Chapter 80: A Beautiful Life Begins with Toilet Paper

After some inquiries, Li Xian learned that the batch of toilet paper Zhou Jun was transporting was destined for Tielin County. This morning, two wholesale departments in Tielin County had already called to place orders.

Hearing this news, Li Xian was overjoyed. He immediately canceled his plan to waste time in the county and turned the car around to return to the paper factory.

At that moment, in the sales office of the paper factory, Chen Shulin was on the phone.

"Okay, okay, Xingwang Wholesale Department, 200 bales, I've noted it down. I'll arrange for someone to send it over immediately!"

When Li Xian entered the room, Chen Shulin had a somewhat complicated expression. After exchanging a few pleasantries on the phone, he hung up.

"How's it going?"

As soon as he put down the phone, Li Xian immediately asked.

Chen Shulin pointed to the ledger on the desk, "It's crazy! When there were no orders, there were no orders. Now that there are orders, they all came at once."

The multi-copy ledger already had more than ten pages written on it. Li Xian picked it up and, seeing it, felt relieved; all the wholesale departments and supply and marketing cooperatives he had contacted before had placed orders—Bongye Bureau, the county, Beilin City, Tielin, Hailin…

Chen Shulin used an abacus, which Li Xian didn't know how to use. However, just roughly calculating the shipping volume from the ledger, they had already shipped over 2,000 bales in just one morning. Each bale contains twelve rolls, weighing 2.2 kilograms. In less than half a day, that's a sales volume of five tons!

Based on the current cost and profit margins for the rolls, the profit for one ton of rolls is 195 yuan. From this batch alone, 1,000 yuan had already been made. Looking at the thick stack of invoices, Li Xian was incredibly excited.

Previously, whether it was trading aluminum ingots or doing renovations, even though he made money, he never took it seriously. Those were just short-term investments, or even speculations, without any solid foundation.

But the paper factory was different.

With the advantage of the vast resources of the Xing'an Mountains and the growing market, Li Xian saw it as a serious business.

Now that the paper factory's profitability was becoming evident, he felt like jumping up and shouting Hallelujah!

"Old Chen, keep an eye on things here. I need to check the workshop!"

"What for?"

"Zhang Dagong switched the workshop from two shifts to one shift yesterday. With the current shipment volume, can one shift handle it!?"

...

While Li Xian was busy arranging for increased production at the factory, a trend triggered by toilet paper was unfolding in Bongye and surrounding areas.

In Bongye County, Liu Jun, a worker from a window and door factory, found himself in a heated argument with his wife:

"You spend money on free paper and that's fine. But why buy such expensive stuff? Two yuan a bale—what else could that money be used for?"

Seeing his wife bring back two bales of toilet paper, Liu Jun, whose monthly salary was only 120 yuan, was pained.

Before this, Liu Jun's family had used glass packaging paper from the factory for hand-wiping. It was thick, absorbent paper used to protect glass during shipping. However, the paper often came with glass shards, causing several mishaps.

His wife, Ma Ling, who had been in good spirits, immediately retorted, "Liu Jun, what's the problem with buying two bales of paper? I've followed you and don't live in a big house or drive a small car. I have to check if there are glass shards in the paper I use to wipe—what kind of life is that? Huh? Who lives like that? Now you complain about me buying two bales of paper. You smoke two or three packs a month—why don't you count that? And your mother…"

"Dad, I think the new paper feels really nice."

Little Liu, who was licking an ice pop, also chimed in.

Seeing his wife and son siding against him, Liu Jun was infuriated.

"Old folks used to say it's easy to go from frugality to luxury but hard to go from luxury to frugality. That's no lie! Damn it, I should never have let you go for that free paper! That heartless paper factory is clearly setting a trap for the common people!"

...

In Hailin, near the public restroom of a kindergarten.

After squatting for more than ten minutes, kindergarten teacher Ni Lili thought the topic in the restroom was a bit off.

Nearby were the offices of various units, and since everyone worked in the same circle, comparing was common.

Although the gossiping was frequent, restroom conversations were usually quite harmonious. After all, everyone was lined up, and there were no major comparisons to be made in such a setting.

But today, the topic had shifted to paper!

Looking at Yan Damin, who was red-faced and holding a newspaper in the adjacent stall, Liu Xiaoxiang from the Animal Husbandry Bureau cleared her throat and said, "Oh, Sister Yan, still using newspaper? How uncomfortable!"

Yan Damin, struggling, glared at Liu Xiaoxiang and stammered, "Well… if not newspaper, what else would I use? Do you use silk at home?"

Liu Xiaoxiang smirked, "Silk is too thin; even if given for free, I wouldn't use it."

She then took out a neatly folded, white, high-quality roll of Sina Toilet Paper from her pocket.

Yan Damin had also received a roll of this paper recently but had only used it to wipe an elderly family member's mouth.

Seeing the paper, Liu Xiaoxiang made a face and, with a grin, offered a piece, "Here, I brought extra today. You're too meticulous. It's just a bale of paper, not something rare. Your husband's salary is over 200 yuan a month; is this little bit of paper money a problem? The TV says we should pursue a better quality of life now. Anyway, I'm done here."

With that, she ceremoniously used the square paper to wipe and walked away.

Seeing her strut off, Yan Damin spat in disgust, "Pah! It's just two yuan a bale. Who can't afford it? Look at her showing off!"

Infuriated, she felt a surge of anger in her belly. Shortly after, a loud sound echoed in the restroom.

The next day, in the same restroom, in the same stall.

Ni Lili had just squatted down when she saw Yan Damin, now holding a snowy-white roll of toilet paper and excitedly discussing its merits with a colleague.

She sighed.

How did the restroom become a battlefield?

Maybe I should also buy some tomorrow?

She glanced at the student assignments in her hand and thought about it.

...

The Sina Paper Factory was now a hive of activity.

Just a month ago, the factory was desolate, but now it was bustling. Trucks bringing in materials and vehicles transporting paper were constantly moving between the factory gates, and the noise from the machines was deafening.

The air was filled with the faint smell of wood pulp, mixed with the sounds of workers unloading, bringing endless vitality to the factory.

With the two-shift, sixteen-hour work system, the factory's maximum production capacity was about seven tons of paper per day.

However, for two consecutive days, the factory's shipment volume had reached an astonishing 22 tons. The phone in the sales office had been ringing non-stop since morning, and production was struggling to keep up with the demand.

Li Xian had to instruct Zhang Dagong to add two hours to each shift, creating four extra hours of production time to meet the surging demand for toilet paper.

Standing at the workshop entrance with Zhang Dagong, watching the workers busy at their tasks, Li Xian was overjoyed.

"Back in the day, when my team first started, we had just a dozen people and seven or eight guns…"

He hummed a poorly sung tune from "Sha Jia Bang" that he had heard in the rest house, reveling in his success.