The world of film and television begins from childhood

Huang Zhitao was the one that Fang Yifan cared about the least: "Don't worry about him, he's just like that, maybe he'll be fine again in the blink of an eye."

Only Zhou Chen knew why Fang Yifan looked like this. Fang Yifan must still be thinking about what he said today.

Fang Yifan is just heartless, not unfilial. On the contrary, he is more filial than most children. That is why he falls into this state after realizing his problem.

In Zhou Chen's opinion, this is a good thing. If Fang Yifan can be more mature in the future and stop acting like a troublemaker, he will definitely be much more reliable.

Fang Yifan's state lasted for two days. After two days, he returned to his previous state. However, Zhou Chen obviously noticed that he had changed and was no longer pursuing Huang Zhitao as passionately as before.

In addition to Zhou Chen, Qiao Yingzi and Huang Zhitao, the real person who noticed his change, also noticed it. However, they were just surprised and did not worry too much.

Huang Zhitao felt even happier because Fang Yifan would finally not cause her any more trouble.

After returning to Shuxiang Yayuan, everyone went back to their own homes. Of course, Huang Zhitao was the only one who did not live in the same building as them. The rest of them all lived in the same building.

Ji Yangyang lived on the first floor and went home first, followed by Fang Yifan and Lin Leier who lived on the second floor, and finally Zhou Chen and Qiao Yingzi took the elevator to the fourth floor.

"Zhou Chen, my dad wants to treat you to a meal."

Qiao Yingzi's words surprised Zhou Chen: "Did I hear correctly? Your father wants to treat me to a meal? What's going on?"

He and Qiao Weidong had only met a few times and exchanged a few words. How come after such a long time, he suddenly remembered to treat him to a meal?

Qiao Yingzi said, "You treated me to meals a few times before. After my dad found out, he decided to treat you to a meal as a thank you."

"Could it be the Hongmen Banquet?"

"Your house is the Hongmen Banquet, just tell me whether you want to go or not."

"where?"

"It's at home. My dad has moved to another building in the community. If you agree, I'll let him prepare it over the weekend."

"Has your father moved here?"

Zhou Chen was a little surprised. It had only been over a month since school started, but Qiao Weidong was really fast. He had completed the moving and renovation in just over a month.

"Yeah, I just moved here, but don't tell anyone about this. If my mom gets to her ears, my dad and I will be in trouble."

Zhou Chen expressed a different opinion: "I think it's not a good idea for you to do this. If your mother finds out about this, it will only cause more trouble."

Qiao Yingzi said nonchalantly: "I'll come back later. It's rare for my dad to move here now. I have a place where I can relax. I have to cherish it."

Zhou Chen said: "Isn't my home enough for you to relax?"

Qiao Yingzi said with a smile: "Your house is nice, but you can't grow old there. It wouldn't be good if someone found out, and it's too close to my house."

Zhou Chen said: "I think you should think about it again, but if you insist on doing so, I will give you a piece of advice, that is, don't delay your studies."

Qiao Yingzi is not a so-called genius. Perhaps her learning talent is better than that of ordinary people, but her mother's management and education methods also played a big role in her becoming a top student.

"I understand. Just give me a call on the weekend."

"No need, I'll come find you and take you there directly."

A few days later, during evening self-study, Pan Shuai suddenly called Zhou Chen to the corridor.

"Zhou Chen, I asked you to come out because I have something to discuss with you."

Zhou Chen has a good impression of Pan Shuai. Although Pan Shuai seems to be in a nonchalant state at ordinary times, he is actually very responsible towards his students. Even if he is not on duty, he will wait until the evening self-study class is over before going home.

However, it is hard to say whether he did this on purpose in order to wait for Li Meng's intention.

But no matter what, Pan Shuai is a good and responsible class teacher, and his management is also relatively cheerful. He is not as strong and barbaric as Li Meng, and is very popular among students in the basic class.

"What's the matter, Mr. Pan?"

Pan Shuai said, "It's like this. You've made great progress recently, especially in Chinese and English. You also have great potential in other subjects. So a few teachers in parallel classes have noticed your potential and want to transfer you to their class. I want to ask what you think."

"Don't go."

Zhou Chen refused without hesitation.

Pan Shuai looked puzzled: "Why? The parallel class is better than the basic class, don't you want to go there?"

Zhou Chen said: "I don't want to go there, Teacher Pan. I think it's best to stay in your class. Not to mention the parallel class, even if you ask me to go to the sprint class, I don't want to go."

"You want to join the sprint class, you are really ambitious."

Pan Shuai smiled. He was pleased with Zhou Chen's answer. However, after teaching for so many years, this was the first time he saw someone not wanting to go to a better class.

In fact, he didn't want to let Zhou Chen go just like that, but Li Meng was right. If Zhou Chen had potential, the parallel class and the sprint class would be more suitable for him. Competing with better students would be conducive to his progress, rather than staying in the basic class.

