Chapter 442: Time to Split the Money!

Nianzi Mountain Village. Livestock Shed!

After the convoy drove into the courtyard of the village committee, it came to a smooth stop right in front of Li Yi and the others.

The doors opened, and Big Brother-in-Law Yang Wenguang, along with a group of drivers, stepped straight out of the vehicles.

“Bro-in-law, we’re here!”

“We’re here. There are nine trucks in total. I wonder if we can fit everything?” Yang Wenguang said.

“Let’s try loading them first. If it doesn’t work, we’ll just build a second deck on top of the cargo beds!” Li Yi said.

The sugar mill’s trucks were originally used to transport white and brown sugar. To increase cargo capacity, the mill had modified the truck beds by welding a metal railing over a meter high onto the standard bed.

As a result, the cargo beds of these trucks were much taller than those of standard trucks—at least two meters high, by visual estimate.

“All we need to do is insert some wooden planks to divide the cargo bed into upper and lower levels—perfect for transporting live sheep and pigs.”

“Alright!”

Li Yi immediately turned to Feng Kai and said, “Uncle Feng, have the villagers start loading the trucks. We’ll settle the accounts once we’ve confirmed the exact quantity!”

“Yi, think it over again. You’re really getting the short end of the stick this way!”

“Uncle Feng, please don’t say that. Besides, my brother-in-law is in a bit of a rush!”

No sooner had Li Yi finished speaking than Li Shankui chimed in from the side, “Old Feng, just listen to Little Yi!”

Li Shankui had been to the capital and knew just how extensive his son’s business empire was. That restaurant alone could bring in a hundred yuan a day, and on good days, it was even possible to make a thousand or two.

In short, his son was certainly not short on money!

Seeing that both Li Yigang and his son were speaking up, Feng Kai stopped being so stubborn. After all, he knew the circumstances of every household in the village, and it was clear that Li Yigang’s actions were related to this.

But there were still a few things he needed to say. Clearing his throat, he immediately addressed the villagers around him in a loud voice: “Comrades, you’ve all seen this. Remember Yi’s kindness—load the truck!”

At Feng Kai’s command, all the able-bodied young men and women in the village immediately rushed into the sheep pen and began rounding up the panicked rams inside.

Although the rams scattered in all directions, the pen was only so big—where could they possibly escape to?

One after another, the sheep were caught and hauled onto the large truck parked nearby.

While the loading was underway, others were in charge of counting.

Forty minutes later, all the rams in the pen had been successfully loaded onto the truck.

By then, the total number of rams had been tallied: 538 in all.

After the loading was complete, Li Yi gave his brother-in-law a few final instructions, then watched as he led the convoy out of Nianzishan Village!

After his brother-in-law left, Li Yi and Feng Kai returned to the village committee office.

With the sheep now gone, it was time for the exciting moment of dividing the profits.

Back at the village office, Li Yi didn’t waste time on small talk; he immediately pulled out a pen and paper and began calculating.

After calculating the results, Li Yi said to Feng Kai, who was waiting nearby, “Uncle Feng, counting the one we slaughtered early, there are a total of 539 sheep. At 118 yuan each, that comes to a total of 63,602 yuan!”

“According to our agreement, I’m entitled to half the profits from these sheep, so I only need to pay the village 31,801 yuan!”

Feng Kai glanced at Chen Wanzong, who was fiddling with his abacus nearby, and asked, “Accountant Chen, is Yi’s calculation correct?”

Chen Wanzong hurriedly replied, “The total amount is correct—it’s 63,602 yuan—but I’m still figuring out exactly how much Yiwa needs to pay the village!”

“Then hurry up!”

“Got it!”

While Chen Wanzong was fiddling with the abacus, Feng Kai remarked with a hint of surprise, “I never expected you, Yiwa, to be so good at math. Even Old Chen, who’s been an accountant for decades, can’t hold a candle to you. You really are a hidden gem!”

“Heh, it’s just a matter of practice—the more you do it, the better you get!” Li Yi said with a smile.

Feng Kai shook his head without saying a word. He wasn’t just some ordinary farmer—he wasn’t about to buy that.

If it were really that simple, how come Old Chen, after decades of bookkeeping, still couldn’t calculate as fast as him?

Another two minutes passed before Chen Wanzong spoke up: “Yi, you’re right—it’s exactly 31,801 yuan!”

After Chen Wanzong confirmed the figures were correct, Li Yi immediately pulled out the cloth bag he carried with him. Then, under the tense and eager gazes of everyone present, he began pulling out stack after stack of cash.

