As they left Poly, Ang Lee's voice was full of worry. "The contract is signed, but where are you going to find technical personnel? And I didn't expect you to choose this company directly without even looking at the others."
“This kind of equipment is definitely available everywhere in the island nation. What’s wrong with our technicians? Just have your brother-in-law take one of our technicians over there, find out the equipment’s parameters, and then the technician can adjust it himself when he gets back,” Shen Mingzhi said calmly.
This is not a difficult task.
State-owned factories have opportunities to send employees abroad on government assignments. There is no shortage of technical personnel. As long as the best ones are selected and sent abroad, and Shen Xiuzhu is there to provide support, there is no worry about finding out where to buy the equipment or how to adjust the parameters.
"You mean, you want my brother-in-law to be a local Japanese citizen?" Li An asked, looking shocked.
"This isn't a scam, it's a trick on the people in the island nation. Anyway, they're not exactly ethical. They have your brother-in-law pretend to be a businessman cooperating with China, go there to ask about equipment, get all the parameters, and then go straight back to Japan. They won't be able to find us then," Shen Mingzhi said.
Ang Lee pushed his bicycle and followed behind her, but didn't say a word for a long time.
He never expected that such a thing could happen.
“Relying on those foreign-funded technicians is useless. When they stop investing and the technicians leave, the equipment they sell us will become scrap metal. Don’t think of these foreign investors as so kind. Their technology is advanced, and their products squeeze out the market share of our local products. This will affect our country’s development in the future and prevent us from ever having our own technology.” Shen Mingzhi said to him as she pushed her bicycle.
“But the factory manager also said that because Poly has received investment from Japan and its equipment is also from Japan, its product sales and reputation are extremely poor. Choosing this company… is really a bit unwise.” Li An’s tone was full of worry.
Shen Mingzhi also understands that in this era, it is normal for people to have a negative attitude towards products from factories invested in by island nations.
“I’ll handle this,” Shen Mingzhi told him. “Go back and tell Xiuzhu that I’ll come here this afternoon to talk to Director Sun about sending technical personnel abroad. If their factory doesn’t have any, have Director Sun borrow one from another factory first. In short, only our own technical personnel are reliable.”
“Okay.” Li An nodded.
As Shen Mingzhi rode her bicycle, he looked at her back and felt a little disappointed.
When it comes to decisiveness, he is indeed not as good as Shen Mingzhi.
Moreover, he only investigated the factory's surface, but he didn't expect that the factory also had debts, and judging from Shen Mingzhi's appearance, she seemed to know a lot about the factory's operation.
In the morning, Shen Mingzhi visited several raw material wholesale markets, but still didn't make a decision. She looked at a lot of materials and wrote down the unit price of each one.
Theoretically speaking, Beijing is the capital city, so these materials would be more expensive.
Shen Mingzhi needed a lot of raw materials, and even a difference of a few cents in the price of each item would add up to a considerable expense.
Around noon, she returned to the Jiang family home.
"I'll bring lunch," she said to Aunt Wang as soon as she entered the courtyard.
Wang Sao, who was picking vegetables, saw the sweat on her face and said, "You should wear a hat when you go out this morning. The sun is so strong, what if you get sick from the sun?"
Shen Mingzhi was smart enough to leave this morning and forgot all about it.
"Okay, I'll remember next time. I'm going back to my room to take care of something." Shen Mingzhi went into the main room, filled a basin with water, washed her face and neck, and then went back to her room.
She took out her calculator and began to calculate the cost of the materials.
After calculating, the cost of materials for an order of 50,000 would be close to 20,000.
This price was far from what Shen Mingzhi wanted... After she finished calculating, Aunt Wang came over to call her for dinner.
"Eat first, then we'll send it over, otherwise it'll be cold by the time you get back," Aunt Wang told her.
Shen Mingzhi pressed her temples as she got up.
...
Carrying her lunchbox, Shen Mingzhi arrived at the small tin shack on the construction site, but did not see Jiang Shaozhen.
Just as Ye Gong finished washing the lunchbox and returned to the tin shack, he saw her coming out and asked, "Are you looking for Shao Chen? He went to buy steel and bricks today and hasn't come back yet. I don't know when he'll be back. Why don't you leave the lunchbox here and go back? It's too hot and dusty in here, which isn't good for you."
"When did he leave, and how long has he been gone?" Shen Mingzhi asked.
"I came here not long this morning, got the list of steel and brick buyers from our contractor, and then left. It's been about four hours now," Engineer Ye replied.
"When I came here, I saw that your houses were almost finished. Are your workers doing the decoration too?" Shen Mingzhi chatted with him.
Anyway, I'm not in a hurry to go back.
"Yes, the house will be ready for handover in a month. What's wrong?" Ye Jianhua asked gently.
"If you can't secure the projects you're looking for now, you'll probably be out of work the month after next, right?" Shen Mingzhi asked.
“They all need to earn money to support their families. If our construction team doesn’t make money, they will choose other construction teams. But there’s nothing we can do about it. I went to the provincial party committee today, and they said they would help us stall for a while. Once Shao Chen has settled things, we’ll go directly to the military leaders,” Engineer Ye told Shen Mingzhi.
"Okay, then good luck to you guys." Shen Mingzhi couldn't help them; Jiang Shaozhen's difficulties were something he had to overcome on his own.
"Thank you, be careful on your way back." Ye Gong smiled.
Engineer Ye was still very young, wearing glasses, and looked both serious and refined.
August passed by without us even realizing it.
Wang Xinian's notification letter was indeed not delivered.
At Shen Mingzhi's suggestion, Baoli sent a newly arrived technician to meet Shen Xiuzhu in Japan.
Wang Xinian wasn't idle either. Shen Mingzhi sent him to accompany Li An to another place to compare the prices of raw materials, which would also broaden his horizons and build his courage.
The house feels a bit cold and empty now that someone is gone.
During dinner that evening, Jiang Guofu said to Jiang Shaozhen, "I heard that you bypassed your superiors and sent your proposal to the military leaders, who are very supportive of your engineering team."
“Yes, actually, this new rural construction project isn’t the most important thing. The important thing is that we’ve also started a new investment project. Based on the housing commercialization and surrounding facilities that my wife provided me, I developed some ideas, and after discussing them with Engineer Ye, we rushed out a new project plan.” Jiang Shaozhen’s mouth was full, but his speech was still quite clear.
"What are your thoughts?" Jiang Guofu asked.
Shen Mingzhi watched him and ate her meal in silence.
“The project is confidential, I can’t tell you.” Jiang Shaozhen smiled.
Upon hearing this, Jiang Guofu immediately said in a serious tone, "Then the higher-ups must be taking it very seriously!"
Jiang Shaozhen just smiled, but didn't say anything more.
Shen Mingzhi noticed that he had lost a lot of weight and his appearance had become rougher.
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