Spring Breeze Twenty Years

Chapter 107 Contracting

Sister Li nodded and said, "I knew it, I've never seen you before. By the way, is everything arranged? How do you make the sign?"

Xia Maosheng said, "The first floor is the reception area, the admissions office, and all the offices are here. Over there are the practice classrooms, where equipment is stored, etc. The classrooms for each class and the teachers' dormitories are on the second floor. The third floor is the student dormitories and storage rooms. Isn't this a good arrangement?"

Sister Li said, "As long as you have a plan, that's fine. I don't know much about this area either. Just do it according to your requirements. I'll arrange for the sign to be made and installed for you."

Xiao Wei said, "Sister Li, quite a few doors and windows are broken. How do we fix them?" Several door and window frames had fallen off.

Sister Li said, "This needs to be handled by the municipal government. I'll look for it myself; you don't know them anyway. What else is there? Let's talk about it all at once."

Xia Maosheng said, "We still need to get desks, chairs, and a blackboard. Can you do that?"

Sister Li said, "The director didn't say. I'll go back and ask. I don't know how things are arranged here either. I'll ask. I've been so busy today and haven't been able to get things sorted out."

Xia Maosheng said, "Okay, thank you for your trouble, Sister Li. You guys pack up first, we're going out to take care of some things."

Li Zu agreed, and Xia Maosheng pulled Xiao Wei out of the building and outside. Once outside, Xia Maosheng whispered, "Let's go find Uncle Wang again, the restaurant can reopen."

Xiao Wei asked, "How do I drive it?"

Xia Maosheng pulled him along, saying, "You're so silly. It's a contract. This is a contract. Look, they've come and taken care of everything. It's the same with that restaurant. Let them take care of everything, and we'll just pay a contract fee."

Xiao Wei asked, "Will it work?"

Xia Maosheng chuckled and whispered, "Let's discuss it. If it doesn't work out, we won't lose out. If all else fails, we can just let them have a share. Anyway, we won't lose anything if we don't do it."

Xiao Wei thought about it and realized it made sense. The key was that it could be done without any investment; even if it lost money, it would just be a contract fee, which could be considered tuition. He nodded and said, "Okay, let's go then."

The two of them walked excitedly toward the Labor Bureau.

Actually, the term "contracting" was a hot topic throughout Northeast China in the early 90s, and it would definitely have topped the trending search list.

At that time, the market economy in Northeast China had just been fully liberalized, and more and more private businesses were starting up, leading to a surge in demand. However, society was still undergoing a transformation, and most resources were in the hands of state-owned enterprises, so contracting began. From small shops and restaurants to large factories and enterprises, there was nothing that couldn't be contracted out.

In reality, these commercial entities were essentially useless to government agencies back then. They were generally built to create jobs or develop the tertiary sector. Employees went to work and received wages, so they had no enthusiasm for running a business or any service attitude. They just coasted through each day, basically losing money to support people.

Back then, contracting meant being responsible for supporting the company's workforce. There was no contract fee, but you had to guarantee a certain number of employees and their salaries. As long as you paid the salaries on time, that was it. No one would ask you for any money you earned; it was all yours.

Actually, the wages of tertiary industry workers weren't high back then. A person would only earn one or two hundred yuan a month, with a little over three hundred for the higher-paid ones. A small restaurant usually had five or six people, earning around one thousand yuan a month, and they couldn't be laid off. At that time, many private companies would hire new people after taking over the business, and these original employees would just come to collect their wages on the designated day.

Moreover, most of the contractors are employees of the same company, and everyone knows each other, so the work won't be like it was when we were just working.

There were also those who rented out their properties without any management involvement. For example, some neighborhood offices had spare rooms, and seeing how bustling the market was, they would rent out a room, turn it into a restaurant, and then rent it out without any management involvement. The rent was split among everyone, and everyone was happy.

In the early 90s, the most popular businesses were restaurants, followed by clothing stores, and then vegetable vendors. Don't underestimate vegetable vendors; back then, the annual income of one vegetable stall was equivalent to that of several state-owned workers.

Even the shoe shiners on the roadside earned more than the general public; it was an era where gold was everywhere.

