Courtyard House: Purchasing Agents' Comeback from the Great Famine

The Intermediate People's Court, the Wang family.

Lu Banxia brought the chicken soup to the table. She first served a bowl of rice, then served a large bowl of chicken soup to Qin Jingru and took it into her room before starting to eat with Wang Feng.

Despite having just given birth, Qin Jingru is in much the same condition as usual, eating as much as she normally would.

As for milk powder, Wang Feng has plenty in his space, including a lot of imported products, so there's no need to worry about the child going hungry.

After lunch, Wang Feng told Qin Jingru and then hurriedly went to courtyard number 28 to share the good news.

Lou Xiao'e was overjoyed to hear that Qin Jingru had given birth to a son. When she heard that the child's name was Wang Teng, she was not surprised. It was a name that the three of them had thought about for a long time.

But when she heard that the child's nickname was Tie Niu, she couldn't help but burst out laughing.

Tie Niu's nickname is too common, isn't it? If the child grows up and becomes the boss of a company, and the workers find out his nickname, won't he be laughed at to death?

After the initial excitement, Lou Xiao'e couldn't wait to drag Wang Feng to take a nap. Now that Qin Jingru had given birth, she was incredibly envious, but her own belly showed no signs of pregnancy, so she had to work even harder.

......

Early the next morning.

Lu Banxia prepared breakfast. Today she was going to the factory to ask for leave, so she didn't get up as early as usual. Usually, she would get up before 5:30 to prepare breakfast and also cook lunch.

After breakfast, after Lu Banxia went to the steel rolling mill, Wang Feng greeted Qin Jingru and went to the steel rolling mill as well.

With less than ten days until the end of the year, he had to go to the factory; Li Huaide must also have something to discuss with him.

When Wang Feng arrived at the factory by bicycle, he did the same thing as before: he first went to the office of the Purchasing Department III. After not finding anyone there, he then went to the factory manager's office.

The Purchasing Department 3 is closest to the factory gate. Every time he comes to the factory, he will visit the Purchasing Department 3 office. After all, he is the deputy head of Purchasing Department 3. He rarely comes to the factory, so he must know the situation of Purchasing Department 3 very well. His monthly salary of 99 yuan is not for nothing.

"Knock knock knock".

"Please come in."

Wang Feng pushed open the door and walked into the factory office. Upon seeing Wang Feng, Li Huaide stood up excitedly, as if he had seen a savior, and said:

"Brother, you've finally arrived! I've been looking for you anxiously. If you hadn't come in the next couple of days, I would have gone to your courtyard to look for you."

Wang Feng sat down opposite Li Huaide, offered him a Zhonghua cigarette, and asked, knowing the answer already:

"Brother Li, what's the rush? The sky's not going to fall, what happened?"

Li Huaide took the cigarette, lit it, and sighed deeply: "What else could it be? It's just about distributing supplies to the workers as the year draws to a close."

Wang Feng lit a cigarette and asked with a smile, "Brother Li, is our factory not distributing any supplies to the workers this year? What kind of supplies does the factory have right now?"

Li Huaide exhaled a puff of smoke, his face full of worry.

"This year is even worse than last year. At least last year, the higher-ups distributed enough flour and several thousand kilograms of pork, but this year... sigh!"

"What's wrong this year? Not at all?" Wang Feng asked.

Li Huaide sighed, "It's not that there's none, but it's less than half of last year's amount. If we distribute it evenly based on the current amount, each person will only receive two catties of flour and three ounces of pork. My dear brother, this is tough for me!"

"Tell me, the workers have been working themselves to the bone all year, and all they want is to have dumplings with their families on New Year's Eve. But now each person only gets three ounces of pork. What's that enough for?"

Upon hearing this, Wang Feng nodded. He remembered that during last year's Spring Festival, each person received three catties of wheat flour and half a catty of pork.

Li Huaide said urgently, "Brother, do you have any ideas? If you do, you have to help your brother. There are over ten thousand people here. If they cause trouble, I'll be in deep trouble."

"Brother Li, I remember that last year everyone only received half a jin of pork, right? If we also receive half a jin this year, wouldn't the shortfall be more than two thousand jin?" Wang Feng asked.

Li Huaide nodded: "The shortage is indeed more than 2,000 catties, about 2300 catties would be enough. Brother, you have to help me think of a way. The flour has been reduced from three catties to two catties, which is not a big problem. We can just buy more candy to replace it. But the meat is only three liang per person, which is really not enough. It's not even enough to make a meal of dumplings."

Wang Feng didn't agree immediately. After finishing his cigarette, he didn't stand on ceremony and picked up a special Panda cigarette from Li Huaide's desk and lit it.

"Brother Li, I knew long ago that our factory wouldn't have enough meat to go around the year-end. I went to the mountains with a group of hunter friends a while ago, and now I do have quite a bit of meat on hand. Didn't I send less meat to the factory these past two months? This is all in advance for the year-end."

"I currently have four large wild boars, about two hundred wild rabbits, and more than two hundred fish. All of these together weigh about three thousand catties (2,000 kg) of live weight, and the meat yield is about two thousand two hundred to two thousand three hundred catties (2,200 to 2,300 kg)."

"Brother Li, how about we do it the same way as last year? Let the workshop foreman do an end-of-year evaluation for the workers. Since it's all half a pound of meat anyway, those with excellent performance get pork, those with decent performance get wild boar meat, those with average performance get rabbit meat, and those with the worst performance get fish meat. What do you think?"

Upon hearing that Wang Feng had prepared three thousand catties of meat in advance, Li Huaide immediately stood up excitedly and laughed heartily:

"Hahaha, hahaha, bro, it has to be you! I knew it, Brother Li, nothing is a problem in your hands. You're truly my lucky star!"

"No problem, we'll do it your way. This arrangement worked fine last year, so it definitely will work this year too. Besides, it's their own poor performance, so they can't blame anyone else, right?"

Wang Feng smiled and nodded. The reason he was willing to take out so much meat at once was to maintain his relationship with Li Huaide. He understood the principle that it was better to offer help in times of need than to add flowers to brocade.

After all, Li Huaide could still help him a lot in many things openly, and after spending the last two years together, he found Li Huaide to be a fairly humane person and a friend worth making.

With the problem solved, Li Huaide was in high spirits. He and Wang Feng smoked one cigarette after another, chatting casually. They finished half a pack of the special Little Panda cigarettes in less than an hour.