The Beautiful Stepmother from the Eighties: Marrying a Factory Director to Raise Kids

Chapter 488

When they arrived home, the family was still waiting for them to have dinner.Seeing them return, Si Nian's parents each held a child by the hand, grinning from ear to ear.

After such a long time, their daughter and son-in-law were finally planning to return to their hometown to build their careers.

This meant the whole family could be reunited, no longer having to spend more time apart than together.

Father and Mother Lin were getting older, especially Father Lin, whose mobility was limited. He usually had to stay at home and couldn't help out much.

They really wanted to enjoy the blessings of having their children and grandchildren around.

Now, their wishes were finally fulfilled.

Grandpa and Grandma Jiang were also waiting. Since their own grandson had returned, they naturally had to come over to welcome him.

Si Nian said helplessly, "Didn't I tell you to go to bed early? You just had to wait up for us."

Everyone had jobs to do. Her mother and sister-in-law had recently opened a small shop in the city, specializing in selling braised food.

They had to get up very early to work every day.

Seeing the whole family stay up just to wait for them made Si Nian feel a bit guilty.

Mother Lin smiled and said, "It's fine, it's fine. At worst, we'll just open the shop a little later tomorrow."

Si Nian felt helpless but couldn't say much more.

Truthfully, they were exhausted from the journey and didn't have much of an appetite. The children were also drowsy.

Even though they had been sleeping on the train all day, the fatigue of traveling still weighed heavily on them.

After everyone finished eating, the children were sent to wash up and go to bed early.

Si Nian also returned to her room. It had clearly been tidied up; the bedding was brand new, and everything was spotlessly clean.

Little Four tugged at her. His eyelids were drooping, but he forced himself to stay awake, saying in a milky voice, "Mommy, tell me a story tonight."

Si Nian smiled and agreed, telling him to get into bed first while she went to wash up.

But by the time she came out, the little guy was already snoring softly.

She pulled the blanket up for her son, then got up and went out the door to look downstairs.

Several men were still drinking and chatting.

Chen Haoran was pulled into the group and couldn't get away. His face was flushed bright red as he started bragging about his past exploits again.

As if sensing her gaze, Zhou Yueshen turned his head toward the second floor.

Their eyes met.

He set down his wine glass, stood up, and said, "You guys keep drinking."

Si Nian had just stepped back into her room when the man followed closely behind.

"Why aren't you asleep yet?" Zhou Yueshen's voice was gentle.

Si Nian replied, "I'm going to sleep right now. I just went to see if you guys were done drinking. You should go to bed early too, don't stay up playing with them."

Starting a company was inherently a time-consuming and exhausting endeavor. Zhou Yueshen was incredibly busy, and Si Nian hoped he would get more rest.

In the past, when she watched him work from dawn to dusk, she only admired his strong physical stamina.

But now, her heart ached for him. She didn't want him to only get a few hours of sleep every day.

Health was the most important thing.

Hearing this, Zhou Yueshen chuckled softly, reached out his large hand to pat her head, and said, "Alright."

Si Nian yawned and got into bed first. "How are things going at the factory?"

"Everything is basically set up. We've been gradually bringing in parts for trial runs recently."

"Is it easy to hire workers?" Si Nian asked.

Zhou Yueshen nodded slightly. "Not difficult."

Si Nian thought about it and agreed. After all, in this era, as long as the pay was good, nothing was too difficult.

As for the appliances, they were just assembled piece by piece from various parts. Each person only needed to learn one step, so it wasn't particularly hard.

With a day or two of training, they could easily pick it up.

Si Nian felt relieved.

A new electrical appliance factory had suddenly opened in the city, and its scale was quite large, which immediately attracted many people to apply for jobs.

In fact, the appliances in their city were basically all shipped in from other places to be sold.

Because of the long-distance transportation, travel expenses, and labor costs, coupled with the fact that appliances were inherently expensive, even a standard black-and-white TV could sell for around 500 yuan.

Color TVs cost over a thousand, and imported ones were even more expensive.

