Courtyard House: Is Xu Damao a childless man? Let me help.

As for the vegetable oil, white sugar, and that... milk oil we packaged in bags, the cost should be around six cents, right?

"Then, if we add packaging and stuff, selling them for one or two cents should be about right, right?"

Ye Jianchuan shook his head and then asked, "Uncle Zhou, what age group do you think should be the main consumers of this product?"

"It must be a child, right? Only little kids like to eat this kind of thing."

Ye Jianchuan shook his head, then continued, "Uncle Zhou, I think the main consumers aren't actually children."

Think about it, where does a child's money come from? Isn't it given to them by their parents? Besides, this thing requires them to start a fire and do it themselves, so even if it's something to be bought, it should be an adult who buys it.

Furthermore, even if it's for children, would families with limited means be willing to buy it? Therefore, our target audience should be people with purchasing power and a willingness to buy this product, such as... young people.

After hearing this, Director Zhou frowned, not understanding what Ye Jianchuan meant. Ye Jianchuan didn't keep him in suspense any longer and immediately began to explain.

"Uncle Zhou, where do you think young people usually take their blind date these days?"

Factory Director Zhou looked at Ye Jianchuan with a puzzled expression, then said, "A park? Or maybe the riverside?"

Ye Jianchuan shook his head and then said, "These days, the place young people go to most often is probably the movie theater! No, we can't be that sure."

However, after finding a partner through a blind date, it's quite common for people who can afford it to take their partner to the movies from time to time.

"And nowadays, I've seen movie theaters, and there aren't any people selling snacks or drinks at the entrance, so when people are watching a movie, there's not much else to do besides watch the movie."

"You go to the movies, not to watch a movie, but to do something else?"

Seeing that Director Zhou still didn't understand what he meant, Ye Jianchuan could only continue, "Uncle Zhou, why don't you understand? Having food and drinks in the movie theater is definitely a way to enhance the experience for these young people."

But when it comes to their partners, they don't care if something is a penny or two more expensive, and... I've already arranged everything.

Our popcorn hasn't started production yet, but I've already asked someone to advertise for us. My neighbor's two kids are on holiday right now, so I've asked them to take some popcorn to the movie theater.

Upon hearing Ye Jianchuan's words, Factory Director Zhou was immediately startled. "Jianchuan! You can't do this! If they sell popcorn like this, they'll be accused of speculation and profiteering if they get caught!"

Ye Jianchuan shook his head. "It's not for sale! Do you think I don't know this? I told them to keep watch at the movie theater ticket counter."

When we see someone buying a ticket, we go up to them and ask them to promote the popcorn that our food factory will be launching soon, and then give them a 'sample'.

Selling popcorn won't work, but we'll give it away for free! That should be alright, right?

"Just think, after our popcorn was improved, the aroma from the cafeteria today must have wafted far away, right?"

If everyone who buys a ticket gets a serving, wouldn't the whole movie theater smell like popcorn?

"It smells so good, and they've all tried it already, do you think they wouldn't remember it? Once our product goes on sale, will we have to worry about selling it?"

Upon hearing Ye Jianchuan's words, Factory Director Zhou's eyes lit up, and he chuckled, poking Ye Jianchuan with his finger. "You always manage to come up with some clever ideas."

Chapter 217 Holding Three Workstations

What followed was naturally very simple; Ye Jianchuan easily obtained the future 'activity funds' from Director Zhou.

Moreover... because a new production line is being built, the food factory will likely need to hire a large number of workers again.

Although there isn't much work to be done on this popcorn production line, since the corn kernels, sugar, and oil used for popping the corn are all unprocessed.

The only thing that needs further processing is the butter obtained by shaking and stirring the milk. Because of the help of machines, this step does not require too many people.

Besides, each serving of popcorn doesn't require much butter, so although it's a new factory, it actually doesn't need as many workers as the previous factories.

However... there are regulations regarding the number of workstations in each workshop of the food factory. Although you don't need that many people, Director Zhou wouldn't be foolish enough to report it as if he didn't need so many workers.

After all, with the same workload of 237, if there are more people, it means that the workload assigned to each person will be reduced accordingly.

Moreover... all those extra job positions are opportunities to curry favor!

Putting everything else aside, Ye Jianchuan, as the workshop director, controls three job positions. If Ye Jianchuan wanted to, he could arrange for both of the Yan brothers to work at the food factory in no time.

