Chapter 173: The Grand Meeting
Jian Xingxia’s balance decreased by 7,188, leaving 3,412.
However, she only counted the money that had already landed in her pocket. The money given for the rooms reserved by the Insomnia Support Group and Brother Zhang and Sister Yu was kept separately in another account. She would only transfer it over on the actual day the income occurred. This was to avoid misjudging her own economic situation by receiving too much advance payment.
After all, she had experienced it firsthand—
With eighteen thousand in her hand,
She felt like the happiest in the land.
But once the debts were fully cleared,
It all amounted to nothing, as she feared.
It was far better to calculate things separately, counting only the money that had safely landed in her pocket as appropriate. Only in this way could she know exactly how much money she could allocate to improve the guesthouse conditions, elevate the treatment of the temporary workers, and determine the savings that truly belonged to her.
After collecting their money, the villagers did not leave. Everyone waited expectantly, eager to see what else Jian Xingxia wanted to collect.
Jian Xingxia smiled as she pulled out a stack of planning sheets, announcing them to everyone one by one.
“The first project is the guesthouse supply procurement plan.”
“Currently, the three-day trial run for Xingxia Manor has concluded, and we will take four days to reorganize. We will formally open for business this Saturday.”
“Once the guesthouse formally opens, I will issue a list of the next day’s supply requirements in advance every day and hand it to Auntie Lu, who will handle the collection, processing, and delivery in a unified manner.”
“The prices of the supplies will be drafted weekly by the village team based on the season and market prices. They will be a bit higher than the current prices, but the quality requirements will be higher as well.”
Jian Xingxia raised the collection prices slightly in order to demand quality. Furthermore, the categories and quantities would be determined by her, avoiding a situation where the villagers brought whatever they happened to have on hand, which made it inconvenient for the plump auntie to plan the meals.
Hu Da explained the pricing issue from the side: “The village team will generally set the prices based on the market days. They will be higher than the clearance goods or what you sell to vegetable traders, but lower than the supermarkets.”
This way, everyone could earn a bit, and it would maintain the villagers’ enthusiasm to supply goods.
Qi Shan added, “Rest assured, everyone. We will draft the supply collection standards in advance and procure them at the prices corresponding to those standards.”
Working in the countryside, Qi Shan already knew very well how to communicate with these elderly grandmas, grandpas, aunts, and uncles.
“For instance, if the manor wants to make roasted sweet potatoes today, we will procure the highest quality sweet potatoes, and the price will rise accordingly. Based on this week’s market prices, sweet potatoes that are between eight taels to one catty and two taels each, with no damage and few holes or scars, can sell for three yuan a catty.”
“If they are the steamed sweet potatoes used for the guesthouse breakfast, we want them between four to six taels. They shouldn’t be too large, but they must look good. The price can be two yuan a catty.”
“For those used to stew sweet potato porridge or steam sweet potato rice, it’s one-fifty a catty.”
“For those sent to Old Chai’s family to be ground into pulp for sweet potato noodles and sweet potato starch, there are options for fifty cents, eighty cents, or one yuan, with the price set according to quality and size.”
The villagers perked their ears up to listen.
Hu Lin’s grandmother’s eyes widened, and she exclaimed in astonishment, “My goodness, Xiaxia is going to pay three yuan to collect sweet potatoes? Does this child know how to do business!”
Anxious for Jian Xingxia, Grandma Hu suddenly flipped herself up, climbed onto a stool, stood there, and shouted loudly toward Jian Xingxia.
“Xiaxia, use our family’s sweet potatoes! We’ll pick the good ones and give them to you for one yuan a catty!”
The surrounding villagers instantly looked over, their gazes and facial expressions turning exceptionally colorful.
Hu Lin’s head throbbed. He hurriedly pulled his grandmother down from the stool.
“Grandma! Stop meddling! Whatever the village team says goes, alright! This is a grand meeting! Not a casual gossip session!” Hu Lin was thoroughly helpless. It was bad enough that his own grandma made life difficult for her own family, but the moment she opened her mouth here, she would offend the entire village in a bit.
Fortunately, Qi Shan was specifically responsible for representing the village to interface with the guesthouse and had come well-prepared.
“Don’t be anxious, everyone. The village team and Xiaxia have already held a meeting and unified the plan.”
