Chapter 449

Zhou Andong and Yao Jun got up and washed up briefly. As soon as they stepped outside, they saw Gu Bing and Pu Zhenrong coming out with glowing, radiant faces.

"Holy cow!" Zhou Andong looked the two of them over. "Did you two stay together last night?"

Gu Bing was stunned: "Yeah!"

"I didn't expect you to have such a hobby." Zhou Andong shuddered, moved his feet to the side, and then said earnestly, "I don't discriminate against people like you; in fact, I respect you. But you must take protective measures. If you need to wear a little raincoat, you must wear it. You absolutely cannot get sick, or else you're done for."

Gu Bing and Pu Zhenrong were completely bewildered, not understanding what Zhou Andong meant, but knowing it certainly wasn't anything good.

"What do you mean? Speak clearly. What do you mean by that? Don't think about leaving until you explain." Gu Bing blocked Zhou Andong.

"Right!" Pu Zhenrong grabbed Zhou Andong's arm. "You brat are full of bad intentions; you must explain clearly."

Zhou Andong blinked: "Is it this open now? Do I have to say this kind of thing in public?"

Gu Bing and Pu Zhenrong were even more bewildered, and both of them became anxious.

Pu Zhenrong said with a flushed face: "What... what open? And you can't say it in public?"

"No way!" Gu Bing said: "If you don't explain clearly today, don't think about leaving."

"You really want me to say it?" Zhou Andong asked.

"Say it!" Pu Zhenrong glared. "What is there that can't be said?"

Zhou Andong shook his head and sighed: "Reform and opening up, opening the gates, looking out at the world—the good and the bad have all come flooding in at once."

"Factory Director, Secretary!" Du Chunlai and his wife came down from upstairs. "Why are you standing here talking? Aren't you cold?"

"We just came out too." Gu Bing suddenly stopped Zhou Andong from continuing. "We were just about to go eat. Let's go together."

This guy suddenly became smart, knowing that nothing good would come out of Zhou Andong's mouth. If Du Chunlai and his wife heard it, he and Pu Zhenrong didn't know how embarrassed they would be.

Zhou Andong wasn't willing: "I haven't even said it yet."

"Say your ass!" Pu Zhenrong also reacted. "We don't want to hear it anymore. Let's go quickly and find a place to eat breakfast."

Zhou Andong said with relief: "Fine, as long as you know shame, that's good."

Gu Bing and Pu Zhenrong's faces turned black instantly, but hindered by Du Chunlai and his wife, they swallowed the bitter resentment in their hearts.

Zhou Andong chuckled and asked Du Chunlai: "Old Du, is there any news about that matter from yesterday?"

Hearing Zhou Andong ask, Du Chunlai's expression suddenly turned ugly: "It was exactly as you predicted. Coca-Cola is currently negotiating a partnership with Bawangsi. Knowing we want to purchase a large amount of concentrated fruit juice, the Coca-Cola representative spoke up to stop it. It was only because the factory director, Gu Xiangjun, didn't want to give up this profit that he agreed to sell us a portion."

"So fast." Zhou Andong really didn't expect Coca-Cola to start negotiations with Bawangsi so quickly.

Du Chunlai snorted coldly: "Since Jiang Xiaomei's fruit-flavored white liquor hit the market, more than one soda factory has come to us. Because our partnership with Bawangsi was quite pleasant, I turned them down. After the meeting, I'll contact these soda factories. I don't believe that if the butcher Zhang dies, we must eat hairy pigs."

Zhou Andong sighed inwardly, guessing that everything was too late now. Don't look at how the two colas fight to the death; when it comes to suppressing domestic beverage enterprises, they are very tacit.

The liquor factory is purchasing a large amount of concentrated fruit juice. If they didn't know, fine, but now that they do, they will certainly stop it by any means necessary. They don't want another competitor to appear before their plan to annex the Chinese beverage market succeeds.

Several people left the dormitory building. The overnight heavy snow had turned the whole world white.

The sunlight in the sky was a bit dazzling, but there was no wind, and the sunlight felt warm on their bodies.

"The weather today is really good."

Zhou Andong took a deep breath, took out a cigarette and lit one, then threw one to Gu Bing and the others.

Yao Jun lit his cigarette: "With such heavy snow, I don't know if the breakfast stalls will be open."

Du Chunlai said: "They should be."

Gu Bing said: "We'll see when we get there. If not, we'll walk a bit further to the Sun Family Porridge Shop."

Stepping on the thick accumulated snow, they crunched their way out of the factory gate. Unexpectedly, there were indeed two breakfast stalls open.

"Old Zhang's steamed buns or Old Liu's fried dough sticks, which one shall we eat?" Gu Bing asked.

Zhou Andong said: "What would sister-in-law like to eat?"

Du Chunlai's wife, Wang Dengju, smiled and said: "Anything is fine. Actually, I make breakfast every day. Yesterday I was a bit upset, so I didn't go out to buy groceries. There isn't even an egg left at home, so I came out with Old Du to eat something and buy some groceries at the market on the way."

"Then let's have fried dough sticks. Drinking a bowl of hot soy milk would be quite nice." Du Chunlai made the decision.

At this moment, a van slowly drove over and stopped beside Zhou Andong. The door opened, and a middle-aged man stepped out.

"Factory Director, Secretary, Deputy Factory Director Du!" The one who got out was Zhai Zhiping, the factory director of the Ninth Branch.

Zhou Andong said: "Why did you come so early?"

Zhai Zhiping said: "With such heavy snow, I didn't know if the road would be easy to travel, so I thought I'd come out early so as not to delay things."

Zhou Andong said: "You haven't eaten yet, right? Let's eat together."

"Okay!" Zhai Zhiping agreed, greeted the driver: "You park the car inside the liquor factory, then come out and eat with us."

Old Liu, who was frying dough sticks, saw Zhou Andong coming and hurriedly greeted him: "Factory Director Zhou, Secretary Gu."

Zhou Andong nodded with a smile: "See how many of us there are. Two fried dough sticks and a bowl of soy milk for each person. Add sugar, don't put in that cheap saccharin."

Old Liu said with a chuckle: "Don't worry, every time you come, I always use white granulated sugar."

What Zhou Andong didn't expect was that before they finished eating, other branch factory leaders arrived one after another. Seeing them eating breakfast on the side of the road, they all ran over to join the fun.

This breakfast was quite lively, and Old Liu's mouth didn't stop smiling. He originally thought there wouldn't be much business today, and he hadn't mixed that much dough for the sticks, worrying if he could sell them all. He didn't expect Zhou Andong and his large group to buy everything out.

"Has everyone eaten well?" Zhou Andong asked.

"We've eaten well!" Everyone agreed with a chuckle.

Zhou Andong said: "Old Liu, calculate how much it is. I'll sign for it, and you can go to the factory's finance department to settle the bill in a while."

Pu Zhenrong said with disdain: "You're actually signing for a few fried dough sticks and a few bowls of soy milk."

Zhou Andong said helplessly: "I thought the money in my pocket was enough to treat you all to breakfast, but who would have thought so many people would come."

Pu Zhenrong took out a hundred-yuan bill from his pocket and handed it to Old Liu: "Keep the change."

Old Liu was stunned on the spot, holding the money and feeling at a loss. This one bill was enough to cover what he earned working early and late for half a month.