Vol. 1 - Ch. 5 - I'll take care of these pigs.

These words were both soft and hard, sonorous and powerful. The workers felt their blood boiling after hearing them. This new factory director seemed to have something, and what she said made sense.Shu Ping also made personnel changes again, promoting Zhu Yunlong to be the workshop supervisor. This was a decision made after the brother and sister discussed it.

Zhu Yunlong was an old man in the food factory. He worked hard and was diligent. He had worked on several production lines and could repair equipment. Because of his overly straightforward personality and his lack of flattery, Jiang Hai didn’t use him as the workshop supervisor. But what Shu Ping needed now was a helper like Zhu Yunlong who could do everything and was steady. He could be called the Fengxiang Village version of a good horse meeting a good horse trainer.

Zhu Yunlong was a little surprised at first but soon calmed down. Wu Peng, who previously managed the workshop, was not fit for the job, but he could do nothing about it. Even though he was uneducated, he understood the principle that a new emperor should appoint new ministers. He was close to Jiang Hai, so the new director was naturally on guard. He had only lost his position as a supervisor. If things really got out of hand, he might even lose his job. Pretending to be obedient was the right thing to do.

What Wu Peng didn't know was that Shu Ping was still very wary of him. She specifically found Zhu Yunlong to observe his usual work performance and report any situation to her.

After the meeting, Shu Ping had other things to do. The workshop was running in an orderly manner under the leadership of Zhu Yunlong. She also went to Yongfu Village with Shu Jun to express her gratitude to Uncle Li and invited Uncle Li to continue working at Hongyun.

"Director Shu, you are too polite. I’ve watched you grow up since you were a child. Your father will be very happy if he knows that you can accept the factory."

He pointed to the pig pen beside the courtyard wall and said, "I would like to go back to cook, but I can't leave for a while because of these pigs."

The pigs had been raised since they were piglets, and they had become attached to each other. The pigs that have yet to be slaughtered couldn't be sold at a good price. They needed to be raised for at least another three to four months.

Shu Ping smiled and said, "Uncle Li, I won’t take back what I’ve said. It doesn't matter if you’re not free now. The position of head chef will be kept for you, including these piglets. After they’re slaughtered, they can be sold directly to our factory. First, it’ll improve the food for our factory workers. Second, I have plans to develop new products, which may use pork. However, I haven't made any plans yet. If you agree, how about we make a decision first?"

Uncle Li couldn't disagree. He quickly agreed and solved two problems at once. He felt as if he was ten years younger.

"That's great. I raise these pigs very carefully. I'd be reluctant to sell them to others, but it's different if I sell them to our factory. Oh, I didn't expect Director Shu to be so courageous. She's as capable as a man. She’ll definitely do something big in the future."

At least in terms of her mindset, many men were not as open-minded as her.

In fact, the day after taking over the food factory, Shu Ping fired the chef in charge of the cooking in the canteen. The reason had nothing to do with the fact that he was a distant relative of Jiang Hai, but because his cooking was too unpalatable. The watery soup was not much better than fermented pig food, and the food standard was much worse than the money allocated.

According to the workers, the food in the canteen had been of this standard since Uncle Li left, and it was easy to imagine just how much the other party had deducted from the budget.

These days, the meals in the canteen were prepared by Aunt Liu Yanfang and the aunt next door. The taste was ordinary, but the ingredients were real. In the morning, steamed buns, sesame cakes, porridge, eggs, and pickles were available. At noon, there were five dishes, two meat dishes, three vegetable dishes, and soup. In the evening, the staple food was richer, with noodles, steamed buns, porridge, and fewer dishes than at noon, with one meat dish and two vegetable dishes. The workers could bring their own lunch boxes to take home the leftovers.

Liu Yanfang had not cooked at home recently, and has directly asked the father and son to eat together in the cafeteria, which has invisibly shortened the distance between her and the workers. Sᴇaʀch* Thᴇ NƟvelFɪre.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

The boss and his relatives ate the same food as everyone else. Didn't this show that the quality of the food in the cafeteria was guaranteed? Who wanted to eat pig food and be treated like a pig?

On the way back from Yongfu Village, Shu Jun asked her about her ideas for new products. After all, with the current conditions of the food factory, it seemed impossible to solve the production and processing of pork.

But Shu Ping directly booked six pigs raised by Li Shu. If it was just to let Uncle Li return to the factory to work without burden, it would not be justified and was too ostentatious.

Through recent contacts, Shu Jun already knew that his cousin in front of him was no longer the shy and introverted little girl in his memory, but a very successful, brave, and intelligent girl.

"I think our factory's product variety is not rich enough now. Although white sugar and brown sugar are necessities of life and are used by every household, the profit is not high. An ordinary family can only finish a pound of white sugar after several months, and the consumption of brown sugar is even slower. Since the reform and opening up, the social economy has been continuously improving, and the living standards of the Chinese people have also been improving. Fruit candy was a good thing in the past, but children nowadays don't like it very much. It's not obvious here, but children in the city prefer to eat White Rabbit and Little Dragon Man. Those with better conditions also like to eat toffee and chocolate. I think it's not wise to limit our vision to Fengxiang Village at this moment. Even if we can't be the first wave, we can't wait to be hit on the beach by the wave."

