Rebirth 70: I am a Koi

"What's wrong? Speak slowly." Bai Hanchuan's calm voice calmed the visitor down a little. He took a deep breath and said intermittently, "The sales of vegetables from our base in the county have dropped a lot! When I went to deliver the goods today, I found that several vegetable stores... refused to buy our vegetables..."

My heart suddenly sank, and a bad feeling came over me. Before I could ask, the man continued, "They said that there are many new cheap vegetables on the market now, and the quality is not worse than ours, but the price is much lower. Many old customers have switched to theirs..."

Cheap vegetables? Could it be...

I immediately thought of the newly emerged planting bases that Bai Hanchuan mentioned before. It seems that they have already started to attack us!

"Also..." The man seemed to have remembered something, his face turned even paler, "I heard...I heard that those new bases have people behind them supporting them. They can get fertilizers and seeds at a very low cost, so they can keep the prices so low..."

I clenched my fists tightly. These despicable guys actually used such unfair means to seize the market!

Before I could recover from these successive blows, another person hurriedly ran in from outside the door, sweating profusely and looking panicked.

"Captain Bai, something bad has happened! Boss Liu... Boss Liu..."

"What happened to Boss Liu?" I felt more and more uneasy. Boss Liu is our main supplier of raw materials. Could something have happened to him too?

"He, he suddenly said he would not supply us anymore! Moreover, he also raised the price we had agreed on by 30%! He said if we still want more, we have to pay the new price!"

With a loud bang, my head seemed to explode and everything in front of my eyes went black.

How could this happen... How could this happen...

Bai Hanchuan held me up, looking grim. He turned to look at the person who reported the news and said in a low voice, "Who else's price has changed?"

"I, I just asked around, and all the raw material suppliers are..."

Before he could finish his words, the office door was flung open, and a strange man walked in with a somewhat contemptuous smile, and slammed a document on the table:

"Captain Bai, Manager Mu, take a look at this. Maybe you will thank me for reminding me today soon..."

My vision went dark and I had to hold on to the table to keep myself steady. Bai Hanchuan held my hand harder and harder and I could feel the veins bulging on the back of his hand.

"What is this?" His tone was cold, with a sense of oppression as if a storm was about to come.

The man had a smile on his face, and said frivolously, "This is the latest planting standard. What? Captain Bai has positioned himself as a local tyrant so quickly? He doesn't even pay attention to the latest industry policies?"

Bai Hanchuan raised his head suddenly, his eyes like a knife cutting across the man's frivolous face: "What on earth do you want to say!"

The man was intimidated by his aura, and his voice weakened a bit, but he still managed to speak: "It is clearly written in the document that starting from next month, all planting bases must be renovated according to the new standards, including irrigation systems, soil improvement, and..." He paused and deliberately emphasized his tone, "and the detection equipment for pesticide residues must be updated! If they cannot meet the standards..." He deliberately dragged out the tail tone, with a hint of gloating, "Then we will have to close down!"

I grabbed the document and quickly glanced through it, my face becoming increasingly grim. These standards seemed to be intended to improve the quality of agricultural products, but in fact they set extremely high thresholds, and each one meant a huge investment.

"They are trying to kill us!" I said gritting my teeth.

Bai Hanchuan hugged me in his arms, patted my back gently, and said in a gentle but firm tone: "Don't be afraid, we still have a chance."

I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself down. Now was not the time to panic. The most urgent thing was to find out who was behind this!

"How are you going to deal with this matter?" I looked up at Bai Hanchuan. His deep eyes seemed to contain a storm, yet he was unusually calm.

"I'll get to the bottom of it." His tone was cold and unquestionable, "If you dare to attack us, you must be prepared to pay the price!"

In the next few days, we began to run around, raise funds, contact equipment suppliers, and hope to complete the transformation of the base as soon as possible. However, things turned out to be more difficult than we imagined.

"Captain Bai, it's not that I don't want to help, it's just that..." A familiar equipment supplier looked embarrassed, "The higher-ups have issued a strict order that no one is allowed to sell equipment to you during this period, otherwise... I can't do anything about it!"

We were left with nowhere to go but to watch the transformation plan stall. What was worse was that although the smear campaign by competitors had been cleared up, there was still some negative aftermath that affected the choices of new customers.

"Captain Bai, I've heard some bad rumors about the vegetables at your base..." a new customer said hesitantly, "Although I know someone deliberately spread the rumors, but..."

I took a deep breath and swallowed back the words that were about to come out of my mouth. I knew that at this moment, any explanation would seem pale and powerless.

"It's okay, you can think about it again." Bai Hanchuan said calmly, without any panic, "We believe that time will prove everything."