This is no ordinary job; it's not the kind of job that Jia Zhangshi could just ask for at the street office. It's a job that few people would want to do.

Instead, it's a job in a food factory! That's arguably the most sought-after job among factory workers, so using that position to do favors or something is a very good thing.

Ye Jianchuan continued, "Actually, there's another way to further increase our sales, but this might require the help of the workers at the store."

"Uncle Zhou, what if the workers' store next to the movie theater also sold popcorn, and even provided a self-service popcorn popper and stove? Wouldn't the store's sales skyrocket?"

Upon hearing this, Director Zhou nodded. "If we could cooperate with the workers' store, that would be the best outcome."

But... would they agree to this? It doesn't seem to offer them any benefit, and it might even cause unnecessary trouble.

Ye Jianchuan, however, said nonchalantly, "Troublesome? As long as it makes money, I won't mind the trouble. Since we're providing them with a place to heat things up, it's probably free, right?"

Even more surprisingly, this can be done by the sales clerk at the workers' store, although it will cost more than simply buying a bag of popcorn and making it at home yourself.

For example... our popcorn costs 35 cents a bag, so at the movie theater it costs 40 cents a bag. The extra 5 cents is for processing fees or something like that.

"Think about it, a pack costs five cents, and a movie screening has hundreds of people. Even if only one-tenth of them buy from him, that's still ten people, which is fifty cents!"

That's just one movie. In Beijing's cinemas, some have only one or two screens, while others have as many as four. With so many movies showing every day, they could probably make several yuan a day from that!

"Tell me, with such a profit, would they still find it troublesome? And if the salesperson only took half of those five cents, and the other half went to the workers' store, would the store's leaders still object?"

Now, Director Zhou also fell silent, because he knew that Ye Jianchuan's method was indeed feasible, but it also carried certain risks.

After all, this blatant way of giving 'kickbacks' has never happened before. If it displeases the higher-ups, a small factory manager like myself can't afford to take the blame.

So after a moment of silence, Director Zhou finally shook his head. "This... let's not rush it. After all, this kind of thing involves too much, and we still need to communicate with the leaders of the workers' store."

They might need to coordinate further, which is too troublesome. I'll go ask someone higher up, and if it's feasible, we can add more details later.

Seeing Director Zhou's expression, Ye Jianchuan realized that he had been too radical or hadn't thought things through enough. These advanced ideas were not realistic to be fully realized in this era.

So Ye Jianchuan nodded and said, "Alright, well... the rest is not my forte. You can go and arrange the new production line."

After saying that, Ye Jianchuan immediately left. What happened next was no longer his concern. He only needed to wait for the new production line to be built so that he could take office as the workshop director.

. . . . . .

Ye Jianchuan had only been at work for less than two hours when he successfully finished making popcorn, while Jia Zhangshi, who had gotten up early in the morning, was not so lucky.

Because Grandpa Yi secretly filed a 'complaint' yesterday, the people from the garbage station went to that street to stake out the area today, and... they witnessed everything Jia Zhangshi did all morning.

Having been caught red-handed, how could Jia Zhangshi possibly escape unscathed? Although she managed to keep her job by using her tantrums and shrewd tactics, the punishment was still quite severe.

The garbage station staff not only made Jia Zhangshi clean up the dirty and messy area at the street corner during other people's rest time, but also deducted a week's wages from her salary.

That's right, Jia Zhangshi has only been working for three days, and hasn't even started receiving her salary yet, but she's already in debt.

Actually, Jia Zhangshi didn't have any other choice. She could have just shrugged and said, "I'm not doing this job anymore," and that would have been fine.

Although this means I won't be able to find any work from the neighborhood committee anymore, on the other hand, I won't have to work so hard every day anymore!

Once you have some free time, you should be able to make a living by doing something else, right?

Unfortunately, Jia Zhangshi hadn't considered this point, so the result was predictable. Jia Zhangshi was exhausted before she finally managed to clean up the garbage that had been shoddyly done a couple of days ago. After a day of excessive labor, Jia Zhangshi was almost at her breaking point.

Chapter 218 Jia Zhangshi is in the hospital

When Jia Zhangshi finally staggered home, it was already eight o'clock in the evening, which was later than her usual bedtime.

After returning, Jia Zhangshi was completely too weak to move. With a sore back and a sour smell, she climbed into bed and fell asleep on an empty stomach.