Shu Jun found that he still underestimated his cousin. If she didn't have a deep and thorough understanding of the economy and the market, she couldn't say these things. To some extent, it coincided with his uncle's previous ideas.

If he didn't want to seek a breakthrough, his uncle wouldn't have spent almost all of his fortune to introduce a new production line two years ago.

"What you said makes sense. Do you want to add more pork food production lines?"

"There are already a lot of pork products on the market. We can't beat them by force. What do you think of meat floss? The process is simple and versatile. Meat floss biscuits, meat floss bread, and meat floss egg rolls are nutritious and healthy. Children love to eat them. Parents are assured. We can make money with this, right?"

Shu Ping thought of meat floss because she used to DIY it at home according to online tutorials when she was bored. It wasn't complicated to make. Of course, if you wanted to mass produce it, you couldn't do it purely by hand. It was necessary to buy a machine. Now that there was money in the account, and the machine needed wasn't large-scale equipment like an assembly line. It could be solved with tens of thousands of yuan at most.

When the meat floss was made, meat floss biscuits could be assembled in a matter of minutes. When Jiang Hai's remaining money arrived, we could consider adding a bread production line. With hot dog bread, meat floss bread, cheese bread, jam bread, whatever classics were produced, there was no worry about lack of sales.

Shu Jun smiled at her money-grubbing look and believed from the bottom of his heart that she would succeed. He could go back to school with a peace of mind.

The counselor had called him the day before yesterday to inform him to go back for internship in a state-owned enterprise in the provincial capital, which was a very good opportunity for him. He would report next Monday, which meant he had to go back to school on Sunday at the latest.

"Brother, you can do what you like without worry. I’ll run the food factory well and will never let Dad's hard work go to waste. I won't bear the difficulties alone and will definitely call you to recruit you as a soldier."

Not only Shu Jun, but Shu Ping also had to find time to go back to school as soon as possible. The original owner studied at a normal technical secondary school in the city, and her last semester was also an internship. The teachers in the school had always taken good care of her because of the original owner's family situation. Although she had called the teacher to ask for leave and explained the situation because of things at the factory, she still had to go to school in person to express her gratitude to her teacher. It was one of the few things she could do for the original owner.

Let all those who bullied her receive the punishment they deserved, express gratitude to all those who helped her and helped the food factory grow and develop. Shu Ping would do all these to appease the original owner in her heart.

The next day, Shu Ping explained the work in the factory and set off. She had to change buses twice from Fengxiang Village to Luoyuan City, and she had to change to another bus in Luoyuan to get to school. It was already noon when she arrived at the school. She didn’t rush to find the class teacher, but went to the restaurant at the school gate and ordered a bowl of two yuan of plain noodles. It was not to save money, but purely because the ride was too long and she had no appetite. She also asked the boss to add fewer noodles and more soup.

While waiting, she went to the store next door to call the factory to let her uncle and aunt rest assured. Originally, they wanted to let her cousin come with her today, but Shu Ping declined. She was almost 30 years old mentally, and she was not a real little girl. How could anything go wrong with such a short distance?

It could only be said that her uncle and aunt were too concerned. This was also a common problem of countless parents. No matter how many children they had, how promising they were, and how independent and capable they were, they would always treat them as children.

After eating noodles, Shu Ping went to the fruit shop to weigh some fruit snacks and went to the original owner's dormitory first.

The school wasn’t big. The gray teaching building was only four stories high and looked a bit shabby. There were few students on the road. When passing the basketball court surrounded by a green wire mesh, she saw several boys playing basketball. After the basketball court was the cafeteria. Because it was past meal time, the cafeteria was empty and quiet.

Going forward a hundred meters, she reached the dormitory area. The girls' dormitory was on the left and the boys' dormitory was on the right. The dormitory only had one main entrance. The iron door was open. Entering the door, she saw the reception area. The dormitory auntie sat inside to watch people in order to prevent the possibility of boys entering the girls' dormitory. In this kind of school, once a relationship between a male and a female student crossed the line, it would have a serious impact on the school's reputation. The teachers of each class would repeatedly emphasize that students were not allowed to fall in love, lest alone crossed the line. This was why Chen Yibin chased the original owner for so long. Although he caught up with her, he didn’t have any substantial relationship with her. It wasn’t that Chen Yibin didn't want to, but that the original owner didn't dare to. Secretly falling in love was already the limit for a good girl.

The dormitory was higher than the teaching building, with six floors. The original owner's dormitory was on the fifth floor, room 506, the second room at the staircase.

The dormitory door was ajar. Shu Ping knocked before entering the door and happened to meet the eyes of a girl who was reading at the desk. The other party said "Hey", looking a little surprised.

Shu Ping knew that this girl slept on the lower bed of the original owner. She had a good relationship with the original owner. Her name was quite nice, Yu Lu.

"Pingping, you’re finally here. I heard from the head teacher that you won’t participate in the internship. What's the matter? Is it true?"