Chapter 394: Shrinking Cash Cow [Request Full Order]

Xu Siqi, who was lying sideways with her back to her best sister, always felt that what her best sister said was just a forced smile.

But she couldn’t find any evidence.

Moreover, she didn’t dare to look back, for fear that her good sister would see her face crying like a little cat.

So he forced a smile and said, “It’s a good story. Maybe the older sister in the story is right. Although she lost a childhood sweetheart, she also gained more. The outside world is definitely more exciting than staying in a small village. And she has done her best for her childhood sweetheart. In the story, didn’t she let her younger sister who looks the same marry him?”

Since Sister Mingzhu said this was a story, she would just treat it as a beautiful love story.

Right now, Sister Mingzhu must be in great need of the affirmation of her best friend, rather than a total denial. After spending the past few years together in college, the two of them were almost inseparable. They got up together, brushed their teeth together, went to the cafeteria to get breakfast together, went to and from school together, held hands to watch the sunset over the West Hills, took a bath, went to bed and turned off the lights together. I really couldn’t bear to say anything bad about her at this time.

Although in terms of her own nature, the sister in this story is still a little selfish. Even though Sister Mingzhu has tried her best to defend herself and portrayed everything the sister did in this story as having a reason, it is still difficult to conceal her selfish nature, because everything here has a reason, and the starting point is only considering the sister herself, without considering others. She didn’t even ask her childhood sweetheart or her twin sisters whether they were willing or not. She just made the decision for them and determined their fate for life.

Xu Siqi let out a long sigh of relief, with her back to her good sister.

She was thinking just now: Fortunately, it seems that the ending of the story now shows that the younger sister and her older brother’s life after marriage should be very happy and fulfilling, and has not been affected much by this older sister.

However, if the ending of the story, that is, the life of the younger sister and the older brother after marriage, is not as beautiful as imagined, but is full of sadness and even evolves into a tragedy, then who should be held responsible?
Will the sister in the story regret the decision she made?
Yin Mingzhu sniffed, staring at the incandescent light on the ceiling with lifeless eyes, and said with a weird smile on her face: “That’s great, even you think your sister did the right thing. Look, they are so loving now, and their careers are so successful. When you meet a good person, you start a family first and then a career. When you meet a noble person, you start a career first and then a family. Now it seems that this little sister, although she stutters a little, is not only the good person of her elder brother, but also a noble person. Tell me, tell me, isn’t this world wonderful?”

Xu Siqi suddenly felt a chill all over her body. Oops, it seemed that what she had just said had irritated her good sister. What should she do?
She originally had a lot more to say, and was also very curious about the older brother and wanted to ask this good sister a lot of questions.

But, given the current situation, how could she dare to ask?

“Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu”

“sisters.”

“Please, stop laughing, okay?”

She almost wanted to cover her ears with her hands, but she was worried that her good sister would misunderstand her and become even more outrageous. What should she do if she really went crazy?
Although in the story, it was the elder sister who took the initiative to help the older brother and the younger sister be together, but if the ending of the story was too beautiful, not only were the older brother and the younger sister both well and living happily together, but they did not have to stay in the mountains all their lives as the elder sister expected, but they also walked out and saw a different world outside, and even a world that was more vast and more eventful than the world the elder sister wanted to see in her dreams, would the elder sister be able to bear it?

Xu Siqi didn’t dare to make any more noise and she pretended to be asleep.

But Yin Mingzhu couldn’t fall asleep.

Looking at the incandescent lamp above her head, her eyes were red. The glaring light made her tears burst out.

She waited and waited, waiting for her best sister to say something, but in the end, all she heard was the sound of her best sister’s regular breathing.

So, she let go and stopped suppressing herself at the moment, covering her mouth: “Woo, woo, woo, woo, this light is too glaring, too glaring, I want to complain.”

Regret?
No regrets…

maybe.

In short, Yin Mingzhu would never admit at this moment that she was crying because she was sad.

. . . . . .

In Zhao County, as soon as Lu Yang came back, he became busy.

The main reason is that I have been away for too long.

