Transmigration: Flirted with My Childhood Sweetheart
Chapter 406 - 405: Swear on Uncle Team Leader’s Hair

Chapter 406: Chapter 405: Swear on Uncle Team Leader’s Hair

Ways to improve productivity, Lin Nianhe had plans in her mind.

But she didn’t speak, just sat there frowning, a look of deep thought etched on her face.

There are two kinds of people in this world that you can’t indulge—spoilt children and leaders.

Just let him dangle. If you don’t give him enough time to think and hit a wall, how could he be willing to spend money to adopt her suggestions?

When Uncle Niu was brought into the room, Lin Nianhe finally opened her eyes.

Wong Xiao was instantly excited, rubbing his hands together, wanting to ask what she had thought of, but before he could say anything, he heard Lin Nianhe say: "Uncle Niu, there are no strangers here, have a good talk with Niuwa."

Wong Xiao: "..." So this is what it feels like to be truly disappointed.

Uncle Niu was very cautious. He had lost more weight since their last meeting, his hair grayer, his face reflecting the ravages of time.

Seeing Niuwa clean and tidy, he subconsciously stepped back, rubbing his clothes’ hem, his face full of unease and tension.

The last time they met, he had said all the harsh words he could, and after returning, he fell gravely ill, lying on the bed for more than half a month before being able to get up. Now, seeing him again...

Niuwa, as if not sensing the old man’s disquiet, called out "Grandpa" and with tears in his baggy eyes, plunged into Uncle Niu’s embrace.

"Don’t, don’t... I, this..." Uncle Niu wanted to hug him, but seeing his own dirt-stained hands, he could not bring himself to do so.

Niuwa took Uncle Niu’s hand, pressed his face into his palm, puckered his little mouth and rubbed against it, then extended his hands: "Grandpa, hug."

Uncle Niu’s lips quivered for a long time, finally unable to restrain himself, he held Niuwa and burst into loud sobs.

Grandfather and grandson embraced and wept together, moving all who heard them.

Wong Xiao wiped the corner of his eyes and sighed.

He poured a cup of hot water from his cup and handed it to Uncle Niu: "Old man, must be thirsty after the trip, right? Have some water."

Uncle Niu stood up subconsciously, standing at attention.

He stared at the cup of water for a while, trembling hands finally taking the cup.

Wong Xiao said nothing more, waving his hand in a gesture that said, "You talk, I’ll pretend I’m deaf."

Just then, Su Yuncheng came back carrying several lunch boxes.

He casually picked up Wong Xiao’s unread newspaper to lay on the table and set the lunch boxes on it.

Lin Nianhe stepped forward to Niuwa and said: "Niuwa, you and grandpa eat first. We’re not in a rush. Take your time talking."

Tears still hung on Niuwa’s eyelashes. He nodded, pulled Uncle Niu by the hand to sit down, then went to open the lunch boxes.

Uncle Niu was very restrained, only sitting a little on the edge of the stool, his back ramrod straight, eyes fixed on his knees, not daring to wander off.

Seeing him like this, Lin Nianhe turned to Wong Xiao and said: "Uncle Wong, shall we find another place?"

Wong Xiao glanced at Uncle Niu and frowned, "Xiao Lin, this, this..."

"I’ve thought of a way to increase productivity."

Wong Xiao: "You father and son eat and talk slowly. We’ll go to the next room!"

With that, he took the lead out of the office.

Lin Nianhe followed at the end, casually grabbing two of Wong Xiao’s peach cakes.

Outside the office door, Xiao Li was on guard; today, he had brought Uncle Niu out of prison under the pretext of "assisting with interrogation."

Lin Nianhe closed the door, thanked Xiao Li, and handed him two peach cakes: "Brother Xiao Li, this is from the leader for you, enjoy."

Xiao Li was full of gratitude, took them and said: "Don’t worry, I’m watching here. There won’t be any trouble!"

Inside the room, Uncle Niu saw the white rice and stewed chicken with mushrooms, and braised pork in the lunch box; his hand trembling with the chopsticks.

Seeing how tall and robust Niuwa had grown, he knew his life must have been decent, and the food was the best evidence of that.

