Chapter 341 Cleaning up the factory, shrimp business
Lin Heng drove a sidecar with his elder brother and soon arrived in front of a dilapidated little house.
This place is located in a relatively marginal area of Taibai City. There is a very messy vegetable market next to it. Many farmers set up stalls here to sell small items.
Lin Heng knocked on the door and shouted, but no one responded after a long time.
After a while, an old lady from a nearby residence walked out of her room, looked at the two of them and asked curiously, "Who are you looking for?"
Lin Heng asked with a smile: "Excuse me, are there three young men living next door?"
"There are three young men, driving a tractor. They must be out working." The aunt nodded.
"I understand. I'll come back in two days." Lin Heng thanked him and turned to leave.
On the way back, Lin Yue said curiously: "I heard that Zhao Hu and Liu Sheng are doing pretty well."
"Yes, it's not bad. That's it. I'm mainly looking for Liu Sheng. If we can't find him for the time being, let's buy tools and clean the factory." Lin Heng said.
"Okay." Lin Yue nodded. On the way back, they bought various cleaning tools. It was only half past ten when they arrived at the scrap factory.
Finding workers is very easy. There are quite a few people living nearby, and many of them are unemployed. They will definitely come back once you call them.
There were very few opportunities to work and earn money in that era, and many people in the city were unemployed. The same reason why educated youth went to the countryside was because there were no job opportunities in the city.
After all, domestic heavy industry had just begun to develop in that era, other industries were still extremely imperfect, and the private economy had just started, so it was not easy to find a job.
Lin Heng took the documents to a crowded street nearby and shouted, "I need fifteen cleaners to help me with two days' work. I'll pay fifty cents a day. I want people under fifty years old who can move nimbly. Anyone willing?"
As soon as Lin Heng said this, an old lady stood up and asked, "Is this true?"
"Of course it's real. The money will be settled in cash on the same day. Today I can only get 30 cents for half a day. I'll start working at 1 pm in a while. If you need it, you can come to me to sign up. I'll wait here for half an hour. If it's full, I won't take it anymore."
Lin Heng smiled and nodded. His attire and the three-wheeled motorcycle he was sitting on were the best endorsement.
Now the wages in the city have increased. The daily wages of formal employees are more than one yuan, and the monthly wages are between thirty and forty yuan.
The wages of those hard laborers are at least one yuan a day, and the harm to their health is even higher.
He was just looking for a cleaner and was paying him fifty cents a day, so it wasn't very low.
"I'll come, count me in."
"I work fast!"
Some people came to sign up on the spot, while others ran back quickly to call people.
Lin Heng finally selected five men and ten women. He gave them an extra dime if they brought their own tools. After registering the book, he gave everyone a note and said, "Please gather in front of the old textile factory at 1 p.m. There is a spray paint shop in front of my factory, Hengxiu Feed Factory."
The name Hengxiu Feed Factory was thought of a long time ago, and the goal is to build a Hengxiu Group in the future.
"Understood. I'll make sure to arrive on time."
"Don't worry, you can go now."
The group of people were very lively. Even though there were not many opportunities to make money in the city, no one wanted to miss it.
Many of those who arrived late were extremely regretful. After hearing Lin Heng's words, they asked again: "Leader, are you going to open a feed factory? Are you going to recruit workers?"
"Yes, we are all good at work and can do everything."
"Please let me know if you're hiring."
Lin Heng looked at them and smiled, "It's still under renovation for now, and we're not sure whether we'll hire people, but we'll definitely hire people."
After chatting with the people here for a few words, he turned around and went back to the factory.
In the factory dormitory building, his elder brother had fixed the water pipes. Seeing Lin Heng coming back, he smiled and said, "That's good. We have water for cleaning."
"Don't rush to clean. Let's first check which doors, windows and glass are broken, and then go buy some materials to renovate them." Lin Heng said to his eldest brother.
It's almost noon and time to eat.
"That's fine." The two of them took a ruler and measured the windows of the factory that were missing glass.
The main task this time is to clean the factory first, repair the glass, clean the rusty windows and repaint them, etc.
The goal is to restore this abandoned factory to its original appearance, rather than the overgrown and messy state it is now.
After the preliminary cleaning, the next step is renovation, which includes re-cementing and painting the courtyard wall, re-paving the ground, repairing the exterior wall of the house, decorating the interior, etc.
