Chapter 98: Seeing You Again, Senior Sister Mayor

Just as the sun was about to set and the sky had not yet been fully shrouded in darkness, Liu Shijie led his team to swiftly arrive in Qingshui City. Three cars, ten people, after securing rooms at the municipal guesthouse, they rushed nonstop to the banks of the Clear Water River to meet with Chen Yang.

This place is great! The Zhang Group is leaving such a superb feng shui treasure undeveloped, running off to Xingcheng to hit a snag—what were they thinking? After Liu Shijie took in the beautiful scenery, convenient transportation, and pleasant surroundings around the land, he also expressed puzzlement over Zhang Daguo's actions.

I suspect the relocation hasn't been fully settled yet. Chen Yang had already inspected the area that afternoon and asked some nearby residents. Additionally, five local households, unable to agree on compensation with the Zhang Group, have become holdouts.

Will we run into the same problem if we take it over? Liu Shijie, being an outsider, was a bit worried.

There will always be a way. Chen Yang recalled that this land had been successfully developed in his previous life, with no particularly stubborn holdouts. So he advised Liu Shijie: "First secure the project; the relocation issue can be worked out later."

Liu Shijie thought it made sense; as long as money could solve the problem, it wasn't a problem. He asked Chen Yang: "Can I first meet Deputy Mayor Xu?"

Chen Yang called Lin Wei and asked her to relay Liu Shijie's request.

Lin Wei quickly replied, saying Deputy Mayor Xu had agreed and told Liu Shijie to find her in the government office.

Liu Shijie instructed the staff to return to the guesthouse to rest, then he and Chen Yang went to the Qingshui City Government Office Building. When they reached outside Xu Li's office, Lin Wei, who was guarding the door, stopped Chen Yang and allowed only Liu Shijie to enter.

Seeing Chen Yang looking at her with a puzzled expression, Lin Wei lowered her voice and explained: "My dad just called, telling you not to get involved in that land matter. He said the waters run deep there."

Chen Yang was puzzled. "Since you know the waters are deep, why did you still have me call Liu Shijie over?"

Seeing Chen Yang concerned about Liu Shijie, Lin Wei soothed: "Don't worry, as long as you stay out of it, Liu Shijie will be fine."

Chen Yang had no intention of getting involved from the start; he was worried that Liu Shijie might be set up. Since Lin Wei said there would be no problem, he also relaxed.

Liu Shijie talked with Xu Li for an hour; judging by his beaming smile when he came out, the conversation must have been pleasant. "Chen Yang, I'm afraid I can't accompany you these few days—I need to work overtime to get the project documents done."

"How about eating first, then getting busy?" Chen Yang knew he and his team had come riding hard, and wanted to show his hospitality to the fullest, but Liu Shijie politely declined. He said time is money, and he needed to return immediately to the guesthouse to assign specific tasks to his staff.

Seeing Liu Shijie's high work enthusiasm, Chen Yang didn't insist. He was about to see him off to the guesthouse when Xu Li called him into the Deputy Mayor's office.

"Chen Yang, your poverty-relief and agricultural-assistance work in Clear Water County has been excellent; are you interested in visiting a few other counties?"

Chen Yang replied, "Senior sister, I've already stationed sales agents in all the county seats of Qingshui City and have signed quite a few orders."

Xu Li hadn't expected Chen Yang to act so quickly; he had already quietly extended his network to other county seats. This is definitely a good thing for Qingshui City's agricultural development. Solving the sales issue allows farmers to survive. She hesitated a moment, then asked Chen Yang: "Have you ever considered getting into agricultural product processing?"

Chen Yang immediately shook his head; he was already exhausted and didn't want to invite more trouble. "Senior sister, the company has just gotten off the ground; the chain stores in Xingcheng are still preparing to open, and I'm really swamped."

Xu Li laughed: "Don't be hasty in refusing. If you're interested, the government can provide ready-made factory premises and some related policy subsidies."

Chen Yang still wasn't moved. "Senior sister, it's not that I want to refuse your favor. You have to eat bite by bite—I haven't even figured out the trading company's affairs, let alone have the energy to run an agricultural processing plant."

Although Xu Li had been repeatedly turned down by Chen Yang, she wasn't angry. She picked up a file bag from her desk and handed it to him, saying: "Take it back to read first, then give me your reply after you've looked it over."

Chen Yang still wanted to find an excuse to decline, but Lin Wei pinched him from behind, leaving him no choice but to stay silent and silently take the file from Xu Li's hand.

After returning home, Chen Yang began complaining to Lin Wei: "My dear wife, do you still think I'm not busy enough? I don't even have time to oversee the supermarket opening in Xingcheng, and you want me to run a processing plant?"

Lin Wei gently soothed Chen Yang: "Boss definitely won't set you up—first read the file, then we'll talk."

Chen Yang, helpless, could only open the file bag and skim through its contents.

It turned out to be a city-run food processing factory located in the southern suburbs, whose long-term poor management had caused its operating condition to deteriorate steadily, bringing it to the brink of closure.

According to the statistics in the bankruptcy liquidation document, the factory's equipment is relatively new, with various processing machines and transport vehicles well maintained, still retaining some usable value.

What caught Chen Yang's attention was that the factory also owned a plot of land totaling thirty mu.

As for the conditions of taking over the factory: first, to repay the factory's outstanding historical debt of five million within a set period; second, to properly resettle the factory's over one hundred workers.

The five-million debt wasn't a big problem—Chen Yang could settle it with a wave of his hand. The real difficulty lay in arranging the placement of those over one hundred workers.

If we could simply pay them off to leave, that would be fine; the worry is that they might not want to quit the factory. After all, Clear Water City currently has a large number of laid-off workers, making social factors highly unstable. At this sensitive moment, forcibly laying off the factory workers could trigger unpredictable accidents—then not only would Chen Yang face trouble, but Xu Li would be implicated as well.

Moreover, from Xu Li's words it was clear she also hoped Chen Yang could keep the factory running so those workers would have something to do.

This gave Chen Yang a headache. He photographed the document with his camera and then sent it via computer to Shen Anna. At this point, he needed a professional's opinion.

After reviewing the document, Shen Anna expressed her support for Chen Yang taking over the factory and also offered two suggestions.

First, hire professional management and technical staff to optimize and upgrade the product line, thereby enhancing the factory's market competitiveness as much as possible.

Second, compress and streamline the existing product line, and within the factory construct a logistics warehouse needed by the Common People Agricultural Products Trading Company. This would not only facilitate product distribution for the trading company but also maximize the absorption of the factory's surplus labor.

After careful consideration, Chen Yang decided to accept Shen Anna's second suggestion. After all, at this stage the Common People Agricultural Products Trading Company is his main business; even if the food processing factory were to be retained, it could only exist as a subsidiary industry.