Watching Zhang Da Nao's figure disappear into the snowstorm, Zhang Cheng turned around, got on the bicycle he had left at the supply and marketing cooperative the night before, and sped off towards the guesthouse.
Back at the guesthouse, Zhang Cheng grabbed the two bags of Polygonatum and Panax notoginseng from his room and rushed off to the cardboard factory.
More than half an hour later, Zhang Cheng arrived at the gate of the cardboard box factory again. As soon as the gatekeeper, Old Zhao, saw him, he immediately came out to greet him with a smile, "Boss, you've finally come! I was thinking you weren't coming today!"
Zhang Cheng took out a cigarette case from his pocket, pulled out a Huazi cigarette, handed it to Grandpa Zhao, lit one for himself, and asked with a smile, "Grandpa, is Factory Director Qian at the factory?"
"Yes, yes, he didn't go home last night; he's been busy working in the factory the whole time!"
"Sir, could you leave these two bags of herbs here for now? I'll come back for them later!"
"No problem, you can leave it here without worry!"
After parking his bicycle in the corner of the gatehouse, Zhang Cheng quickly walked towards the factory building not far away, which was emitting a deafening clattering sound.
Inside the factory, the lights were on, and a dozen workers were busy at work.
Sheng Changnan, dressed in blue overalls, was shouting loudly at the people next to him because the machine noise was too loud.
Upon noticing Zhang Cheng enter, Sheng Changnan quickly grabbed two pieces of cardboard with beautifully printed designs and hurried over to greet him.
"Mr. Zhang, we've been working overtime all night and finally finished it. It will all be completed by tomorrow morning. These are the samples we just made, please take a look!"
As he spoke, Sheng Changnan deftly folded the cardboard.
In the blink of an eye, two exquisite little boxes with smooth surfaces and sharp edges appeared before Zhang Cheng's eyes.
Zhang Cheng reached out and touched the cardboard box. It felt pretty good to the touch, the cardboard was quite sturdy, and the waterproof effect should be good too.
Nodding in satisfaction, Zhang Cheng praised, "Director Qian, these cardboard boxes are really well made. Thank you for your hard work. By the way, your factory must have a lot of waste paper scraps, right? I'm planning to collect some."
"Scraps of paper? Mr. Zhang, how much do you want?"
"A few dozen kilograms will do."
"Just a few dozen kilograms?" Factory Director Qian was slightly taken aback. He thought Zhang Cheng wanted much more. When he heard it was just a few dozen kilograms of paper scraps, he immediately laughed. "Boss Zhang, if you only want a few dozen kilograms of paper scraps, then there's no need to talk about buying or not. I'll just give it to you for free."
"Director Qian, I can't possibly accept that." Zhang Cheng waved his hand, then changed the subject, "How about this, Director Qian, I'd like to hire two more people from your factory to help me fold these cardboard boxes into paper boxes, and then fill the boxes with paper scraps. Oh, and the paper scraps should ideally be about the same size... I'll pay each worker one yuan. Is that alright?"
Folding cardboard into a box and filling it with scraps of paper was, in Director Qian's eyes, a trivial matter that could hardly be worth much money.
Factory Manager Qian waved his hands repeatedly and said with a smile, "Mr. Zhang, you're being too polite. You said we'll be cooperating for a long time. Since we're partners, how could I, Lao Sheng, accept money for such a small favor? Mr. Zhang, please wait a moment. I'll go find two people to help fold the cardboard into cardboard boxes!"
After saying that, Sheng Changnan ran towards a few idle workers not far away.
More than half an hour later, all the cardboard produced by the factory was folded into neat cardboard boxes, and each box was filled with fluffy and soft paper scraps.
After leaving the factory, Zhang Cheng went to Old Zhao, the gatekeeper, and retrieved the two bags of Polygonatum and Panax notoginseng that he had deposited there.
He picked up a cardboard box, weighed it in his hand, and began to fill it with medicinal herbs. He carefully arranged ten high-quality Solomon's Seal rhizome pieces, which were neatly arranged and weighed about two ounces each.
If conditions allowed, Zhang Cheng even considered getting a batch of small glass bottles to individually package each piece of Polygonatum odoratum; that would definitely look more upscale and sophisticated. Unfortunately, conditions didn't permit it, so he had to make do with what he had for now.
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