Niuwa served him a piece of meat, saying, "Grandpa, I’m studying now, and Sister Hehe said I could get into Peking University in the future. When that happens, I’ll earn a lot of money, and we can go live in Beijing."

He took out the exam papers from his bag and presented them to Uncle Niu like a treasure: "Grandpa, look, I’ve got so many perfect scores."

Uncle Niu rubbed his hands on his clothing over and over until he took the papers, flipping through them one by one.

He was illiterate, but he saw the red checkmarks and one "100" after another.

"Good, very good..." Tears fell on the papers, and Uncle Niu was startled, hastily wiping away the dampness. He said to Niuwa, "My child, study hard, don’t—don’t follow in my footsteps!"

In that phrase "don’t follow in my footsteps," lay an uncountable number of regrets.

"Grandpa, eat, there’s your favorite braised pork! You’ve lost a lot of weight..."

"It’s okay, grandpa isn’t tired, just doing some work, it’s even less tiring than staying at home."

"Grandpa..."

The house they are in now is not soundproof, so everything they said could be heard clearly by Lin Nianhe in the next room.

Wong Xiao looked at her eagerly and asked while rubbing his hands, "Xiao Lin, shall we talk about improving production? What do you think?"

Lin Nianhe responded without answering, "What are your thoughts?"

Wong Xiao immediately shared his recent idea: "If we’re lacking in production, then just hire more people, right? Currently, there are only thirty-six people in the production team outside the factory. Just hire more, shouldn’t that solve the problem?"

Wong Xiao was very confident, for this was the solution they often resorted to when faced with insufficient production capacity.

If production is slow, just pile on the labor force! Such a simple solution.

He believed that Lin Nianhe certainly couldn’t pick any holes in it. This was a great opportunity to reestablish his authority as a leader...

Lin Nianhe asked, "How many people are you planning to hire? Three hundred? Three thousand? Or thirty thousand? If you hire so many, how will you manage quality control? How about training for the staff? Have you considered these hidden costs?"

Wong Xiao: "..."

He truly was a worthless leader with nothing to show for it.

Lin Nianhe sighed, worried that she was undermining Wong Xiao’s confidence too much, so she suggested, "You are right in saying we need to expand the production team. If we want to produce enough Head Flowers, relying on so few people is definitely not enough, but there are details to consider—we should start by expanding the team from within the textile factory, pulling the workers who are just spectating from the production lines to make Head Flowers."

"Train them first into skilled workers, then have them act as small team leaders, with three leading ten informal workers. Control the quality by the groups. For the internal team leaders, change their positions every month, rotate the team members under their command to prevent nepotism. In addition, we must establish a team reward system, an individual reward system, and a last-place elimination system. Of course, this elimination can mean a fine, because technical talent is valuable today, we can’t just dismiss them casually."

"For the informal workers, implement a graded reward system—for instance, make one hundred Head Flowers to get an extra one yuan bonus, make one hundred fifty Head Flowers for an extra two yuan... The more you make, the bigger the bonus, given the quality is up to standard and there are no issues with material quantities."

Wong Xiao listened, stupefied.

Even Su Yuncheng at the window turned around to look at Lin Nianhe, his eyes filled with some inquiry.

Wong Xiao licked his lips and after a long pondering, finally asked, "If workers from other production lines are pulled out, won’t we stop making quilt covers and such in the factory?"

Lin Nianhe directly asked, "What was the net profit of the textile factory last year?"

Wong Xiao blurted out, "Five thousand nine hundred seventy-two yuan and thirty-six fen!"

Lin Nianhe: "..."

The economic pillar of Lan County, barely making six thousand in net profit a year?

No wonder Uncle Wong was prematurely grey, no wonder Uncle Feng was hesitant to even spend one yuan and eighty fen, no wonder...

Lin Nianhe sighed and said, "There’s no need to hire informal workers for now, just have the textile workers shift to making Head Flowers. If in three months they can reach a net profit of three thousand, then the textile factory should stop making quilt covers."

Three thousand in three months?

Wong Xiao, no matter how much he trusted Lin Nianhe, couldn’t believe these words. He swallowed and asked, "What if we don’t meet that goal?"

"If we don’t? I swear on Ten Miles Team Leader’s hair! If we don’t meet the goal, you can go shave his head."

Wong Xiao: "..."

That was a fierce oath!