Rebirth 70: I am a Koi

"Despicable! They are actually blaming me for something else!" I slammed the document on the table, shaking with anger. The document contained reports from several newspapers, with shocking headlines, pointing directly at our planting base for plagiarizing other people's technology with evil intentions.

Bai Hanchuan's face was gloomy, with anger dancing in his eyes: "They are desperate! I have contacted a lawyer and am ready to sue them for defamation!" He held my hand tightly and said firmly: "Don't worry, good will prevail over evil, we will definitely get through this difficult time."

I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself down. Bai Hanchuan's report had indeed dealt a heavy blow to the competitors, but they were clearly not going to sit there and wait for death. The most important thing now was to keep our footing and not lose our composure.

"I understand." I nodded and turned my eyes to the window. In the planting base, workers were busy in the fields. Everything seemed to be in order, but I knew that a storm was brewing.

The implementation of the new management plan was not smooth. Some old employees doubted my ability and resisted the reform. They obeyed the arrangement on the surface, but were passive and lazy behind the scenes. They even spread rumors that I, the "airborne" person in charge, did not understand planting at all and would bring the base down sooner or later.

"Manager Mu, it's not that we don't want to cooperate, it's just that this new plan is too complicated, and we old guys can't learn it!" Lao Zhang is an old employee in the base and speaks more directly. He took the lead in expressing his dissatisfaction, and others followed suit.

I suppressed my anger and patiently explained: "Mr. Zhang, I know it's hard for everyone to adapt to the new plan, but the new plan is to increase production, and everyone will benefit in the end!"

"Who knows? What if the production volume doesn't increase? Wouldn't all our work be in vain?" someone in the crowd whispered.

I suppressed my anger and worked on each of them, explaining the advantages of the new plan and promising to do my best to help them adapt. At the same time, I also strengthened management supervision and dealt severely with those who deliberately slacked off.

However, just as we were dealing with internal problems, a phone call once again broke the peace we had worked so hard to maintain...

"What did you say? They want to terminate the cooperation?" My hand holding the phone suddenly tightened, and my tone was full of disbelief, "Why? We..."

"I understand." I took a deep breath and tried to calm the surging emotions in my heart. "I will contact them as soon as possible."

After hanging up the phone, my heart sank to the bottom. It was so hard to find a small logistics company that was willing to cooperate with a "notorious" planting base like ours, but after just a few days, they were being pressured? It was obvious that those competitors were behind it!

"Don't worry, I'll go talk to them." Bai Hanchuan patted my shoulder, his tone calm, but I knew he was not calm inside. This sudden crisis was like an invisible rope, tightening more and more, almost making us breathless.

After seeing Bai Hanchuan off, I forced myself to calm down. Now I can only put my hope on the space. During this period, I have been studying how to use the space system to improve the growth of crops. Hard work pays off, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that the space seemed to have restored some of its functions, and I could control the climate and soil composition in a small area within the space.

I carefully transplanted a few vegetables that were not growing well into the space and adjusted the light and humidity. A few days later, a miracle happened. The vegetables that were originally withered suddenly regained their vitality, their leaves turned green, and they grew well.

"Great!" I almost jumped up with excitement. This proved that my idea was feasible! As long as we make good use of the space, we can turn the situation around! I seemed to see the dawn of hope, and my whole body was full of strength. I immediately compiled the experimental results into a book and prepared to promote it to the entire base.

However, things did not go as planned. Just when I was full of hope and ready to do a great job, the space system suddenly fluctuated. The originally clear control panel became flickering. I tried to adjust the parameters, but there was no response.

"What's going on?!" I suddenly had an ominous premonition in my heart. Is the space going to close again? If all my previous efforts were in vain, then I...

"Jinli, I'm back." Bai Hanchuan's voice interrupted my thoughts. He had a trace of fatigue on his face, but he forced a smile. "I have already negotiated with the logistics company. They agreed to continue to cooperate with us."

"Really? That's great!" I suppressed the uneasiness in my heart and tried to force a smile.

"It's just..." Bai Hanchuan's tone was a little hesitant, "The conditions they proposed..."

"What conditions?" My heart tightened, and I had a bad feeling.

Bai Hanchuan took a deep breath and said slowly: "They asked for a 30% increase in shipping costs..."

"30 percent?!" I gasped. This is simply too much! The shipping fee we originally paid was already higher than the market price, and now they want to increase it so much. Isn't this going to drive us to death?

Bai Hanchuan held my hand with a firm look in his eyes: "I know this is difficult, but we have no choice. Let's get through this difficult time first, and we can talk about the future later."

I understood what he meant. We were like drowning people. We would not let go of a straw as long as we could grab it. I nodded, but my heart felt as heavy as if a huge rock was pressing on it. Although the bank agreed to extend the repayment period, our funding gap was still large. In order to raise more funds, Bai Hanchuan decided to mortgage part of his personal property.

"Hanchuan, this is too risky!" I looked at the documents, my heart ached. Those were all his savings from years of hard work! What if... what if it failed, we would really be left with nothing!

"Don't worry, I believe we can get through this." Bai Hanchuan hugged me in his arms, his tone gentle but firm.

I hugged him tightly, buried my head in his chest, felt his warm body temperature, and couldn't help but burst into tears. I knew that everything he did was for me and for our family.

However, there has been a wave of unrest.

"What? What did you say?!" I stood up suddenly, and the documents in my hand fell to the ground. The anxious voice of the sales manager came from the other end of the phone: "Mr. Mu, it's bad. Our dried vegetables have been maliciously slandered in the market. They said that we are made of stale vegetables and that eating them will cause diarrhea..."

I immediately realized that someone was behind this! "It must be them! Those competitors!" I gritted my teeth. They saw that we had finally found a logistics company, so they came up with this despicable method to suppress us!

I forced myself to calm down. The most important thing now was to solve the problem instead of panicking. I immediately went with Bai Hanchuan to visit the customers affected by the rumors, taking the product quality inspection report with me, to explain to them and prove that there was no problem with our products.

Some old customers are willing to trust us because of our previous pleasant cooperation, but many customers are tempted by the low prices of competitors and choose to wait and see.

"Hanchuan, what should we do now?" I felt more tired than ever before, as if all my strength had been drained away.

Bai Hanchuan put his arm around my shoulders and comforted me softly, "Don't worry, we still have a chance. Look, haven't these new customers already signed letters of intent for cooperation with us?"

I followed his gaze and saw several freshly-made contracts on the desk. My heart moved slightly. Yes, even in such a difficult situation, we still won the trust of some customers, which shows that our persistence is meaningful.

I took a deep breath and cheered myself up: "You are right, we can't give up! As long as we work together, no difficulty can defeat us!"

A glimmer of hope also ignited in Bai Hanchuan's eyes. He held my hand tightly, and we smiled at each other. At this moment, there was no need for words to express our feelings to each other.

Although our counterattack has initially shown results, I know that this is just the calm before the storm. The competition with competitors is far from over, and the problems within the planting base are also hanging over our hearts like a dark cloud, lingering...