Chapter 155: Girls Grow Up and Can't Be Kept

The officials of Bangye County have always had a tough job, whether now or thirty years later.

Li Xian was deeply aware of this.

The poverty in Bangye County has deep roots. It stems from the fact that the Forestry Group's forestry system occupies the majority of the natural resources, and apart from two light chemical companies and a few ceramic and glass factories, there's hardly any industry or industrial support in the county.

As an agricultural county, it's unfortunate that the arable land area is small, temperatures are low, and the environment for crop growth is mediocre.

From the time Li Xian was old enough to remember until he graduated from high school, this place never shook off the label of a "specially poor county." The people in the county town relied on a dozen or so small-scale enterprises to barely scrape by until the 1990s when a wave of layoffs hit, creating a few wealthy individuals and a large number of urban poor. After that, Bangye became a major county for labor export.

During the busy farming seasons of spring and autumn, the train station in Bangye was filled with people carrying large plastic bags, heading to regions with more farmland to take on short-term work. They would wake up at 3 a.m. to work in the fields and finish at 7 p.m., working like oxen and horses for one or two months, almost exchanging their lives for money.

This situation hadn't changed even by 2018.

People in Bangye often joked that the three busiest places in Bangye were the big pharmacy, the train station, and the county hospital.

The consequence of heavy physical labor was that most migrant workers, before they turned fifty, were already plagued with chronic illnesses.

If these could be considered resources, then Bangye did have some resources. In a small county with a population of less than 150,000, there were over 140 pharmacies of all sizes and over a thousand distributors selling fake health products like "Bone King," "Active Dan," "Heart and Brain Spirit," and "Gout Stop."

These people were among the most successful in Bangye thirty years later.

Because of this understanding, Li Xian couldn't muster any respect or happiness for Liu Weihan in front of him.

"Can you tell me why you want to go to Bangye?" 

Li Xian put down the untouched glass of wine and asked calmly.

After a brief hesitation, Liu Weihan replied, "How should I put it? There's some personal sentiment and also some ambition."

Seeing Li Xian's expression of interest, he took a bite of food, his face showing some melancholy: "I went to university in Hebei. After graduation, I originally wanted to join my girlfriend at the time in volunteering as a teacher, but my family disagreed and used connections to bring me back. To be honest, even though we are no longer together, we still keep in touch. She's in a place called Mashan in Guangxi, which looks a lot like our Bangye. I wasn't able to be with her until the end…"

Before Liu Weihan could finish, Li Xian waved his hand, "Alright, I get it. You chickened out back then, caving to family pressure and not staying with her. You feel guilty and want to follow her footsteps in spirit. That's enough about personal feelings. Now, tell me about your ambitions."

Getting chastised by Li Xian didn't make Liu Weihan embarrassed; instead, he sighed, "As for ambitions, I'm still young. I'm only 36 this year, and I want to achieve something. But in the system, you don't always get the opportunity to do what you want. So, I want to build up capital. Bangye is poor, but that makes it easier to work with. There, I can do things my way! Even if things don't go well, it can't get any worse. Bangye is already as poor as it can be."

Li Xian nodded deeply.

The logic made sense. Although Bangye's starting point was low, if things were done well, the results would be outstanding.

From this perspective, Liu Weihan, with his calm exterior, had a gambler's heart.

Understanding Liu Weihan's thoughts, Li Xian asked him about his specific plans.

"This is why I called you here late at night!" Liu Weihan became excited again, "If I go to Bangye, I need your help."

"Me?" Li Xian held his chopsticks and smiled.

He thought, "I'm not in the system; what could I help you with?"

"You have money, and you know how to manage things." Seeing Li Xian's noncommittal look, Liu Weihan pulled a small notebook from his pocket, opened it, and pointed to a list of data. "Look, these are the figures I gathered from the Commerce Bureau recently."

"Since you took over Beilin Paper Mill, its profits have risen from an annual loss of 500,000 yuan to a profit of over 700,000 yuan in the first quarter. We won't talk about the workers' income increase; let's just look at how your paper company has boosted the local economy. Since New Beilin Company's business expanded, the efficiency of two packaging factories, two printing companies, three transportation companies, and two light chemical factories in the district has improved by more than 30% or even more! Your company, while directly benefiting you, the workers, and the district government shareholders, has also driven the entire local economy!"

Hearing these figures, Li Xian couldn't help but laugh.

