"Mom, at most twenty yuan a month, so you and Dad will get forty yuan, four hundred and eighty a year, right?" Chen Lao Er gritted his teeth and agreed, having to come up with the money from his own savings. It hurt so much; he finally understood how stingy his wife was, having secretly saved so little.
"Mother, I'll go to my eldest brother's house tonight to discuss the matter of taking care of you in your old age with Father and the others. It's not enough for me to just talk to you about it now. We need to make sure my eldest brother's family agrees to take care of you both from now on."
There are other things too. As parents get older, minor illnesses and pains require money, and it's important to plan ahead. Chen Lao Er remembered what Xiao Wu had said: even close brothers should keep clear accounts and agree on rules beforehand.
"Okay." A glint of shrewdness flashed in Grandma Chen's eyes. She had a little scheme in mind. Her second son's family actually had the money to buy a commercial apartment, and they hadn't even told her and her husband.
With the new house, can she and her husband finally move in? It has three bedrooms and a living room, just enough for her, her husband, her second son and his wife, and their little one. As for those five girls, they'll all get married sooner or later.
A fierce glint appeared in her eyes again. How hateful! The house her eldest son bought is now occupied by her eldest grandson Penghua and that despicable woman Li Xiaoling. Grandma Chen doesn't want to go there.
Li Xiaoling is a lazy, good-for-nothing woman. Every time I go there, she looks at herself with disdain.
Moreover, she still wants to help with all the housework. She's already so old, yet she doesn't understand the elderly at all. She's truly unfilial for marrying such a wicked woman.
Chen Lao Er also noticed the change in his mother's expression, and an alarm bell rang in his heart. Was his mother trying to pull him down again? But he wasn't afraid. At worst, he would act tough. What could his parents do to him?
After Grandma Chen left, Chen Lao Er also hurriedly went out.
Sigh, looks like I can't be lazy and just drive around anymore. I need to go to the county bus station more often and earn some money by picking up passengers.
He's a grown man, with hands and feet, yet he still has to ask his wife or mistress for money to support his parents. He's afraid his mistress will look down on him and then not give him a single penny.
...
After returning to school, Chen Xihua began to seize the time to review, trying to go through all the high school courses as soon as possible, and to consolidate the ones she had forgotten.
Because Yang Xiaomei is in her senior year of high school, and her classroom is in the "Hope Building" in front, she rarely comes to Chen Xihua to gossip during breaks.
My new deskmate in my second year of high school, Hu Jie, is a quiet and well-behaved girl. It seems that everyone in her family is a doctor, and they hope that she will study medicine in college and choose a science major.
However, Hu Jie actually prefers humanities subjects and studies science subjects with a tense mind every day. Sometimes she even has a long face, so Chen Xihua doesn't talk to her much.
Recently, she feels like she's finally acting like a good student, studying hard and making progress every day.
October began, and the winter chill set in. The last two or three months of 1998 passed quickly, and before we knew it, the end of the year was upon us.
Chen Xihua no longer needs to get involved in the clothing company's affairs; she only needs to provide design drafts and then suggest some elements and style ideas.
Because Wang Ying recruited a fashion designer in Shanghai, Miao Huizhu, a senior student at the Academy of Fine Arts.
Miao is a local of Haishi. Her parents studied abroad and became teachers at Haishi University after returning to China. She has loved drawing since she was a child and also loves all kinds of beautiful clothes.
She really liked Lihua's brand; it was fashionable yet contemporary, so she went to the store to recommend herself.
The newly opened Lihua Garment Factory in Gaoyang County has completed its expansion, while the Lihua Custom-Made Workshop in the provincial capital will begin taking orders in December.
Custom-made workshops primarily cater to wealthy wives and young ladies from Yun City and Hai City, as well as a few celebrities in the entertainment industry who privately have their assistants place orders.
Now, both the Fanghua brand and its sub-brand Lihua have made a name for themselves in the areas south of Shanghai and in several surrounding provinces.
Chen Xihua couldn't help but feel a little proud. It hadn't been easy; from 1995 until now, three or four years had passed. Fanghua Company had basically established itself.
The next step for Chen Xihua is to construct a commercial building, the group's headquarters. Although the registered capital has not yet been reached, the building can be started first.
The dividends from Leiting Haoxuan were gradually coming in, and Boss Lei had also found a construction team for her in the provincial capital—the same team he had partnered with a friend to build Cuishanyuan.
Now all that's left are the architectural design drawings, which Chen Xihua isn't entirely satisfied with. She wants something more unique, but she's not very good at it. So, she can only design a version herself first, and then hand it over to the construction team to have professionals revise it.
......
On January 28, 1999, after the final exams were over, on the first day of winter vacation, Chen Xihua went directly to the provincial capital.
The fourth sister, Chen Xiuhua, still has a week of extra classes for her senior year of high school. Neither of the sisters has returned to Gaoyang County yet, and this time Chen Xihua didn't even bother making excuses.
In truth, Mr. and Mrs. Chen knew what was going on, but they turned a blind eye. They wanted to blame her, but they couldn't argue with her, so they didn't ask, knowing that even if they did, Chen Xihua wouldn't tell.
