Chapter 236 - 201: A Chill to the Heart

Chapter 236: Chapter 201: A Chill to the Heart

On the way back, Xu An’s tricycle had been commandeered by his second grand-uncle, so he had no choice but to squeeze onto the back of Uncle Dongliang’s bicycle. They rode in silence. It wasn’t clear what Uncle Dongliang was thinking, but Xu An was busy mapping out the future development of the tidal flats.

’With the seaside hot spring as a gimmick, all that bulls**t I was spouting before can finally become a reality! Then I can even collaborate with the neighboring Beitun Town’s Golden Coastline. People could see the sea in Beitun Town during the day, soak in the hot springs in Qianhai Town at night, and even catch a seaside sunrise the next morning. It would be the perfect local tour experience!’

As Xu An was lost in thought, the bicycle reached the greenhouse farming area. He saw quite a few people bustling around where the ten or twenty greenhouses had been destroyed. The plastic sheeting on two of them had already been replaced.

’Ah, looks like my hopes have been dashed. The greenhouse owners have no intention of selling.’ As his gaze returned, it fell upon an abandoned factory at the very front of the greenhouse area.

The factory’s outer wall had collapsed in several places. Through the gaps, he could see that the open ground inside, which might have once been used for parking or storing materials, was now choked with weeds. Even the factory building’s main doors were riddled with holes from years of sun and rain, with weeds poking out from the openings. It was easy to imagine the interior was in no better shape.

"This factory’s been abandoned for seven or eight years, right?" Xu An couldn’t help but comment on the dilapidated scene.

"About right. I was still in middle school when the factory moved away, so it’s been more than ten years," Xu Dongliang agreed.

"How has no one taken it over? This factory has a huge footprint, and it’s close to the national highway. Transporting supplies and materials should be super convenient!"

"Do you know why the paper mill moved away?"

"I don’t know." Xu An shook his head honestly. He genuinely had no idea.

"This paper mill... the previous town mayor had to beg everyone he knew to get the investment. It was pretty successful, too, and brought a lot of benefits to the town. The streetlights, the village signs, and some of the roads you see today were all built with the money we got after the paper mill came."

"That sounds like a good thing, so why did it end up moving away?" Xu An was even more confused after hearing Xu Dongliang’s explanation.

Seeing how interested Xu An was in the abandoned factory, Xu Dongliang turned the bicycle’s handlebars and rode them to its main gate. Although the factory had been abandoned for over a decade and stripped clean by waves of local riff-raff, and even though parts of the wall had collapsed, allowing anyone to enter, there was surprisingly still a security guard stationed at the front entrance.

"Uncle Hu, I’m just going to look around," Uncle Dongliang said, pulling out a pack of cigarettes and tossing it to the skinny old man. The man caught it with surprising agility, gestured for them to go ahead, and returned to his seat in the guardhouse to read a newspaper through his reading glasses.

"That’s Uncle Hu. He used to be a manager here. One night on his way home from a shift, he had to take a leak and ducked into a bamboo grove. He stepped on a hunting trap some son of a bitch had laid and lost half his leg. He was out for half a year, and when he came back, his position was gone. They ended up sticking him here in the guardhouse, and he’s been here ever since. The pay isn’t great, but it’s stable. It’s alright!"

As he spoke, Uncle Dongliang led Xu An to the factory building’s main entrance. He gave the rust-covered doors a push, and flakes of metal showered down with a RATTLE, instantly making the already large holes even bigger.

The factory’s interior wasn’t as decayed as Xu An had imagined. Weeds only grew near the doors and windows exposed to the elements; for the most part, the main structure was still intact. He walked through all three factory buildings and the warehouses. They contained nothing but dust and cobwebs. He couldn’t find so much as a single screw on the floor; who knew how many people had looted the place over the years.

"So what was the real reason the paper mill moved?" Xu An was still intensely curious. "Did it go bankrupt from poor management or cash flow issues?"

As soon as he said it, Xu An felt his guess was probably wrong. ’Even though I was young,’ he thought, ’I clearly remember every family in town coming here to buy paper. It was one yuan for two big bundles of coarse yellow paper. If you were frugal, it could last two or three months. Everyone loved it.’

