Chapter 444: Controversy!

Nianzi Mountain Village. The Li Family Ancestral Home!

Just as Li Yi and Li Gang were fretting over the pile of “antiques” before them, the sound of footsteps came from outside the front gate.

The two looked out and discovered that the visitor was a young lad—none other than Xiaogouwawa.

Li Yi had been looking for him earlier at the village office but hadn’t seen him.

He had planned to stop by the boy’s house after finishing the move this afternoon, but he hadn’t expected the kid to show up himself.

Li Yi immediately put down what he was doing and strode over to Xiaogouwa.

“Where’d you go, kid? Why didn’t I see you over at the sheep pen this morning?”

Xiaogouwa said with his head down, “I was planning to go, but Erya had an upset stomach, so I took her to Uncle Chen San’s place first!”

Li Yi knew Uncle Chen was the village’s only village doctor. Though his medical skills were nothing to write home about, he was perfectly capable of treating the occasional headache or fever.

“How’s Erya? Is she okay? Should we take her to the hospital?”

“She’s fine. She probably caught a chill while sleeping last night. Uncle Chen gave her some medicine, and she’s feeling much better now!” Xiaogouwa said.

“Okay, if anything comes up, just tell me. Don’t keep it from me!” Li Yi said.

“Got it!”

With that, Xiaogouwa pulled a stack of bills from his pocket and held it out to Li Yi: “Brother Yi, this is for you!”

“What’s this for?”

“Brother Yi, we just got the money the village distributed to our family. I’ll pay you back two hundred now, and I’ll pay you the remaining hundred in the fall!” Xiaogouwa said.

“Does your family have any money left?”

“Yes, we got 260 yuan today. I set aside 60 yuan for emergencies!”

Li Yi knew this kid’s temperament—though his family was poor, he was the type who wouldn’t easily let others go into his debt.

With that in mind, Li Yi took the stack of bills and pulled out five 100-yuan notes, slipping them into Xiaogouwa’s hand.

“Take your time paying me back—there’s no rush. Keep some money at home for emergencies!”

Xiaogouwa didn’t refuse; he immediately stuffed the money into his pocket.

Then, he noticed the mountain of belongings piled up at the front door and asked right away, “Brother Yi, what’s this all about?”

“We’re moving. I plan to have Mom and Dad move into the new house over on Dongpo!” Li Yishun replied.

“I’ll help you move!”

“Xiaogouwa, go borrow another horse-drawn cart from the commune. Two carts will make the move faster!” Li Yi said.

“Sure!”

With that, Xiaogouwa turned and left the Li family’s old house, dashing off toward the village committee office.

Just over ten minutes later, just as Li Yi and Li Gang had loaded another cart and were preparing to head to the new house, a commotion erupted outside the gate once more.

Immediately, Li Yi saw that more than twenty mule-drawn carts had arrived, accompanied by over a hundred young and able-bodied men—Xiaogouwa was among them.

Upon arriving at the Li family’s old residence, they exchanged brief greetings with Li Yi and immediately sprang into action to help him.

At that moment, Xiaogouwa approached Li Yi and explained, “When I went to the commune to borrow a cart, Uncle Lei asked me what I needed it for, so I told him the truth. I didn’t expect everyone to show up…”

“Yeah, I get it!”

Seeing so many fellow villagers come together to help, Li Yi felt both happy and deeply moved.

The feelings of ordinary people are the most sincere; they return kindness to those who show it to them.

He hadn’t actually done much for them, but they had all kept it in their hearts.

With so many villagers pitching in, the move naturally went much faster.

By noon, all of the Li family’s belongings had been moved to the new house, not a single piece of firewood left behind.

After the move went smoothly and his parents were settled in, Li Yi prepared to return to the capital.

What he didn’t know, however, was that certain departments in the capital were in an uproar over him!

………

Beijing. Ministry of State-Owned Assets Administrative Building!

The not-very-large conference room was packed to capacity as a high-level internal meeting was underway.

In attendance were the heads of various departments within the Ministry of State-Owned Assets, as well as the leaders of several major state-owned enterprises in the capital—each a figure of considerable stature.

What many of the attending leaders hadn’t anticipated, however, was that the Ministry’s leadership had summoned them all for the sake of a little-known, run-down factory and a single individual.