Things are happening step by step, and he is not in a hurry because there is still a long time before the feed factory starts operation.
After measuring the data, the two drove to the glass factory to pick up the materials, and then went to eat.
The two of them had a bowl of oil-splashed pulled noodles for lunch. The noodles, as wide as a trouser pocket, were sprinkled with chili peppers and garlic and splashed with oil. They were so delicious.
After dinner, Lin Heng went to the hardware store and bought a lot of sandpaper and some other miscellaneous tools.
When they returned to the factory, fifteen workers were already waiting there with their tools in hand.
Lin Heng looked at the watch and saw that it was only half past twelve. He quickly said, "Everyone is so enthusiastic. Come in with me."
He opened the gate, drove the car in and parked it, then led everyone to the dormitory building and said, "Today, our main task is to clean this dormitory building, inside and out, and use sandpaper to polish any rusty areas."
After that, he assigned specific tasks and signaled everyone to start working. With so many people working together, the speed was still very fast. It took more than an hour to clean up all the garbage in the 150-square-meter two-story dormitory building.
It took another hour to clean the walls and floor inside and out.
The blue-gray exterior walls became clean and tidy, the gray interior walls became snow-white, the cement floor was shiny, and the rusty doors and windows were polished and repainted.
"Next, let's start cleaning up outside. Pull out all the weeds and debris, and gather all the scrap metal together so I can sell it."
Lin Heng gave an order and went to work with his eldest brother. He first asked people to sort out the scrap copper and iron, and he drove the car to the garbage station to sell them.
By the time the four-acre outdoor area was cleaned, it was already four o'clock. The entire factory now looked presentable and not as dilapidated as before.
"Brother, you continue to lead them to clean the rest of the factory. I will go and get the ordered glass." Lin Heng looked at his brother and said.
"Okay." Lin Yue nodded and agreed, and he led the workers to continue working.
Lin Heng drove to the glass factory, where the glass had already been cut and loaded. He paid the money and the factory followed to install the glass.
Then I went to the power station to re-register and got the electricity restored.
An afternoon passed quickly, and there was still one and a half factory buildings and three warehouses that had not been cleaned up as they were rather messy. It would probably take another day tomorrow.
After the workers left, Lin Heng and his elder brother went out for dinner together.
Lin Heng had already decorated the dormitory in the afternoon. He bought basic tables, chairs, benches, pots, pans, and the original wooden bed was repaired and can still be used. The quilt was bought now.
The dormitory building was cleaned up and they finally had a place to rest.
He went to bed early and had breakfast the next morning. His elder brother continued to lead the workers to clean up the remaining factory buildings, while he drove to find buyers for the prawns.
This time he did not look for wholesale merchants, but instead visited many state-owned restaurants and some private restaurants to ask whether they wanted to buy prawns and where they bought them.
Because green shrimps are a relatively expensive food ingredient, ordinary people in this era cannot afford them. Small restaurants purchase small quantities, while state-owned restaurants have cold storage and often purchase larger quantities.
The state-owned restaurants had relatively high purchasing requirements, they only wanted high-quality goods. Lin Heng used cigarettes to pave the way, and soon got to know Li Yong, the person in charge of material purchasing for Taibai Hotel, the largest state-owned restaurant in Taibai City.
He took out a bag of shrimps he had caught from home and showed it to the other party, smiling and saying, "Brother Li, please have a look. These are Hengxiu brand shrimps produced by our Hengxiu shrimp breeding base. They are all bred with mountain spring water and fed with silkworm pupa powder, etc...."
These prawns were caught by Lin Heng from home. They were packed in a plastic bag filled with plenty of oxygen and were very alive.
He originally didn't want to go through so much trouble to sell to each store one by one, because he knew there were many wholesalers with great potential. He could just find a partner or an investment partner, and there was no need to do everything himself.
But after thinking about it carefully, he felt that he was not qualified to invest in others at the moment. Besides, he did not have a lot of shrimps, so it would not take him much time to find a seller.
Moreover, there is another advantage of knowing the purchasing managers of these big hotels. When he wants to buy wild animal meat in the future, they will be one of the good buyers.
He emphasized the brand effect from the beginning. When explaining the advantages of his own shrimp farming, he also took out the newspaper report he had just submitted. This kind of government endorsement is very popular in this era.
