Drastic Reforms

Twenty minutes later, even the director of the most distant production workshop had arrived.

As for why the department heads and deputy heads had not come, it was because they had either been fired by Luo Baofeng or fired by Xu Shiqin.

Zhou Qi swept his gaze around the conference room. Of the fourteen departments, eleven people had come.

The heads and deputy heads of Production, Packaging, and Quality Control had all left, so only a workshop director had come. His name was Mo Jiakang, a forty-year-old middle-aged man with a square face and bright eyes. He looked like someone capable of getting things done.

The Finance Department head had left, and there was no deputy head. The person who came was a junior accountant named Jiang Mingran, also a pretty young woman.

The head of the Transportation Department was a fifty-five-year-old middle-aged man with a village-style haircut, scruffy stubble, and a resolute face. His name was Wang Huade. No one knew whether he was related to Wang Xingde, the driver.

The Operations Department head had left, and there was no deputy head. The person who came was a bespectacled young man who was somewhat ugly and had even put his T-shirt on backward. His name was Sun Kangle.

The Design Department head had also left, likewise without a deputy head. The person who came was a young man named Zhang Zeyu, at least 1.85 meters tall but thin, wearing glasses, and looking a little like Bai Jingting.

Media Department: Lu Xiaowan.

Sales Department: Cai Xiaodong, leader of Sales Team One.

Human Resources Department: Xu Shiqin.

Audit Department: Deputy Head Liu Fangping.

Security Department: Captain Zhu Baoran.

P3 Biology Laboratory: Professor Zhao Fangquan.

This was the entire upper management of Baofeng Pharmaceutical, perhaps also the people who actually did real work at the factory. Through them, they could take control of the whole plant.

"I believe everyone already knows what happened to the factory. If you don't, turn around and ask the person next to you. I won't bother introducing myself!" Zhou Qi tapped the table and gave everyone a moment.

He had thought no one would be unaware, but unexpectedly, someone really was.

Sun Kangle curiously turned his head. "Brother, what happened?"

Zhang Zeyu, seated beside him, instinctively held his breath. "Our pharmaceutical factory was sold by the old factory director. This is our new factory director, surnamed Zhou."

"Oh, oh..." Sun Kangle nodded with a look of sudden realization. "No wonder there are two people I don't recognize sitting at the head of the table..."

"Looks like everyone understands the situation now!" Zhou Qi was speechless. What was with this guy?

Still, someone this sloppy had not been fired and had even been sent to this meeting. He probably was not useless.

They would use him for now. Anyway, he was not the one sharing an office with him.

"Let me introduce things first. Your factory director from now on won't be me, but this man—Zhou Yibing. Everyone, welcome Factory Director Bing!"

"Holy shit, Bing!" Sun Kangle blurted out.

The entire conference room instantly fell silent before hurried applause broke out.

"Next, let our new factory director introduce the future development direction of our pharmaceutical factory!"

"Clap..." Another round of applause rang out.

"Ahem..." Brother Bing rolled his eyes. Honestly, these reforms were huge, and he was afraid they would draw resentment. But he was the factory director. This was exactly the kind of thing he was supposed to do. He could not avoid it.

Perhaps this was what they meant by: if you wanted to be factory director, you had to bear the weight of it.

"First, our pharmaceutical factory will be renamed. From now on, we will be called Morning Star Pharmaceutical. Design Department, design the company logo as soon as possible, then apply for the trademark, produce it, replace the signs..."

"Um..." Zhang Zeyu raised his hand. "Factory Director."

"What? Is there some difficulty? I checked. This name hasn't been registered in Nanan City, so we can use it!" Zhou Yibing asked.

"Well, our Design Department designs new products. What you mentioned is the Operations Department's work..." Zhang Zeyu pointed at Sun Kangle beside him.

"Is that so?" Zhou Yibing was speechless. Then this was not really a Design Department. Shouldn't it be called the Product Development Department?

"Then Sun Kangle, you handle it..." Zhou Yibing asked, "Any difficulties?"

