Back to 2008: I Helped My Dad Become the Richest Man

"Five hundred thousand...we...we don't have that much money!" Li Minxia's voice was choked with sobs.

The night before, she was still calculating her earnings, but now her face had turned pale, and her fingers were unconsciously twisting the hem of her clothes.

"We still have over 200,000 yuan in our account, right? Plus the revenue from the shop and the pig farm, we get 70,000 to 80,000 yuan a month. But all of this money has to be kept as working capital and can't be touched." Li Minxia explained the family's finances clearly. "To come up with 500,000 yuan all at once, unless... unless we sell the new house."

"No way!" Luo Xinde was the first to jump up and object. "This house was just built, how can we sell it!"

"Don't rush into the money issue," Luo Xiyuan said. "There's always a solution to every problem. What we need to do now is figure out the QS certification application process. Money alone isn't enough to get this done."

Over the next few days, Luo Xiyuan devoted all her time to researching production license certification.

Luo Xiyuan asked Wang Defa to retrieve a large pile of application materials and review details from the Municipal Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision.

The documents were filled with numerous clauses, and Luo Xiyuan flipped through them, her face covered in dense technical jargon, occasionally rubbing her temples.

Luo Xiyuan locked herself in her study, reading day and night. She marked each page with a pen, pondering every word and sentence.

Luo Xiyuan discovered that things were more complicated than she had expected.

QS certification, in addition to requirements for hardware such as factory buildings and equipment, also includes strict assessments of software such as management systems.

Enterprises need to establish a quality management system that includes a "Quality Manual", "Procedure Documents", "Work Instructions", etc., which adds up to hundreds of thousands of words.

For a rural family that has never even had a high school graduate, this is almost an insurmountable hurdle.

"What... what is all this nonsense?" Luo Xinde held a copy of the "HACCP Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point Plan," his brows furrowed in disbelief. "I can't understand a single word of it."

"Dad, you don't need to understand it. I'll write it down," Luo Xiyuan said.

"You're writing this?" Luo Xinde and Li Minxia stared wide-eyed at Luo Xiyuan.

"Mm." Luo Xiyuan nodded.

In her previous life, Luo Xiyuan worked as a quality control officer at a large food company. Later, she was transferred to a management position and knew the clauses of quality management systems such as ISO9001 and HACCP by heart.

What Luo Xiyuan needs to do now is to put the knowledge in her mind back onto paper.

During that period, Luo Xiyuan stayed at home.

During the day she goes to school, and when she comes home in the evening, Luo Xiyuan buries herself in her study, typing away at the computer.

When I'm sleepy, I drink a strong cup of tea. When I'm hungry, I eat a steamed bun.

Luo Xinde and Li Minxia looked at their daughter's increasingly gaunt face and the bruises under her eyes, and sighed from time to time outside the door.

"Xiyuan, how about... we stop doing this?" Li Minxia, ​​carrying a bowl of chicken soup, walked into the study, her eyes red-rimmed. "Mom can't bear to see you like this. Let's stop earning this money, okay?"

"Mom, I'm fine." Luo Xiyuan looked up and smiled at her mother, her lips moving with some difficulty. "Don't worry, I know what I'm doing. We can get through this."

Two weeks later, Luo Xiyuan placed a thick stack of over three hundred pages of neatly bound "Luo's Food Co., Ltd. Quality Management System Documents" on the table. Luo Xinde and Li Minxia stared at the thick pile of papers, speechless for a long time.

Luo Xinde opened the "Quality Manual," which contained a very detailed list of everything from the company's organizational structure and the responsibilities of each position to the acceptance standards for raw materials and the factory inspection process for finished products.

"Xi Yuan, this... this was really written by you alone?" Luo Xinde's hand, which was turning the page, stopped in mid-air.

"Hmm." Luo Xiyuan rubbed her sore eyes. "The software part is sorted out. Next up is the hardware, which will cost extra."

Luo Xiyuan took out another drawing.

That was a hand-drawn layout diagram of the food factory workshop, based on the requirements of the production license review rules.

