Abnormal Gourmet Chronicle-Chapter 1031 - 501: Scammer (Part 9)

The knocking at the front door was not heard by the Gong family, but they heard it at the back, and Gong Liang hurriedly ran to the door to open it. Master Jing did not answer Zheng Da's question before that.

Gong Liang quickly welcomed Master Jing inside: "Master Jing, please come in quickly. It's windy outside, don't catch a cold. I just heard from my mom this afternoon that you caught a cold recently."

Master Jing walked in slowly. The two sacks of coconuts that Gong Liang brought back were sitting in the living room. One was only half full, as the nearby neighbors who lived close by had been notified by Gong Liang to come and collect their coconuts, one for each household.

Though not many, since these were rare items that Gong Liang specially brought back from Qiong Province, everyone was excited and it felt like the cheerfulness of receiving goods during the New Year.

Hearing that Master Jing came to see the coconuts, Gong Liang quickly took out a few from the sack and handed them to Master Jing. Master Jing examined them closely and asked, "Xiao Liang, how many will you have left after distributing these coconuts to everyone?"

Gong Liang pointed to another unopened sack: "Those there, that sack is specifically reserved for you, Master Jing, Zheng Da, Huang Shengli, and Mr. Chen. Mr. Chen took two home today; I plan to deliver the rest to him tomorrow. Of course, I'm keeping half a sack for myself to eat."

"Master Jing, do you like eating coconuts? If you really do, I'll give you half a sack!"

Master Jing shook his head with a smile and explained, "I haven't seen coconuts for years, not since decades ago. Isn't tomorrow the Mid-Autumn Festival? I heard you brought back a lot of coconuts and wanted to see what type they are to see if they can be used for making coconut mooncakes."

"Coconut mooncakes?" Gong Liang and Zheng Da said in unison.

"Using coconuts to make coconut fillings and baking mooncakes with fresh coconut filling, they are aromatic and sweet, my aunt loved them," Master Jing said with a hint of nostalgia on his face, "It's been decades since I've made them and I don't know if I can still do it well."

"Of course, you can!" Gong Liang said, starting to lift the sack, intending to take all the coconuts to Master Jing's house, "Feel free to make them. I have a whole sack here! I don't think Zheng Da and Huang Shengli need to eat that many coconuts, and Mr. Chen has enough with two. I ate a lot in Qiong Province, so I don't need any more, right, Zheng Da?"

Zheng Da: ?

"Right!" Zheng Da quickly agreed, "I don't really like eating coconuts, those two I had this afternoon... I just don't like them."

Master Jing laughed, "Alright then, I'll take this sack of coconuts and tomorrow night let's go to the State-owned Restaurant to eat fresh coconut mooncakes."

"Coconut mooncakes can last for a few days. I'll make a bit extra for you, Xiao Liang, you and Mingzhu can have them for breakfast over the next few days."

Even though Gong Liang didn't know what coconut mooncakes tasted like, just hearing Master Jing talk about them made him so happy he couldn't stop smiling.

Without saying a single unnecessary word, Gong Liang started moving coconuts, taking them to the house next door.

That night, Master Jing and Zheng Da worked on processing the coconuts until well past midnight.

Though a sack of coconuts seemed like a lot, when actually processed to make coconut filling, it wasn't much. Despite saying he hadn't seen coconuts for decades and might not be good at it, Master Jing was not rusty at all. He expertly opened the coconuts, and didn't waste a bit when processing the coconut meat and coconut water.

Aside from some coconut meat and water being eaten by Zheng Da while working, the rest were turned into coconut milk, coconut cream, coconut oil, coconut filling, and coconut oil. Even the coconut shells weren't thrown away, piled up in the corner, likely saved to make something fun with later.

The following morning, Gong Liang gnawed on a corn cob as he went to work.

The Silk Factory had a canteen where you could eat using food tickets. Food tickets required food stamps and money to buy, with a monthly quota, and were very cheap due to subsidies.

Because Gong Liang was in sales, often away from local duties, even when not traveling, he was rarely at the factory, choosing instead to work at other plants or in rural areas, so he almost never ate in the canteen. As a result, he would sell his food tickets to colleagues.

Not eating at the canteen had its perks—no need to wake up early, and sales roles didn't require strict office hours. Gong Liang could drop Guo Mingzhu off at the theater troupe before heading to the Silk Factory.

By the time Gong Liang strolled into the Silk Factory, it was already 10 AM. In the sales department, only two people were sitting in the office, and they greeted him warmly. One of them, with a sweet tongue, didn't forget to shower him with compliments, saying Director Gong was impressive for securing such a tough order from Qiong Province.

Smiling and exchanging pleasantries with everyone, Gong Liang headed to his office to drink tea and read the newspaper—not in a slacking-off way. In the past, he focused on factory information in the paper. Now, he paid more attention to changes in foreign places and current policy shifts.

The two salespeople outside were chatting about the dramatic changes in the South over the past few years, saying orders were getting harder to finalize. The state-owned factories they previously partnered with were struggling, and even if a deal was made, payments were delayed, making it almost worthless to negotiate.

While it appeared that Gong Liang had climbed from a low point in life to reach a peak, little did he know that another valley awaited him at the summit.

Qin Huai had heard from Gong Liang that his years as the head of the sales department at the Silk Factory were the last of its glory days. Despite Gong Liang's exceptional ability to secure deal after deal, even foreign exchange deals, to save the precarious Silk Factory temporarily, he wasn't a miracle worker. He was just a salesperson and couldn't single-handedly resurrect the entire factory like a savior.

The Silk Factory was like a tree riddled with wormholes—patching up a few big gaps only helped temporarily. The Silk Factory was ultimately destined to close down, just masking symptoms without addressing the root causes.