Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

Chapter 157: Chapter 146: Orange Factory No. 2, FoxTao’s Final Pay Raise

The next morning, in the Orange Factory dormitories.

Brother Zhu’s eyes were heavy with sleep. Hearing a commotion, he forced them open. The clock read 8:20 AM. He shot out of bed on pure reflex, grabbing his toothbrush cup and rushing toward the washroom.

”Brother Zhu, it’s our day off. What are you doing up so early?”

A coworker lying in bed playing on his phone asked curiously, seeing his frantic hurry.

Li Yunzhu stopped dead in the doorway. Only then did he remember that after seven straight days of overtime, his team leader had forced him to take a day off.

”Fuck! I was half-asleep. Thought I was still at the Big Strawberry factory. What were you guys just chattering about?”

Li Yunzhu slapped his forehead as realization dawned.

The Big Strawberry factory was his previous job, a place where he’d just tightened screws. The pay was 10 yuan an hour, and the overtime rate—whether on a weekday or a weekend—was also just 10 yuan.

If you wanted to make 5,000 yuan a month there, you really had to work yourself to death.

”Talking about our pay, of course. Damn, they paid us on the 1st of the month! This boss deserves to make a fortune!” the coworker praised, with a hint of a curse.

Li Yunzhu turned back to his bed, put down his toothbrush cup, and picked up his ”Big Pineapple” knockoff phone to check his messages.

Sure enough, there was an unread message from 8:05 AM: ”Your account ending in 4178 was credited with 5,136.40 yuan at 08:05 on September 1. Your new balance is 42,846.70 yuan.”

After deducting social insurance and housing fund contributions, his take-home pay was just over five thousand.

He had worked 27 days last month with only 4 days off. Still, earning this 5,000 yuan felt much easier than at the Big Strawberry factory.

Under Big Strawberry’s pay structure, Li Yunzhu would have had to work 18 hours a day to make that much.

”Brother Zhu, how much did you get last month?” his coworker asked with a smile, seeing him staring at the text message.

”Not much. Less than ten thousand, anyway,” Li Yunzhu said with a small smile, not telling the whole truth as he slipped the phone into his pocket.

To be honest, the pay at Orange Factory was only about a thousand yuan more than at other factories, but the workload was nearly half as much.

After hanging around the dorm for a bit, the group of young men decided to head into the city.

They used to work 16-hour days and had absolutely no energy to go out. Now that their hours were shorter, they were gradually regaining their youthful vitality.

Li Yunzhu and his friends walked out, chatting and laughing.

In front of the main gate of the Orange Factory, a long line of people was still waiting for interviews.

”Brother Zhu, didn’t they say the second round of hiring was over? Why are there still people here for interviews?”

One of the coworkers asked, scratching his crotch in confusion.

”The big boss probably wants to expand production capacity. I heard our factory’s phones have sold over two million units, but we only shipped 400,000 last month. With just us, how long will customers have to wait for their phones?”

Li Yunzhu’s mind was quick and he was a smooth talker. He often tried to get friendly with the team leader, so he was a bit more in-the-know than the average worker.

”That’s true! The more we sell, the better. It means our jobs are secure.”

Assembly line workers like them feared a lack of orders even more than the boss did. No orders meant the machines would stop, and they wouldn’t make any money.

...

...

Chen Yansen sat on the sofa and summoned his system panel.

He had 1,947 wisps of Human Dao Fire from August, plus the 19 wisps left over from July, for a total of 1,963.

After synthesizing 19 wisps of Divine Dao Fire, he allocated them all to his Spirit attribute.

A familiar sensation washed over him, making Chen Yansen feel as relaxed as if he were soaking in a hot spring. The burning feeling in his brain was completely gone.

These last few attribute increases had left him feeling increasingly refreshed and invigorated.

Looking at his Spirit value, which had now become 10.49, Chen Yansen sighed. ’The rate of improvement is too slow.’

Although Orange Technology had expanded from over 60 people to 200, and the factory had hired another 600, the rate at which he acquired Human Dao Fire was still not ideal.

’This is the first time in my life I’ve ever thought low labor costs aren’t a good thing.’