Chapter 419: Eager to Return

After spending two weeks near the Monan Branch, Jiang Miao secretly returned to Shanmei City.

As he boarded the high-speed train and began his journey home.

The area around Zhelimu City welcomed the first snow of winter. However, it was only a light dusting, and the next day, the ice and snow melted as soon as the sun came out.

At both the Tamin Chagan Base and the Mulan Base, the leaves of the unharvested soybeans withered instantly.

On the train, Jiang Miao scrolled through the Monan Branch’s October work briefing.

The 220,000 mu of soybeans at the Tamin Chagan Base had been completely harvested, yielding a total of 69,300 tons of soybeans with a moisture content of around 27%, which could be dried further.

This batch of soybeans would not be used for feed or oil. Instead, after drying, it would be used as seed.

During his ten-plus days at the Monan Branch, Jiang Miao had perfected the seed coating formulas for the Liao River Plain, the Songnen Plain, the Sanjiang Plain, the Kerchin Desert, the Northern and Eastern Monan Region, the North China Plain, the Huai River Plain, the Yangtze River Middle and Lower Reaches Plain, and the Lingnan Region.

The Monan Branch’s seed processing plant would complete its calibration by the end of the year and could begin mass production in January.

However, work at the seed processing plant had already begun.

One of the tasks, the outsourced design for the seed bags, was in its preliminary stage. Jiang Miao was reviewing it now. After looking it over, he wrote a few comments in the approval section:

“The product packaging is too uniform, which could easily lead to mix-ups. I suggest using iconic natural landscapes from each region as the cover art. The words ‘For use in XX Region’ must be placed in the most prominent position, and the font is not large enough.”

He opened the next file.

He saw a report from the Monan Branch regarding inquiries from many growers in Zhelimu City and Red Mountain City who wanted to purchase seeds. The branch was asking for guidance on setting the retail price.

Currently, Hailufeng Company’s wholesale price for soybean seeds was 15 yuan per kilogram, which included the seed coating. Planting one mu required about 6.5 kilograms, costing roughly 100 yuan.

Jiang Miao had no intention of lowering the price. After all, Immortal Soybeans were different from other varieties. A single planting of Immortal Soybeans could, barring any accidents, be harvested continuously for four to five years.

Even for large corporations like COFCO Group and Beidahuang Group, the price was the same.

After approving the document, he stood up, stretched, and took a sip of sparkling water.

Outside the train window, the view had changed from the withered yellow of the North China Plain to the richly colored forests of the Two Lakes Region.

Jiang Miao sat back down and looked at the other work briefings from the Monan Branch.

Although the Monan Branch was only established this year, its revenue was considerable.

Over at the Mulan Base, 250,000 mu of soybeans had been outsourced for use as feed, generating a total revenue of 120 million yuan. Of this, 200,000 mu were priced at 500 yuan per mu, and 50,000 mu were priced at 400 yuan per mu.

As for the 150,000 mu of soybeans the Mulan Base kept for itself, more than half had already been pre-ordered by dairy farms in the Northeast and North China Regions, with an estimated revenue of 230 million yuan.

The situation at the Tamin Chagan Base was much more complex. A large portion of the 130,000 mu of soybeans used as forage had already been harvested twice, accumulating about 280 million yuan in revenue.

They weren’t making a profit from the cattle and sheep yet, mainly because all profits were being reinvested to expand the herds.

It was projected that starting next year, the Monan Branch would not only be self-sufficient but could also turn over a portion of its profits to the parent company.

After finishing the Monan Branch’s briefings, he opened the Gannan Branch’s monthly briefing and skimmed through it.

The Gannan Branch’s 210,000-mu Camellia oleifera plantation was now in its flowering season.

However, the three varieties of Camellia oleifera flowered at different times.

The Fengcha variety bloomed in October for about a month and a half, with its fruit ripening the following September.

The Hanxiang variety bloomed in November for one month, with its fruit ripening the following October.

The Nanwang variety bloomed in December for a month and a half, with its fruit ripening the following November.

Currently, the planting area for all three varieties was roughly the same.

This was the first year these Camellia oleifera plants were flowering, so the yield would not be very large.

Jiang Miao glanced over the section on Camellia oleifera but didn’t dwell on it, as they were not yet in their harvest season.

He focused on the sections concerning the Gannan Branch’s Purple Alfalfa, honey, and Hero Dairy’s milk products.

Hero Dairy, which had expanded its farm to 90,000 head of cattle, currently had 45,000 milking cows. Each month, besides the raw milk fed to the calves, they produced about 50,000 tons of usable raw milk.

Jiang Miao noticed that Hero Dairy’s production cost for raw milk had dropped significantly, down to only about 2.2 yuan per kilogram.

The root causes for such a rapid decrease in cost were, on one hand, the increased milk production from the improved feed formula, and on the other, the drop in costs for both roughage and concentrate feed.

With the lower costs, even though Hero Dairy’s products like pure milk, cheese, yogurt, and light cream were relatively inexpensive, the gross profit margin was still as high as 37%.

「At the same time Jiang Miao was returning.」

In Gan Province, all 100 of the Hailufeng Specialty Store physical locations finally completed their trial period and began official operations.

Downtown Yuzhang City.

There were four Hailufeng Specialty Stores here.

On the first day of the grand opening, the entrance was crowded with a fair number of app users, many curious onlookers who were just passing by, and a contingent of bargain hunters looking to score a deal.

This was mainly because the stores had distributed a ton of coupons to nearby residents during their trial run.

Amidst the sound of electronic firecrackers.

A crowd of aunties and uncles squeezed in the moment the doors opened.

“Excuse me, is it really buy one, get one free?”

“Hey, stop pushing!”

