Chapter 114: The Impoverished Mountain Gorge Unveils Thirty Thousand Yuan, Stuns the Iron‑Rice‑Bowl!

Another deep night, the kerosene lamp in the side room still glowed, its wick fanned by Lu Qingshan to burn brightly, illuminating his focused profile.

The table was covered with various sketches, procurement lists, and preliminary cost accounting sheets.

He sometimes scribbled furiously, sometimes furrowed his brows in thought, and fine beads of sweat seeped from the tip of his nose.

Creak— the door was gently pushed open.

Lin Yue'e entered carrying a steaming bowl of egg noodles, the noodles topped with two golden poached eggs, sprinkled with fresh green scallions, the aroma filling the air.

"It's already past midnight, and you're still working?"

She set the bowl on the table edge, her voice carrying a barely perceptible concern, "Eat something first to fill your stomach; you can't let your health burn out."

Lu Qingshan looked up, saw his wife, and the fatigue in his eyes eased a bit, turning into warmth.

"Why aren't you asleep yet?"

"You haven't come back, how could I sleep?"

Lin Yue'e picked up a pencil from the table, stared at the dense numbers and symbols, her eyes a mix of confusion and curiosity, "These… are the factory's accounts?"

Lu Qingshan scooped a mouthful of noodles, the hot strands sliding down, and felt considerably more at ease.

He looked at his wife, a stir in his heart recalling last night's promise, and smiled, "Exactly, this is the factory's inflows and outflows. Want to try learning?"

Lin Yue'e's cheeks flushed slightly, the hand gripping the pencil tightened, and she whispered, "I… I'm afraid I'm too stupid to learn."

"How would you know unless you try?"

Lu Qingshan set down his chopsticks, pulled over a clean sheet of draft paper, "Come, I'll first teach you the simplest. This, called 'income,' is the money the factory earns from selling goods. This, called 'expenses,' is the money spent on raw materials, wages, and so on…"

Under the lamp, Lu Qingshan's voice was patient and gentle; he started with the basic Arabic numerals, then simple addition and subtraction, followed by the common terms used in ledgers.

Lin Yue'e listened with extra concentration, her brows slightly furrowed, like a diligent elementary student absorbing knowledge.

Her background was modest, so many things were entirely new to her, but she studied earnestly; whenever she didn't understand, she asked softly, and Lu Qingshan explained repeatedly without irritation.

"Look, we bought a batch of astragalus for three hundred fifty yuan—that's an expense. Once processed and sold, we got six hundred eighty yuan, which is income. So how much did we profit?"

Lin Yue'e counted on her fingers, whispering, "Six hundred eighty minus three hundred fifty… is three hundred thirty!" Her eyes lit up as if she'd solved a massive puzzle.

"Exactly! It's that simple."

Lu Qingshan smiled encouragingly.

Gradually, Lin Yue'e became less restrained; she would point to the cost sheet Lu Qingshan drafted and ask,

"Qing Shan, should the money spent on buying timber for packaging boxes also be counted as expenses? And the wages we pay to people who harvest medicinal herbs—should those be recorded too?"

Lu Qingshan was momentarily stunned, then laughed, "Yue E, you're truly talented! You're absolutely right. These are all 'costs,' and they must be recorded item by item, otherwise the calculated profit would be fictitious."

He found that although his wife's education was limited, her mind was extremely meticulous, and she possessed an innate sharpness for the actual expenses of daily necessities.

Sometimes, Lu Qingshan would get dizzy calculating and accidentally add an extra zero to a figure, and Lin Yue'e could point it out.

"Qing Shan, look here—buying a hundred jin of bean cakes to feed the pigs, why does it say two hundred yuan? Is it a mistake? A few days ago I chatted with Zhao DaShen and the others; they said it should be around twenty yuan."

Lu Qingshan took it, examined it, and indeed it was his own typo; he couldn't help but look at his wife with new respect and laughed heartily.

"My wife really has hawk‑eyes! If we really counted it as two hundred yuan, the factory would incur a loss before even opening!"

The two, one teaching and one learning, would sometimes discuss, sometimes argue a few lines; the office no longer held only Lu Qingshan's solitary toil, but gained a warm tacit understanding.

