Chapter 59

Chen Hongfu and Dong Jianshu agreed to Su Xinghui's suggestion, but they asked Su Xinghui if it would cost a lot to invite these experts over. Last time, Professor Rao didn't ask for a fee, but not every expert was necessarily like Professor Rao.

Su Xinghui told them that Professor Rao had also talked to him about this problem. He said he would suggest to the school to strive to make the inspection of Meng Hu Ling township a research project of the school. In that case, the school would allocate funds, so the township government wouldn't need to pay, as long as the township government did a good job in reception.

Su Xinghui's words made Chen Hongfu and Dong Jianshu breathe a sigh of relief. This wasn't because they were stingy, but because Meng Hu Ling township was really too poor. If an inspection cost too much, they really couldn't afford it.

The coordination of this matter was, of course, handed over to Su Xinghui. This path was originally found by Su Xinghui, and now they were becoming more and more satisfied with Su Xinghui's work ability.

After Su Xinghui told Professor Rao about this, Professor Rao returned to Jiangcheng. He wanted to find experts willing to come to Meng Hu Ling township for inspection and jointly apply to the school to make the inspection of Meng Hu Ling township a research project.

When returning, Professor Rao also brought some plant specimens he collected in Wild Boar Gully, including some rare plants. These specimens could prove that the inspection of Meng Hu Ling had considerable research value, which could attract those plant experts and also facilitate the school's agreement to the establishment of this research project.

The matter of Wild Boar Gully running a breeding farm and a bamboo weaving factory had already been on the right track. The procedures for these two village-run enterprises had been completed, and the loan from the township credit union for Wild Boar Gully village had also been completed, totaling twenty thousand yuan. Although it wasn't much, now they only needed to build a few pigsties, chicken coops, rat sheds, and buy some bricks, cement, prefabricated boards, and wire mesh, which was enough. This part of the expenditure was at most a few thousand yuan.

The remaining money was for purchasing lean-type breeding sows, as well as some feed and additives. This part of the expenditure wasn't large either, because these wild animals usually ate more green grass, sweet potatoes, tree roots, wild fruits, insects, etc., available in the mountains. Bamboo rats mainly ate bamboo, and could also eat some grass with coarser fibers, and even tree branches, melon peels, and sugarcane tops could be used as their food. Therefore, the feed expenditure wouldn't be very large, as long as people went to the mountains to collect it.

The bamboo weaving factory had even less expenditure. Xia Lan's organizational ability was good. She gathered some farm women who were clumsy but strong to go to the mountains to cut bamboo, and the farm women who were more skillful wove bamboo at home. The bamboo weavings woven every day were handed over to the village committee, where she counted the quantity face-to-face and recorded it. After the crafts store picked up the goods, the money was distributed according to each person's workload.

Since these two enterprises were village-run enterprises, the villagers' direct income now was only wages, and the excess profits were used as capital for the enterprises to expand their scale. However, a portion of the shares of these two enterprises was divided equally among every villager, and when the time was right, the enterprises would distribute dividends.

This model was also a model that Su Xinghui felt was relatively good. After he proposed it to the Wild Boar Gully village committee, the village cadres all agreed.

This model could allow every household in the village to have a fixed income in the future, even if they had no

labor capacity, the villagers would also have a guarantee of life. If villagers had labor capacity, they could directly work in the breeding farm or the bamboo weaving factory, with distribution according to work, and more work, more pay.

In order to prevent some villagers from being jealous and wanting to run enterprises themselves, the village committee also issued regulations: it was fine to run enterprises yourself, and the village would support it as much as possible, but if you ran an enterprise yourself, it was equivalent to giving up your shares in the village-run enterprise.

This regulation also had its rationality. You are a capable person and can run an enterprise yourself, which is, of course, a good thing. But you can't occupy all the good things. This is equivalent to a civil servant "jumping into the sea"; after jumping into the sea, you certainly can't receive a salary.

Village Director Zhao Zhongfu served as the director of the breeding farm, and Xia Lan served as the director of the bamboo weaving factory. The bamboo weaving factory was full of old women, and only she, the Women's Director, was most suitable to be the director.

Gao Daping naturally served as the accountant for these two enterprises, and Xia Zhu served as the deputy director of the bamboo weaving factory. Her bamboo weaving was the best, especially those most expensive and complex bamboo weavings, which only she could weave. Although some people were unconvinced by her holding this position, it was fine as long as the majority were convinced.

Xia Zhu not only engaged in bamboo weaving work herself every day, but she was also responsible for training, that is, taking out two hours every day to teach the women whose bamboo weaving was not yet proficient how to weave some more complex things in the village committee.

Bamboo weaving was very particular about technical content. Those simple things, even if you wove a hundred or a thousand, might not be as good as weaving one complex thing. Who didn't want to earn more money?

Xia Zhu was a simple girl. She took on the responsibility of training without hesitation, taking out her precious two hours every day to teach everyone her techniques and insights without reservation, which gradually made everyone convinced of her as the deputy director.

This was Xia Zhu's way of making a living. Everyone knew the situation of Xia Zhu's family and knew how much she needed this income. Two hours a day might be enough for Xia Zhu to weave a more complex bamboo weaving.

Of course, skills could be taught, but the inspiration in Xia Zhu was not something everyone had. Therefore, the most complex bamboo weavings could currently only be woven by Xia Zhu alone, and Xia Zhu was also pondering every day how to weave the original works mentioned by Song Qiaoli.

Regardless, the bamboo weaving factory could weave dozens to hundreds of bamboo weavings every day. Of course, the vast majority were relatively simple ones that could only be sold for a few yuan, and there weren't many that could be sold for ten to dozens of yuan each.

However, among these works, none were woven by Xia Zhu, because she had to weave the most complex work. This work was the famous painting "Eight Steeds" by Xu Beihong. Song Qiaoli offered a price of one thousand yuan for this painting.

Of course, there was a reason for the high price. If you wanted to weave this painting with bamboo strips and achieve the lifelike spirit of the original work, you needed some special weaving techniques, and it would take at least nearly a month. Therefore, Xia Zhu had been pondering these days how to weave this painting.