Beiguan Village. Cotton Mill!
By the time Li Yi drove to the cotton mill, it was already 10:30 a.m.
As soon as he reached the second floor of the factory office, he heard Jiang Longcheng’s slightly maniacal laughter.
Clearly, this guy was in a great mood today—just like Li Yi himself!
When he reached Jiang Longcheng’s office, he found the door wide open. Without knocking, Li Yi walked right in.
Once inside, Li Yi noticed that Jiang Longcheng’s office was quite crowded. Aside from Jiang himself, several key executives—including Deputy Plant Managers He Tianming and Chen Rui—were all present.
When they saw Li Yi enter, everyone stood up to greet him.
Just a few months ago, their opinion of Li Yi hadn’t been favorable; they’d viewed him as nothing more than a smooth-talking con artist who’d risen to prominence through nepotism.
However, following the meteoric rise of Feixue Apparel, everyone had gained a completely new appreciation for Li Yi’s business acumen, recognizing him as a true business genius. Consequently, their attitude toward him had undergone a complete 180-degree shift.
After greeting everyone, Li Yi walked up to Jiang Longcheng and asked, “I could hear your laughter from a mile away. What’s got you so happy?”
“Brother-in-law, why’d you take so long to show up? You missed the show!” Jiang Longcheng said with a hint of excitement.
“What kind of show could get you this worked up?” Li Yi asked curiously.
“Someone from the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission just showed up!”
“Is that all?”
“Yeah, they sent a division director over to deliver a document!” Jiang Longcheng said.
“What document?”
Jiang Longcheng didn’t answer, but instead pushed an official document with a red header across the desk toward Li Yi.
Li Yi didn’t shy away from it or make a fuss; he simply picked up the document and began reading it.
As soon as he saw the title, Li Yi knew exactly what was going on—*Decision on Commending the Second State-Owned Cotton Mill for Deepening Reforms and Improving Efficiency*.
No wonder Jiang Longcheng, He Tianming, and the others were so delighted—the State-owned Assets Department had actually commended the cotton mill!
Of course, a mere commendation wouldn’t have made them this excited; it was the significance behind the commendation that mattered far more.
After all, just a few days ago, the higher-ups had expressed doubts about the State Cotton Mill No. 2’s previous decision. They’d even held meetings to discuss how to resolve the matter and whether to revoke the cooperation agreement they’d signed with Li Yi.
If it had been revoked, it would have meant that higher-ups had rejected all their previous efforts, and the entire leadership team—including Jiang Longcheng—would have faced disciplinary action.
But now the situation is different—the higher-ups have commended them.
This indicates that the State-owned Assets Department has recognized their previous efforts and that they were in the right.
Sure enough, after Li Yi read through the entire document, it did indeed affirm their previous efforts and commended everyone involved, including Jiang Longcheng, He Tianming, and Chen Rui.
More importantly, the State-owned Assets Department also explicitly affirmed the legal validity of the cooperation agreement they had signed.
In other words, the State-owned Assets Department had backed down!
Thinking back to how his father-in-law had gone to “catch up” with Wang Tianrong yesterday afternoon, carrying the editorials Li Yi had written on reform and opening-up, deepening reforms, and the market economy, it was clear that today’s document was directly related to that incident.
But upon reflection, it all made sense. The editorials he had written contained views that were both ahead of their time and highly targeted.
Once published, they would directly challenge the very actions the Ministry of State-Owned Assets is currently undertaking.
If people were to notice the connection between the two, the Ministry’s actions would be seen as going against the development policies set by the top leadership—a major issue concerning political correctness.
At such a critical juncture, heads might very well roll!
With that in mind, Li Yi handed the documents back to Jiang Longcheng and said, “Alright, stop gloating. Since it’s all over now, let’s just get back to work!”
“Hahaha, I’m just happy. Our factory has finally made a name for itself this time—it feels great!”
“Stop gloating. I’ve reviewed your performance from last month. Overall, it’s decent, but it still falls short of my expectations!” Li Yi said.
“Still falling short?”
No sooner had Jiang Longcheng finished speaking than He Tianming chimed in from the side, “Revenue of 4.78 million and a net profit of 3.62 million have already broken our factory’s 25-year record—that’s not bad at all!”