“We raised the prices, and correspondingly, we raised the quality standards.”
“Moving forward, I will inspect and collect the goods together with Auntie Lu, creating a procurement list for the village’s agricultural products.”
“If the supplied goods fail to meet the standard once, they will be sent back for correction.”
“If they fail twice, the supply of goods from that household will be suspended for one week!”
“If they fail three times, they will be removed from the list and we will no longer procure from them!”
A chill ran through the villagers: “That’s strict!”
Hu Da kept a stern face and said seriously, “Without rules, nothing can be established. Tell me yourselves, how many years has it been since our village was as lively as these past few days?”
“Our village has finally managed to get something going. Everyone work together with one heart and mind to do it well, don’t lose face for Lu’an Village! Don’t let future generations suffer poverty together!”
Hu Da spoke with bittersweet earnestness: “Think carefully, everyone. If we rely solely on farming, how much money can one acre of land earn after deducting costs? Think again, just over these past few days, how much has everyone earned?”
The villagers all nodded. That money was still clutched in their hands! Fresh and warm!
“Therefore, next we have several plans that require the joint cooperation of all villagers—”
Everyone perked up their ears to listen.
“The Lu’an Village Concentrated and Unified Agricultural Product Procurement and Marketing Plan—”
“The Lu’an Village Agricultural Product Testing, Certification, and Pricing Plan—”
“The Lu’an Village Accommodation and Amusement Project Operation Plan—”
“The Lu’an Village Handicraft Industry Development Plan—”
The villagers were bewildered. They recognized every single character, but when strung together, what did it mean?
“Let Xiaxia explain this matter to everyone!” Hu Da yielded the speaking position to Jian Xingxia.
Jian Xingxia continued speaking.
“Over these past few days, there have been nearly two hundred tourists in total. Many tourists expressed a desire to buy authentic local agricultural products and side products, but I didn’t agree right away.”
“It’s not that we can’t sell them, but how we sell them requires a protocol.”
Jian Xingxia adopted Qi Shan’s way of speaking, explaining it to the left-behind elderly in the village.
“For instance, the day before yesterday, someone in our village sold three catties of their own sun-dried shiitake mushrooms at a price of fifty yuan a catty.”
“This was originally a good thing, and the price was suitable.”
“However, other people couldn’t resist. They proactively approached tourists, saying they could sell them for forty-eight a catty. Later on, there were even offers for forty-five or forty.”
Jian Xingxia threw her hands out. “Dried shiitake mushrooms that could originally sell for fifty a catty could finally only sell for forty. And once this floodgate opened, tourists were already asking yesterday if they could buy them for thirty-five.”
“Grandpas, grandmas, aunts, and uncles, it isn’t easy for everyone to earn money by farming. If we start undercutting prices within our own village, everyone will only suffer losses together; no one will gain an advantage.”
“Even for the first person who dropped the price, so what if you sold a few catties? Will you be able to sell them at the price of forty-eight in the future?”
In the crowd, several people shifted their bodies rather uneasily. Some scratched their hair, some drank water, and some patted off dust… all trying to mask their involuntary blushes.
“Therefore, our village will launch a unified agricultural product procurement and sales plan.”
“Moving forward, whoever has dried shiitake mushrooms at home will do the same as the sweet potatoes—send them all to the village team for unified screening, weighing, grading, and pricing.”
“Then they will be sold uniformly by the village team. The salespeople can be chosen from the village, but they won’t take commissions; they will only be paid according to labor hours, so it’s the same no matter who comes from which family.”
“The income from the sold shiitake mushrooms will be pooled and settled weekly based on the proportion of mushrooms submitted by each household.”
After Jian Xingxia finished speaking, Hu Da announced, “Anyone with questions can ask!”
A village grandpa hurriedly raised his hand. “Secretary, Xiaxia, I didn’t quite understand. How is this calculated—”
The grandpa who raised his hand was highly perplexed. “The shiitake mushrooms from each family are all mixed together, so who knows whose mushrooms are being sold? If mine are sold, but the money is divided with others, what should I do? Who do I go to for justice?”
“Go to the village team!” Someone whose mind worked quickly already understood. “No matter whose shiitake mushrooms are sold, in the end, it counts as everyone selling them together to calculate the money.”
