Large factories organize shuttle buses or even charter entire train carriages to pick up and drop off employees before and after the Chinese New Year.
Shanchi Technology does not yet have that capability.
Currently, all they can do is have the administrative department help employees who need to buy train tickets purchase them collectively in advance.
As for employees taking shuttle buses home, they can only arrange it themselves, as the company's human resources are also limited.
After the lively annual meeting, employees had little desire to work diligently, but it no longer mattered.
With over a month and a half of high-intensity production to rush orders, the stock for February was temporarily sufficient.
Currently, Shanchi Technology still has little inventory pressure.
The electric vehicles produced in December were mostly handed over in January.
With the agent system, Shanchi Technology's distribution system for the market is much easier to manage.
At least in terms of logistics, it has solved a great deal of trouble for Shanchi Technology; otherwise, national distribution would require building its own logistics system.
Before the Spring Festival, the main distribution areas for the Shanchi and Fengchi series were third-tier cities and some small counties.
Migrant workers returning home, getting married, and getting engaged all concentrate around the Spring Festival.
For small counties and rural areas, this is a consumption peak.
After the new year, the main distribution of electric vehicles will be concentrated in cities with many factories.
Migrant workers coming to cities need convenient transportation, which will also bring a small peak in electric vehicle sales.
However, none of these need to be concerned about for now.
January 23rd, the twenty-fourth day of the twelfth lunar month.
In the morning, after Tan Jincheng arranged the list of employees staying behind for the Spring Festival, he directly left the company.
A group of people in three cars embarked on their return journey.
Zhang Xupeng was among them, and his car carried his cousin Zhang Xuhui and Mr. and Mrs. Zhang Qingliang.
The BMW 3 Series was driven by Lin Yumin, with Wu Zhenping and Qin Junchao from Jinyi Industry inside.
Qin Junchao is also from Yicheng, and although Wu Zhenping is from Wuhu, he has settled in Yicheng, with his wife and children there.
Naturally, returning home meant first returning to Yicheng.
Tan Jincheng's car carried Gu Qingqing.
Gu Qingqing would naturally not go home with Tan Jincheng for the New Year.
Even if Tan Jincheng wanted to, Gu Qingqing's parents would not agree.
So this time, Tan Jincheng would make a detour to Yiwu to drop Gu Qingqing home and also meet her parents.
To allow the young couple to talk comfortably, Mr. and Mrs. Zhang Qingliang voluntarily rode in Zhang Xupeng's car and would switch back after dropping Gu Qingqing off in Yiwu.
Everyone had large and small bags.
Especially Tan Jincheng's car was fully packed; there was no room for all the things Mr. and Mrs. Zhang Qingliang wanted to take home, so some had to be put in Zhang Xupeng's car.
"A little nervous, what should I do?"
Tan Jincheng asked Gu Qingqing with a smile.
"You, nervous? I didn't see you look nervous at all on stage yesterday,"
Gu Qingqing also chuckled softly.
In Gu Qingqing's eyes, Tan Jincheng yesterday was sparkling.
His ease on stage before dinner, the lottery segment in the middle, and his speech during the final awarding of outstanding employees all particularly captivated her.
Gu Qingqing had actually rarely seen Tan Jincheng speak in public.
Their interactions were more in daily life and private work settings.
In her view, her older brother was a very low-key person who was quite resistant to such public occasions.
Unexpectedly, although he was low-key, he wasn't stage shy at all.
Six or seven hundred people were seated below, a dense crowd.
She herself would have been intimidated just by looking at them.
"That's different. Yesterday I could talk nonsense, and I didn't care what the people below thought, but today I'm meeting my father-in-law,"
Tan Jincheng sighed with emotion.
"Who's your father-in-law? You don't even know if my dad will acknowledge you,"
Gu Qingqing said, blushing.
Running off to meet a boyfriend so close to New Year, and then having to bring him home when returning.
If it wasn't mentioned, she could pretend not to know, but bringing it up always felt a bit shameful.
"He'll have to acknowledge it anyway. His daughter is already with me. This is called 'strike first, report later,' hehe."
Well, it seemed that was the case.
Ordinary girls at the turn of the century were relatively conservative in that regard.
While it wasn't as extreme as ancient times where intercourse meant marriage, typically, it only happened after firmly committing to the other person.
Before marriage, both men and women were inexperienced; this was not uncommon at all.
It was unclear when male-female relationships became so casual.
Three hours later, Tan Jincheng stopped his car at the entrance of a teahouse near the Yiwu International Trade City.
Zhang Xupeng and Lin Yumin, who were following him, also parked their cars nearby.
"Uncle, should we go in and secretly observe how Xiao Tan meets his father-in-law?"
Zhang Xupeng chuckled towards Zhang Qingliang.
"Stop messing around, let's find a place to eat and wait for him,"
Zhang Qingliang pouted.
If it were an ordinary nephew, Zhang Qingliang wouldn't mind secretly following in to supervise, but this nephew was extraordinary; he had amassed a fortune of over a hundred million before even reaching the legal age for marriage.
He truly didn't dare to fool around with Zhang Xupeng.
