Chapter 269 In the world of martial arts, one is not always in control of one's own destiny when it comes to protecting oneself from thieves. ...
To Secretary Li's surprise, Qin Xiangxiang's application was approved, and with the help of the Light Industry Bureau, some more new machines were approved.
It was also because Qin Xiangxiang's reform achievements were too outstanding, and the Feiyan No. 2 Factory had not replaced its machines for a long time, so it was time for the Feiyan No. 2 Factory to take over.
"The application was actually approved?! Wow, those are all treasures!"
"This is imported wool fabric, the quality is very good, I have to watch it go into storage with my own eyes."
After receiving the order from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Feiyan Factory No. 2 suddenly became much larger. The factory warehouse was filled with many good things, the most important of which was this batch of imported wool fabrics. The other machines—even if a thief wanted to take them, he couldn't.
Secretary Li whispered a reminder to Qin Xiangxiang: "...We must keep a close eye on this batch of good fabrics. We can't afford any mistakes, and we can't let anyone take advantage of the situation."
After hearing his words, Qin Xiangxiang guessed that the Shangpu Textile Factory must have experienced similar situations in the past. In fact, many state-owned textile factories had this phenomenon, especially in big cities.
What's the most powerful thing in big cities? The black market! And how do the "good stuff" on the black market get out? It must come from inside the factories.
State-owned textile factories have annual "raw material quotas," but the quality of the products is rarely questioned or investigated. Therefore, factories with poor technical levels can use a trick of "substituting the good raw materials" in the factory warehouse, colluding with black market operators to make huge profits on the black market. This is a "get-rich-quick opportunity."
There must have been some trouble inside the Shangpu Textile Factory. It's likely that someone had ulterior motives from the beginning, stealing raw materials and constantly adding substandard ones, causing the fabric produced to become worse and worse, deteriorating with each passing day.
Previously, Aunt Pan was able to discover that Liu Manfu was tampering with the procurement process, which was the easiest thing to find out. However, tampering with the raw materials in the warehouse was much more difficult to trace, since the past was the past.
Without evidence, who can prove that it was a case of "switching the beams and pillars"?
Very few workers can identify good raw materials. With just a little tampering, they can easily get away with it. And the factory will keep it a secret to avoid trouble. It's always better to avoid trouble than to cause any more problems.
After all, no one is investigating "production quality".
The large rats that used to be at the Shangpu Textile Factory haven't disappeared; they've simply gone into hiding.
"I don't care about anything else, but I can't tolerate them stealing my raw materials!"
Qin Xiangxiang felt a little depressed, thinking to herself that "big cities have a lot of tricks up their sleeves."
In places like islands, few people would bother stealing raw materials because it's difficult to "sell stolen goods" in small places. If something good comes out, you can tell at a glance where it came from.
Shanghai is different; it's a melting pot of all sorts of people, and its black market is particularly murky.
If you want to "sell stolen goods," there are many channels you can use.
Shanghai has the highest number of bicycle thefts. Those who buy spare bicycle parts and assemble them themselves may have bought parts that belong to someone else's stolen bicycle.
Even stolen bicycles can be openly sold, let alone other things. Good fabrics are snapped up by many people in private, and there are many wealthy people hiding in Shanghai.
"The thought of having to guard against internal thieves is so annoying, just like when Little Fatty came to my room to steal meat when we were kids."
"As the factory manager, I'm only thinking about using scraps to benefit the workers. If a thief were to steal the good stuff and replace it with inferior goods, I'd be furious!"
After returning home, Qin Xiang began to think seriously about ways to "prevent thieves".
"What's wrong? Why do you look so serious?" Li Jianzhi held his little daughter, enjoying a rare moment of normalcy.
He was studying at the school, following the school's curriculum, working from 8 am to 5 pm, with weekends off. Every day was the same regular schedule, which was a rare opportunity to relax and spend time with his family compared to his work schedule.
Therefore, most people in the military are more willing to pursue postgraduate and doctoral studies. The admission scores for undergraduate military academies may not be high, but the scores for postgraduate and doctoral studies are very high. Getting into a military academy for postgraduate studies means that you can study with a salary and go home normally every morning and evening. Your wife and children can also come to accompany you while you study. What a wonderful life!
Qin Xiangxiang said, "There are thieves in my new factory. I'm afraid someone will steal my good things."
"Catching an inside thief—but I don't know if he'll actually steal."
"The factory received an order from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and now has a batch of relatively good raw materials. I'm worried that someone inside might switch them out. Today, Secretary Li reminded me of something. He certainly didn't do it unintentionally; he was reminding me that someone in the factory probably did this before."
"I suspect it's Deputy Factory Director Liu. He's embezzled quite a bit in the past, but he's been behaving himself lately and hasn't caused any problems. I'm just worried he might cause trouble on a major issue."
"I'm in the light, the enemy is in the dark!" Qin Xiangxiang said, her eyes shining. She found this feeling very exciting, like the thrill of "catching a spy." She had read many spy novels in her spare time.
