Chapter 115: The Change in an Instant

Who could have imagined that among the vast army of reborn souls, Rang Weidong would end up returning to sell sanitary napkins?

He had clearly intended to sell airplanes.

Yet, in this era, there was no such thing as "feminism" in the modern sense; rather, it was a time when women truly held up half the sky. Their efficiency and capability often surpassed that of the men.

Once Rang Weidong finally took out the sample he had been concealing after the meeting, the female cadres present immediately sprang into action with ruthless efficiency, pushing for the factory to be established.

Every obstacle was smoothed away as easily as a hot knife through butter. Whenever any step required a woman’s touch, a quick whisper in an ear was all it took to get it done. With the female leadership of the Bureau of Industry and Commerce present, converting the Dongsheng Leather Shoe Company to produce sanitary napkins was hardly a complex problem.

Construction and production planning began immediately. When Rang Weidong mentioned that his current funds were only enough to cover a few machines and a small amount of raw materials, the female bank official immediately patted her chest and promised loan support. In fact, the machine was still sitting in the truck bed, and everyone swarmed around to examine it.

Based on the university situation Qin Jianjun had described to him, Jiang University—which boasted the most complete mechanical and electrical research facilities—took on the heavy burden of technical support. They immediately allocated a two-story building on the edge of the campus back gate to serve as the initial "university-run factory."

The bank provided full loan support to the Dongsheng Company, tasking the university with replicating this "assembled" single-process molding machine, which was actually not that complex. The good news was that the machine appeared to have been built by an Indonesian manufacturer, and all its components could be sourced within Jiangzhou.

The difficulty lay in the raw materials. The three rolls of "sample fabric" became the critical focus. Setting aside the complex details of the composite material, the main structure consisted of two layers of non-woven fabric sandwiching medicinal cotton. The key was that this non-woven fabric was a polyester fiber derivative—a petrochemical product that the country still relied primarily on imports to obtain.

Even a simple daily necessity like this could not be self-sufficient. That was the reality of the eighties. Of course, this was because all the raw materials and the design of the imported product were centered around foreign technology. For the domestic market, it was a blank slate.

Hearing this, Rang Weidong instinctively took the lead: "Can we find substitutes first? Could something like gauze work?"

The covered truck bed was like a research lab, crowded with older women chattering away. The male cadres were too embarrassed to squeeze in and join the discussion. Rang Weidong was forced to stand there, as they kept firing questions at him. Clearly, he was the only one with actual, close-range experience in using the product.

At the sound of this, the truck bed went silent. The "women’s army" glared at the only man present, nearly beating the CEO of the sanitary napkin company to a pulp on the spot. The Women’s Federation director even gestured toward Shen Cuiyue: "You have gauze wrapped on your hand, don’t you? Come, take it off and let Comrade Rang strip off his trousers so he can feel what it’s like to be bruised!"

The women in these units were just that fierce. The young girl from the dock feigned deafness, blinking her eyes and quietly shuffling toward the back of the truck, clearly intending to bolt if anyone actually tried to take her bandages off.

Everyone burst into laughter, but they kept Rang Weidong trapped there to receive an education from the "half of the sky," demanding that he bring the product to market as soon as possible. A female cadre from the Industrial Bureau recalled, "Didn’t the neighboring county just finish building the largest chemical fiber base in the country? Contact them; we must overcome this hurdle!"

The women’s army cheered, and someone immediately went off to make the call. If not for the fear that his seventy thousand yuan would be squandered and the machine stolen to "make a wedding dress for someone else," Rang Weidong would have long since played the part of the hands-off manager and left; his eardrums were being rattled to numbness.

At noon, he treated the relevant cadres to a meal of bean curd rice in the streets near the auditorium. For about thirty or fifty yuan, all the procedures, licenses, qualifications, and loans were basically settled; all that remained was to go and handle the paperwork one by one. Everyone exchanged phone numbers, demanding that things be finalized as soon as possible.