“Yeah, that’s really impressive. Just think about last year—our factory was still in the red…”
……
Li Yi raised his hand to quiet the commotion, then said, “Compared to previous years, it’s certainly not bad—it’s a huge improvement. But you must understand that you are now the number one fashion brand operator in the country. With no competitors, this level of performance is absolutely unworthy of your status!”
“Besides, the goal I set for you was an annual profit of 100 million. With a monthly profit of just over 3 million, who knows when we’ll ever reach 100 million!”
No sooner had he finished speaking than someone whispered, “Wasn’t it twenty million?”
“Hmph, twenty million is just the baseline—one hundred million is the target!”
Li Yi then looked around at the group and continued, “Even though I’m merely a partner of the cotton mill, I must warn you: don’t let a little success go to your heads. You’re not qualified for that yet!”
“Moving forward, you must continue following the plan I laid out earlier: keep increasing production, and keep refining and expanding your sales channels. Once we hit the goal of annual profits exceeding 100 million, every single one of you here will become a key talent for the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission to cultivate. Soaring to great heights and rising through the ranks will no longer be a dream!”
Hearing Li Yi’s words, everyone present became incredibly excited!
Seeing this, Jiang Longcheng immediately addressed the crowd: “Alright, don’t just stand around here. Go back now!”
After everyone had left, Jiang Longcheng looked at Li Yi and said, “Brother-in-law, it’s a waste of your talent not to become a political commissar!”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You’re a natural at stirring people up. With just a few words, you’ve got the common folk all fired up—you’re born to be a political commissar!”
“Haha, cut the flattery!”
With that, Li Yi pulled his car keys out of his pocket and placed them on Jiang Longcheng’s desk.
“What’s the matter? Don’t you need them anymore?”
“I don’t need them anymore. Xiaoxue said driving the cotton mill’s car every day gives off a bad impression!” Li Yi explained.
“What’s so bad about that?” Jiang Longcheng frowned.
“Women are just like that—we’d better just listen to them!”
Jiang Longcheng was about to argue, but then he remembered something and held his tongue.
“Alright then. It’s an old car anyway—it’s over a decade old. I’ll get you a better one to drive later!”
Then Jiang Longcheng added, “By the way, Old Tan was looking for me earlier. He said their workshop is a bit too small and they want to move to a bigger one. What do you think?”
Li Yi thought for a moment and said, “Instead of moving to a new workshop, we should spin off the garment workshop and set up a dedicated garment factory. That would be much more effective!”
“A garment factory?”
“Exactly. In the future, the fabric mill will be the fabric mill, the garment factory will be the garment factory, and marketing will handle marketing. Only by operating independently can we grow and expand rapidly!”
“Will that really work?”
“It’ll definitely work!”
“All right, I’ll discuss this with them in detail later,” said Jiang Longcheng.
“Alright!”
“Alright then, I won’t keep you any longer. I’m heading back to the store…”
“Wait a minute, I’ve got something else to tell you!” Jiang Longcheng said.
“What is it? Spit it out so I can get out of here,” Li Yi said.
“I’m getting married!”
“G-getting… married? To Zhang Xinyao?”
“Is that really the look you’re giving me? Who else would I marry besides her?” Jiang Longcheng said, somewhat exasperated.
“Have you set a date yet?”
“It’s set for the 25th of next month—the 22nd day of the fourth lunar month!”
“Why so sudden? You didn’t mention anything yesterday,” Li Yi said.
“We decided last night. Xinyao said she wanted to bring her mother to Beijing for medical treatment and thought we should take advantage of her mother’s visit to get the matter settled. She asked if that was okay with me!”
Then Jiang Longcheng grinned and said, “How could I possibly refuse? So we set the date!”
Li Yi shook his head and said, “You guys, you’re so spontaneous about everything!”
“Never mind, I won’t bother with you guys. If you need any help, just ask!”
No sooner had he finished speaking than Jiang Longcheng chimed in with a grin, “Um… actually, there is something I need your help with right now!”
Li Yi: …%￥#@#￥
………