On the road in autumn, a Jiangling pickup truck was driving. In the passenger seat of the car, the young man was wearing a peaked cap and a gray sweatshirt, squinting his eyes and pretending to be expressionless.
"...When you see Lao Zhangtou later, remember to call him uncle. He even hugged you when you were a child."
The middle-aged man in the driver's seat shouted while driving.
Song Wenbin didn't say anything. He didn't even remember when he sat alone in a car with his father like this. Maybe ten years ago, maybe twenty years ago.
To be honest, he didn't like sitting in a car with his father. His father, who was keen on stock trading, was extremely generous when it came to A-shares, often spending hundreds of thousands without blinking, but he was always strangely stingy in other places.
"There are two boxes of crabs in the carriage. Please pay attention later. The box on the left is female crabs, and the box on the right is male crabs. You can keep the female crabs and take them back, Huang Duo. You can give the male crabs to Old Zhangtou. "
Song Wenbin couldn't stop laughing.
Song Siping looked at his son in confusion.
Song Wenbin sighed and said, "I say, Dad, if you can't do it yourself, don't teach me how to do things, okay?"
"Uh..." Song Siping was speechless for a moment and couldn't refute, but he couldn't let go of his father's dignity and said: "I'm worried that you will suffer... Although you have some skills now, those people are not easy to get along with. ah……"
Song Wenbin yawned and looked out the window at the industrial park that was gradually becoming a bit dilapidated and the abandoned telephone poles covered with small advertisements for treating apricot disease. This ghost place looked like an uneducated middle-aged man. People's desolate hearts are written with poverty from beginning to end.
When the Jiangling minivan stopped, they came to the corner of this dilapidated industrial park, which looked even more dilapidated. Several large red trucks were parked at the end of the road. There were vegetable fields and shrubs with exposed loess on the roadside. There was a faint smell of feces in the air.
Song Wenbin jumped out of the car, as if he still thought this ghost place was not desolate enough. He saw an abandoned, twisted and stretched plastic rubber T on the ground.
He frowned slightly, maybe only those men and women who stole sex would visit this place at night.
"Old Song." someone shouted.
Song Wenbin looked up and saw a man about the same age as his father walking from the door of a brick factory in the distance. He was smoking, had a shaved head, and had dark skin. He was the kind of person who would be thrown into a crowd. Someone who no one would take a second look at.
"Hey, Lao Zhang."
Song Siping jumped out of the car and said hello.
Then he pushed Song Wenbin.
Song Wenbin smiled, nodded slightly and shouted, "Uncle Zhang."
The visitor's name was Zhang Rong. Song Wenbin remembered that he had met this man several times, but every time they met, others would call him Lao Zhangtou, who was his father's business partner.
I still remember that it was more than 20 years ago. When Song Wenbin’s uncle was still the district chief, his father obtained a business license through connections and opened a factory in this industrial park to produce various stationery products. Those outdoor supplies are specially supplied to several local schools, including school uniforms, badminton rackets, badminton and the like.
After Song Siping obtained the business license and connections, he rarely managed the factory. The specific matters of production and management were left to his boss, Zhang Rong. It's just that more than 20 years have passed, and Song Siping has become accustomed to a life of idleness and immersed in the sea, and has not had much interaction with people in the factory. Now he felt a little restrained when he saw Zhang Rong walking over.
After the two of them chatted for a while, he winked at Song Wenbin and motioned Song Wenbin to go to the back of the car to get the box of male crabs.
Song Wenbin shook his head and said to him: "You can go back today. You don't have to worry about the things here."
"Ah?" Song Siping didn't expect Song Wenbin to be so straightforward.
Although he had already agreed with his wife to let Song Wenbin take charge of things at home, Song Wenbin didn't know anything about this place after all, so it seemed a bit uncomfortable for him to leave now.
But Song Wenbin had already made a decision. He said to Lao Zhangtou: "Uncle Zhang, please take me to the factory first."
Lao Zhang looked at Song Wenbin and then at Song Siping. Song Siping smiled sarcastically and said, "Lao Zhang, I still have something to do at home. Please tell him about the things in the factory. He said he has something to do. "
A trace of disappointment flashed in Lao Zhangtou's eyes, but he immediately smiled and said: "Okay, I will take Xiao Song to have a look, and we will contact you later."
Song Siping walked towards the car, seemingly still thinking about the box of crabs, but Song Wenbin let Zhang Rong lead him to the factory, without any intention of caring about the box of crabs. This made him a little embarrassed and could only stand there and scratch it. Scratching your head.
