Two days later, Wang Cheng arrived as agreed to sign the contract.
The old manager’s asking price really was low, but Wang Cheng took into account that some of the equipment was still new and offered a little extra as compensation. Everyone in business had it hard. When the old manager heard his reasoning, he was deeply moved, and just like that, Wang Cheng earned himself a figurative “good guy” card.
After the transfer agreement was signed, the old manager offered to take him around the factory and introduce him to several important employees. From now on, they would all be working for Wang Cheng, so getting acquainted was necessary. The factory workers were not surprised to see them. The old manager had already told them about it yesterday. Only a few veteran employees were somewhat resistant. No one knew what kind of person the new manager would be. What if he turned out to be difficult and overly picky?
What they had never expected was for the new factory manager to be only twenty-five, handsome and young. The younger women in the factory immediately began swooning over him.
“Is that young man really our new factory manager?”
“Yes, yes. He’s so handsome. If he really is, at least we’ll have something nice to look at every day. I wonder if he has a girlfriend?”
“Even if he doesn’t, you still won’t get a turn.”
“How do you know if I don’t try? At least I’ve got one advantage over other women.”
“What advantage?”
“The pavilion closest to the water gets the moon first.”
The women were talking loudly enough that Wang Cheng and the others, who happened to be nearby, could hear them. The old manager smiled at him. “Looks like I don’t need to worry. Mr. Wang is going to be even more popular than I ever was as the former manager.”
Wang Cheng smiled but did not join in. Being popular when you already had a lover was not necessarily a good thing.
The old manager then took him to the factory office and called in several key employees, introducing them to Wang Cheng one by one.
Even the smallest factory had all its necessary organs, and this jam factory was not small to begin with. It employed at least a hundred more people than the Wang family’s small workshop in Guanjia Village. The jam factory counted as a food factory rather than merely a food-processing plant, meaning it covered both food processing and food manufacturing. From now on, the jam produced by Wang Cheng’s family would no longer need to be transported to Boss Xie’s packaging factory for packaging.
The people the old manager called in were the supervisors of the various production sections, both men and women, generally over thirty. They knew far more of the factory’s inner workings. The old manager had clearly reassured them already, and none showed obvious resistance toward Wang Cheng as the new factory manager. Anyone capable of becoming a section supervisor was unlikely to act impulsively.
“Hello, everyone. My name is Wang Cheng. From now on, I’ll be the new manager of this jam factory. I don’t have much experience, so if there’s anything I do poorly, I hope you’ll all give me your guidance.” Wang Cheng inclined his head to them.
His attitude was sincere. Some had originally worried that the new manager might be difficult to get along with, but seeing that he did not judge them with prejudice and showed no trace of arrogance, they finally relaxed.
Changing managers, however, did not make the jam factory’s existing problems disappear. In an increasingly competitive market, there was nothing seriously wrong with the jam they produced, but it was not substantially better than competing brands either. Malicious competition from others in the industry had hurt them badly. The jam business was difficult to begin with, and customers searching for the lowest possible costs did not care about much else.
The old manager simply refused to behave like some other jam sellers and cut corners for profit. He rarely compromised on costs, and as a result, his retail prices had to be somewhat higher.
“Our jam sells for an average of around seven yuan. Other brands generally sell for about six, and the difference isn’t that large. Why did business still keep getting worse?” Wang Cheng did not understand how they had been operating. If they had stable customers, there was no reason the factory’s business should have deteriorated this badly.
“You’ve only just arrived, Factory Manager, so you don’t know. We aren’t the only jam factory around here. There are two other factories, both slightly larger than ours, and our business declined because of them.” The speaker was Lu Dade, the production-floor supervisor, a man nearing fifty. He had worked at the jam factory for more than ten years and was deeply attached to it. When the old manager first announced that he intended to sell the factory, Lu Dade had reacted more strongly than anyone.
“The two factories are run by brothers surnamed Du. They make fruit products too, with jam as their main product. In the past, they used malicious tactics to steal business and drove quite a few jam factories under. Their reputation is terrible, and plenty of people don’t want to deal with them. But ordinary consumers don’t know any of that, and even if you tell them, they may not believe you. The only reason this factory didn’t collapse was because the old manager is a decent, honest man, so longtime customers were still willing to place orders here. But old customers alone aren’t enough. If you can’t keep bringing in fresh business, the factory will run into trouble sooner or later.”
“What happened after that?”