When Banggeng returned from Uncle Yi's house, he was immediately overwhelmed by the stench emanating from Jia Zhangshi.

He immediately yelled, "How can you smell so bad?! Go take a shower right now! How can I sleep with this stench?!"

But Jia Zhangshi was so exhausted that she couldn't move at all. When Bang Geng saw this, he stomped his foot angrily and then ran back to Uncle Yi's house with his quilt.

When Uncle Yi saw that Bang Geng had actually run back to his house and was even planning to sleep there, he was overjoyed. He never expected that his purpose in just teaching Jia Zhangshi a lesson would result in such an unexpected gain.

And so, the night passed. At seven o'clock the next morning, Banggeng got up and went home to get a cup and other things to wash up.

But as soon as he went in, he was driven out by the sour and stinky smell emanating from Jia Zhangshi. When he peeked in again, Banggeng was stunned, because Jia Zhangshi should have left for work long ago at this time.

However, Jia Zhangshi did not go out. Instead, she remained curled up in bed, motionless. Bang Geng had no choice but to hold his nose and go in.

"You... why do you smell so bad! And it's already seven o'clock, why aren't you up yet? You don't want to go to work, do you?"

If you don't go to work, you won't have any income, and without income, the agreement we made before won't count!

Jia Zhangshi did remember, but now her whole body aches and aches with the slightest movement. In this state, let alone going to work, she probably wouldn't even be able to get up to wash.

"Bang...bang! Grandma seems to be injured. Quickly call your godfather over here."

Upon hearing this, Bang Geng was slightly suspicious, but he still ran back to Uncle Yi's house and called Uncle Yi over.

"Sister-in-law Jia, is there something you need?"

Uncle Yi walked in and saw that Jia Zhangshi was still lying in bed. Uncle Yi felt that he should avoid suspicion, so he did not walk to the bedside, but called out from a distance of two steps.

But there was no response from Jia Zhangshi's side. Uncle Yi was puzzled. "Sister-in-law Jia? Sister-in-law Jia? Banggeng? Why isn't your grandmother responding?"

Banggeng leaned closer to take a look and saw that Jia Zhangshi's eyes were closed again. He was immediately furious. "Why are you asleep again? Wake up, wake up!"

As he spoke, Banggeng went up and shook Jia Zhangshi, but Jia Zhangshi did not react at all. At this point, Uncle Yi finally understood.

This isn't just sleeping, it's fainted! So Grandpa Yi immediately turned to Sha Zhu, who was washing up in the yard, and said, "Sha Zhu, come quick! Jia Zhangshi has fainted, we need to get her to the hospital right away!"

Although Sha Zhu was reluctant to talk to Uncle Yi, he was generally quite 'helpful', so when he heard the news that Jia Zhangshi had fainted, he immediately put down the basin in his hand and ran over to check on her.

After confirming that Jia Zhangshi had indeed fainted, Sha Zhu, along with Uncle Yi and two other residents of the courtyard, took Jia Zhangshi to the nearest hospital.

With such a commotion at the Intermediate Court, Ye Jianchuan and the others in the backyard naturally heard about it. So, on their way to work, Ye Jianchuan discussed this issue with Qin Huairu.

"Sister Qin, Jia Zhangshi has fainted and been taken to the hospital. I reckon this trouble is about to find you soon!"

Qin Huairu didn't seem to care much. "Let her look for me. What can I do? She's in the hospital, but she has the money to treat herself. She's kept Jia Dongxu's condolence money well hidden."

Besides, everyone in the courtyard is certainly aware of my situation, so even if Jia Zhangshi wants to ask me for money, they will definitely side with me.

Ye Jianchuan nodded, then continued, "As for the Jia Zhangshi matter, I'm not too worried. After all, if we hold a general meeting of the entire institute now, those who have a say are considered 'our own people'."

2.20523149nei skirt

However, I'm worried about what might happen next, such as Jia Zhangshi causing trouble again and going to the food factory to make a scene.

After hearing this, Qin Huairu remained silent for a moment before continuing, "We'll talk about it when the time comes. Didn't you always say, 'When soldiers come, we'll block them; when water comes, we'll dam it'?"

Ye Jianchuan smiled and then changed the subject, "By the way, Sister Qin, I might be promoted to workshop director soon. You've probably already heard about it, right?"