"Changing rooms, handwashing and disinfection rooms, air showers, raw material warehouses, auxiliary material warehouses, finished product warehouses, inner packaging material warehouses, outer packaging material warehouses, production workshops, laboratories... every functional area must be strictly separated to avoid cross-contamination."

"Especially the production workshop, which I designed as a Class 100,000 cleanroom. That is to say, the air in the workshop must be filtered to reach a very high cleanliness standard."

"And then there's the laboratory. We need to buy a biochemical incubator, an autoclave, an analytical balance, a pH meter... all of these need to be equipped."

Luo Xiyuan pointed to the blueprints and explained each item one by one.

Luo Xinde and Liu Ye nodded repeatedly. Although they didn't understand what a cleanroom was, they could tell that the planning standards on the blueprints were rigorous and well-organized.

"Great! We have the blueprints, let's build it according to these!" Luo Xinde slapped his thigh. "I'll figure out the money!"

As Luo Xinde listened to his daughter's plans, he rubbed his hands together, his eyes shining.

But how do we solve the money problem?

Luo Xinde first went to see the village chief, Wang Jianguo.

Upon hearing that a high-standard food factory was to be built, Wang Jianguo immediately expressed his support. At the meeting, he passed a resolution to allocate a considerable area of ​​wasteland at the east end of the village to the Luo family at a very low price.

The land issue has been resolved.

There is still a significant shortfall in funds available for construction.

Luo Xinde then went to see Director Zhang of the credit union.

After hearing that the Luo family wanted to build a food factory that met QS standards, Director Zhang nodded repeatedly.

"Boss Luo, your project has a very promising future! It can be considered a key project in our county! The loan should be no problem!" Director Zhang replied readily.

"However," Director Zhang changed the subject, "according to regulations, applying for a large loan requires sufficient collateral. Your farm's land is leased, and the pigsty was built by yourself, so neither can be considered valid collateral. Your newly built house, however, is acceptable. But I've estimated its value, and it's probably only worth about 150,000 yuan. That's still quite a distance from the 500,000 yuan requirement."

150,000, plus the more than 200,000 from my family, only 400,000 is still not enough.

Li Minxia was the first to shake her head when it came to mortgaging the family's new house.

"That's our home! If something happens, we won't even have a place to live!" Li Minxia clenched her hands in front of her and shook her head repeatedly.

It seems that taking out a loan is no longer an option.

Luo Xinde hadn't slept well for several days.

Luo Xinde even considered asking Wang Defa of Jinhai Bay for a loan. But he quickly dismissed the idea.

Luo Xinde didn't want his partners to see the financial difficulties, so he suppressed the idea.

Just as the family was in silence, someone came to their door.

The one who arrived was Zhao Hu, the former meat market tycoon who had been recruited by Luo Xiyuan.

Zhao Hu is now the transportation dispatch supervisor at Luo's Farm, and he looks more energetic than before.

"Boss Luo, General Manager Luo." Zhao Hu walked into the office, rubbing his hands somewhat awkwardly. "I heard... the factory is facing some difficulties? Worried about money?"

"Yes," Luo Xinde sighed, not hiding it.

Zhao Hu gritted his teeth, took out something wrapped in newspaper from his pocket, and placed it on the table.

"Boss Luo, this is what I've saved up over the years. It's not much, just... 100,000 yuan." Zhao Hu opened the newspaper, revealing ten neatly bundled stacks of banknotes inside.

"I know this amount of money is nothing compared to the shortfall. But it's a small token of my appreciation. You took me in despite past grievances and gave me this job; I, Zhao Hu, will always remember that kindness! Now that you're in trouble, I can't just stand by and watch! Take this money first! No need for an IOU or interest! Just pay me back when you're better off!"

After Zhao Hu finished speaking, he pushed the newspaper forward.

Luo Xinde and Luo Xiyuan were both stunned. Neither of them expected that at this critical juncture, it would be Zhao Hu, with whom they had a past conflict, who would step forward to pay the money.