…
Following Lao Zhangtou into the park, the signs of dilapidation here became more obvious. Amidst the grass, there stood a solitary square bungalow. There are a lot of discarded fabrics piled everywhere in the corner. Judging from the material, they should be leftover after cutting school uniforms.
In the corner of the other side, there are a lot of broken carbon fibers piled up. Some of the garbage has even turned white and discolored because it has been too long. It is not clear how long it has been since it was cleaned.
Song Wenbin couldn't understand how such a place with no vitality could be run to this day. The last time he came to this place was in high school, and he didn't have much interest in this run-down place at that time. He didn't expect that ten years later, this place was still so run-down. , so old.
Although, he still maintains respect for this place. After all, the output brought by this place once allowed him to spend his childhood and youth safely.
He straightened his collar and followed Lao Zhangtou casually into the factory. In the factory, there were two or three aunts picking through a pile of plastic-wrapped clothes. They were some black and white school uniforms, which had no sense of beauty at all.
"There are few people, are you too busy to come here?"
Song Wenbin watched the bored aunts hand Lao Zhangtou a cigarette.
"There's nothing going on this year. I'm not busy. In the past few years, the school's orders have become less and less. New factories have replaced our business. The previous inventory can only be sold to Yunnan and Guizhou at a low price, and we have lost a lot of money." Zhang Tou took the cigarette holder and put it to his ear and said.
"so."
Song Wenbin looked at the assembly line used for cutting fabrics at the back. The machine was quiet, and many parts were even rusted to death.
"Are there any other assembly lines?" Song Wenbin asked.
"Three more, one for table tennis rackets and one for badminton rackets. The year before last, we cooperated with your Uncle Liu to build a production line for carbon arrow shafts. That line is still in operation."
"Take me to see it." Song Wenbin said.
Lao Zhangtou took Song Wenbin to look around the factory. After seeing the three assembly lines, Song Wenbin felt a little uncomfortable. To be honest, he had known that his family's business had not improved for many years, but when he actually saw the After the situation, he still couldn't help but have a headache.
Two of the three assembly lines are not making much noise, and only one is left to produce carbon arrow shafts.
He can understand this kind of thing. It was originally a small workshop that copied other brands in the village. It had no technical content at all. At that time, it could be sold to schools because of its connections. But now that his uncle has retired, such products are not available for sale. Competing in the market is a dead end, and decline and desolation are understandable.
After reading it briefly, he asked, "Where are the account books."
"In my office." Lao Zhangtou said.
"Show me." Song Wenbin said.
When I came to Lao Zhangtou's office, it was said to be an office, but in fact it was just a flat cement floor on the top floor. There were a row of wooden chairs, a glass coffee table, and a hot water kettle plugged directly into a power strip on the cement floor.
Four or five workers were playing poker around the coffee table. When they saw Song Wenbin and Lao Zhang coming over, they didn't even raise their heads. They just glanced at them and continued playing poker.
"Nothing happens on Friday." Lao Zhangtou explained when he saw that those people were lazy.
"It doesn't matter." Song Wenbin said, "Just show me the account."
Lao Zhangtou walked behind the desk, took out a thick stack of ledgers from the drawer and gave it to Song Wenbin. Song Wenbin sat down, took out his mobile phone from his pocket, and carefully calculated the revenue in recent years.
To be honest, this job was the thing he hated the most in the past. Since he was not good at studying, he had a natural aversion to numbers, but now he had no other choice but to sit there and click on the calculator non-stop.
After pressing the button for a long time, Song Wenbin's face turned a little pale. It was obvious that the factory's operating conditions were worse than he thought.
The loss in one quarter of this year alone was more than 100,000 yuan, and the accumulated losses in the past year and a half were as high as 700,000 yuan. This can be said to be a heavy blow to this small workshop.
Lao Zhangtou was worried that the writing on the account book was too sloppy, and explained to Song Wenbin: "The main reason is that the factory stopped for a period of time in the past two years for maintenance, which cost hundreds of thousands. Just after the maintenance was completed, the epidemic came, and orders were cut off. Although it has recovered now,... many cooperations have been suspended, and there have been no new orders..."
"In this way..." Song Wenbin flipped through the bill and continued to ask: "How is the labor cost calculated?"
Although he asked calmly, as soon as he asked the question, the poker workers stopped moving. They all looked over and stared at Song Wenbin.
Lao Zhangtou took out a lighter from his pocket, lit a cigarette, and said: "The male workers are paid four thousand a month, and the female workers are three thousand five thousand. If the sales are good, there is a commission, but it has been a long time since we have been paid. "
Song Wenbin saw that the labor expense column on the bill had always been stable, so he asked: "Were wages still paid when production was suspended before?"
