The siblings were very familiar with the county town and soon arrived at the entrance of the food factory.
The factory entrance was deserted. Compared to the past, it was an understatement to describe it as having few visitors.
Su Xiaotian and Su Shouwen exchanged glances.
When had the food factory declined to such an extent?
The two walked to the gatehouse, where a man in his fifties was sitting on a chair, drinking tea.
He sipped his tea, his eyes half-closed, looking extremely relaxed.
Su Xiaotian took out a small bag of sunflower seeds from her backpack and placed it in front of the old man.
"Uncle, could you please call Qi Liangying for us?"
"Qi Liangying?" The old man thought for a moment and said, "This person is no longer at our food factory. She went home a few days ago!"
Su Xiaotian and Su Shouwen were both very surprised. Why was she no longer at the food factory?
"Uncle, what's going on? Do you know?" Su Xiaotian asked with a smile.
"What is your relationship with Qi Liangying?" the old man asked.
"I'm her niece. Uncle, could you tell me why the food factory looks like this..."
Su Xiaotian didn't know what to say. She couldn't possibly say it was on the verge of bankruptcy.
That would be too embarrassing.
"It looks like it's about to go bankrupt, right?" The old man said the words himself.
"Uncle, what happened?" Su Xiaotian asked curiously.
"What else could it be? They promote based on favoritism, and everyone is incompetent. They haven't sold any goods in three months and have stopped production," the old man sighed. "I have a little over a year left before retirement. I thought I could retire smoothly, but now it doesn't look like it will happen!"
Su Xiaotian and her brother looked at the old man's relaxed demeanor as he spoke, and both felt astonished.
This was not the expression of someone who was about to face unemployment.
"Uncle, why did Qi Liangying leave?"
At this time, even if the factory couldn't operate, it wouldn't lead to workers being sent home.
After all, it was still a collective system.
"I don't know who advised the leadership, but they said they could lay off some people. Qi Liangying was one of them. Before she was laid off, she received three hundred yuan, which was actually quite good. Given the current situation, it's unknown how many more months of salary we'll receive," the old man said with a sigh.
"Did many people leave?"
Su Xiaotian wondered if this was a large-scale layoff.
"More than thirty people left in this batch. Most of them were laid off."
As the old man spoke, his tone was calm, but Su Xiaotian sensed a deep sense of heartache.
Suddenly, Su Xiaotian remembered a very important issue. With the food factory shut down, didn't the Red Heart Brigade's chicken farm lose a major customer?
Thinking of this, Su Xiaotian couldn't stay any longer. After thanking the old man, she pulled Su Shouwen's arm and left.
"Big Brother, let's go home and see."
Su Shouwen didn't know what Su Xiaotian had suddenly thought of, and her expression had become a little strange. But he knew that whatever Su Xiaotian had thought of was definitely not a good thing.
"Xiaotian, what did you think of?"
"Big Brother, the food factory hasn't been operating for three months, and the Red Heart Brigade's chicken farm's biggest customer is the food factory!"
If the eggs couldn't be sold, then everyone in the brigade would be affected.
Especially their Su family, as this matter was suggested by the Su family and led by the Su family.
If something went wrong, others might blame the Su family.
Su Shouwen thought of his parents, and his expression also became solemn. The siblings hurried towards the Red Heart Brigade.
Both of them had good physical fitness. As they ran, the sky was just getting dark, which was a little earlier than expected.
The adults at home were startled to see Su Xiaotian and Su Shouwen suddenly appear.
"Why did you two come back so suddenly? Yesterday, your grandfather said on the phone that you went to Rongcheng!" Su Laoda asked in surprise.
"We went to Rongcheng, wholesaled a batch of goods to sell in the northwest, and after selling the goods in Jinlan City this morning, we came home."
Su Shouwen briefly explained the reason for their sudden appearance.
Qi Liangying looked behind them, and seeing that her child was not with them, she asked with some disappointment, "Didn't Ciliang come back with you?"
"Ciliang went back to Rongcheng and will be back in a few days. He'll definitely come to see you and Second Uncle!" Su Shouwen said with a smile. "Second Aunt, we went to the food factory today."
A fleeting embarrassment crossed Qi Liangying's face. She didn't know how to answer the children's questions.
She used to be a worker, and now she was unemployed. Many people had been pointing fingers at her these past few days.
"Second Aunt, what's going on with the food factory? Wasn't it doing well before?"
Su Xiaotian was very confused. Even with the transition from a planned economy to a market economy, it shouldn't have been on the verge of bankruptcy so quickly.
After all, foods like sponge cakes still held a significant market share.
Qi Liangying was silent for a moment. "It's because they cut corners in processing the sponge cakes. They used less oil, fewer eggs, and the quality of the flour also declined. Even the sugar was replaced with saccharin instead of white sugar. Who would want such sponge cakes? It was able to survive before because there was no competition. But after the new year, someone opened a sponge cake workshop, and their business is booming now. Most people are buying from the workshop."
Su Xiaotian hadn't expected that there would be food safety issues. How bold was this new factory director?
It was just the beginning of the reform and opening up, and many people were still observing. How dare he do this?
"Did anyone else in the factory object, Second Aunt?" With such a large factory, if others objected, even the factory director would have to consider it.
"Of course, they objected. But after all the objections, one deputy director was investigated, and another broke his leg and went home to rest. The remaining few directors and so on were mostly replaced."
Qi Liangying actually had a lot of affection for the sponge cake factory, but she never expected it to decline to such an extent.
Su Xiaotian found it even more unbelievable. One investigated, and one broke his leg. If these two incidents were coincidences, she could not believe it at all.
When too many things happen coincidentally, they are not true coincidences.
"Aunt, can we still supply our eggs to the egg factory?" Su Xiaotian looked at Wang Xianghua again.
Wang Xianghua sighed. "How is that possible? They stopped taking our eggs long ago. The contract was terminated after the new year. We are mainly supplying to a few canteens in the town, but there are too many eggs and little demand, so we have accumulated quite a lot of eggs. Fortunately, your Uncle Zhuzi is capable and helped us sell a lot!"
Thinking about this made Wang Xianghua angry. The efficiency of the chicken farm was too poor today.
If it continued to develop like this, they would lose money, let alone distribute dividends to the brigade members at the end of the year.