"Li Jianzhi, do you think I should learn from those novels and sprinkle flour at the door before going out every time, or make a trap with fishing line?"
Li Jianzhi: "..."
Is this a spy-catching game?
It was actually quite fun.
"How about I make you a theft prevention device to scare away thieves?"
Li Jianzhi planned to create an automatic flashing mechanism, similar to a camera flash, which would automatically flash when triggered, scaring thieves to death.
"Set it to trigger on the fishing line; if someone trips over the fishing line, it will automatically flash..."
"Even if Chu Liuxiang came to steal it, he would be scared out of his wits."
Qin Xiangxiang: "...Chu Liuxiang?"
"Were you secretly reading novels at school, Li Jianzhi?" Qin Xiangxiang vaguely remembered this name; it seemed to be a martial arts novel written in Hong Kong in the 1960s or 70s.
Li Jianzhi: "I'm innocent, I didn't do it."
You read novels without me! Humph!
Li Jianzhi: "I've only heard about the plot from others... It's okay, I can tell you. It's about a thief, the master thief Chu Liuxiang—"
Qin Xiangxiang: "Don't tell me stories about thieves, tell me stories about catching thieves."
Li Jianzhi: "...Then let's go with Lu Xiaofeng."
The couple chatted and together tinkered with a "theft-proof flashing device" at home. Whenever the fishing line was pulled, it would trigger a flashing light that would go off incessantly, making people feel scared in the middle of the night as if they had seen a ghost.
After the couple developed it, they tested it in their own house. They turned off the lights, triggered the automatic flashing, and a group of people screamed with excitement!
Li Xiaopang: "Mom! This is flashing lights! What is that?!"
"Thief-catching device".
...
The whole family was in chaos. Zhou Aodong was speechless. When he learned that this was something his son-in-law and daughter had made together, he was even more speechless and choked with emotion. "Who does this thing think it can scare? Are you really going to put it in the warehouse?"
"We'll find out if it works by trying it out."
Li Jianzhi: "The house will be more spacious in the future. Think about it, we've already signed the consent form for adding a second floor. Let's just do it all at once."
Qin Xiangxiang was stunned: "Two layers?"
“The aunt next door also said that you gave up that room before. They only want this one room. If we want to build up, we can build three rooms. They can give us the upstairs rooms.”
The Qin family used to have three rooms in this building. Because Qin Xiangxiang left, the house was given to an aunt downstairs who became a factory manager on the island. The house could no longer be kept. Now that they are back to build a house, they only have two rooms for the parents, and they can add two more floors.
The aunt who had used her room before said that her family didn't want the space upstairs and wanted to use it to build more houses for the Qin family. In this way, as long as the Qin family had money, they could add six more rooms upstairs.
Of course—that is, you have to spend money.
Each additional room built cost a considerable amount of money, which Qin Xiangxiang and her husband covered.
The reason the surrounding people agreed was because Qin Xiangxiang has four children, and the children will need housing when they grow up. At this time, no one had considered the future commercial housing. If there is an opportunity to build more houses, of course, they would want to build more rooms.
The Xu family next door were also discussing building a house.
Li Jianzhi: "We'll build two bedrooms on each floor, and use the rest as kitchens and bathrooms. My idea is, let's just add two bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen, and a bathroom."
"A separate kitchen and bathroom will be provided in the future."
Qin Xiangxiang agreed: "That's good!"
Building a house would cost more money, but Qin Xiangxiang and her husband had saved up a lot of money over the years, which was more than enough to build a house.
You can never have too many houses.
The Xu family next door was also planning to build a house, but they didn't have much money, and the children each had their own ideas. Even if they added two more floors, there wouldn't be enough for all the children. How to contribute money and how to divide the house were all big problems.
If Liu Manfu had read martial arts novels, he would understand what it means to:
—When you're in the world of martial arts, you're not in control of your own destiny.
Some things you can't just quit doing just because you want to. After the new factory director, Qin Xiangxiang, came and kept a close eye on things, Liu Manfu had fewer opportunities to take advantage of loopholes. So he decided to lie low. Besides, he had already made enough money in the past, so there was no need to take any more risks.
The entire factory is eyeing this Ministry of Foreign Affairs order, hoping to turn things around. Trying to pull strings or scheme against them is going to be difficult!
However, the news that Shangpu Textile Factory had secured an order from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and obtained a batch of high-quality imported raw materials was like a pebble thrown into a pond, not only stirring up ripples of past glory but also disturbing the murky, filthy silt at the bottom of the pond.
Liu Manfu's former "partner," Boss Wang, from the underground fabric black market in Shanghai, came knocking on his door.
"Director Liu... oh, no, I mean Deputy Director Liu, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs' order uses top-quality materials. As usual, you procure a batch of imported wool fabric according to plan, and I'll swap it out with substandard domestic products. The profit... this will definitely be the biggest sum we've made in years!"
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