……

Xiao Wei and Xia Maosheng ran to the Labor Bureau and went straight to the director's office on the third floor.

The office was empty, the door was open, and two people went in and sat down to wait.

About twenty minutes later, Director Wang walked in with a document. Seeing the two of them sitting in the room, he smiled and asked, "Who came? Weren't you tidying up over there? What's up?"

Xia Maosheng glanced at Xiao Wei and said to Director Wang, "Uncle, the people you called over there are tidying up. There's not much we can do there, so we came over to ask what to do with the tables, chairs, blackboard, and the bed."

Director Wang placed the documents on the table, stood there tapping the desk with his fingers for a while, and said, "Since it's a vocational education center run by us, it's definitely a government-funded project. You just need to focus on running the school well and achieving good results. I'll handle things here, okay? What do you need, and how much? Just report it to the office. Do you know Xiao Li? Go find her."

Xia Maosheng nodded and said, "Uncle, there's something else. We're mainly running this chef training program, right? I was thinking, could we just open a restaurant? First, it would bring in more income, and second, the students would have an internship base. Otherwise, we'd have to spend money to find a place outside, which is troublesome and unstable. What do you think, Uncle?"

Director Wang lit a cigarette, leaned against his desk, shook his head in thought for a while, and asked, "Opening a restaurant? Is there enough space?"

Xia Maosheng said, "There will definitely be enough space. We'll move the office to the second floor, partition off the first floor and open a separate door, and build the kitchen in the yard."

Director Wang nodded, thought for a moment, and said, "Let me make a call."

He sat down behind his desk, picked up the phone, dialed, and waited a few seconds before the call connected: "Hey? Old Liu? Oh, it's me, Old Wang. Um, I have a question for you. I remember you used to run a restaurant downstairs, didn't you? Oh, where was it? Oh, I see, I've never been there. Is it still open? What happened? Losing money? Heh, you've got a lot of people to support, haven't you? I understand. So what are you doing now? Closed down? Paying half the salaries? Oh, I see. How big was the restaurant? Three floors? I remember it was a standalone building, right? Yes, yes, I went to see it when it was being built."

How many permanent employees are there now? Five? Six? Oh, not counting drivers. You can't assign drivers anywhere else.

How much do these five people earn a month? How much? A little over 1300? Not bad, not much. Are these people capable of doing the work? Oh, and there's one professional too, that's good.

Hey, my nephew's looking for some work, and that's how I remembered you. Yeah, he studied cooking and wants to open a small restaurant, so he came to me. Haha, what do you say? Let's lease it out. How much? I'm not paying you a cent. Five people's wages, that's all. How much are you offering? Anyway, not less than what you're doing now, okay?

Okay, okay, since you've come to me, I'll definitely handle it. How about we agree on this then? Alright, come over tomorrow, I'll sign it for you and get the contracting paperwork done while I'm at it. Um, make sure you have all the stuff ready. If we can start operating immediately, I don't care where you get it. Where's your old stuff? It's not much money anyway, it'll all be yours in the end. Alright, alright, that's settled then, come over tomorrow at noon. See?"

After hanging up the phone, Director Wang looked up at Xia Maosheng and said, "Alright, no need to set up anything new here. The construction company has a ready-made one, right next to the farmers' market behind here, not far. It's a three-story detached building, and it's always been a restaurant. Come over tomorrow at noon to sign the contract and take it over. You'll cover the salaries of five people, and the total monthly salary shouldn't be less than 1,300. You can decide on the staff; if they're not suitable, they don't have to be. Is that okay?"

Xia Maosheng looked at Xiaowei, who nodded. Xia Maosheng said, "Okay, then I'll head over first. We'll come back tomorrow at noon."

Director Wang nodded and said, "Okay, go back and get on with that. I have a meeting coming up soon."

The two went downstairs, and as soon as they stepped out of the building, Xia Maosheng excitedly asked Xiao Wei, "Is this working?"

Xiao Wei nodded and said, "Okay, let's go take a look tomorrow and get it started as soon as possible."

Xia Maosheng said, "Okay."