Spring Breeze Twenty Years

Chapter 340 What happened to PolyGram?

After discussing the pig farm with Lao An and his son, the three of them drove back to the city. Along the way, Chen Hui was still immersed in the fear of having to study poop every day from now on, with a look of grief and helplessness on his face.

The five of them had dinner at a restaurant and returned to the Dianye residential area around 7 p.m. Xiao Hong accompanied Chen Xiao home to report to her mother. When they got home, the three of them were already engrossed in watching TV.

The next day, Xiaowei and Xia Maosheng had breakfast and drove back to Longcheng.

When the car arrived in Chuanzhou, Xia Maosheng went straight to his workplace. Xiaowei offered to give him some money, but Xia Maosheng refused, saying they would settle it all at the end of the year. He wanted to buy an apartment in Riverside Garden, and Chen Hui wanted to buy one too, saying they wanted to be neighbors. I don't know what they were thinking. One of them works in Fengtian and the other in Chuanzhou. How are they supposed to be neighbors?

Back in Longcheng, Xiaowei drove straight to the bed sheet factory.

It's simple here. The factory that Jian'an bought was directly rebuilt by Jian'an. Everything that was there before, except for the three-story building and a few garages, has been demolished. The new wall was built according to the red line map, and all the land that was left outside was included. The government is rich and powerful. Usually, when building factories or doing anything, they like to leave some land outside. Xiao Wei couldn't bear to part with it.

The new wall surrounds the area, making it significantly larger than before, adding about half an acre of land.

The bed sheet factory was located next to the Daling River, not far from Chaoyang Bridge. At that time, Longcheng's urban area was not large, and Chaoyang Bridge was already several kilometers outside the city. However, since it was a main road, there were quite a few houses along the road.

Construction was underway inside the newly built wall, and the old building was also being renovated. Liu Hongliang, wearing a willow-twig safety helmet, squatted on the wall smoking. When he saw Xiao Wei's car drive by, he jumped down from the wall and stood by the roadside.

Xiao Wei stopped his car next to Liu Hongliang and asked, "What are you doing squatting here?"

Liu Hongliang pointed to the east and said, "They're building a bridge over there. I'll take a look when I have time."

Xiao Wei pulled the car forward a bit, parked it on the side of the road, got out, tossed Liu Hongliang a pack of cigarettes, opened one for himself, lit one, and asked, "What bridge are you building?"

Liu Hongliang took the cigarettes, opened the pack, and said, "It's about Chaoyang Bridge. The old bridge was no longer in use, so it's being rebuilt. Construction has already started."

Xiao Wei climbed onto the wall using the bricks and peeked over. There were many people on both sides of the river, and several boats were moored in the middle of the river. He jumped down and asked, "So the old bridge is no longer needed?"

Liu Hong lit a cigarette, shook his head, and said, "I don't know. That bridge has been damaged by floods several times. Besides, it's too narrow; only bicycles can pass through. And someone has to direct traffic at the bridgehead every day. I guess it's abandoned. That bridge was built by the Japanese."

The Japanese built a great deal of infrastructure in Northeast China: highways, railways, bridges, tunnels, pillboxes, and bunkers are everywhere. Many of the cities we see today were also constructed by the Japanese. Japan's regional administration system had prefectures (counties) larger than cities, and many of these prefectures were established in Northeast China, with most of their names still in use today.

Xiao Wei and Liu Hongliang strolled around the courtyard. The deep well was right next to the main building, sealed with an iron cover. Xiao Wei asked, "Is this still usable?"

Liu Hongliang said, "Sure, we can just replace the water pump. The iron pipes inside should be fine, but we'll still need to fix them if we want to use it."

The workers were divided into several groups: some were building fermentation tanks, some were repairing sheds, some were renovating the main building warehouse, and welders were sizzling as they welded frames. The work involved welding railings, pillars, shed frames, and even the small doors to the pigsties—it was quite a lot more than bricklaying. The blueprints were provided by a professor from the Agricultural University in Fengtian, with some additional input from Lao An.

Xiao Wei looked around and asked, "Where's the septic tank? Where's the septic tank? I can't see it."

Liu Hongliang said, "It's in the river below. The sedimentation tank from the original bed sheet factory has been repaired. When the time comes, the pig manure will be cleared out for composting, and the dirty water will be discharged into it. That should be enough."

Xiao Wei said, "Why bother with composting? It's just an extra step of manual labor, isn't it unnecessary?"

Liu Hongliang said, "We don't need to do it ourselves. The farmers around here who are farming all need it. We can just let them do it themselves. They wouldn't be happy to give it to us for free."

Xiao Wei frowned and asked, "Whose idea was this?"

Liu Hongliang said, "The foreman mentioned it a few days ago when he was working on the septic tank. I asked the people next door, and they said they wanted it too."

Xiao Wei thought for a moment and said, "We should ask an expert about this. Do you have the phone number of that professor from the agricultural university? Let's ask how to properly handle pig manure. I remember it's used to kill the soil, so how can it fertilize it? Let's ask. If it really can fertilize the soil, we can process it ourselves and sell it. We have five or six hundred pigs, that's a lot for a year. Pigs can eat and poop a lot. We can spend some money to buy the technology."

Liu Hongliang's mouth dropped in astonishment. He nearly dropped his cigarette, frantically catching it and saying, "No way? You'd even take a pig's manure? You're obsessed with money? Who would buy that stuff?"

Xiao Wei said, "Just ask. How will you know if you don't try? Don't think it's just a little bit of pig manure. A pig produces more than two or three thousand kilograms of manure a year. That's a small amount! How many do we raise? Five or six hundred. Do the math yourself. Aren't you good at math?"

The cigarette Liu Hongliang was holding fell to the ground. He blinked, did some mental calculations, and was shocked: "Over a million kilograms? Holy crap, is that much? Okay, okay, I'll make a call. Damn, even at 50 cents a pound, that's a lot, hundreds of thousands!"

Xiao Wei asked, "Do you need to watch this side? Did you drive here or how did you get here?" He didn't see the 100; Liu Hongliang usually drove that car.

Liu Hongliang was still calculating when he shook his head and said, "I came here in an ambulance, otherwise I would have left long ago. I don't need to keep an eye on things. Let's go, I'm going back to make a call."

The two got in the car, turned around, and headed towards the city, parking directly behind the restaurant. With the arrival of spring and warmer weather, the area was even more lively, though the snow-melted ground was quite muddy during this period, so it seemed a concrete paving project was definitely necessary.

Liu Hongliang got out of the car and went into the restaurant to make a phone call. Xiao Wei went to the billiard hall for a while, but the room was still noisy and filled with smoke. After talking to Huang Laowu for a few words, Xiao Wei couldn't stand it anymore, so he quickly said goodbye and ran out to the cake shop.

Wow, business is pretty good today. There are five or six cakes lined up on the counter, the smallest one is 32 centimeters. Looking at the pastry counter, I see that new varieties are already on sale, and they look pretty good. There are three new plastic steel tables and chairs against one wall inside the room. Right now, an old man is sitting in the chairs with his grandson, eating small pieces of cake and drinking hot fruit juice.

Li Wen was "making" a cake inside when she saw Xiao Wei come in and quickly waved to him.

Xiao Wei pushed open the middle partition door and went into the back, asking as he closed the door, "What's wrong? Did you find some money?"

Li Wen jumped down from the small stool she was standing on, grabbed a scraper, pointed outside, and said, "That Baolilai store closed today. It closed yesterday afternoon. Do you think it's going to go out of business?"

Xiao Wei was stunned for a moment and said, "Really? It's only been open for a few days? Less than a month."

(End of this chapter)