novelraw Chapter 675: They Only Listen to Me
Chapter 675: They Only Listen to Me
Jing Shu’s arrival at the Red Worm Cake Factory caused a huge stir. The noise of people banging on bowls grew even louder, and many even started shouting, "Boss, Jing Shu! Boss, Jing Shu!"
In the dead of winter, these people didn’t seem to care about the cold; or, to be precise, they simply had nothing else to do.
Then the loudspeaker blared, "Everyone, please be quiet. The factory will start up soon, and all of your benefits will remain as they were before. Plus, we will issue each of you 1,000 Virtual Coins!"
Who knew the commotion would get even worse: "We don’t want your damn Virtual Coins! What good are they? Can you eat an egg with them? Can you eat rice with them? We only eat white flour buns!"
"Even if we don’t get food, you’ve got to at least heat the boiler, right? Turn on the heating? With such cold weather outside, do you want to freeze us to death?"
"Even without heating, at least give us hot water for showers! What happened to all the previous benefits?"
The newly appointed factory director, Wang Dazhi, nearly spurted blood. Was he running a factory or catering to a bunch of entitled lords? White flour buns, indeed. Go eat shit. Even the folks in the Imperial Capital weren’t this fussy. For regular employees, merely getting enough to eat was already considered good.
Moreover, he had been quite generous already, having set up an all-you-can-eat Insect Cake buffet. He initially thought these people would eat their fill gratefully, but who knew... they actually started a hunger strike; not a single person came to eat! The only group of people who patronized the cafeteria were his own cronies! Just look at those shameless people, stuffing their faces.
That aside, listen to these people who don’t know how high the sky is or how deep the earth is, even demanding heating? The Imperial Capital had stopped supplying heat for several years now; who has it these days? It requires a whole lot of coal and natural gas, which are limited resources and difficult to obtain! And shower water? Do these people think a factory is a charity? Even he himself wasn’t this extravagant. It was ridiculous that his previous lifestyle as a parachuted-in connection couldn’t compare to that of these workers. And the previous factory management might have actually provided those benefits.
...
Uncle showed a helpless smile and said, "You’ve seen it. The new employer is quite generous; even when work stopped, there’s still food and salary, not to mention the free all-you-can-eat Insect Cake buffet. Unfortunately, the workers’ tastes have been pampered for too long. Back when we were in operation, as long as you worked earnestly, you could drink soy milk and eat eggs to your heart’s content. People outside were desperate to get into our factory."
"And now?" Uncle said scornfully. "The mightiest dragon can’t crush the local snakes. The West Mountain and gas supplies are completely cut off, and apart from some stockpiled Insect Cake, our Insect Cake Factory has nothing."
So, when Uncle welcomed Jing Shu’s arrival, everyone was shouting her name excitedly, which didn’t sit well with the new factory director, Wang Dazhi.
Jing Shu waved her hand, and the crowd quieted down. She casually said, "Something’s happened, so I’ve come to check out the situation in the factory."
"Boss, you’re finally back!"
"Boss, we’ve missed you so much..."
Wang Dazhi clenched his teeth. With a smile he believed showed suitable indifference for the new master, he greeted Jing Shu, "You’re here! My apologies for not coming out to meet you!" He acted like the real boss, when in fact, he was just a henchman managing the business for someone else.
"No need to be so formal. Don’t mind me. I’m just here to see how the factory’s doing. How did it come to a stop when everything was fine? This is Wu City’s livelihood; we can’t delay too long. If there are any problems, perhaps consult with the old staff," Jing Shu said with a smile.
"Actually, there is one thing I need your help with," Wang Dazhi said with a gloomy face, no longer caring about saving face. He felt like he was being roasted on a spit.If he didn’t solve this issue soon, things would go south—oh no, it wasn’t just him; his entire clique was doomed.
"Oh?"
...
As a veteran of the business world who had managed numerous factories, Wang Dazhi was well aware of a factory’s operational importance and its very soul. Therefore, he had even less hesitation to swallow his pride. In fact, he might have realized that he had jumped into a pit—oh no, his master had jumped into a Sky Pit.
Wang Dazhi bought some flour and eggs at a high price, pacified the workers, and then led Jing Shu and her companions to the red worm factory.
The red worm factory was right next to the processing plant.
Walking on this familiar yet strange path, Jing Shu couldn’t help but feel sentimental. In just two short years, the Insect Cake Factory had undergone transformations that she scarcely recognized – it had been expanded significantly, and even the storage facilities that she once thought were huge had tripled in size.
Her share of Insect Cake had long been transported to the reserve caves of the Wucheng Town Government. The factory’s daily output was divided into several portions: one was sent to West Mountain, one was distributed within Wu City, and two were stored in the reserve caves as supplies.
Only the circulating reserve was kept in the warehouses.
As a result, the three large warehouses were quite empty.
The processing plant was also shut down. The once-roaring distillation machine assembly lines were silent.
The only sign of activity was in the large pool where the red earthworms lived. Meanwhile, in the green algae pools on the other side, which were supposed to feed the red earthworms, only a few sparse patches of green algae floated.
Wang Dazhi awkwardly said, "The red worm factory has stopped production because the red earthworms are not breeding."
Jing Shu nodded without a word.
Otherwise, this man would be a fool. Red earthworms could create tens of tons of food value every day; it’s akin to a money-printing machine—why wouldn’t it be running?
Wang Dazhi continued awkwardly, "The key to breeding red earthworms is this green algae. This green algae is behaving strangely; it suddenly stopped reproducing. We’ve consulted all the staff, and they say they just followed the procedures for cultivation and claim it’s out of their hands."
Jing Shu nodded again.
Wang Dazhi was almost in tears. Based on his experience in the business world, the exceptional aspect of the Insect Cake Factory was its unique method that allowed the cultivation of red earthworms. So many people nationwide had failed to do so. If someone had succeeded, they must have used some special method.
They had bribed some insiders and had gone through the entire process, eventually realizing that the green algae was the key to reproduction. They summarized, analyzed, and even stole the methods for cultivating green algae, believing they had found the solution and the knack for it.
The red earthworms did indeed breed quite effortlessly—very easily, in fact. This success led to the subsequent series of events, such as applying pressure with a death list and ultimately the buyout.
But they hadn’t anticipated that this method would become useless after just one week. No matter what they tried—even taking it apart for analysis and study—they simply couldn’t figure it out.
"So... you see, can you tell us why the old processes and methods are no longer working for breeding red earthworms and green algae?"
Jing Shu answered matter-of-factly, "Of course. It’s because I’m the only one who can manage the breeding of green algae and red earthworms. They listen only to me. If I’m not here, how could they possibly reproduce?"