Chapter 147 - Each Man for Himself (1)
Neither one of them brought up anything that they had talked about the night before. They chitchatted randomly about other random things and the mood was very light and cheerful.
“My daughter is three years old this year, same as your son. You should bring your kids with next time. My daughter has been home all the time and doesn’t have any friends. She’ll be happy to meet your daughter.” Hu Ruixue seemed to be in a much better state that she was previously.
“Sure. Why don’t we have an outing next weekend?” City Nan wasn’t all that great right now. Many of the well-known tourist spots in the future were still bare land right now.
“Mmm, the weather has been nice lately. An outing is not a bad idea.” When Hu Ruixue smiled, her eyes would curl like moons and she looked very pretty.
That made Shu Yan wondered. The original owner was ugly and not cultured, so Ye Zhiqiang went for a younger, prettier, and more cultured college student. That made sense. Why did Zhang Baizong looked for one that didn’t measure up to Hu Ruixue in every aspect? Was that due to his inferiority complex? He was seeking his male ego from Le? What a scum.
The dishes were served one by one and Shu Yan felt that she was surrounded by aroma. She picked up a chopstick-full of food and placed it inside of her mouth. She squinted a little. Even though Shu Yan ate City Nan cuisines but she much preferred local cuisines of her home town. Today Shu Yan learned that the type of cuisines didn’t matter as long as they were delicious.
When they were almost done eating, Shu Yan picked up her cup of tea and took a sip. “Have you looked into Zhu Hung’s husband yet?”
Hu Ruixue mimicked Shu Yan and leaned against the chair. She didn’t feel that sitting that way was very lady-like but it was certainly very comfortable. She then, too, picked up her cup of tea and sipped relaxingly.
“Yes, I have already sent someone to look into it. It was certainly a miracle Zhang Baizong was able to keep the business running up to this point. Of the 40 people at the factory, 10 of them were managers, 7 of them got in through string-pulling – sisters, brothers, brothers-in-law. O yeah, uncles from both sides of the family. All of them occupying important positions. Almost the entire management was relatives.” Even though Hu Ruixue had never been in business herself, but she had heard and learned a lot though passing and has a basic understanding. A factory liked like was certainly an eye-opener to her. “Most importantly, his relatives are not competent people and didn’t know the first thing about management. Putting them in important roles made the factory a mess.”
There were many family businesses in China, but very few would do what Zhang Baizong had done. Either relatives went into business together or one person had expanded their business enough that they could help a few relatives out by giving them a job. But never putting them in important positions.
Shu Yan, on the other hand, had experienced that first hand herself. Her first job back at her home town after she had graduated college was at a small company similar to Zhang Baizong’s factory. All of the management was the owner’s family members. Many of the employees quit after a few days. Long story story, when she left her home town, the company had already gone out of business.
“There are a lot of issues with the factory’s finances. I have hired a few experienced accountants to look though the books as we speak. The clothing factory had been mostly hollowed out by these parasites by now. Mainly just left with a shell. I must have been blind back then to have married such a man who was only pretty on the outside but rotten on the inside. Wait, that’s not right. He isn’t even pretty on the outside.” With the veil called “love”, Hu Ruixue couldn’t find anything good to say about Zhang Baizong.
There were many things that Hu Ruixue wouldn’t share with others; that included her parents and many of her friends from the past. But she was willing to share with Shu Yan. Probably because she felt that Shu Yan had similar experience as herself and could relate. That and she wasn’t worried that Shu Yan would look down on her.
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