Li Yong was really sold on this. After listening to Lin Heng, he started asking about the price. Lin Heng had already found out that the price of fresh shrimps here was two yuan, so he offered a discount of five cents.
"If the quality is really the same as you said, I can purchase a batch and try it out. Can I take the prawns here back to cook and see the quality?" Li Yong asked.
Lin Heng said, "How about I send you a batch of samples the day after tomorrow?"
"Okay." Li Yong nodded in agreement.
After negotiating with the local staff, Lin Heng went to several other state-owned restaurants to make the same inquiry. After listening to his description, they were all willing to give it a try and waited for him to bring samples before discussing the matter in detail.
At the end of the day, Lin Heng visited more than ten larger state-owned restaurants in Taibai City.
When he returned in the afternoon, his elder brother led people to clean up the factory and took out the garbage and dumped it into the garbage dump.
Everyone is waiting for him to come back and pay their wages.
"Don't worry, everyone. I won't go back on my word if I say we'll settle the money on the same day." Lin Heng said with a smile, moved out a table, and settled everyone's wages one by one.
After the workers left happily, Lin Yue asked, "Did you settle the matter today?"
"No, it still takes some effort, but it's not a big problem." Lin Heng said with a smile.
"That's good." Lin Yue nodded and asked, "Didn't you continue to look for Liu Sheng?"
"I went there, but the person still hasn't come back. Let's forget about it for now and talk about it later." Lin Heng shook his head. He originally wanted to ask Liu Sheng to transport the goods for him because he was considered a relatively reliable person.
As it turned out, he wasn't here, so I'll just have to let it go for now.
"Is that so? Then shall we go back tomorrow morning?" Lin Yue asked again.
"Let's talk more tomorrow and then go back." Lin Heng said after thinking for a while.
After the chat, he and his elder brother went to see the factory and warehouse. After cleaning, the place looked very different and it looked like a factory.
Instead of going out for dinner, they cooked their own dinner in the dormitory kitchen.
The next morning, Lin Heng took his elder brother to continue discussing the shrimp business, and also asked about the purchasing intention of hazel grouse and deer grouse meat.
These state-owned restaurants are also very interested in these, especially hazel grouse, which cost ten yuan per piece if it weighs more than one pound, and thirty yuan per piece if it weighs more than two pounds.
The prices are very high, but it is actually normal. No matter what era, there is always a big gap between the upper and lower classes. These big hotels entertain the rich and noble, who are not short of money at all.
And the more precious something is, the more expensive it is, and the more they like it.
After running around all day, at five o'clock in the afternoon, Lin Heng and his elder brother bought some fruits, snacks and daily necessities and went home.
It was already dark when they returned to Hongfeng Village. As soon as Lin Heng knocked on the gate of the yard, Xiaoxia hugged her legs.
"Dad, have you gone hunting again?"
"No, I went into town on business."
"It's been a long time. Mom and I have missed you."
"I missed you too, baby."
Lin Heng picked her up and held her close to him for a while. The little girl's coquettish behavior made people's hearts melt. He held her for a long time before letting her go and pushing the car into the house.
"It looks like everything is going well for you?" Xiulan said as she walked into the house helping to carry the things.
Lin Heng smiled and nodded: "Yes, it went smoothly."
After putting the things down, he washed the grapes he bought, hugged Xiaoxia, ate while chatting, and told her everything he had done in the past three days.
"You really never stop. Aren't you going to go down again tomorrow?" Xiulan looked at him with some heartache.
"Yes, I will go to Hongfeng Mountain to set up traps soon, and get some samples tomorrow to discuss the specific details." Lin Heng nodded.
After that, he looked at Xiulan and said, "The dormitory building over at the factory has been cleaned up and is completely habitable. Do you want to go down and live there recently? That way, if there is any problem, you can go to the hospital as soon as possible."
Xiulan shook her head without even thinking: "I don't want to live down there. I like it here. It's very comfortable."
She added, "And I don't think there's anything wrong with me. I might not be able to adapt to living down there. I'd better wait until I'm about to give birth. It's too early now."
Although the city is prosperous, she still prefers the slow pace of life in the village.
"That's fine." Lin Heng didn't force her. In fact, he also liked living upstairs. He went to the city only for Xiulan's safety. But if she didn't want to, there was no need to force her. It would only make her unhappy.
Xiulan ate a grape and said, "By the way, I forgot to tell you something very interesting."
(End of this chapter)
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