The Stepmother’s Counterattack: Raising a Child in a Bygone Era
Chapter 242 - 241: Rejecting Hengxing

Chapter 242: Chapter 241: Rejecting Hengxing

On the way to the food factory, Huang Yuan had many speculations.

Pei Yang might be angry, or he might be overjoyed, or he might curse and mock him secretly in his heart, but what he never expected was that Pei Yang would outright deny the contract.

When they initially signed the contract, Hengxing paid a 10 percent deposit to the food factory.

By denying the contract, Pei Yang was essentially wiping out that deposit of seven hundred and fifty yuan.

Originally, this deposit required Shen Mingzhu’s signature, but in order not to give himself away, he personally collected the deposit for Shen Mingzhu and handed the original contract over to Shi Guangsheng for processing.

That is to say, he now couldn’t produce either the contract or the receipt for the seven hundred and fifty yuan deposit.

The trap he meticulously set had, in the end, ensnared himself.

Seven hundred and fifty yuan wasn’t a small sum—it was almost half his yearly salary.

A small, broken-down factory dared to scam Hengxing—did they no longer want to mix in the industry?

Huang Yuan was embarrassed and furious, ready to explode, when he suddenly caught sight of the clock on the wall and got a jolt.

It was 11:30 already, only half an hour left until the deadline set by the young boss!

To swallow the indignity for the moment or pack up and leave—a fool would know which to choose.

Huang Yuan forcefully suppressed the anger in his heart and smiled apologetically at Pei Yang, "Factory Manager Pei, I deeply regret offending you yesterday. I truly came here with the sincere intention to fulfill our contract. Could you please do me a favor this time? Perhaps we will have even more opportunities to cooperate in the future, what do you say?"

Pei Yang had prepared for both possibilities.

If Huang Yuan could produce the contract, he would honor it and sell the apple gummy candies to Hengxing—it would also allow him to care for his wife in the hospital peacefully.

But if Huang Yuan couldn’t produce the contract, well, that would be unfortunate.

The only reason Huang Yuan wouldn’t be able to produce the contract was that he had destroyed it, which indicated he never intended to leave the food factory with any way out from the beginning.

If the other party celebrated the first day of the lunar month, then they should not blame him for celebrating the fifteenth.

"Manager Huang, if there’s nothing else, please leave. I’m quite busy here."

Though Huang Yuan was just a department manager, he was in charge of purchasing, a very lucrative role, and was constantly courted by all sorts of suppliers’ bosses. Now, to be slighted by a small, inconsequential factory like Pei Yang’s was frustrating beyond words.

But he had no recourse against Pei Yang—if he didn’t get the candy, he would be the one to pack up and leave.

After weighing the pros and cons, Huang Yuan could only suffer in silence and swallow the loss of seven hundred and fifty yuan.

"Okay, Factory Manager Pei, let’s not mention the previous contract and deposit. Consider it a small token from me. Let’s talk about a new cooperation today. We’ll go with the price we previously agreed on. Now, you bring the candy with you to the company, and we’ll exchange the goods for money on the spot."

Now it was Pei Yang’s turn to be surprised.

Although his wife’s apple gummy candies were tasty, they weren’t so irresistible that they couldn’t be passed up, right?

There must be a demon when things are abnormal.

"I’m sorry, Manager Huang, I won’t sell the candy to you."

"Why not?"

"Would you step in the same pile of shit twice?"

Pile of shit? Referring to whom?

But Huang Yuan didn’t have the luxury to argue about that now, "Factory Manager Pei, I apologize for what happened yesterday. I admit it was my fault. If you’re still angry, you can punch me twice, but please do me this favor, alright? Being helpful to others is being helpful to oneself, isn’t it?"

Huang Yuan’s highly deferential attitude inevitably aroused Pei Yang’s suspicions.

"Manager Huang, may I ask why you must buy our factory’s apple gummy candies at any cost?"

"To tell you the truth, it was the young boss’s order. If I can’t bring the candy back, I won’t be able to fulfill my duties."

