Mrs. Wen is a person who is meticulous in her work but doesn't like to talk. When she heard Cheng Maixiang teasing her, she didn't say much, but just smiled shyly.

At this moment, Secretary Li felt a craving for a cigarette and couldn't help but pull out a cigarette from his trouser pocket and lit it with a match. Mrs. Wen immediately said, "No smoking in the warehouse."

Everyone's eyes were focused on Secretary Li, causing his face to turn pale. He had no choice but to put out his cigarette in embarrassment and said angrily, "It's just a cigarette, what's the big deal?"

Cheng Maixiang smiled faintly, "Secretary Li, the warehouse is full of fabrics and clothes, and they are all very sensitive to fire. Once ignited, everything will be burned. Therefore, from the first day of our garment workshop, smoking is not allowed in the workshop. It is an ironclad rule, not targeting anyone specifically. If you don't believe me, just look."

Everyone looked in the direction Cheng Maixiang's hand was pointing, and sure enough, there was a piece of white paper stuck on the wall of the warehouse with four big words "No Smoking" written on it. Below it was a picture of a burning cigarette with a red cross on it.

Secretary Li knew he was wrong, but he couldn't help but want to save face. "Now the factory is full of female employees, so naturally no one smokes. But if we hire male employees in the warehouse, what should they do if they want to smoke? We can't forbid them from smoking, especially those who are addicted to smoking."

"That's easy," Cheng Maixiang said with a smile. "I've marked out an area in the factory and put a metal bucket there. When you want to smoke, you can go there and throw your cigarette butts into the bucket. This will prevent unnecessary disasters."

Secretary Song smiled and nodded, "That's a good idea."

After a round of inspection, Secretary Song felt that in addition to the original management, Cheng Maixiang had added many new things, which allowed him, as the county party secretary, to learn a lot of new things.

It was almost noon, and Cheng Maixiang wanted to invite Secretary Song and his group to have lunch, but Secretary Song declined her invitation and returned to the county town with Secretary Fang.

Before leaving, he encouraged Cheng Maixiang to run the garment factory well and make it a benchmark enterprise in the entire county.

Secretary Song from the county didn't stay for dinner, so the commune leaders naturally couldn't eat for free at the garment factory. Plus, the garment factory wasn't far from the commune, so everyone went back to the cafeteria to eat.

The garment factory does not have a cafeteria and cannot provide meals, but as long as the employees go to work, Cheng Maixiang provides a subsidy of 10 cents a day as lunch money.

The female workers in the garment factory were very happy about this benefit. The lunch break in the garment factory was one and a half hours, and many people had enough time to go home for lunch. The three yuan subsidy per month was free.

As for some female workers who do not have time to go home, they will bring meals from home and put them in the rest area. After eating in the rest area at noon, they can also lie on the benches to rest.

Cheng's mother originally planned to go home and cook for her daughter and son-in-law, but Lin Jiayu stopped her. Today was the opening day of the new factory, and he planned to take his wife and mother-in-law to a restaurant in town for a meal to celebrate.

The three of them packed up and were about to leave the office when Fang Xiaoyan suddenly came in and whispered, "Sister Maizi, I have something to discuss with you."

Cheng Maixiang had heard from Cheng's mother a long time ago that Fang Xiaoyan had been absent-minded in recent days and almost made mistakes while making clothes several times. Fortunately, other female workers discovered and pointed out the mistakes, so the clothes were not scrapped.

Cheng's mother talked to Fang Xiaoyan privately and asked her what was wrong, but the child gritted her teeth and said that nothing was wrong, she just didn't get enough rest.

But when Cheng's mother wanted to give her a few days off so that she could have a good rest, she shook her head anxiously and refused to take the leave.

Cheng's mother also asked the female workers in Liujia Village privately, but others only knew that Fang Xiaoyan had a very bad relationship with her family for some unknown reason, and they couldn't find out more.

At this point, Cheng's mother was at a loss and could only ask Shen Qingyun's wife to keep an eye on her and not cause any big trouble.

Unexpectedly, she came to look for wheat on her own initiative today.

Cheng Maixiang smiled and said, "Xiaoyan, this isn't your first day at the factory. If you have anything to say, just tell me directly. Don't be restrained."

Fang Xiaoyan nodded, but her eyes were looking at Cheng's mother and Lin Jiayu. Lin Jiayu immediately understood and said to Cheng's mother, "Mom, let's go to the restaurant first. Wait until the food is ready and we've finished talking about wheat."

Mother Cheng understood, and the two of them left the office together.

Seeing the two of them leave, Fang Xiaoyan finally couldn't help but burst into tears and fell to her knees, "Sister Maizi, please, save me!"

Cheng Maixiang was startled and quickly helped her up, "Hurry up and talk nicely if you have something to say. Why are you kneeling down?"

"Sister Maizi, my mother forced me to get married, but I still wanted to work in the factory and didn't want to get married. My mother said that if I didn't agree, she would come to the factory and quit my job on my behalf." Fang Xiaoyan said crying.

Cheng Maixiang didn't understand the conflict between the two and asked curiously, "You don't have to quit your job to get married. In our factory, there are so many sisters-in-law and aunts who are married and have children. There are not many single people like you."

"No, no," Fang Xiaoyan shook her head and cried even harder, tears streaming down her cheeks. "My mother wants to marry me off to another place, but I don't want to go."

"I'm going to marry you off to another place. Where?" Cheng Maixiang asked.

"Mausoleum."

Tombs? !

Cheng Maixiang was surprised.

Speaking of which, Lingqiu County is not far from Linwen County, only about a hundred kilometers away, but the key point is that Lingqiu County is a notoriously poor and remote place. I only heard that girls from there marry out, but rarely heard of girls from other counties marrying there.

But it is not absolute. Wu Jiadong's sister Wu Jiahong went to the countryside in Lingqiu and later married a local man under the arrangement of Cheng Maixiang and Lin Jiayu.

But that was her own choice. The elders here would not marry their daughters to that poor mountain village unless they had no other choice.

"Why do your parents want you to marry somewhere? Who do they want you to marry?" Cheng Maixiang asked.

"Since the second half of last year, my father's health has deteriorated significantly. He is unable to work in the fields and needs to take medicine every day. The family depends on my salary.

But no one expected that my jerk brother, who had been having an affair, had gotten a girl pregnant. The girl's parents were adamant and insisted that he pay 1,000 yuan in compensation or they would send him to the police station. But, but, where did my family even have 1,000 yuan? My mom borrowed from relatives and friends, but she could only scrape together 100 yuan.

My parents had no choice but to think about it and come up with…"

Fang Xiaoyan cried and couldn't continue.

Even though she didn't finish, Cheng Maixiang guessed what would happen next.

Fang Xiaoyan's parents couldn't come up with the thousand yuan, so they set their sights on their daughter. Coincidentally, someone from Lingqiu County came to find a wife for money, so her parents agreed without thinking.

However, when Cheng Maixiang heard this, she felt that there was something wrong.