Reborn as Tycoon's Wife in the Countryside
Chapter 179 White Lotus Sister appears (second update)

Chapter 179: 179 White Lotus Sister appears (second update)

Early in the morning, several employees arrived on time for work, and upon seeing everyone present, Factory Manager Zhou asked everyone to start working.

Due to the high daily production, the demand for fresh peppers purchased each day was also substantial. Because of this, Old Su Guaizi, along with Su Peng, stopped going down to the villages to buy them and instead went directly to the various towns to purchase.

They would go to whichever town had a market day and thus could buy several hundred pounds of peppers each day.

The price offered by their family was higher than others, and they also had stricter quality requirements than other buyers.

"Hey, pepper buyers, how much do you pay per pound for peppers?" A rural woman with an average appearance and a face covered in pockmarks, carrying a basket of peppers, approached them.

The woman was dressed in a floral shirt, her hair tied up carelessly with a few bangs hanging over her forehead, casually addressing Old Su Guaizi.

"Two and a half dimes," Old Su Guaizi replied after seeing someone approaching.

Other places were offering two dimes, but since he was stricter, he charged an extra five cents.

"Weigh mine and see how much there is," said the woman, handing her basket to Old Su Guaizi.

Old Su Guaizi looked through the basket and found barely any rotten or unripe ones, and weighed them: "Thirteen pounds."

"Are you sure your scale is accurate? How can it only be a bit over ten pounds?"

"If you don’t trust it, you can have someone else weigh it for you," Old Su Guaizi, considering himself an honest businessman, said: "Ten pounds is two and a half yuan, three pounds is seventy-five cents, I’ll give you three yuan thirty."

"Okay, give me the money. That’s just enough to buy some meat to take home." That many peppers were only enough to exchange for one pound of meat.

Old Su Guaizi handed over three yuan thirty to her, the woman took the money and dumped the peppers into Old Su Guaizi’s woven bag, and swayed towards the market.

Su Peng was a bit bored and started fiddling with a pepper: "Dad, I’m hungry."

Old Su Guaizi handed him a yuan: "Go buy six pork buns and come back."

In an alleyway, the same woman who just left was speaking with a young man: "rest assured, I sold that basket of peppers to him just as you instructed."

The young man took out five yuan from his pocket: "Good, remember not to mention this to anyone."

With eight yuan easily in her pocket, the woman was delighted: "Don’t worry, my lips are sealed."

"You better keep them that way. If I find out you’ve spilled anything, you will regret it," the man’s eyes suddenly became fierce.

The woman shivered with fear, clutching the money: was he really that terrifying?

"Yes, yes, I won’t speak a word," she said, taking the money and hastily leaving, fearing even a moment’s delay might provoke him.

The man watched her flee with a sneer on his lips, everything was ready; he was just waiting for the drama to unfold.

...

During the quality inspection, Factory Manager Zhou found that the peppers purchased this time turned the Silver Needles black when tested.

Food sanitation is all about caution, and since there was something wrong with this batch of peppers, they could definitely not be used further.

"Sister He," Factory Manager Zhou, who was two years younger than He Ximei, called her aside: "There seems to be a problem with this batch of peppers. I suggest we dispose of them as waste."

He Ximei was of course aware of the importance of quality. Before Xiaofeng left, she had been repeatedly reminded to maintain strict control over quality: "Old Zhou, if there are issues, we can’t continue production. Can you identify the problem? I need to warn Guaizi to be cautious."

"I can’t say specifically, but the Silver Needles changed color." President Su used the most ancient method to test if the chili sauce heading for production was safe or not.

In the past, when Silver Needles were inserted, they wouldn’t change color, but this time they turned black straight away, indicating someone had either harvested the peppers right after applying pesticide or someone had tampered with them.

He Ximei glanced at the Silver Needles, which were indeed black.

Her expression changed: "Before, I didn’t understand why Xiaofeng set up this checkpoint, but now it seems absolutely necessary."

"It just goes to show that President Su is very conscious about safety. After all, we are in the food industry; safety comes first."

"Then we should just discard them; we can’t continue production." Even if they had already been processed into finished products, there was a problem, and it could not continue.

"That’s what I was thinking," said Factory Manager Zhou, relieved that Sister He shared his opinion.

Factory Manager Zhou called Liao Xianghe over and asked him to move these problematic peppers to the waste room to wait for President Su to return and determine what the problem was.

Liao Xianghe nodded and called for someone to move the equipment to the waste storage room.

Hiding in the shadows, Lin Yue and Dong Tianhao observed the factory entrance not far away. Lin Yue was uncertain, "Brother Haozi, do we stand a chance of succeeding with this plan?"

