Chapter 73
Rural people seldom praise their children. Meng Eryong blushed even more when his mother praised him in front of the employees and neighbors.
He was not as smart as Meng Hua since he was a child. He had poor grades and dropped out of school early. When he returned home to farm, he was not as stable and capable as Meng Daguo. When the villagers praised the men of the Meng family, they all praised his elder brother and his younger brother.
As the eternal runner-up, Meng Eryong has long been accustomed to being treated as air.
Now that he has become the protagonist, he feels that completing his work conscientiously gives him a sense of satisfaction.
"Mom, these machines cost more than 6,000 yuan. Aren't they a bit expensive? After all, they are all obsolete old machines."
Meng Eryong thought it was expensive. How could this pile of scrap copper and iron be worth so much money? If it wasn't so hard to find on the market, he would definitely ask his mother to buy a new machine.
It is a bit expensive, but it takes a lot of effort to buy an electric fan these days, let alone a machine.
The machines from Qingshan Food Factory were not cheap, but they were given all of their old machines at once. This meant that with these machines, Zhen Zhen could produce all the food within the scope of Qingshan Food Factory's business.
What's there to be dissatisfied about?
Without this batch of machines, Zhen Zhen really doesn’t know where to find them.
These days, state-owned factories like to buy obsolete machines from foreign countries, saying they want to automate their operations. But are the machines provided by foreign countries good? They spend hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars to buy machines that are useless, and the money is wasted without learning any new technology. This is a huge price to pay.
Regardless of whether the purchase was a loss or not, Zhen Zhen has no regrets.
After hearing what his mother said, Meng Eryong decided not to bother about the money issue.
Dumplings on the way and noodles off the way. When Meng Eryong came back from a business trip, Jiao Huilan closed the shop early and went home to roll noodles to eat.
Now that conditions at home are better, they no longer eat plain noodles without any toppings. Jiao Huilan cooked braised beef with vegetables and eggs. The noodles were chewy and very appetizing.
Knowing that her mother-in-law didn’t like noodles very much, Jiao Huilan also made brown sugar cakes, braised fish, boiled shrimps and steamed eggs with minced meat.
Meng Eryong's mouth started watering when he saw the dishes. The Qingshan Food Factory is only half a day's train ride away from here. Logically, the food in the two places should not be much different, but the food there is heavy on oil, spicy food, and sugar.
People in Xin Yao County don't use sugar in their cooking. Meng Eryong couldn't get used to the food there and was often hungry. When he got home and saw the dishes made by Jiao Huilan, he became so hungry that he just ate a bowl of noodles.
Meng Nan stared at Meng Eryong.
Meng Eryong touched the corner of his mouth, "What's wrong, Daya? Is there something on your uncle's face?"
Sanwa: "My sister is disgusted with you."
"What do you dislike about me?"
"I hate the fact that you make too much noise when eating, like an old sow."
The children in the room burst into laughter. Meng Eryong called his own son a disgrace and rolled his eyes, saying:
"What do you know? Eating like this is manly. You are nothing like me. You eat like a cat, with your mouth tightly shut, making no sound. Eating like this doesn't taste good at all."
Sanwa pouted and picked up the noodles with delicate movements.
"You eat braised beef noodles, and I eat braised beef noodles, too. The noodles are the same, so how can they be less delicious just because the movements are different? The rice tastes delicious when the sow eats it, so you can go to the pigpen and eat it."
This is my biological son.
Meng Eryong lifted up his shoe sole to hit him, but Meng Nan held back his laughter and winked at Sanwa, who immediately sat up straight and never argued with his father again.
Meng Eryong found it strange. His son didn't listen to him or Tao Aihong, but only to his mother and Meng Nan. This niece controlled his son so well. Do you think it was interesting or not?
Zhen Zhen also found it funny. Sanwa has a very good relationship with Meng Nan. He is like a worm in Meng Nan's stomach. These children grew up together and are no different from real siblings. I hope they will have such a good relationship when they grow up.
After dinner, Meng Eryong was pulled into the house by Tao Aihong. The couple hadn't slept together for a long time and were a little anxious. Unfortunately, it was not dark yet and there were people outside. They were afraid that the children would knock on the door, so they didn't dare to make too much noise.
After rubbing a few times to quench her thirst, Tao Aihong complained to Meng Eryong:
"You have no idea how good the fabric store business is. I'm not exaggerating. In the afternoon, there are dozens of people lining up. At the end of the day, my hands are almost broken from tearing the fabric. All the money I earn goes into my mother's pocket. I can't even touch it."
Who would have thought that a small fabric store could sell one or two thousand dollars a day?
No one knows how much the cloth cost, but Tao Aihong estimates that the profit is over a thousand yuan a day.
The money was earned by her, but it had nothing to do with her. How could Tao Aihong not feel uncomfortable?
Meng Eryong dragged his shoes and said, "My mother rented the house and paid for it. After all, what does the family's past have to do with you and me? If it weren't for my mother, you would still be farming in the countryside. She wants to invest in building a food factory and needs capital. Please be considerate of her. She will give us dividends during the Chinese New Year anyway."
Tao Aihong was stunned. She felt that Meng Eryong had changed a lot in the two months since he left, but she couldn't tell exactly what had changed.
The food factory procedures were completed, the trademark application was approved, and Zhen Zhen adopted the name "True Heart".
"True Heart Melon Seeds? Mom, you know what, this name is easy to remember and loud." Meng Daguo smiled.
The factory was simply renovated by a couple named Meng Dazhu. They painted the walls, repaired the roof, and hung some food factory regulations and slogans on the walls. A small room was set up at the entrance of the food factory for employees to change clothes.