"But I see that you don't want to go to the parallel class, not because you can't bear to leave me, but because you can't bear to leave the environment of the basic class. Don't think I don't know that you are slacking off most of the time. The reason why I didn't talk to you is that you didn't delay your studies. Your grades are the biggest reason why I didn't talk to you."

Zhou Chen smiled but said nothing. He certainly knew the teacher's abilities. If a teacher wanted to find a problem with a student, it would be too easy.

The only difference is whether the teacher will do that.

"Let me ask you again, are you really unwilling to change shifts?"

Zhou Chen answered firmly: "No, I don't want to go to any class. I will stay in this class until I graduate from high school."

Pan Shuai nodded: "Okay, then I will return those teachers, but you have to study hard in the future. I have taught for so many years, but I have never had a student from Kyoto University or Mizuki University. If you can pass the exam, it will also bring me face."

"Teacher Pan, you are so bold. Even in Chunfeng Middle School, only a few students can be admitted to Mizuki University and Beijing University each year. You have too high expectations for me."

Although Zhou Chen was confident that he could be admitted to the two most powerful universities in the country, he did not want to push himself too hard. We are here to enjoy life, not to suffer. There is no need to push ourselves too hard.

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 236 Factory Negotiation

It was another weekend, and Zhou Chen drove to a small town in a county east of Yanjing early in the morning.

Although this town is close to the capital, it is not prosperous. It is just an ordinary town. Zhou Chen's target is a mask processing factory in this town.

This factory was originally the farthest and most remote one among the target factories listed by Zhou Chen, and it was also Zhou Chen's last choice.

Now that other factory managers have explicitly rejected him, Zhou Chen has no choice but to give this factory a try. If it doesn’t work, he will have to go to a farther place or find a way to open a factory on his own.

But if that happens, it will be more time-consuming and labor-intensive, the investment may be greater, and the period of getting on track will be longer.

It took two hours of driving to reach the destination. Not long after entering the town, Zhou Chen stopped the car next to a bright black van in front of him.

"License plate N376, yes, this is the one."

Before coming, Zhou Chen had already spoken to the other party on the phone, and the other party said that he would wait for him at this place, and the license plate number was 376.

There were two people standing next to the van. When they saw Zhou Chen's car stop, they immediately came over without even having time to sigh.

As soon as Zhou Chen rolled down his car window, the two men immediately leaned down and asked, "Excuse me, are you Mr. Zhou Chen?"

Zhou Chen looked at the two men, a man who looked a little old, and a young man who was probably in his twenties. The two looked very similar, so if they were not father and son, they must be relatives.

"Yes, I am Zhou Chen, and you are Director Xie of the Guanbing Mask Processing Factory?"

The middle-aged man nodded immediately and said, "Yes, I am Xie Guanbing from the Guanbing Mask Processing Factory."

So Zhou Chen got out of the car, shook hands with the middle-aged man, and said, "Hello, Director Xie, I am Zhou Chen."

Zhou Chen was wearing casual clothes today. Although he still looked rather young, Xie Guanbing and the others were not surprised because they already knew what kind of person the boss who was coming this time was.

"Hello, Mr. Zhou, welcome to our Liji Town."

Xie Guanbing happily shook hands with Zhou Chen. Seeing the sports car Zhou Chen drove over, he knew that Zhou Chen was definitely a rich second-generation. For such a person, even if the investment was just for fun, it would be a life-saving straw for a small factory like theirs.

"Director Xie, you can just call me by my name, no need to be so polite."

"Then I'll call you Mr. Zhou. Mr. Zhou, the roads in our Liji Town are not very good. I'm afraid it will be difficult for a sports car like yours to drive to our factory."

Liji Town is just a small town, and their factory is located in a relatively remote place. The roads in the countryside are bound to have potholes. If a sports car is driven through them without any care, it will probably be seriously damaged.

Zhou Chen understood: "Do you have a good parking space here?"

Xie Guanbing immediately replied: "Yes, we can drive to the town government first. There is a parking space there. It is convenient and safe."

"Okay, then you lead the way and I'll follow behind you."

The town government was not far from here, and they arrived there quickly. Xie Guanbing seemed to be very familiar with the guard here. After Zhou Chen parked the car, he gave the guard some special instructions.

Zhou Chen got into the van and shook hands with the young man first. After the introduction, he found out that the young man was Xie Guanbing's son, named Xie Jialin, who now manages the family factory with his father.

While in the car, Xie Jialin was responsible for driving, while Xie Guanbing introduced the situation of their factory to Zhou Chen.

Guanbing Mask Factory was founded by Xie Guanbing more than ten years ago. From the name of the factory, you can tell how deep his feelings for it are.

