Chapter 259 The First Cabinet: I Truly Have an Eye for Spotting the Unfittest...
"This really isn't your plan?"
Even Li Jianzhi couldn't help but ask his wife to think about it, "Are you pretending to be weak while actually being strong?"
"By deliberately delaying the meeting, you are putting pressure on the people at Shangpu Textile Factory, making them live in fear every day. You are like a sharp knife hanging over their heads."
"Now they can't hold out any longer and have submitted to you."
Qin Xiangxiang was utterly baffled. She pointed at herself and said, "Look at my beautiful face, does it look like a sharp knife? Who am I supposed to scare?"
Li Jianzhi: "Playing dumb to fool the enemy."
"You're the one pretending to be stupid! They're trying to intimidate me, so of course I'll stall for time. I'm not that dumb."
Li Jianzhi: "Delaying the enemy's offensive is a cancer."
“This is also Lao Tzu’s method of governing by non-action…” Li Jianzhi hugged his wife and sincerely admired her: “I really need to learn from your calm and composed demeanor. You don’t even panic when your pants are on fire.”
He gave a thumbs up: "You really know how to sit still!"
Qin Xiangxiang squinted at him: "Commander Li, are you praising me or insulting me?"
"You got promoted faster than me, so you're jealous. Now that I've become the general manager of the factory, I'm a full-fledged department head!"
"Think about how many years you've struggled, and how many years have I actually worked?"
Li Jianzhi: "Now I'm all thanks to my wife. She's amazing. I married a wonderful wife."
Delaying for a few days wasn't going to work, so Qin Xiang decided to set a date for the meeting and work, but she decided to find a few thugs (X helpers) before taking over the new factory.
We didn't transfer people from the original Feiyan Textile Factory. After all, the factory is in Shanghai, so it's better to find locals from Shanghai.
So Qin Xiangxiang started looking for candidates. She grew up in the workers' new village and knew all the neighbors, so she simply looked in the workers' quarters and helped them find employment.
The old woman asked her to help arrange jobs for the educated youth, but Qin Xiang wanted to find helpers and didn't want to choose the educated youth. After all, she wanted to find "key advisors" and her trusted lieutenants.
Talent is valued for its quality, not its quantity.
What is the most important thing for a factory manager?
—Eating melon seeds is the most important thing.
Even if the factory ultimately fails, having thoroughly enjoyed all sorts of gossip wouldn't be a loss. If you're going to gossip, go for it! Qin Xiangxiang's first priority was to find someone who could help her gather all sorts of juicy gossip.
Wherever the salted fish goes, it goes to eat melons.
Once you become the factory manager, it would be a huge loss not to be a gossipmonger!
Finding a suitable person to gossip about was Qin Xiangxiang's primary problem to solve, and soon she found the right person—Aunt Pan.
Aunt Pan was a "troublemaker" that everyone in the neighborhood avoided. She knew everything that happened in everyone's house. She had a loud voice, loved to meddle, and often sat downstairs picking vegetables. She was practically a human information receiver.
It was comparable to the former head of the intelligence department of the naval family compound.
"You didn't see the day Zhou Aodong's daughter came back, but she was picked up and dropped off in two cars. It was quite a grand affair! She's become the factory director now."
"Mother Xu is heartbroken now. Qin Xiangxiang brought back five people! Five people who have to use the outhouse!"
...
"That Aunt Pan is so annoying. She's always gossiping about this and that, never doing anything productive."
Qin Xiangxiang secretly observed Aunt Pan and found that this girl was loud and assertive, and her information was detailed, organized, and logical.
This is exactly the kind of talent she needs.
So Qin Xiangxiang appeared in front of Aunt Pan with a jar of pickled vegetables and a large bag of rice crust slices. Aunt Pan was startled, thinking that she had been blatantly gossiping about Qin Xiangxiang and had been caught red-handed by the young man.
"Director Qin, I didn't say anything bad about you."
Qin Xiangxiang: "Auntie, do you need a job? I'll arrange a clerk position for you temporarily, specifically responsible for me, the general manager. I'd like to invite you to assist me in settling into the new factory and help me find out more about the factory."
"Ideally, you should tell me all the gossip and trivial matters."
Aunt Pan's eyes lit up: "A job? Is there a formal salary?"
Is there really such a thing as a free lunch? Getting paid to gossip about everyone's business.
"Yes, of course, they are all the benefits of regular employees."
"Okay, okay, I'll do it! Director Qin, from now on I'll work for you! You have a good eye for talent!"
Qin Xiangxiang: "..."
Alright, we've found a real talent for gossip: Aunt Pan, the leader of the frontline gossip squad, who's dedicated to gathering all sorts of news for her.
While secretly observing Aunt Pan, Qin Xiangxiang also noticed that there was a night shift doorman in the old residential building's gatehouse. He was as silent as a taciturn person all day long, and his only hobby was squatting in the corner, tinkering with small things using old clock parts, wires, and the like.
Qin Xiangxiang also discovered that he had made an "automatic window closing device," realizing that this guy had a clever "lazy" idea and was quite obsessed with machines.
And it can also reduce machine noise!
