Back to 1958: Creating a Century-Long Family Empire

Chapter 56: Advancing Together

"Flypaper?" When Su Yiyi and the others heard the name and saw the flies stuck on the board on the table, they instantly understood what it was.

Lin Haoyu, the one who was always good at thinking, asked curiously, "Dong-ge, when we use mousetrap glue boards, we have to place food in the center to lure the mice. But your flypaper doesn't have anything on it. How did you attract the flies?"

Yang Wendong explained, "I added a bit of peanut oil to the glue. If you don't believe me, take a sniff."

As he spoke, he handed a fresh flypaper board to the group, holding it close to their faces.

The three of them leaned in and indeed caught a faint whiff of peanut oil from the glue-coated side of the flypaper.

Zhao Wendong asked curiously, "Dong-ge, then why didn't we add peanut oil to the mousetrap glue boards?"

"Because of the cost. The mousetrap boards are designed for the customers to put bait in the middle themselves," Yang Wendong replied with a smile. "Besides, mice are big. They won't be tempted by a thin layer of oil. They eat with their eyes first — if they don't see food, they won't take the bait."

In this era, oil was still quite expensive in Hong Kong. Many families were reluctant to use too much when cooking.

High-sugar, high-fat, high-oil, high-uric-acid foods were unhealthy in the food-rich society of the mainland in later years, but in impoverished places, they were considered treasures.

Take "junk food" like instant noodles, for example — they were some of the best relief supplies during disasters.

"Oh, I see," Zhao Wendong nodded.

Su Yiyi then asked, "But why don't we put some food in the middle of the flypaper too? Wouldn't that also reduce costs?"

"That won't work," Yang Wendong smiled. "Tell me, in general, where do flies tend to gather the most?"

Zhao Liming thought for a moment and said, "The canteen? The wet market?"

"And the toilets," Lin Haoyu added.

Yang Wendong: "…"

He shook his head and said, "Haoyu, don't overthink it.

Think about it. All those places are already full of food. Do you think putting a little scrap of food on the flypaper will make any difference?

More importantly, mice can't fly. If they want to reach the bait in the center of the glue board, they have to crawl over it, which gets them stuck.

But flies? They fly straight to the food. That's why the glue itself has to have something in it that attracts flies."

"Ah, that makes sense," Zhao Liming nodded in understanding.

Yang Wendong continued, "Actually, the principle is pretty much the same, but we still need to do some testing — especially with the ratio of oil to glue. What kind of oil attracts flies the most? It's best to compare it with real food as a control.

We also need to consider cost control. If there's too much oil, will it affect the stickiness? That kind of thing."

Even though the mousetrap glue boards had been selling well recently, Yang Wendong wasn't about to be content with that small success.

Especially since, if they couldn't sell the mousetrap boards overseas, the Hong Kong market would quickly become saturated. Once the rats were dealt with, customers would naturally stop buying — it was a short-term product.

But flies were a different story. Even if humans went extinct, flies wouldn't disappear. The market potential for flypaper far exceeded that of mousetrap boards.

"I'll take care of the testing, Dong-ge," Lin Haoyu volunteered.

"Alright, I'll leave it to you," Yang Wendong nodded. "If there's any progress or difficulty, let me know immediately. I'll come research it with you whenever I can."

Currently, the three people working closely with him each had their own role. Su Yiyi had a good sense for numbers and was responsible for finances and HR; Zhao Liming managed the factory.

They had only been with him for less than half a year but had already learned a lot. Even though their literary foundation was still lacking — they still made frequent mistakes — they were improving rapidly.

Lin Haoyu scratched his leg, frowning slightly. Then he suddenly asked, "Dong-ge, could we make a glue board for mosquitoes too?"

"You're good at thinking beyond the box," Yang Wendong chuckled. "But what would you use to attract mosquitoes? Their food isn't something you can bait them with."

"Oh," Lin Haoyu realized that made sense. "I just feel like mosquitoes are even more annoying than flies or mice."

Yang Wendong nodded. "True. But right now, we just can't make something like that. Besides, mosquito coils and nets already work really well. A glue board might not even be able to compete with them."

Actually, it wasn't like it was impossible. In the future, there would be mosquito glue traps, made from special synthetic materials. But Yang Wendong didn't know what those materials were, and with his current resources, it would be extremely hard to research them.

More importantly, in the future, mosquito glue boards had almost no market. That meant they weren't very effective — maybe useful only in a few very specific situations.

In comparison, electric mosquito swatters were far more practical — he just didn't have the funds to develop one right now.

"Alright, then let's deal with the flies first," Su Yiyi said after a moment of thought. "Dong-ge, now I finally understand why you named the company 'Pest Eliminators' instead of just 'Rat Exterminators.'"

"Exactly. If we can deal with rats, we can naturally handle other pests too," Yang Wendong smiled. "Besides, 'Rat Extermination Company' doesn't sound very nice. 'Pest Eliminators' has a better ring to it."

Since they had already started the business and had a factory and distribution channels, Yang Wendong naturally wanted to use the existing resources to expand into similar product lines.

There were just too many pests in human society — rats, cockroaches, mosquitoes, flies… If he only put in a little more effort, he could potentially claim these markets too. There was no reason not to.

As for the more high-end industries? They could come later, when he had more money. Besides, these things didn't conflict with each other.

"Dong-ge, you're really amazing," Su Yiyi said with a smile.

"Don't flatter me," Yang Wendong laughed. "There's one thing we really need to pay attention to — whether it's the company or the factory, the most important thing is still people. You three are now running the company, so you also need to keep learning.

Especially you, Yiyi — you're handling the finances. That's a big deal. Starting next month, I'll hire someone to help me with bookkeeping. You need to learn from them as much as you can."

"Okay." Su Yiyi nodded, though she looked a little worried. "But won't they be unwilling to teach me?"

"Of course they will," Yang Wendong said. "You're the client — of course you can ask. If they don't want to answer, we'll replace them. But how much you learn depends on you."

"Alright," Su Yiyi nodded again.

Yang Wendong added, "Also, we should find a part-time primary school teacher to teach you all literacy every night. Only once you recognize all the characters can you move on to learning more."

He had taught them quite a bit before, but without a systematic method, the results had been mediocre at best.

"Okay," Su Yiyi said.

"I want everyone to advance together. That's what I hope for most," Yang Wendong said sincerely.

"Mm," the three of them agreed in unison.

"Oh, and rent a few more apartments. Let's get places close to each other — it's time we had proper places of our own," Yang Wendong added. "Haoyu, Liming — your families can move out of the squatter huts too."

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