Chapter 231: The Only Person Who Has Seen the World in the Village

During this period, Li Xian barely had his feet on the ground, either on a plane or a train. He had planned to rest at the Beilin family home for a few days and check on the recent situation of the Xinbei Paper Company. However, before he could even get a good night's sleep at home, he was woken up by a call from Liu Weihang.

Looking at the quartz clock on the wall, Li Xian realized it was only just past ten in the morning and was completely furious. "Is there no consideration for people in the morning? Big Brother, can't you let someone sleep peacefully for once?"

Liu Weihang was already accustomed to such unusual hours and knew that Li Xian had been very busy lately. However, he had no choice—his situation was even more urgent.

"Where are you right now?"

"In Beilin," Li Xian said, rubbing the sleep from his eyes and yawning.

"I'm sending a car to pick you up now! Hurry back to Bangye!" Liu Weihang nearly ordered.

"What's going on? Are you getting married or something?" Li Xian asked, somewhat displeased.

"Married? No! I just got a call saying Sun has arrived in Bangye, and he's arriving soon! No time to explain, get ready quickly!"

This news startled Li Xian.

A visit from Sun was a significant event, so he quickly got ready.

Just as he finished getting himself sorted out and had not even had time to deal with his own issues, the sound of a car horn echoed from downstairs.

"Rush, rush, rush, we're in a hurry!" Li Xian grabbed his bag and ran out of the building. When he reached the ground, he was stunned.

A black Santana was waiting, and Liu Wanfang was anxiously checking his watch. As soon as he saw Li Xian, he waved his hand and said, "Hurry, get in the car!"

---

While Li Xian and the impatient Liu Wanfang were racing towards Bangye, Bangye itself was in chaos.

In fact, as of now, Bangye had not received any notification from Sun Weimin.

If it weren't for the alert traffic police at the Beilin provincial road checkpoint who noticed the black Audi 100, found out its destination was Bangye, and quickly contacted the city, Liu Weihang might still be in the dark.

This was the first time Liu Weihang was facing such a situation since taking office, and in his panic, he instinctively resorted to the tactics used by his previous office director.

Government departments dread surprise inspections, especially unannounced ones. Not knowing what the leaders want to see means preparing for everything.

It felt like a plain girl suddenly informed her suitor that she was right at the door, quickly applying makeup to cover up her less-than-perfect appearance.

Though the factory was not being prettied up, at least the leadership wouldn't see its worst side.

At this moment, Liu Weihang was in his office, sweating profusely, like a general commanding troops on a battlefield, issuing orders to various departments in the county...

"I'm heading to the highway entrance to meet Sun. Director Zhao, organize people quickly and clean up the donkey dung on the streets!"

---

Liu Wanfang's vehicle sped along the secondary road, which was badly damaged by heavy trucks, reaching a speed of over 130 miles per hour.

Li Xian was so scared his hair stood on end.

Holding on tight, he was relieved to finally arrive in Bangye and had no intention of staying in the car any longer.

He got out and, using the excuse of going to the factory to make some arrangements, said goodbye to the eager Liu Wanfang and took a taxi to the Bangye Liquor Factory.

Clearly, the factory had already received the county's notice. The workshop was being organized, and the publicity team was preparing decorative paper. Zhao Accountant, a well-known figure in the factory, was using a large brush to write big characters on the cut paper.

With the leadership coming for an inspection, the workers were all in a frenzy, putting down their tools and gathering in front of the workshop, unsure of what to do.

Seeing the chaos in the factory, Li Xian frowned.

He quickly found Zhu Feng among the crowd and demanded, "What's going on here?"

"Oh, Xianzi, you're back! Director Liu just called and said our factory is definitely a key inspection unit, so we're preparing a welcome ceremony."

"Get it all cleaned up! Get back to work, do what you were doing before!" Li Xian waved his hand. "You think you can fix things at the last minute? It looks all messed up. It's better to stick to the usual way; it's more presentable."

Though the county had called specifically about the inspection, Li Xian's words carried more weight in the factory than Liu Weihang's. With his authoritative reprimand, the workers quickly returned to their posts, and order was soon restored in the factory.

Just as Accountant Zhao finished putting away the flashy decorative paper, a black Audi sedan slowly came to a stop in front of the factory, raising a cloud of dust.

As the dust settled, the rear door opened.

An elderly man, slightly plump and with a dark complexion, got out of the car. Seeing the factory operating normally and the continuous flow of trucks picking up goods, he smiled broadly.

He said to a nearby bespectacled person, "Yunhao, after traveling this way, we finally see some real work being done. Looks like Bangye's focus this year isn't just on making donkey dung."

---

Inside the liquor factory, Li Xian and the elder Zhu and his son accompanied Sun Weimin on a tour. Though the Zhu father and son were notable figures in Bangye, they felt nervous in the presence of Sun Weimin.

Li Xian, though also a bit apprehensive, managed to stay calm on the surface, having mingled with future business tycoon Chen Dongsheng and being the only person from the village who had visited Beijing and appeared on CCTV—he maintained his composure.

Although not always present at the factory, he was very familiar with its operations.

The liquor factory used an assembly line method, but alcohol production could not rely solely on machinery.

Raw material selection, crushing, steaming, mixing ingredients, and cooling all required a lot of manual labor.

Walking through the workshop filled with the aroma of grains and seeing hundreds of men working in high temperatures, Sun Weimin felt a surge of emotion.

The large storage tanks lined up outside the workshop, stretching for hundreds of meters, also left a strong impression on him.

As Li Xian introduced the factory's current operations while accompanying Sun Weimin through the workshops, he detailed the situation thoroughly.

In fact, before coming to Bangye, Sun Weimin already knew about the factory's profitability from his first meeting with Liu Weihang. This was one of the main reasons for his visit—an alcohol factory in a national-level impoverished county expected to generate 30 million in revenue and nearly 10 million in profit by year-end was quite remarkable.

It was astonishing and incredible.

Though Sun Weimin usually discounted official reports, seeing the actual situation at the Bangye Liquor Factory, he felt that at least in this case, he was hearing the truth.

However, he was puzzled; according to Li Xian, the factory had about 600 employees, but he observed that the actual number of people working seemed to be over a thousand.

And since he was often inaccurate in estimating numbers, the actual count was likely even higher.

"Comrade Li Xian, you mentioned that the factory has 600 employees. Is that correct? Are there really only over 600 people working here?"

Li Xian smiled faintly. "The official number of employees is indeed 632. However, the actual number of people working at the factory has exceeded 1,500. The province has just allocated a loan for us, and we are starting to build a new production base for the liquor industry. The new base will be more than five times the current size and is expected to expand production capacity tenfold once fully operational. As the saying goes, 'If you don't plan for the long term, you won't be able to plan for the short term.' We need to prepare in advance. By the time the new base is completed, labor will be a major issue. As a business, we have to consider not just the present but also one, three, or even ten years into the future. So what you're seeing now includes many of our preparatory workers who are currently in their trial period."

Sun Weimin nodded in agreement.

Just then, Liu Wanfang and Liu Weihang, who had been urgently summoned, arrived in a hurry at the factory gate.

Seeing a large group of city and county officials kicking up a cloud of dust as they rushed in, Sun Weimin laughed heartily. He lifted his hand slightly and said to Yunhao beside him, "So, the donkey dung has been cleaned up!"