Chapter 62: Black and White

  "Hurry up and put away the needle and thread, tidy up." Ning Qingming said, "Whoosh" sound opened the drawer, hastily took out the black oil-based marker used to write addresses on packaging boxes. With her left hand twisting the buttons of her clothes, her right hand held the pen and heavily applied it to the white line. Just once, the white line was dyed black, looked at it from front and back, no trace remained, quickly folded up.

  Just as he finished, a customer's voice was heard at the door, and Ning Qing hurried out to greet him.

  The customer was picky, but this time they couldn't find any fault, and the order was successfully placed. After seeing off the customer, Ning Qingming collapsed onto the sofa, unmoving, clutching at his chest and saying: "If I have to go through a few more situations like this, I'll be dead for sure, and even the doctor won't be able to find the cause of death."

  "Haha, boss, you're really able to turn something rotten into something magical. I was just thinking that this time it's definitely not going to work out, and all the effort of modifying the sample so many times would be a waste. But unexpectedly, boss, you were still able to revive it at the last minute!" Zhang Yu looked on in admiration, "I never would have thought of using the box head pen to paint the white line black."

  Ning Qingmin couldn't help but laugh, it seemed that her own potential was limitless! On the one hand, she picked up her phone and dialed the factory's number, reporting the problem with the sample she had just received, where one of the buttons was actually sewn on with white thread.

  "Sorry, boss. This is really embarrassing. Last night you called to rush it, and when we were sewing the last button, unexpectedly, the workshop ran out of black thread. We had someone hurry over with some thread, but we were afraid that the delivery truck wouldn't wait for us, so we had no choice but to use white thread to sew it temporarily. I was just thinking of calling you to tell your people to take it apart and re-sew it with black thread..." The factory's pattern-making department's Shi Bo explained, "I just tried calling your side, but it's all busy signals."

  "Oh, we just received a fax." Ning Qing listened to the explanation and told the thrilling story that had just happened. The person on the other end, Shi Bo, was shocked and said: "Boss Ning is really clever, it's all my fault for not telling you about this earlier when I was busy with other things in the morning."

  Put down the phone, Ning Qingmin sorted out the order, remembered the important things, took a deep breath, and felt a bit dizzy.

  "Xiao Yu, take out that jar of coffee the client sent last time and brew two cups. Give me one to refresh myself. I'm exhausted lately." Ning Qingming told Zhang Yuxian to lock up the office building's door, closed her eyes on the sofa to rest, and instructed: "After getting this big order, we didn't lose any deposit. If I'm not around, don't take small orders with deposits less than 30%. In a few days, there will be new samples coming over, first take pictures and upload them to the computer for regular customers to see before putting them up."

  Zhang Yu nodded and busied himself making coffee, asking, "Boss, are you really going to accompany your wife and aunt to watch 'Food Heaven' tonight? Aren't you afraid of being too tired? Don't you have class tomorrow and need to hurry back to school at night?"

  "After watching, I rushed back to school and let them take a taxi home. Ning Qingmin rubbed her temples, having slept little in recent days, she was indeed a bit tired, but no matter what, she had to make time for her grandmother and mother."

  Zhang Yu said, pouring a cup of coffee in front of Ning Qingmian on the tea table. Ning Qingmian took a sip and said: "The aroma smells very authentic! It's indeed from abroad."

  Zhang Yu looked at the coffee in his cup. Suddenly, he burst out laughing and said: "Boss, do you still remember how we got our first order from Saudi customers?"

  Ning Qingmin also laughed and said: "I remember. The first order left a deep impression on me! At that time, the Saudi customer said that black must be pure black, white must be pure white, and coffee must be pure coffee. It shocked us."

  "Haha!" Zhang Yu took a sip of coffee and said: "At that time, I heard that coffee colors are divided into deep, light, and medium. I was still muttering to myself. When she said there's also pure coffee, I almost fainted. Luckily, later on, the color card was made. It really is just like the coffee we're drinking now - authentic pure coffee."

  Ning Qingmin smiled and took a sip of coffee. Putting it down, she said: "At that time, I heard about black and white, the two basic colors, and many other shades. I was almost blinded! Now, looking at color cards all day, I finally understand that colors are truly diverse. Black has several kinds of black, and white indeed has many kinds of white. It's not as simple as I thought before." Just like a good person sometimes has a bit of a bad heart, a bad person sometimes hasn't completely lost their conscience. So-called clear-cut distinctions between good and evil are only relative. Sometimes, what appears to be black is not purely black, and what appears to be white is not purely white.

  Two people finished drinking coffee. There were porters outside knocking on the door, saying that the goods had arrived. Zhang Yu hurried to open the door and turned back to Ning Qingming, "Boss, this is the 300 pieces of goods ordered by the Iranian customer last time. The quantity is small, and the price is pressed down. Later, I went to his company to pick up the pendant and wash the water label. He also said that each set of pendants would deduct one yuan and four cents in fees. Because the price was pressed too low, I found the small factory owner who came to see you last time to do it, and also pressed down the price a bit."

  Some small orders, Ning Qingming has now let Zhang Yu take full responsibility, so after listening to her words, he only said "uh-huh" and said: "Didn't you say that the goods would be delivered in two days? The factory is actually faster this time, and they sent the goods two days ahead of schedule."

  "Less quantity is faster!" Zhang Yu was busy folding and checking the package.

  "The woolen mills are usually numerous, with many machines lined up in front to do the work quickly. The ones with fewer quantities take their time and do it slowly." Ning Qingmin smiled and said: "Never mind, anyway, being quick is always a good thing."

  Zhang Yu smiled and checked the style number and color, then took out a ruler to measure the size. After finishing the measurement, she stood in front of the table, dazed and muttered: "How can this be!"

  "What's wrong? Is the size not right?" Ning Qing hurriedly stood up, took the clothes and looked at them, "Huh" she said: "This kind of mistake also came out!"

  Zhang Yu's face turned red as he said, "I really admire them, good job on the logo, it's upside down. I was just wondering why the English letters were reversed. Needless to say, this worker must not even recognize English letters, that's how they made such a mistake."

  Many small factories hired some middle-aged women to do some miscellaneous tasks such as sewing collars and making labels, with low wages but mostly skilled hands. However, with the emergence of foreign trade orders, their disadvantage of low cultural level was revealed, and this collar was actually sewn on upside down. The inspectors didn't even notice it, and the goods were shipped out like that.

  "It's a good thing there are still two days left, hurry up and get someone to take the goods downstairs and return them to the factory, let them re-sew the collars. Ning Qingmin took out a few clothes to look at, and was shocked to discover that not only were the collar seams reversed, but some of the washing labels were also sewn on backwards, although the problem with the washing labels wasn't too big of a deal, it was just frustrating."

  "It's really true that you get what you pay for! Saving a little money leads to so many problems. Zhang Yu sighed, "In the past, when we worked with big factories, would they ever make such low-level mistakes?"

  After a busy and chaotic time, I made another phone call to the manufacturer to discuss the issue. The manufacturer repeatedly apologized and promised that they would immediately dismantle the vehicle for inspection and only ship it out after confirming there were no problems.

  Two people looked at each other and saw that it was already past noon, just about to call for takeout when the phone rang first. Ning Qingming listened to the phone and smiled, saying: "Congratulations!"

  Thank you to the friends who rewarded me, I'm so happy! Last month, several people rewarded me, and this month just started, I saw two rewards again. To be honest, although the starting point of the reward coins is not a lot of money, it can be used to read books and see many chapters, so thank you very much!