Chapter 66
On the streets in the afternoon, dust floats in the sunlight.
The cart was parked next to the small building, and the wooden table with peeling paint creaked as it was moved.
"Just put it near the window on the second floor. Thank you for your hard work."
"Sister Lan, do you want to move the furniture up to the first floor? It looks a bit empty."
"Leave it empty for now, and buy more later if needed."
After putting the necessary furniture and beds in place, Chen Lanjun and Pang Xiaopeng and others who came to help were all sweating.
I rented a two-story building at the end of the street. It was deep in the street and very quiet, so the rent was not very expensive, only 12 yuan a month. But the location was very good. It took about half an hour to walk to the school, which was very convenient for going to class. It was also not far from the train station, just over half an hour away, which would be convenient for going to Pengcheng City in the future.
The environment of the house itself is also very good. It faces south and has plenty of sunshine. There is a small courtyard in front and behind the house. There is a big banyan tree next to the backyard wall. It is full of greenery, so much so that when you open the back window, you can see green everywhere.
Chen Lanjun walked around and sat down in the small courtyard under the shade of the banyan tree. She immediately made the decision and signed a four-year contract.
A house like this is perfect for opening a shop downstairs and living upstairs.
The best thing is that the house is at the end of the alley, and there is a large empty space next to it, which is perfect for parking and storing goods if needed in the future.
If the real estate market had not been liberalized, Chen Lanjun would have wanted to buy the house directly. In the future, this area will be connected to a subway station, and the geographical location is very advantageous.
After a long busy period of moving, I was very thirsty. Pang Xiaopeng suggested: "Let's go buy some popsicles. The Fourth Food Factory is not far from here, and we can go there by bike."
"Where are there popsicles for sale?"
"Yes, I have sold them wholesale!" said an educated youth named Atong who came to help. "I sold popsicles for a while. The workshop of the Fourth Food Factory has some old and broken popsicles for sale. I know how to get there. I'll go buy some. It's not far."
Chen Lanjun thought for a moment and said, "I'll go with you to see if there's anything else we can buy."
Pang Xiaopeng smiled and said, "Then you've come to the right place. Atong is the daughter of the Fourth Food Factory. She will take you there, so it will be very convenient for you to buy something."
"Well, I just happened to meet an expert."
Chen Lanjun and Atong went out together. She unlocked the bicycle tied to the door with the key and took Atong with her.
The bicycle was newly bought, and the industrial voucher was provided by Chen Mudan. Chen Lanjun wanted to exchange money for the industrial voucher, but Chen Mudan refused to accept it and pretended to lose her temper, saying, "If you still recognize me as your aunt, don't talk about money. What's the big deal! If you mention it again, don't come back."
It was also a token of Chen Mudan's kindness, so Chen Lanjun had no choice but to accept it. Anyway, she could repay the favor.
The bicycle wheels pressed over the dark green leaves on the ground, making a slight crackling sound.
Chen Lanjun chatted with Atong casually: "You don't do the popsicle business now?"
"Yes, half a year ago my family finally found some connections and got me a job as a temporary worker in the factory."
"That's not bad."
"I can't say it's good." Atong in the back seat sighed, "The performance of the Fourth Food Factory has not been very good in recent years. The leaders are very... well, anyway, the products are not selling well."
At first, when Atong heard that she could work at the Fourth Food Factory, she was very happy. After all, it was a state-owned factory. Moreover, the name of a food factory gave her a lot of money and the work was not too tiring. When other people got off work in the factory, they smelled of paint or sweat, but in the food factory, they smelled of the delicious food. In addition, if her family wanted to buy something, they could get the food factory employees' preferential prices and benefit from it.
However, when she really started working there, Atong found that the Fourth Food Factory was a complete empty shell. The name Fourth Fourth, as you can tell from the name, there are three big food factories ahead of it! This is not a small rural place with only one food factory, so no matter how bad it is, there will always be people who will pay for it, and the competition is quite fierce.
Logically, the leader of the Fourth Food Factory should think about how to get rid of the title of the last in command. However, Director Jia of the Fourth Food Factory is a person who is incapable of taking the wrong path to get promoted. He either does nothing or does something bad.
There was no idea for product development. I just came up with an idea. I made candies with strange flavors, such as chili candies, which no one wanted to eat. The factory management was also a mess. The factory director was nepotistic. Even the dog from the factory director's hometown was brought into the factory to be a watchdog, not to mention other relatives. It was a mess. The work was basically done by temporary workers like Atong. The regular workers with backgrounds were idle all day long knitting sweaters.
It was fine before the reform and opening up, because everything had quotas and was produced according to plan. Even if the supply and marketing cooperatives were reluctant, they had to accept the products of the Fourth Food Factory, and even if there were cockroach legs in them, they could only pretend not to see them.
The supply and marketing cooperative pretended not to see, but the people who came to buy goods were not blind. Over time, when they heard that the products were from the Fourth Food Factory, they would frown, take less goods, or even turn around and leave.
However, reform came. Although the rules and regulations of the entire plan had not yet been completely changed, in southern cities like Guangzhou, where there was a strong atmosphere of economic reform, supply and marketing units of all sizes had a certain degree of autonomy. At least, they could choose which state-owned food factory to produce or which kind of goods to import.
As a result, the Fourth Food Factory suffered, and orders dropped rapidly. In the past two months, they didn’t even pay holiday allowances.
Thinking of this, Atong sighed again: "Sister Lan, if you want to start a new business, please take me with you. If the performance of our factory continues to deteriorate, my salary as a temporary worker may be reduced."
"I understand, but it shouldn't have come to this point yet, right?" Chen Lanjun nodded and said, "It can at least last a few more years."
When they arrived at the gate of the Fourth Food Factory, Chen Lanjun followed Atong into the factory workshop to get popsicles. She felt more and more that although many state-owned enterprises would go bankrupt in a few years, these enterprises were actually dead now.
For example, a worker in the workshop obviously sold popsicles to them privately.
When Chen Lanjun paid the money, the worker smoothly put the money for the popsicles into his own pocket - it was obvious that this money would not go into the factory account.
Before leaving, Chen Lanjun looked back and saw that only half of the machines in the workshop were running. Most of the workers were lazily taking their time and just ate a popsicle when they were thirsty.
This Fourth Food Factory will be doomed sooner or later.
Back under the banyan tree, Chen Lanjun, holding an old popsicle in her mouth, took out a bowl of instant noodles produced at home and stared at it for a long time.
Then he turned around and asked Pang Xiaopeng who was eating a popsicle:
"Xiao Peng, let me ask you something. Have you ever heard of corporate contracting?"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