"this……"
Lao Zhang looked at the people next to him and hesitated to speak.
The workers threw away their cards and said coldly and forcefully: "Kid, what are you here for? Are you sitting in that seat?"
Song Wenbin raised his eyelids and glanced at the speaker. He was an old man with two scars on his face, and he looked a bit fierce.
"I'm not here to cause trouble, I'm here to help." Song Wenbin said calmly: "Now that the factory cannot continue to operate, we have to find a way."
"Whose problem is it that it can't continue to operate?"
The scar-faced man sneered: "Your father has been a hands-off shopkeeper for more than ten years. He took the money and did nothing. He didn't update the equipment and didn't ask for technical guidance. I think this factory should have collapsed long ago. If it weren't for Lao Zhang, After all the years we have been helping you, you have already gone to fuck the northwest wind, but now it is good, you have checked the account books just a few minutes after you arrived, tell me what you want to do."
Song Wenbin didn't speak, just looked at Lao Zhang. Lao Zhang just blew out smoke and said lightly: "Don't be so aggressive, Lao Wang, Xiao Song is here to find a solution too."
"He can think of any way to get as much money as he needs." The man said fiercely: "This is the best way. Don't go through all the trouble. It's useless."
Song Wenbin leaned on the chair, his eyes swept from the faces of the workers with unkind expressions, and then fell on the face of the old man smoking silently beside him.
"How much is the shortfall in labor costs?" Song Wenbin asked.
"The labor aspect is actually not bad. We are temporarily short of two months' wages."
Old Zhangtou said: "There are six male workers and three female workers. The total cost is more than 60,000 yuan."
"Sixty thousand."
Song Wenbin pondered for a moment and then opened the account books. Compared with other losses, such as crises caused by raw materials, machine failures, and unsalable inventory, the labor gap was indeed not that big.
But 700,000... It's no wonder that his old man would use money to gamble in the stock market. Is he thinking of making money from the stock market to make up for the factory's shortfall? It's really whimsical... It's fine now. The shortfall has not been made up. My family Money is still lost. What a fucking mess.
Seeing him silently flipping through the ledger, the workers didn't know what Song Wenbin was thinking. They suddenly became dissatisfied and asked, "Hey, your family doesn't want to deduct our wages, right?"
"I'm warning you, it's written in black and white in our contract. We also have a labor union in this park."
"Stop flipping over and over again. Let me speak quickly. Don't hide from us all day! I don't know where I'm going when I'm old."
…
Not only did they speak among themselves, but they also called several people who were working below to come up. Six men and three women gathered in the office, chattering non-stop, getting more and more angry.
Song Wenbin was unmoved and kept pressing the calculator. He calculated the depreciation costs of the previous machines and the increasingly meager profits over the years. The more he calculated, the more headache he got. Don't worry if he keeps doing this. Once wages are paid, the profits cannot even be used to maintain the machine, let alone the loss of so much money in the previous two years.
After settling the accounts, the workers were still scolding.
They scolded, but Song Wenbin ignored them. He reached out to Lao Zhangtou on the side and asked: "Where are the bills from other factories? Are they still there?"
Lao Zhangtou looked at him in surprise, was stunned, and nodded, "I'm...all here..."
"Bring it here." Song Wenbin ordered calmly.
Lao Zhang took out a folder from the drawer. There were many transaction orders on the folder. These transaction orders were purchase records from other raw material factories. For transactions between factories, discounting is often not completed instantly. Yes, deferred transactions are also normal. Song Wenbin flipped through the unfinished bills and frowned slightly.
These things look complicated, but they are also very simple to say. They still owe money to the raw material manufacturers. There is still a lot owed.
Lao Zhangtou looked at Song Wenbin and said, "This is the situation. Your father probably told you about it. There is nothing I can do. After all, I am just a manager."
Song Wenbin nodded and put down his mobile phone. He felt that things here would be very troublesome and would not be solved for a while, so he looked around the table and found that there was a tea set but no tea leaves, so he asked: "Is there any tea leaves?" Well, we can pour some tea and chat slowly."
tea……
Lao Zhangtou was silent.
Seeing Song Wenbin looking like an old god, the workers couldn't stand it anymore. The scar-faced man went straight to a small fresh cabinet in the room, took out a small white bottle, walked to Song Wenbin, He slammed the bottle in front of Song Wenbin and said, "The old man drinks the tea. You might as well drink this."
Song Wenbin looked at the white glass bottle on the table, and the corner of his mouth twitched.
There was no doubt that it was a bottle of milk.
