The Stepmother’s Counterattack: Raising a Child in a Bygone Era
Chapter 294 - 293 Going to the Ning Family

Chapter 294: Chapter 293 Going to the Ning Family

"I’ve scheduled the surgery for next Wednesday."

The word ’surgery’ extinguished much of Shen Mingzhu’s confused emotions like a basin of water, and her heart tightened, "What surgery? Are you feeling unwell?"

Pei Yang kissed her soothingly, "Vasectomy."

Shen Mingzhu looked at the man, "You’re getting a vasectomy? Why didn’t I hear about this before?"

"I was planning to tell you today."

After Pei Yang finished speaking, his deep eyes filled with a smile, "Look, you’ve already bought all this stuff, we can’t let it go to waste. So how about we use it all up before the surgery, what do you think?"

Shen Mingzhu snorted, "Not so great."

The nerve of him to think such a thing. Today was Saturday, and there were only four days left until next Wednesday. How could they possibly use up ten ’little umbrellas’ in four days.

Not afraid of exhausting yourself to death, huh.

...

After the baby’s full-month celebration was over, Shen Mingzhu went back to work officially.

Since she was breastfeeding, and also reluctant to leave her daughter at home, Shen Mingzhu simply brought both her daughter and Nurse Yu to the factory.

Having not been seen for a while, Shen Mingzhu received a warm welcome from the long-term employees when she arrived at the factory. Most of the workers there were mothers themselves, and upon seeing Little Guoguo who was cute as a bun, everyone was overjoyed, showering her with auspicious phrases non-stop.

Although most of them were flattering her as the boss, it still lifted Shen Mingzhu’s spirits. With a grand gesture, she dug into her own pocket to provide a midday meal of roast chicken for the workers, which made them extremely happy.

It was soon time to start work.

After handing Little Guoguo over to Nurse Yu, Shen Mingzhu threw herself wholeheartedly into her work.

Although Pei Yang had been helping with her previous tasks, sorting through the piled-up reports still consumed quite a bit of her energy and time.

After the afternoon break, Shen Mingzhu, as usual, took Shen Hongmei through the production workshop for an inspection.

Perhaps due to her absence during this period, coupled with the addition of new employees, both order and regulations were somewhat chaotic. Shen Mingzhu didn’t hesitate to point this out on the spot and called over Shen Chaobei to give him a public scolding.

The longtime employees were used to it, but the new ones were startled by Shen Mingzhu’s temperament.

As soon as she left, they began whispering to each other—

"President Shen looks so delicate, I didn’t expect her to be so fierce. She lost her temper as soon as she arrived."

"Wasn’t it said that she just finished her maternity leave? Look at her slender arms and waist, her skin’s so tender, like tofu, she doesn’t look like someone who has just given birth at all."

"Wealthy people are of course different from us. Look at her, bringing a nanny to work to care for the baby, she doesn’t have to do any of it herself, no wonder she’s so well-kept."

"That’s true."

"Alright, focus on work and cut the chatter."

An older employee snapped, silencing the new workers, who then got back to their tasks seriously.

During this period, the food factory’s main production focus was on mooncakes. Apart from numerous issues in the molding workshop, there were also many problems in the baking and packaging processes.

After the inspection, Shen Mingzhu was quite angry, and couldn’t help but drag Shen Chaobei back to her office for a severe scolding.

"...It hasn’t been easy for our food factory to get to where it is today. The importance of food hygiene and safety, I don’t need to repeat that to you, do I? Some employees’ sleeve covers and aprons have become shiny from wear, and the masks, with noses completely exposed, might as well not be worn at all! If outsiders see the personal hygiene of our production staff like this, how can they trust and buy our products?"

Shen Chaobei kept his head down, looking remorseful, "President Shen, please don’t upset yourself. I’ll definitely ensure that everyone wears their masks properly from now on, and I’ll get them to clean their sleeve covers and aprons daily. I’ll check each one of them when they clock in."

Strict supervision is not a solution for the long term.

