When Lin Xiazhu called, she seemed uninterested and absent-minded, which led Xiao An to mistakenly believe that she was impatient and didn't want to talk to him much. So he didn't dare to call her too often afterward, for fear that she would get annoyed.

Later, they ran out of things to say, because they didn't know where to begin. More than six years passed in the blink of an eye. When Bai Ruan returned to China, he was filled with unease, afraid that Lin Xiazhu had changed, become distant and unfamiliar, and that he could no longer get close to her.

Fortunately, it wasn't too late. Xiaozhu still cared about him. When his great-grandfather passed away, he pretended to be pitiful, and Xiaozhu softened. He found that she still cared about him as before, so he was relieved.

Now that they're together, he's even more unrestrained, getting jealous whenever he wants and openly complaining.

Although there was a slight unpleasantness, the two talked it out and quickly let it go. They cuddled on the sofa for a while before going to their respective rooms to sleep.

A few days later, Yan Xin excitedly went to the coffee shop. "Xiao Zhu, this is great news! Didn't you want to make money? Now's your chance!"

"What opportunity?" Seeing how excited she was, Lin Xiazhu immediately perked up. She was serious about making money, and if she said she would work hard, she really would.

"Didn't you used to be a workshop supervisor in the suburban industrial zone...?" It turns out that Yan Xin's family had a small factory that was shut down. It made electronic products and was located in the same industrial zone where Yan Xin worked in her previous life. Moreover, the products they made were similar to what she used to make.

Lin Xiazhu was caught off guard by the sudden decision to set up a factory. She only knew how to manage production, but the problem was how to sell the products.

"Once the product is ready, I'll handle the marketing. Don't worry about not getting orders; my family can take on the factory's orders. We can use all the appliances. With me in charge, the orders are guaranteed."

Yan Xin is full of confidence. She is now very passionate about starting her own business and wants to get involved in any industry.

In her past life, she would definitely look down on such a small factory and wouldn't care about the money it earned. But now it's different. She enjoys the process and is more motivated to work hard at this kind of small business.

"Let's go take a look first. When do you have time?" Lin Xiazhu was quite interested, after all, it was an industry she was familiar with, and Yan Xin had a sales channel, so it was a sure-fire business.

“We have time now, let’s go, I’ll drive.” Yan Xin said impatiently.

The suburban industrial zone is more than an hour's drive from the city. By the time they arrived, it was almost noon. Lin Xiazhu looked around and found that this small factory was just a few buildings away from the small factory where she used to work, less than a ten-minute walk away.

“My dad was originally planning to sell it, but luckily I found out in time and managed to keep it. We’ll each pay half the money to take over the factory. The workers are still here, but quite a few have resigned because they haven’t worked overtime for several months.”

The factory's wages were raised only by overtime pay. If you didn't work overtime, you could only get the basic wage. It was 2004, and the basic wage was 320 yuan. There was no overtime pay, which was just enough for living expenses. There was no way to save any money.

Unless a factory goes bankrupt, if a new owner takes over in time, most workers will stay, but many will also leave. After all, a factory will have very few orders and no overtime during the transitional months, so workers won't be able to work and won't get paid.

"Does it include meals and accommodation?" Lin Xiazhu quickly thought of this question. Usually, if it doesn't include meals and accommodation, the factory will provide some subsidies, but the subsidies are not much and are far from enough to cover the cost of renting a house and eating outside.

"This small factory used to have more than 150 employees, but now only about 90 are left. Don't underestimate the small factory; the benefits are good, including room and board."

Yan Xin smiled, her expression carrying a hint of pride, because this factory belonged to the Yan family, and the treatment was quite good, without excessive exploitation of the workers.

"But now many factories don't provide room and board anymore. Should we ask them to provide room and board in the future?" Yan Xin was thinking about how to earn more money, and she didn't think too much about anything else.

"Yes, otherwise it's easy for something to go wrong." Lin Xiazhu was experienced; ninety percent of the workers hired by electronics factories were women.

Moreover, many teenage girls, mostly born in the 70s and 80s, started working at this time. These girls were either junior high school graduates or hadn't even graduated yet, so they were still very young and inexperienced.

"What could possibly happen?" Yan Xin asked, puzzled.

Just as they finished speaking, they heard a huge commotion outside, as if someone was causing trouble. The two looked at each other and Lin Xiazhu said, "It sounds like something big has happened. Let's go see what's going on."

They're going to set up a factory here in the future, so they definitely need to know more about what's going on in the surrounding factories. Lin Xiazhu experienced a lot in her past life, like strikes demanding higher wages, factory workers fighting, workers hitting supervisors, supervisors hitting workers, and all sorts of other messy things.

People at that time generally had low levels of education and were prone to fighting when they got angry. In some areas, people were particularly hot-tempered. If they were scolded or harassed by a manager who had little education, the uneducated, hot-tempered, and stubborn employees would beat up their managers.

Later, many industrial zones or factories came up with an unreasonable rule: they wouldn't hire people from a certain region, city, or even province, and they wouldn't be able to get into their factories. This reduced the opportunities for job seekers to get a job.

Getting back to the main point, Lin Xiazhu and Yan Xin came out of the small factory and saw a large crowd gathered in a factory in front of them. At first glance, there were at least a hundred people, all wearing the same factory uniform, both men and women, all with angry faces, cursing and swearing, and rushing towards one place.

Lin Xiazhu noticed the logo "Good Luck Shoe Factory" on their factory uniforms. It turned out they were all workers from the shoe factory. It was during working hours, and workers from other factories didn't dare to come out and watch when they heard the commotion. However, the security guards from each factory went to the gate to look around.

"Brother, what happened at the shoe factory? Why aren't the employees at work? They've all come out?" Lin Xiazhu asked one of the security guards at the large electronics factory next door.

There are many female electronics workers, and large electronics factories have tens of thousands to several thousand female workers, so there are also many security guards. They work in two shifts, with more than a dozen security guards on each shift.

The security guard being questioned was a young man in his early twenties. He noticed that Lin Xiazhu and Yan Xin were dressed in fine clothes and had a refined demeanor, looking like they worked in an office. He guessed they were supervisors or managers of some factory, so he answered honestly.

"A female worker from the Lucky Shoe Factory was off work yesterday and went out on a date with her husband. She was doing a good deed in a banana grove in the village over there when she was discovered..."

Lin Xiazhu understood immediately when the security guard explained that factories nowadays have group dormitories, with eight or more people living in one dormitory. Some married workers, even if they are not working in the same factory, do not have a couple's room and can only live in the group dormitory.

They work two shifts, eight couples working 82 hours a day, with a maximum of two days off a month. The couples can only have a rare moment of intimacy, but their wages are low. To save money, these couples will meet in secluded wilderness areas to have their trysts.

It could be in a secluded place such as a grove of trees, bushes, or banana grove; this is common.