This year's Fanghua Company year-end summary meeting was held in the provincial capital.
On the morning of February 2nd, the eldest sister, Chen Chunhua, also returned to the provincial capital from Beijing. The entire following day, Chen Xihua and the others held a debriefing meeting in the second-floor office of the No. 2 Garment Factory.
Factory Director Yang: "The No. 2 Garment Factory has 200 production line workers, each producing 13 pieces per day, with a monthly output of 65,000 pieces; Lihua Garment Factory also has 200 workers, each producing 8 pieces per day, with a monthly output of 40,000 pieces; the data for the custom-made workshop is not yet fully available... For the next year, the goal is still to ensure both quality and output."
Factory Director Zhang: "Fanghua Garment Factory in Gaoyang County has 300 employees, averaging 13.5 pieces per person, with a monthly output of 110,000 pieces; Lihua Garment Factory has 200 employees, and officially started work this month, averaging 8 pieces per person per day..."
Wang Ying: "We have added one store each in Hunan Province and Anhui Province. Including the department store and the store in Gaoyang County in Hunan Province, we have a total of eleven sales points."
With daily sales of four to five thousand items, I suggest opening Fanghua stores in second- and third-tier cities, as the purchasing power of provincial capitals is basically fixed.
"We currently have two Lihua stores in Haishi. With the production line in Gaoyang County, we should be able to add another store..."
Chen Chunhua: "Fanghua's annual revenue is over 79 million, and Lihua's is 30 million in half a year, with a net profit margin of 15.56%, resulting in 16.9 million. However, both have expanded their factories, and after deducting fixed costs such as factory buildings and stores, the total is 11.5 million..."
“Very good, thank you very much, everyone has worked hard…” Chen Xihua listened and took notes, nodding in response from time to time, and finally she gave the summary.
Let's take out all the problems we encountered in the past year, discuss them, and then plan for future development.
The company has more than 500 employees in Gaoyang County, and more than 500 employees in the provincial capital's No. 2 Garment Factory and Lihua Garment Factory combined. Including the store sales staff, Fanghua Company has more than 1,000 employees.
In the past year, the total profit was over ten million, and Lihua started operating in the second half of the year. Based on this calculation, the annual profit should be around twenty million in the future.
It sounds like a lot, but after the dividends were distributed, Chen Xihua actually received more than four million yuan that year.
Feng Hua Entertainment Company and the Beijing Courtyard each spent two million, and now the money is gone! Heh, is Chen Xihua happy or sad right now?
That's so true. I'm just a lazy person with a big appetite; I want to lie down and relax as soon as possible, but I have a huge appetite. Anyway, the basic framework is already set; now it's just a matter of developing it properly.
It seems she can't spend her money recklessly in the first half of 1999. She plans to go to the Shanghai Stock Exchange again in May.
To register a group company, you need assets of tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of yuan.
Two days later, after attending the annual meeting and lucky draw at the No. 2 Garment Factory, Chen Xihua and her sister, along with Director Zhang and several others, set off back to Gaoyang County.
On the afternoon of the 22nd day of the twelfth lunar month, the day before the Little New Year, Chen Xihua and her eldest sister returned home.
As soon as she entered, she realized something was wrong. Chen Xihua had called her third sister when she left in the morning, and they would arrive in the afternoon. Now, it didn't seem like they were there to welcome her and her eldest sister.
"You brat..." Chen Lao Er glared angrily at Chen Baohua, his chin bulging out, his head stretched forward, and he raised his hand as if to hit him.
Li Yumei was very unhappy and glared at Chen Lao Er, blocking Chen Xiao Liu's way. "Chen Lao Er, you dare to hit my Xiao Bao? He knows he was wrong."
Chen Baohua stood still, his hands hanging down, head bowed listlessly, his expression unreadable.
The third and fourth sisters were both looking at Chen Baohua with a hint of anger at her lack of ambition.
"Oh, are you putting on an opera performance?!" Chen Xihua said expressionlessly. She could tell at a glance that Chen Lao Er and his wife were just putting on a show for her.
Hmph, Chen Xiaoliu must have done something terribly wrong!
She also remembered that some time ago, she always felt that Chen Xiaoliu was acting a little strange and didn't talk to her much.
I only go home once a month, and I'm always busy with work. I also think that he's in junior high school now, a big boy, and it's normal for him not to be so clingy to girls as he's going through puberty.
Now it seems there are other things I don't know.
Hearing her fifth sister's voice, Chen Xiaoliu trembled. She looked up, her eyes filled with tension, fear, regret, and self-reproach, and murmured, "Fifth sister..."
"Father, Mother, what are you doing?" Chen Chunhua, who came in later, frowned and asked nervously.
"It's nothing, what could possibly happen?" Li Yumei was genuinely nervous when she saw her eldest and fifth daughters enter the room, so she quickly tried to cover for them. She was truly afraid that her fifth daughter would hit Xiaobao.
"Xiao Wu is back. It's nothing, it's just that Xiao Bao was lazy in junior high and his grades dropped a lot at the end of the semester," Chen Lao Er explained with an embarrassed smile, as if it were a very small matter.
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