Chapter Seventy-Nine: The Village Official's Second Bold Move

He Zhixing, together with Li Xianliang, Xu Chang, Liu Shiquan, Lan Xuejun, Zheng Chuandong, Zhang Ji, and other representatives acting as village chiefs, began comprehensive contract signings with the farmers. For all those who signed, their time would be freely at their disposal; regardless of how much or how little they chose to plant, the proceeds from selling their harvest during the season would belong entirely to them.

In the villages of Li Xianliang and the others, the contracts were signed by the village chiefs on behalf of the farmers, granting them full control over their farmland and hills. However, things were different in He Zhixing’s Zhang Village. He leased all the village’s mountains, forests, and fields, including every farmer’s miscellaneous woodland that hadn’t become a proper forest, as well as all fields not used for vegetables or rice, for thirty years. He would manage them collectively, and after thirty years, all land and usage rights would be returned to the original owners.

During these three years, He Zhixing hired all the able-bodied villagers to work for him, focusing on cultivating a variety of wild vegetables, fruits, and game. Each worker received a monthly subsidy of six hundred for the first year, with the promise of wage increases based on results in the following years. There were only about twenty or thirty able-bodied villagers who stayed behind in the village.

They could plant during their spare time, and besides their regular farm work, they were required to spend at least two to three hours each day helping to plant wild grasses and fruits. The mountains, the overgrown fields, and the paths were filled with seeds; many needed little care, just the removal of useless weeds, leaving behind only those wild plants and fruits of economic value.

He Zhixing was busy every day, leading these farmers from dawn to dusk on the front lines. Since the work was organized on short notice, he would post daily notices in the village bulletin board, indicating where and along which route they would be planting in the morning and at noon. Any villager with free time could check the board and join them. He Zhixing also kept a meticulous record of everyone’s working hours.

The wild vegetables and fruits he demanded to be planted were numerous. The wild vegetables included mountain bracken, water fern, mountain celery, wild galangal, taro greens, hi greens, straight bamboo shoots, hemp bamboo shoots, crisp bamboo shoots, reed bamboo shoots, wild yam, and others.

The wild fruits included the Bai Sheng fruit, a kind of wild fruit whose white flowers resembled roses and the fruit looked like thumb-sized gourds, two types of mountain wild kiwis—the larger ones about half the size of those sold in markets, the smaller ones only as big as a middle finger—four types of wild strawberries, wild sour stalks, climbing vine fruits, two types of hard rice balls, wine press fruit, winter peaches, Dou Gu Nong, Mali Zhan, Sheng Li Zi, Mi Wu fruit, tea bag fruit, sugar claw fruit, and others, with a special focus on cultivating Bai Sheng fruit.

There were also other varieties suitable for development, such as wild Tianqi, wild Gastrodia, wild honeysuckle, sweet tea leaves, several types of mountain stream fish, mountain ginger flowers and roots, rustic cucumbers, local sour white peppers, cultivated shiitake mushrooms, mountain gray squirrels, wild pheasants, and more.

The entire five towns were swept up in the fever of planting wild vegetables, fruits, and game. After two months, He Zhixing took the twin sisters to visit all the villages engaged in this development and cultivation. The results were promising—everywhere from the edges of the villages to the hills, fields, and pathways, one could see thriving patches of wild vegetables and fruits. Watching this, He Zhixing and the sisters smiled with satisfaction. Although they hadn’t yet achieved blanket coverage of all the hills and fields, the progress was impressive.

He Zhixing also found time to finalize negotiations with Boss Li of the sawmill, purchasing the land—over sixty thousand square meters—for 1.6 million. He immediately summoned a construction team to begin building the industrial park.

On the day construction began, Su Mei arrived with the town committee’s leadership to offer congratulations, celebrating the first developer to invest in the five towns, setting a valuable example and a strong precedent.

He Zhixing expressed his gratitude for the town leaders’ visit and invited them for tea. After the meal, Su Mei said, “Comrade Zhixing, your industrial park and wild vegetable and fruit cultivation have really taken off. Thank you for your contribution to the five towns. Honestly, you’re the great benefactor of our area. Without you, our five towns might still be lifeless. At least now, we see a glimmer of hope.”

The others nodded in agreement. He Zhixing smiled and said, “Mayor Zeng, I have a suggestion. Would you be willing to hear it?”

Zeng Sumei was intrigued. “Oh? What is it? I’m all ears.”

He Zhixing glanced around at everyone, then continued, “Have you ever noticed how dreadful our roads are in these five towns? The mountain roads are full of potholes and nearly impassable. Whether it’s the road from the city to our towns or the routes connecting the villages, they’re all bumpy and muddy. I think this situation needs to be broken. We must submit reports to the city and province, requesting support and funding for road repairs. Development always starts with building roads—this is an unchanging truth. That’s why I think this issue is urgent and cannot be delayed.”

Su Mei was pleased and responded, “Yes, actually our town leadership has been discussing this for the past few days. We’re preparing to write a report to submit to the city and provincial committees. You and I are thinking along the same lines. Very well, I promise to apply for funding right away.”

To their surprise, once the report was submitted, the city committee took it very seriously. The mayor personally went to the provincial committee to request funds, and finally succeeded. The province agreed to allocate two million in funding.

As soon as the funds arrived, Zeng Sumei personally took the lead, spearheading the road construction. The village officials led the populace into a fervor of road-building, constructing secondary rural roads and launching the project for cement village roads. The second wave of initiatives from the village officials had begun in earnest!