Lin Qingping and Gu Juncheng

Chapter 509 I Won't Leave You

"Because of He Qiancheng's lame leg! Because of Wang Ping'an's deaf ears!" Zhong Xiaoxiao's voice grew louder and louder. "You ask me why? Well, I'll tell you, because of those injuries on their bodies that you look down on! Those aren't disabilities, nor are they shameful; they are their medals for protecting their country! They are the glory of men standing tall and upright! They are not something a lowly person like you can humiliate! Every time you say that, I will definitely beat you! You better remember that!"

"And Comrade Lin too." Zhong Xiaoxiao didn't know about this at first. She was doing quality inspection in the factory area when she heard the workers talking about how Qian Ping came to cause trouble and wanted to kick Comrade Lin out of the factory. She got angry as soon as she heard this and rushed over. As a result, the farce had already ended, but she just happened to arrive just in time for the wrap-up.

She pointed at Qian Ping, her tone very agitated, "You despicable person, you'll never know what a truly good person looks like! In the past, we didn't do anything to you because we were considerate of Brother He, but if you try to have designs on Comrade Lin, let me tell you, Qian Ping, not to mention anyone else, I'll be the first to not let you off the hook!"

People like Qian Ping will never understand what gratitude is!

They will never understand what it feels like to be reborn when someone pulls you out of the mud and lets you see the light again!

She was saved by Lin Qingping, so she absolutely cannot allow anyone to be disloyal or unkind to Lin Qingping!

Qian Ping was slapped several times by Zhong Xiaoxiao and then berated. When she tried to retaliate, her hand was twisted. She tried to talk back, but Zhong Xiaoxiao didn't give her a chance. Just when she finally waited for Zhong Xiaoxiao to stop and was about to speak, Zhong Xiaoxiao slapped her again, making her scream. As soon as she screamed, Zhong Xiaoxiao slapped her again...

After several rounds, Qian Ping's face was swollen, her eyes filled with hatred as she stared at Zhong Xiaoxiao, but she dared not shout or yell anymore.

Finally, the police arrived and took Qian Ping and her father, along with two workers, to the police station for investigation.

Shen Hai and Zhong Xiaoxiao returned to the conference room on the second floor.

After they arrived, Wei Zhonghua and He Qiancheng came over. They didn't care at all about the farce that was happening downstairs.

Wei Zhonghua exchanged a glance with Shen Hai, meaning that he was deliberately delaying He Qiancheng from seeing it.

With everyone present, the meeting officially began.

First, Lin Qingping raised her question: she has been on the island for many years and really has no time to participate in the management of the cake factory. After two years, each of them has accumulated a small amount of savings. Although it is not much, it is enough to keep the cake shop running. If necessary, she is even willing to lend money or take out a loan for them to run the business. However, she will no longer participate in the profit sharing, and they can pay back the money when the time comes.

Zhong Xiaoxiao was the first to disagree, "I don't care what you think, I won't agree. If this is the final outcome, then I'm not going to run this cake factory anymore."

"Xiaoxiao, don't be impulsive..." Lin Qingping advised her.

“I’m not impulsive,” Zhong Xiaoxiao said. “Okay, I am impulsive, but I have my principles. I don’t want to be separated from you. Call me emotional, call me incapable of great things, I admit it. I’m not the kind of person who does great things. You’re so far away, we only see each other once a year. The only thing I have in common with you is the cake shop. If the cake shop is gone, I… I’m afraid you’ll even forget what I look like…”

Zhong Xiaoxiao choked up as she spoke, "Anyway, if you leave the cake shop, I won't do it anymore, I'll go to my older sister's dessert shop."

"You..." Lin Qingping didn't know what to say. Zhong Xiaoxiao's crying had completely disrupted the flow of the conversation.

Factory Director Cheng said, "I disagree. I think things are fine as they are now. I'm getting old, and the times are changing so fast. If I work on my own, I'm afraid I won't be able to keep up with the times and will be eliminated sooner or later. You have to take the helm."

Aside from striking Qian Hao when he was spouting nonsense, Gu Juncheng barely spoke throughout the day. This was a matter concerning Lin Qingping's shop, and although the people managing the shop were all his former comrades, he still felt it was inappropriate for him to get involved.

But then he spoke up, “Here’s what we’ll do: speak your minds without holding back. Write down what you’re thinking on paper, anonymously. We’ll collect them later.”

Everyone thought the suggestion was acceptable.

