In the following period, Xia Liang was extremely busy. First, the garment factory opened. She contacted the former factory manager and asked him to help secure a batch of fabric. The price was higher than expected, probably because she had previously thought it didn't matter since it was all government-issued. The price was much higher than what Xia Liang had bought in Guangzhou before, but there was no other way; she urgently needed the fabric and had to buy it. She then had the workers start work, as hundreds of workers were waiting for their wages! Another problem arose. Although the workers were all experienced and didn't need her to teach them how to operate the equipment, they couldn't make the things Xia Liang wanted. She had no choice but to take the leggings and the latest trendy styles that were currently being sold in her shop and have them make them. Because Xia Liang had set a piece-rate system, no one was slacking off, which actually improved the progress significantly. After all, nobody wants to turn down money. Xia Liang also asked Zhou Xiaohui to help supervise the factory; she felt more at ease having her own people on the factory.
Next, Xia Rong was tasked with recruiting workers to see if the cannery workers would return. Since the cannery had been closed the longest, the workers had already found other jobs after receiving their subsidies. Xia Rong had to issue recruitment notices to see if anyone who hadn't found work would return. The furniture factory was left to Ji Xiao's care. The machines and workers were readily available. Xia Liang had him take Tian Longhui to the Northeast forest farm to purchase timber, while Xia's father helped manage the factory. Like Zhou Xiaohui, they were very familiar with the workers, making it impossible for anyone to try and cheat them.
After arranging everything, Xia Liang entrusted her two daughters to Zhao Danxiang for help, and then took Duan Wenchun and Zhou Xiong to Guangzhou, leaving Chen Yanling at home to continue teaching her daughters martial arts.
Boarding the train to Guangzhou again, Xia Liang felt much more at ease than before. Having two martial arts experts with her made her feel especially safe. Upon arriving in Guangzhou, Xia Liang first went shopping to learn more about the latest fashion trends and then buy fabric accordingly. She noticed that leggings were all the rage, sold in almost every store. Knowing this, Xia Liang went straight to the store where she had previously sourced her fabric. After negotiating with the owner, the price was much cheaper than before. Xia Liang remembered that the fabric she had bought in Beijing cost twice as much, but unfortunately, Guangzhou was thousands of miles away, and she couldn't get the goods immediately.
As usual, Xia Liang paid the deposit. The boss arranged for the goods to be shipped, and the three of them stayed in Guangzhou for one night before returning to Beijing the next day. This round trip took five days. Xia Liang had a plan in mind. Anyway, she still had more than one million yuan. She had spent 700,000 yuan when she bought the furniture factory, of which she had spent 400,000 yuan for a 50% stake. Xia Rong didn't have much money left. He originally wanted to withdraw, but Xia Liang said that the money was a loan, so she helped Xia Rong pay another 320,000 yuan. Now Xia Liang had 1.28 million yuan left over from buying the factory, 30,000 yuan left over from before, and the turnover of the past few days. Silently calculating this money, Xia Liang thought that it should be enough to open a fabric factory. Otherwise, it would be quite troublesome to always come to Guangzhou to pick up goods.
Xia Liang had originally planned to buy a plot of land and build her own house, but considering that building a house would take a long time, she didn't dare delay and continued looking for old factory buildings that she could buy and use immediately, saving a lot of time and energy. Ji Xiao was still in Northeast China and hadn't returned yet, so Xia Liang led the two of them around various factory areas. In the end, they actually found a closed-down fabric factory, but its location was quite remote, even more remote than the current garment factory. Otherwise, Ji Xiao would have chosen it earlier.
Because of its relatively remote location and small size, Xia Liang acquired the factory, land, machinery, and workers for a total of 50,000 yuan. Xia Liang was overjoyed; it was like heaven was on her side. She felt things had been going smoothly lately, in every aspect. Perhaps it was a case of surviving a great calamity and being blessed with good fortune. Xia Liang didn't ask Xia Rong and Ji Xiao to invest in the factory; she wanted to save it for future expansion so her daughter could inherit it when she grew up.
Having learned from the experience of opening several previous factories, Xia Liang didn't worry too much about this small fabric factory. Now, her concern was the factory's finances. Today, her two daughters were minding the shop. Her eldest daughter, Gu Yunxi, sold two pairs of leggings for a total of ninety yuan. Xia Liang gave her daughter two yuan as agreed, wanting to cultivate her financial management skills by having her keep an account book, recording how much she earned, spent, and saved. The little girl did as she was told. Her younger daughter, Gu Yuanzhi, seeing her mother give her sister two yuan, opened her innocent eyes and asked Xia Liang, "Mom, how much do you earn on a pair of pants?" Gu Yunxi had previously told her sister that her mother bought the pants from someone else, so the profit wasn't based on the selling price. That's why the little girl asked her mother how much she earned today.
Xia Liang looked at her curious little daughter and said, "Mommy bought these leggings for fifteen yuan a pair. Erbao, can you help Mommy calculate how much money Mommy made?" The little girl, who was already in first or second grade, was silent for a few seconds before excitedly shouting, "Mommy, you made thirty yuan on each pair of leggings!" Xia Liang was about to nod when her older daughter said, "That's not right." The little girl pouted and said unconvinced, "What's wrong? Mommy bought them for fifteen yuan and sold them for forty-five yuan. Forty-five minus fifteen is thirty, isn't it?" Gu Yunxi said seriously with a smile, "Although Mommy's purchase price was fifteen yuan, Mommy still had to go to Guangzhou to get the goods. If you calculate it like that, there's the cost of the train ticket, the cost of the guesthouse, the cost of food, and the cost of shipping the clothes from Guangzhou. Even if Mommy didn't go to Guangzhou, the boss would still have to pay for shipping from there. There's also the rent and utilities for Mommy's shop." Xia Liang was stunned. She didn't expect her older daughter to be so good at accounting and gave her a thumbs up.
Inspired by her two daughters, Xia Liang realized that even a small clothing store had a multitude of messy accounts to manage. She decided to hire a professional accountant to help with the factory's finances; after all, with so many factories and so many people, failing to handle the finances properly could lead to legal trouble. But a new problem arose: where to find a good accountant? Everyone wanted a stable job, and her private enterprise probably couldn't attract such talent. Xia Liang was at her wits' end. After thinking for a while without any solutions, she gave up and decided to wait for Ji Xiao to return so he could look for one. After all, he had better connections than her, and being a local, he had more resources.
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