929 Take a Break



Qiao Mei took a portion of the corn cobs home for Qiao Qiang to burn in the stove. She gave the remainder away to whoever needed some. After all, Qiao Mei's family was not the only one who needed fuel for the stove. Gas tanks were really expensive in the city now, so everyone would set up a small stove in the courtyard for daily use.

"I've come here today not just to distribute the salary. I also have a few things to say to everyone," Qiao Mei said as she slowly sat down on the stool.

Everyone stood attentively in front of Qiao Mei and looked at her earnestly, making sure they did not miss out on whatever she was going to say.

Perhaps Qiao Mei wanted to increase their salary!

Qiao Mei cleared her throat and said, "Everyone knows that I'm keeping this place a secret from others. We have enough people working here for now. If everyone keeps introducing new people to come and work here, then we'll be overstaffed and that would in turn affect everyone's salary level. Therefore, we won't be hiring anymore. If the business does well in the future, there'll be a corresponding increase in your salary."

Sun Jiao frowned. She was introduced by Sun Juan to work here. Was Qiao Mei beating around the bush and talking about her?

Qiao Mei did not notice Sun Jiao's strange expression and moved on to give everyone a red packet. If nothing extraordinary happened, Qiao Mei would not be coming here again until after she gave birth. It was almost the new year and she wanted to give everyone a red packet to express her gratitude for their help.

"I'm giving everyone a red packet for the new year. It's not a lot, just 20 dollars per person. Please take it as a token of my appreciation for all your hard work," Qiao Mei said in a gentle manner.

Zhou Shuang could not even wait for another minute and hurriedly turned around to open the red packet. It was indeed 20 dollars. This was the first time in her life that she had met such a generous boss. Even when she worked in the factory, she did not get such benefits. This amount of 20 dollars was enough to buy nicer food for the children and a bottle of good liquor for her husband!

"Thank you, Qiao Mei. We're just doing what we need to do. Don't worry, we'll definitely do our best and treat this place as our own home! We definitely won't slack off!" Sun Juan said.

Zhou Shuang hurriedly added, "Yes, yes! Don't worry! We're not here to work. We're here to chit chat! This is called… helping out! We're all neighbors! Helping one another!"

Qiao Mei looked down and smiled. This woman was quite quick-witted. She was like those people in Qiao Mei's other life who were experts at currying favor! If only this woman was there, she would have definitely been highly valued by the company leaders. In Qiao Mei's other life, the company leaders in her workplace liked people who knew how to curry favor.

She finally understood the joy of being a leader now.

"You have all worked hard recently. You can all rest at home next week. I'm getting someone to come and renovate this house. Otherwise, it will be too cold for you to work here," Qiao Mei said.

When Qiao Mei was at home, she had taken a look at the accounts ledger for this place. There were still more than 600 pounds of corn kernels in the side rooms, so there would not be any issue even if the work here stopped for a week. Qiao Mei intended to only fit the main living room and the two attached side rooms with floor heating. The rest of the rooms would continue to be used as storerooms.

Back then, Xia Wen had gotten someone to simply replaster the walls and fix the broken doors and windows in this house. There were originally no heating facilities in this place and the people who used to live here had to endure the cold winter without any heat.

Sun Juan and the rest would usually put braziers next to themselves while they worked, but there were many safety issues with such braziers. The house was mainly made of wood and a fire could easily happen if they were not careful. It would be disastrous if the fire then spread to the neighboring houses. It would be much safer to install floor heating.

Everyone packed up their things and went home. Once they had all left, Qiao Mei quietly walked to the backyard to check on the amount of corn left in the storeroom. The originally huge pile had dwindled and there was only a small pile of corn left.

"Sigh… It looks like we need more storerooms," Qiao Mei sighed.

It would be a pity to tear down this house and use this place as a corn warehouse. In the future, the value of this house would be much more valuable than these corn. If Li Gui really wanted to expand the business, then they would have to go to the suburbs to find an empty space to build a factory. It was not safe to work out of a small factory in the city.