Chapter 164 Establishing a Cooperative, a Satisfying Slap in the Face
"Director He, do you think these clothing designs I drew are too flashy? I can revise them!"
Ling Huanwu quickly grabbed the blueprints and immediately picked up a pen to make changes.
"Comrade Ling, you drew very well!"
Director He reached out to stop her from continuing to draw, and smiled as he extended an olive branch, saying, "You were able to draw so many styles of clothing in such a short time and provide the most suitable fabrics. Even the relevant talents in our state-owned textile factory couldn't do that. I can write a letter of recommendation to introduce you to work as a designer in the state-owned textile factory. How about it?"
Ling Huanwu was stunned. She hadn't expected the other person to think she was looking for a stable, secure job.
"Director He, you may have misunderstood. Design is just a hobby of mine. I have another great skill."
Ling Huanwu smiled brightly, her face completely at ease. She took out various certificates of merit and financial statements from when she ran the pharmaceutical factory, which she had prepared in advance, and handed them to Director He one by one. "That's how you make money!"
Director He stared at the certificate for "Youngest Capitalist," then opened the thick stack of the pharmaceutical factory's annual financial statements, his eyes slowly widening.
He had seen people boast about their various skills, but he had never seen anyone boast about how to make money, and without batting an eye, as if it were a natural thing.
It was these arrogant words of hers that prompted Director He to open the financial statement showing the year-on-year increase in annual profits.
He could hardly imagine how large the pharmaceutical factory would be now if it hadn't been handed over to the collective.
At the end, there is a detailed business plan for developing a sewing team into a handicraft production cooperative.
“Captain Ling,” Director He looked up and pushed up his glasses, his shock evident in his eyes, “Don’t you think your idea is absurd? Our supply and marketing cooperative has established handicraft production cooperatives, why should we cooperate with your underdeveloped island?”
Ling Huanwu knew, of course, that the supply and marketing cooperative would not easily switch to the cooperative that supplied the clothing.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, people gradually began to value style and pattern in their clothing choices.
But nowadays, in an era where everyone asks "Have you eaten yet?" before going out, people care about the durability and wear resistance of fabrics, and even more so about the comfort of clothing.
Therefore, Ling Huanwu brought out her improved workwear designs, including practical and functional garments, as well as fabric-saving patchwork designs, ahead of schedule.
When these drawings were placed in front of Director He, his eyes lit up as if he had found a treasure.
Seeing this, Ling Huanwu pressed her advantage, "Director He, I hope you can give our Shitou Village sewing team a chance. We can first do OEM for the supply and marketing cooperative, producing a few styles of clothing. If the market response is good, then you can consider cooperating with us. What do you say?"
Having said that, Director He rubbed his temples and smiled, and even the female principal, who had been standing silently by, smiled along with him.
The female principal teased Ling Huanwu, who was still frowning, "Comrade Ling, why don't you quickly thank Director He? You're quite the talker, aren't you!"
Ling Huanwu didn't understand what it meant at first, until Director He nodded to her, and she suddenly realized that this director of the board of directors, who was in charge of all the work of the supply and marketing cooperative, had agreed to let their small island sewing team do the work for the supply and marketing cooperative.
At that moment, Ling Huanwu's hands, holding the file folder, trembled with excitement, and her eyes instantly reddened.
She believes that in the coming decades, that island isolated in the sea will one day have a bridge connecting it to the mainland, and will eventually catch up with the times, breaking the curse of relying on the sea for sustenance, and the people will all be well-fed and clothed.
On the way back, Ling Huanwu, unusually, did not experience seasickness without taking any medication. Looking at the sparkling sea, she couldn't wait to fly back to Stone Village and tell her aunts the good news.
And then there's Zhou Jiuzhen. She hadn't seen him for a day and a night, and she was just as eager to share the good news with him.
After a night-long boat trip, they returned to the village at dawn without sleeping.
She didn't have time to go back to see Zhou Jiuzhen, so she went to the sewing team first to tell them the good news.
But as soon as they entered the sewing team, they saw that the fabrics that were originally neatly arranged had been torn up and scattered all over the floor, and the sewing machine heads had been violently dismantled and thrown on the ground. The whole warehouse looked like it had been ransacked.
Ling Huanwu's brow twitched violently, and she immediately rushed out of the warehouse and ran home.
As soon as she arrived at the family compound, she heard a commotion coming from her room.
Without a second thought, Ling Huanwu rushed back into the house, ignoring the dizziness that was gripping her.
Upon entering the house, one could see Song Yaoyao pinning her mother-in-law to the ground, her knee pressed against her back, directing the group of women in the house to ransack the place like a female bandit.
The triplets, who were just over a year old, all imitated their mother and rode on her back, shouting "Giddy up!"
Even Ling's father and mother were among the group of aunties. At this moment, the two of them joined forces to push Zhou Jiuzhen on the bed, turning him over completely. He almost fell to the ground.
In an instant, all the blood in Ling Huanwu's body rushed from the soles of her feet to the top of her head.
She rushed forward and kicked Song Yaoyao, who was riding on her mother-in-law, flying away.
Song Yaoyao screamed and flew out of the air, her head hitting the stone wall, her forehead instantly becoming red and swollen.
"Ahhh!"
Song Yaoyao's scream rang out instantly, attracting the attention of the people who were still rummaging through things in the room. They immediately spotted Ling Huanwu, who had rushed back.
"Good, you're finally back. A Taoist priest came to our island this morning, saying that the reason our Wantan Island suffered a storm surge last year was because of a money-grubbing nemesis who came to visit. I'm sure it's you!"
"It's her, it must be her! I went to the village to collect my cloth ration coupons this morning, but they said our island's quota of cloth ration coupons is all gone. It's all your fault, you've made us starve and cold. Get out of the island right now!"
"Yes, get out of here! Down with the capitalists!"
A large group of villagers from the neighboring village, who arrived late, were instigated by someone to rush into the narrow and cramped stone house, while other villagers who couldn't get in blocked the small doorway.
Even if someone outside wanted to come in, they couldn't.
Ling Huanwu was surrounded by a large group of people.
Everyone was criticizing Ling Huanwu's sewing team for preventing them from receiving cloth ration coupons, and the criticism gradually escalated to calling her a jinx on the island.
The old woman struggled to her feet, her eyes red, and stood in front of the crowd. One by one, the villagers pointed at her and said, "You, Old Liu, last year you hurt your foot with a hoe in the production team and didn't have money to go to a big hospital for treatment. Did my daughter-in-law pay for your treatment in the city?"
"And you, Aunt Qiao, your child's pneumonia treatment needs several hundred yuan, didn't my daughter-in-law come to the rescue and give you the money? You all received kindness from my daughter-in-law, yet you're all ganging up to call her a jinx?"
"Have you all forgotten the days when you had rice and vegetables to eat? Who was it that got up before dawn to mix fertilizer for you?"
Wang Guihua was cursing with tears in her eyes, and as she made her accusations, the villagers from the neighboring village who had rushed over in such a large group showed no remorse whatsoever.
Instead, they shouted, "A jinx is a jinx. He has harmed so many of us. What's the big deal to save one or two?" They became increasingly angry and surrounded Ling Huanwu, trying to push her.
At the back of the crowd, Zhou Jiuzhen lay motionless on the bed, and no one noticed that his fingertips, resting quietly on the bed, were trembling wildly...
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