Second brother was stunned for a second, “What are you going to the shoe factory for?”
I thought that there was no need for me to lie before my second brother, so I told him the truth, “I want to get in touch with those servants who used to work in the Su family to know more about Nan Su.”
He nodded, “Do you still have any doubts in your mind?”
“I have found a photo in Nan Su’s room, on which there are two people, and one of them is Nan Su, the other is Nan Lin. I also know that Nan Lin, who had some emotional entanglements with Leon Hua before. But Nan Lin refuses to admit that she knows Nan Su, which I think is quite weird, so I want to find out what is going on.”
“I see, you can go to that shoe factory. I will call the factory director and tell him that you will come there to inspect the work.”
…
Because my second brother had talked to the director about me, a crowd of management personnel were at the gate to greet me when I arrived at the shoe factory, which made me quite embarrassed.
Since I should be here to inspect the work, of course I had to go to the workshop to have a look. The equipment in the shoe factory was changed not long ago and was highly automated. In fact, neither did I know anything about making shoes, nor could I give any suggestion to them, and the management personnel were quite delighted after hearing me praise them.
I learned from them that this shoe factory used to do OEM for those foreign brands, but later it was eliminated due to its backward equipment, low management level and its products which could not meet the requirements of foreign brands. For a time, thousands of employees were about to lose their jobs.
Later, the local government asked second brother to take over this factory to help solve the unemployment crisis of those workers. So he bought the factory at a low price and also received a five-year tax exemption from the local government. After he carried out a series of reforms, the situation in the factory finally improved.
Then the factory blossomed after a series of measures were taken, such as changing the equipment and management optimization. Then, the original foreign brands came to ask for OEM again, but second brother refused them since he wanted the factory to make its own unique brand. But he still found it hard to make it because the popularity of a famous brand could not be established in a short time, but needed to take a long time to accumulate.
Afterwards, second brother chose a creative way to produce the customized shoes. He decided to produce the shoes which were designed by the net friends. For a while, their products were very popular, but the high cost of this kind of production was a problem for the factory, leading to its low profit. But the profit and the cost were still barely even.
In the end, he finally found a way to balance the profit and the cost, which was making the customization and mass production at the same time. After they got the permission of the net friends and paid them certain royalty fees, they would make mass production of the good shoes which were designed by the net friends and finally sell them to the market. That method soon led to a rise in profits and the factory even went from losing money year after year to becoming the largest taxpayer in the town.
Therefore, the workers and the management staff were all very grateful to second brother, and they all spoke highly of him, thinking he was their benefactor. So of course they attached great importance to me as well since I was sent by him to inspect the work. Besides, second brother also specially told them on the phone that I was his sister.
After I finished my workshop tour, I also went to the warehouse and the office to have a look, and finally, I went back to the conference room to have a meeting. In fact, I had nothing to say except just making a compliment to them to show the importance of the factory for the company, and encouraging them to keep working hard.
Then it was time for dinner. There was a canteen in the factory. But the general manager of the factory said that there were so many workers eating in there at lunchtime that it was not convenient for us to eat in the canteen, so I was finally arranged to eat in a restaurant outside the factory.
Actually, I really didn’t want to eat outside, because I wanted to meet the workers to know who had worked in the Su family so that I could ask them about Nan Su.
But since the leader of the factory made such arrangement, I could not refuse. Anyway, it was indeed too hard to go to the canteen to eat with thousands of workers.
While I was eating, I tentatively asked the director if there were several workers who had been the servants of the Su family. Since my second brother asked me to help him know about their conditions and see if they had any difficulties which needed to be solved.
Then the director said that since second brother had paid great attention to them, they didn’t work in the workshop anymore, but were trained to do office jobs, which were relatively easy.
I said, “I’d like to meet them if it’s convenient.” And he said, “No problem, I will arrange you to meet them after lunch.”
After lunch, I met two dozens of former servants of the Su family in the conference room. They varied in age, ranging from nearly sixty to over forty. And they all had their own jobs in the factory, leading a good life.
And there were two servants, both in their fifties, who were looking at me with red eyes. They kept staring at me but dared not to speak.
I knew they were the people I had been looking for. They were excited because they recognized me, and they were afraid to speak because they couldn’t believe that the one they knew was still alive.
Of course, the person they knew was not me, but Nan Su.
I simply chatted with all of them, mainly to convey my second brother’s greetings to them. Then I let them go, except those two aunts.
As soon as they were gone, I closed the door of the conference room and saw the two people whispering after I turned around. One of them even cried, while the other looked very nervous.
“Do you two know me?” I asked them with a smile.
They looked at each other, daring not to say a word.
“You may say anything you want, and you don’t need to feel awkward. The aim for my coming today is just to visit you two.” I said to suggest them needing not to be nervous.
Hearing what I said, they looked at each other again and the one whose tears were rolling in her eyes asked me, stammering, “Miss Su, is it really you? Didn’t they say that you… you were dead?”
Sure enough, they did recognize me as Nan Su. So they were excited and nervous, and maybe even a little scared. After all, Nan Su was dead.
“I’m not Nan, I’m Nala Yao. I just look like her.”
While I was saying, I moved closer to them to let them see me more clearly.
Then both of them opened their mouths in disbelief. One of them kept shaking her head, “No, you’re the Miss Su, I’m sure I’m not mistaking.”
Knowing nothing about how to explain, I felt quite anxious.
“Auntie, I’m really not Nan, I know that I do look like her, but I’m really not her. Besides, she has been dead for years.”
The aunt moved closer to me, then stared at my face, shaking her head, “No, you’re definitely Miss Su. I had been serving you for years. More than looking like Nan, you’re just her.”
I thought she definitely had her reason now that she had said such words, so I asked her casually, “Then why do you think I am definitely Nan?”
Her answer surprised me very much.