Shen Cuiyue diligently recorded everything and presented Rang Weidong’s business cards with both hands. Consequently, her mask, the gauze bandage on her left hand, and her brand-new suit finally caught the attention of the female cadres, who asked if she had been injured while testing the machinery. The Women’s Federation cadres even stood up for her, criticizing Rang Weidong for failing to take proper care of the women in his unit. The girl from the docks, who had never experienced the rights of women in the new society, was a bit stunned.

Rang Weidong, of course, was sensible enough to say that he would hire more female workers at the factory and would send the first batch of products to the leaders for inspection. The older sisters all agreed that "Little Rang" was a good lad and offered to introduce him to the young girls at their units.

"Little Rang" naturally handed this over to the girl from the docks, who had never dealt with the government before, to see if she could be completely assimilated into the system during this process. In a sense, it was a form of reform.

After lunch, the truck took the professors from Jiang University and the female section chief from the Light Industry Bureau to the university back gate to confirm the temporary factory site. They would start operations there, and once the scale was established and sales were smooth, the Dongsheng Daily Necessities Company would relocate. Another older sister patted her chest, promising that industrial land would be absolutely no problem.

A group of college students, led by their teachers and leaders, waited there, working together to move the machine down and immediately beginning reverse-engineering and drafting schematics. The chemistry and textile majors took samples of the existing raw materials for testing and analysis. There was no talk of the bad habit of "payment"—this was a task assigned by their superiors, and it had to be accomplished with a spirit of conquering the heavens and the earth. They were even more delighted to be able to study foreign advanced automated equipment design and new material research.

Universities in the eighties were just that earnest. There was fiery passion everywhere.

In the afternoon, experts from several cotton mills and textile stations in the city were summoned by the authorities to exchange views and confirm the details. In truth, the biggest difficulty was indeed the non-woven fabric, which was, in a sense, a type of "plastic." Once the machine took the material in, the process of cutting it into sheets involved a metal guillotine that pressed and pierced the edges at high temperatures. Much like perforating a stamp, the high heat melted the two layers of non-woven fabric together to seal them. It was essentially sewn along the edge, resulting in a finished product.

Everyone marveled at the brilliance of the imported equipment while working together to find a solution. Finally, they decided to try replacing it with various pure cotton textiles. As the largest cotton textile industrial base in the Southwest, they had their own industrial foundation in this regard. Pure cotton textiles could barely bond under high heat; besides, this stuff wasn't meant to be used for long. As for the filler, it was the simplest part, with countless alternatives; the only challenge was to ensure it could be rolled and fed into the machine.

They aimed to start trial production within a week, and if it proved successful, they would add equipment one by one. The Dongsheng Company only needed to pay the bills; if funds were short, they would provide loans. How much Rang Weidong spent was his own business, and the loans were basically interest-free—all green lights were turned on! Furthermore, the authorities had absolutely no intention of asking for shares. Conversely, if things went south, Rang Weidong would have to bear the consequences himself. Everyone within the system stayed precisely within their jurisdiction, not daring to cross the line. At the very least, no one wanted to abandon their "iron rice bowl" to work at this company.

Rang Weidong and Shen Cuiyue stood in the empty "factory," watching everyone work with such enthusiasm that there was nothing left for them to do. Eventually, they rented an empty room by the roadside outside the back gate for twenty yuan a month. Later, they could send a few hands to assist Shen Cuiyue in opening a spicy hotpot stall and watching over the workshop.

Rang Weidong was still relatively clear-headed: "As long as we secure the materials, this machine can churn out hundreds or thousands of pieces a day if it runs non-stop. The key is how to sell them... but looking at this momentum, selling doesn't seem to be a problem either. I just bought a machine, and everyone else is doing all the work?"

Shen Cuiyue looked at him with full admiration: "You are like those figures the old folks talk about from before the Republic, who brought in foreign machinery. I will keep a close eye on all of this."

