Huo Feng turned around when he heard footsteps, and greeted Shen Li with a smile after seeing her.

"Are you washing the quilt? I passed by the town entrance and saw the people from the food factory setting up a stall there, so I bought two bags for the old lady as well as a pound of fruit candy to sweeten my mouth when I'm bored."

After that, she shook the things in her hand.

Huo Feng was grateful for her arrival from the bottom of his heart. After the series of events that happened at his home, many relatives cut off contact with their family. This cousin of his was one of the few relatives who often visited.

The reason why Shen Li treated Li Shumei so well was that Shen Li's biological mother passed away early. Li Shumei took care of her for a few years when she was a child. Later, her father remarried and took her back. Although her stepmother did not abuse her, she was not good to her either. After she had brothers and sisters, her treatment became even more ordinary. She got married before finishing middle school. She wasn’t even thirty this year, but her child was already ten years old.

After saying a few words to Huo Feng, Shen Li went directly to Li Shumei's room. When she entered the room, she saw Li Shumei leaning against the head of the bed and looking at the door. It was obvious that she heard their voices and was waiting for her to come in.

"Auntie, you were waiting for me. You see, I haven't come for half a month, right?"

Li Shumei pointed to the chair beside the bed and asked for her to sit.

"I know you're busy, but I just wanted to talk to you since we haven't seen each other for a while."

The room was very clean, and the table, floor, and bed were all spotless. There wasn’t much furniture, and what was there had signs of being used for quite a long time. The most valuable thing was the TV on the cabinet opposite the bed and a colorful panda which Huo Feng bought for Li Shumei with his resettlement money after retiring from the army.

Shen Li smiled as she poured her a glass of water, and opened a bag of peach cakes for her to eat.

Li Shumei had just finished breakfast not long ago. She often didn't feel hungry because she didn't consume that many calories lying in bed every day, but since her niece bought it for her, she still took a piece and chewed it slowly.

The peach cake tasted sweet and crispy, and the rich sesame flavor reminded her of the time more than twenty years ago when it was still a planned economy, and snacks like peach cakes were too precious for rural farmers, so they couldn't bear to buy them. When she was pregnant with Huo Feng, she was prone to hunger. One day, her husband came home with a smile on his face and asked her to guess what he had bought. She guessed several times but failed. Seeing that she was annoyed, her husband took out a bag of peach cakes from his pocket. Although it was wrapped in oil paper, the fragrance seemed to have wings and kept drilling into her nose.

Shen Li saw that she was eating happily, and didn't know that she was thinking about the past, so she chatted with her as usual.

"The Hongyuan Food Factory is a well-known large factory in our area. In the past, it only sold products in stores, but now it also has a stall in the market. I heard that the previous factory director died in an accident, and he only had a young daughter. She handed the factory over to someone else to manage, but the other person took away all the money. Fortunately, the girl wasn’t stupid. After finding evidence, she took the man to court and is awaiting sentencing. It was the girl's idea to set up the stall. I met her. She was very quiet and pretty. I heard that if it hadn't been for this incident, she would have been assigned to a school as a teacher."

Li Shumei's husband also died in an accident, and because of this, she felt an inexplicable sense of pity for the girl who had a similar experience.

"Poor girl. I don't know how much money she was cheated out of. How can she let others manage her own company? I don't understand it. Was there no one else in her family who could have helped?"

"She is pitiful because of this. I heard that her mother died of illness a few years ago. There are few relatives in her family, only an uncle. This is to avoid suspicion."

Li Shumei sighed. She often felt that she had a hard life. Her husband was gone and she was paralyzed. But there were only a few people who could live a smooth life. Most people had their own difficulties as well.

　　**

Shu Ping led people to set up a stall. They sold out everything in less than three hours and returned to the factory. The best-selling product was the peach cakes. When there was half a box of fruit candies left, it was bought up by a family preparing a wedding banquet.

When collecting their things, Li Yueling was very happy, which was specifically reflected in the fact that she never stopped talking.

"We still brought too little today. If we had known that it would sell so well, we should have brought a few more boxes of each kind."

"The factory director is wise and chose a good place. We might not have sold out as fast as takeout otherwise."

"Although we sell cheaper than the other stores, we’re not losing money. It is higher than the purchase price. Factory director, can we set up a stall every month in the future? Can I apply to come every time? I like dealing with people."

In fact, it wasn’t really a wise move. Before coming, Shu Ping estimated that these things could be sold out, but she didn’t expect it to end so quickly. As for Li Yueling's suggestion to bring a few more boxes, it wasn’t realistic. After all, Hongyuan Food Factory's current business relied on local wholesalers and individual retailers. The market was so big. If they sold their products in large quantities at a price lower than the market price, it would cause the market to be oversaturated, and the goods in the hands of the wholesalers and retailers couldn’t be sold, which was definitely more disadvantageous than beneficial to the food factory.

The reason why she decided to set up a stall was to solve a small part of their inventory and to test the waters.

It was known that there were markets all over the country, not just in the few towns under Anping County, so she had to look at the long-term view.

As for the last point mentioned by Li Yueling, Shu Ping thought that she already had the potential to sell goods as a salesperson. Since the employee has this talent, the leader shouldn’t bury it.

After returning to the factory, they went to the cafeteria to eat first. Shu Ping even asked her aunt who was temporarily in charge of the cafeteria to add two stir-fries to express her recognition of Li Yueling and Ye Wei's work. Shi Lei, who was eating with them, was completely incidental.