"May I ask who your young boss is?"

"Ning Yuan."

When he heard the surname Ning, a name flashed through Pei Yang’s mind, "Ning Yuan?"

Huang Yuan nodded, and then, as if struck by a sudden realization, "Director Pei, do you know our young boss?"

No wonder the young boss had repeatedly and personally instructed him to handle this matter, how had he not considered this possibility?

He really was as dumb as a pig!

Huang Yuan wanted to beat his chest and stomp his feet in frustration.

However, the following words from Pei Yang made him even more desperate, "Manager Huang, please return, I will not sell this candy."

No matter how Huang Yuan pleaded, almost to the point of kneeling before Pei Yang, it was all in vain; he had to leave with nothing achieved.

As soon as Huang Yuan left, Shen Chaobei and Du Juan could hardly contain their urgency and confusion.

"Pei Yang, why wouldn’t you sell the candy to Manager Huang?"

"One breach of trust, and you’re done; I don’t trust Huang Yuan’s character. It’s not a must to sell our candy to him."

Du Juan expressed her concern: "But everyone is waiting for their salary to go home, I’ve calculated, and even excluding Hu Guifen’s share, it’s over four hundred."

The December salary had not been issued, and it was planned to be paid together with January’s, including overtime pay and bonuses, averaging over one hundred per worker.

Pei Yang nodded. "Big brother, sister-in-law, don’t worry, I will definitely distribute the salaries to everyone tomorrow."

...

As Ning Yuan entered, he met Yan Yi’s cold gaze and had no choice but to muster his courage and walk over.

"Uncle."

Yan Yi looked at him without uttering a word.

Ning Yuan muttered disheartedly, "Please handle me."

"Your reason?"

"Pei Yang might have guessed it’s because of you and refused to sell..."

Yan Yi, surprisingly, did not explode in anger but merely withdrew his gaze coldly and continued drinking from his glass.

As Ning Yuan stood there for a while, Yan Yi had already downed three glasses; although it was just red wine, such continuous drinking would be too much for even the toughest stomach.

"Uncle, please don’t do this, let me think of another way, okay? I will make sure to get those three thousand catties of candy for you."

Yan Yi scornfully curled the corner of his mouth, "Can I still trust you?"

"Yes! I’ll find someone else. If he doesn’t sell it to me, surely not everyone else will refuse too. Otherwise, I can ask Zhong Qing..."

"No need, just go out and let me have some peace," Yan Yi interrupted.

Ning Yuan stared at the wine bottle on the table, "I won’t, if you want to drink, I’ll drink with you."

...

Zhou Shuhuan had pulled an all-nighter the previous night, only returning home in the morning and sleeping until noon before waking up.

As he opened his bedroom door, he heard Shen Baolan and Ma Sufen chatting excitedly about something. He didn’t pay much attention and shuffled towards the bathroom in his slippers.

"Shuhuan!"

Seeing that he was awake, Shen Baolan hastily called out to him.

Zhou Shuhuan was in a rush to relieve himself and did not respond, not anticipating that Shen Baolan would follow him all the way to the bathroom door.

"Shuhuan, I have to tell you, Shen Mingzhu has really stirred up big trouble this time."

Zhou Shuhuan, his eyes half-closed as he urinated, snapped them wide open at the mention of Shen Mingzhu’s name.

Shen Baolan exaggeratedly recounted to Zhou Shuhuan how Pei Yang had caused a commotion at Hengxing, provoked Hengxing to take action, resulting in today’s factory inspection, the inability to sell the apple candies, and the failure to pay the wages, embellishing the story with details.

"...Hengxing doesn’t want her candy; she was so anxious she fainted and ended up in the hospital. Now she’s comfortably recovering in the hospital, leaving this mess to Pei Yang. Pei Yang is really suffering because of her this time; a perfectly good iron rice bowl has been smashed, and with the factory in this state, the Pei family is going to have a tough time this year."

While Shen Baolan’s words seemed sympathetic, her face showed schadenfreude.