Courir partout et jouer des rôles mineurs

Chapitre 27

But all the employees at the popsicle factory were on holiday, so the Qiu family had to step in.

They didn't even have lunch; they hurriedly offered New Year's greetings and then rushed to the factory.

The group from Shanglin all ate lunch at the old house.

Li Changsheng kept his head down and said, "I'll go with you."

Puzzled: "What are you going to do?"

Expressionless: "Get to work, do your job!"

She's always complaining that she wants me to do chores for her in exchange for food money.

Children love to join in the fun, so Xia Lin refused to go home alone and went to Xinglong with them.

Xinglong Popsicle Factory is not far from the town center. When the site was initially chosen, Qiu Jianguo hoped to rent the vacant factory buildings of the printing factory, but this was met with strong opposition from Shang Lin.

They rented an abandoned factory building. The government had planned to build a winery in the town, but the winery was never built, and the factory building was abandoned instead. They bribed officials to rent the entire large factory building at a very low price. Initially, Zhang Hongwei thought such a large space was unnecessary, but Qiu Shanglin insisted. Not only that, she also tried to buy the factory building with her founding savings of seven thousand yuan, but this was opposed by Qiu Jianguo and Zhang Hongwei.

Shanglin was indignant. "Fine, fine, you don't listen to Miss. Don't blame me if you suffer in the future!"

Upon entering the factory, all three of them were stunned.

The factory was not bustling with people scrambling for goods as they had imagined. Instead, it was deserted, with only a vendor packing a dozen or so large milk blocks into a box on his bicycle.

Zhang Hongwei and Qiu Jianguo sat leisurely outside the retail window, basking in the sun and chatting contentedly with the vendors about their day's harvest.

Seeing the three of them enter, Zhang Hongwei asked in surprise, "Shanglin? What are you doing here?"

She approached with a puzzled look, then glanced back at the gate to make sure she wasn't in the wrong place. She went up to her mother and asked, "What happened? Where is everyone?"

"Who is it?" Zhang Hongwei was even more puzzled than she was.

Where are all the wholesalers?

I've never heard of a second factory in town. Last year, the wholesale window at the factory had long queues, and demand couldn't keep up with supply.

Zhang Hongwei laughed: "Isn't this all your dad's idea? He had already contacted one of the bigger stores in town and arranged for the popsicles to be sold to them at a price lower than the normal wholesale price. Then he sent all the small-volume wholesalers there."

Huh?

She carefully observed her father, who was lounging comfortably in his chair with his eyes half-closed. A cup of hot tea sat beside him, and he looked very relaxed, enjoying the warmth of the winter sun.

Her father, as she remembered him, was a typical Chinese man, known for his good temper and habitual forbearance. He was filial to his parents, respectful to his elder brothers, and loving towards his siblings. He disliked his wife's strong-willed nature and demanded that she be dutiful to his parents, regardless of whether they were biased. He was at a loss when faced with the family's poverty because he was an honest man, and honest men tend to accept their fate passively.

As the wave of layoffs swept across the country, he became one of the first to be forced to lose his secure job. What followed was hardship, endless arguments, and ultimately, divorce.

After the divorce, he tried his best to be a good father, but as the saying goes, with a stepmother comes a stepfather. Facing the new wife and the new young children, he could only watch with a weary gaze as his daughter and this family drifted further and further apart.

Finding secondary wholesalers at relatively low prices to reduce stress and avoid ending up in the hospital is a great idea.

She suddenly realized that perhaps Xinglong wouldn't need to work so hard delivering goods everywhere every day. They could simply find agents in various places to supply and sell exclusively, which would be the safest and most convenient way to expand their scale.

Her father doesn't seem to be the useless person I remember...

She was planning to expand her territory through a secondary distributor model, with exclusive supply and sales. If things went smoothly, Xinglong's various popsicles would capture a large market share, penetrating the entire provincial market and perhaps even the national market.

Wow, what an enticing idea.

To dominate the national ice cream market and expand Xinglong—just thinking about it excites her. Maybe not just ice cream, but dairy products? Cakes? What else?

