Eighties Sweetheart Wife-Chapter 612: Knowing and Understanding

Shu Xiang looked at Song Yunuan and had to admit that she wasn’t feeling so upset and uncomfortable anymore.

Her gaze was complex as she observed Song Yunuan.

Song Yunuan truly was different from others. After several encounters, Shu Xiang felt genuine respect in her heart.

However, she still couldn’t get over that hurdle within her mind.

She forced a smile and said to Song Yunuan, "Little Nuan, I know you mean well, thank you."

Song Yunuan gave Shu Xiang a serious look, knowing and understanding were different concepts.

Song Yunuan asked her to eat a cucumber and naturally shifted the conversation to other topics.

It had to be said that the cucumbers grown by Grandpa Gu had their original flavor, and were indeed sweet and crunchy.

As for what Shu Xiang thought or did next, it was no longer her concern.

In the end, it might be because the work was too easy now. novelbuddy.cσ๓

But on the other hand, many of those who worked in government units at this time spent their days sipping tea, reading newspapers, knitting, and gossiping.

As for the workers, some units were busy while others were not.

Those that were not busy likely faced being outsourced or shut down, but ultimately, a large portion of their employees would be laid off.

But for now, things were still manageable.

Barely getting by.

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Song Yunuan had her eyes set on the No. 5 Garment Factory in Beidu, not interested in the factory itself, but in the land it occupied.

The location was excellent, surrounded by several future popular attractions, with a subway station planned to be built.

Song Yunuan was planning to construct a five-star hotel.

What she hadn’t expected was that Shu Xiang’s sister-in-law worked there in the embroidery group.

Their daily workload wasn’t heavy, and naturally, they didn’t earn much either.

Under the current circumstances, it would take ten years’ worth of wages to afford a Dongfang Hong bike.

And for Dongfang Hong to become widespread, that would require even more waiting.

Song Yunuan had a document in hand; the factory hadn’t paid wages for three months.

The current situation was that the equipment was outdated, there were no new designs, and the embroidery group existed in name only.

The information Song Yunuan held was comprehensive, including details about the factory workers at the bottom.

Each was just getting by, believing that no matter what, the company wouldn’t fail to pay their wages.

If the factory was experiencing difficulties and wages were delayed, then so be it, even for a few months.

It wasn’t a big deal.

But in reality, the higher-ups were ready to wash their hands of it.

Because there was no need for the factory to continue existing.

When the old masters retired, about eighty percent of the new ones were just killing time.

Song Yunuan called Song Liang from Nanshan County Town.

Accompanying him was the old accountant from the garment factory.

Song Yunuan planned to have Song Liang talk with the leaders of the No. 5 Garment Factory.

Having made preparations in advance, Song Yunuan found an opportunity for Shu Xiang to take her for a tour around the factory.

This issue wasn’t going to be resolved immediately.

It was still an era where the iron rice bowl was the norm; if you shattered these people’s iron rice bowls, the workers wouldn’t let you off the hook and might even regard you as an enemy.

The current state of the factory was indeed not optimistic.

It was just like a pile of loose sand.

When Song Yunuan and Shu Xiang went to find Sister-in-law Shu, they happened to encounter her arguing with a few people.

The reason was that five large skeins of embroidery thread taken from the warehouse had disappeared in the blink of an eye.

And then everyone feigned ignorance.

Sister-in-law Shu was the group leader of the team.

Even though she wasn’t being made to compensate for the lost items, she was infuriated, slamming the table and quarreling with these people.

She even threatened to call the police.

The others mocked and jeered at Sister-in-law Shu with all sorts of remarks.

"It’s just a team leader position, what’s so great about that? And now you want to call the police? Go ahead, report it. I didn’t take anything, can you still blame me? Don’t think just because your youngest aunt found herself a good match that your family has a backup now, psh, relying on connections like a dog."

"Exactly, exactly, it’s surely because the quantity you took from the warehouse was wrong to begin with, or you’re just playing the thief shouting ’catch the thief.’"

Then there were those who were terribly jealous, stealing and selling five bundles of embroidery threads could at least fetch fifty bucks.

That’s an entire month’s salary for her.

Although she didn’t see who took them, she was certain the quantity the team leader brought back was correct, then in the blink of an eye, she didn’t know who had stolen them.

This wasn’t the first time it had happened.

The person behind this was really despicable.

But she didn’t know if it was an individual or a group effort.

Anyway, she didn’t benefit from it.

"I think the team leader is right, if your conscience is clear, you’ve got nothing to fear. If you didn’t take it, what are you afraid of? We should go to the police station and have the officers investigate. Everyone’s getting too greedy, this is our factory’s property, not your personal belongings; taking and stealing whenever you want, it’s total lawlessness."

The quarrelsome deputy factory manager also arrived.

He didn’t recognize Song Yunuan, but there were always outsiders coming to the factory, and he never cared.

There’s nothing secretive about the embroidery team, so naturally, he didn’t mind people watching.

But now, those above were very dissatisfied with their factory.

Not only was there no profitability, but the costs were ridiculously high year after year, a classic case of expenditures exceeding income.

That is to say, they hardly made any money in a year, but the expenses were huge, including workers’ wages, benefits, and all sorts of miscellaneous things.

He had insider information, wages weren’t just delayed for these three months, it’s likely there would be no money to pay them in the next three months either.

The higher-ups said it was financial difficulties, funding was temporarily suspended.

Then they told the factory to figure out its own solution.

What could they possibly come up with?

Hasn’t it always been the higher-ups providing the funds, and then the factory running accordingly?

And then whatever the higher-ups told them to do, they did.

Now suddenly they’ve washed their hands of it, and no one knows what to do.

Last quarter, more than half of the produced garments were not up to standard due to flawed designs.

Even clearing the inventory was tough.

Department stores didn’t want them.

Selling them on a street stall?

Who would do that?

They couldn’t afford to lose face like that.

Even if they tried to wholesale them, the few places they contacted weren’t interested.

In today’s Beidu, besides the garments from No. 1 and No. 2 Garment Factories, people prefer those from Nan City, Hai City, and Zhilan Garment Factory.

Especially in summer, Zhilan Garment Factory’s products were the main attractions.

The clothes produced by this factory are mostly for export or sold to Xiangjiang.

Obviously, there’s no problem with the quality.

But the people in the design department are all relatives of the factory director.

Nobody dares say anything.

The factory director and the secretary have their minds off the factory every single day.

Yet, this is not something you can talk to the workers about.

So he scolded those people and told them to keep their mouths shut.

"Is there really nothing to do at all? Even if there are no production tasks, can’t you clean the workshop or wipe the windows? If worse comes to worst, there’s a newspaper on the table; read the current newspapers, it’s good to study and learn a bit, keeping you all idle."

Anyway, it was just so strange, those five big bundles of embroidery threads vanished into thin air, and nothing more came of it.

Sister-in-law Shu’s eyes were red with anger, standing there with shaking hands.

She was heartbroken, angry, and disappointed all at once.

Song Yunuan had a good impression of Sister-in-law Shu, as well as Mother Shu.

The wallet Sister-in-law Shu embroidered for her was elegant and classy.

Even when placed beside a leather wallet, it didn’t look inferior at all.