Rebirth 70: I am a Koi

"Uncle Wang, please speak slowly. What happened?" Bai Hanchuan supported the panicked Uncle Wang and asked him to sit down on the chair.

Uncle Wang trembled and took a long time to catch his breath: "Someone...someone in this town...spreading rumors...about you..."

My heart sank. Has the crisis that the system warned of finally come?

"They said...they said that you left the army...because..." Uncle Wang is old, and he speaks incoherently when he is anxious.

"What?" My voice couldn't help but rise a few degrees, and a nameless anger rushed to my head.

"They said that you made a mistake back then and were expelled from the army! They also said... they also said that you..." Uncle Wang said this, glanced at me secretly, and didn't say anything else.

I took a deep breath, tried to suppress my anger and anxiety, and asked, "What else?"

Uncle Wang stammered, "They also said...that you have bad behavior and will...will lead the young people in the village astray..."

I immediately understood that someone was deliberately trying to discredit Bai Hanchuan and destroy our planting base! Several competitors quickly flashed through my mind. Who was behind this?

Before I could think about it, there was a sudden noise outside the door. My heart skipped a beat, and an ominous premonition came over me.

"What happened?" Bai Hanchuan walked quickly to the door and opened it.

I saw a few angry old employees blocking the door with a group of people. It seemed that the matter had become serious.

"Bai Hanchuan, come out here!" The leader, Uncle Liu, pointed at Bai Hanchuan's nose and cursed, "You are such a heartless person! You have caused us so much trouble!"

"That's right! Give us back our hard-earned money!"

“We want to restore the previous management model!”

……

The crowd immediately echoed the words, the sound was deafening, and my heart began to beat violently. The planting base was going to be in chaos...

The chaos was like a flood that broke through the dam, swallowing up Bai Hanchuan and me in an instant. Facing Uncle Liu's accusations and the anger of the crowd, Bai Hanchuan did not panic. He tried his best to appease the crowd and explained the absurdity of the rumors. However, the crowd's emotions had been incited and did not give him a chance to speak.

I tried to calm myself down. I knew that now was not the time to investigate the source of the rumor. I had to control the situation first. I squeezed next to Bai Hanchuan and said loudly, "Fellow villagers, I know everyone is very anxious, but please believe in Bai Hanchuan, believe in us! We will definitely give everyone an explanation!"

My words temporarily suppressed the noise of the crowd, and some people began to look at each other in confusion. However, before I could breathe a sigh of relief, a harsh voice rang out again: "It sounds better than singing! Now the whole town has heard about it, what else do you have to explain?!"

I turned around and saw that it was Er Gouzi from the village who was talking. He was always idle and liked to spread rumors in the village. He must have contributed to this incident. I was about to open my mouth to refute when the phone in my pocket suddenly rang.

"Hello? What?!" As soon as I answered the phone, the anxious voice of the logistics company manager came over, "Mr. Mu, I'm really sorry, we can't continue to cooperate with you! The higher-ups... the higher-ups have put a lot of pressure on us..."

"What pressure? We signed a contract!" I was immediately panicked. Logistics is the lifeblood of the planting base. If there is a problem in the transportation link, the consequences will be disastrous!

"This..." The person on the other end of the phone hesitated for a long time, and finally just said "I'm sorry" and hung up in a hurry.

I held the phone in my hand, as if struck by lightning. Before I could come to my senses, a worker ran over in a panic, sweating profusely, shouting, "Oh no! Mr. Mu, oh no! The peppers in the field... all the peppers are dead!"

My eyes went dark and I almost fainted. Pepper is the main cash crop in our planting base. During this period, I have been trying various methods to control pests and diseases, but the effect is minimal. I didn't expect that I still couldn't escape this disaster.

The successive blows made me feel powerless. Are we really going to fail? I looked at Bai Hanchuan. Although his face was livid, his eyes were still firm, as if telling me that no matter what happened, he would face it with me.

"Don't worry," he whispered, squeezing my hand. "I'll take care of it."

However, my heart was getting heavier and heavier, because I knew that a bigger storm was still to come... I saw a familiar figure walking towards us hurriedly, holding a document in his hand, and his face was terribly gloomy...

My heart sank suddenly, and an ominous premonition came over me. The visitor was Mr. Wang, our largest fertilizer supplier. He had always praised our planting base, but this time...

"Mr. Wang, why are you here?" Bai Hanchuan spoke first, with a barely perceptible hint of nervousness in his tone.

President Wang handed the document in his hand to Bai Hanchuan, and said in a cold tone: "President Bai, this is the notice of our company unilaterally terminating the cooperation with your base. Please take a look."