If we count the time I went to Chengdu to support Mou Qizhong and attend the aircraft delivery ceremony, it has been almost three months.

How much business does this require?

In other words, Lu Yang had been prepared. Whether it was Zhao County or the urban area, whether it was a garment factory or an electronics factory, or even in Shencheng and Yangcheng, there were trustworthy people helping him keep an eye on things, and he himself only needed to take charge of the overall situation.

Otherwise, if I really just do nothing for three months, I’m afraid all the business would have failed long ago.

But even so, although Lu Yang could handle most things over the phone, there were still some things that had to wait until he came back to be dealt with in person.

for example?

There is an investigation report submitted by Brother You Ren, and also posted is the actual revenue since the factory was built, especially the actual revenue in the second half of 91.

Every single stroke of this is clearly remembered, and it is somewhat different from the previous ones.

Since the beginning of this year, especially in the second half of the year, the revenue of the Zhaoxian factory of Meisite Clothing has increased every month, but now it has dropped sharply. Can you believe it?
And that’s the reality.

Lu Yang had said before that the garment factory was his cash cow. Whether it was the factory in Zhao County or the newly built factory in the city, both factories had brought him generous cash rewards.

But now, this cash cow suddenly seemed to have its milk source cut off. Not to mention giving Lu Yang the same generous cash reward as before, it now has less than half of what it used to have. What is going on?

Lu Yang actually investigated it as well.

Before going to Chengdu and then to Pengcheng, he had already made some mental preparations.

Why do you say that?

The reason is very simple. The garment factories in the city have been taking orders from Mou Qizhong since their inception.

We are doing foreign trade orders from the north, that is, from the Russians.

What now?
Mou Qizhong has already brought all the big planes he wanted back to China. In addition, the blood of the old Mao has been shed dry, and the new Er Mao has stood up and inherited the legacy of the original old Mao. Before the political situation is clear, there is no way to do business with it. As for the orders from Mou Qizhong, they will naturally disappear. Now Lu Yang cannot find other orders in the north to replace it in a short time. What should he do?
We know it’s a one-time deal. Now that the deal is done and the money has been earned, it’s impossible to close the factory, right?

Kidding.

This factory is not what it used to be.

When it was still called Welfare Cotton Textile Factory, it had less than 200 workers in total, all of whom were disabled. But how many workers does it have now?
Lu Yang didn’t calculate it carefully, but there must be statistics. To produce military coats worth at least several million in such a short time, and not just one batch, but many batches, it should be at least no less than 1000 sewing workers, plus the disabled spinning workers who were retained before, what a huge number this would be.

Does this mean that if people can be laid off, everyone can be laid off?
Obviously it’s impossible.

The government will not agree.

Lu Yang would not do such a stupid thing.

What’s more, he had promised the old factory director Geng that his grandfather’s student would keep the factory open, even if it meant losing money to gain publicity. In a word, as long as he, Lu Yang, was alive, he would never let these disabled workers who had been laid off once and almost reached despair experience the feeling of despair again. This was his promise to the old man.

When Lu Yang invited this old man to come out of retirement, he agreed to it. Is he going to go back on his word just because there are fewer orders from the north?

No, Lu Yang made the decision quickly.

The orders from the Zhaoxian main factory were cut in half and distributed to the branch factory in Baoqing City. The main factory then stopped recruiting and expansion.

This is how Lu Yang deals with it.

Obviously, doing so will definitely have a certain impact on the main factory in Zhao County.

However, at that time, the orders from the head office were already overwhelming, and Lu Yang gave an order to stop further expansion and to stop recruiting new live-in sewing workers. As a result, the impact was almost reduced to a negligible level. All the workers continued to have work to do, and did not feel much of an impact.

When did the impact begin to appear and cause a decline in revenue?
In fact, the fundamental reason is what Lu Yang had said before, the arrival of the era of universal copycats.

Zhao County is a populous county. In the early 90s, its population exceeded one million, which is absolutely rare among county-level cities in China.