Lin Yue'e gradually realized that these winding numbers and accounts weren't as frightening as imagined; they resembled managing a larger household, each entry affecting the livelihood of the whole village.

And Lu Qingshan also discovered that his wife not only possessed gentle and virtuous qualities, but also a cleverness and resilience he had never previously noticed.

The flickering lamp cast their huddled silhouettes, as if returning to years ago when they first met, whispering confidences under the moon; then it was a fledgling romance, now it is mutual support and trust through hardship.

A few days later, the factory's foundation was laid, and the brick walls began to rise day by day.

Lu Qingshan felt it was time to formalize their 'status.'

He took Lin Yue'e and boarded the shuttle bound for the county seat.

Lin Yue'e had specially changed into a newly made indigo coat, her hair neatly combed; though her face still showed some nervousness, her back stood straight.

"Qing Shan, are you really going to write my name?"

Sitting on the bumpy shuttle, Lin Yue'e still could not fully believe it.

Lu Qingshan said they would go to the county's Administration for Industry and Commerce to register three factories, and to list her name among the responsible persons.

"Is there any doubt? As a couple we are of one mind; our unity can cut through metal!"

Lu Qingshan squeezed her hand, encouraging her.

The sign of Jiangyuan County Administration for Industry and Commerce was a bit worn; inside the office, a middle‑aged clerk wearing glasses, looking somewhat stiff, was bent over writing something.

Lu Qingshan handed over the application documents and politely said, "Comrade, we are from Shanwan Village and wish to register three village‑run enterprises."

The clerk didn't look up, took the papers, and in a flat tone asked, "What are the names? How much is the registered capital?"

"Dingxiang Food Processing Factory, Jingyi Chinese Medicinal Materials Processing Factory, and Yuanqi Herbal Drink Processing Factory." Lu Qingshan paused, then gave a figure, "Each… registered capital ten thousand yuan."

The clerk's pen tip paused on the paper; he slowly lifted his head, adjusted his glasses, and his eyes behind the lenses filled with astonishment, "You said how much? Ten thousand per factory? Three factories… that's thirty thousand yuan?!"

His voice involuntarily rose a few pitches, drawing the curious glances of several other staff members in the office.

In the early 1980s, a household with ten thousand yuan was still a rarity, let alone producing thirty thousand yuan as registered capital, especially in the remote, impoverished Shanwan Village!

This is sheer fantasy!

Lin Yue'e grew even more nervous from the scene, her palms sweating.

Lu Qingshan, however, remained composed; from his cloth bag he carefully produced three bundles of Great Unity wrapped in red paper, placed them neatly on the counter, and said, "Comrade, this is thirty thousand yuan, please inspect. Here is also the site certification issued by the county."

The three fresh bundles of banknotes seemed to glitter in the slightly dim office.

The clerk's eyes bulged; he looked at the money, then at Lu Qingshan and Lin Yue'e, opened his mouth, but remained speechless for a long moment.

In all his years handling registrations, it was the first time he'd seen such a 'magnificent' rural enterprise.

"You… you Shanwan Village… so wealthy?"

He stammered.

"This is a special municipal support loan; the factories are built on the main road between the town and the county seat, hoping these three factories will lead everyone to a better life!"

Lu Qingshan spoke in a manner that was neither servile nor overbearing.

The clerk only then snapped back to attention, hurriedly counted the cash, and carefully cross‑checked the application documents.

When they saw that, in the fields for legal representative and principal person in charge, besides Lu Qingshan, Lin Yue'e's name also appeared, they couldn't help but glance at Lin Yue'e a few more times.

This seemingly quiet and delicate rural woman was also in charge of a factory worth tens of thousands of yuan?

The procedures were surprisingly smooth; perhaps being held at bay by that thirty‑thousand‑yuan cash, the clerk's attitude also became considerably more courteous.

After leaving the Administration for Industry and Commerce, Lin Yue'e let out a long sigh, feeling her calves still a bit weak.

Sunlight bathed her, warm and gentle; she looked at her husband beside her, his expression calm, and an indescribable surge of pride and steadiness rose in her heart.

This man could always do things that caught people off guard.

And she, step by step, was taking part in the magnificent blueprint he was drawing.