“Dad, you haven’t forgotten about the Ma Family Pomelo, have you?”

Ma Family Pomelo is a unique pomelo variety found only in GF County, and it’s also one of the eight major pomelo varieties in the country. It’s known as the most sour pomelo in Jiangxi Province, and it even made it to the World Expo. In 2010, the National Quality Supervision Bureau included it in the list of products protected by geographical indication.

Of course, all these titles came later. William Brooks only found out about them when he looked it up online, but he knew one thing: before 2008, Ma Family Pomelo wasn’t well-known in the county because there were too few being grown.

What really made Ma Family Pomelo popular throughout the county and even the whole city was what happened after 2008. At that time, the local leaders strongly promoted the cultivation of Ma Family Pomelo and the development of local green agricultural products, investing a huge amount of money for this purpose.

To encourage people to plant them, the county specifically offered a subsidy of 200 yuan for each Ma Family Pomelo tree planted. Plus, the pomelos themselves sold for a high price—about fifty or sixty yuan each—so suddenly everyone in the county went crazy planting Ma Family Pomelo.

William Brooks wanted to rent land, not to make money from selling pomelos, but to earn the government subsidies.

To plant Ma Family Pomelo, you need land. In his previous life, the soil in their area was just right for growing Ma Family Pomelo. If he could contract all the land on the back mountain and plant pomelos, the whole mountain could accommodate tens of thousands of trees, and the subsidies alone would amount to over a million yuan.

In his previous life, the mountain land here was requisitioned by the government and then contracted out to companies managing Ma Family Pomelo. But since the mountain was empty at the time, the villagers didn’t get much in the way of subsidies.

What’s more, William Brooks knew very clearly the development trajectory of Ma Family Pomelo. He could use this as leverage to negotiate with the company in charge of subsidies. Over a million yuan, in exchange for helping Ma Family Pomelo development avoid a few years of detours—William Brooks thought the other party wouldn’t lose out on this deal.

Pulling his thoughts back, looking at his parents, William Brooks knew he needed to come up with a reason to persuade them to contract the land.

Thinking of this, William Brooks stood up from his seat, walked back to his room, and came back carrying a backpack. Mr. Brooks and Mrs. Brooks looked at their son in confusion, not understanding why he suddenly left in the middle of the conversation, and even came out with a backpack.

Whoosh!

He unzipped the backpack and turned it upside down. Bundles of hundred-yuan bills instantly tumbled out, landing on the coffee table.

Looking at his stunned parents, William Brooks grinned happily—surprised? Unexpected?

Chapter 9: Some people, you can’t forget after just one glance

In the The Brooks Family living room, facing the scrutinizing gazes of his parents—especially noticing that his father’s breathing had become rapid and his fists were slightly clenched—William Brooks didn’t dare to keep up the act and quickly explained, “This money isn’t mine. It was given by a classmate’s father.”

“Dad, I have a classmate whose father works at the county committee and is pretty well-informed. He knows the higher-ups are going to develop the Ma Family Pomelo project, and our soil here is the most suitable for growing it. But he can’t come forward himself, so he wants to use our family’s name to contract this mountain land to plant Ma Family Pomelo. When the government requisitions it, we can get the subsidy.”

This explanation was something William Brooks came up with on the spot, and he wasn’t afraid his father would find any holes in it, because there simply weren’t any. His father couldn’t possibly investigate all his classmates one by one.

If his father really had that kind of ability, he wouldn’t have stayed at the grassroots level for so many years.

“Is this defrauding state property?”

As a cadre, Mr. Brooks still had this sense of awareness.

“Dad, this isn’t fraud. The land is real, right? The Ma Family Pomelo saplings are also being planted with real money. The higher-ups aren’t stupid—if they really think the subsidy is too high, they can always choose another place.”

Mr. Brooks fell silent...

“Old Su, I don’t think this is a big deal. Remember a few years ago when everyone was planting Tiangui pears? Those with connections got the news early and planted Tiangui pear saplings in their fields, and in the end, they all got compensation.”

Compared to Mr. Brooks, Mrs. Brooks wasn’t as principled. In her view, if other families could do this, why couldn’t theirs? It wasn’t breaking any laws.

“But—?”

“But what? Look at you, you’ve worked most of your life—what have you gotten? James Clark in the village has already bought a car and even bought a house in the city.”

Hearing the name James Clark, Mr. Brooks’s expression changed, and William Brooks secretly laughed on the side. In his previous life, he didn’t know who James Clark was at this time, but after graduating from college, when chatting with his parents, he finally learned the story.

His father’s family was poor when he was young, with many siblings, so after finishing junior high, his father didn’t continue his studies. Instead, he apprenticed under his maternal grandfather to learn wood carving. At that time, craftsmen were in demand—when they went to work for people, not only did they get food and lodging, but also wages.

His father had several fellow apprentices, and James Clark was one of them. The rest of the story William Brooks could pretty much guess: his mother was the youngest apprentice, and all the senior apprentices, including his father, liked her. But in the end, the youngest apprentice married the eldest senior brother.