However, Zhao County is short of arable land and water. The combination of the lack of arable land and water has resulted in the fact that the arable land in Zhao County is simply unable to feed the people of Zhao County.

As the old saying goes, when you are poor, you must change, and change will bring success.

After the reform and opening up, the people of Zhao County were the first in the entire Hunan Province to respond to the call. Young and strong people carried shoulder poles and baskets, walked through the streets and started small businesses.

The people here are not afraid of hardship and are strong-willed. They do not follow the example of their brothers from other cities and counties who go south to join the migrant worker groups in coastal areas. They always uphold a belief in inheritance and would rather be the head of a chicken than the tail of a phoenix. If they can be a small boss today, why can’t they become big bosses tomorrow?

This is the Shao merchant spirit, a spirit passed down from generation to generation.

Every Zhaoxian citizen has the deep-seated idea that they can be their own boss one day instead of working for others.

There was no chance before.

The country does not support it.

Later there was an opportunity.

But I have no money.

Now the country supports them, and they have finally saved some money from working, so one by one they kicked out their original bosses and chose to be their own boss.

And Lu Yang was the one who was kicked the most times.

When exactly did it start?

I wonder if you still remember the fifth brother, Lu Youli, the member of the Lu family who ran away from home and whose whereabouts are unknown?

That’s when it started.

Adopting a distribution model, only providing raw materials, allowing rural women who can afford sewing machines to make clothes at home, and then collect them in a centralized manner. This method can both improve efficiency and reduce costs, and is also the easiest to imitate method.

Lu Yang had said before that he only provided an idea and then became the first person to try it. However, if Zhao County’s economy is to develop and the small commodity economy is to prosper, it cannot rely on just him, Lu Yang. He welcomes others to imitate him.

To sum it up in one sentence, since we know we can’t stop it, why not just watch it happen? At least, we can be magnanimous, isn’t it?
Since the first half of this year, the situation of counterfeiting has become more and more serious. Many couples who used to work in Luyang’s factory, after accumulating a year’s income, turned around and bought a few pieces of cloth from the market. They distributed the cut-out clothing materials according to Luyang’s styles, and simply copied them, cutting them once with scissors at home. Then they had ready-made sewing machines to make the clothes, and finally they just had to set up stalls in the market to sell the clothes. In this way, they could earn more than just the processing fee for one set of clothes.
As long as they taste the sweetness, they will naturally purchase more cloth, take it home and make more sets of clothes, and start snowballing.

From a small family workshop, the couple purchases goods, processes them themselves, sets up their own stall, and finally learns how to distribute them from Lu Yang and let others process them. This may only take 2 to 3 months.

When people around him saw someone following Lu Yang’s example and opening a clothing processing factory to make money, more people naturally joined in. Smart people began to learn to adapt. Since they could process clothes, why couldn’t they process other things? Over time, the small commodity economy in Zhao County began to boom.

Lu Yang held the report in his hand and said, “Brother Youren, you look like this, have you not slept well in the past few days?”

Being teased by his cousin, Lu Youren smiled bitterly and said, “To be honest, I haven’t slept well for several days. I have been suffering from insomnia for the past two or three months. I am afraid that I will fail to live up to your trust in me and ruin the factory. I am under too much pressure now. How about you come back and take over it yourself, cousin?”

Lu Yang tapped the table with his fingers. “Don’t rush to say discouraging words. Tell me, what are the specific pressures?”

He was going to listen to what his eldest cousin had to say first.

Judging from the performance in this financial statement, some of the orders were allocated to the urban branch, and some of the old workers who left the factory copied the factory’s clothes and snatched away some of the factory’s small orders. But this is not enough, and there must be some other unknown reasons involved.

Lu Youren pointed at the new factories outside the window with a bitter face. Some of them were smoking, some were making mechanical noises, and some were just having trucks coming in and out. “Cousin, come and take a look. This is our Shanghuai Village. Now 80% of the people in Shanghuai Village have become their own bosses. They all benefited from you, cousin. But now, our garment factory here has been surrounded by them. Cousin, did you know that?”

(End of this chapter)