Time Travel: Volume 1! Starting from a Small Mountain Village

Xu Tiansheng hadn't expected that the "Comrade Long" Qiu Yuansheng mentioned would be a young girl, and he was immediately somewhat disappointed. But out of politeness, he still asked softly:

"Comrade Long, are you from Shanghai?"

"Yes, but I am currently working as an educated youth in the Dongwan Brigade under the Hongxing Commune."

"A sent-down youth!" Xu Tiansheng's eyes widened. He hadn't expected the young girl in front of him to be a sent-down youth, and he felt almost desperate.

The rural outreach program has been in full swing for the past few years, but he knows that families with connections are generally reluctant to send their children to the countryside, let alone a young girl like this.

And this young girl in front of me actually claims to be a sent-down youth. So, her claim of having connections with the Shanghai Machinery Factory is probably not that reliable! Can someone like that really bring orders to their factory?

"I heard from Director Qiu that you have some connections with the Shanghai Machinery Factory!" Xu Tiansheng asked tentatively, still unwilling to give up.

"Yes," Long Lifan nodded slightly. "My father works at the Shanghai Machinery Factory."

"I wonder how many orders your father can bring to our Pingwu County Machinery Factory?"

"Orders? What orders!" Long Lifan was stunned for a moment. She had said a long time ago that she wanted to get orders for the county machinery factory.

As soon as he said this, everyone turned their attention to Qiu Yuansheng. Qiu Yuansheng immediately became anxious and quickly said, "Comrade Long, didn't you say you had a way to revive the machinery factory?"

"Yes, I did say that, but I never said I would help you get orders!"

"Ah..." Qiu Yuansheng realized he had misunderstood. He thought to himself: Oh dear, if you had said no earlier, I wouldn't have mentioned you to the factory director. Now I'm in a terrible predicament.

Seeing this, the others began to criticize Qiu Yuansheng, realizing that they had waited all this time only to be met with nothing.

Xu Tiansheng's face also turned somewhat gloomy. He had placed all his hopes on this one time, but he didn't expect it to end like this? If their factory didn't receive any orders, they could only wait to die.

He didn't think the young girl in front of him could have any other way. If she really had a way, he wouldn't be losing clumps of hair. He'd almost gone bald in the past year or so because of this factory.

"Since you didn't come here because of an order, you should leave now. We have a meeting to attend." Xu Tiansheng began to dismiss them, then said to Qiu Yuansheng, who was standing to the side, "Deputy Director Qiu, in the future, you should make sure to clarify these matters before reporting to me!"

"Yes, Factory Manager!"

Qiu Yuansheng lowered his head and agreed. He knew that the factory director was blaming him and that his days at the factory would probably not be easy in the future.

But after all, Long Zhiqing was his daughter's savior, so he couldn't complain. He could only blame himself for agreeing so carelessly! The key was that he had misunderstood the situation.

"and many more!"

Seeing that Xu Tiansheng had given him the order to leave and even took his anger out on Uncle Qiu, Long Lifan immediately spoke up seriously, saying, "Director Xu, I haven't even explained my solution yet. Isn't it impolite of you to kick me out like this?"

"Why don't you listen to my suggestion first? If you find it useless, then you can kick them out!"

Upon hearing her words, Qiu Yuansheng secretly groaned. "My dear little aunt, can't you be a little more careful? Didn't you see that Director Xu's expression was all wrong?"

Lin Guodong, standing to the side, was also getting anxious. He had never seen anything like this before! He knew that Long Zhiqing was bold, but he never expected that he would not be intimidated at all when facing the leaders of the machinery factory.

Upon hearing this, Xu Tiansheng immediately looked at the girl in front of him. To his surprise, she showed no fear whatsoever.

"Alright, then tell me your idea!" Xu Tiansheng finally decided to listen to what effective solution the young girl in front of him could come up with.

"Director Xu, I heard from Uncle Qiu that your factory's main task is to process parts."

Xu Tiansheng nodded upon hearing this; after all, it wasn't a secret.