"Don’t worry, as long as we find something wrong with their production, they are doomed," Dong Tianhao almost burst with glee over his own cunning plan.

He never imagined he could be so clever, to come up with such a scheme.

"How did you know the authorities would come over today?" Lin Yue was perplexed.

"It’s all because my dad had a fight with my mom. He said Su Xiaofeng is manipulative, making use of your dad’s connections or something, and mentioned some documents. I guess Su Xiaofeng definitely wants to get the paperwork through your dad, since he used to work there and knows some people."

"That bitch Su Xiaofeng, my dad dislikes her so much, and yet she’s still so eager to ingratiate herself. Shameless," Lin Yue spat out in contempt, her dissatisfaction with Luo Yuzhu growing.

Why on earth did her mom pick up such a thing and bring it home?

If she just lived honestly and unassumingly in the countryside, everyone would keep to themselves and everything would be peaceful.

But no, she just had to come to the city and even start a factory.

"Shh, look. Are those the people coming?" Dong Tianhao glanced at a group of people in work uniforms not far off. They first inspected the outside of the factory, then knocked on the door and entered.

Lin Yue of course knew who those people were. For Su Xiaofeng to get her paperwork done, the relevant authorities naturally had to come and verify the situation. Only if everything checked out would they approve it. If the situation didn’t match the documents, they couldn’t pass it.

"Brother Haozi, you’re truly a master strategist," Lin Yue said with excitement overtaking her resentment when she saw them, "But what if they find nothing wrong?"

"Are you silly? If they don’t find anything, we’ll just have to give them a nudge," Dong Tianhao said confidently. There was always a way to uncover something if you were determined.

"You mean, I should get close to them when I’m at the factory?" Lin Yue was reluctant; she didn’t want to go inside.

"You’re really naive," Dong Tianhao looked at her disdainfully. "Think about it. If this factory goes down, who benefits the most? You might even be able to take it over directly; then you’ll be the owner of this factory."

"Who cares about a broken factory," Lin Yue scoffed, yet even if she didn’t want it for herself, she didn’t want Su Xiaofeng to have it either.

"I care," Dong Tianhao’s eyes gleamed with a cunning light. "I sell it off, and isn’t that instant cash?"

If she didn’t want it, she could always sell it.

"Brother Haozi, you’re brilliant," Lin Yue was utterly admiring Dong Tianhao. "This is exactly what we should do."

"Is Su Xiaofeng here?" The inspectors, documents in hand, were checking the headcount and the sanitation.

Keke, serving as Su Xiaofeng’s assistant, replied in her absence. "Hello, our boss has gone on a business trip. If there’s anything lacking or any documents needed, we can provide them later."

The inspectors nodded, they would only know the situation after they had looked around.

As Lin Yue and Dong Tianhao entered from outside and saw the small size of the factory with only a handful of people, the disdain in their eyes intensified.

The factory manager Zhou, seeing people come in, stepped forward to stop them: "Excuse me, who are you looking for?"

Lin Yue flashed Manager Zhou a sweet smile. "Hello, uncle. I’m Su Xiaofeng’s sister. My mom sent me here to bring my sister some snacks. Is she here?"

Because she wasn’t there, Lin Yue could call her ’sister’ so smoothly. If Su Xiaofeng were right in front of her, she would die before saying such a thing.

Because she wasn’t her sister.

Manager Zhou looked at He Ximei with a questioning gaze.

He Ximei approached and, seeing the young girl who looked about sixteen or seventeen and resembled Luo Yuzhu, assumed this must be Luo Yuzhu’s daughter.

"She’s not at home, is there something you need?" He Ximei’s tone was even. No matter how big her grievances with Luo Yuzhu were, she wouldn’t show it in front of a child.

"Auntie, hello," Lin Yue spoke gently and sweetly, her demeanor immediately likable. She lowered her head as if recalling something, "Actually, it wasn’t my mother who asked me to come, I wanted to check on my sister myself. I heard she opened a factory and just had to visit. She’s amazing, being able to open a factory at such a young age. Auntie, you must have earned a lot working for my sister, right?"

Taking over a factory would at least cost tens of thousands, wouldn’t it?

Someone nearby recognized Lin Yue: "Aren’t you the daughter of the Lin Family?"

Lin Yue’s smile was sweet: "Yes, I’m Lin Yue. This factory belongs to my sister; I came to have a look. Though she’s young and lacks factory management experience, since she didn’t work anywhere else, my mom let her try running this factory."

She paused: "My mom also, what kind of place is a food factory? It’s related to the reliability of what people eat, and my sister, having grown up in the countryside, what does she know about food safety? Maybe she’d dare to buy pesticide-sprayed produce from the countryside and turn it into products for everyone."