Chapter 971

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Protagonist:

Li Xiulan

After Li Xiulan finished her teeth cleaning, she felt her tooth roots were sore; when she inhaled, it felt like wind was rushing through her whole mouth, just like a window without glass panes, woo-woo-woo, cold wind pouring in.

"Does this teeth cleaning really work? I was fine before, but now that I've had it done, my whole mouth feels awful."

Li Xiulan's brows on her aged face were knitted tight.

Wang Erhai comforted her:

"Mom, this definitely works, but you'll need to pay attention to oral hygiene from now on, brush your teeth after meals."

Li Xiulan asked: "After every single meal, I have to brush my teeth?"

Wang Erhai nodded:

"That's right, brush right after eating, don't leave food residue in your mouth."

"What a hassle that would be!" Li Xiulan was displeased.

Wang Erhai said:

"Mom, do you want the hassle, or do you want to spend tens of thousands later to fix this mouthful of teeth?"

Thinking of having to spend that much money, Li Xiulan compromised:

"Alright then, I'll be more careful from now on, it's just brushing after meals, actually it's no big deal."

After dealing with the teeth, Wang Erhai sent Li Xiulan back.

After sending Li Xiulan home, he incidentally handled some Village Committee matters, and only by evening did he return to the county town to handle company affairs.

Liguo Mountain Decoration Company had only just gotten on track recently; as the main person responsible for the market side, Wang Erhai had too many things keeping him busy.

He felt he didn't even have time to manage Village Committee affairs anymore, so he wondered whether to propose resignation to the town leaders; after all, if villagers had urgent matters needing him, he estimated he'd find it hard to rush back to Shangou Village at the first moment.

Thinking it over, Wang Erhai decided to go to the town tomorrow, find Vice Town Mayor Zhong Hongtao, and discuss the resignation with him, so he could find a replacement in advance.

In a blink, the next morning, Wang Erhai was just preparing to set off back to the town.

At this moment, his mobile phone rang.

He took it out to look — it was surprisingly Zhong Hongtao calling.

"What a coincidence?"

Wang Erhai was stunned, then hurriedly answered the call.

"Hello, Mayor Zhong, morning."

Zhong Hongtao's voice came from the other end:

"Erhai, come to the town, there's an important meeting at nine o'clock, needs you village cadres from each village to attend and discuss together."

Wang Erhai replied:

"Okay, I guarantee I'll be there on time; I happen to have something to tell you too!"

Zhong Hongtao was puzzled:

"What matter?"

Wang Erhai thought for a bit, decided not to say for now, better to say it face-to-face.

So he said:

"We'll talk when we meet."

He hung up, and Wang Erhai drove back to the town.

Arriving at the town, it was only eight in the morning, not yet nine, the meeting time.

Wang Erhai went to the New Era Restaurant first, to check on the restaurant's recent business situation.

Ever since Niu Chunsheng brought clients to eat here, the restaurant's business had improved somewhat; quite a few foodies from the county town specially drove over to eat authentic free-range chicken.

However, it was merely a slight improvement; for this restaurant's business to return to peak-period revenue, that was almost impossible, unless the higher-ups stopped cracking down on civil servants eating and drinking with public funds.

In a blink it was nearly nine; Wang Erhai went to the Town Government, found Zhong Hongtao.

"Mayor Zhong, what's this meeting about?"

Wang Erhai asked directly.

Zhong Hongtao said:

"The higher-up leaders gave a task: they want our town to build high-standard farmland, target is for the town's high-standard farmland area to reach over thirty thousand acres; this matter needs you village cadres from each village to take the lead in implementing."

Wang Erhai inquired:

"What is high-standard farmland?"

Zhong Hongtao said: "The standard for high-standard farmland follows the principle of 'One Level, Two Access, Three Improvements'; 'One Level' means fields must be level; 'Two Access' means water access and road access; 'Three Improvements' means improve soil fertility, yield, and efficiency. Additionally, high-standard farmland will be designated as permanent basic farmland; its nature cannot be changed; besides planting basic grain, nothing else can be planted."

Wang Erhai heard this and suddenly realized, nodded, then raised another question:

"How much cultivated farmland does our whole town currently have roughly?"

Zhong Hongtao gave a bitter laugh, answered honestly:

"According to Agricultural Department statistics, currently cultivated farmland, including dry fields and paddies, totals just over twenty thousand acres; you also know, our town is hilly and mountainous, fields were scarce to begin with, plus in recent years population loss has been severe, fewer and fewer people farming, many fields have been left fallow."

Wang Erhai was speechless:

"Only just over twenty thousand acres under cultivation, yet we're supposed to make thirty thousand acres of high-standard farmland — how is that supposed to work?"

Zhong Hongtao gave a dry heh-heh laugh:

"I don't know how to work it either; we'll have to listen to Secretary He."

The Secretary He Zhong Hongtao spoke of is this town's Town Party Secretary He Gaofeng.

This high-standard farmland task was led by him.

Wang Erhai frowned, because he felt this was basically an impossible task to complete.

Even if they truly managed to produce thirty thousand acres of high-standard farmland, and it passed the inspection of the leaders above, if no one farms these high-standard farmlands, won't they just end up lying fallow again afterwards?

"Erhai, don't think so much, the meeting is about to start, let's go to the conference room together, we'll see what Secretary He says then."

Zhong Hongtao patted Wang Erhai's shoulder.

He was also clear in his heart that this task was basically impossible to complete.

The two arrived at the town government's conference hall.

Quite a few village cadres had already come here.

This town has several dozen villages in total, so several dozen people came.

There were many people in the conference room, lively and bustling.

The meeting hadn't started yet, everyone was chatting with each other.

Seeing Zhong Hongtao enter, they all took the initiative to come over and greet him warmly.

After all, Zhong Hongtao is the Deputy Town Mayor; these village cadres, to a greater or lesser extent, need to curry favor with him.

Wang Erhai found a seat and sat down, while Zhong Hongtao walked to the front first row.

The first row was arranged with mineral water, fruit plates, and so on; those are the leaders' seats.

Every seat had a leader's name placard; which leader sits in which seat was arranged long ago.

As for the village cadres, they are in the back, they can just sit wherever.

Wang Erhai had just sat down for a while when Town Party Secretary He Gaofeng walked in.

After he arrived, not long after, the meeting began.

First the secretary presided over the meeting, then had the cadre responsible for agriculture come up to introduce the basic situation, and finally He Gaofeng went on stage to speak.

"I won't say much nonsense; we rural people, there's no need for official jargon, I'll just simply state my requirements. This high-standard farmland construction is a death order issued from above. I know thirty thousand acres is very hard to complete, after all, our whole town currently only has twenty thousand acres under cultivation, but no matter how arduous, we must overcome the difficulties!"

"Secretary He, may I ask how this difficulty should be overcome?"

A village cadre boldly raised his hand to ask.

He Gaofeng said: "That requires you village cadres to exert subjective initiative. The high-standard farmland subsidy given from above is 2000 yuan per acre; that is to say, the more you build, the more subsidy you can get."

As soon as these words came out, the village cadres whispered among themselves, discussing in low voices.

Originally some opposing voices were swiftly concealed.

Because everyone knows, this isn't building high-standard farmland, this is clearly an opportunity to get rich!