“After that, we tried everything we could to bring in new customers. It was exhausting, but at least there were results. Then, about half a year ago, the Du brothers suddenly launched several kinds of jam with much lower production costs. Supposedly, some of those jams cost less than four yuan per jar to make, even though the quantity was the same. That meant they could wholesale them for four-fifty to five yuan. At retail, there was nearly two yuan of profit per jar. Once some customers heard about it, they all ran over to the Du brothers’ factories to place orders. Our business got worse and worse until we could barely keep operating.”
“Logically, the cost of a jar of jam shouldn’t be able to fall below four yuan. How did they manage it? Did you ever investigate?” Wang Cheng rubbed his chin. He made jam himself and knew the cost structure fairly well. Besides the ingredients, labor also had to be included. Once everything was added together, getting below four yuan should have been nearly impossible. Hearing his question, everyone exchanged looks.
“What is it?”
Another veteran employee surnamed Zhang, Lu Dade’s wife, hesitated before explaining, “We heard an ugly rumor. Supposedly, the fruit the Du brothers use for those jams is rotten fruit bought cheaply from other places. The purchase price is only twenty or thirty fen per jin.”
Good fruit normally cost several times that amount. Apples, for example, had a wholesale price of at least eighty fen per jin for good-quality fruit, more than twice as much.
Wang Cheng had not expected that. Using rotten fruit to make jam would definitely cause health problems if people ate it over a long period. Only truly unscrupulous merchants could do something like that with a clear conscience. “Has no one reported them?”
“People have, but I heard they have connections. Even if they get taken in for questioning, nothing happens to them. The old manager once criticized them for doing such immoral things, and a few days later inspectors suddenly came to check our factory, saying they’d received a report. But everyone around here knows our factory is more properly run than the Du brothers’. We use good fruit, never spoiled fruit, and the old manager is especially strict about sanitation. Nothing came of the inspection, but everyone knew it had to be connected to the Du brothers. After that, people were even less willing to offend them. All we could do was warn others as much as possible not to buy jam produced by their factories.”
“Do you know when the Du brothers bring in those rotten fruits?”
Auntie Zhang said, “We’ve never seen it ourselves, but someone once said he couldn’t sleep in the middle of the night and got up, only to see several trucks going in and out of the Du brothers’ factory. It wasn’t just once or twice either. It happens three or four times almost every month. I think those trucks are probably carrying the rotten fruit they buy.” Another employee added, “The Du brothers are very cautious. The trucks never arrive at a fixed time, so it’s hard to catch them with evidence.”
“I understand. None of you need to worry about the factory collapsing anymore. My family is in the jam business too, and we already have some business partners. That should be enough to keep things going for now.”
After everyone left, Wang Cheng immediately took out his phone and called the Health Bureau to file a complaint. He described the matter in the gravest possible terms. He did not know whether the person on the other end was frightened by what they heard, but they responded quickly and said they would investigate at once.
The next day, as soon as Wang Cheng arrived, factory workers told him that the Du brothers’ factory had been inspected by people from the Health Bureau. Unfortunately, nothing had been found. Someone had even seen the Du brothers smiling broadly as they sent the inspectors off. The moment the inspectors were gone, their faces turned dark.
Wang Cheng had never expected to bring the Du brothers down in one move. He had only wanted to confirm one thing. Sure enough, the Du brothers were not simple. They had managed to operate for half a year without being exposed, which meant they had hidden their tracks well.
“Factory Manager.” Lu Dade stopped Wang Cheng just as he was about to head out. He walked over and said, “I heard something this morning. Apparently, the Du brothers are bringing in a shipment of rotten fruit tonight.”
“Where did the information come from?” Wang Cheng raised an eyebrow, but his expression did not change.
“One of the workers at their factory secretly told me. He’s the son of one of my relatives. The information should be reliable.”
“I understand. None of you need to do anything. When work ends tonight, go home as usual. Leave the rest to me.” After giving those instructions, Wang Cheng left.
Lu Dade had the odd feeling that the new manager was unusually calm. Even after hearing such important information, he had shown no trace of excitement. Lu Dade could not help admiring his composure. Since Wang Cheng had told them not to interfere, he would not do anything unnecessary. If they had been able to bring down the Du brothers on their own, they would not have spent the past half year completely helpless. When work ended that evening, everyone went about their business as usual.
That night, two trucks drove into the Du brothers’ factory. Yet even after the cargo had been unloaded, the surroundings remained silent, and no one appeared.
The next morning, Lu Dade’s relative came running over and demanded to know why they had never shown up, saying he had gone to great trouble to get that information.