Transplanting rice seedlings is the most important event in Shen Yao's hometown. Unlike other places where people have winter or summer breaks, here, when people have long holidays, they call it a farming break.
This is because as soon as the holidays start, they have to go home to do farm work. Every long holiday, without exception, is either spent planting rice or on the way to harvesting it.
Once the seedlings are planted, most of the busy work is largely done.
Meanwhile, the variety show recorded by Mo Xuan and Xiao Jun is also nearing its end.
During this period, most of the living expenses earned by Mo Xuan and the others came from helping out at the Shen family's farm.httpδ:/m.kuAisugg.nět
After all, in the entire village, only the Shen family's workload is significant and requires more manpower.
For other families, unless it was arranged in advance by the production team, they rarely needed their help. After all, inviting them to help would cost money, and more importantly, their work might not be as good as their own.
It's hard to say whether they would actually help if invited!
At this moment, the decision made before the Lunar New Year to plant medicinal herbs along with the Shen family has finally started to take shape.
"Announcement, announcement! Please send at least one person from each household to the brigade for a meeting. Announcement, announcement! Please send at least one person from each household to the brigade for a meeting. Announcement, announcement..."
The announcement was broadcast repeatedly, audible to everyone in the village.
Some people who had already received the news, upon hearing the brigade's announcement, immediately put down what they were doing and rushed to the brigade.
Naturally, Shen's father attended on behalf of the Shen family.
Since the village chief had informed the Shen family in advance, they were all aware of the meeting's main purpose. Shen's father alone was sufficient to handle it.
However, just in case, Shen's second brother was entrusted with an important task by the family.
Initially, it was thought that it would take some time to gather everyone in the village for the meeting at the brigade. But when Shen's father and Shen's second brother arrived, almost every household had sent a representative.
Seeing Shen's father and Shen's second brother, the village chief and the party branch secretary hurriedly ushered them to the front row of the conference room.
Meetings like this in the village are not formal affairs with lengthy pleasantries. Everyone gets straight to the point.
"I believe everyone knows the purpose of this meeting. However, to prevent any feigned ignorance later, I will reiterate it now."
"Firstly, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Comrade Shen Jun for single-handedly boosting the village's economy. Secondly, let's discuss the purpose of your gathering here today."
"Comrade Shen Jun's family, ever since they contracted the land, has embarked on vigorous development. Not only have they utilized every inch of land effectively, but they have also generated income, which has greatly impressed the higher authorities regarding our village's development."
"Therefore, effort and reward are proportional. Seeing the income generated by Shen Jun's family during this period, everyone has also expressed a desire to learn from Comrade Shen Jun."
"As the saying goes, a single tree cannot form a forest. Since many people share this idea, the village will organize a unified effort to invite Comrade Shen Jun to lead the villagers in poverty alleviation and prosperity."
The village party secretary's words were clear and concise, without any delay.
Shen's father found this quite reassuring, as at least he wasn't being plotted against in the speech.
He was a person who responded well to kindness but not to coercion. If these people wanted to benefit while acting ungratefully, they would have to see if he agreed.
"Since the secretary has made things so clear, I too have a few words to say."
"Firstly, if everyone truly wishes to learn our cultivation techniques with us, we are certainly most welcome. However, if there are any other intentions, I can only state the terms upfront."
"Secondly, to learn our techniques, you must all follow our arrangements. After all, we are the ones who establish contact for both the medicinal herbs used in cultivation and the buyers of these herbs. Therefore, you must strictly adhere to our guidance on where to plant which medicinal herbs."
"Furthermore, the cultivated medicinal herbs will be uniformly purchased by our Shen family. Private sales are not permitted. Upon discovery, we will no longer guide anyone in the village in cultivating medicinal herbs."
Shen Jun directly stated the conditions that the Shen family had discussed the previous night, with other terms to be raised once everyone agreed.
As expected, upon hearing Shen Jun's words, many people in the village were displeased and began to voice their opinions.
"But we are just following you to plant medicinal herbs, why can't we sell our herbs to others? This regulation is too overbearing."
"Exactly. And all the cultivation plans are decided by you. Then everyone will definitely want to plant the more expensive medicinal herbs. What if you dislike a certain family and deliberately assign them cheaper herbs?"
"Right, right! I heard that planting things like ginseng and lingzhi is very lucrative. I want to follow that!"
"You say you'll pick out the seedlings for us, but ultimately we're the ones paying. Since we're paying ourselves, we might as well choose to plant the more expensive medicinal herbs."
"You'll purchase them? What if you deliberately drive down the purchase price and then sell them at a higher price yourself? Then I'd be losing a lot! No, no, I disagree!"
...
As more people began to raise objections, the atmosphere quickly became rowdy.
Seeing the situation becoming increasingly difficult to control, the faces of the village chief and the party branch secretary immediately changed.
They couldn't help but grit their teeth, thinking what a bunch of incompetent troublemakers who only sought petty gains. They were being helped to this extent, yet they were still causing trouble!
Bah, if they weren't in the same village and the higher authorities hadn't given them a task, they wouldn't have wanted to do this thankless job.
However, they couldn't refuse, as they were also villagers and naturally wanted to work with the Shen family.
Even if they, as cadres, couldn't directly intervene in many matters, their relatives and families were also villagers, weren't they?
"Alright, everyone quiet down!" the village chief's loud voice boomed, and the noisy conference room instantly fell silent.
Everyone looked at the village chief in a daze, their minds still trying to catch up.
After a long while, the village party secretary spoke again, "You ungrateful wretches! Comrade Shen Jun is willing to lead you out of poverty, and you're still unhappy?
And here you are, nitpicking. Now, anyone with objections can get out immediately. Don't disrupt discipline and act like a stumbling block!
Who do you think you are? You should know how many people outside envy your situation! And yet you are still so ungrateful!"