Chapter 340

Liu Jin'gang had just left for two minutes when the phone rang; seeing the caller ID, it was Deputy Township Head Li, and Chen Jinhai's heart jumped—this was a call to criticize him.

"Leader, you're looking for me?"

"Chen Jinhai, you've done a fine thing," came the stern voice of Deputy Township Head Li from the other end.

"Leader, I—I don't know what happened," Chen Jinhai almost wanted to cry; even now he still doesn't know what happened, and the informed Liu Jin has already left.

Damn! This feeling is really stifling.

"Hmph! You still have the nerve to say you don't know what happened in the village—you as village chief, I think you're done for."

"Leader, please hear me out—our village has too many troublemakers..."

He hadn't finished speaking when he was cut off by the other side,

"Nonsense! They're all our masses; what's this troublemaker talk? Your thinking is problematic, a big problem."

Deputy Township Head Li's tone was awful; "Damn it, what era is this? It's one thing for troublemakers to mutter in private, but you dare say that when I formally call you?"

Moreover, this is a troublemaker—what a fine comrade, wanting to vigorously develop the economy.

Chen Jinhai broke out in a sweat, not daring to retort, only able to answer with timid "yes, yes" replies.

"I ask you, is there someone in your village who wants to rent land for aquaculture, and then you deliberately make things difficult for them?"

"Huh? Rent land for aquaculture?" Chen Jinhai stared in shock.

Damn!

This is none other than Ye Cheng.

"Damn it, that bastard Ye Cheng actually went and complained to the township about me."

Finally knowing what was going on, Chen Jinhai hurried to explain,

"Leader, let me tell you about that Ye Cheng."

"Wait a minute—who?" Deputy Township Head Li, upon hearing the name Ye Cheng, felt something was off; the two people who came today weren't Ye Cheng.

"It's Ye Cheng, the one who caused trouble in the last election."

"You mean he wants to do aquaculture?"

"Yes, he said he wanted to raise crayfish; I said we needed to study it first—I really wasn't deliberately obstructing him." Chen Jinhai began to protest over the phone.

"Damn, you came this morning to talk about renting land, and this afternoon you went to the township to file a complaint—who's making life difficult for whom?"

Deputy Township Head Li now understood why Chen Jinhai refused to rent land to others—it was because of Ye Cheng.

It seems the four elderly people who came today are also behind Ye Cheng.

"This kid, huh, is somewhat interesting."

"That move was used, pretty ruthless."

Now that he knew it was Ye Cheng, he didn't want to say more,

"You're the village chief; you need to see the big picture, don't let personal grudges bring you to the township—understand? Hurry up and handle the paperwork for them; economic construction is currently the top priority."

After lecturing Chen Jinhai, Deputy Township Head Li hung up the phone.

Chen Jinhai stood at the village office feeling wronged; "Damn, others as village chiefs throw their weight around, but I as village chief either get beaten or scolded."

Too stifling.

Although he felt stifled, he didn't dare treat the leader's words as nonsense; he summoned Lao Xing and had him notify Ye Cheng to come handle the rental procedures.

As for the money, just rent according to the price of wasteland.

He really didn't want to see Ye Cheng.

Moreover, from the leader's tone just now, it seems he's quite keen on aquaculture; when our Chen Family's aquaculture farm is built, we'll invite the leader over—also a way to save face for ourselves.

Lao Xing hadn't expected to have a task right after taking office at the village committee; he was delighted, trotting over to find Ye Cheng.

Hearing Lao Xing tell him to go handle the procedures, Ye Cheng smiled; the matter was settled.

After completing the procedures, he successfully rented the 50 mu of riverside land; the wasteland price is similar to that of tidal flats, slightly higher—altogether 160,000 over 30 years, spending most of Ye Cheng's cash on hand.

After finishing, Ye Cheng gave Lao Xing two packs of cigarettes, making Lao Xing delighted; being on the village committee is great—there's even cigarette income.

Meanwhile, after the four elders returned, Ye Cheng prepared a gift for each and sent them over.

Then came preparing for crayfish farming; Ye Cheng assigned Duan Yong full responsibility for it.

In later generations, raising crayfish just requires digging two ponds—one is a nursery pond, a bit smaller, mainly for raising smaller crayfish.

The other is the grow-out pond, meaning, as the name suggests, for raising larger crayfish.

However, raising crayfish now poses a problem: there are no ready-made crayfish fry for sale, so we also need to set up a dedicated fry hatchery.

So for now, there are two things to do: build a house and dig ponds, both requiring manual labor.

Ye Cheng didn't want to bother with these preliminary matters; after a rough estimate, he thought it should be doable within 50,000, so he directly handed over 20,000 to Duan Yong to start work.

But all expenditures must be recorded, just like with Zhang Guafu.

One is to cultivate Duan Yong's overall ability; the other is that he himself needs a means to check Duan Yong.

After taking care of these, Ye Cheng currently has savings of 35,000, external debt of 30,000, a mortgage of 300,000, and will need to invest another 30,000 later.

Basically his savings are exhausted, so after settling these matters, Ye Cheng again got busy with clam affairs.

The next day, Ye Cheng made a trip to the dock; he wanted to find someone to buy clams.

Ye Guowei this time is raising mainly flower clams; according to normal yield per mu, one mu can produce 3,000–6,000 catties, but with our aquaculture boost, yields of over ten thousand catties per mu are possible.

So at most, 50 mu could yield over 400,000 catties.

However, this is only the first batch, not yet fully grown; Ye Cheng estimates about thirty percent, which works out to roughly a little under 100,000 catties.

With such a quantity, it's impossible to sell it alone; we can only find someone to purchase it.

The first person that came to mind was Lao He; this guy is the sharpest, with a quick mind.

Upon arriving at Lao He's shop, Lao He was still resting there; the fishing boats that had gone out haven't returned yet, so there's nothing to collect.

Seeing Ye Cheng come empty-handed alone, Lao He found it a bit odd, but still got up and greeted him.

Lao Er, you haven't been out to sea in a long time, huh?

Hmm, I haven't been out to sea lately; I've been busy with other things, I came to talk to you about something.

I only deal in sea goods; what do you want to talk to me about?

Lao He poured Ye Cheng a cup of tea, and the two sat down.

Knowing you deal in sea goods, I came to ask if you take clams.

Clams, sure— you're an old hand at the docks, why even ask? But you haven't brought any goods, so I can't give a price.

Ye Cheng leisurely took a sip of tea, then said,

This time the quantity might be a bit large; can you handle it?

Large quantity? He Lao Ban looked at him doubtfully, "How much? A few hundred catties? Or several thousand? You didn't go out gathering a bunch again, did you?"

Maybe 50,000 to 100,000 catties, and there'll be more later." Ye Cheng said lightly.

How much? You said how much?" He Lao Ban jumped up from his chair, staring at Ye Cheng in shock; the quantity he'd just heard was a bit frightening, he feared he'd misheard.