"Excuse my bluntness, but entrusting the life and death of the factory to others is the most foolish thing I have ever seen."

"What did you say…"

Xu Tiansheng was surprised that the little girl would evaluate them in this way, and he stood up and glared at Long Lifan.

Not only him, but other cadres also criticized her, saying that she was simply arrogant and shameless.

Only Qiu Yuansheng, standing to the side, felt completely numb. This little miss really dared to say anything!

"Isn't that right?" Long Lifan was not intimidated by the angry stares of the crowd. Instead, she smiled and asked in return, "You usually make a living by processing parts for others. In other words, people can give you parts if they want to, and you can't do anything about it if they want to go back on their word."

"Isn't this just handing over your life to someone else?"

"I just passed by the factory and took a quick look. Many machines were idle, and some were even covered in dust."

“Idleness will inevitably cause damage to the machines, and the lower the pass rate of the parts you produce will be.”

"The lower the pass rate, the fewer people will hire you to process parts, and you will gradually fall into a vicious cycle."

Upon hearing this, the expressions of several cadres changed, because Long Lifan was describing their factory's current predicament. Director Fang of the sales department also suddenly understood why the manufacturers who used to process parts for them had abandoned them—the reason was right here.

Now that you mention it, their factory's lifeline really is in someone else's hands.

Seeing that her words had an effect, Long Lifan decided to add fuel to the fire. "If this continues, your factory will inevitably decline. The higher-ups might even be discussing how to reform your factory!"

"You, you are..." Xu Tiansheng could no longer sit still. The person above had only told him this in private, and no one else knew about it except him. He didn't expect the girl in front of him to see through it so clearly. He was so shocked that he misspoke.

Upon hearing this and seeing the factory director's expression, the other cadres wondered if what the educated youth in front of them was saying was true.

"Factory manager, this..."

"Factory director, what Long Zhiqing said is true. The higher-ups really are planning to abandon us."

"Yes!" Xu Tiansheng nodded when he heard the questions from several cadres and said, "The higher-ups do have this idea, but the final result has not yet been implemented. They gave me two options: one is to merge with other county machinery factories, and the other is to declare bankruptcy."

Upon hearing this, the officials panicked. No matter which path they chose, their situation wouldn't be good. They had all held high positions for many years; how could they possibly give up their power?

Long Lifan didn't expect that she would actually be right, but it's good this way. No destruction, no construction. Let's see if Xu Tiansheng has the guts to agree to the next proposal.

"Long Zhiqing, I wonder what your method is!" Xu Tiansheng no longer dared to underestimate the young girl in front of him. She could deduce the situation of their factory from some minor details, and perhaps she really had a way to bring their factory back to life.

"Transformation!"

Long Lifan uttered two words calmly.

"Transformation?"

Several cadres from the machinery factory muttered these two words, but they had no clue what to do.

"Long Zhiqing, could you please explain yourself more clearly?"

Xu Tiansheng spoke in a low voice, like a student asking a question.

"Simply put, it means shifting from a processing-oriented model to a creative one, allowing us to design useful things ourselves."

Xu Tiansheng, a "creative" individual, had considered this approach before, but his county's machinery factory was not only small in scale, but also lacked technical personnel, so how could they create new things?

“Long Zhiqing, to be honest, we’ve considered this issue before, but as you know, we’re just a county-level machinery factory, we simply don’t have the capability…” Xu Tiansheng thought for a moment before speaking.

"Director Xu, I think you've gone astray. It's not like we need to build airplanes or cannons or have any special capabilities. I think you can start with what people need most right now."

"for example…"

"For example, you could start with agriculture. We've been talking about the Four Modernizations for years, but look at the farmers still carrying hoes and sickles to work. Do you think that's appropriate?"

"In agriculture?" Xu Tiansheng muttered to himself, considering the feasibility of the matter.

"Oh, right, I also brought a new type of sickle this time, you can take a look!" Long Lifan said, gesturing for Lin Guodong to take out the new sickle she had brought.