Chapter 560 Please Save Us
"Director Cheng, don't worry. I know what to do next. I guarantee... your wish will come true! They won't dare to touch your money anymore. You can spend it however you want!" said a factory director.
Cheng Hui looked at the man who was speaking. He was in his forties or almost fifty, with a thin build, a serious face, and a deep wrinkle between his eyebrows. She didn't know if it was natural or caused by something he was worried about.
But it's interesting that he could say such things.
She asked, "Are you from the candy factory? What's your name? Why is the factory going badly?"
She remembered this person, who had just asked her to take over a piece of vacant land outside the third ring road of their factory.
They had approved the land ten years ago, but had no money to build a house, so it had been left idle. Fortunately, the place was remote, otherwise it would not have been able to stay there for ten years.
"My surname is Zhang, Mr. Zhang Guiyou, why is our factory not doing well? This is too infuriating to talk about!"
Zhang Guiyou glanced at Cheng Hui. Although she had been up all night, her eyes were bright and she didn't look sick at all. She was full of curiosity.
Then he will talk about it.
"We are a legitimate candy factory. We used to be very popular! Did you eat the square milk candy when you were a kid? We produced it! We also produced the soft orange candy and the square prawn candy. We were the first to produce them. We dared to say we were number one, and no other candy factory dared to say we were number two!"
Cheng Hui was stunned. If he said that, then she had really eaten these kinds of candies when she was a child. However, at that time, this candy had no name, no packaging, and was sold by pound.
Later it was a short-lived fad and was replaced by other candies with names and wrappers.
Zhang Guiyou sighed and said, "To be honest, this is my fault. At that time, someone suggested that I change the packaging and add packaging bags, but I wanted to save costs for the people, so I insisted on not giving in. As a result, sales gradually declined. When I learned to make wrapping paper, who would have thought that it would not work either? Later, the higher-ups didn't give us many production tasks, and things got worse and worse."
Zhang Guiyou looked puzzled: "Director Cheng, please tell me, what's wrong with the candies in our factory? I also added wrapping paper, why is it not working? I wonder if I have offended someone? The higher-ups are deliberately not giving me tasks!"
As he spoke, he actually took out a handful of candy from his pocket and handed it to Cheng Hui.
"Director Cheng, please try it. It's delicious!"
When Cheng Hui saw the candy in his hand, she exclaimed, "Wow!"
So this is the boss's thing, and you told me it's sugar? Is that a small soap?
Or, shorter wafer biscuits, thick long strips.
What's more, the candy wrapper is so ugly. It's just a random piece of yellow kraft paper. Not to mention it's wrapped tightly, it's good enough if it can wrap three sides.
There were a few ugly words "Santang Factory" printed on the ugly kraft paper.
It’s better not to pack it.
She took it and said, "Director Zhang, I remember when I was a kid, the candies you gave me weren't this big."
Zhang Guiyou said, "Isn't it true that I can't compete with them? I'll just try to make it bigger! Make it three times as big as theirs! For the same price, let's see who they buy from!"
Cheng Hui asked, "Do you see it now?"
I wouldn't buy yours even if you paid me three times as much.
Zhang Guiyou looked miserable.
Cheng Hui peeled off the candy wrapper, picked out a milk candy, found the well-wrapped part that might not have stuck to his pocket, and took a bite.
It still tastes like my childhood.
It’s not that delicious or amazing, and it can’t even be compared with the candies of later generations.
It can't be compared with the White Rabbit brand which is very popular now.
"It's a bit hard and sticky, not enough milk flavor, and a bit crumbly. It's just average," she said.
Zhang Guiyou whispered, "But ours is bigger and cheaper. White Rabbit is 5 cents a piece, and mine is several times bigger than it, but only 2 cents."
"People who can afford the 5-cent candy want it to taste good and be famous, not big."
If the unpalatable food is small, you can just swallow it in one bite.
But if you can’t finish it in ten bites, I’ll really curse and won’t buy it next time! Paying for trouble?
Zhang Guiyou was stunned for a moment. Is this really the case?
Cheng Hui continued, "I remember it wasn't so unpalatable when I was a kid? Why does it taste weird now?"
Zhang Guiyou immediately looked outside the door guiltily. The other factory managers who stayed with him had already left happily with their contracts.
Now there are only him, Cheng Hui's female secretary, and a male driver in the room. They must be people she trusts, right?
He felt a little guilty and said, "If someone else asked me about this, I would definitely not tell him, but when Director Cheng asked me, I could only tell him that the higher-ups didn't give us good materials. It's not fresh milk, but reconstituted milk... that is, the stuff extracted from spoiled milk after high-temperature sterilization, and mixed with other things..."
He looked ashamed and quickly explained, "I didn't agree at first! But several experts came and told me that this thing has been sterilized and will not harm people. That's why I made it. And it really won't harm people. The most people say is that it tastes bad."
Cheng Hui put down the milk candy with an expressionless face.
As for reconstituted milk, she was not surprised because people in later generations were using reconstituted milk, not to mention the 1970s.
The grassland conditions are not good. Except for professional dairy farms, there is no way to refrigerate and store milk from other farms. It is inevitable that the milk will go bad and turn into yogurt.
The herders cannot finish all the water, so they sell it.
Some people recycle it and make reconstituted milk. Many dairy beverages in later generations are made from reconstituted milk.
She tasted the orange-flavored jellybean he had brought out.
When I was a kid, I thought it was quite novel. It had orange flavor and was soft, which was different from other candies.
But now chewing it is like chewing cowhide.
"Don't do this, it will choke the children to death," she said.
Zhang Guiyou looked embarrassed, but after a few seconds he nodded: "Then I'll listen to Director Cheng and stop doing it!"
Cheng Hui looked at him. So obedient?
Is it because this candy is not selling in the first place and should be taken off the shelves?
She moved on to the next one, the prawn candy.
You can eat something delicious!
This prawn candy is crispy and crunchy, but it falls apart a little when touched, making it difficult to eat.
And the pieces are so big that two pieces can fill a child up.
It's just too crispy, a bit like the compressed cookies she made.
"How is this selling now?" she asked.
"Five cents a piece, you can eat it as a biscuit!" said Zhang Guiyou.
"Isn't that a big loss?" Cheng Hui said, "Eat half and throw away the other half."
Of course it won’t be dropped into the hands of customers, they will catch it with their hands and it is impossible for it to fall on the ground.
The lost half is thrown into the hands of the supply and marketing cooperatives...it becomes dregs and cannot be sold, so it is naturally disposed of at a low price, or even for free.
Zhang Guiyou immediately said, "You can't hide anything from Director Cheng. That's it! Those people in the supply and marketing cooperative are so mean! If we transported the goods properly, the loss would be at most 20%, but they deliberately dropped and damaged them, causing the loss to reach 50%, or even more. We lose money every year!"
"Director Cheng, you must have discovered the problem. Please save us! Our factory is one of the first old factories after the founding of the People's Republic of China. The workers are now at the age of retirement. As a result, they have worked for a lifetime, not only do they not have a house, but the factory is even going to close down. They have no pension, so how are they going to live in the future?"
"I heard several old employees talking about how if the factory closed down and they really didn't have pensions, they would hang themselves together and not burden their children! This..."
His eyes were red and he tried hard not to cry.
Cheng Hui said: "You can ask me to help you, but you have to agree to one condition."
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