Zhang Xupeng looked at his cousin and Lin Yumin and others.
Seeing no one respond, he could only say,
"Alright, then let's find a place to eat and wait for his notification."
Inside the teahouse.
It was also Tan Jincheng's first time meeting Gu Qingqing's parents.
Gu Qingqing had introduced them beforehand: her father, Gu Hongshun, born in 1962, and her mother, Li Jinzhen, also born in the same year, both 44 this year.
They had previously run a factory locally in Yiwu, doing small businesses.
Later, due to demolition, the factory closed.
Now, they mainly live off the 35 stalls in the trade city and dabble in some small businesses to get by.
Father Gu, Gu Hongshun, appeared to be about the same height as Tan Jincheng, with middle-aged weight gain and a beer belly.
However, from his features, one could vaguely discern that he must have been quite handsome in his youth.
Gu Qingqing inherited more of his genes.
Mother Gu, Li Jinzhen, was about 1.6 meters tall, wearing a long down jacket similar to Gu Qingqing's.
Tan Jincheng vaguely remembered these two down jackets, as if they were sold in his own Taobao shop.
"Uncle, Auntie, hello, I apologize for disturbing you on our first meeting,"
Tan Jincheng greeted them humbly yet gracefully.
He also placed the gifts he brought on the table: some cigarettes and alcohol for Gu Hongshun, and a set of imported cosmetics for Li Jinzhen.
They were all common gifts.
Meeting in a teahouse was Tan Jincheng's suggestion.
On one hand, this wasn't a formal meeting, and going directly to their home might be inappropriate.
On the other hand, both parties could communicate better in a neutral environment and avoid being watched by relatives.
"Xiao Tan, right? Qingqing has told me about you. Please sit, please sit,"
Li Jinzhen said with a smile.
Gu Hongshun just stared at Tan Jincheng without speaking.
Any father whose daughter, not yet 20, was "tricked" away by someone would naturally be very displeased.
Being stared at by Gu Hongshun, Tan Jincheng inexplicably thought of that line:
"Old man, is my ghost fire safe parked downstairs from you?"
No, no, can't think about it.
If he kept thinking about it, he'd burst out laughing.
After staring for a while, Gu Hongshun finally spoke,
"Qingqing said you run a factory? I can understand a young man wanting to do business, but why open a factory? It's a very arduous task."
Gu Hongshun certainly knew how Tan Jincheng started.
He initially did foreign trade, and now he's opened a factory.
As for the current scale of Shanchi Technology, he didn't know; in fact, Gu Qingqing couldn't accurately judge how big Shanchi Technology was.
She usually visited the old factory area more often and wasn't very familiar with the new one.
She was even less clear about Shanchi Technology's annual turnover; she only got a glimpse of it at this annual meeting.
Although she had some business acumen, Gu Qingqing was still a student at this time.
Apart from feeling that there were many people, she didn't quite understand what those numbers of people actually meant.
Gu Hongshun had also run a factory before and knew the difficulties involved, but he also clearly understood the benefits of making it big.
The reason he asked was to hear Tan Jincheng's perspective.
This was probably the "father-in-law's" test.
"Running a factory is indeed harder than just doing foreign trade, and earning money is also much more difficult. But the definitions of the two are different. If I were to truly explain it, it's about ideals."
"Ideals? How so?"
Gu Hongshun asked, somewhat puzzled.
"Yes, ideals. I want to build my own career, and I don't have a high degree, so I can only make breakthroughs in the real industry,"
Tan Jincheng nodded.
Li Jinzhen, however, wasn't concerned with these matters.
She interjected,
"Xiao Tan, what do your parents do, and how many people are in your family?"
The questions her husband asked were nonsense.
Her daughter's boyfriend was here; shouldn't they be asking about his family situation?
"My parents are state-owned enterprise workers. Besides me, I also have a younger sister."
"A younger sister? How old is your sister?"
"Uh, my sister is a little over one year old, born in 2004,"
Tan Jincheng said somewhat awkwardly.
The birth of Tan Jinyue was mostly due to his sudden disappearance for several months.
Anyone hearing about an 18-year-younger sister would be very curious and certainly inquire about the reason, which was quite embarrassing for Tan Jincheng to explain himself.
Indeed, as soon as Li Jinzhen heard that Tan Jincheng had a sister who was just over a year old, she became interested and quickly started asking questions.
Li Jinzhen didn't have the same reservations as Gu Hongshun.
In her opinion, Xiao Tan was good-looking, capable, and came from a simple family background, making him a suitable son-in-law.
The only slight drawback was his lower academic qualifications, but education was never the focus in marriage.
Their own family wasn't some scholarly lineage; what was the use of such a high degree?
Rich, capable, handsome, simple family background, and parents with good jobs—Li Jinzhen was very happy for a young man like this to become her son-in-law.
It must be said that looks were quite important.
Coupled with the change in his demeanor over the past six months, Tan Jincheng appeared increasingly gentle and refined.
The first time Li Jinzhen saw Tan Jincheng, she found him very pleasing to the eye.
(End of Chapter)