Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

It looked fine, but how could Chen Yansen possibly let him get his way?

「Elsewhere.」

Chunshen, Bagong Mountain Village.

In the peach orchards blanketing the mountainside, branches hung heavy with plump, juicy honey peaches. Amidst the verdant trees, hundreds of farmers were hunched over, engrossed in picking the fruit.

Even though it was the height of summer in June, everyone wore a smile, working with exceptional vigor.

In previous years, these nearby 4,000 mu of peach orchards would only bring in 5,000 yuan per mu. This year, however, was a completely different story.

Organized by Tang Lixin, the farmers of Bagong Mountain Village had sold nectarines and yellow apricots on Pinbei Mall in May, and were now selling honey peaches in June.

Coming up, they would sell yellow peaches and grapes in July, followed by crisp pears and brittle jujubes in the golden autumn month of October.

The work hadn’t increased, but their income had multiplied several times over.

Take the honey peaches, for instance. Previously, a mu yielded 3,000 jin of fruit, which sold to wholesalers for 1.5 to 1.8 yuan per jin. After deducting the costs of tools, fertilizer, and pesticides, each mu only netted a profit of 3,000 yuan.

Since the Bagong Mountain Fruit Association opened an online store on Pinbei, a six-pack of honey peaches could sell for 39.9 yuan, and a twelve-pack for 69.9 yuan.

True, there were additional costs for packing and shipping—corrugated boxes, shock-absorbent foam, fruit nets, styrofoam containers, dry ice packs, and Cloud Speed’s cold chain logistics. But the net profit per jin still reached an impressive 6 to 8 yuan, meaning one mu of land could now earn over 20,000.

Two Cloud Speed couriers stood by the roadside. Assisted by a few farmers, they loaded box after box of fresh honey peaches into the truck, stacking them neatly.

”Sister Juan, with your family’s dozen-plus mu of orchards, you’ll probably earn hundreds of thousands,” one of the Cloud Speed couriers said, waving his hand to signal for a break.

In this summer heat, their uniforms were already soaked with sweat after just an hour of work.

”Heh, no... not that much. A few tens of thousands at most,” the farmer, Zhou Lijuan, replied with a grin, fibbing out of habit.

Back home, you had plenty of friends and relatives who’d look down on you for being poor but resent you for being rich. Zhou Lijuan was terrified that if word got out she’d made two or three hundred thousand, people would come asking to borrow money. And what would she do then? Refuse?

The courier smiled. He knew full well what these honey peaches sold for on Pinbei. Even after deducting costs for cold chain transport, packaging, and labor, making a five-yuan profit per jin was a piece of cake.

But since she didn’t want to say it, he saw no reason to call her out.

He accepted the bottle of mineral water from Zhou Lijuan, passed another to his colleague, and then tilted his head back to take a long drink.

The farmers of Bagong Mountain were making good money, and that meant even better commissions for the two of them.

Just then, someone in the distance shouted, ”Mr. Tang is here!”

Zhou Lijuan and the others hurried to the side of the road, craning their necks to get a look.

They saw a middle-aged man with salt-and-pepper hair getting out of a black Audi. He looked to be in his late forties, approaching fifty. Beside him was a young man in his early thirties, whose demeanor and posture suggested he was a secretary.

It was none other than Tang Lixin and his secretary, Zhao Siyuan.

A dozen or so staff members from Bagong Mountain Village trailed behind them.

”Mr. Tang, this is the Bagong Mountain honey peach cultivation base. Our annual yield is 12 million jin, with a production value of around 18 million yuan,” a man in glasses and a short-sleeved shirt explained, wiping sweat from his brow.

”Eighteen million? I think it should be one hundred million!”

Tang Lixin’s expression turned stern as he immediately corrected him, though he couldn’t hide the broad smile on his face.

Four months ago, he had shamelessly latched onto Chen Yansen.

Although Senlian Capital hadn’t invested in building factories in Chunshen to directly boost employment, they had given him an even greater opportunity.

Over the past three months, Pinbei’s farmer support project had been booming in Chunshen.

Over fifty online shops selling agricultural products had popped up, each with monthly sales exceeding one million yuan.