Because ​​‌‌​‌‌​​‌‌​​​​‌​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌‌​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​​​​‌​​‌‌​​​​​​‌‌​‌​​​​‌‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​​‌‌​‌​‌​​‌‌​​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​​‌​‌​​‌‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​​​​‌​‌‌​​‌‌​​‌‌​​​​‌​​‌‌​​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​‌‌​​​​‌​​‌‌​‌‌​‍of this, not many people could afford them.

But the demand was quite high. Even if people couldn't afford them, rarity increased their value, and everyone wanted one.

So now that an appliance factory had suddenly opened, people were naturally incredibly curious, and many were watching closely.

Over the past two years, as more and more people started doing business, the city's economy had begun to develop rapidly.

Many had already realized that working a regular job would never make them rich.

As a result, an increasing number of middle-class families joined the ranks of business owners. Although some failed and lost everything, far more people made a fortune, making the temptation even greater.

It was in this era that many ordinary people changed their lives and embarked on the path to wealth relying simply on their boldness.

People no longer ostracized self-employed individuals like they did a few years ago; in fact, many even started to envy them.

Of course, the majority still believed that having an iron rice bowl—a stable, state-assigned job—was the most respectable and important thing.

Father Si was exactly this kind of person.

It wasn't that he wanted to change careers, but rather that he had reached the end of his service term yet still had no opportunity for promotion.

Due to the fallout from Zhang Cuimei and his daughter going to prison, he had been implicated.

He had been on the verge of a promotion, something that had seemed well within his grasp, but due to various unforeseen events, it had fallen through.

In the end, he remained stuck in his current position.

Seeing the end of his service term approaching, he was extremely panicked.

He didn't want to transfer to civilian work; to him, that would be far too humiliating.

He had always imagined that even if he couldn't become a commander, he would at least be a regiment commander.

If his son inherited his legacy, his life would be considered glorious.

But he never expected that ever since his biological daughter was swapped back, his life plans would be completely derailed.

Even though he had worked diligently and cautiously over the past few years, ensuring no one could find fault with him, he could only watch helplessly as younger men were promoted over him. Father Si saw it all, and he hated it in his heart.

He even felt like he couldn't hold his head up high anymore.

Back in the day, because his younger daughter was engaged to the Fu family from a young age, everyone in the military respected him.

Yet now, he had fallen to such a state.

Father Si seemed to have aged several years, his hair turning white.

Just as he was getting a headache over this matter, he heard the news that Zhou Yueshen had opened an appliance factory and was recruiting talent.

Father Si's eyes lit up. He thought to himself that with his rank, he should at least be given a manager position if he went over there.

Besides, they were considered acquaintances.

Although things had gotten quite ugly a few years ago, he reasoned that it was mostly his wife and daughter causing the trouble; he hadn't said much himself.

So, it shouldn't have anything to do with him.

At his age, transferring to civilian work and finding a job wasn't easy anymore.

Father Si looked down on ordinary jobs, while the truly good workplaces looked down on him.

Now that his adopted daughter's husband had opened a factory, he immediately felt he had found his new direction in life.

Early the next morning after he arrived, Chen Haoran was led to the pig farm by Second Child.

Seeing the piglets grunting and clamoring for food at the farm, Chen Haoran felt his vision go dark.

After feeding the piglets, he was dragged off to watch people slaughter pigs.

A massive stench hit him in the face, and he almost threw up.

The piles of pig hair on the ground, the group of shirtless, burly men gutting the pigs, and the floor covered with freshly scraped pig carcasses all left Chen Haoran feeling completely disoriented in the wind.

He didn't know who had stuffed a pig-shaving knife into his hand.

Then he was pulled down to squat in front of a fat pig.

"It's very simple, you'll learn it just by looking at it once," Second Child, who was beside him, taught earnestly.

The foul stench of pig hair rushed into his nose. Chen Haoran suddenly snapped back to his senses, almost throwing the dirty pig-shaving knife out of his hand.

