While the leaders of the State-Owned Second Cotton Spinning Factory in Beijing were in session, Li Yi was furiously scribbling away in Jiang Longcheng’s office, drafting a detailed marketing plan.
Regarding this batch of fabric from the cotton mill, Li Yi felt that selling it directly would be difficult.
The reasons were simple. First, the fabric had obvious defects that anyone with a discerning eye could spot immediately.
Second, the reputation of the State-Owned Second Cotton Spinning Factory had already been tarnished. If it were known that this batch of fabric came from this factory, even at a steep discount, it was unlikely anyone would buy it.
Unless, of course, the fabric were taken to the vast rural areas for sale!
But this raised another issue: the government’s centralized purchasing and distribution policy. Such a move would simply not be permitted.
Therefore, Li Yi’s plan was not to sell fabric, but to sell ready-made garments.
At present, there is no shortage of fabric—not just in the capital, but nationwide—yet there is a severe shortage of ready-made clothing.
With the Lunar New Year approaching, turning this batch of fabric into ready-to-wear garments for direct sale would certainly yield better results than selling the fabric by the yard.
More importantly, selling finished garments not only adds value to the fabric but also provides work for the cotton mill’s employees.
Due to raw material shortages, the cotton mill’s workers had been idle for over a month.
During this time, nearly all frontline workers have been idle at home.
If we bring them back to make clothes, a significant number of workers will have work to do, and the factory won’t have to keep them on the payroll without work.
In short, this plan is highly feasible!
Li Yi had only just finished half of his proposal when Jiang Longcheng’s meeting concluded, and he hurried back to his office.
Upon pushing open the door, Jiang Longcheng saw Li Yi sitting at his desk writing something, so he immediately sat down across from him.
“Any results yet?” Li Yi asked without looking up.
“No! We’ve adjourned for now; we’ll resume in a moment!”
Jiang Longcheng continued, “Regarding the first proposal, they think a 20% profit margin is too high. They say it’s unreasonable for you to take 20% just for presenting a single proposal!”
“What about the second proposal?” Li Yi asked again.
“They also think selling 1.25 million worth of goods for 300,000 is a bit too low—the factory would lose too much money!” Jiang Longcheng said.
“So what did you guys discuss?” Li Yi asked, frowning.
“Well…”
“How much are they planning to sell it for?”
“500,000!”
Jiang Longcheng said somewhat sheepishly; he thought this price was a bit high.
After all, the sales department had been actively promoting this batch of fabric for some time, even going so far as to slash the price by half, yet there were still very few takers.
Consequently, the sales department estimated that the maximum they could realistically expect for this batch was around 300,000 to 400,000.
Li Yi thought for a moment and said, “500,000 is a bit high, but it’s not completely out of the question!”
“Wait, brother-in-law, are you really going to spend 500,000 on that batch of fabric?” Jiang Longcheng asked, looking stunned.
“Yeah, but I have a condition!”
“What conditions? Go ahead.”
“There’s no point telling you. I’ll just talk to them directly!” Li Yi said.
“That works too!”
Li Yi then put away the draft he’d been working on at the table and followed Jiang Longcheng into the adjacent conference room.
When the senior management of the cotton mill in the conference room saw Jiang Longcheng enter with a young man, they all looked at Li Yi with curiosity.
Jiang Longcheng cleared his throat and said, “Let’s continue the meeting. First, let me introduce you all to Comrade Li Yi. The two proposals we were just discussing were put forward by him!”
“I just shared the results of our discussion with him, and he’d like to talk with everyone in person!”
No sooner had he finished speaking than a middle-aged man immediately spoke up: “Comrade Li Yi, we’re all comrades in the revolution. If you have a solution to our factory’s problems, all of our employees will be grateful to you, but 20% of our net profit is really a bit too much.”
As soon as he said this, someone immediately chimed in: “Exactly! You’re asking for 20% of our profits just for coming up with a single proposal—that’s way too greedy!”
“Yeah, how can anyone act like that…”
Li Yi watched their performance with a calm expression; they were treating him like some naive greenhorn who’d never seen the world.