After seeing the customer off, I looked at Bai Hanchuan's tired face, and my heart was filled with worry: "What should I do now? I can't raise funds, and I can't buy equipment. If this continues..."

"I'll try to find some connections and see if I can think of a solution." Bai Hanchuan hesitated for a moment and said firmly, "Don't worry, I will definitely find a solution."

He picked up his coat and turned to go out. At this moment, the phone suddenly rang...

There was a hearty laugh coming from the other end of the phone, but for some reason, I couldn't see any joy on Bai Hanchuan's face. His brows were furrowed, and his fingers holding the phone turned white from excessive force.

"Boss Wang, what you said is too polite. We are old friends, why can't you give me this little face?"

The person on the other end of the phone seemed to say something. Bai Hanchuan was silent for a few seconds, and his tone became a little lower: "Mr. Wang, you should know that those are all fictitious things. There is absolutely no problem with the vegetables in our base..."

His tone became weaker and weaker, and I vaguely guessed that the person on the other end of the phone was refusing to cooperate with us. In the past few days, Bai Hanchuan has been running around to expand his business, but he always returns with nothing. Those colleagues seem to have reached some kind of tacit understanding and joined forces to exclude our base.

"I know, Mr. Wang, I will think of another way..."

Bai Hanchuan hung up the phone and rubbed his brows tiredly. Seeing my worried look, he forced a smile: "It's okay, just a small problem."

I walked over, hugged him gently, rested my head on his chest, and listened to his steady heartbeat, but my heart grew heavier.

"Hanchuan, what should we do now?" I murmured, with a slight tremor in my voice.

"It will be fine, don't worry." He patted my back gently, his tone gentle but firm.

I knew he was trying to comfort me, but he couldn't hide the anxiety in his eyes.

These days, I have been trying to find new breakthroughs. I have read a lot of agricultural books, hoping to find some new vegetable varieties suitable for our base. If we can launch some unique products, maybe we can attract customers' attention again.

However, reality gave me a blow. The research and development of new varieties requires a lot of time and money, and also faces market risks. Given the current situation of our base, we simply cannot afford such risks.

I slammed the documents in my hand onto the table and slumped down in the chair.

To make matters worse, just when we were in a state of panic, the village chief suddenly came to our door.

"Jinli, the village is going to build a road recently. As you know, the economic conditions of our village are limited, so..." The village chief rubbed his hands with an embarrassed look on his face.

I knew what he meant. Since our base was built, the living conditions in the village have improved a lot. This time, the village is definitely counting on us to pay the largest share of the bill for road construction.

"Village chief, don't worry, we will do our best to support the construction of the village." Bai Hanchuan said calmly.

After seeing the village chief off, I looked at the already stretched financial statements on the table and took a deep breath.

I know that a bigger storm is coming... As soon as the village chief left, I could no longer suppress my panic. I grabbed Bai Hanchuan's hand and asked in a trembling voice: "Hanchuan, what should we do now? The funding gap of the base is getting bigger and bigger. If we can't find a market..."

Before I could finish my words, Bai Hanchuan gently covered my mouth. His deep eyes were firm, but his tone was as gentle as ever: "Don't be afraid, everything will be fine. We have come this far, there is no turning back."

His words were like a magic needle that calmed my flustered heart. Yes, from the moment we decided to build a planting base, we were ready to face all the storms.

"But..." I still couldn't help but worry, "We are squeezed out by our peers, short of funds, and now we have to support the village in building roads. We..."

"I know what you are worried about," Bai Hanchuan held me in his arms and patted my back gently, "but we can't give up. This is not only related to our dreams, but also to the hopes of all the employees and villagers in the base."

His embrace was warm and strong, and I felt like I had found support. I took a deep breath, tried to calm myself, and kept thinking of a solution in my mind.

"Oh, right," I suddenly looked up as if I remembered something, "We can try to contact the agricultural product exhibition in the city! If we can participate in the exhibition, maybe we can open up sales channels!"

Bai Hanchuan's eyes lit up, and he touched my head in appreciation: "What a good idea! Why didn't I think of it? Jinli, you are really my lucky star!"

Seeing the glimmer of hope rekindled on his face, my heart was relieved a little.

In the next few days, Bai Hanchuan ran around to contact the exhibition, while I devoted myself to the production management of the base. I strictly controlled the product quality and led the workers to work overtime to prepare the best products before the exhibition.

However, fate always seems to like to play tricks on us. Just when we were making the final sprint for the trade fair, Bai Hanchuan brought back a piece of news...

"Is there anyone willing to invest in us?" I looked at Bai Hanchuan in surprise, my tone full of disbelief.

Bai Hanchuan's expression was unusually solemn. He nodded slowly and said in a deep voice: "But the other party put forward a condition..."