However, at this moment, everyone was burying their heads in hard work, and absolutely no one noticed his expression.

Chen Haoran looked at everyone in horror, and then his gaze landed on Second Child beside him. Wearing a small apron, he was half-squatting, scraping pig hair with a serious look in his eyes.

He froze.

His outstretched hand stiffened.

Second Child could endure this hardship, but he couldn't?

If word of this got out, wouldn't he be laughed to death?

Especially Si Nian. If she found out, she would definitely laugh at him to death.

Although it was a bit smelly, it wasn't unacceptable.

Besides, Second Child said that butchering pigs only required working for the morning, and then they could rest.

Because they only needed to provide fresh pork every morning.

They could spend the whole afternoon playing.

Having successfully convinced himself, Chen Haoran finally started learning to scrape pig hair with Second Child.

Not to mention, it was surprisingly fun.

It came off with a single scrape, giving him the feeling of playing house when he was a kid.

The two guys scraped with increasing enthusiasm. In no time, they had scraped several pigs completely clean.

In the morning, Si Nian ate scallion oil noodles with home-grown baby bok choy.

The scallion oil was freshly fried by her mother early this morning. The soy sauce itself was salty, so with just a few extra ingredients and a few boiled baby bok choy, it was very refreshing.

Perhaps it was because she was back home, her appetite had improved a lot, and she finished a large bowl.

Just as she finished eating, Second Child and Chen Haoran returned, reeking of a foul smell.

The adult and the child were discussing something, obviously both very happy.

The moment they entered the house and smelled the aroma, the two guys immediately ran over.

"What are we eating today? It smells so good!"

Looking at the glossy noodles in Si Nian's bowl, Chen Haoran couldn't help but swallow his saliva.

The delicious food was one of the reasons why he wanted to tag along so badly.

After all, as long as he followed Si Nian, there would never be a day of bad food.

Si Nian held her bowl and leaned away, saying in disgust, "You guys go take a shower and wash up first, you stink. Come down to eat after you're clean."

The two of them finally lowered their heads to smell themselves, but they couldn't smell it.

However, thinking about how they had just been scraping pig hair, there definitely had to be a smell.

There is a kind of smell that you can't smell yourself, but others find incredibly stinky.

The two guys went to take a shower in disgrace.

By the time they came downstairs, Si Nian had already thrown noodles into the pot and told them to scoop it out themselves.

After eating, Chen Haoran suggested going to Zhou Yueshen's company to have a look.

Si Nian was also quite curious in her heart. Since she had nothing to do at home anyway, she planned to take the children to visit their old father's company.

Little Four was very excited, because when Zhou Yueshen brought him back previously, he took him running back and forth every day.

The little guy already knew the way.

He even wanted to help guide them.

The family now had three vehicles. One was a sedan, a Santana that was the first car Zhou Yueshen bought. The second was a van that he used for hauling goods, which he had already driven away.

The third was a tricycle, which her mother and sister-in-law used every day to transport braised food.

Because Chen Haoran was completely useless when Si Nian was giving birth, even forgetting how to drive—a memory that made him wake up in shame in the middle of the night—he had started practicing his driving skills hard after returning and even got his driver's license.

Now, acting as the driver, he was very steady.

Following Little Four's directions, the family arrived at the factory.

The factory was converted from a bankrupt textile mill, so it wasn't exactly new. It was located outside the city, which wasn't very convenient.

However, in order not to disturb the residents, factories were generally opened in more remote areas.

Following a straight line from here was Zhou Yueshen's pig farm.

Chen Haoran and Second Child had passed by it in the morning, but they hadn't paid attention.

It was too early then, and there was hardly anyone on the road.

But now there were many people. A long line of people was already queuing up for interviews at the factory gate.

A few desks were placed at the entrance, and someone was registering people at the front.

There were even people pushing carts over to do small business.

"So many people," Second Child opened his mouth wide.

He showed an expression of someone who hadn't seen much of the world.

Si Nian was also a bit surprised.

Just as she was feeling curious, a conflict suddenly broke out in front of them.