Chapter 117: Three-Seven Split

Originally, he could have just walked away. After all, this matter didn’t seem to pose much of a danger. But Ji Qili was a very cautious person. In any case, reporting it wouldn’t be much trouble, and then it would have nothing to do with him.

This call was made to Wu Mu’s PHS.

“…How is it? Is it useful to you?”

“Very useful,” Wu Mu answered simply. “Although it’s not yet clear who this person is, it’s necessary to investigate.”

After hanging up the phone, he noted this matter down in his work notebook. Then he pulled the bell cord. A female political security officer wearing the insignia of a political security corporal appeared at the door, standing straight in the posture prescribed by the internal regulations of the Political Security General Bureau, waiting for instructions.

Her uniform fit well, but unfortunately, she was too thin and small. Wu Mu’s gaze roamed over her Soviet-style uniform and skirt for a moment, then he ordered:

“Deliver this document to the Operations Department,” he looked at his watch. “I order: in one hour, conduct a surprise inspection of the native personnel in the Wenlan River management project section outside the south gate of the demonstration farm. All persons with suspicious behavior, without identification cards, or not on the labor roster are to be detained.”

According to the rules, this order should have been issued by the head of the Operations Department. But now he was in Chengmai, personally directing the political security personnel to carry out a comprehensive cleanup operation against the “dangerous elements” in the county town. At this time, Wu Mu could act on his behalf.

Although the Operations Department of the Political Security General Bureau had operational personnel, it did not have an established armed force. When carrying out large-scale operations, it had to obtain the assistance of the police and the army. Wu Mu called Mu Min again—to mobilize the garrison company stationed outside Bairen City to assist in the operation.

“I will send someone to deliver the permit immediately. You first notify Li Yiyang to prepare for deployment.”

Mobilizing the army had become a very sensitive matter. After the maid revolution, the mobilization and execution of tasks by troops at the company level and above not only had to be reported to the General Staff Department in advance to obtain a mobilization permit, but also had to be reported to the Secretariat of the Executive Committee and the Office of the Speaker of the Senate for the record.

This matter could be big or small. Wu Mu could have just filed the report directly. It was no big deal for Chu Qing to have a few old acquaintances. Even if they had worked together in the Gou family at the time, it didn’t mean anything—there were many people who had served as thugs, servants, and workers under the Gou brothers in the transmigrator group, and they all might have known Chu Qing.

But thinking of the recently obtained intelligence that Gou Chengxuan had sent people to infiltrate Lin Gao, and comparing the two, there might be something fishy about it. He ordered an immediate search precisely based on this.

After dealing with these matters, Wu Mu opened another file on his desk and studied it carefully—compared to the sudden appearance of Chu Qing’s old acquaintance, he had a more important and more difficult matter to handle.

After Ji Qili left, Wu Nanfang felt very relaxed and happy. After finishing his cigar, he took Chu Qing to the farm’s coffee shop. This place had now become the most important tertiary industry of the farm.

As the only leisure facility in this time-space that met the standards of the old time-space, the coffee shop was highly sought after by the veterans. And after the life secretaries were assigned, the veterans’ sudden burst of demand for leisure and entertainment instantly filled the farm’s coffee shop—it was the safest place, and the environment was very good.

This small coffee shop immediately fell into the contradiction between the “backward…” and the “ever-growing…” It was clear that the expansion of the coffee shop was imminent.

But Wu Nanfang was not very enthusiastic about the expansion. The Senate was extremely wary of the veterans’ private industries. After Li Mei’s cooperative was nationalized, all industries belonged to “all the veterans.”

For Wu Nanfang, the coffee shop was originally just something he had started on a whim, purely “to serve the veterans.” In fact, it operated on the model of a state-owned enterprise with “material allocation” and “profit remittance.” As for him personally and the agricultural department itself, there was not much benefit—this was not the original job of the Agricultural Committee at all—and it had instead increased a lot of business burden.

Expanding the scale would certainly make the business better, but it was a burden for the Agricultural People’s Committee and the veterans in it.

The veterans’ call for the expansion and improvement of the coffee shop was very loud, but the Agricultural People’s Committee remained unmoved. Xiao Zishan quickly realized the problem.

To satisfy the veterans, to make the veterans happy, and to serve the veterans was the most basic goal of the General Office. Since this coffee shop was so popular, the General Office had the obligation to keep it running.

To keep Wu Nanfang happy and continue to operate it, there had to be some benefits.

After talking with the main figures of the Executive Committee and the Senate one by one, Xiao Zishan had a face-to-face, one-on-one conversation with Wu Nanfang in the office of the Agricultural Committee.

“…It’s certainly good that the General Office is willing to help with the expansion. But the coffee shop business is too trivial. I would rather the General Office take it over directly,” Wu Nanfang said this with some sincerity. He was indeed a little tired of running a coffee shop.