Guanbing Mask Factory is the only factory in Liji Town with more than 300 workers. Xie Guanbing was able to develop a small factory with only a few people into a large factory with more than 300 people. His ability is naturally beyond words.

But in today’s society, you can’t accomplish anything just by having the ability.

Over the years, the factory has continued to expand, from one production line to the current three production lines, workers, managers, dormitories, canteens, etc.

Prices are constantly rising, workers' wages are also rising, but factory profits are not rising, and have been declining year by year in recent years.

Under such a situation where income was not enough to cover expenses, the Xie family father and son were struggling to support themselves by relying on their own property. Even the town government gave them great preferential treatment, hoping that they could continue to operate the factory.

After all, it is a factory with more than 300 people, and 80 to 90 percent of the workers in the factory are from the town. There are also many people in the surrounding area who rely on this small factory for their livelihood.

If the factory closes down, it will likely result in hundreds of people being laid off, which is something the town government absolutely does not want to see.

So in order to keep the factory running, the town government gave them all kinds of preferential treatment and even helped them with loans, allowing them to struggle to get by.

However, no matter how hard the Xie father and son tried, it was difficult to improve their performance, mainly because there were too few sales channels, so the factory had too much inventory that could not be sold.

There was too much inventory that could not be sold, so naturally there was no money to be made, but the father and son of the Xie family were honest people, and in order to guarantee the workers' wages, they did not stop work.

It has been difficult for them to hold on until now with such a vicious cycle. They have been looking for investors everywhere, but after learning about the situation of their factory, those people simply dare not invest.

You can imagine that eighty to ninety percent of the workers in a factory know each other. If they really try to play some tricks, outsiders will never be able to beat them.

Small capital was unwilling to invest, and big capital looked down on such a small factory, so Xie Guanbing and his son were as anxious as ants on a hot pan.

Just when they were about to give up, Zhou Chen suddenly showed up. So even though Zhou Chen was very young and didn't look very reliable, they still approached him with the most sincere attitude.

What if it succeeds?

However, Xie Guanbing did not tell all these things. Although he was an honest man, he was also a businessman. It was impossible for him to tell all the problems of his factory to others.

But even if he didn't say it, Zhou Chen actually already knew it, because before he came, he had asked his uncle Song Yuan to investigate the situation of Guanbing Mask Factory. He was very clear about the difficulties that the Xie family father and son were facing now.

Now in the car is not the place to negotiate, and Zhou Chen would rather go to the factory to see the specific situation before making a conclusion.

Liji Town is not big. It takes less than ten minutes to drive to the destination by van.

When Zhou Chen got out of the car and looked around, he was surprised to see a rather shabby-looking factory building. Although the tallest one was only three stories high, it covered a large area.

There are no residents around the factory, and there are empty lots everywhere. It cannot be said to be empty lots, but rather fields that have been harvested, and the crops to be planted have not yet begun, so it looks like a wasteland.

"Boss Zhou, this is our factory. Don't be fooled by its unremarkable appearance. In fact, our factory is very strong and our workers are very hardworking, even more so than those workers in the city."

Xie Jialin took the initiative to introduce it to Zhou Chen, and he seemed very proud when talking about his own factory.

Although the Xie family is not the richest family in Liji Town, because of the mask factory, they are definitely the largest force in the town and are particularly respected and treated preferentially.

It is also partly for this reason that the father and son are determined to keep the factory running despite knowing the difficult circumstances.

Xie Jialin's words made Zhou Chen smile. He didn't know why Xie Jialin had such an idea.

Are country people necessarily more hardworking than city people?

This is completely a prejudice. Are people from the country necessarily hardworking and people from the city necessarily lazy?

Zhou Chen admitted that some country people were very hardworking, but that couldn't be said to be all of them. On the contrary, he knew many people in the city who were no less hardworking than those who farmed in the countryside, and some were even harder working.

It can even be said that the pressure on rural people is far less than that on urban people.

For most rural people, their ideas are very simple. As long as they have a place to live, a piece of land to farm, and can chat and play cards with their neighbors, the days will pass.

It seems hard work, but it’s actually not that stressful.

On the contrary, those who want to gain a foothold in the city, or those who have already gained a foothold in the city, are under tremendous pressure.

Work, house, medical care, insurance, children’s schooling, etc. are all things that make people scared just thinking about them.

In this situation, how can we not be stressed? How can we not work hard?

Xie Jialin on the side had no idea what Zhou Chen was thinking and continued introducing things.

"Our factory has more than 300 people, almost 400 people, from top to bottom. Because most of them are locals, there are very few dormitories for employees, but we have our own canteen, playground, etc."

The countryside has a lot of land, so a small factory like this also has its own playground. If it were in an urban area, an ordinary factory would not dare to plan it like that.

Zhou Chen did not express any opinion, but just followed the Xie father and son to walk around the factory.

First the periphery, then the internal production line.