Chapter 86: Preparation

Chen Yonggui returned to the village, saw the villagers tamping the roadbed by the roadside, and grabbed a strapping young man.

"Jin San, tell everyone to take all the tarpaulins to Dawan Port."

"What for, Village Chief?"

Jin San had gone to cover the Shichen ship with tarpaulins last time, so Chen Yonggui didn't hide it from him:

"Another job came in, urgent as hell. Tell the folks we'll buy at five yuan per square, settle up on the spot for whatever they bring."

"Take every last bit they've got. If it's not enough, go shout it over the village broadcast. Tell me tonight how much you rounded up, see if we can scrape together a few ten-thousand square meters. Go, hurry!"

Jin San almost thought he'd misheard—tarpaulins at five yuan a square, ten thousand square would be fifty thousand?

Normally a roll of tarpaulin was only a dozen-something yuan. How much had the price jumped?

But the village chief's authority was solid; Jin San didn't doubt it and took off at a run to gather the crowd.

Chen Yonggui also rushed home at once, pulled out his phone book, and started cranking calls to the village chiefs of a few nearby villages.

"Hey, hey, hey, it's Chen Yonggui. You're about to get rich. The shipyard urgently needs a batch of tarpaulins today, buying at five yuan per square meter. Deadline's tonight, no exceptions!"

"Don't believe it? You think I've eaten so much I'm stuffed and have nothing better to do than fart around with you? Bring it over and we settle on the spot!"

"Old Li, is that you… still sleeping over there? There's some quick cash to be made, you in or not?"

"…I'm not kidding you. Five yuan a square, not a cent less. Tell me how much you've got before you send it over!"

"…"

After calling the four surrounding villages, five villages in total with just under a thousand households, one or two ten-thousand square meters of tarpaulin should be no problem.

He hurried into his four-wheeled contraption, squeezed the gearshift until it nearly sparked, and drove to Dawan Town, heading straight for the general stores that sold tarpaulins, buying them up one by one.

But this kind of tarpaulin was a fast-moving trade; the combined stock of a few shops was only four or five thousand square meters—after all, a few hundred meters of tri-color cloth was enough to sell for half a year.

Chen Yonggui got the phone number of a tarpaulin wholesaler in the city from the shop owner, then immediately borrowed the small shop's phone to call.

He didn't waste words, got straight to the point:

"I want thirty thousand square meters of tarpaulin. Name your price. It has to be delivered to Dawan tonight."

The wholesaler on the other end started suspecting someone was messing with him, but hearing it was shipyard business he fully believed it, thought for a moment, and asked:

"The shipyard uses the wide kind, right? The biggest size is 15 meters wide, one roll is 200 meters, the price is pretty steep—one roll is ten thousand yuan."

Striped waterproof cloth was also a plastic woven product, with an extra layer of waterproof film added on. Making it wasn't hard, but making it wide was a hassle.

Once the width went over 10 meters, the demands on production space and equipment got very strict, and the price per square meter would shoot up several times over.

The wholesaler had originally planned to quote high so there'd be room to haggle, but Chen Yonggui answered without hesitation:

"Fine, then ten rolls. One hundred thousand yuan, no bargaining. The address is Gaijin Shipyard. We only accept delivery at night."

The wholesaler actually didn't have ten rolls in stock either—one roll of plastic weighed several hundred kilograms, who would hoard that stuff?

But there were other wholesalers; rounding up ten rolls wasn't impossible.

Sourcing the goods would take at least two hours, and setting out from Goose City to Dawan Village, the earliest arrival would be eight or nine in the evening.

"It can definitely be delivered before midnight tonight."

"Ten o'clock at the latest!"

"Deal!"

With a sudden big business on the line, the wholesaler stopped hesitating and hung up at once to coordinate the supplies.

Chen Yonggui did the math in his head—fifty thousand square meters should be about enough.

And right then, the phone at the small shop rang on its own.

An Yu had just been watching Chen Yonggui frantically blow ninety thousand yuan, and at a glance recognized the incoming number:

"It's the shipyard, probably looking for you."

Chen Yonggui picked up the receiver, and sure enough, it was Wu Long's voice:

"Sister-in-law, has Chen Yonggui come into town?"

"I'm right here!"

Wu Long let out a huge sigh of relief and hurriedly said:

"Just now the shipyard workers told me they don't have the supplies or production authority—they can only provide equipment, no steel pipe clamps."

"There aren't many at the site either, nowhere near enough to build the shed."

Chen Yonggui's brows knit:

"How much does it take to throw up a frame? If it comes to it, use wood and bamboo to prop it up."

"Fifty meters high—where are you going to find sky-reaching timber that'll do the job? And the wind's blowing at the coast today. If we don't brace the frame properly, just wait for it to get blown over!"

A frame 300 meters long, 50 meters high and wide had an enormous windward face; only construction-grade scaffolding steel pipe could hold up to it.

A steel frame covering such a huge volume, and having to withstand the coastal wind—even cutting corners would still need around 20 tons.

The total stock that could be found in Dawan Port was less than ten tons. If they forced it, they'd either have an accident on the spot or end up with a shoddy job.

Tang Wen was still around and could have arranged the shipyard to start work, but now they could only figure something out on their own.

"Do as much as you can. Leave the rest to me."

After saying that in a low voice, Chen Yonggui dialed out again.

……

Yang Tai glanced at the sun about to sink below the sea, sat down at the dinner table humming a little tune.

All peaceful on every side, Dawan developing in harmony—what a happy, settled day.

"Xiujuan, let's buy a Simmons mattress too."

Ever since sleeping one night at the Dawan Hotel, Yang Tai had been unable to forget the goose-down comforter and the Simmons mattress; sleeping on the palm-fiber mattress at home always felt uncomfortable.

But his wife opposite him just rolled her eyes, too lazy to even argue back.

Yang Tai couldn't help sighing—married a Northeastern woman, should've known better.

"Ring—ring—"

Hearing the phone ring, he slowly picked it up:

"Who is it?"

"Township Head, it's Xiao Hu. I just saw someone from Riguang Village heading toward Dawan. Do you know about this?"

As soon as the words fell, Yang Tai felt his blood pressure surge to the top of his head, as if it were about to burst out.

"Xiao Hu, what nonsense are they arguing about this time?"

"I don't know, but it seems they aren't carrying weapons, yet almost everyone is running over... No, wait, it should be from Shiyu Village; there should be eight or nine of them!"

Yang Tai nearly fainted just thinking of the scene; snapping back to his senses, he immediately put on his shoes.

"I'm going out for a bit; don't save any food for me."

"Where are you going?"

"To quell those monkey brats in the town; they're about to turn the sky upside down!"

Yang Tai dared not delay for a moment, but before setting off, he hesitated and still made a call to Chen Yonggui—no one answered.

He called the shipyard next; no response, and Tang Wen's mobile number was also unreachable.

As for Wu Long's mobile number, he didn't have it either; instantly, the whole person went numb.

Xiujuan, hearing this, was also startled and hurriedly said:

"Then why don't you report it to the police right away?"

"Report what nonsense? Sending people over won't do any good; no, I must go see it myself!"

Yang Tai only stated the surface reason; the core was actually that he did not want to affect the development of Dawan Village.

As long as the matter could be stopped at his level, it would not be a big deal.