"He was tricked into gambling and lost everything in a single night. The next day, when he finally realized he’d been set up, the entire factory had already been emptied out." Xu Dongliang gave Xu An a pointed look. "Prostitution, gambling, drugs... Get tangled up in any of those three, and you’re done for. So many business owners have gone down that path..."

While Xu Dongliang was rambling on, Xu An turned and looked through a hole in the outer wall, his eyes taking in the entire greenhouse farming area. The roaring factory from his vision reappeared, but this time it had a concrete form—the abandoned factory right before him.

But in Xu An’s mind, the abandoned factory was completely transformed. The CREAKING iron gate at the entrance was replaced with a brand-new stainless steel one. Welded above the gate was a large sign, and on it were two words: Xu’s Catering!

His perspective suddenly swooped down to ground level. He saw Aunt Hong and her team picking fresh fruits and vegetables from the adjacent greenhouse area. The produce was carefully placed in plastic crates and delivered to the Xu’s Catering factory.

Nanny He led a group of people carrying the crates of produce into a factory building. Inside were the five- and six-meter-long vegetable washing and cutting machines he had seen at the trade show. A steady stream of produce flowed through the machines, being processed into usable ingredients.

Next, the ingredients were sent to a second building where Liu Daxi and Zhou Qi each led a team operating automatic stir-frying machines. Thanks to the machines’ precise controls, the appearance and flavor of every dish were perfectly consistent.

The finished dishes were moved to another room, where Liang Dani supervised a team packing them into individual meal boxes and placing them in insulated containers. Uncle Guosheng and Wang Datou then led a crew to load the boxes onto insulated food trucks parked in the factory yard.

The last building was for Zhang Dezhen, for producing the braised foods...

CROAK—

A frog suddenly let out a croak, for whatever reason, pulling Xu An from his reverie.

Xu An felt his mouth go dry. He swallowed hard, and his voice was hoarse as he asked, "Uncle Dongliang, what’s the rent on this factory?"

"This place?" Xu Dongliang had found a stick somewhere and was poking it into the grass, searching for the frog. He answered nonchalantly, "The factory covers about three hectares. Rent is six yuan per square meter, which comes out to 180,000 a month. That’s over two million a year."

Though it was a sweltering summer day, Xu An felt his heart sink.

’Two million. At their current sales volumes, it would take both Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant and Xu’s Braised Shop three to six months just to make enough for the rent. And after renting it... the weeds would need clearing, the site would need repairs, the water and electricity would need checking, the machinery would need to be purchased...’

’That two million was just the starting line, nowhere near the finish!’

「Victory Supermarket, Office.」

BEEP BEEP BEEP—

Hearing the email notification, Lu Shengnan shot upright in her chair. She quickly moved the mouse to click the pop-up, which took her to her inbox.

"...This application has been denied..."

’Denied! Denied again!’

Lu Shengnan slammed her mouse onto the desk. A loud BANG echoed through the quiet office.

This was the third application she had submitted to upper management in the half-month since taking charge of Victory Supermarket. The first had been rejected due to the store’s poor performance. After she managed to turn the supermarket’s fortunes around, she submitted a second application. The response to that one was ’Pending Evaluation,’ followed by nothing. And now, her third application, sent yesterday, had been met with a flat ’Denied’...

’The more she thought about it, the angrier she became. If she was going to be shot down, she at least deserved to know why!’

Lu Shengnan took out her phone and dialed her direct supervisor. It rang three full times. As the fourth ring began, the call finally connected.

"President Luo? It’s me, Long. Yes, that’s right... I’m calling so suddenly because I was hoping to ask what the reason was for headquarters denying my application."

"Yes, that’s right. The email didn’t give a specific reason, so I took the liberty of disturbing you, President Luo."

"What? But there’s no conflict between the real estate company’s funds and Victory Supermarket’s. How could..."

"I understand the decision from headquarters, but I have to ask you to please reconsider my application. Customer traffic at Victory Supermarket is already back to eighty percent of its peak. If we could build that three-story, two-thousand-square-meter standalone store, it would boost business for the other shops as well..."

"President Luo, I’m begging you to reconsider! This is extremely important for the future of Victory Supermarket!"

"..."

"Alright. I understand. Since headquarters believes the real estate side has more room for growth, then of course I’ll give it my full support. Yes. Thank you for your guidance, President Luo."

After hanging up, Lu Shengnan stared at the name ’President Luo’ on her screen and suddenly screamed, "Fuck real estate!"