Knowing that the stall business was good, Shu Ping’s auntie was happier than Shu Ping herself. She cooked a few dishes, and together with the braised pork for the lunch meal, the table was full.

"Auntie, please sit down and eat with me."

Liu Yanfang waved her hand, "I've eaten. I still have work to do in the kitchen. I have to finish it quickly. I have to take a break and prepare dinner for the evening."

Shu Ping said apologetically, "Auntie, you've worked hard to help me. If there's too much work in the kitchen, find a few more people to help out."

Liu Yanfang said "Oh, don’t mention this. I'm not getting paid, why should I work so hard? You don't have to worry about the kitchen. Leave it to me. You're the big boss."

Shu Ping, who was doing big things, held a high-level meeting in the afternoon and issued three important decisions.

First, add a sales channel including the market stall, which was equivalent to the promotion of their activities moving forward. The scope was all the counties and townships under the Yunhuai Province. This would be led by Li Yueling and Ye Wei.

Second, add a bread production line to research the production process of hot dog bread, meat floss bread, cheese bread, and the like as quickly as possible.

Third, Shi Lei, the driver, was dismissed. The whole county was issued a new recruitment notice, requiring new recruits to have good character and steady personalities in addition to rich driving experience.

She told Hu Huiying, an old employee who was also in charge of statistics and personnel, "The salary should be settled clearly, and then the severance pay should be based on one month's salary. The matter is decided. There are a lot of things happening in the factory recently. Don't make trouble because of this."

Hu Huiying nodded and promised, "Don't worry, director, I’ll definitely handle this matter well."

She had been working in the food factory for nearly ten years. When the old director was there, he valued her very much. He often asked her to go to the bank and the government office. She had a good understanding of how the factory developed from a small workshop to such a big company, and he also had good feelings for her.

Jiang Hai took over and didn't trust her very much. He arranged a dispensable piece-rate job for her in the workshop. She originally planned to work until the end of the year and resign, but she didn't expect for things to turn around.

The new factory director respected talents as much as the old one. Knowing that she had passed the statistics certificate, she gave her the two important positions of statistician and human resources.

A man would die for his friend. There was no need to talk about resigning. As long as the factory didn’t go bankrupt, Hu Huiying was willing to work here until retirement.

Shi Lei left very decisively. After talking to him, Hu Huiying went directly to the accountant to get the money and let him leave.

When he arrived at the finance office, the accountant had just calculated the salary. He was not in a hurry and sat on the chair opposite with his legs crossed and waited.

Accountant Huang was newly recruited by Shu Ping. She used to work in the Grain Administration. In the past two years, the Grain Administration laid off people including her. There were few factories and units in the local area hence there wasn’t a demand for accountants, and she had not been able to find a suitable job. It was a complete surprise that she could come to Hongyuan this time.

She didn't know Shi Lei when she first arrived, but after the meeting, she learned a lot from other old employees, such as his bad background, bad work attitude, and close relationship with Jiang Hai, who went to prison. Naturally, she didn't have a good impression of him.

"Last month's salary has been paid. This month you worked for 15 days, which is half a month's salary, that is 216, plus a month's salary for severance pay, for a total of 678 yuan. You count it, if there’s no problem, sign here."

Shi Lei took a stack of cash, tilted his head, bit a matchstick, spread it out, counted it, and put it in his pocket. He signed his name in a flamboyant manner and left. He didn’t appear again the next day.

A problem then came. A customer in the neighboring city ordered to have their goods delivered in three days. Now, there wasn’t any transportation shortage but they were short of a driver.

When Ye Wei asked Shu Ping how to arrange it, she quickly decided, "We must find a way to speed up the recruitment. It’s too slow to just post advertisements. Mobilize the employees in the factory to help introduce people. Tell them that whoever introduces the successful applicant will be rewarded 100 yuan. If there is no suitable candidate the day after tomorrow, go to the transportation company to rent one, and make sure to deliver it within the agreed time."

The power of the bonus was still very strong. After work that night, several surrounding villages had heard of the news that Hongyuan Food Factory was recruiting a driver. Shen Li was among them. However, it was too late, so she did not rush back to her aunt's house to find her cousin. Instead, she rushed back early the next morning and weighed a few pounds of bones at the butcher shop at the entrance of the town. She sent half at home and brought the other half to her aunt.

Huo Feng was not at work in the morning, so Shen Li told her aunt about the recruitment of the food factory.

"My sister-in-law's brothers have worked in this factory for five or six years. Their current factory director is the young girl I mentioned last time. She is very honest with her workers. Not only do they have high salaries, but they also have good benefits. The canteen serves three different meals a day, with both meat and vegetarian options. It is easy to take a leave if something’s going on at home. If the workshop wasn’t full and not hiring, many people in our village would want to apply."

Li Shumei also thought it was a good opportunity. She always felt that she had delayed her son's career. If she hadn't been sick and needed someone to take care of her, her son would have had a better future if he had stayed in the army.

"Xiaofeng will definitely have no problem driving. He learned it when he first joined the army, and he even learned how to drive tanks."

At this point, Li Shumei showed a proud smile on her face, but there was a little disappointment in her eyes, "I know about this. I’ll tell him when he comes back. It's thanks to you for making this special trip. Such a good job, there must be many people scrambling for it."

Shen Li nodded, "That's right, but there aren’t many of us who can drive. People say that not only driving skills but also good character is required. The people's soldiers from our army have been educated by the national army. How can they be wrong?"

Li Shumei also laughed at this, feeling that life suddenly had more hope, and even the sullenness that had been stuck in her heart was relieved.