Chapter 77: Ten Million

The old factory manager also seemed to have been struggling for a long time; he rubbed his hands and said, "Then you give me a price, and I'll see if it's appropriate."

"Eight million."

"Boss, you're really swinging the blade too hard; eight million..." The old factory manager's face showed his difficulty. "This factory of mine is a family heirloom, a business my two predecessors worked hard to build up. I really can't sell it for eight million. Fourteen million—if that works, we sign the contract; if not, this old man won't sell it. At worst, I'll just go bankrupt; the state has good benefits now anyway, and there's assistance after bankruptcy."

The old factory manager's father's generation were representatives of those who started businesses in this small town in the 80s, and they had once been quite prosperous.

But in the dozen or so years since the factory passed into his hands, not only had it not flourished, it was instead on the verge of collapse.

A long time ago, he heard that this area was going to be demolished and developed, but after Pudong Xinqu had been developing for over a decade, this piece of land still hadn't been touched. The old factory manager decided to transfer the factory to recoup some of the losses to his ancestral business, but he never expected to run into a "slaughtering dragon blade" customer like Xu Heng.

He thought that if Xu Heng insisted on buying his factory for eight million, he wouldn't sell it; at least keeping the ancestral business here would be a comfort.

Xu Heng smiled and said, "Factory Manager, I really do want to buy it, but your factory's price truly isn't worth fourteen million. Look at how many factories around here have gone bankrupt. There are plenty of factories closer to the city center than yours; why wouldn't I look for them instead of you? Isn't it just for the sake of a bargain? Fine, since you've said so, I won't make things difficult for an old man. Ten million, and not a cent more."

"Eleven million, and I'll give you all the machines in the factory. They are imported printing presses from abroad; printing small cards is absolutely no problem."

"What would I print cards for? I'm taking over your factory to work in other industries. Those imported machines of yours are worth nothing to me. You aren't trying to dump your junk on me because you can't sell them, are you?"

"This..." The old factory manager stroked his chin, thinking for a long time before saying, "How about this: that batch of machines in the factory cost me over a million when I bought them, and they've been used for less than ten years. I'll give you a discount—five hundred thousand. I guarantee you won't lose money selling them; if you do, this old man will make up the difference. Deal?"

Ten million and fifty thousand to buy this plot of land was already a huge profit. Xu Heng didn't continue to swing his "big blade" to cut the price further. Although he could certainly have cut more if he really wanted to, as the old factory manager was clearly in a hurry to sell, Xu Heng wanted to accumulate some virtue for himself—leave a way out for others, and it will be easier to meet again in the future.

Thus, Shanyin Paper Printing Factory was transferred to Xu Heng today. Transferring land in this day and age isn't a very troublesome matter; negotiate in the morning, and go to the government service center to sign a contract in the afternoon, and it's done.

However, the amount of ten million and fifty thousand was still quite large in 2007. The government added a few extra steps to the process to ensure Xu Heng's funds were not problematic, and then incidentally collected about three hundred thousand in taxes from him.

When the money was transferred to the old factory manager's bank card, the land transfer process had already been settled.

The ownership of Shanyin Paper Printing Factory was officially changed to Xu Heng, and the land usage period was reset to forty years. If he wants to continue using it after it expires, Xu Heng will have to spend money to purchase it from the state a second time.

But forty years is enough. In another six or seven years, the area around Chuansha Zhen will be developed by foreign enterprises and the government. By then, the housing compensation Xu Heng receives will have a seventy-year usage period, and as long as those buildings are demolished once more within those seventy years, he will be able to receive compensation again.

So, in a sense, once a piece of land is bought, it is roughly equivalent to enjoying permanent usage rights.

After finalizing the contract and transferring the factory, the old factory manager led Xu Heng into the factory to announce the news that the factory had been transferred to him.

The workers whispered and muttered to each other; many were worried about whether the new factory manager would lay off this group of old employees after taking office.

Some even said this new manager was too young and clearly wasn't here to do paper printing, so they had better find another place to work as soon as possible.

Of course, the old factory manager didn't care about these things. Once he got the money and paid off the wages owed to the factory workers, he could go abroad to enjoy his twilight years. How the workers were handled or how that batch of printing equipment was dealt with afterwards had nothing to do with him.

After the old factory manager left, the atmosphere in the workshop became even more heavy; the workers almost all had their worries written on their faces.

Xu Heng inspected the area in front of everyone with an expressionless face, then said, "Can your workshop team leaders, or representatives, come out for a moment?"

Four men and women around the age of thirty squeezed out from the crowd.

"What were your original wages?" Xu Heng asked.

The four looked at each other, and after exchanging glances, a stubbly, short, and stout man stepped forward to answer: "Assembly line production workers get three thousand a month, supervision team leaders get thirty-five hundred a month, technical team cadres responsible for managing and repairing machines get forty-five hundred, accounting staff get four thousand, and odd-jobbers like warehouse keepers all get two thousand."

In order to leave a good impression on the new boss, he had tried his best to state the wages on the lower side.

"Fine. From now on, all your employees' monthly wages will increase by two hundred, and at the end of the year, you will receive a year-end bonus of ten percent of your individual annual position income. Work hard, and the factory will not treat you unfairly."

"Wait, little boss, aren't you firing us?"

Perhaps because the result was far from what they had imagined, an employee in the crowd couldn't help but ask.

The short, stout man also sighed and said, "Little Wang is right. Most of the dozens of us here only know how to do paper printing and don't know any other skills. Little boss, there's no point in you keeping us."

Xu Heng smiled and said, "Why is there no point? I want you to continue doing paper printing. Didn't you print cards before? What a coincidence, I just happen to want to get into the business of printing cards."

"Printing cards? Little boss, this absolutely must not be done. The old factory manager went bankrupt printing cards. He would print cards for those food companies for several months just to earn a hundred thousand or so, and it wouldn't even cover the machine maintenance costs. Sometimes, halfway through printing, the client wouldn't want them anymore, and you'd only be compensated a few tens of thousands, while the factory had to cover the loss of materials itself."

The short, stout man was likely a team leader similar to a staff officer and was very knowledgeable about how the factory had gone bankrupt.

In his view, the business of printing cards was simply seeking one's own death; it would be better to print toy blueprints for others, which would be more profitable.

Xu Heng, however, shook his head dismissively.

"Who said we were going to print cards for food companies?"

"Then..."

"We are printing our own cards."

Xu Heng had Huang Kai take out the Dragon Edition Legends of the Three Kingdoms he had brought beforehand—a whole box of hundreds of cards, though most were duplicate item cards like "Kill," "Flash," and "Wine." The main General Cards numbered no more than thirty or forty, with character designs that were both heroic and beautiful, and the hand-drawn completion was extremely high.

"This is what we are going to print. Believe me, once we print this well, the people in our factory won't have to worry about food or drink for the next ten years."