Thirty employees could be inspected one by one, but what about when the number of employees reaches hundreds or even thousands? Are they expected to be checked one by one every day?

After some thought, Shen Mingzhu decided to adopt a linen management system similar to that of the future’s star-rated hotels, ordering uniform white hats, aprons, sleeve covers, and masks for all the staff. These items would be collected daily for cleaning and disinfection, and every employee should pick up their clean protective gear from the storeroom before starting work the next day.

Although this would increase production costs, she preferred to earn less money to ensure the hygiene and safety of food production, eliminating all potential risks.

Seizing this opportunity, Shen Mingzhu took the liberty to comprehensively optimize and upgrade the rules, regulations, and management.

However, as she lacked experience in this area, she consulted several friends, including Zhong Qing, Pei Wenping, and Li Bing.

To avoid disrupting current production, she did not rush to announce the new rules and compensation benefits, planning to wait until after the National Day holiday.

The day for Pei Yang to have his vasectomy came in a blink of an eye.

Even though it was a minor procedure with no danger, Shen Mingzhu still took a day off to accompany her daughter and Pei Yang to the hospital.

After the surgery, they could go home after resting for just a few hours.

For the first three days after the vasectomy, Pei Yang should not move around much, so Shen Mingzhu simply gave him three days off to rest at home and take care of the baby. All she needed to do each morning was to use the breast pump before leaving for work to store the day’s milk in bottles, which could be warmed up with hot water when it was time to feed.

With Pei Yang at home to take care of the child, Shen Mingzhu concentrated on designing several engagement sweet gift boxes, preparing for Ning Yuan to pick from among them.

The meeting place was set at the Ning Family’s home.

This was Shen Mingzhu’s first visit to the Ning Family’s home, and although she knew they were extremely wealthy, seeing their grandeur in person still left her indescribably shocked.

Previously, she thought Ning Yuan, who drove sports cars every day, was ostentatious and showy. But now, after witnessing the luxury of the Ning Family’s home, she suddenly felt that Ning Yuan was quite down-to-earth.

"Mrs. Pei, please have some tea."

"Thank you."

After sitting for a while, Ning Yuan slowly descended from upstairs, seemingly just having woken up and still wearing his silk pajamas, looking a bit listless.

"Sorry for asking you to come all this way, it’s mainly my mom, she recently won’t let me go out."

"It’s no problem. Thanks to you, otherwise, I wouldn’t know that Fengcheng has such a nice place."

Ning Yuan took the coffee handed to him by a servant, "The view is indeed nice. If you have time, I can show you around later. There’s a golf course behind the mountain. Do you play golf?"

"Maybe another time. I have to go back to take care of the child in a bit," she replied.

Hearing this, Ning Yuan did not insist.

Shen Mingzhu brought out the sweet gift boxes she had designed.

There were three designs in total: Design A featured a square paper bag with hollowed-out carvings, Design B was a pink heart-shaped tin box, and Design C was a brocade handbag. Since it was for an engagement and not a wedding, the color scheme was a sophisticated pink.

The variety of sweets was also quite rich, including several flavors of soft candies already available from the food factory. Shen Mingzhu had added purple-coated candies, snowflake crisps, and liqueur-filled chocolates.

"The purple-coated candy and liqueur-filled chocolates are new products that the food factory is planning to develop in the second half of the year. Especially the liqueur-filled chocolates, as your engagement party, Mr. Ning, is naturally extraordinary, so for the liquor core, I’ve used Maotai."

Ning Yuan, who had not been particularly interested in the sweets, perked up when he heard that the liquor core in the chocolates was made with Maotai and immediately unwrapped one and popped it into his mouth.

The taste began with the smooth sweetness of chocolate, followed by a rich aroma of white liquor spreading in his mouth. The mellow fragrance of Maotai collided with the richness of cocoa, providing a supremely indulgent feast for the taste buds.

"Delicious!"

"What’s so delicious? I want to try it too," said a playful and unfamiliar female voice coming from the direction of the main entrance.