What You Che had not expected was that he would be the only person to go to the factory office to talk to Yan Zhengguang about taking over the plant. This worked out well, as he didn’t have to compete with anyone else.
Yan Zhengguang was also very happy that someone had come to take this mess off his hands; otherwise, it was highly likely that the burden would have fallen on him. The sooner he threw this hot potato away, the safer he would be.
As soon as You Che returned to his workstation, Cao Zhanfei looked at him as if he were looking at a total stranger.
“No, brother, do you really intend to take over this mess? Just for the title of factory director?” Cao Zhanfei’s face was full of disbelief.
You Che nodded.
Cao Zhanfei asked, “Do you have any idea how deep of a pit this is?”
“I know,” You Che replied.
Cao Zhanfei looked like he was about to faint. He steadied himself against the desk and said, “Yan Zhengguang can’t wait to run away, and you’re jumping right in?”
“I want to try,” You Che said firmly.
“Brother, you need to understand that being the director isn’t for free. You have to sign a military order, and if you mess up, the consequences are severe,” Cao Zhanfei advised earnestly.
“I know,” You Che repeated.
“No,” Cao Zhanfei slapped his own forehead. “You don’t know. If you knew, you would absolutely never jump into this.”
As he spoke, Cao Zhanfei pulled a chair over to sit next to him. He leaned in close and lowered his voice. The usual casual air was gone from his face, replaced by an expression of extreme seriousness.
“You Che, listen to your brother. This matter isn’t as simple as you think.”
“Looking at the bright side, the higher-ups are looking for someone to turn things around and wipe out this debt of over a million yuan. But looking at the dark side, what if the electrical factory can’t turn a profit in the end? What if that million-yuan debt can’t be paid off?”
“Wang Huaren ran away, but precisely because he fled and the higher-ups can’t catch him, they need to find someone to be the scapegoat. Who else would be the scapegoat besides the new director? They say you have three years to turn it around, but within less than a year, they might make you take the fall for this disaster,” Cao Zhanfei said with absolute gravity.
“In my opinion, the higher-ups are probably pessimistic. They think this million-yuan debt is hard to clear. Since it can’t be cleared anyway, they might as well find a scapegoat quickly so it doesn’t harm them later.”
You Che had, of course, considered the side that Cao Zhanfei was mentioning.
However, he felt that the reality was not nearly as pessimistic as Cao Zhanfei imagined. Currently, the momentum of economic opening was strong, and the government was vigorously supporting factory development. They wouldn’t likely provide no help at all and just watch a sizable state-owned factory go bankrupt.
Naturally, he would ask for specific details beforehand. If it were truly as Cao Zhanfei said—that the higher-ups just wanted a scapegoat—he would carefully reconsider before filling that hole.
“Zhanfei, I know you’re looking out for me, but I’m not stupid. I won’t be someone’s scapegoat for nothing,” You Che said. “I know what I’m doing.”
You Che had his own ambitions. He understood that given his background, if he wanted to rise, he had to rely on unconventional paths. For example, an opportunity like this. Since he wanted to move up, risks were naturally unavoidable.
Cao Zhanfei wanted to say more, but since he had already spoken his piece and You Che remained persistent, it wasn’t appropriate to continue.
However, what You Che didn’t expect was that Yang Peace would specifically come to the factory to find him because of this matter.
“Xiao Qing, I heard them say you’re planning to take over our electrical factory?” Yang Peace asked bluntly as soon as he saw him, his tone tinged with anxiety.
You Che nodded.
“You haven’t signed the military order yet, have you?” he asked hurriedly.
“Not yet. I only had a brief talk with Director Yan at the factory office this morning,” You Che answered truthfully.
Yang Peace glanced cautiously to his left and right before pulling You Che into a corner.
“Good that you haven’t signed. Xiao Qing, you must absolutely not sign it,” he urged, clutching You Che’s hand tightly.
“Xiao Qing, what are you thinking?” Yang Peace sighed deeply. “Why would you think of taking over the factory? Aren’t you aware of the state our factory is in right now?”
“And what kind of person Yan Zhengguang is—you’ve been at the factory for five or six years, don’t you know? Is he the type of person who would leave a good thing for you?”
“I just want to try,” You Che gave the same answer.
This was the third time he had said those words.
“Xiao Qing, you haven’t been lured in by the director’s salary, have you?” Yang Peace suddenly said, seeing that he couldn’t convince him after all this time.
You Che was stunned. He probably hadn’t expected his uncle to think of him that way.
The salary for the director of the electrical factory was not low—at least two thousand yuan. But he was absolutely not taking over the factory because of that salary; he wasn’t that short-sighted.
“Is it because you spent a lot of money getting married and want a high-paying position to pay it back sooner?” Yang Peace added.
You Che shook his head. “No, Uncle. My wanting to take over the factory has nothing to do with the salary.”
Cao Zhanfei, whom he had worked with for five or six years, thought he was taking over for the empty title of director. His uncle, whom he had lived with for over a decade, thought he was doing it for the two or three thousand yuan salary.
Neither of them understood his goals or his ambitions.
In the end, the person who understood him best was Meng Ruo, with whom he had only spent a few months.
