Journey 1995:Non-Stop

Chapter 195 Inferior Pine

Polishing is not a core technology; it's easier to "crack" than drying. Yan Hui is certain that once this batch of goods hits the market and starts selling well, people will immediately start learning how to do it.

So Yan Hui isn't in a rush this time. He plans to store 30 yuan worth of goods in Northeast China before transporting them all to Jianye to sell. He estimates he'll be staying here for more than a month.

Now that Mr. Yan has money, his demands for quality of life have increased dramatically. He and Lao Guo are now booking private rooms at public bathhouses! They even charge 15 yuan for a bath!

As for meals, they were even more extravagant. They would leave the hotel restaurant every few days to eat out and have good food, and braised pork knuckle was a common dish!

After a long and tiring day, Yan Hui became somewhat lazy, spending his time taking baths, eating delicious food, watching TV, and catching fish in ice caves—doing whatever was fun.

That day, Yan Hui came home very late again. Old Guo found him and said, "Old Yan, the factory came looking for you today. They said they would call you, but you didn't answer."

"No signal." Yan Hui took out his phone and checked it. "Which processing plant?"

"Polished".

"Okay, I'll call back and ask now." Yan Hui picked up his phone and dialed the other party's landline, but no one answered.

"If not, contact me again tomorrow."

"I've gone too far today, I need to go somewhere." Yan Hui said, then went outside and got on his motorcycle.

"You're going over so late? It's not safe!" Old Guo said with some concern.

“They’ve come looking for me, it must be urgent. Don’t worry about it, it’s not far, my motorcycle has lights.” Yan Hui turned and went out the door.

I rode the motorcycle and the journey was smooth. I arrived at the processing plant in about ten minutes. The lights were still on in the processing plant, but the machines had stopped.

"Director Li! I heard you came to see me today?" Yan Hui spotted the director playing cards and quickly went over to greet him.

"Mr. Yan, you're here!" Factory Manager Li glanced around. "Wait for me to finish this game!"

"Not in a hurry!"

Soon, Director Li finished the hand of cards, left the others, and found a place where it would be convenient to talk.

“Mr. Yan, we’ve been working together for quite a while, and you’ve always been generous with your payments, so I felt I had to talk to you about this. This batch of boards that recently arrived isn’t quite right; there are too many blemishes,” said Factory Manager Li.

"Hmm? Lots of knots? Let me see." Yan Hui followed Factory Director Li into the processing workshop.

Yan Hui didn't break the boards at this factory; instead, he brought boards that had already been broken from other factories to grind, so the boards here are divided into two stacks.

The polishing process will make the previously hidden knots and scars of the wood clearly visible and impossible to hide.

For larch lumber, a few knots on the edge are not a problem, but knots in the center are a big issue and seriously affect the price.

"I don't dare to grind it anymore today. I don't know how I'll explain it to you if I do," Factory Director Li sighed.

"Thank you so much, Director Li. In that case, there's no rush. I'll go and see tomorrow to find out which step went wrong." Yan Hui's brows remained furrowed.

"Okay, that's what I meant. I was worried you'd rush me to meet the deadline." Factory Director Li nodded.

Yan Hui took a quick look and found that there were about 30 cubic meters of problematic larch wood.

Yan Hui could also spot the problems with the unpolished materials, after all, he was a professional.

He didn't say anything, went directly to the broken board processing plant, and found that it had already stopped working and closed for the day, so he could only go back to rest.

Early the next morning, Yan Hui rode his bicycle to the broken board factory. After parking, he immediately found Factory Manager Zhao and inspected the logs, discovering that all of them had problems. "Factory Manager Zhao, you're a veteran in the processing industry. What do you think of this batch of timber?" Yan Hui asked Factory Manager Zhao frankly.

"Well... I didn't keep a close eye on it, but I think the diameter of this larch is definitely sufficient," Director Zhao said somewhat embarrassedly.

He's definitely an expert; he can tell whether or not there are knots in the wood when processing it.

"Did someone mention this to you? Was it Wang Hongjun or Liu Zi?" Yan Hui squinted, sensing there might be something wrong here.

Logically speaking, Wang Hongjun would never have messed with Yan Hui, and Liu Zi would certainly not have dared to either.

"No, no. I'm just processing as usual. What I'm registering is mainly the diameter and quantity," Director Zhao said without any guilt.

“I understand now. The problem lies with the raw materials.” Yan Hui glanced at the unprocessed logs. “Stop.”

"Okay, okay, I'll stop." Director Zhao quickly went to make arrangements.

Yan Hui inspected the stacked logs. At first glance, he didn't notice anything wrong, but upon closer inspection, he realized that the logs were in the wrong positions.

For example, if a 20-meter-long larch log is cut into five 4-meter-long sections, the bottom four sections will definitely have fewer knots. The top section, if of good quality, will also have few knots. However, if of poor quality or if too much wood is left at the top, it will result in many knots.

The logs piled up now are all the top section of each tree, which were specially selected.

Yan Hui didn't believe that Director Zhao couldn't see through it, but Director Zhao certainly wouldn't dare to speak carelessly, since he knew Wang Hongjun.

Thinking of this, Yan Hui had nothing to hide, so he took out his phone and called Wang Hongjun directly to explain the situation.

"You mean, they only shipped you the top section?" Wang Hongjun asked angrily. "Did Liu Zi choose it for you? Wait, I'm going to find him!"

"No need, Brother Jun, I'll go check on the forest farm in a bit," Yan Hui said calmly.

Even a fool could tell that Wang Hongjun was ripping him off. He'd at least stuffed a whole train carload of cheap, low-quality larch into his car.

Yan Hui was a little confused as to why Wang Hongjun would do this. After all, Yan Hui only bought his goods from Wang Hongjun. Could Wang Hongjun really refuse him? Or did Wang Hongjun not care about Yan Hui's feelings?
With these questions in mind, Yan Hui rode his motorcycle to Wang Hongjun's forest farm and first found Liu Zi.

"Mr. Yan, I just loaded the larch you ordered onto the truck. What brings you here?" Liu Zi looked slightly guilty when he saw Yan Hui.

"Hmm, where's Brother Jun?" Yan Hui asked casually, as if he hadn't seen anything.

"Mr. Yan, would you like to check the goods?" Liu Zi asked again.

"I trust you to handle things. No need to check anymore, just ship the goods to the processing plant." Yan Hui nodded.

"Huh? Ship it directly?"

"Wasn't it always like this before?" Yan Hui asked, somewhat puzzled.

But you've already come all this way.

"Two truckloads, about thirty or forty cubic meters of logs, you can ship them." Yan Hui pointed to Wang Hongjun's house. "I'm going to go find Brother Jun now."

"Oh, okay." Liu Zi suddenly felt lost. He couldn't say the things he had prepared.

Yan Hui sensed something was amiss, but couldn't pinpoint what it was. He wasn't going to beat around the bush and planned to go directly to talk to Wang Hongjun.

(End of this chapter)