It saves effort and reduces noise, which truly meets Qin Xiangxiang's requirements for a loom.
"This Shangpu Textile Factory probably has a bunch of old and broken machines, all of them are old-fashioned machines. Let this guy try to see if he can reuse them, even if it's just to reduce the noise."
"Anyway, it's an old man's machine, so what if it's broken? Let him try to fix it."
Qin Xiangxiang took the initiative to find the gatekeeper, Shi Kaibei.
A bystander remarked, "This guy's surname is Shi, and he's as still as a stone. He's a weirdo, and there's something wrong with his head."
Qin Xiangxiang said to Shi Kaibei, "Do you want to tinker with more machines? The machines in the factory, the textile machines, the sewing machines... can you find a way to make these machines quieter?"
"There's a machine? Can I touch it? How many parts does it have?"
Qin Xiangxiang said, "These are all old-fashioned machines, but you can modify them."
"Okay, I'll do it!"
After discovering two "hidden dragons and phoenix chicks," Qin Xiangxiang always felt that the people he had found were not very proper—what proper factory director would hire a "gossipmonger" and a "silent type" as an assistant?
Qin thought to herself, "I should find a decent person."
This time, Qin Xiangxiang plans to find a handsome and talented young educated youth to support her and avoid being accused of having a penchant for finding oddballs.
However, her magical gaze was then focused on a "weirdo" named Ning Chengcai, but he was not talented at all. He had no job after graduating from high school, liked watching movies and reading foreign novels, studied actors' clothing and stage costumes, and even used his limited cloth ration coupons to create all sorts of "strange costumes".
Although he never harassed women or acted like a hooligan, some people still called him a hooligan behind his back because of his strange clothes.
Even if cloth coupons were scarce, no one would dress like Ning Chengcai, looking like a monster. Chengcai, tsk, what future can he possibly have?
Qin Xiangxiang noticed Ning Cheng's clothes, which were made of old fabric scraps of different colors that had been pieced together in an abstract pattern. Although they looked bizarre—that was in contrast to the plain clothes of ordinary people.
Ning Chengcai is just unusual; he's not ugly, and his color scheme is even bold and harmonious.
Qin Xiangxiang guessed that foreigners' bizarre and abstract aesthetics might make Ning Chengcai suitable for foreign trade design, and he might be able to come up with something.
Shangpu Textile Factory heard that it had a lot of unsold textiles, so they pulled out some of the waste and asked Ning Cheng to try to renovate it, just in case they got lucky.
“The patchwork embroidered shirts we had in our factory before were even more outrageous than Ning Cheng’s outfit!”
"When people have more colorful clothes in the future, they might like Ning Chengcai's style again."
So Qin Xiangxiang found Ning Chengcai and said to him, "Don't ruin your mother's curtains at home. We have a lot of ugly fabrics piling up in our textile factory. Why don't you go and try to remodel them?"
Ning Cheng was stunned: "Has my exceptional talent finally been discovered by a discerning eye?"
"I can never repay your kindness, Director Qin. I will serve you with all my heart and soul!"
Qin Xiangxiang: "..."
Comrade Xiao Qin: Forgive my bluntness, but I don't see you as a promising talent either; you're mainly just opportunistic.
After finding three "misfits" in a row, Qin Xiangxiang rubbed her face like a little squirrel, thinking: I've been too reckless.
Won't the Shangpu Textile Factory, which was already losing money and on the verge of bankruptcy, collapse quickly because of her actions?
The last "Sleeping Dragon and Phoenix Chick" was recommended by Granny Wu. She was a young girl named Feng Xiaoxiao, who was timid and prone to crying. She was often bullied when she was an apprentice. "Her mother thought that since you are the female factory manager, you can take better care of Xiaoxiao."
"Don't let her crying fool you, she's strong and works hard. Once, a thug tried to bully her, and she beat him up until he was screaming."
Qin Xiangxiang: "..."
How does being "frequently bullied" relate to "beating up thugs until they scream"?
However, Qin Xiangxiang discovered that Feng Xiaoxiao was indeed very strong. She had heard that she had practiced martial arts with her uncle and was a very honest girl. She could carry a tank of water upstairs without even panting.
She was also a good student who loved taking notes. She always carried a notebook with her and wrote down all sorts of questions in it. She was a little slow-witted, but honest.
Grandma Wu said, "This child is just a little slow-witted. Before, when she was learning from her master, she always liked to record all kinds of flaws. Her master told her not to worry about those things and said that she was making trouble for herself, but she insisted on writing them down. She just can't think straight."
Qin Xiangxiang nodded, thinking to herself: I'm the kind of person who stirs up trouble for no reason.
"Alright, let her come to the factory with me and get her a job here."
"Oh, thinking about it, thank you so much!"
Qin Xiangxiang: "..."
After agreeing to take them in, Qin Xiang thought about the thugs (X helpers) he had found: Aunt Pan, Old Shi, Ning Chengcai, and now Feng Xiaoxiao.
Qin Xiangxiang: "I really have an eye for spotting oddballs!"
—My new factory, the "first cabinet"
It looks like the country is doomed to perish sooner or later.
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