So, they all wrote down their thoughts on paper. Then, Gu Juncheng collected them all and unfolded the slips of paper one by one. As a result, every single one of them said: "I do not want Comrade Lin Qingping to leave the cake shop."

“This is your wish,” Gu Juncheng said, putting the book away. “We also have to respect Comrade Lin’s own wishes. She also said that she has been living on the island for many years. If she is not willing, we cannot force her.”

Lin Qingping thought about it several times in a short period of time.

Ever since she returned to the capital and met Qian Ping, bizarre things have been happening non-stop. She's barely reacted. In fact, she thinks Qian Ping, a petty, street-smart person, is easy to deal with. She doesn't care about Qian Ping at all. What she cares about are the "four generals" she's helped raise. The reason she hasn't reacted is that she wants to see their reactions. Now it seems she won't be disappointed...

After much deliberation, she finally made a decision: "Okay, I won't quit. But since you've turned it into a factory, it should operate like a factory or company. Your positions and responsibilities need to be adjusted."

Previously, each person was responsible for a cake shop. If they were running their own independent shops, it wouldn't have been a problem. But now that they've turned it into a factory, the responsibilities have become somewhat chaotic.

Lin Qingping never mentioned one person, He Qiancheng. In fact, one of the votes Gu Juncheng collected was missing, which was He Qiancheng's. Gu Juncheng didn't point it out, and Lin Qingping didn't say anything either.

He Qiancheng stepped forward at this moment, his eyes slightly red, "Comrade Lin, the cake shop needs you. If you can stay, I really..."

He took a deep breath. "I really feel a little less guilty now, otherwise I would be the sinner of this cake shop."

No one spoke. Perhaps he needed to give everyone an explanation, and also an explanation to himself.

“Comrade Lin, actually, the one who should really leave the cake shop is me,” he choked out. “I don’t deserve to stay here any longer.”

"He Qiancheng!" Gu Juncheng suddenly shouted loudly, as if he were calling roll in a military camp.

"Here!" He Qiancheng snapped to attention as if by reflex, standing ramrod straight with his head held high.

"That's more like it!" Gu Juncheng said angrily. "When did the soldiers I, Gu Juncheng, train become such cowards! They're not good enough for this person or that person. I can't help but get furious when I hear that!"

He Qiancheng's eyes reddened again as he was scolded.

"What mistake did you make? What did you do? How should you be punished? Are you getting out of here or staying to make amends? You better be honest and upright, hold your head high! Act like a human being! Don't be such a coward! You're embarrassing me!"

"Yes!" He Qiancheng puffed out his chest even more, but his voice trembled even more violently.

Next, He Qiancheng explained everything that had happened during this period.

It turns out that He Qiancheng met Qian Ping half a year ago, and they officially started dating two months later. He also met Wei Zhonghua and the others, which can be considered as meeting their families.

At first, Qian Ping was quite nice to He Qiancheng and his brothers. But gradually, she started making demands of He Qiancheng. Initially, she wanted to work in the factory and insisted on being assigned to the finance department. He Qiancheng couldn't persuade her otherwise, so he talked to the others and arranged a position for her in the finance department, giving her some tasks. However, the actual accounting was still done by Jiang Liping. Everything remained the same except for the addition of another person whose salary was paid to her from his income. Thus, she got a desk in the finance office.

After she got a job, she then tried to bring her father and sister into the factory.

This was actually much easier to handle. The factory did need a security guard, and the shop needed an additional clerk. It was too simple. The brothers even thought that with He Qiancheng's meager monthly income, it wouldn't be enough to pay two more people. Since the factory needed these two positions, they decided to pay the wages from the factory. But to their utter surprise, Qian Ping's sister started taking bread from the shop every few days. At first, no one knew, but when the shop tallied the accounts at the end of the month and found discrepancies, it was discovered. He Qiancheng was filled with shame and kept quiet, making up the difference himself.

The most outrageous thing was last month when Qian Ping's younger brother wanted to get involved in the supply chain, which was what really gave He Qiancheng a headache. The original supplier was Gu Juncheng's old comrade-in-arms. In a dilemma, He Qiancheng finally agreed to Qian Ping's request, thinking that he could have each side supply for two months. So he said that the raw materials were not yet used up and did not ask the company in Inner Mongolia to supply the goods. Instead, he asked Qian Hao to deliver the goods. However, when the goods arrived, Director Cheng noticed something was wrong.