At the head of the table, a middle-aged official in his forties was speaking: “Ladies and gentlemen, the revenue and profit figures for Beijing’s state-owned enterprises in March have been compiled. Compared to the same period last year, the performance of the vast majority of these entities has been poor, with more than half of them operating at a loss…”

Just as the attending officials braced themselves for another “storm” from the newly appointed Deputy Minister, they were surprised to find that he did not fly into a rage as he had in the past.

Instead, Vice Minister Wang shifted his tone and continued, “However, there is one unit that has actively forged ahead despite adversity. With revenue of 4.78 million and a net profit of 3.62 million, it has successfully claimed the double crown for both revenue and profit among Beijing’s state-owned enterprises for the month of March.”

Upon hearing this, the SOE leaders present were all taken aback.

A monthly revenue of 4.78 million yuan isn’t particularly high, especially considering that many of them were large state-owned enterprises; some of their units could even generate monthly revenues of over 100 million yuan.

The reason this month took the top spot in revenue with 4.78 million is mainly because most units purchase raw materials and begin production in the first half of the year, only to officially begin external sales in the second half, or to fulfill delivery obligations to other units according to schedule.

This is precisely why revenue for state-owned enterprises across the country was generally low in the first half of the year.

This month’s results can only be described as a major upset!

But what’s truly staggering is that net profit of 3.62 million!

Wow, with revenue of only 4.78 million, yet a net profit as high as 3.62 million—does that mean their total costs were only 1.16 million?

What kind of company could possibly have such a terrifying profit margin?

“Bang!”

Vice Minister Wang, seated at the head of the table, slammed his fist on the table and said, “Quiet! Stop speculating. You could rack your brains all day and still never guess which organization is this month’s double champion!”

Before anyone could dwell on it, he continued, “I’ll tell you the truth: the unit that achieved such outstanding results is the State-Owned Beijing No. 2 Cotton Spinning Mill!”

“Whoosh!”

The moment those words were spoken, the entire conference room erupted in an uproar!

“Impossible! What kind of joke of a unit is State-Owned No. 2 Cotton Mill? With only two thousand workers and barely a hundred acres of land, how could they possibly generate nearly five million in revenue in a single month? Unless they sold the factory!”

“Right. I know a bit about State-Owned Cotton Mill No. 2. They were barely hanging on last year—how did they suddenly turn things around this year?”

“Is there a mistake here? State Cotton Mill No. 2… no… looking at all the cotton mills across the country, I doubt any of them have such a high profit margin. Could they be faking the numbers?”

“I think they’re definitely faking it. There’s no way they could have such high profits…”

Just then, another leader on the podium spoke up: “Everyone, please quiet down. We’ve already verified the data from State Cotton Mill No. 2—there’s absolutely no issue.”

“The reason they were able to turn a loss into a profit in such a short time is primarily due to their adjustments to their industrial structure and business model.”

“From what we understand, State Cotton Mill No. 2 has partnered with a businessman named Li Yi to shift its core business from producing and selling cotton fabric to manufacturing ready-to-wear garments. Currently, Feixue Apparel has captured the market in multiple provincial capitals across the country in just a few short months, generating substantial profits. However, according to the agreement between the two parties, the cotton mill must cede 12% of its net profit to that businessman.”

“Since there has never been a precedent for this, we’ve called you all here to discuss whether there are any issues with this arrangement. Please share your views on the matter!”

No sooner had he finished speaking than an older executive stood up and said, “This is utter nonsense! That’s state-owned assets—how can we just hand them over to a private individual?”

“Director Chen, you can’t put it that way. Since we’ve already signed an agreement with the other party, we must strictly enforce it. If we lack even the most basic spirit of contract, who would be willing to do business with us in the future?”

“The spirit of contract is certainly important, but this is clearly the embezzlement of state-owned assets. It’s a crime—and it cannot be forgiven!”

“I think we need to look at this from a balanced perspective. After all, without that Mr. Li—whatever his name is—State Cotton Mill No. 2 probably wouldn’t have managed to turn itself around and make such a sensational comeback…”

In an instant, the State-owned Assets Department’s conference room erupted into a chaotic uproar over Li Yi, this obscure nobody!

………..