Rebirth in Famine: She Thrives by Lucky Space
Chapter 72 counties

Chapter 72: 72 counties

"Jiang Xinyu, how much do you know about financial matters?"

"I’m not sure either; I’ll have to take a look before I can say."

"Jiang Xinyu, you need to understand, we’re in the same boat. If I go down, you won’t end well either," Wei Kaiyun said seriously to Jiang Xinyu.

"I know, otherwise I wouldn’t have copied this account book down. You don’t need to keep reminding me. I said I wouldn’t come, but you insisted I did? You’re just a troublemaker." Jiang Xinyu pretended to complain.

"Stop acting, it’s too fake."

Jiang Xinyu rolled her eyes at him. "You have too many problems; maybe you’re just a failure as a person."

"Naive, without benefits, no one would pay attention to you."

"Go, quickly leave, just seeing you ruins my mood."

"Ha! Jiang Xinyu, I’m moving in."

"Are you dreaming?"

"So we can discuss any matters promptly."

"No way, this is my personal time, I refuse to work."

After Wei Kaiyun finished speaking, he also felt it was inappropriate and realized he hadn’t thought it through, so he left without further ado.

The next day, Jiang Xinyu deliberately changed into a new outfit. This sapphire blue outfit was okay, but wearing a cotton coat inside made it a bit bulky.

Next time, I’ll check out some army green fabric and make a set of spring clothes. Standing in front of the mirror, my hair has improved a lot. On Saturday, I’ll get the split ends trimmed.

Riding the bicycle made me feel different immediately. Next time, when making clothes, I could add pockets and not carry pens; wouldn’t that be something?

She daydreamed all the way to the textile factory, smiling and greeting the gatekeeper grandfather.

"Secretary Jiang, there’s a letter for you."

"A letter for me?"

"Yes, it doesn’t have a return address."

"Thank you, grandpa." Looking at the handwriting on the envelope, it’s a man’s. Who would write to me? I don’t know anyone, could it be a mistake?

Without thinking much, she still tidied up the two offices and made tea for Wei Kaiyun.

Today, Qian Jun arrived at the office at the usual time.

"Good morning, Secretary Qian!"

"Good morning, Secretary Jiang. Since you came, I’ve been slacking off. Next week, I’ll handle the cleaning."

Jiang Xinyu didn’t refuse, nodding with a smile, "Alright."

This isn’t a one- or two-day thing, but if Secretary Qian hadn’t spoken, she would have kept on doing it, never asking him.

"Secretary Qian, how is the situation with Lai Zhiqiang?"

"He’s tough; the police haven’t come up with any results yet."

"Why is he acting this way? Isn’t it just substituting the good with poor ones? If he showed sincerity, it would just be an internal factory punishment, right?"

"Yes, but the more he acts like this, the more it indicates that there are issues."

"Secretary Qian, are there any problems with his records? Could we investigate in his hometown?"

"We’ve already gone, but there’s no feedback yet."

Jiang Xinyu sensed that this was more than it appeared on the surface.

Wei Kaiyun heard a few words outside and, upon entering, glanced at Jiang Xinyu.

The entire morning was busy, with Jiang Xinyu making two rounds to the workshop.

Qian Jun was responsible for Wei Kaiyun’s lunch at noon, giving her time to have lunch with Wang Ailing.

"Xinyu, next week I’ll have a shift change, so I can’t have lunch with you."

"Okay, I got it."

After lunch, Jiang Xinyu rested for a while; without a dormitory, she could only lay her head on the desk to rest.

In the afternoon, the two rode bicycles to the county.

On the way, they encountered Hou Wenquan. As a junior, Jiang Xinyu took the initiative to greet, "Good afternoon, Secretary Hou."

"Hello, Secretary Jiang. This is our Ceramic Factory Director, Zheng Wenshan."

Wei Kaiyun and Zheng Wenshan rode side by side, chatting along the way; there wasn’t a good opportunity to greet them now.

The county magistrate personally chaired today’s meeting. The scene was quite serious.

This county magistrate was also quite young, appearing to be around thirty. Judging by his posture and the way he spoke, he seemed to be someone who has retired from the military.

"I invited everyone here today to solicit donations from each of your factories. There’s someone spearheading a purchase of food from abroad, and there are financial issues in the county.

You, as factory directors, should be aware of your factories’ financial situations. So, now I need a figure from you: how much could you contribute?

Of course, you don’t need to worry. This money won’t be taken from you for nothing; it’ll be directly deducted from taxes in the future. Not all at once, but over three years."

Ten minutes later, each one was expected to give an answer. This was essentially a mandatory order.

Wei Kaiyun leaned back, and Jiang Xinyu leaned forward as well.

"We still have 63,000 cash in our account," she said.

"Director Wei, how much tax needs to be paid annually?"

"150,000."

"Can we scrape together more money?"

"Are you suggesting we pay more?"

"Yes, listen to what others have to say. My take is that if we can contribute a year’s tax amount, that would be best. But we must let the leadership know that we are currently borrowing to support our work."

"Got it," Wei Kaiyun understood Jiang Xinyu’s reasoning. Now is not the time to cry poverty.

Jiang Xinyu couldn’t bring herself to look at the expressions of the other factory directors; she kept her head down and took notes.

"Alright, time’s up. Who wants to go first?" Tao Juncheng asked without inflection in his tone.

A minute passed without any movement. Jiang Xinyu saw Wei Kaiyun suddenly stand up, "Our textile factory has 63,000 on the books. I’ll go back and check where else we can squeeze out money, aiming for 150,000."

After Wei Kaiyun finished speaking, there was no reaction below, even the leaders above were suddenly silent.

Tao Juncheng clapped his hands, "Bravo, you all should learn from Director Wei. Good, Wei Kaiyun, prepare as best as you can. If there are any difficulties, come to me."

This promise from the county magistrate was far more substantial than the one made by the chairman of the city union in the previous meeting.

"County magistrate, this is what we should do. We will certainly give our all."

Several directors below mentally cursed Wei Kaiyun; why draw attention?

Food supply station chief Dong Weimin stood up, "County magistrate, our food supply station is not as wealthy as the textile factory. We only have 21,000 on the books; we’re giving it all.

Although cash is scarce, we still have 30,000 jin of food tickets, we could go to the provincial grain bureau and exchange them for cash."

"No need, Station Chief Dong. We understand your station’s situation, but indeed it’s too little. Go back and think of a way."

"Yes, tomorrow I will convene a meeting with station chiefs from each township to discuss this issue."

The third one to stand up was Zheng Wenshan from the Ceramic Factory, "County magistrate, we have 36,000 on the books. We don’t have more than that."

Tao Juncheng nodded, quite satisfied with the initiative of the first three.

"Next, continue."

The Furniture Factory director, Liang Youfa, "County magistrate, we have 31,000 on the books."

The Timber Factory director, Xiao Changde, "Our Timber Factory has more than them, we have 46,000, we will contribute it all."

Shen Shinan stood up immediately afterward; in fact, he had wanted to stand up second, but his slow nature always allowed others to jump first, "County magistrate, our Steel Factory’s on the books is also just 60,000."