"Factory Director, is there a deadline?" Sun Kangle asked.

"Designing a logo shouldn't be that troublesome, right? Can you get it done in a week?" Zhou Yibing asked.

"No!" Sun Kangle shook his head. "It's not just replacing one logo. Everything in the company that includes Baofeng needs to be changed. New packaging has to be redesigned, the corporate culture has to be rebuilt around the new name, and our online store has tens of thousands of product photos with the Baofeng logo on them, plus product detail pages tied to Baofeng. If we change the name, all of that has to be changed too..."

"That's a massive workload, but our Operations Department only has me left..."

So that's why you were the only one who came to the meeting. I thought you were the best person in your department.

"During the logo replacement, the Design Department and New Media Department won't have much they can do anyway, so let them help you. That gives you five people!" Zhou Yibing said.

"Them?" Sun Kangle shook his head. "Forget it. They can't even use Photoshop. I've been the one helping the New Media Department edit their videos."

"Huh?" The two men surnamed Zhou immediately looked at Lu Xiaowan from the New Media Department.

Lu Xiaowan looked embarrassed, yet she did not speak up to refute him.

"This... this isn't right..." Zhou Qi tapped the table. "Is Photoshop that hard? You people graduated from media university. How could you not know how to use it?"

"We all majored in broadcasting and hosting. We never learned that!" Lu Xiaowan hurriedly said.

Zhou Qi was speechless. "If you didn't learn it, can't you teach yourselves?"

"But that software is difficult. Different fields are like different mountains..." Lu Xiaowan said. "We've been asking Human Resources to hire an editor, but they've never been able to find one."

"You only put out four videos a month, and they're the kind you can edit on a phone. You need to hire an editor for that?" Xu Shiqin spoke directly. "Do you know how expensive editors are these days? Four or five thousand a month!"

"That much?" Zhou Qi was stunned. He could edit videos too. He had not known the skill was worth that much.

"That's only because you never hired an editor, so we only release four videos! If you hired one, we could release forty videos a month!" Lu Xiaowan immediately retorted, then turned to Zhou Qi. "Boss, I want to report her. Xu Shiqin has some shady relationship with Luo Mingming. She saw that Luo Mingming often sucked up to us, so she deliberately refused to hire anyone just to make us work overtime every day and torment us..."

"You're talking nonsense! I have absolutely nothing to do with him!" Xu Shiqin immediately got angry. "Zhang Zeyu, Luo Mingming is your department head. Say something fair. Do I have any relationship with him?"

"Uh..." Zhang Zeyu was speechless. What did their argument have to do with him?

Also, his name was Zhang Zeyu.

"Um..." He looked at Zhou Qi. Despite being 1.85 meters tall, his face was full of grievance.

Zhou Qi was also speechless and quickly tapped the table. "Stop arguing. From now on, Sun Kangle will be the head of the Operations Department. The Media Department is abolished, and the three of you will be merged into Operations. Sun Kangle, teach them Photoshop and Premiere. You have two weeks. If they can't learn it, fire them!"

Sun Kangle froze, and his gaze toward Zhou Qi instantly turned fervent.

He actually knew Premiere. One of their own!

Outsiders usually only knew Aijianji.

"Huh?" On the other side, Lu Xiaowan widened her eyes. "No, how can this..."

"If you aren't willing, resign. Our company won't need this department from now on. We don't need exposure, and we don't need followers. Do you understand what I mean?" Zhou Qi said flatly.

He had bought a book and learned Photoshop in half a day. He refused to believe someone simply could not learn it.

They were just lazy and unwilling to learn. And with a homebody like Sun Kangle available to exploit, of course they could slack off as much as they pleased.

Having once been the honest guy bullied and exploited in the office, he understood this far too well!

Only four videos a month—who was that enough for? When he used to write novels, he updated four chapters a day!

He had initially wanted to keep the department because the girl was pretty. Hmph, keep it my ass!

"Waaah..." Lu Xiaowan actually started crying. "You're bullying me!"

