"I only have one older brother. Hong Kong is so big, and there are only three of us siblings. I've fallen out with your grandfather, and now you're doing so well. What if your Dad suddenly becomes tough because of you and divorces me on the grounds of being unfilial? Apart from your uncle's house, I won't even have a place to stay. Besides, even a stone can be warmed eventually." Zhao Meizhen was probably truly heartbroken because her son Song Tianyao's words in public today meant that she no longer had a family to rely on. At this moment, tears streamed down her face uncontrollably.
Song Tianyao rubbed his temples, saying helplessly, "If we were going to get a divorce, wouldn't it have happened back when Grandpa disowned you two? Why has it dragged on until today? You're just worrying unnecessarily. Perfect timing, let's get this straight today. I'm planning to open a factory in North Point, and I'll probably be living there most of the time. Sister Yun won't be helping with the pharmacy anymore; she'll be helping me with the factory. Of the eight thousand Hong Kong dollars Crown Asia sends each month, I'll give you three thousand for household expenses. Whether the pharmacy makes a profit or a loss is up to you, Mom. Don't bother me anymore. I'm already overwhelmed with business matters; I really don't have the energy to deal with a bastard like Zhao Houji who comes to my door expecting a scolding. My Dad won't divorce you either. If he does, the entire pharmacy, plus me and Wenwen, will all be yours, okay? I promise I won't let you be so miserable that you have to beg that Zhao Houji."
After comforting Zhao Meizhen and having lunch with his family, Song Tianyao repeated what he had said to Lou Fengyun and Song Wenwen at the dinner table. Originally, Song Tianyao wanted to send Zhao Meizhu back, but seeing his mother's heartbroken appearance after losing her family, he asked Zhao Meizhu to stay here for a while to keep Zhao Meizhen. After all, Zhao Wenye had to live in the police academy and couldn't go home without holidays, so Zhao Meizhu would be alone at home anyway.
Driving with Lou Fengyun had hurriedly packed a few clothes, and the three girls who had just bought some daily necessities with Song Wenwen, Song Tianyao headed towards the factory he had rented in North Point.
Originally, Song Tianyao planned to temporarily settle the three girls at his home. Perhaps because he had been scheming too much in his business, he always wanted a warm and relaxing atmosphere when he came home. However, the house was always full of trivial matters, and these petty family squabbles annoyed him. He thought that if he left the three girls at home, they would become three gossipy old women. It would be better to take them to the factory to learn how to do work, and he could also have some eye candy.
Song Tianyao was very satisfied with the preserved duck factory in North Point. Unlike other small family workshops, this factory had several separate workshop spaces due to the production process of preserved duck. There was no need to redesign the structure. The largest workshop could be used as the production workshop, the next to it was the office area, and the small yard could even be used to build a row of dormitories.
Song Tianyao didn't plan to hire just one batch of workers. Once production started, there would naturally be two shifts of workers operating 24 hours a day.
First, he hired a moving company in North Point that specialized in moving machinery for factories to clean out the office rooms and throw away all the remaining broken furniture. Then, Song Tianyao drove the four women to the Sincere Department Store branch in Causeway Bay and ordered several single beds and bedding, daily necessities, desks, office supplies, and so on. He decided that he would stay in the factory until the wigs were produced.
After the department store delivered the furniture, they quickly helped Song Tianyao set up his actual office: a desk, a single bed, a wardrobe, two chairs, and a sofa for guests—that was all there was to the office.
In the next room, Lou Fengyun had just finished arranging the beds and wardrobes for the three girls. Now, returning to her own already tidied room, she took off her high heels, sat on the edge of the bed, slightly lifted the hem of her cheongsam, frowned slightly, and rubbed her sore calves. She was thinking about whether she should buy a pair of wooden clogs because she had been walking too much lately, but then hesitated, wondering if wearing wooden clogs was not dignified enough. A moment later, she wondered if this counted as living in the same room as Song Tianyao, keeping a mistress hidden away. Just then, Song Tianyao pushed open the door and walked in from outside. He sat down next to Lou Fengyun and, seeing her rubbing her legs, pulled Lou Fengyun legs onto his body and began to massage her snow-white calves.
The whole movement caught Lou Fengyun completely off guard; her legs were already in Song Tianyao's arms. She could only manage to cover her hem to avoid exposing herself.
Song Tianyao seemed somewhat confused. While massaging Lou Fengyun's legs, he asked her, who was still stunned by his blatant taking advantage of Lou Fengyun in broad daylight:
Do you think it's better to hire unmarried or married female workers?
Chapter Twenty-Five: Getting Started
Lou Fengyun looked at him strangely, wondering if Song Tianyao was planning to indulge in a life of pleasure and womanizing after becoming the factory owner. In fact, Song Tianyao was just thinking that if he expanded the scale of the factory and recruited male workers in the future, would having unmarried female workers work on the night shift motivate the male workers on the same shift and prevent them from dozing off?
The factory's infrastructure work proceeded quickly. A row of dormitories was neatly built in the factory yard using wooden planks and sheet metal to provide accommodation for workers who came to Hong Kong to visit relatives but could not find a place to stay and were homeless. A large kitchen was also specially added to provide three meals a day for the workers.
Song Tianyao supervised all the miscellaneous tasks, such as leveling the ground, painting it white, installing plumbing and electricity, and applying for telephone lines from Lou Fengyun telephone bureau. Song Tianyao, on the other hand, began contacting law firms to handle trivial matters such as the establishment of the factory and the company. Song Tianyao jokingly named the factory Long Light Wig Factory, meaning that after being bald for a long time, one needs a wig. The factory did not have a sales department, but instead established a first-level company that existed only on paper to act as an agent for the sale of the factory's wigs, which Song Tianyao named Manifest Glory Trading Company.
The India, Xia Zuoji, had not yet returned from India to collect the first batch of hair, but Lei Yingdong had already delivered a portion of the hair he had collected to Song Tianyao's factory. On the fourth day after the hair arrived, the batch of machines that Song Tianyao had been waiting for so long finally arrived.
Watching the moving company workers help put the machines into the workshop one by one, connect the power and turn on the machine switches, and listening to the sounds of the hair styling machine and the high-knitting machine running idle, Song Tianyao felt that it was more beautiful than any music.