Wandering in the vast darkness

Chapter 46 Brother Wang

Yu Wenhao thought to himself, "If I can earn tens of thousands of yuan in just two or three days, that's pretty good. I'd be happy if I could earn 10,000 yuan a month working long hours." Meanwhile, the guy from Xuzhou, who had traveled all the way to Tibet and earned over 10,000 yuan, was already the envy of all the ride-hailing drivers.

It's really hard to compare people. Some people make money so easily. Like Brother Wang, and the investors he mentioned, they really make money just by sitting and lying down, using public funds. It's like holding a public hen, and the eggs it lays are golden eggs, which they keep for themselves.

Everyone was only focused on whether the chickens were missing; no one cared where the eggs went. Or rather, no one knew that these chickens could lay eggs, and in such a way that they were laid them silently.

Yu Wenhao felt that she had really learned a lot.

Yu Wenhao had another question. He asked, "Brother Wang, are train tickets to Wuhu in short supply? Oh, I didn't mean anything by it. Of course I'm happy that you, Brother Wang, asked me to take your car. I just mean, if we take the high-speed rail, it's cheaper and the journey is shorter."

Wang Ge's face darkened, and he sat there without saying a word. Yu Wenhao caught a glimpse of this out of the corner of her eye and became nervous, also falling silent, knowing that she had just said something she shouldn't have.

The two remained silent for five or six minutes. Then, Brother Wang sighed and said, "Xiao Yu, I think you're an honest man too."

Yu Wenhao was puzzled and asked, "Why am I being so obedient?"

Brother Wang said, "This isn't the first time I've called a taxi for a long trip today. When other drivers arrive and hear it's a long trip, the first thing they do is talk to me about the return highway toll. They won't leave until we've agreed on it. You didn't do that. What, you don't care?"

Yu Wenhao was taken aback. It really was true. Such a long journey, and across provinces at that. He should have discussed the return highway toll with him beforehand. Moreover, he remembered someone in the group saying that it was best to add this fee to the order; otherwise, if the customer changed their mind the next day, saying that they had already paid the highway toll privately and demanding a reduction, it would be troublesome.

Why?

"What you see as money I'm earning now is just small change; the debt I owe is huge, a hole of tens of millions. How could it possibly be filled with just a little tea money?"

"But this kind of thing can't be delayed. The longer it's delayed, the more expenses will increase, not decrease. Moreover, when people see your factory in this state, they know you're going to go bankrupt. People who weren't worried before will start to panic. Even the best clients will start to lower their guard and chase after payment. As the saying goes, when the wall falls, everyone pushes it down."

"This is my first time driving this far, I have no experience. Oh well, I'll see if there are any rides available. If there are, I'll give one; if not, I'll just skip it."

"Among factory owners, how many rely entirely on their own capital investment? There will definitely be accounts receivable and accounts payable. For example, when I build a new factory, there are definitely unpaid expenses, from the cost of a small elevator to the cost of the entire production line equipment and the construction cost of the building. There will be outstanding debts."

Brother Wang paused for a moment, then said, "Thank you for understanding."

"Think about it, back then, I had nearly two thousand employees inside and out, and the salaries alone amounted to more than ten million yuan every month. Even if you had no income, this was still money that had to be paid. I didn't dare to lay off my subordinates. To be honest, even if I did lay them off, I couldn't even afford the severance pay, so I could only drag it out."

"As a result, the company's cash flow was cut off, and my original small factory also had to stop production. The factory is the one thing that can't be shut down; once it stops, it creates a vicious cycle that gets worse and worse. At that time, I was really overwhelmed and dreaded answering the phone. The calls I received were either from people demanding payment or asking what problems had occurred here or there. I felt like my company was riddled with holes."

"I think that statement should be reversed. It should be said that as long as everyone pushes together, there is no wall that won't fall. That's how I am. I can't hold on. Small problems turn into big problems. How can you hold on? I feel like I'm going to my execution every day. I'm standing there with machine guns firing at me. You can't even dodge them."

"The bank loan is delayed, I haven't paid on time, the suppliers are definitely leaving things unfinished and not completing the work, and the raw materials can't come in. The factory can't start production, and the markets that I've invested huge sums of money in are also affected by the pandemic and my new factory's delayed production. The supply can't keep up, and everything has stopped. After that, I can't get my money back."

Yu nodded in greeting.

Yu nodded, understanding; that made sense.

Brother Wang chuckled, "That's right, we're just killing time anyway, right? So let's chat idly, I'll just say whatever comes to mind, and you can just listen, okay?"

"I think Brother Wang is very good at making money. I've never heard of any of the things you mentioned earlier. With Brother Wang's abilities, how could he..."

"Tens of millions?!" Yu Wenhao was startled.

"That shouldn't be the case," Yu Wenhao said.

Brother Wang turned to look at Yu Wenhao and asked, "Were you scared?"

Yu Wenhao chuckled: "These kinds of things need to be discussed beforehand. There's no reason to start discussing them halfway through. If we can't reach an agreement, am I going to abandon you halfway through? No way."

Yu said hello.

But now, the car is already halfway there, and he didn't say anything beforehand, so Yu Wenhao can only accept his bad luck. He said:

"It's nothing, it's what I should do," Brother Wang said. "Since you're an honest man and our neighbor, and I'll need your car in the future, I won't lie to you anymore. I can't take the high-speed rail..."

"No," Yu Wenhao said. "Everyone has their own difficulties."

"Yes, I bought over 80 acres of land and built a factory of over 100,000 square meters to produce grain milk. But before the new factory could officially start operations, the pandemic hit, and then all sorts of problems arose," Brother Wang said. "This story is a long one, too complicated to explain in a few words. Do you still want to hear it?"

"Without the complete land certificate, I definitely can't get my property certificate. I want to divide the property, but that's impossible. We're a large assembly line factory, it's a single unit, there's no way to divide it. If I can't get the property certificate, the loan I agreed on with the bank will definitely fall through, since there's no collateral."

"Later, I learned through other channels that some land in that development zone had not yet undergone land use conversion and was still classified as agricultural land. They were still processing the necessary procedures themselves. Part of my factory is located on this agricultural land, which is the real reason why the permits for this part could not be obtained."

"What shouldn't be?" Brother Wang asked.

Yu quickly said, "Thank you, thank you, Brother Wang!"

Brother Wang laughed and said, "That's why I think you're an honest person, and I like that. Don't worry, the toll from Hangzhou to Wuhu is 124 yuan. I'll transfer it to you via WeChat, so you won't lose out."

Brother Wang became interested and asked, "Why don't you talk to me?"

"How did you become a deadbeat, right?" Brother Wang asked.

Yu nodded and said, "Anyway, the road ahead is still long."

"I'm what people call a defaulter. I'm restricted from traveling by high-speed rail and plane," said Brother Wang. "The main problem is that now even long-distance buses and old-fashioned trains require an ID card, and I don't want others to know my whereabouts."