“Still don’t get it…”
In the end, Qi Shan stepped forward to explain. Dealing with the elderly, it wasn’t easy to make them understand by talking about policies and rules. She was very skilled at using examples to make it easy for them to grasp.
“Grandpa Lu, let me give you an example. Your family submits three catties of top-grade shiitake mushrooms and five catties of mid-grade shiitake mushrooms to the village team. The village team registers it for you, and you can head back holding the slip, waiting to divide the money once the shiitake mushrooms are sold.”
“In this batch, my family also submitted three catties of top-grade shiitake mushrooms and four catties of mid-grade shiitake mushrooms.”
“Auntie Lu’s family submitted ten catties of top-grade shiitake mushrooms, eight catties of mid-grade shiitake mushrooms, and two catties of low-grade shiitake mushrooms.”
“Let’s count it by one week. This week, a total of sixteen catties of top-grade shiitake mushrooms were collected. If eight catties are sold at sixty yuan a catty, that’s 480 yuan, and this money will be divided among our three families.”
“How will it be divided? It will be divided into sixteen shares. Your family takes 90 yuan, my family takes 90 yuan, and Auntie Lu’s family, having supplied the most, takes 300 yuan.”
“If they are mid-grade shiitake mushrooms, a total of seventeen catties were collected this week. If seven catties are sold at fifty yuan a catty, that’s 350 yuan, which will also be divided among our three families, but it will be divided into seventeen shares.”
“You take five shares, which is 350 divided by 17, and then multiplied by 5 shares. You take one hundred and two yuan and some change. I have four shares, so I take eighty-two yuan and some change. Auntie Lu’s family takes one hundred and sixty-four yuan and seventy cents.”
“If the low-grade shiitake mushrooms are sold, that has nothing to do with the two of us, because we didn’t submit low-grade mushrooms. However much is sold belongs entirely to Auntie Lu’s family.”
Grandpa Lu understood now. “So everything is divided into shares.”
“Exactly!”
But Grandpa Lu wasn’t very satisfied. “Why didn’t you mention that even if my family supplies ten catties of shiitake mushrooms, the second daughter-in-law’s family will always take the most money!”
Qi Shan: “…”
Well, her example wasn’t detailed enough.
Qi Shan said, “With unified procurement, unified pricing, unified sales, and unified distribution of money by the village team, everyone won’t have to go around looking for tourists to sell things themselves, avoiding annoying people, and preventing prices from being undercut.”
“In the future, if tourists want to buy things, they will all be directed to the village team. As long as things are sold, everyone can divide the money, and no one needs to worry about being left out.”
Those in the village who understood nodded one after another. “This method is good! Just turn it over to the village team and wait to divide the money, no need to worry about it sitting at home unsold.”
“Yes, yes, yes. My mouth doesn’t know how to speak. If there are eloquent people in the village helping to sell, that’s even better.”
The persuasion was finally yielding results, and both Qi Shan and Jian Xingxia were very happy. Every beginning is difficult, but one must meet the difficulty head-on. If they weren’t questioned and pressed by the villagers now, the village market would become messy in the future, making it even more troublesome to handle.
Qi Shan added, “The village team will sell uniformly, and the costs of labor and packaging will also be deducted at that time. However, it will definitely be much better than everyone undercutting each other and chasing after tourists all day.”
The villagers remarked, “Ha, you young people have ideas. So many people in our village wanted to open shops and restaurants before, but we never saw anyone pull it off except Xiaxia… You have an education, we’ll just listen to you!”
Jian Xingxia smiled upon hearing this, as it perfectly allowed her to segue into the next topic.
“Everyone is right! This is exactly the second project I wanted to talk about—”
“Counting generously, there are only eight rooms in the mountains, which is simply not enough. A lot of people want to stay in the village but have no way to, so I discussed it with Secretary Hu and Director Qi, and decided to pilot opening guesthouses and restaurants in the village.”
“Yes, the management style will be exactly the same as the shiitake mushrooms.”
“Everyone will take turns, and the village will uniformly set the grades and prices, settling the accounts uniformly every month.”
“No one will need to spend effort to solicit guests, and no one will have to worry about other households secretly pulling tricks to undercut prices or steal guests…”
The villagers’ ears perked up once again. “This works too?”