But the goods had already arrived, and the Inner Mongolia company hadn't delivered any raw materials, which meant the factory would have to stop production. Under the dual pressure of the power struggle between He Qiancheng, Qian Ping, and their brothers, they decided to use this batch of raw materials for a month first, and then switch to the original batch next month.

Only Director Cheng persisted.

His final insistence was: Fine, you can use it if you want. But give me the leftovers in the factory, I'll use them myself.

The biggest obstacle to using the new raw materials was Factory Director Cheng. After much difficulty, Factory Director Cheng finally relented, and He Qiancheng immediately agreed to give all the remaining raw materials in the factory to Factory Director Cheng. Their store used all of Qianhao's products.

For the first time, Director Cheng had a disagreement and a rift with them. His second store reduced production and limited the daily output, but he managed to hold on.

In this matter, Wei Zhonghua and the other two held a neutral stance, which allowed Qian Hao's goods to enter the production process.

The three people also stepped forward to admit their mistakes.

He Qiancheng took full responsibility, saying, "It was me. I forced them. I forced them with brotherhood. They had no choice. Comrade Lin, please don't blame them."

Lin Qingping looked at them.

Something really big has happened in just one or two months. No wonder the reports she received were all normal. They usually give her quarterly reports, once a quarter. Nothing like this happened in the first quarter, and before the second quarter's report was even sent, she came on her own.

Wang Ping'an gave her a document that recorded various things about the Qian family, including detailed data on the discrepancies in the quality and price of various goods in the factory.

She also reviewed Jiang Liping's accounts, which were actually correct. In other words, the factory settled accounts for the goods Qian Hao delivered last month at the actual price, without using the money meant for animal-based cream to buy vegetable-based cream, or the money meant for pure chocolate to buy cocoa butter substitutes, etc.

Now that He Qiancheng had explained so much, she understood immediately and asked him, "The factory settled the bill with Qian Hao at the actual price. The price that Qian Ping and her brother asked for was the difference you made up, right?"

He Qiancheng's face turned red instantly.

Lin Qingping didn't know what to say about He Qiancheng; all she could say was, "He's a complete idiot!"

He wasn't without a sense of right and wrong; he knew what was right and what was wrong. However, he was trapped in Qian Ping's gentle embrace and didn't correct or oppose what was wrong. Instead, he tried to fill the hole himself, wanting to take care of both his brotherhood and his girlfriend.

How can you have it both ways?

Lin Qingping paced around the conference room twice, then made a decision. "Never mind, she promised herself she wouldn't quit the cake shop. Let's give her one last chance!"

She sat down again. “Comrades, now that our cake factory is a whole, no longer a separate cake shop, our management model must change. I’m not here. I need a factory director to oversee the entire factory, with several deputy factory directors under him. Each deputy factory director is responsible to the factory director, and the factory director is responsible to me. You have worked together for a long time and know each other well, so you can elect yourselves.”

Therefore, a secret ballot was used again to elect the factory director.

This surprised Lin Qingping. The Cheng family of three, Zhong Xiaoxiao, and He Qiancheng and his group of four, a total of eight people, voted for Shen Hai with one vote, for Wei Zhonghua with one vote, and for Factory Director Cheng with six votes.

Judging from Director Cheng's astonishment, he didn't vote for himself, but for Shen Hai. Lin Qingping recognized the handwriting; it belonged to Zhong Xiaoxiao, her classmate of four years.

In other words, He Qiancheng and the other three actually all chose Factory Director Cheng.

At this point, Lin Qingping immediately felt that her decision was correct. Confused as she may have been, and making mistakes as she may have made, she was still a sensible person at heart.

Lin Qingping stopped Director Cheng from refusing, and made the decision before he could even speak, "Alright, this is the director you chose yourselves. You have to accept it and cooperate with Director Cheng to do your job well."

Next is the selection of the deputy factory director.

Wang Ping'an shook his head first. Although he could hear with a hearing aid, it was still inconvenient. Moreover, he didn't like being a leader. He preferred to stay in the production room, making cakes and bread, researching how to make proportions and how to decorate. He was very creative and had already developed several new varieties.

Lin Qingping agreed, and He Qiancheng then brought up his own idea.

"Please have Accountant Jiang calculate the losses I caused to the factory. I will compensate for all the losses that are due. If... if there is any legal liability, I will also bear the responsibility that I am obligated to bear."