50: Chapter 50 News Scandal

Three days later, all the near-ripe fruit in the orchard had been harvested, totaling over 19,000 tons of various fruits. This included 14,000 tons of honey peaches, 800 tons of cherries, 1,500 tons of bayberries, and nearly 3,000 tons of other fruits. Thanks to Hou Jin's efforts, these high-quality fruits had been packaged under the Tianxing Garden brand and shipped all over the country, with the payments already fully received. When Cao Xiao saw the money transferred to the company, he almost thought his eyes were playing tricks on him. It was actually 135 million! How could over 10,000 tons of fruit sell for so much money? And that was only 70% of the wholesale payment; there was still 30% of sales profit with Dizang Company. Didn't that mean this batch of fruit sold for 193 million?

Hao Linger had already been home for two days. Cao Xiao called Cheng Xiang to confirm, and only then did he realize it was true. The biggest contributor among this batch of fruit wasn't the 10,000-plus tons of honey peaches, but the 800-plus tons of cherries. It was only then that he took out his phone to calculate carefully, realizing that the cherries had sold for nearly 80 million. Uh! He hadn't noticed the price of cherries before; seeing the low yield, he had almost ignored them. Over fifty per catty! That was more than ten times more expensive than other fruits and twenty-five times the price of honey peaches—equivalent to 20,000 tons of honey peaches. Realizing he hadn't even calculated how much his own goods could sell for and had to ask others was a bit embarrassing. He had been too careless; if he had gone to sell them himself, he might have suffered a huge loss.

No wonder that kid Hou Jin was so happy that his form of address for him had changed to 'Sir.' The company had promised him a 5% commission, which was nearly three million. Even if Hou Jin distributed some commissions to a few subordinates, he would definitely walk away with two million himself. Since when did sales become so profitable? Facing Cheng Xiang's grievances, Cao Xiao finally understood why he couldn't manage the company well. It wasn't that he begrudged those few millions, but rather that inequality is more concerning than scarcity. Seeing the sales department take so much commission at once, other departments would certainly have major objections, which would be very detrimental to the company's development. Knowing his mistake, he had to make amends, so he decided to take out one million as an employee bonus and asked Cheng Xiang to create a distribution plan. Currently, the company had fewer than twenty employees, so every employee would receive a significant bonus, and no one would have any complaints.

However, in less than ten minutes, he received a call from Hao Linger. Over the phone, Hao Linger scolded him severely, saying he was acting recklessly and had made a decision detrimental to the company's development without communicating with her. Giving the sales department such a high commission was a thoughtless blunder, and giving the employees bonuses was an even bigger failure. Starting off so lavishly, how would the salary and welfare system be set in the future? If it were too much, the company couldn't afford it; if it were too little, the employees would lack motivation. People are never satisfied; if future bonuses were less than now, what would the employees think?

Cao Xiao didn't dare to argue a single word. He indeed hadn't thought of these things. But there was one benefit: he didn't have to run to the company every day anymore. Hao Linger wouldn't let him meddle in company affairs recklessly; from now on, the company would operate under a complete system, and he only needed to pay attention occasionally. For the past two days, he had to go to work at the company early every morning, and it was truly too boring.

Suddenly liberated, his mood was beautiful. Seeing that it was almost noon, he prepared to take some gifts to visit his teacher, inquire about the National Martial Arts, and grab a meal while he was at it. Unexpectedly, he received a call from his teacher before he even left the house.

“Xiao Xiao, is that Tianxing Garden the forest land you bid for at Shengfeng last time?” Elder Chen asked urgently as soon as the call connected.

“Yes, I changed the name to Tianxing Garden. Teacher, why do you suddenly ask about this?” Cao Xiao asked in confusion.

“That chicken blood stone was also your doing, right? Also, have you started clearing the forest land over there yet?” Elder Chen didn't respond to Cao Xiao but asked him two more questions instead.