Then she stood up and ran out.

The others looked at one another. This...

"Chairman Zhou, should we..." Zhang Zeyu asked. "Go after her?"

"Go after her for what? She came here to work, not date!" Zhou Qi snorted. "Xu Shiqin, tell her this: either leave or transfer departments. She's a college graduate, not illiterate. What's so hard about Photoshop that she can't learn?"

"Yes!" Xu Shiqin looked delighted. Hmph, you think you can beat me?

"Brother Bing, continue!" Zhou Qi said.

Zhou Yibing gave him a thumbs-up. He was impressive. He had shut down such a pretty girl without hesitation. No wonder he still did not have a girlfriend.

"Your department now has four people!" Zhou Yibing said. "Can you get it done in two months?"

"If they cooperate, two months will be enough!" Sun Kangle said, then asked, "By the way, General Manager Zhou, now that I've been promoted to department head, do I get a raise?"

"We'll discuss that later!" Zhou Yibing waved his hand. "Next is the second item. The factory cafeteria, supermarket, and internet café will be taken back and operated by the factory. From now on, meals and internet access will be free. However, the internet café will only be open from six in the evening to eleven at night. The cafeteria will only operate from seven to eight-thirty in the morning, twelve to one at noon, and five to seven in the evening. The supermarket will be open twenty-four hours a day!"

"The internet café is free?" Sun Kangle instantly perked up. "Really?"

"Aren't you in Operations? Doesn't Operations have computers?" Zhou Qi asked.

"Those computers aren't for playing games!" Sun Kangle said.

"That rule has changed!" Zhou Qi said. "As long as it isn't during working hours, play however you want. But if you download some virus that affects work, I'll dock your pay!"

"No problem!" Sun Kangle immediately became excited. "Trust me, I'm an old hand!"

Zhou Qi chuckled and looked at Brother Bing again.

"Next is the third item: salary reform!"

Everyone became alert. This concerned their future income. No one could possibly not care.

"From now on, everyone's base salary will increase. The base salary for frontline workers will rise from 1,850 to 4,500. Management salaries will also be raised accordingly, with increases ranging from sixty to eighty percent. Little Jiang from Finance, stay behind afterward so we can study the details."

"Really?" The moment he finished speaking, the entire conference room exploded.

"4,500? Factory Director, you aren't joking, are you? With such a high base salary, their monthly pay will be heading toward over ten thousand!" The speaker was workshop director Mo Jiakang.

"What? Is a higher salary bad?" Zhou Qi asked.

"No, but can the factory sustain wages this high?" Mo Jiakang anxiously said. "Rather than choking to death in one gulp, everyone would rather work steadily for years!"

"Don't worry!" Brother Bing waved his hand. "You'll understand after I explain the fourth point!"

"There's more to go with it?" Mo Jiakang relaxed somewhat, only to hear Zhou Yibing say, "From now on, our company will strictly comply with the labor law. Work begins at nine in the morning and ends at five in the afternoon. Lunch break is from twelve to one."

"Huh?" Everyone was dumbfounded.

"No..." Mo Jiakang no longer knew what to say.

"Boss, how can that work? Without overtime, we won't be able to finish the work at all..." Sun Kangle also said. "How can five o'clock be enough?"

"You're the department head. Just assign less work, and it'll be fine, won't it?" Zhou Qi said.

"This..." Sun Kangle was speechless. He was working for him, and he was worried he might work too hard?

"It's settled. With no more overtime, monthly wages will always be the base 4,500. There's no way they'll reach ten thousand!" Zhou Yibing said. "So Director Mo, you shouldn't be worried now, right?"

"How could I not be worried?" Mo Jiakang was even more speechless. "If we only work eight hours a day, how will we meet customer demand? If we can't supply enough goods, we won't have any orders in the future! We're manufacturing, not the service industry!"

"You don't need to worry about that. We won't take their orders anymore. We'll only manufacture for ourselves!" Brother Bing waved his hand. "It's decided. Jiang Mingran, do you have anything else?"

