Zhao Yuan knew the old village chief was helping him cement his prestige, so he didn't refuse. He stood up and said, "Here's the situation. I plan to lease the barren mountain west of the village to start a Chinese medicinal herb cultivation base. When the time comes, I'll be hiring a large number of employees. My idea is to give first preference to people from our village and the neighboring ones. If any of you are interested, you can register with my dad."
A well-meaning villager questioned, "A Chinese medicinal herb cultivation base? Brother Yuan, you need to think this through. Transportation around here is inconvenient—it takes two hours just to get to the county town. If you grow Chinese medicinal herbs here, will you be able to sell them?"
