Chapter 157: Different Mindsets

Chapter 157: Chapter 157: Different Mindsets

But even though Gu Nuan Nuan had thought it all out, Zhang Wei Qiang didn’t know what the future held. He lightly rapped her on the head and chuckled, "Is that really necessary? It’s not like we have money to burn. Or are you already sick of us coming over to stay?"

"Hmph, you don’t appreciate my good intentions." Gu Nuan Nuan rubbed her head and muttered under her breath, "Lihua Village is such a great place. Good mountains, good water, good people. It’s really close to town, too. I’m just thinking of you guys, you know?"

’Forget it,’ she thought. ’We haven’t even started anything yet, and the money isn’t in our pockets. It’s really too soon to bring this up. Anyway, once everyone has money and starts treating Lihua Village as a permanent base, I refuse to believe they won’t be tempted when I bring it up again.’

Just as she was thinking this, she heard her eldest uncle say, "Alright, alright. Let’s just say you have good intentions, okay?"

Gu Nuan Nuan thought, ’What do you mean, "let’s just say"? I *do* have good intentions! Ugh!’

Zhang Wei Qiang chuckled. He thought to himself, ’There are still so many things we need money for. My own house in Zhang Family Village is about to be built. How could I possibly build another house in Lihua Village with my parents?’ He shook his head helplessly. ’Gu Nuan Nuan is just a kid, after all. No matter how much she acts like a grown-up, she’s still a child.’ He said, "We’ve discussed it. From now on, whether it’s selling buns or selling fish, it’ll all be considered our joint partnership. And since it’s a partnership, even the closest brothers must keep clear accounts. So, over the past few days, we’ve discussed how the partnership and profit sharing will work. I’m telling you about it now. If you agree and have no objections, we’ll write up a formal contract when we get back for everyone to sign."

"Is it enough for me to just know about it? I don’t need to sign, right? I’m still a kid. Would my signature even be valid?" Gu Nuan Nuan was both touched and surprised that even with something so important, they hadn’t forgotten she was just a child and had still made a point to ask for her opinion.

"You’re still young, so of course your signature is useless. That’s why your mother will manage your share until you come of age. You discovered the Fish Spring, and you created the meat bun filling recipe. You’re the biggest contributor, so you get a thirty percent share of our partnership. Your mother gets twenty-five percent. Your eldest aunt and I together also get twenty-five percent. The final twenty percent is for your grandparents. They’ve also decided what happens to their share. After they pass away, ten percent of their share will go to me, and five percent will go to your mother. As for the remaining five percent, who it goes to will depend on the behavior of your second and third uncles’ families."

"Isn’t thirty percent a little too much for me? Combined with my mom’s share, the two of us have fifty-five percent," Gu Nuan Nuan asked. "I might have discovered the Fish Spring and created the bun filling, but when it comes to the work that follows, my mom can only do so much, and I can’t contribute at all. If everyone didn’t work together, even with the Fish Spring, the two of us could only stare helplessly, right? So with this split, we’d be taking the majority. That doesn’t seem very fair to the rest of you."

Especially when she thought about how her uncle had the guts to give up his "iron rice bowl" and take unpaid leave, Gu Nuan Nuan felt the distribution was even more inappropriate. She wasn’t worried about now; she was worried about the future. They were setting these shares now, when the profits were small or when no one could see just how large the future profits might be. What if people’s hearts grew unbalanced in the face of huge gains down the line...

Having lived a whole other life, Gu Nuan Nuan had no desire to test the limits of human nature. The more you test it, the more you lose. She would rather take a smaller share now—to "take a loss"—than watch conflicts arise between them in the future because of money.

"You and your mother really are of one mind. You two said the exact same thing. The original plan was to give you forty percent, with the rest of us each taking twenty. But your mom absolutely refused, so in the end, your grandfather had to make the final decision to settle it this way."

Zhang Wei Qiang laughed heartily. "Actually, you and your mom are getting the short end of the stick. Your eldest aunt and your grandma are really just there to make up the numbers. They can’t stay in Lihua Village to help every day. After all, they have a ton of their own things to deal with, and I have to build my own house soon. So, at most, the two of them will take turns coming over to lend your mom a hand. The bulk of the work for making and selling the meat buns will still fall on your mom. Your grandfather and I will be responsible for delivering the fish meat every day, but our main focus will be on the Fish Spring side of things—staying there to dry the fish, and then taking them to the city or the provincial capital to sell every so often."

"So you mean you’re planning to take the dried fish to the city or the provincial capital to sell at a stall?" Gu Nuan Nuan listened to her uncle, and when he nodded and asked back, "Do you have a better idea?" she felt a little speechless. At the same time, she thought that her uncle, grandfather, and mother’s idea was quite in line with the typical mindset of people from this era.

She sighed internally. ’Experience and perspective really are crucial. I can’t just expect a genius with business ideas ahead of their time to suddenly pop up in my family, can I? Looks like I’ll have to play the role of the ’genius’ in the future, giving my uncle and the others some advanced tips from time to time.’

She didn’t speak right away. Instead, she thought for a moment before asking, "Uncle, a train needs an engine to move. Have you guys decided who’s going to have the final say in this whole operation?"

"We’ll just discuss things together, of course," Zhang Wei Qiang said without a second thought. "If anything comes up, we can all brainstorm. You can bring up your ideas, too. There’s strength in numbers, right?"

"But there will be times when everyone doesn’t agree. Who gets the final say then? As the saying goes, a fast train relies on its engine to lead the way. Can you imagine a train with several engines, each one trying to go in a different direction?" Gu Nuan Nuan wanted to facepalm.

"You’re overthinking things. We’re barely getting started. This isn’t some state-owned enterprise with tens of thousands of employees. We’re just doing a small-time business. The way I see it, we might end up having to rely on your mom’s meat bun business to keep us afloat. How could we possibly get to a point where we have major disagreements?"

Zhang Wei Qiang smiled dismissively. He’d never thought the family could make the business very big just by relying on the Fish Spring. If they were lucky, it would be a little better than just making ends meet. If they were unlucky, they could even lose money. After a year of hard work, the final dividends might not even be more than what he earned at his job. The main reason he took unpaid leave to help was for the safety of his old father and his younger sister. He was well aware of Zhang Dazhuang’s stubborn streak; once he got an idea in his head, he wouldn’t turn back until he hit a brick wall. Could he really just stand by and watch his old father go into the deep mountains alone, possibly running into grave danger again one day?