"What?" I panicked, snatched the document, and quickly glanced through it. It turned out to be a termination of the cooperation agreement! "Mr. Wang, why is this? We have always cooperated happily, and you were very satisfied with us before!"

President Wang snorted coldly, glanced at the villagers who were whispering around him, and said with a hint of sarcasm: "President Bai, President Mu, your planting base is now 'famous'! I don't want to get involved with you and get into trouble."

His words were like sharp thorns that pierced my heart. I opened my mouth and tried to explain, but found that any excuse was weak.

After Mr. Wang left, my phone started to ring non-stop. They were all from suppliers, all of whom wanted to terminate the cooperation. Raw materials were in short supply, the production chain of the planting base was broken, and even daily maintenance was difficult to maintain, let alone on-time delivery.

Bai Hanchuan ran around trying to find new suppliers, but those who had been enthusiastic about him before now avoided him. He ran around all day and came back with a tired face, but he still forced himself to comfort me: "Don't worry, I will solve it."

However, bad news came one after another. After learning about the various problems of the planting base, new customers cancelled their orders one after another. The trust that had been hard-earned collapsed in an instant, and the future of the planting base was bleak.

Looking at the empty factory and the piles of unsalable products, my heart sank to the bottom. I leaned weakly on Bai Hanchuan's shoulder, tears silently falling.

"Don't be afraid, I'm here." Bai Hanchuan gently stroked my hair, his tone gentle but firm.

I know he is trying his best to protect me and hold up a sky for me. However, I know in my heart that we have reached the edge of the cliff, and I...

I suddenly felt dizzy and everything in front of me started to become blurry. I subconsciously grabbed Bai Hanchuan's arm and said in a trembling voice: "I..."

"What's wrong with you?" He held me nervously, his eyes full of worry.

I shook my head weakly and tried to speak, but found that my throat seemed to be strangled and I couldn't make any sound. At the same time, a shrill alarm sounded in my mind, and a cold mechanical voice echoed in my mind:

"Warning! Warning! The system is about to crash..."

My eyes went dark and I completely lost consciousness.

When I woke up, I found myself lying on the bed in the infirmary. The pungent smell of disinfectant made me feel sick. Bai Hanchuan was sitting beside the bed, looking haggard. When he saw me wake up, a relaxed smile appeared on his tense face: "You woke up? How do you feel?"

I struggled to sit up, but found myself weak all over. Bai Hanchuan quickly supported me and said in a worried tone, "The doctor said that you have been under too much pressure recently. You are a little weak and need to rest well."

"System..." I grabbed his hand, my voice trembling, "System..."

Bai Hanchuan's expression suddenly turned ugly. He avoided my gaze and was silent for a long time before speaking: "Jinli, let's talk about the system later, okay?"

I fell back onto the bed helplessly, tears silently falling. I understood that he was trying to comfort me. I was afraid that the system issue had already been…

Without the system, I was like a tiger with its teeth pulled out, having lost its greatest support. Despair overwhelmed me like a tide, I clutched the bed sheet tightly, my nails dug deep into my flesh, but I didn't feel a single bit of pain.

"Boom boom boom——"

A hasty knock on the door interrupted my thoughts, and a panicked voice came from outside the door: "Boss Bai, it's bad! Something happened!"

Bai Hanchuan's face changed, and he quickly stood up and walked to the door. He opened the door and saw a worker standing at the door with sweat all over his forehead. He said breathlessly, "Boss Bai, please go and have a look. The warehouse... the warehouse..."

Before he could finish his words, he was interrupted by the noise of the crowd. Then, a chaotic sound of footsteps came from afar, accompanied by shouting and cursing, and the entire planting base fell into chaos.

"What happened?" My heart sank suddenly and a bad premonition came to my mind.

Bai Hanchuan's face also turned very ugly. He had no time to explain. He left a sentence "Stay here and don't move" and turned around and rushed into the chaotic crowd.

I struggled to get out of bed, but he held my shoulders and said sternly, "Be obedient and don't run around!"

After he said that, he left the infirmary without looking back, leaving me alone there, feeling flustered.

The noise of chaos was getting closer and closer, and I could vaguely hear someone shouting, "Why can't we get it? We've worked so hard for several months and we can't even get paid. Now the factory is going bankrupt, we can't starve to death!"

My heart sank suddenly and an ominous premonition came over me. I struggled to stand up, stumbled to the window, pushed it open and the scene before me made me feel like I was falling into an ice cellar.

In the direction of the warehouse, a group of workers were excited and frantically looting the materials in the warehouse. The scene was in chaos. Bai Hanchuan stood in the crowd and tried to stop their behavior, but was pushed to the ground by several emotional workers. I saw a trace of blood oozing from the corner of his mouth...