If he’d run into some greenhorn fresh out of school, with his head full of patriotic sentiment and collectivist ideals, he might actually have handed over the proposal right then and there, only to be met with a simple “thank you.”
But Li Yi was clearly not that kind of person!
Setting aside the fact that he still had to complete the “three-year, one-million-yuan” challenge with his father-in-law, just looking at these people’s shameless faces made him determined not to let them have their way.
At that moment, Li Yi looked at the man who had spoken first and said, “You must be Deputy Plant Manager He, right?”
“You know me?” He Tianming frowned.
Li Yi glanced at him—with that unlucky look on his face, how could he not recognize him!
In his previous life, this guy had been burned to death after investigating Gao Shubin.
By reminding Jiang Longcheng to investigate Gao Shubin, he had indirectly saved this man’s life. Yet instead of being grateful, the man was now taking jabs at him.
“So, Deputy Plant Manager He is saying that since we’re all comrades in the revolution, we should treat each other as one, right?”
“Exactly. Revolutionary comrades should naturally help one another—how could you possibly ask for so much?” He Tianming said.
“Haha, so does that mean your money is my money? I’m short on cash right now—shouldn’t you give me some too?” Li Yi said indifferently.
“How can that be the same…”
“What’s the difference? What, are you saying that what’s mine is yours, but what’s yours is still yours?”
Li Yi then slammed his fist on the table and stood up, shouting, “Don’t you have any idea what kind of situation your factory is in right now? I have a way to solve your predicament, yet you’re trying to play the moral high ground on me. Do you take me, Li Yi, for a fool?”
Seeing that Li Yi seemed genuinely angry, Jiang Longcheng hurriedly said, “Brother-in-law, don’t get upset. Let’s talk this out. Let’s talk it out!”
“Bro-in-law?”
Hearing Jiang Longcheng’s address to Li Yi, everyone in the conference room was stunned.
Most of them knew a bit about the Jiang family—hadn’t the Jiang family gone three generations without a single daughter?
What on earth was this “brother-in-law” business?
But regardless, everyone could tell that the young man standing before them had a special relationship with their Plant Manager Jiang.
Immediately, Chen Rui, another deputy factory director, chimed in: “Comrade Li Yi, please don’t get upset. Let’s talk this out! Business is business—a 20% profit share is indeed a bit high!”
Li Yi replied immediately, “Talk business, indeed. Since you won’t accept a 20% profit share, let’s discuss the second proposal!”
“I hear you think 300,000 yuan for that batch of fabric is a bit low, and you’re planning to ask for 500,000?”
He Tianming replied, “That’s right. Selling goods worth over 1.2 million for 500,000 is already very low!”
“Don’t you have any idea what condition that batch of goods is in? If you could sell it for 500,000, I think you would’ve sold it long ago—you wouldn’t still be waiting until now!” Li Yi said.
At that moment, Chen Rui spoke up, “So, how much are you willing to offer?”
“For my third older brother’s sake, I can accept the 500,000 price, but you must agree to three conditions of mine!” Li Yi said.
“What conditions?” He Tianming and Chen Rui asked urgently.
“The first condition is payment in installments. The 500,000 yuan will be paid in two installments: 200,000 yuan upon signing the contract, and the remaining 300,000 yuan to be paid in full two months later!”
Li Yi continued, “The second condition is that you must let me use part of your cotton mill’s factory buildings and warehouses for free on a trial basis, for no more than three months!”
“The third condition is that I want to hire some of your factory’s employees!”
After hearing Li Yi’s three conditions, the leaders in the conference room immediately began whispering among themselves.
After a long pause, He Tianming asked again, “The first two conditions are fine, but you need to clarify this matter of hiring our factory’s workers. How exactly do you plan to hire them?”
“It’s just a short-term arrangement—one yuan and fifty cents per person per day!” Li Yi replied.
One yuan and fifty cents a day per person—that’s 45 yuan a month, which is higher than the wages they pay their workers.
Plus, since most of the workers were currently just sitting idle at the factory, Li Yi’s offer to pay them would significantly ease the factory’s financial burden.
All in all, it was a good deal.
With that in mind, He Tianming immediately said, “If that’s the case, I agree to this proposal in principle!”
“I agree too!”
“I have no objections…”
……..