CHAPTER 42: CHAPTER 42: ADDING NEW COLORS

Lin Xiang had just stretched lazily when she heard a knock on the door.

"Comrade Lin, are you still asleep?"

"Director Chen, I’m already up," Lin Xiang replied, and Mrs. Lin had already opened the door.

Director Chen stood at the doorway but didn’t come in. He said to Lin Xiang, "I’ve had the chef steam some pork buns and cook some porridge. Let’s grab a bite to eat before we make the call?"

Lin Xiang was still full from the afternoon, but since Director Chen had already arranged everything, she couldn’t refuse and followed him to the canteen.

The pork buns were quite substantial, as big as Lin Xiang’s fist, with thin skin and lots of filling. A single bite filled her mouth with the rich flavor of pork.

Though she wasn’t originally hungry, Lin Xiang ended up eating two buns and a bowl of millet porridge cooked until it released rice oil.

After eating, it was already noon. Director Chen didn’t delay further and took Lin Xiang to his office.

On the way, they escorted Mrs. Lin back to the dormitory.

"Mom, you lay down and take a nap first. I’ll come back to accompany you after the call."

Upon arriving at Director Chen’s office, Lin Xiang discovered that the Township Party Secretary was also present.

Clearly, this order was very important to Mianyang Town.

"Hello, Leader," Lin Xiang greeted first.

The Township Party Secretary chuckled and said, "I heard from Old Chen that you decided to return to school, is that right?"

Lin Xiang nodded, earnestly explaining, "I dropped out halfway due to family issues, but I have always longed for learning. With this opportunity from you, Leader, I will surely cherish it, strive to learn more, and repay the country in the future."

"If all young people in our country had your awareness, how could we not prosper?"

What the Township Party Secretary said was similar to what Director Chen had mentioned in the afternoon.

Lin Xiang couldn’t help but sigh again.

At twelve-thirty, Secretary Wang began to dial the overseas call.

Making an overseas call was complex, requiring several layers of connections.

Although the Township Party Secretary had arranged it in the afternoon, it was midnight now, taking quite some time. Not until after one o’clock did the call to the United States connect.

"Hello, Mr. Wilson, this is Lin Xiang from Mianyang Town’s Cotton Textile Factory. I was your interpreter when you visited the factory the other day."

Wilson remembered Lin Xiang well. She could cook authentic Western food, speak fluent foreign languages, and appeared confident in front of foreign guests, unlike their preconceived notions of people from Hua Country.

In the call, after a brief recollection, Wilson began discussing the order requirements.

Lin Xiang had prepared pen and paper at hand early on. As Wilson spoke, she jotted down everything he said. After he laid out his requirements, Lin Xiang repeated them back to him, and when he confirmed them, the call finally ended.

After putting down the receiver, both Director Chen and the Township Party Secretary couldn’t wait to ask, "Well, do they still want to order the fabrics?"

"Of course," Lin Xiang picked up the paper filled with requirements and started explaining to Director Chen, item by item.

"Firstly, the quantities they ordered last time are insufficient for their needs. They want three times as much for each type, but the quality must not decline; otherwise, they’ll unilaterally terminate the contract."

Director Chen immediately assured with a thump on his chest, "That’s natural. The quality from our Cotton Textile Factory is absolutely top-notch. Defective products don’t even make it to the provincial capital, let alone being sold to foreign buyers!"

Lin Xiang naturally had faith in this; she was merely communicating the foreign buyers’ demands to Director Chen.

Clearing her throat, Lin Xiang continued, "Secondly, they like the material of the existing fabrics, but the color options are too limited. So they requested that each fabric type needs at least three additional colors."

Adding colors wasn’t difficult for the textile factory, but Director Chen was troubled by another issue.

"How can I ensure that the colors I add will be accepted by them? The fabrics they chose are costly. If they don’t like the colors we add, we can’t easily bear the loss of this batch."

From the perspective of the factory’s profitability, this loss was significant but manageable.

However, people from Hua Country inherently disliked waste.

Lin Xiang said, "I’ve discussed this with Mr. Wilson. They’ll be visiting Hua Country again next week, not just to sign a new order with our textile factory but also to explore other fields."

Upon hearing this, the Township Party Secretary eagerly asked, "Other fields? Isn’t Wilson a fabric merchant? What else could he want beyond fabric? Is it something available in Mianyang Town?"

If not, they could start preparing during the time before Wilson’s visit.

If they could secure another order, Mianyang Town would really stand out!

Lin Xiang shook her head, "I’m not quite sure about this. Wilson only implied this but didn’t give specifics. However, I gathered that Wilson isn’t just a fabric merchant. The Wilson Family owns a commercial empire, with interests in various fields, and fabric is just a small part of it."

For now, Lin Xiang also didn’t know what else beyond fabric Wilson was looking for.

To be precise, what could possibly attract Wilson in Luochuan County, or even Ji City?

But for now, the fabric issue was more pressing.

"Therefore, besides producing the existing fabrics, we can first experiment with creating a few new colors. We don’t necessarily have to stick to three. We can dye more colors for them to choose from. If the colors are attractive enough, they might decide to take them all, significantly increasing our order volume, right?"

Director Chen laughed so heartily his jaw nearly dropped. "Right, right, that’s exactly it. I’ll start arranging this matter first thing tomorrow. Comrade Lin, you’ve really done us a big favor here!"

If it weren’t for Lin Xiang’s language skills and her smooth communication with Wilson, the textile factory would surely miss this order, since there was no mutual understanding in language.

Lin Xiang smiled, "Director Chen, you’re too kind. This is just what I should be doing!"

The call ended, and the Township Party Secretary left with Secretary Wang.

He needed to call an urgent meeting to discuss what else in Mianyang Town might attract foreign guests.

When Lin Xiang returned to the dormitory, Mrs. Lin was still sitting on the chair.

As soon as she heard the door, she immediately stood up. Seeing Lin Xiang, she quickly asked, "Girl, did it work out?"

"It’s basically done. We just have to wait for Wilson to come back to Mianyang Town to sign the order."