Soon, Li Yi pushed the large pile of money he had counted in front of Feng Kai and said, “Uncle Feng, here’s thirty-one thousand eight hundred!”

He then pulled a one-yuan note from his pocket and placed it on top of the stack of “Great Unity” bills, making up the final yuan.

Feng Kai had Chen Wanzong count the money, while he turned to Li Yi and said, “Yi, you’re so quick and good at math. Why don’t you help us all do the calculations? That way, we can split the money faster.”

Li Yi, of course, wouldn’t refuse a simple calculation.

“Uncle Feng, just tell me—how many people are there in our village, and how many participated in the labor? I’ll do the math for you!”

“The total population of our village is 304, and 256 people participated in the labor,” Feng Kai said.

“Does that include me, Qiangzi, Zhang the educated youth, and Feng the educated youth?” Li Yi asked again.

“They’re included—even your two kids are counted. They’re all eligible for a share!” Feng Kai replied.

Li Yi shook his head and said, “Don’t count any of those people!”

Seeing that Feng Kai was about to say something, Li Yi cut him off before he could speak: “First, they’ve all gone to Beijing now and will likely stay there. The village can keep their household registrations, but there’s no need to give them a share of the money!”

“Second, this herd of cattle and sheep was raised through everyone’s hard work. The others didn’t contribute much effort, so it’s only fair not to give them a share!”

No sooner had he finished speaking than Liu Darei chimed in, “Xiao Yi is right. Dongzi and the others are making money in the capital—how could they possibly have the nerve to take money from the village? As their father, I’d be too embarrassed to accept it!”

“My son Shitou doesn’t want any either!”

“My son Yongzi doesn’t want any either…”

Seeing that the heads of these households had all spoken up, Feng Kai immediately said, “All right, then. Let’s do it your way!”

“Great!”

Immediately, Li Yi leaned over the rickety wooden table in the brigade office and began calculating rapidly.

Li Yi quickly arrived at the result and turned directly to Feng Kai, saying, “Uncle Feng, each person gets 54 yuan and 8 fen in headcount pay, and members who participated in the labor get an additional 62 yuan, 10 fen, and 1 fen each.”

“Is that right?”

“It’s definitely correct!” Li Yi said confidently.

If he couldn’t even get these simple numbers right, how could he possibly manage such a large conglomerate?

Feng Kai immediately replied, his voice tinged with excitement, “All right, Accountant Chen, let’s distribute the money according to each household’s population right now!”

Hearing this, everyone present erupted in excitement.

They had all heard it just now: those who didn’t participate in the labor could receive over fifty yuan.

As for those who did participate in the labor, the per-capita payment plus the labor bonus would amount to a full 116 yuan.

For the villagers, this was no small sum.

At current grain prices, and assuming they had flour ration tickets, 100 yuan would be enough to buy 600 jin of top-quality Fuqiang flour.

Under normal circumstances, 600 jin of white flour would be enough to comfortably feed one person for two years—more than enough to weather the current food crisis.

However, Chen Wanzong looked at the table covered with “Great Unity” banknotes and said with a wry smile, “They’re all in large denominations—how are we supposed to divide this?”

Hearing this, everyone—including Feng Kai—froze in shock!

Indeed, the table was covered with high-denomination bills, while the families needed to divide both whole and fractional amounts—it was truly impossible to split!

At that moment, Li Yi spoke up again: “Uncle Feng, in my opinion, we should set the per-person allowance at 50 yuan. Those who participate in the labor should get an extra 60 yuan each, and we’ll just leave the remaining change undistributed!”

“Not dividing them?”

“Yeah, the leftover change adds up to just over a thousand yuan. Let’s put that money into the production team’s fund—it can serve as an emergency reserve or be used to buy fertilizer come spring!”

Feng Kai thought for a moment and said, “I think that’s a good idea. Does anyone have any objections?”

“No objections!”

“No objections…”

Seeing that no one had any objections, Feng Kai immediately began distributing the money to the members alongside Chen Wanzong.

Li Yi didn’t linger at the brigade office. While everyone was receiving their share, he took the remaining few thousand yuan and headed home.

Then he hitched up the mule cart and, together with his mother and sisters, began moving!

PS: I’d like to explain the update schedule once more. Lao Cang is currently serializing another book. I start writing every morning, and by the time I finish the final chapter of this book, it’s usually around 11 or 12 at night. I really can’t help it.