Rang Weidong gave her careful instructions: "I'll leave you a thousand yuan here. Try to take charge of all the affairs. Don't borrow money if you can help it; wait until you need a large expenditure. Once this business is on the road, it will be very profitable. It will be a major source of income for us, and you will truly become a respected businesswoman—you won't have to hide yourself away like this anymore."

Shen Cuiyue gave a series of respectful, detailed nods.

After seeing the man off in his truck, she quietly took off her mask. Her features, which had seemed plain and unremarkable, suddenly became captivating and vivid with just a flicker of her eyes! And that was without her using her "secret weapons." A face like this, so prone to bewitching others, was best kept covered in daily life.

Rang Weidong went back to arrange for Gou Dan to procure supplies and staff, planning to drop them off that evening. He himself took the Sichuan cuisine seasoning recipes Shen Cuiyue had prepared for him and caught a boat back to Shangzhou overnight. He had been delayed for another day, and the pig offal over there must have been piling up.

Sure enough, the next morning, as he disembarked at the pier, he was greeted by everyone: "Brother Rang, your machine arrived yesterday! We moved it over for you!"

"Dongzi, you’ve been out for so many days, did everything go smoothly?"

"Sister Dong said you were opening a factory. Do you need hands? Can I go and work as a laborer?"

It was evident that he had become someone of importance. Rang Weidong just laughed and said he would wait until he figured out what was going on.

There were no phones, but Dong Xueying had heard the news as if by magic. She stood at the street corner above the riverside steps, holding their child and waiting. Mao’er stood silently in front of her, making the young mother look all the more like a devoted wife waiting for her husband, weathering the storms of life with their children.

The heavy, silent mood Rang Weidong had felt on the boat seemed to be ironed out the moment he looked up and saw her. He walked over with a smile, took the child, reached out to pat Mao’er’s head, and handed over a plastic bag. Then, he suddenly leaned in and kissed the child's mother on the cheek.

Dong Xueying truly froze, but she didn't dodge.

He heard a roar of cheers and catcalls from the surrounding crowd, but she didn't move. After several seconds, she slowly untied her apron, helped Rang Weidong brush off the dust that wasn't really there, and they got into the car together. Such public displays of affection, usually only seen in movies and television, were truly shocking in such a secluded place.

Rang Weidong didn't go back; he drove directly to the pig slaughterhouse. Stone was said to be watching the slaughter every day, and helping the wife of the young policeman Ding Haifeng run errands on the side.

The rented factory was an old kiln, not far from the slaughterhouse. Behind a row of single-story houses along the road was a drying yard that could be filled with clay jars and bricks. They could fetch water from the small river nearby, and because it was several dozen meters upstream from the slaughterhouse, it wasn't too foul. The main attraction was the earthen kiln; it seemed convenient enough to set up a few large pots for boiling offal, even if they weren't firing bricks or jars.

Ding Haifeng's wife, whose surname was Li, was several years older than Rang Weidong and was a very meticulous and quiet person: "I’ve been so anxious with everything just sitting empty like this every day."

Rang Weidong smiled and handed her a few recipes he had reorganized on the boat the night before. He had written down the raw materials, ingredient preparation, cooking methods, and post-processing separately: "Start by buying a small amount according to these. Both of our families will do some test runs to see if they taste good. If it really doesn't work, we'll have to invite a master chef to Shangzhou to teach us step-by-step."

Dong Xueying held their daughter and listened to him talk about "both families." She didn't say a word, just smiled as they said their goodbyes.

As they drove, Stone chattered excitedly about his experiences over the past few days—that Brother Hammer was skilled in kung fu, and if he became familiar with him later, could he be allowed to practice in the slaughterhouse? Was Third Sister doing well? He missed her a bit... Mao’er remained sitting in a meditative posture.

Rang Weidong drove around the ferry terminal by the river and crossed to the machinery factory. He didn't even get to speak to Dong Xueying; Stone was doing all the talking. But in the summer cabin, the air conditioning released a comfortable chill. Rang Weidong held the familiar steering wheel and, glancing sideways, saw the young mother looking at him gently as she held their child.

Dong Xueying also keenly sensed that the man had changed.