But what about the risks? What about the risks she had considered? The food industry has strict health requirements, and with such a large company comes a lot of scrutiny. What if something goes wrong? Can her mother manage an even larger enterprise?

"Your head is smoking."

Li Changsheng, who was usually very quiet and never spoke unless asked, suddenly blurted out a sentence, staring at Qiu Shanglin with a stern face.

"ah?"

Li Changsheng accepted the popsicle Zhang Hongwei offered with a smile, feeling somewhat awkward. He didn't like sweets, but he couldn't refuse—not because he didn't want to, but because he couldn't.

Zhang Hongwei treated their rejections as nothing.

He casually handed it to Qiu Xialin, who was already licking it, and told Shanglin, "You're overthinking things. Your head is steaming."

Well, if you don't want to get yourself into a mess, it's best to just do it directly instead of hesitating and overthinking.

1

Dragon lanterns and fighting

Eating glutinous rice balls and dancing with dragon lanterns on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month is a long-standing tradition in Zifang Town. The Japanese occupation period could not stop this tradition, and the Cultural Revolution's campaign to eliminate the Four Olds could not dampen people's enthusiasm. As life improved, villages and towns across the country formed a large-scale alliance to discuss holding a lantern festival this year.

The so-called "lantern parade" is a gathering of dragon lantern teams from the surrounding villages. On the Lantern Festival, they agree on a time and place to put their dragon lanterns to the test and see whose team performs the best.

This is a matter of strength and face. Not only Qiujia Village, but also Hongxing Printing Factory, as one of the most prominent state-owned enterprises in Zifang Town, decided to participate in this event in order to boost morale and enrich the cultural and recreational life of its employees.

The factory leaders sincerely invited Qiu Jianguo to perform the dragon head dance—it was a prestigious job, and most people couldn't even get the chance to do it.

Qiu Jianguo was busy expanding his own business and had no time or inclination to play around, so he readily declined. Of course, to thank the factory leaders for their kindness, he also donated some money to buy costumes for the factory's dragon lantern team.

On the day of the Lantern Festival, the streets were bustling with traffic. People from all around came to see the lanterns, crowding the streets. Xia Lin was tied with a rope and struggled forward anxiously. The other end of the rope was held by Li Changsheng.

It's no wonder Shanglin was ruthless; Qiuxialin brought it upon himself.

To be honest, he was incredibly stubborn. Shanglin tried everything to teach him, and even a stone would have been moved. He knew his sister meant well, but he just couldn't control his legs and always loved to wander off.

A few days ago, taking advantage of Shang Lin's inattention, he and his sworn brother ran off to play, only to be intercepted by a bunch of clueless bastards who demanded protection money. What kind of temper does Qiu Xia Lin have? He's grateful if they don't take protection money from others, how could he allow himself to be bullied? The two sides fought fiercely, and their side was outnumbered and outmatched, with Xia Lin getting beaten to a pulp.

When Shanglin got home, he got angry and chased him all over the yard, making him scream and run like a ghost.

Lin Shen was well aware of his talent for causing trouble. Today, with so many people around, he was afraid that he would cause trouble again, so he simply tied him up with a rope and had Li Changsheng lead him. He didn't believe that Li Changsheng could sprout wings and fly to the sky!

Li Changsheng was actually quite dismissive. He wasn't there that day; if he had, Qiu Xialin wouldn't have been beaten into a pig's head. He would have definitely beaten the other person into a pig's head instead. Upon hearing this, Shanglin slapped him on the head. Looking at their two identical, unruly faces, he wished he could stuff them into a furnace and burn them like sweet potatoes!

He initially thought today's whole thing was unnecessary; with him around, where could Qiu Xialin run to, and what trouble could he possibly cause? Qiu Xialin listened to his opinion without a word, then tightened the rope: "If he runs away or causes trouble, I'll skin you alive, tear you apart, and grind your bones to dust!"

Li Changsheng tilted his head. He was familiar with skinning and pulling out tendons, but what was this thing called crushing bones and scattering ashes?

Xia Lin noticed Li Ge's confusion and fawned over him, saying, "My sister is ruthless. She'll burn us to ashes and then scatter them to the wind."

