Rebirth in a Book: The Road to Breakthrough

After last night's heavy rain, the sky was exceptionally blue, the air was exceptionally fresh and pure, and even the grass looked exceptionally bright green.

At noon, during the lunch break, Yu Congcong stood in the corridor of the village office, holding a loudspeaker in his hand, looking at the villagers below.

"Good afternoon, fellow villagers! I am Yu Congcong. I believe everyone here knows me, so I won't introduce myself in detail."

"Hahaha, I know him, I know him." The villager below answered with a smile.

"Okay, now let's talk about the purpose of holding this meeting."

"Yes, why?"

"Don't be anxious, everyone. I'm going to tell you what I'm saying." the captain shouted.

"Yes, be quiet, be quiet, and listen to Cong Cong."

"We are holding a mobilization meeting here today to discuss with you the future of our village's soy sauce cooperative."

"What's wrong with the soy sauce? Isn't it cooked well?"

Everybody was in an uproar, asking questions all at once, and looking very anxious.

"Congcong, what's wrong with the soy sauce?"

"Is it not allowed to do this?"

“Is it because it can’t be sold?”

Yu Congcong waited for everyone to discuss for a while, and only spoke after everyone quieted down: "Everyone knows how the soy sauce cooperative in our village was opened. I wonder if everyone still trusts me, Yu Congcong."

"I believe it, I believe it." More than a dozen aboriginal residents of Lihua Village expressed their belief. The other dozen or so families remained silent.

Yu Congcong didn't care about those who didn't say anything, and just took their silence as believing it.

"Okay, since everyone trusts me, let Zhang Yun talk about the current situation and problems of the soy sauce cooperative."

Zhang Yun walked forward with a notebook in his hand.

"Hello everyone, let me first talk about the output of soy sauce last year. Since last year, the raw materials for each household in our village have been distributed. Our village produced 12,000 kilograms of beans, which is already the highest output in previous years. I went to Gebiji Village to purchase 16,000 kilograms, and the raw materials purchased were 4,000 kilograms more than our village. We should have produced a total of 56,000 kilograms of soy sauce, but in fact we only produced 48,000 kilograms of soy sauce, a full 8,000 kilograms short. We can't supply the supply and marketing cooperatives that have signed cooperation agreements. We have always been in a hunger marketing mode and often out of supply."

"How can there be such a big difference?" The villagers felt a little uncomfortable. Isn't this a waste of beans?

The villagers with low production lowered their heads, and more than a dozen families did not dare to look at everyone's expressions.

"Okay, everyone, be quiet. This happened last year. There's no need to waste time discussing it." The captain said.

The villagers fell silent.

"Let's talk about the first half of this year. The village has run out of raw materials. If we need to purchase, the surrounding villages have already purchased them. If we want to go to distant places to purchase, we can't get a letter of introduction. This year, because of the reputation of soy sauce, several more supply and marketing cooperatives have joined. The supply and marketing cooperative in our town has given up cooperation because of our insufficient supply. Several old supply and marketing cooperatives have also expressed their opinions. The villagers only have a few thousand kilograms of soy sauce at home, which is simply a drop in the bucket."

After hearing this, the villagers fell silent. They didn't know the situation had become so serious.

After Zhang Yun finished speaking, he handed the loudspeaker to Yu Congcong, who took it.

"There is a huge demand for soy sauce in the market now, and our village cooperative simply cannot supply it. In order to allow everyone to continue to earn this money, I decided to replace our village cooperative with a factory."

"If we switch to a factory, does that mean we won't be needed to make soy sauce?"

"Does that mean we don't have this income anymore?"

"Everyone, be quiet. I set up this factory to protect everyone's interests. I know you have a lot of questions, and now I will slowly tell you. The first question is about production. After I set up the factory, each family will change from making soy sauce by themselves to making it in the factory. Each household will provide a person who is the best at making soy sauce. The factory will hire you as technicians and pay you a monthly salary. For other jobs, the factory will give priority to hiring villagers, but as before, it cannot delay the development of the village's fields. The second point is interests. I have cooperated with the county government, and our annual profits are divided into three parts, one for the county government, one for the factory, and one for the village. Okay, that's it, everyone, do you have any opinions?"

"We went to work in the factory. Are we considered workers?"

"Technicians are considered as such, and the other positions are temporary workers at the moment. Don't worry, we will improve the factory step by step. We will need more workers by then."

Yu Congcong answered everyone's questions.

"Yu girl, if we don't agree to set up a factory, can the soy sauce cooperative continue?" asked a strange middle-aged woman.

Yu Congcong didn't expect that someone would ask the key question.

"Well, we can at the moment, but it's still unknown. As you all know, town officials have proposed several times to provide our village's soy sauce technology to the town to set up a factory."

The villagers all knew this after hearing what Widow Wang said. They were all silent. Although the soy sauce factory would share a share of the village's profits, how could the village's profits be compared with their own. In addition, only one person from each household could become a worker, and the others would definitely not accept it and would have opinions. Especially those who did not split up and lived in a large family felt that it was not worth it.

Seeing that everyone was silent, the team leader stepped forward, holding a megaphone, and said loudly: "I know that you still have doubts about the issue of benefits and distribution. Let me ask you, the salary that someone in your family receives from the factory, doesn't it belong to your family? Some people in large families will say that he will definitely be a beneficiary when he becomes a worker in the future. Then I want to ask you, why don't you study hard to learn the technology of making the soy sauce that you use at home every day? You have never enjoyed the benefits that he brought to you in the past few years, and you still want to enjoy it for the rest of your life."

After the captain's words fell, those who usually ignored soy sauce at home lowered their heads.

"There is one more thing you need to consider about this soy sauce factory. If this factory is not opened in our village, you will gain nothing."

The villagers fell silent.

"Okay, let's vote now. Don't waste Congcong's time. She's very busy." The captain said domineeringly.

The aboriginals raised their hands without hesitation. To Yu Congcong's surprise, the educated youth also raised their hands. Seven or eight families of villagers who came later raised their hands after a moment of hesitation. Several others remained silent and did not raise their hands.

"Okay, the minority obeys the majority. The soy sauce factory will be building a factory building tomorrow. After work, those who are interested in making some money can go to Zhang Yun to sign up. The meeting is adjourned."

The crowd dispersed and left, discussing with each other.

"Captain, thank you!"

"What are you thanking me for? Our village should thank you for choosing our village as the location for the factory."

"Haha, then let's go choose a site this afternoon."

"Okay, let's go now!"

"It's almost time to go to work. I can't take a lunch break now."