“Of course, the General Office can take it over. But don’t you think it’s a pity to give up such a public-facing place?” Xiao Zishan said. “The farm coffee shop is already a brand.”

Wu Nanfang had originally wanted to say, “The brand belongs to everyone, not to me personally,” but on second thought, he realized that this would express dissatisfaction and could easily be interpreted as “the brand is mine, so I will do a good job.” If this got out, it would be detrimental to his reputation.

“You see, it is precisely because the Agricultural Committee has such a facility that serves the veterans that the Agricultural Committee has such a high reputation in the hearts of the veterans. When everyone talks about the demonstration farm, they can think of you.”

Of course, Wu Nanfang understood the meaning of this gentle hint. There were still several vacant positions in the Executive Committee. After the anti-encirclement campaign, these positions would be filled one after another. At this time when “democracy” was being loudly proclaimed, how could he isolate himself from the veterans?

Then Xiao Zishan made a suggestion: the operating model would still be that of a state-owned enterprise—of course, at this stage, it was impossible to carry out any privatization process such as a shareholding system reform. But he promised to try to expand the financial authority of the farm coffee shop.

After the restructuring, the farm coffee shop would become an independent accounting project under the Agricultural Committee, responsible for its own profits and losses. The allocation of materials and the use of personnel would no longer be provided free of charge by the Agricultural Committee but would be settled in cash at market prices. After deducting operating costs and future commercial taxes from the operating income, the remaining net profit would be divided on a three-seven basis: three-tenths would remain on the coffee shop’s books as capital for business expansion, and seven-tenths would be handed over to the state treasury.

“Of course, the financial management of this three-tenths profit is actually still the responsibility of the Agricultural Committee. The accounts must be very clear.”

“I understand that. Otherwise, it would become a small slush fund for the Agricultural Committee,” Wu Nanfang nodded repeatedly.

Xiao Zishan said, “That’s right. The problem of a small slush fund must be paid attention to. We cannot make the mistake of small-groupism. However, as long as this money is spent on projects that serve the veterans, it is reasonable.”

So the proposal to expand the coffee shop was settled. In the past, materials and labor were provided by the Agricultural Committee. Now, they had to be settled in cash. Of course, Wu Nanfang could not casually divert the public funds and materials allocated to the Agricultural Committee to the coffee shop. He was worrying about this matter when,

Wu Di, the director of the credit department of Delong Bank, personally came to visit. As soon as he arrived, he said that he was willing to provide a low-interest loan to the farm coffee shop.

As the director of the credit department, even the director of the credit department of a state-owned bank, finding loan projects was still Wu Di’s main job. And most of the loan projects were related to agriculture. Many of the projects of the “Tiandihui” clients, such as farmland improvement and the use of new crops, were supported by loans from Delong. Wu Di was a frequent visitor to the Ministry of Agriculture.

“A loan—” Wu Nanfang pondered for a few minutes. A loan would of course solve the problem of lack of funds, but a loan involved the basic principle of collateral, unless it was some kind of policy loan.

“We have no collateral,” Wu Nanfang said. “If we use the coffee shop as collateral, it doesn’t seem appropriate—the farm coffee shop, no matter how small, is a state-owned enterprise…” He obviously had no right to privately mortgage a state-owned enterprise to a bank, although the bank itself was also a state-owned enterprise.

“It doesn’t matter,” Wu Di said. “Since the farm coffee shop itself has a future profit share, we can use the future profit share as a guarantee.”

“Is that possible?”

Wu Di nodded. “Of course it is. I went to the CHEKA to check the operating status and income and expenditure statements of the farm coffee shop. The operating situation is very good.”

“Were you commissioned by Xiao Zishan to come?” Wu Nanfang asked about Wu Di’s timely visit.

“No, the General Office can’t control the Finance General Directorate yet,” Wu Di said with a smile. “He just told me that there was such a loan opportunity—and that this loan project was very good.”

After the loan was negotiated, the expansion project of the farm coffee shop officially began.

The expansion of the coffee shop was handled by Zhang Xingpei for the structure and Li Xiaolu for the surrounding landscape design. This was also the second commercial construction activity of the Lin Gao Construction General Company in Lin Gao after serving the church. Everything from design to construction was charged.

The new farm coffee shop used a simple and easy-to-build wooden structure. In addition to expanding the indoor business area, it also added an outdoor space with a wooden open-air balcony, allowing the veterans to enjoy the gentle breeze and sunshine on fine days.

According to the plan, in the expansion of the indoor business area, all seats would be high-backed train-style seats for better privacy. The lighting would no longer use large gas lamps, but would be changed to a glass candlestick on each table, with colored small candles lit when there were guests. The tables were equipped with beautiful small vases, with fresh flowers picked from the farm’s garden updated daily. The walls were hung with landscape paintings. If the slow, decadent music to be played in the future was added, it would be very pseudo-bourgeois.