“Please form a line…”

An older woman placed a case of pure milk on the counter. “Cashier, where are the eggs?”

“Ma’am! You only get a free box of eggs if you spend over 100 yuan. This item just gets a 20% discount. Would you like to check out?”

“A hundred yuan? Why didn’t you say so earlier?” the woman muttered under her breath as she walked away.

Right after, an older man pushed a cart over. “Young lady, is this enough for a hundred yuan?”

The cashier quickly started scanning the items. “I’ll know once I scan them.”

The man’s cart contained one case of pure milk, one bottle of honey, one bag of individually-wrapped seaweed fish balls, and one bag of a chilled leg of lamb.

One case of 12 cartons of 250ml pure milk, 24 yuan.

One 50-gram glass jar of Purple Alfalfa honey, 9.9 yuan.

One 2.5-kilogram bag of frozen, individually-wrapped seaweed fish balls, 50 yuan.

One 3-kilogram bag of a pre-cut, chilled, bone-in leg of lamb, 90 yuan.

The cashier scanned everything quickly, then looked up. “Sir, the total is 173.90 yuan. After the 20% discount, it’s 139.12 yuan. Plus, you get a free box of eggs. A plastic bag is 20 cents.”

“Can I use WeChat?”

“Yes, I’ll scan your code.”

Carrying his large haul, the old man returned to his nearby residential complex.

As soon as he got home, he quickly put the groceries in the refrigerator, then opened the honey and made himself a cup of honey water.

It happened to be the weekend, and his middle-school-aged grandson was coming to visit, so he started cooking, making a pot of red-braised lamb and a dish of stir-fried pork with hot peppers.

Suddenly, the doorbell rang.

He quickly put down his spatula and went to open the door.

When he opened the door, it wasn’t his young grandson, but his rarely seen eldest son. His face immediately hardened. “What are you doing here?”

“Dad, I just came to see you, since you’re alone…”

“Get the hell out!” the old man exploded like a firecracker. “I don’t have a son like you!”

“Uh…”

SLAM! Before the eldest son could react, the door was slammed shut.

“Dad! Open the door! I really just came to see you!” the son cried anxiously from the doorway.

But the old man had no intention of opening the door or answering. He knew his son’s character all too well. ‘He must have lost all his money gambling again and has come to ask me for more.’

「A while later.」

There was no more sound from the doorway.

The old man watched from the window as a middle-aged man on an electric scooter sped away. His face was filled with frustration and disappointment.

However, he didn’t know that his eldest son had already begun to change.

The middle-aged man rode his electric scooter back to his own home. Seeing his wife and child packing their things, his face filled with remorse.

Seeing her husband return with a bag of fruit, she knew he must have parted on bad terms with the old man. “It’s fine if you didn’t see him. We’re almost done packing. When are we leaving?”

“Let’s go now.” The middle-aged man called a moving truck, loaded their belongings onto it, and then called the person who bought his apartment to come and take possession of it.

「Around 1:30 in the afternoon.」

The middle-aged man, who had only eaten a little bread for lunch, finally got his family settled into their new dorm.

He opened the window and looked at the dairy farm not far away, and his mood improved considerably.

The middle-aged man looked at his taciturn wife, a trace of guilt appearing on his face. ‘Ah Ru, Xiaozhou, I’ve failed you.’

He glanced at the little finger he had cut off, took out his phone, ejected the old SIM card, and threw it in the trash.

“Ah Ru, here’s 2,000 yuan for this month’s household expenses. You can manage it. I have to go to work.”

“Mm,” his wife replied, silently taking the money. But inside, she was already numb. ‘How long will he stick with it this time?’ she wondered.

The middle-aged man didn’t try to explain or defend himself. He picked up his work uniform, changed into it, and walked to the nearby dairy farm.

Inside the farm, after clocking in, the middle-aged man drove an electric tricycle loaded with a large pile of crushed alfalfa hay.

His coworker was using a rake to supplement and adjust the feed in the troughs filled by the automatic feeder, ensuring it was evenly distributed.

“Old Bao, you finished moving?”

“All moved in.”

“Want to go out to eat with Xiaozhang and the others tonight? He won the lottery.”

Old Bao, who was driving slowly, was unmoved by the news. “No thanks. I spent all morning moving. I’ll eat with my family tonight.”

“Alright then!”

“By the way, Old Bao, when did you start working here this year?”

“Why do you ask?” Old Bao drove a little further, then got out to help fork the hay.

“It’s good news, of course! The parent company is planning to grant stock options to employees who’ve been here for a full year. You’re really lucky. I’ve been with Hero Dairy for over ten years, and back then, the company was half-dead. We could barely get paid.”

“I’ve only been here for half a year. I probably won’t get any, right?”

“If you don’t, I don’t either! After the acquisition, the eligibility period for stock options is calculated from the date of the acquisition.”

“Grunts like us probably won’t get many shares, will we?”

“It’s better than nothing. I heard from a few team leaders transferred from the parent company that even regular employees got one or two thousand yuan in stock dividends last year.”

Old Bao listened quietly, but his hands didn’t slow down.

However, they didn’t know that the dividend was only one or two thousand yuan because the company was just starting out last year and needed a large amount of capital for expansion, which was why the payout was relatively small.

Jiang Miao had already planned that, as long as they didn’t encounter a particularly difficult year, the company’s virtual stock dividend rate would be maintained at a relatively high level—roughly one to two times the monthly salary of a rank-and-file employee.

The purpose of providing income beyond their base salary was to avoid raising wages too quickly, which would create too large a gap with other local businesses.

But he couldn’t let his employees live poorly either, so he had to compensate them through performance bonuses and dividends on top of their salaries. Only by increasing employee income could he foster a stronger sense of belonging.