The day after Fang Bai returned to Wen City from T City, he rode his motorcycle with his father to the carton factory and foam factory to order cardboard boxes and foam boards for televisions.
They had always sold televisions without cardboard packaging; customers would directly carry the bare sets home.
What a joke!
They were test units, where would the cartons come from!
None!
Even if customers asked, there were none!
How glorious it was to carry a bare set home.
Of course, this was all self-deception, and also deceiving the customers.
As for the original packaging cartons, one would have to ask the original customers, who probably forgot which corner they threw them in and had long since discarded them in the trash.
Now that he had money, Fang Bai's intention was: standardized production!
Even if they were refurbishing, they had to offer a full set of services to improve customer satisfaction.
Next, Fang Bai even considered offering city-wide TV delivery.
Of course, this would only be for customers purchasing large-screen color televisions.
However, they had no physical store, no truck, and no phone contact between the two parties, so home delivery presented many problems that were not easy to solve.
It wasn't like later generations where you could give an address, and when the truck arrived, you'd call the customer to open the door for easy TV moving.
It was difficult to implement now.
When the truck arrived, they couldn't find the customer, delaying delivery time.
Additionally, this would undoubtedly increase Fang Bai's costs, such as drivers and trucks.
And his sale of refurbished televisions would, at most, last until the announcement of the subscription certificates.
After careful consideration, in less than half a minute, Fang Bai still gave up on the home delivery plan, unless he continued to sell refurbished televisions.
Forget it, he would just be a capitalist for once; he couldn't be blamed, as circumstances dictated it.
Fang Bai really wanted to change this world, but he currently lacked the ability, so for now, he would honestly make money.
He had already changed his family's thoughts and living conditions, solving the problems of difficulty in eating meat and traveling, which was already a great success.
It had been almost two months since his rebirth, and he had also worked hard to change his father-in-law's factory and his father-in-law's management philosophy for the factory; currently, his father-in-law should have made some changes.
As for his wife, Qin Shuyu, whom he most wanted to make up for, due to their current long-distance relationship, it could only be this way for now.
If he could get into a university in Shanghai and study there together, accompanying her through her wonderful university years and no longer letting her spend a lonely and boring four years of university life, that would be his first step in making amends to her.
The premise was a good material foundation, and Fang Bai had been working hard, feeling quite satisfied with his progress so far.
Some regrets from his previous life had also been compensated for, leaving him with less guilt and more joy.
As for his fingers, with the Golden Finger's assistance, he could only take it slowly; they would fully recover one day.
Five days later,
The cardboard boxes and foam boards Fang Bai ordered were ready; the foam boards were flat, not molded to the TV's shape, as molding would be too costly.
His intention was to attach foam boards to all six sides of the TV for packaging, simply to prevent scratches.
As for the cardboard boxes, they had no words or pictures printed on the outside, a blank canvas.
With so many TV brands and different sizes, adding pictures and text would undoubtedly increase the inventory of cartons, and sorting would be troublesome; Fang Bai didn't have that many people, nor enough space in the room to store them.
In short, being able to achieve this much was already very difficult.
It was quite troublesome to spend time packaging each TV after it was sold.
Just one day later, Fang Bai went to Hengli Company and Boli Company to collect payments, which went quite smoothly.
The financial management of these two companies was rather extensive; Hengli Company's money was managed by the boss's wife herself, and Boli Company's money was managed by the boss's relative, who was also a financial staff member, but certainly not a professional one.
Making payments to public or private accounts was very troublesome; Fang Bai received cash, and as long as he got the money, he didn't care about the form.
The first payment from Hengli Company was 7,500 yuan, and from Boli Company was 4,200 yuan.
After receiving the money, Fang Bai rode his motorcycle to his father-in-law's processing factory to settle the payment for the first batch of orders with him.
Qin Donghai took a wad of money from Fang Bai's hand, a smile spreading across his face, his heart overflowing with joy.
For the first payments from the two companies, his processing fees were 4,500 yuan and 2,300 yuan respectively, totaling 6,800 yuan; after deducting all expenses, he could make over five thousand yuan in profit, which was his profit for the past two months.
And the time spent was only two or three weeks.
"Fang Laodi, we finally have money to eat! Want to drink together tonight?"
"Another day, I'm really busy."
Fang Bai was now unwilling to drink with his father-in-law; the last time, he was drunk and called him brother.
If it happened again, he really didn't know what kind of mess would ensue.
Before revealing his relationship with Qin Shuyu to his father-in-law, he truly didn't want to drink with him again; he would surely get drunk.
"Alright then, you're truly a busy man."
Qin Donghai didn't know what else Fang Bai was busy with, but he always saw him doing things in a hurry, walking two steps as one.
Fang Bai checked the 5S situation at Jiayu Processing Factory and saw that the floor had been painted yellow; it wasn't perfect, but it was somewhat organized.
In terms of production safety, it was done according to his instructions; everyone was wearing protective glasses.
After discussing some details of on-site management with his father-in-law, he started his motorcycle and left.
