfway through, making this the easiest target.

No bird gets up early for no reason, so he came with conditions today: if the town government is willing to pay for the road repairs, he will contribute one-tenth, which is between 15,000 and 20,000 yuan.

He didn't want to engage in bribery or get himself into trouble for something trivial, so he put the money into the road. As for whether the money he subsidized would be reported or whose pocket it would end up in, he didn't care.

He doesn't believe in light.

In particular, Mayor Luo's rank is too low, and his change in demeanor is too obvious, which has fully exposed some of his thoughts.

Mayor Luo cleared his throat and began to reveal his cards:

"Manager Ren, don't worry. I had General Manager Jiang from Taoyuan Villa come here today to repair that road."

"Actually, President Jiang had already agreed. He only needed 100,000 yuan to repair that road and also wanted to cooperate with your project."

"The road repair price has come down, which is good!"

"That's right... Your pipeline runs right next to people's houses, and you even used a breaker to smash up the road, affecting their business. They come to complain every day, and it's hard for us to handle, isn't it?"

Ren Kaiping immediately frowned and looked at the man with the bowl cut hairstyle.

“Initially, the pipeline didn’t pass through your village. It was your village secretary who came to us and specially added a pipeline for domestic sewage to make things easier for everyone. We submitted a report, and the client finally agreed after a lot of trouble. How come now we’re the ones disturbing the peace? That’s not right! When the red line was first laid, why didn’t you say you disagreed? We would have just stopped building it!”

"I told you, I wasn't there at the time!"

With a roar, the man with the pot lid hair immediately became fierce: "You're fixing a broken water pipe, and you even have to smash the road? Can't you just walk through the ditch? It's the National Day holiday, the peak season! Do you know how much business this has affected? I don't care! If you don't compensate me, I'll cause trouble wherever I go for this project!"

"I've already said..."

This has been going on for three months, and this isn't the first time Ren Kaiping has argued with him. He was about to speak.

"boom!"

"Jiang Hua!"

Mayor Luo slammed his hand on the table, his official authority instantly rising: "Do you still want the town government to help you with this? If you want to argue, go argue outside yourselves. You blocked his construction, he demolished your house, you resolve it yourselves, the town can't do anything about it!"

What seemed like a stop was actually making the conversation increasingly murky.

It even carried a hint of threat.

Jiang Hua's eyes flickered, and he recognized the signal given by Mayor Luo. He became fierce and walked up to Ren Kaiping, pointing his finger at him.

"Fine! Let it be blocked! Your project is almost finished, I don't care anymore. If you don't give me that factory, then don't bother building it!"

Chen Xuebing finally heard those words.

He gave Tan Maoshui a wink, patted his leg, stood up, and pushed his bowl cut hairstyle aside.

"Mr. Ren, I'll take my leave now."

Ren Kaiping was a little nervous after being confronted by Jiang Hua. The space in front of him suddenly felt empty, and hearing Chen Xuebing's words, he really didn't want to be alone there. He frowned and said:

"You asked me to come and help you negotiate, and now you're leaving?"

Mayor Luo and Jiang Hua then noticed the young man in the leather jacket.

Mayor Luo frowned slightly: "Manager Ren, who is this...?"

Chen Xuebing no longer wanted to talk to them.

“I’m not going to repair the road. I’m too lazy to even do the subbase. I’ll just level it and scatter some gravel on it. If I do a stone subbase, I don’t know who will save money in the end. It costs 100,000 yuan to repair the road. If there are any problems later, people will say it’s because I didn’t lay a good foundation! I’m not taking the blame for that!”

The road eventually had to be built, and to build a road, you first need to lay a base layer. The project team's original plan was for him to lay the base layer and make do with it.

But what he means now is that he won't be doing the underlayment either.

That's certainly not what he really thought, since it was his first project, but by saying it now, he was indicating that he wasn't threatened with any conditions.

"However... we've already signed a contract for this project, and it's not something that can be decided by private negotiations. I won't agree to give up even a single unit of the factory's output."

Now, Mayor Luo and his companion finally knew who he was.

They were discussing a project for this factory, which belonged to someone else.

Chen Xuebing said this to give Ren Kaiping a way out, to save face, so that Mayor Luo wouldn't let Jiang Hua cause trouble for him, or take other measures to obstruct the entire project.

Every matter has a cause, and every debt has a debtor.

If you need help, come find me.

Before the people inside could speak, Chen Xuebing had already led Tan Maoshui out of the office.

"boom!"

The door shook.

However, it wasn't closed; it hit the wall and was completely open.

Chen Xuebing's cursing could be heard coming from the corridor.

"Why close the door over such a trivial matter?"

(End of this chapter)