The space between Yang Peace’s eyebrows furrowed into a deep frown. “If it’s not for the salary, then I understand it even less.”
You Che felt that at this moment, even if he told his uncle his inner thoughts, his uncle wouldn’t understand him. He simply chose not to say more.
“Uncle, don’t worry about me. I know what I’m doing. I wouldn’t take this on without some level of confidence,” You Che said seriously.
“You’ve been stubborn since you were a child. Once you’ve made up your mind, no one can change it. Why won’t you listen to advice?” Yang Peace sighed, though his tone held little blame.
You Che said, “Uncle, I’ve given this decision careful consideration.”
“Fine, fine.” With no success in his persuasion, Yang Peace could only let out a helpless sigh.
Meng Ruo spent two days improving the bread recipe. For the original butter, she substituted corn oil and a bit of margarine, while the milk was replaced with more affordable milk powder.
To verify the feasibility of the improved recipe, the production workshop needed to conduct a small-scale test first.
Before the test, Meng Ruo needed to learn how to operate the equipment for the entire production line.
Regarding the operation of these machines, Director Zhang had originally intended for the group leader, Feng Jialing, to personally lead her own technician. However, when Zhang Caixia assigned the task, Feng Jialing made excuses to avoid it.
“Director, where would I find the time? I’m so busy today,” Feng Jialing said with a look of difficulty. “Director, why don’t you have another skilled worker lead her? It’s really not that I don’t want to, it’s just that I can’t manage it today.”
Actually, Meng Ruo privately didn’t want Feng Jialing to lead her either. She had a grudge with Feng Jialing from before; if Feng Jialing were to intentionally teach her wrongly and she made an error later, there would be no way to argue her case.
“Little Meng, let me teach you then. I happen to have some time today,” Zhang Caixia said. “There are only these few pieces of equipment. Learning and mastering their operation in one afternoon shouldn’t be a problem.”
It couldn’t be better that Director Zhang was willing to teach her personally. To be honest, anyone else might have some personal bias, but the workshop director absolutely would not.
“Bread production involves five steps: mixing, proofing, baking, depanning, and packaging.”
“Mixing uses an automatic mixer. Proofing and fermentation require a proofing box. The baking equipment is a tunnel-type chain oven. Depanning is handled by a vacuum depanner, and packaging is done manually by workers.”
Their food factory was built quite early, established in the fifties. Therefore, many production line machines were relatively old. For example, the vacuum depanner had only been introduced from abroad in recent years; previously, depanning was done manually in a high-temperature environment, which was tedious and prone to causing burns.
Zhang Caixia patiently introduced each piece of equipment to her.
“For mixing, you add the bread ingredients, then adjust the speed and let it stir itself,” Zhang Caixia said, giving her a demonstration.
She then said, “You try it.”
While Director Zhang was introducing the process, Meng Ruo had already taken a look at the equipment. The factory’s machines were old and the operation was not complex. She had used various types of equipment while doing experiments in the lab before, and the principles of many industrial machines were largely the same.
Meng Ruo tried to operate it and learned it in one go.
Zhang Caixia nodded with great satisfaction. “It’s quite simple, isn’t it?”
“It really isn’t that complicated,” Meng Ruo said.
“After mixing, you must manually check if the gluten has formed,” Zhang Caixia reminded her.
Meng Ruo nodded and took out her notebook to write it down.
“Proofing is the most critical step. Not only must you pay attention to the fermentation time, but you must also keep an eye on the temperature inside the fermentation room.”
“Depanning is vacuum depanning. This operation is also relatively simple.”
…
After introducing all the production processes, Zhang Caixia said, “During the production process, all this equipment needs to be used proficiently. You try operating them all once, and I’ll point out any issues on the spot.”
Meng Ruo then operated the mixer, the proofing box, the oven, and the depanner once.
After each operation, Zhang Caixia nodded with satisfaction.
When she finished operating the last piece of equipment proficiently, Zhang Caixia praised her generously, “University students are truly impressive; they learn everything so quickly. It took me several tries back then to learn it completely, but you’ve become proficient in just one go.”
“It’s only because the master taught well,” Meng Ruo said sweetly.
Zhang Caixia found these words very pleasing. Meng Ruo learning quickly was one aspect, but her teaching well was certainly the other.
Back when she was being taught, the technician was very impatient. If there was something she didn’t understand and asked about, the person would shout at the top of their lungs, “How many times have I taught you and you still don’t know? Were you listening at all?”
Masters in those days were like that, always liking to put on high airs.
She disliked that style very much, so she was always very patient when teaching her subordinates.
The day after Meng Ruo learned how to operate the production line equipment, the workshop began small-batch testing of the improved recipe. The results were quite good, and the taste was very close to the sample previously provided by the factory director.
There were no major issues with the taste, and the costs were brought under control.
After reviewing the data, Factory Director Ma nodded with satisfaction and instructed Zhang Caixia to organize the start of mass production.
After work, Meng Ruo waited for You Che at the entrance of the food factory as usual.
Over the past few days, the recipe improvement, learning the equipment operation, and the small-batch bread testing had all gone smoothly, and she was in a very good mood.
Soon, You Che rode his bicycle toward her. Meng Ruo noticed that a bag of something seemed to be hanging from the bicycle’s handlebars.