Zhang Dafu had just finished drilling a workpiece, wiped his sweat, and took a break, cheerfully saying to Qin Donghai:
"Boss, Fang is really young; he looks like he's only in his early twenties."
Qin Donghai heard this, looked at Fang Bai's departing back, who was riding his motorcycle with great vigor, and also nodded, directly saying, "Yes, he's very young."
He glanced at the workpieces on the outer tray of the drilling machine, noticing they were somewhat messy, and remembering Fang Bai's words, he said to him, "Dafu, after you finish processing, you need to arrange things neatly, and clean up the same day, otherwise he'll come and complain again.
Fang is our customer; if he's not satisfied, our orders will decrease.
But what he says is also correct; if the site is messy, and you can't even manage the site, how can you manage quality?"
"Okay, Boss."
Zhang Dafu chuckled, having no objections.
Some time ago, Qin Donghai raised his salary, which was higher than his peers, making him even more motivated to work now.
The customer's demands were a bit strict, but what he said was also correct and within a reasonable range.
"Work hard; our order volume is large. I plan to add equipment after a while. You are an old employee, so you need to help me share the work and expand the factory together. Your treatment will be good." Qin Donghai put on his gloves, continued working, and at the same time, painted a grand picture for Zhang Dafu.
"Haha, thank you, Boss."
As an old employee, Zhang Dafu was well aware of the workshop's order situation; they were already working two shifts, so adding equipment wasn't far off.
...
As night fell, the lights on the streets of Wen City gradually lit up, decorating the city's night.
When the shift changed, Qin Donghai rode his motorcycle across the river to go home.
In the evening, while having dinner with his wife, he poured himself a small glass of baijiu.
Chen Jiahui was a bit curious and asked with a chuckle, "What, you're interested in drinking today?"
"Hehe, I received payment for last month's orders, several thousand yuan, so I'm celebrating."
"Are you talking about the order with that young man, Fang Bai? I've never seen you so worried before."
Chen Jiahui occasionally listened to her husband talk about the processing factory, and she had heard her husband mention Fang Bai many times, so she now remembered his name, but she had never met him in person and didn't know what he looked like.
She heard he was a young man, articulate, and very good at business.
"Yes, Fang is very good. I've been doing his orders for the past one or two months. When I first started taking orders, I was afraid I wouldn't get paid, but I didn't realize I was overthinking it."
"That's normal, after all, it's the first collaboration."
Qin Donghai took a sip of his wine, saying contentedly, "He asked me to add more people, and I was really worried then.
Now I have nothing to worry about. With so many orders, it might not be a problem to earn twenty thousand yuan a month. When I have more savings, I'll add more equipment."
"Twenty thousand yuan, that much?"
Chen Jiahui exclaimed in surprise, "Can he earn so much?"
Her husband was single-mindedly focused on his career, and he didn't let her help him, saying the workshop was too dirty and noisy, which was bad for a woman's health.
"Fang designed a set of workholding fixtures and drill jigs, and the production efficiency is incredibly fast.
With two machines and two shifts, after deducting expenses and labor costs, we can earn nearly twenty thousand a month."
"So that's how it is. Then this person is indeed amazing. He must also be earning a lot, right?"
"I'm not sure. I just do my work honestly. He has the ability to get orders.
If I inquire too much, he might be displeased and find another processing factory, then I'd have to get orders myself, just like before, only earning twenty or thirty thousand a year, which isn't as good as now."
"Hmm, being controlled like this is unavoidable. It's better to honestly earn your rightful money."
"Exactly, that's what I think. Only then can we cooperate long-term." Qin Donghai said straightforwardly, remembering the young man, and changed the subject, saying,
"Speaking of Fang, he's also a unfortunate person. His right middle three fingers were severed by a shearing machine, and he underwent replantation surgery. He's not even married yet."
Chen Jiahui was surprised that he was so unfortunate, exclaiming, "Oh, that serious? If he can't make money, it might be a bit difficult for him to get a wife."
"Yes, he's a very spirited young man, sunny and handsome, but his fingers, sigh, what a pity."
Chen Jiahui agreed, "What's the use of being handsome? If his middle three fingers were severed, it severely affects his quality of life. The woman's family would definitely dislike it. If it were me, I definitely wouldn't agree."
Qin Donghai had a bit to drink and was somewhat agitated: "Wife, you're thinking too much.
How could our daughter, a university student, get involved with Fang?
Impossible!
Hey, I don't mean to look down on Fang, but they are in completely different circles; the cultural and ideological differences are too great."
"You really are something. Comparing him to others. Unless he's from a prestigious university, how could he be worthy of our daughter? And he needs to be physically sound and treat our daughter well."
"Let's eat. Our daughter is still in university, this matter is far off."
Qin Donghai poured himself another small glass of wine, took a sip, and felt great.
Chen Jiahui kicked her husband's foot: "Husband, I miss our daughter a bit. When you earn more money, I want to buy her a pager so it'll be easier to call her in the future."
"Hmm, that's fine."
That night, Qin Donghai and his wife talked about Fang Bai, their daughter, and some factory matters.