“Yes, I found it in that old mine tunnel last time and had people dig it out. Teacher, is something wrong with the forest land?” Cao Xiao asked with a frown.

“Go search online yourself and you'll see. Wait there; your eldest brother and I are coming over right away,” Elder Chen said and hung up the phone.

Cao Xiao's frown deepened. For his teacher to be this anxious, something must have happened, and it wasn't a small matter; otherwise, he wouldn't be coming over with Chen Huaiyu. Regarding Tianxing Garden, Cao Xiao indeed had many doubts. He had bought it for only 35 million, but now it seemed the value of Tianxing Garden had been severely underestimated. The transfer price for over 5,000 mu of orchards alone was worth more than that. As soon as he took over, he had earned back the transfer fee and three years of contracting fees, plus an extra 70 million—and that was only the income from half the orchard. Next year, when it entered the peak fruiting period, the income would definitely double several times over. What he couldn't figure out was why such a high-quality asset couldn't be sold and was sent for a low-priced auction. Moreover, did all those people at the scene not know the value of Tianxing Garden? Why did so few people bid? And when he bought it, his teacher and Liu Guitang hadn't stopped him, but now a problem had cropped up.

Better check what kind of trouble is brewing online first. He opened the browser and entered the keyword 'Tianxing Garden,' and a lot of information popped up instantly.

World's Largest chicken blood stone Appears in Huanghe City — Xiangchu News

Largest chicken blood stone Appears, Weighing a Hundred Tons — Huanghe Daily

The Greatest Spendthrift in History: A Treasure Worth Hundreds of Millions Used as a Gatekeeper Stone — A Certain Entertainment Forum

Experts Call for Protection: This is a Precious Wealth Belonging to Humanity — Weibo

Strongly Suggest the Owner Donate it to a Museum; Carving Words on it is Truly a Waste of God's Gifts — A Certain Collection Forum

Strongly Suggest Handling This High-Profile Display of Wealth; It Has Seriously Hurt My Self-Esteem — A Certain Curiosity Website

World's Number One chicken blood stone Settles in Our City; Cultural Department Decides to Provide Protection — Huanghe TV Evening News

The exposure of the chicken blood stone was within his expectations, he just didn't expect it to cause such a huge reaction. Seeing that the earliest date was two days ago, it was normal for it to be noticed with people coming and going from Tianxing Garden every day. The appearance of this chicken blood stone would at most be noticed by people in the collection world for a while, perhaps attracting some buyers; other than that, it didn't have much impact on him. Instead, it would help raise the popularity of Tianxing Garden and Tianxing Company. As for the protection from the cultural department, that was also a good thing; this was company property and couldn't be confiscated, and those who dared to harbor ill intentions would back off. As for making the evening news on TV, it made Cao Xiao feel a bit overwhelmed; presumably, most citizens of Huanghe City would know the name Tianxing Garden now. Anyway, it wasn't a bad thing; what he cared more about now was the issue with Tianxing Garden itself.

He searched for Tianxing Garden online, but besides information related to the chicken blood stone and fruit, there was nothing else. It seemed the problem wasn't online; he would only know what was going on when his teacher arrived. Food is the most important thing; no matter what happened, he needed to be full to have the strength to face it. Since his teacher was coming now, he probably hadn't eaten lunch either. He made a pot of rice and prepared six dishes in forty minutes: braised wild boar meat, yam stewed with pig's trotters, Ganoderma pig bone soup, oil-drenched pig blood, stir-fried wild vegetables, and boiled snake meat. Just then, his teacher arrived at the gate. Cao Xiao went out to welcome him. Coming with his teacher were two other old men, Chen Huaiyu, his secretary, and a driver. When he went out, he also found many people gathered outside the gate looking at the chicken blood stone, some taking photos with cameras. Cao Xiao ignored them. There was water in the pool, and under the watchful eyes of the public, he wasn't afraid of it being damaged. In a while, he would have people install an electric fence around the pool and turn on the power at night; he believed no one would be able to enter a charged pool of water.