Back to 1980: Farming the Sea and Expanding the Island

Meanwhile, at Huiping Commune Rural Credit Cooperative.

As soon as the credit union opened, Old Chen, who was blowing tea leaves from behind the counter, looked up and saw Li Jianguo and his group. His expression visibly stiffened.

"Secretary Li, so early..." Old Chen put down the jar and stood up.

Li Jianguo ignored his greeting and slammed the materials in his hand onto the counter. Although his voice was not loud, it carried an unquestionable tone.

"Comrade Chen, all the materials are complete. Our Qingpingzhou Transportation Cooperative meets the national policy for developing cooperative enterprises, has secured its own funds, and has also finalized its repayment plan."

Today, I'm here to ask if this loan will be approved.

Old Chen opened his mouth, his eyes flickering slightly: "Secretary Li, this...we still need to study it..."

"Research?" Li Jianguo took half a step forward, placing his hands on the edge of the counter. "I discussed this with you before the materials were delivered."

The materials have been delivered for two days now. How long will it take to study them? Old Chen, we've been dealing with each other for more than a year or two.

You know who I, Li Jianguo, am. Everything we do in Qingpingzhou has always been aboveboard and aboveboard.

If you feel that anything is not in accordance with the regulations, please point it out and we will make changes.

If you feel there's a risk, we can discuss it with the director. But we can't just leave it hanging like this without a clear explanation.

Li Jianguo's voice was steady, yet it struck the quiet business hall like a hammer blow. Several employees who had come to conduct business looked over.

A fine sheen of sweat appeared on Old Chen's forehead.

He did receive a message yesterday, but he didn't expect Li Jianguo to come in person, and with such a tough attitude.

"Secretary Li, don't worry, I'll... I'll go report to the director right away." Old Chen grabbed the documents and practically fled into the inner office.

About fifteen minutes later, the credit union director accompanied Old Chen out.

The director was a middle-aged man in his forties, wearing glasses. When he saw Li Jianguo, he smiled and said, "Oh, Secretary Li, why did you have to come all this way?"

"Come in, have a seat and some tea."

Li Jianguo waved his hand: "Director, we're done with the tea. We just want to ask one question: can we get a definite answer about the loan today?"

The director adjusted his glasses, glanced at Old Chen, and smiled, "Yes, of course. Old Chen just showed me the materials; your cooperative is doing a great job!"

The high proportion of self-raised funds and the practical nature of the projects, along with their ability to create jobs, is a great thing! Our credit union strongly supports such tangible collective projects!

He turned to Old Chen: "Old Chen, let's make an exception and get the paperwork done today. It's not easy for Secretary Li and the others to make this trip."

Old Chen nodded repeatedly: "Yes, Director, I'll take care of it right away."

Li Jianshe and Wang Pusheng exchanged a glance, both seeing the excitement in each other's eyes.

Li Jianguo finally smiled and shook the director's hand: "Then thank you for your support, Director."

We, the people of Qingpingzhou, will definitely work hard and live up to the country's policy support!

11:00 AM, on Canhong Island.

Lin Chuan was tidying up the vegetable plots in greenhouse number two with Shui Houzi and Li Jiaye, chatting as they went.

"Brother Chuan, this soil has black mud now, so the fertility should be pretty good, right? The spinach will definitely grow fast then." Li Jiaye grabbed a handful of black, oily humus soil and grinned.

"Fertilizer is good, but it needs to be taken care of carefully." Lin Chuan gently rakes the soil surface, "Especially when the seedlings are just sprouting, you can't water them too much, but you have to water them frequently."

"Moreover, when we are breeding now, the wind and waves are big at night, so we need to check the plastic film and soil embankment twice more."

The greenhouse temperature should not be lower than 15℃, otherwise germination will be slow and sprouts will not appear until the day after tomorrow.

The ideal temperature for sprouting celery and spinach is 15-25℃. Sprouting will be prolonged if the temperature is below 15℃, and weak sprouts if the temperature is too high.

Just then, loud shouts came from outside. At first, they couldn't hear clearly, but when they did, they saw Lin Xuewu appear outside the greenhouse.

"Xiao Chuan! It's approved! The loan is approved!" Lin Xuewu shouted excitedly. He thought the boat purchase was going to fall through, but unexpectedly it actually came to fruition.

Upon hearing the news, he couldn't sit still and wanted to talk to someone. Knowing that Lin Chuan was still unaware of the news on the island, he immediately volunteered to come and inform him.

The people on the island all stopped what they were doing.

"It's done?" Water Monkey and Li Jiaye exclaimed with delight.

Lin Chuan straightened up, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and although he was surprised, his face also showed a look of joy: "It really worked!"

"Yes, it worked! It still took Uncle Jianguo to do it. I heard that when Jianguo mentioned the credit union, he slammed his hand on the table and scared that old Chen so much that he wet himself."

"It was approved immediately." Lin Xuewu said excitedly, spittle flying everywhere.

"Great! Great! We're buying a boat! We have a big boat now!" Li Jiaye cheered loudly.

The water monkeys also grinned and shouted along.

Lin's father came out of another shed, smiling happily, but he felt a sense of relief.

Lin's father asked from the side, "When can we get the money?"

"All the formalities are complete, and the money will be transferred to the cooperative's account in the next couple of days," Lin Xuewu said, panting.

"Uncle Pusheng and Uncle Jianshe have discussed it and will go to Chongming first thing tomorrow morning to finalize the deal on the boat and expedite the transfer of ownership."

Lin Chuan nodded and smiled, "The procedures for the ship are complicated, so it's better to go sooner rather than later."

But in his heart he wondered: Could it be that he guessed wrong, and that Zhao Chenghu had nothing to do with this, and that it was really just that loan officer who was interfering and wanted to take advantage of him?

After thinking about it, I still couldn't figure it out. Anyway, it's good that the funds have been approved. As for Zhao Chenghu's purpose, we'll find out tomorrow.

"Oh, by the way, Xiao Chuan, when I came here, I saw a postman delivering mail to your house. Go back and take a look," Lin Xuewu said to Lin Chuan as if he had just remembered something.

"Okay, Brother Xuewu." Lin Chuan nodded and smiled.

"Alright, you guys go ahead with your work. I'll just have a drink of water and then head back." With that, Lin Xuewu took a wooden ladle, scooped a ladleful of water from the bucket by the well, and gulped it down.

Lin Xuewu came excitedly and left excitedly as well.

Lin Chuan looked at his cousin and found it somewhat amusing that he had rowed the wooden boat back and forth for several tens of minutes just to tell him this news.

Anyway, if it were him, he wouldn't do such a thing.

The island returned to quiet, the previous hustle and bustle gone, with only the river wind making the thin film rustle loudly.

However, everyone had smiles on their faces and were full of energy even while doing physical labor.

It's just that it can't be done delicately; it's easy to lose control of the force.

"Jiaye, you should take a break and continue later," Lin Chuan said helplessly, rubbing his forehead.

"It's okay, Brother Chuanzi, I'm not tired at all. I feel full of energy right now," Li Jiaye replied energetically.

"Alright, alright..." What else could Lin Chuan say? He could only follow behind and finish things up.

......

After finally tidying up the beds in shed number two, Lin Chuan glanced at the sun and said, "Grandpa, Grandma, it's getting late, let's go back."

Then, he gave Lin's father two more instructions on precautions for inspecting the film at night.

Lin's father waved his hand: "Go on, be careful on the road."

Lin Chuan agreed and walked with the others toward the small wooden boat on the shore, wondering who would send the letter at this time, and whether it was a reply from the newspaper.