To enter a food factory, you need to wear a white overall, a white hat and a mask, and arm sleeves. Any operation must be standardized.
The employees have been trained. There are two people operating the sealing machine, one is responsible for weighing and bagging, and the other is responsible for sealing. The two of them working together will be more efficient.
These two employees couldn't speak, so it was a bit difficult for them to communicate, so Zhen Zhen wrote everything on paper for them to read.
But the two of them worked very efficiently and quickly made dozens of packages.
The bag has the "True Heart Melon Seeds" trademark and label paper on it. The packaging is very different from that of later generations. Even the bag is transparent and compressed like rice.
Things that can be packaged formally look standard.
Watching the employees working in an orderly manner, Zhen Zhen felt that everything was moving in a good direction. At this production speed, in another two months, the brothers Meng Daguo and Meng Eryong could be asked to go out to run business.
There are no supermarkets at the moment, but there are supply and marketing cooperatives and canteens. The supply and marketing cooperatives occasionally purchase from outside. Although the quantity is not large, it is worth a try.
Small shops are relatively scattered, so we cannot visit each one of them. We have to go to wholesale markets in various places, select larger merchants, let them be agents of Zhenxin Melon Seeds, and then we go to market ourselves.
However, one cannot just focus on one single product when doing business. Zhen Zhen plans to make a batch of all the star products of the food store and let the agents taste them. She will mass-produce the products that the agents choose.
For example, she liked many flavored peanuts and sugar-coated peanuts, but the snacks that are popular these days are those that satisfy hunger, and these snacks may not be able to sell at a good price. She doesn't have the equipment to produce instant noodles, so it would be better if she could make some snacks that can satisfy hunger.
Zhen Zhen has been thinking about this matter.
Snacks that can fill your stomach are nothing more than pasta, egg rolls, biscuits, peach cakes, egg cakes, moon cakes, etc. Good Mother-in-law Food Store has walnut cakes, and you can try other types.
Over the next few days, she hung out with the workers who were making walnut cookies, hoping to learn how to make egg rolls and biscuits.
The Mid-Autumn Festival is just a few months away. Mooncakes from the supply and marketing cooperatives have always been hard to buy, mainly because the raw materials are scarce and the mooncake factories have insufficient production capacity. You always have to queue up with coupons to buy them.
Every time I queued for a long time, the things I bought were not enough for my family to share. Occasionally, I had to ask someone to do something for me and had to give away the mooncakes, so it was always difficult for my own children to have any.
There are still some raw materials in Zhen Zhen's space. Usually, when Zhao Meilan gets good things, she stocks up what she can use. This should be enough for this year's Mid-Autumn Festival.
There is nothing difficult about making egg rolls, and biscuits are also easy to make.
In the future, the products produced by Zhenzhen, a small food factory, are neither beautiful nor top-notch. In the severely competitive snack market, they will be sold out in seconds without leaving anything.
But these days, the types of snacks available to people are very limited, and the requirements are really not high.
How lonely it is to be invincible. In an era without rivals, as long as you can develop something, you will be at the top of the industry.
What’s more, Zhenzhen’s requirements for food materials and hygiene are many times higher than those of state-owned factories.
No matter how simple the cooking method is, the food here tastes better than that from other places.
In the past two months, Zhen Zhen has locked himself in the factory, testing new products with the workers every day. The Good Mother-in-law Food Store in front was directly handed over to Meng Pandi and a young apprentice, and he would occasionally go there to check it himself.
Seeing that the weather was getting hot, Zhen Zhen asked Meng Daguo to carry out the electric fan, clean the fan blades, plug it in, and provide coolness for the children.
It's summer vacation again, and the children have come back in droves, making the house very noisy.
Song Qiao, who lives next door, and a math teacher at school set up a daycare class. But they were afraid of being reported, so they didn't dare to make it public. They only recruited nearby neighbors and parents who came to them on their own initiative.
Zhen Zhen sent children one to four away and only left Shuiwa at home. The child could walk now and had a playful and naughty personality, making him very difficult to take care of. The whole family took turns taking care of him, and everyone was exhausted by him.
The four older brothers and sisters all went to school, and there was no one to play with Shuiwa. So Zhen Zhen would take a bucket of water every day, put a few toys in the water, and put Shuiwa in a cool place to let him play by himself.
Now that Shuiwa has a water gun and a duck, he no longer bothers the adults, and Zhenzhen can work with peace of mind.
As soon as I brought out the finished mooncakes, I heard Meng Pandi shouting in front of me:
"Auntie, look who's back!"
Zhen Zhen took off his sleeves and went out to take a look. The man in a suit and leather shoes, wearing gold-rimmed glasses, and looking like a gentleman, looked somewhat familiar.
Oh, the third son she had been thinking about day and night is back.
Meng Hua hadn't been home for several years. He wrote to his mother and sent faxes to his eldest brother, and learned that his family had bought a house in the county town and opened a food store, but he thought it was just a small business. Who would have thought that this food store would become so well-run.
Before the sun set, there were already several lines in front of the food store. One line was buying brined meat, one was buying pastries, and one was buying moon cakes.
I can understand salted meat and pastries, but what about mooncakes? It's only July, and there are still more than two months before the Mid-Autumn Festival. Why are they selling mooncakes at this time?
"The mooncakes are a new product that has just been developed. They were launched on the first day to give old customers a taste of it. The price is cheap, and there are small packages of cakes for free, so everyone lined up here," Meng Pandi explained.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