"Well, our workers' average monthly wage over the past eight months has been around 6,500. Although that came from overtime, cutting 2,000 all at once... I'm afraid the workers won't be happy about it..." junior accountant Jiang Mingran said.

Zhou Yibing rolled his eyes. "Were you not listening carefully when I spoke just now? Meals at the cafeteria will be free from now on! Internet access will be free! Won't that save 2,000 a month?"

"Th-that probably still won't..." Jiang Mingran continued to object. "Over the past eight months, the average worker only spent 700 yuan on meals each month. Most of them only eat two meals a day. There are plenty who spend only 500 yuan a month on food."

"This..." Zhou Yibing was stunned. "Five hundred yuan? What can that even buy?"

"The cafeteria sells braised noodles. Five yuan for a huge bowl, with unlimited refills. Add some sour soup, and two meals a day only cost ten yuan..." Jiang Mingran adjusted her glasses. "And the people who use the internet café are young workers. Those over thirty or forty do not use it at all. They can't even bear to buy cigarettes. The best-selling cigarettes in the supermarket cost eight yuan a pack, and there's even tobacco that can be rolled into two hundred cigarettes!"

"..." Zhou Yibing fell silent.

Zhou Qi was also speechless. Who were the loveliest people? These were the loveliest people.

He had asked around beforehand. Nanan City had no casinos, and the brothels had been swept clean again and again.

What were the workers saving so desperately for?

"What do we do, raise their salaries?" Brother Bing turned and asked.

"No raise!" Zhou Qi shook his head, then said loudly, "I noticed we have six dormitory buildings, but only one is in use, and only four floors of it at that. Eight people live in each room..."

"Clear out another four dormitory buildings. Young workers will share two to a room, while married workers will get one room each. They can bring their wives and children over. The whole family can eat at the factory for free. We'll build a kindergarten at the factory later. As for primary school and middle school, we'll discuss it with the city and have the government arrange enrollment for workers' family members..."

"With free housing and free schooling, there shouldn't be any problem now, right?"

"Boss, are you doing charity?" Mo Jiakang earnestly tried to persuade him. "Even if you have money, you can't spend it like this. We're not a state-owned enterprise. There's no need..."

"My mind is made up!" Zhou Qi shook his head. "There's one final item. Read it!"

"Production Department, free up thirty production lines dedicated to producing various penicillin antibiotics, such as Ampicillin, Amoxicillin, Cloxacillin, Dicloxacillin, Oxacillin, Mecillinam, Sulbenicillin, Piperacillin, and so on..."

"Boss, you've gone crazy!" Mo Jiakang was nearly pounding the table. "Those medicines have no profit at all! We're abandoning our profitable drugs to make these?"

"Whether they make money is my business!" Zhou Yibing said flatly. "I'm only asking you—can you make the change?"

"If you do this, you'll bankrupt the factory! It can't possibly survive!"

"Can you make the change?"

Mo Jiakang gritted his teeth, thinking of his wife and children at home, thinking of his age. Leaving the factory at his age would make it hard to find another job...

"Yes!"

"Then that settles it!" Zhou Yibing nodded. "How long will it take?"

"Very quickly. The production lines only need slight adjustments before they can produce them!" Mo Jiakang seemed to have lost his soul, speaking listlessly. "It's just that Packaging will have to wait for Minister Sun to put in the effort."

Neither of them felt like comforting him. Time would prove everything.

"By the way, why doesn't our factory have a Purchasing Department?" Zhou Yibing suddenly asked.

"Oh, because the Purchasing Department kept taking kickbacks, the boss abolished it. The procurement channels are already stable anyway, so he just needs to make a phone call for whatever he wants!" Liu Fangping said.

"Then do you know where to buy the raw materials to produce these medicines?" Zhou Yibing asked.

"I do. As long as you have money, this stuff is everywhere!"

"Then find a reliable channel and arrange production as soon as possible. Operations needs to produce the logo quickly. We need to manufacture medicine with the Morning Star logo as soon as possible. The customer urgently needs it!"