He hadn't realized he was so impressive.

Seeing Li Xian just laughing and not speaking, Liu Weihan sat up straight, "I hope we can have a New Beilin-like enterprise in Bangye. Li Xian, I've heard you're investigating the sanitary napkin business. If this business is viable, I request that you set up production in Bangye!"

It wasn't a secret to Liu Weihan that Li Xian was organizing an investigation into the sanitary napkin market since the finance department of New Beilin had district government personnel involved, and the district government was a shareholder.

Li Xian wasn't surprised.

But he really couldn't agree to Liu Weihan's request.

The sanitary napkin industry requires a high level of upstream and downstream industrial support and specific regional conditions. To quickly establish this business, even Beilin wasn't Li Xian's first choice.

He was targeting the markets of cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen.

Considering transportation and the convenience of future business expansion, the production line would at least need to be established in a location with cheap transportation via a coastal port.

With such requirements, even Harbin wouldn't suffice, let alone Bangye, which had poor transportation and lacked any significant infrastructure.

Seeing Li Xian shake his head decisively, Liu Weihan was greatly disappointed.

But just as he lowered his head, feeling disheartened by the first setback to his ambitious plans, Li Xian raised his glass.

"Sanitary napkins are definitely out, but if you really want me to invest in Bangye, and if you can offer some policy incentives, I can look into other possibilities."

…

Two days later.

According to local customs, on the third day after moving into a new house, you're supposed to invite the neighbors over for a meal and celebrate.

After handling some company matters over the past two days, Li Xian figured it was time and bought two kilograms of pig head meat before heading to Zhu Mao Village.

Sure enough, when he arrived at Old Zhu's house, he saw a lively crowd of people in the courtyard, chatting and laughing.

As the first neighbor to visit their new home, Old Zhu had a deep impression of Li Xian. So, when all the neighbors were gathered today, he specifically inquired about which family Li Xian belonged to.

When Old Zhu asked around and described Li Xian's appearance, the neighbors were puzzled—there were only two families with the surname Li in the area, but no one had heard of a young man named Li Xian.

Since they couldn't match the person to any known family, everyone started suggesting that Old Zhu be cautious, worried that he might have encountered a swindler.

Old Zhu wasn't afraid of being scammed. His family was dirt poor, with nothing but a few pieces of iron in the small distillery they were building—there really wasn't anything worth stealing.

But if there was anything worth scamming…

He couldn't help but glance at his youngest daughter, Zhu Juan.

Recalling that Li Xian had interacted with Zhu Juan when he came over the other day, Old Zhu's heart skipped a beat. His youngest daughter was already 19 this year. Could it be…

As he was thinking this, he heard a voice at the door, "Uncle Zhu, 'The warbler moves into tall trees, and the swallow enters lofty buildings. Auspicious air surrounds the door, and gentle wind carries a thousand miles.' Congratulations on your new home!"

Then, he saw the "swindler" from the neighbors' discussion walk in, carrying a large bag of pig head meat.

Once inside, Li Xian looked around, suppressing the urge to greet everyone.

Although the neighbors in the courtyard looked much younger than he remembered, he could still vaguely recognize many of them.

One of them, Li Xian recalled, was someone he had a youthful romance with when he was younger. Thinking of this, he blushed slightly.

Zhu Juan was busy serving tea and water in the courtyard, and when she saw Li Xian, she was taken aback.

Something wasn't right!

The first time she saw this guy, his face was blotchy red and white, with some areas peeling, making him look like he had a

 skin condition.

But in just two days, the red spots and peeling were gone, and his face looked much cleaner.

Oh my gosh, he actually looks quite handsome!

Sneaking a glance through the crowd, Zhu Juan felt her heart race.

It wasn't until Old Zhu called out to her that she snapped out of it and walked over with a tea tray.

"What are you daydreaming about, you silly girl? A guest arrives, and you don't even serve tea? You've got no sense of propriety!" Seeing his daughter standing there in a daze, Old Zhu scolded her.

Li Xian had experienced Zhu Juan's fiery temper before and, fearing she might retaliate after being scolded because of him, quickly said he wasn't thirsty and urged Old Zhu to calm down.

Seeing how Li Xian was trying to protect her and noticing the somewhat unnatural look in Zhu Juan's eyes as she gazed at him, Old Zhu's eyes widened, and his heart skipped a beat.

It was over; the girl had grown up and couldn't be kept!