Upon hearing this, Changsheng thought, "The most poisonous heart is that of a woman. I never thought that Qiu Shanglin, who is so weak and frail, would actually know the ways of the martial arts world."

The photo shows Qiu Shanglin's vicious heart. Although he had a lot of opinions about binding Qiu Xialin like a prisoner, he still held the rope tightly in his hand and took care of Shanglin, who was being jostled around by the crowd from time to time.

They followed behind the dragon lantern team from the Hongxing Printing Factory. The factory's family members held and led their children, adults and children alike chatting and laughing, comparing the differences between their factory's dragon lanterns and those from other villages. "Our factory's dragon lanterns are so beautiful! Look at the yellow cloth wrapped around the dragon's body, it was specially bought from the city's department store. The colors are bright and lively, and the patterns are exquisite and ingenious. Unlike the dragons from other villages, which look so yellow and tacky."

And look at the clothes worn by the people dancing with lanterns; aren't they brighter and more colorful than those in other villages?

Look again... hey, no need to look anymore, it's better than other villages no matter how you look at it! It's just better!

A small vendor with a box on the back of his bicycle followed alongside the crowd, holding up a tall bamboo pole with brightly colored popsicle wrappers hanging from it. These included Xinglong's original "Jiejiegao" and "Little White Rabbit" brands, as well as other better-quality brands that were added later. In short, almost everything hanging there was a product of the Xinglong factory.

Every now and then, a child would run over with money in hand, saying, "I want the little white rabbit!"

"I want a chocolate bar!"

"Banana, banana, I want banana flavor!"

Shanglin looked at the vendor's booming business and felt a little envious: "Hey, let's go buy a snowman."

Li Changsheng, clutching the money, led Xia Lin to the vendor's cart and said, "Three snowmen."

The other person paused for a moment, seemingly pondering what a snowman was. Then they remembered that before Xinglong Factory opened, they mostly sold snowman heads as popsicles, and since Xinglong opened, no one had bought snowmen for a long time. They laughed, "Nobody eats snowmen anymore! Come on, try this chocolate bar, it's delicious!"

Li Changsheng turned around and asked Shanglin for his opinion.

Stumbling and squeezing through the crowd, she frowned: "How could there not be? Snowmen are so delicious, much better than chocolate bars."

The vendor was displeased. He looked the little girl up and down and saw that she was from a wealthy family. Why couldn't she tell the difference between good and bad?

He said with dissatisfaction, "How can you talk like that, little girl? This is an ice pop from Xinglong Ice Pop Factory, much better than those no-name brands like Snowman! Xinglong is from our Zifang Town, and they even sell to the provincial capital!"

The vendor argued frantically, which made Lin chuckle: "I know, I know, you're the pride of our town. Don't worry, I don't like chocolate bars, give me a White Rabbit candy instead."

As the vendor rummaged through the box, he muttered, "They don't eat the good stuff, they just buy the cheap stuff. They really know how to save money."

Xia Lin pouted, about to retort, when someone suddenly interjected, "She's probably the most thrifty kid in the whole town, or even the whole country!"

Shanglin exclaimed with delight: "Teacher Lin!"

It was none other than Lin Tongmao, the primary school teacher.

"Happy New Year, Teacher Lin! I'd like to visit you, but you're not home!" Shang Lin has always had a deep affection for this teacher.

Lin Tongmao smiled and patted Lin's head: "Happy New Year to you too, and may you prosper! I went back to my hometown for the New Year and only came back a few days ago."

As they talked, they joined together to catch up with the procession and headed towards the gathering point for the dragon lantern festival.

Lin Tongmao kept asking as he walked, "Where is Yin Yeyao?"

She saw a strange child, whose expression was no less sinister than Yin Yeyao's, but he was nowhere to be seen. The Qiu family's children are truly worrisome; look at the kind of people she associates with, each one with a sharper gaze than the last.

"Brother Yin is busy!" Xia Lin answered quickly, licking his popsicle.

Yin Yeyao hasn't seen him since after the Spring Festival; he must be extremely busy.