Chapter 34: Destined for Greatness

Li Xian was surprised by Yang Hongshan's vision.

This seemingly timid factory director must have noticed that a new trend in home decoration was about to start in the forestry area, prompting him to decide to take over the factory.

This gave Li Xian a new understanding of the people of this era—it was a time not lacking in courage.

However, Li Xian wasn't very interested in the offer to become the deputy factory director. In his mind, getting involved in the tile business was merely a stopgap measure to address his urgent need for cash. He found a way to earn some quick income to tide him over.

The winters in the Northeast were too long, and the profit margin in the tile business was limited, with even fewer peak seasons throughout the year. Li Xian wasn't interested in ventures that relied on clever tricks for quick money but offered little long-term development.

In short, his current involvement in home renovation and tile trading was just a short-term strategy. The real goal was to accumulate enough capital to invest in that batch of aluminum ingots.

Therefore, he politely declined Yang Hongshan's offer.

Yang Hongshan naturally felt it was a pity, but he couldn't force someone to go against their own will.

Still, Yang Hongshan secretly paid more attention to Li Xian. He felt that this young man was different from others of his age he had encountered.

Amidst the growing unrest in the entire Forestry Bureau, with some people already striving for their future, Yang Hongshan sensed that this young man, more than ten years his junior, had a future that was hard to predict.

How does the saying go?

"When the dragon encounters clouds and rain, it is destined to rise from the pool."

Yes, this saying seemed to fit Li Xian perfectly.

Since Li Xian didn't intend to join him, Yang Hongshan cautioned him to keep today's conversation confidential.

Perhaps to seal Li Xian's lips, or maybe as a persistent attempt to win him over, Yang Hongshan generously reduced the cost price of this batch of tiles by another 20%.

…

After picking up the goods from the warehouse, Li Xian had Wang Laosan and the others drive back with the tiles, while he headed alone to Bangye County.

In terms of urban area, Bangye County was much larger than the Forestry Bureau. However, in terms of jurisdictional area, it couldn't compare to the Bangye Forestry Bureau, which covered a quarter of the Lesser Khingan Range.

The dozen or so towns under its jurisdiction hadn't developed much, mostly relying on soybean farming as the main source of income. If it weren't for the county's light chemical factory, two textile mills, and some soybean processing and wood processing enterprises, Bangye County would have long been known as a poverty-stricken county.

In fact, this small town in the forestry area lacked a sense of presence because of the large-scale development of forestry by the provincial forestry group.

In Li Xian's memory, if you looked forward ten years, many locals would receive the response, "Oh, are you talking about the Forestry Bureau?" when mentioning "Bangye."

At this moment, Bangye County was no match for ten years later. Compared to the bustling Forestry Bureau, the streets of the county appeared much quieter.

But Li Xian had spent his entire middle school years here.

Although the county town seemed very different now compared to ten years later, the business district and main roads hadn't changed much. Li Xian easily found his way to the commercial street.

Now that the tile and renovation business was about to expand beyond the forestry area, he needed a way for others to contact him.

The pager he had thought about earlier now seemed necessary to purchase.

After asking around on the commercial street, Li Xian learned that the only place in the county that sold such high-end items as pagers was the department store.

When he got there, he realized that this so-called high-end shopping venue could be like this: a small three-story building covering less than 4,000 square meters, dimly lit like a highway tunnel, with counters lined up in rows, and various goods and farm products displayed in a disorganized manner. Raincoats, ready-made clothes, and even funeral garments were all hung on iron racks with hanging ropes.

The salespeople, wearing protective sleeves, chatted casually, and there were fewer customers than there were salespeople in the whole department store.

When Li Xian found the counter and mentioned he wanted to buy a pager, the saleswoman looked him up and down several times.

Finally, she blurted out, "The Motorola digital one, the main unit is 1,200 yuan. Do you want to see it?"

Li Xian grinned, took out some money from his pocket, and placed it on the counter.

Seeing the money, the saleswoman finally took out a box from the counter, pulled out a Motorola pager with an extremely tacky metal chain, and placed it in front of Li Xian.

Li Xian picked up the small machine, which cost him 1,200 yuan, and chuckled bitterly.

This ridiculous gadget cost him as much as two exterior wall jobs. Damn… In twenty years, people wouldn't even bother picking it up if it fell on the street.

Seeing Li Xian's constipated expression, the saleswoman sneered.

"If you're going to regret it, don't buy it. If you buy it, don't regret it."

Li Xian didn't want to argue with her. He took the pager and spent another 200 yuan to activate the service, 80 yuan to choose a 127 automatic number, and even spent 1.50 yuan on two batteries.

All in all, this gadget, which looked utterly foolish and couldn't even display Chinese characters, ended up costing him 1,500 yuan. Even after walking out of the department store with the pager in hand, Li Xian still felt the pain in his heart.

The feeling of being a sucker peaked when he passed by the motorcycle dealership next to the department store and saw the price list.

"Damn it! A motorcycle only costs 1,300 yuan!"

Li Xian felt like crying but had no tears.

…

Back at Linchang 89, according to Li Xian's instructions, Wang Qinghe had already recruited a group of people.

Due to over-logging in recent years, many of the mountains had become barren. Under the guidance of the Provincial Forestry Group, the area was implementing a policy of converting farmland back to forest.

This led to a significant reduction in the amount of arable land within the forestry area, with the main income each year coming from logging during the logging season.

So, at this time of year, the forestry area wasn't short of idle people.

Following Li Xian's instructions, Wang Qinghe aimed to recruit young men who had little land and could devote themselves fully to work over the next month.

But among the people Wang Qinghe found, most were strong men in their thirties.

It wasn't that he didn't listen to Li Xian's instructions, but Wang Qinghe subconsciously still operated with a farmer's mentality—he chose the strong and able-bodied.

Hearing that they could earn extra money doing masonry work for a month, everyone eagerly rushed to Li Xian's house.

Li Xian's new house foundation was bustling with the noise of over forty men. While waiting for Li Xian to return and make arrangements, they began currying favor with Li You, helping out with the foundation work.

Although many were interested in this side job, they couldn't help but wonder: Could Li Lao'er really use so many people?

To use so many men, how big of a business was this?

As people whispered among themselves, the sound of a motorcycle engine grew closer.

When they looked closely, they saw the man who was rumored to lead them to fortune—Li Lao'er—dusty and weary, returning on a brand new Xingfu 250 motorcycle that even the field manager hadn't been equipped with!