Chapter 718: The Old Man’s Invitation!

After a moment of surprise, Xue Jianzhong, the head of the finance department, hurriedly said, “Old Li, all of us have checked these accounts three times—there’s no way there’s a mistake. Don’t just make things up!”

Jiang Longcheng also chimed in, “Old Li, you must have misread it. The accountants from the State-owned Assets Department have already verified these accounts—they didn’t say there was a problem!”

Li Yeqiao said in a low voice, “The State-owned Assets Department definitely wouldn’t say anything. After all, if there’s a mistake here, they’d have to pay over a million yuan less. Only a fool would admit it!”

“What? Over a million yuan?” Jiang Longcheng asked, looking stunned.

Xue Jianzhong, looking anxious, asked, “Old Li, where exactly did the calculation go wrong? Tell us quickly!”

Li Yeqiao replied immediately, “The total sales and net profit calculated by your finance department are correct, but the distribution to us can’t be calculated that way!”

“Isn’t it 12% of the net profit?” Xue Jianzhong asked.

“Of course not. Didn’t you guys read the original agreement?” Li Yeqiao retorted.

“Well… actually, I didn’t. I remember the agreement was signed based on 12%…”

Before Xue Jianzhong could finish, Li Yeqiao cut in: “According to the agreement we signed back then, if annual revenue exceeds 20 million yuan, State Cotton Mill No. 2 is required to allocate 12% of the total revenue to us—not 12% of the net profit. Your calculation is wrong!”

This left both Jiang Longcheng and Xue Jianzhong completely dumbfounded!

After a long moment, Jiang Longcheng asked, “Old Li, aren’t ‘revenue’ and ‘net profit’ the same thing?”

“Of course they’re not the same. Revenue refers to the extra income after deducting costs, but net profit requires deducting all expenses, including investments. The difference between the two is huge!”

Seeing that Jiang Longcheng still looked confused, Li Yeqiao explained again: “Director Jiang, let me put it this way: Last year, State Cotton Mill No. 2 had total sales of over 75.896 million yuan, with direct costs of only 15.25 million yuan. This includes the cost of raw materials for making clothes, workers’ wages, and utilities like water and electricity. After deducting these costs, the remaining amount is State Cotton Mill No. 2’s revenue!”

“But over the past year, your factory has opened 185 specialty stores one after another. On top of that, the factory has introduced a lot of new equipment and even purchased more than 30 vehicles of various sizes. These expenses are all investments in expanded production, and we shouldn’t have to bear this cost. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

Although Jiang Longcheng still didn’t quite understand, he could sense that something wasn’t quite right with the figures.

He immediately turned to Xue Jianzhong, the head of the finance department, and asked, “Section Chief Xue, is Old Li right?”

Having worked in finance for decades, Xue Jianzhong quickly grasped Li Yeqiao’s point.

He paused briefly, then answered honestly, “Revenue is indeed different from net profit. If the agreement refers to revenue, then… then we did indeed make a mistake in our calculations!”

“Smack!”

Jiang Longcheng slammed his fist down on the table and shouted angrily, “Section Chief Xue, what the hell is going on in your finance department? How could you possibly make a mistake like this?”

“Director… we…”

Seeing that Jiang Longcheng was about to lose his temper, Li Yi hurriedly interjected, “Third Brother, don’t get angry. You can’t blame Section Chief Xue and his team entirely for this. After all, such a subtle difference is hard for most people to notice. Just recalculate it!”

Jiang Longcheng glared at Xue Jianzhong and said, “Recalculate it immediately. If there’s another mistake, you’re out of a job as head of the Finance Section!”

“Yes…”

With that, Xue Jianzhong immediately summoned the staff from the Finance Section and began recalculating.

Since the factory’s investment expenditures had already been tallied, the recalculation was completed quickly.

When Xue Jianzhong handed the recalculated statement to Jiang Longcheng, the latter looked at the figures and asked in a grave tone, “7.2768 million. Are you certain this is correct this time?”

“It’s definitely correct this time!” Xue Jianzhong replied, sweat beading on his forehead.

After the recalculation, he broke out in a cold sweat.

Because the basis for the calculation was different, there was a discrepancy of nearly 1.5 million yuan—meaning they had previously underpaid Li Yi by 1.5 million.

If this had involved anyone else, the plant manager might not only have refrained from getting angry but might even have praised him.

But Li Yi was the factory director’s brother-in-law. If their mistake caused Li Yi to lose 1.5 million yuan, he could only imagine that the enraged director would certainly fire him on the spot.

Fortunately, Li Yeqiao had noticed something was wrong, and thankfully, there was still time to salvage the situation.

Jiang Longcheng handed the bill to Li Yi while addressing Xue Jianzhong: “Old Xue, you’re the head of our factory’s finance department. The thoroughness of your work directly affects our factory’s finances. I hope something like this never happens again.”

“Yes… yes, I promise I won’t make such a mistake again!”

“Mm-hmm!”

Jiang Longcheng then turned to Li Yi again and said, “Brother-in-law, take a look and see if everything’s correct. If there are no issues, then have Old Xue process the paperwork for you!”

Li Yi nodded and said, “It’s all good. We can go ahead with the paperwork!”

“Alright…”

………

By the time they left the bank, it was already past three in the afternoon.

After dropping Li Yeqiao off at the shop, Li Yi and Zhang Ziqiang returned home.

As soon as they walked in, they saw quite a few people in the house. Besides Jiang Xue, her mother, and the others, Third Sister was there too.

Seeing Li Yi push the door open, Jiang Xue immediately asked with a smile, “You’re back. Did you get everything taken care of?”

“It’s all taken care of!”

Saying this, Li Yi pulled a passbook out of his pocket and handed it to Jiang Xue.

Since the room was crowded, Jiang Xue didn’t check the balance; she simply took the passbook into the study in the back room.

Taking advantage of the moment while Jiang Xue was putting the passbook away, Li Yi looked at Li Na and said, “Third Sister, aren’t you supposed to be at the new store? How did you find the time to come over?”

“I just went back to the new place to drop off some things, and since I was passing by, I thought I’d pop in and say hello!” Li Na replied.

“By the way, Third Sister, where is your new house? Is it far from here?”

“Not far. We’re only two houses away from Director Jiang’s place!”

“What a coincidence!”

Just then, Jiang Xue emerged from the study and picked up the conversation: “Not at all. Third Sister’s courtyard was actually bought through Third Brother—the seller was one of his acquaintances!”

“So that’s how it is. No wonder!”

Li Yi then turned to Li Na again and said, “Sis, I’ve already made the arrangements. Tomorrow, I’ll send a car back to the village to pick up Dad and Second Brother-in-Law. See if there’s anyone else you want to invite, and I’ll have them brought over at the same time!”

Third Sister thought for a moment and said, “Then please bring Chunnie, Second Sister Chun, and Sister Guihua over for me!”

“Sure!”

Just then, Jiang Xue suddenly said, “Oh, right, there’s something I forgot to tell you. The old house called this afternoon. Mom said Grandpa wants us to go over for dinner tonight. Do you have time?”

“I do!”

“Great, I’ll call the old house right now and tell them we’ll be over tonight!” Jiang Xue said.

“Alright, and while you’re at it, bring the gift we bought for Grandpa over too!” Li Yi said.

“Okay…”

However, just as the two were talking, the phone in the inner room suddenly rang urgently…

…….