The Stepmother's Counterattack: Raising a Child in a Bygone Era-Chapter 854 - 853: Following Big Brother, Nine Meals in Three Days

Chapter 854: Chapter 853: Following Big Brother, Nine Meals in Three Days

"President Shen, there’s a big problem!"

Midday, just after lunch, Shen Mingzhu was getting ready to play Tetris on her computer to unwind and relax when her assistant Xia Wushuang hurried in.

Shen Mingzhu closed the game interface, "Don’t panic, take your time and tell me what happened."

Xia Wushuang caught her breath, "At lunchtime in the canteen, I overheard some employees saying that Lejia has ordered four mooncake production lines from Lihua!"

Seeing Shen Mingzhu smile, Xia Wushuang couldn’t help but urgently say, "But once Lejia has the same new production lines next year, won’t our factory lose its edge?"

"Everyone makes money, that’s good, isn’t it?"

Xia Wushuang choked for a moment before grumbling, "President Shen, your attitude is really something else."

"Alright, don’t get worked up just yet, take a look at this."

Shen Mingzhu smiled and pulled out a business card holder from her bag, drawing out a white card with gold embossing and handing it to her assistant.

"President Shen, did you get new business cards?"

Xia Wushuang was puzzled as she took the card.

There was a card holder on Shen Mingzhu’s desk, and the cards inside were cinnamon-colored.

But quickly, she noticed something was off with the card.

The name and position were correct, but the company name was different.

"Li Mei Food Machinery Co., Ltd.? President Shen, what’s this about? Someone has the same name as you?"

Shen Mingzhu left it open-ended, "Maybe you should think a bit more boldly."

Xia Wushuang stared at her for quite a while before saying, "You’ve started a new company? When did this happen?"

Shen Mingzhu replied succinctly, "Early last year."

Xia Wushuang suddenly remembered something and ran back to her desk, digging out the delivery note from when Lihua had installed the new production lines.

The manufacturer listed on the delivery note was the Li Mei Food Machinery Company from the business card!

Xia Wushuang was as excited as if she had discovered a new continent, "President Shen, are you the owner of the factory that made the new production lines?"

Shen Mingzhu explained, "I developed the production lines in collaboration with Lihua, I provided the funding and ideas, and Lihua was responsible for the technical development. It took a bit over a year."

Hearing this, Xia Wushuang’s admiration for Shen Mingzhu was like a never-ending torrential river.

Although the new production lines were indeed astonishing in capacity and efficiency, everyone in the factory, including Xia Wushuang, thought that it was not very cost-effective for Shen Mingzhu to introduce a mooncake production line that was only used for two months a year.

One production line cost over three hundred thousand, and five lines would be one million seven hundred thousand. It would take several years of mooncake profits to earn that much.

And now, these production lines were developed by Shen Mingzhu herself?

Selling her own products to her own factory—that’s like transferring money from one hand to the other! ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm

What Shen Mingzhu didn’t reveal to her assistant was that the Li Mei Food Machinery Co., Ltd. she had set up in partnership with Lihua developed automated production lines, not just for mooncakes, but also for potato chips, spicy strips, gummy candy, biscuits, cakes, and so on.

Initially, she just wanted to improve the food factory’s production technology and approached Lihua for collaboration.

It wasn’t until she was discussing the ownership of patent technology and sales dividends with Lihua that she realized this was a massive business opportunity.

So, she decided to co-found Li Mei Food Machinery Co., Ltd. with Lihua.

She invested twenty million to hold a 51% stake, taking up the position of General Manager, responsible for operations and the market.

Lihua was solely responsible for R&D, as well as providing technical support and after-sales service, yet they held a 49% share.

It might seem like Shen Mingzhu put in a substantial investment of real money—twenty million.

But Lihua was a major factory with a substantial background and connections, especially in the field of electronic information technology research, they were a leader in the country.

Mixing with such a big brother, one could feast three times every day.

Wonderful!

...

Upon learning that Li Mei was Shen Mingzhu’s venture, Xia Wushuang also became proactive about inviting peers from the same industry to visit the new production lines.

In just one week, more than a dozen food factories had visited, many of which had traveled from other provinces.

And these peers, after seeing the capacity and efficiency of the automated production lines, made calls to inquire and place orders with the manufacturer.

To facilitate management, Shen Mingzhu set up Li Mei’s office in Fengcheng, while the factory was located in Quancheng and managed by Lihua.

Shen Mingzhu, with limited energy, could not manage both the food factory and Li Mei at the same time. Therefore, she hired a deputy manager to handle the operations of Li Mei.

The deputy manager was named Dan Minjing, an MBA classmate of Shen Mingzhu’s when she was studying in London.

The two had maintained a good relationship during their stay in London, and continued to keep in touch over the past two to three years.

Dan Minjing was originally an administrative manager at a foreign trade group. After returning to China with her degree, she struggled to get promoted due to her immediate supervisor’s suppression.

Hearing of this, Shen Mingzhu directly poached Dan Minjing with a high salary.

"These last days, the company has received inquiries from twenty-nine enterprises, with six placing orders, selling a total of twenty-three production lines. The total sales amount to 7.36 million, with a prepaid deposit of 2.2 million. Additionally, among those who have not placed orders, more than ten are very interested in our production lines, and I believe we can still secure more orders with a little more effort."

After Dan Minjing reported, her face flushed with excitement and exhilaration, "President Shen, we’ve had an auspicious start!"

Shen Mingzhu, looking through the report data, was in high spirits as well, "Go back and tell everyone that they’ve worked hard during this period. This month’s performance bonuses will be doubled. Also, over the National Day holiday, the company will pay for the entire company to take a trip to the Capital, and everyone can bring a family member."

"Great!"

"President Shen, you are too incredible—sitting back and earning millions, you’re practically a walking money-printing machine!"

After Dan Minjing left, Xia Wushuang couldn’t help but flatter her boss.

Xia Wushuang had also been arranged by Shen Mingzhu to sit in while Dan Minjing was reporting.

Now, Shen Mingzhu’s focus was primarily on the food factory, and she couldn’t spare any time for Li Mei. Many tasks had to be delegated to Xia Wushuang, her assistant, to run errands.

To this end, Shen Mingzhu had Dan Minjing offer Xia Wushuang a nominal position as a salesperson at Li Mei.

With that, she would be able to receive two salaries each month, in addition to what Shen Mingzhu just announced—that all Li Mei staff would have their performance bonuses doubled this month.

Xia Wushuang’s smile was so wide, not even an AK could suppress it.

Shen Mingzhu looked at her assistant with amusement, advising, "Don’t spend money frivolously when you earn it. Save it well and aim to buy your own house as soon as possible."

Although she felt she was still young and that getting married or buying a house should be something to consider in a few years, Xia Wushuang still nodded in agreement.

While Shen Mingzhu was filling her coffers with the profits from the mooncake production lines, Du Juan and her husband were also making smooth progress in their collaboration with Fu Wang.

After half a month of negotiation, the two parties finally agreed:

Fu Wang would provide thirty million in production equipment, and Du Juan would invest ten million to jointly establish a branch factory in Fengcheng.

It was early September.

Mingzhu Restaurant had successfully installed computers in branches nationwide, and the staff had completed training on the backend redemption of mooncake vouchers; this year’s mooncake pickup had officially started.