The food factory’s location was set outside the village. After the decision was made, Tang Shouguo had a few simple buildings constructed. Originally, he had leaned toward building it inside the village, but Song Ye had said, “Waste disposal in the village isn’t easy. It could impact the villagers’ daily lives. If we bring in machinery later, the noise will be loud, and if the factory expands, it’ll be hard to renovate.” That successfully convinced Tang Shouguo.
“My Ah Ye might have been reborn, but he lost his memory.”
Tang Guo muttered to the system. She wasn’t idle either. She helped taste-test the canned goods and often offered useful feedback, which Song Ye appreciated very much.
Now he kept her close every day. Whenever he ran into a tricky problem he couldn’t solve immediately, he’d ask his little wife, and he’d always gain new insight that cleared things up for him.
Song Ye threw himself into building the factory. At first, the villagers were skeptical. Later, when they had free time, they began helping out at the factory, becoming temporary workers. Just being able to get food was enough to make them happy.
At the beginning, it was still tough. Both the environmental conditions and the sale of food products were difficult. The entire Tang family was so busy that their feet barely touched the ground.
But soon, it became clear that Song Ye was a capable man. He managed to get the food into other factories, then to nearby towns, counties, cities, and eventually the provincial capital.
Step by step, through real and steady growth, the food factory that no one had any faith in became a hot commodity. Everyone wanted a piece of it, but it was already too late.
A year later, the country began its reforms. Every household received land, and many of the educated youths took the college entrance exam and left.
Song Ye’s factory expanded even more. It started hiring formal workers, prioritizing villagers from Tangjia Village.
At this point, people elsewhere began trying to copy Song Ye’s model and set up their own factories. But Song Ye had already taken the lead, his brand was widely recognized. When people bought food or gift boxes for the holidays, they always looked for the label with the character “Tang.”
The factory’s name was simple: Tang’s. Its distinctive logo was the character for sugar.
Many people were curious why the logo was “sugar.” Song Ye never explained it to anyone, but Tang Guo had asked.
The answer he gave was, “Guo Guo’s smile is so sweet, sweeter than sugar.”
After hearing that, Tang Guo felt somewhat overwhelmed by the sweetness.
Factory Director Song’s love talk really was different from everyone else’s.
The food factory was no longer just a few rough buildings. They’d applied for a proper construction site, and they already had a modern-style model in place.
During this time, with the country pushing economic growth, it was the best opportunity to rise.
After the food factory got on track, Song Ye proposed leasing the nearby hills to plant mountain specialties and fruit trees, and to sell what they grew directly. At the same time, he opened a chicken farm.
The whole Tang family was extremely busy, and so were the villagers. Now, wherever Song Ye pointed, they followed. In short, as long as you stuck with Factory Director Song, there’d definitely be meat to eat.
Educated Youth Song, now Factory Director Song, always put the villagers first when it came to benefits, then considered the neighboring villages. In fact, in the village, his words carried even more weight than Tang Shouguo’s.
The villagers were all formal employees of the food factory. Most of the others were temps. It wasn’t until the factory expanded and needed people skilled in farming and animal husbandry that another round of formal workers were brought in.
Thanks to Song Ye and Tangjia Village, the town head’s performance these past two years was exceptional. He earned praise from higher up and was promoted to county magistrate. Tang Shouguo was no longer the village head of Tangjia Village. He took over as the town head of Dan Town and became a close aide to the county magistrate.
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