"There really is a customer?" Mo Jiakang was surprised. He had truly thought these two young men were here as a joke.

"Of course. We aren't idiots. Why would we do business at a loss?" Zhou Qi said with a smile.

"But if the customer is in such a hurry, shouldn't we work overtime even more?" Mo Jiakang asked.

"Don't ask. We obey the law!" Zhou Qi waved his hand. "All right, that's everything. Meeting adjourned!"

"..." The attendees left the office one by one, their faces full of doubt, confusion, and disbelief.

Except for Cai Xiaodong from Sales, Jiang Mingran from Finance.

And one old man.

Zhao Fangquan.

"Professor Zhao, do you need something?" Zhou Qi asked.

Although this old man had the highest academic qualifications in the room, Zhou Qi did not think much of him. Yan Yun had already provided him with some information on the professor. How should he put it?

He was merely a third-rate professor from a third-rate university. Now in his sixties, he had not published a single decent paper. According to professionals, the papers he had published domestically were either reviews, meaningless filler, or repetitions of previous experiments.

Only because standards had been lower in the past and it was easier for third-rate schools to promote professors had he become one.

Luo Baofeng had hired him to put on a front. He collected a salary without doing any work and probably did not even know which way the laboratory door opened. Asking him to study herbal medicine and develop new drugs was beyond his ability.

"It's like this. I'm preparing to start a project in the laboratory to study some Chinese herbal medicines and see whether we can extract any compounds from them. If we discover something, we can apply for a patent. That would be a hen that lays golden eggs..."

"What Chinese herbal medicines are you researching?" Zhou Qi asked with a smile.

"Uh, Malabar spinach, Sand ginger, things like that."

"Malabar spinach or Sand ginger? Professor Zhao, you're already so old, yet you still have so much energy. Can you research two things at once?"

"Malabar spinach, Malabar spinach!" Professor Zhao hurriedly said.

"Malabar spinach nourishes yin and strengthens the kidneys, consolidating the foundation and replenishing vital essence. Are you trying to extract compounds from it with effects similar to Sildenafil?" Zhou Qi asked again.

"Ah, yes, yes, exactly! Just think about it—what a huge market Sildenafil has! If we can discover a cheaper compound with even better effects to replace it, and we hold the patent, how much money do you think we'd make?"

"Make money, my ass!" Zhou Qi flung a document onto his bald head.

"Ow! What the hell are you doing?"

"Fuck, you're trying to scam me? Consolidating the foundation and replenishing vital essence? Malabar spinach is a medicinal herb for relieving constipation, promoting urination, and detoxification, and you're saying it can be used as an aphrodisiac? Can't you at least memorize the pharmacopeia before trying to fool me?"

"Y-you-you... How dare you talk to me like that?" Zhao Fangquan was stunned. He didn't think there was anything wrong with scamming a little research funding. Luo Baofeng had always approved it before!

And I wasn't even asking for much—just two or three hundred thousand a year.

Yet this young punk had the nerve to insult him—and even hit him!

"I-I'll call the police and have you arrested!" Zhao Fangquan pulled out his phone and moved to dial 110.

"Go ahead and report it. I recorded the meeting, so when the police get here, we'll see who's in the right!" Zhou Qi chuckled. "And one more thing: you're fired!"

Then he shouted, "Xu Shiqin!"

"Coming, coming!" Xu Shiqin, who was on the same floor, hurried over at a jog.

"Get this old man out of here, now. Finish the procedures today. The sight of him makes me sick..."

"You, you..." Zhao Fangquan glared wide-eyed. Probably because he lacked literary refinement; otherwise, he would at least have said, "How dare you, you insolent brat, humiliate me!"

"Yes!" Xu Shiqin didn't care whether he was a professor or not. She'd had a blast firing people today; this was just another achievement added to her record.

This new Factory Director might look completely ordinary, but when he got things done, he had such an imposing presence!

I wonder if he's married...