"Hello, Vice Minister Bai, it's been years since we last met, but you haven't changed a bit." Sun Zhengguo greeted him politely as they shook hands.

"No, I'm too old. It's your era now, the young people's world. I can't deny that I'm getting old!"

Looking at the spirited young man before him, Vice Minister Bai couldn't help but sigh.

once Upon a time.

This young man was one of his capable subordinates.

Alas, fate is cruel!

Now he has grown into a towering tree through his own abilities, which has benefited that scoundrel Li Datou.

Now look at Li Datou? Didn't he rise to the position of minister precisely because of this young man in front of him?

And what about myself...? I can only sigh endlessly.

"Old Bai, what did you just say? From what you're saying, Zheng Guo got married?"

Zhang Nan finally managed to interject, but her expression was rather unpleasant.

"Please sit down, Zhengguo."

Vice Minister Bai first gestured for Sun Zhengguo to sit down, and then spoke to Zhang Nan, who was standing to the side.

"How could someone as outstanding as Comrade Zhengguo not be married? If I remember correctly, he got married before he even graduated from university."

"snort!"

Feeling emotionally hurt, Zhang Nan snorted angrily, got up, and walked outside.

This action made Sun Zhengguo a little embarrassed, and he awkwardly reached out and touched his head.

"Ignore her, let's have some tea."

Seeing Zhang Nan leave in a huff, Vice Minister Bai smiled and shook his head.

"Okay!"

The two then started chatting, talking about some changes that had occurred in the past few years.

Vice Minister Bai didn't bring up the main topic, and Sun Zhengguo tacitly refrained from asking, knowing that he would naturally speak when the time came.

As they were chatting, two more people came in. Sun Zhengguo knew these two people very well; they were Director Gao of the First Steel Rolling Mill and Director Wu of the Second Steel Rolling Mill.

Upon seeing these two, Sun Zhengguo seemed to understand the purpose of Vice Minister Bai's invitation to him today.

As soon as the two arrived, the living room instantly became lively, and everyone's conversation shifted from casual chatter to work-related topics.

Not long after, a few more people came in, and Sun Zhengguo took a closer look.

Hey! What day is it today? He recognized all the people who came in later.

They are Director Yang of the steel rolling mill, Director Tang and Wang Lefeng of the Iron and Steel Research Institute, Sichuan cuisine master Liu Dachuan, and old classmate Xu Damao.

Liu Dachuan and Xu Damao were led away by Secretary Hu without stopping.

The rest of the people were all drinking tea and chatting in the living room, but Wang Lefeng didn't care about any of that. In the entire hall, his eyes were only on Sun Zhengguo.

Therefore, as soon as he arrived, he sat down next to Sun Zhengguo, and the two chatted quietly without any restraint.

A short while later, Secretary Hu, having made the arrangements, came downstairs and nodded to Vice Minister Bai.

Upon receiving the signal, Vice Minister Bai immediately stood up and addressed the crowd.

"Come on, everyone, follow me upstairs to the second floor. Let's go see a movie first."

Sun Zhengguo looked at this scene and felt a sense of déjà vu. He then followed everyone up to the second floor.

Sure enough, when everyone arrived on the second floor, they heard Xu Damao and Zhang Nan talking.

Their conversation was about Sun Zhengguo.

“Projectionist! Sun Zhengguo really lived in the same courtyard as you. Did he get married? What does he look like?” Zhang Nan was still not giving up and pressed Xu Damao for more information.

Xu Damao, who was fiddling with the projector, also wanted to say something bad, but given the current disparity in their statuses, unless he was stupid, he wouldn't talk nonsense.

"Madam, Zhengguo is my old classmate. He was already married when he was in school, and his wife is very beautiful! She also gave birth to two big, healthy sons for him."

"Hahaha!" As soon as Xu Damao finished speaking, Vice Minister Bai walked in from outside, laughing loudly.

Xu Damao was so frightened that he broke out in a cold sweat. Luckily, he hadn't spoken carelessly, or he would have caught him red-handed.

“Projectionist! It’s not very nice of you to praise his wife’s beauty in front of your old classmate.”

Anyone with eyes can see that Vice Minister Bai was just joking.

Xu Damao glanced at Sun Zhengguo and saw that he was smiling and nodding at him, so he felt relieved and spoke boldly.

"Boss, I didn't actually say that; everyone in our compound praises him like that."

"Okay!" Vice Minister Bai nodded. "Then, I'll trouble the projectionist to show us a movie!"

"Alright! Please have a seat, leaders. Give me two minutes to prepare."

After speaking, Xu Damao picked up the film prepared by Secretary Hu, loaded it onto the projector, skillfully connected it, and finally drew the curtains to begin the formal playback.

Sun Zhengguo initially thought it was a real movie screening, but as the screening began, he realized it was actually a documentary.

Moreover, it's an untranslated, original Russian-language documentary.

It mainly tells the story of some steel mills, rolling mills and other steel-related facilities in Da Mao.

The exhibit not only shows the actual operation of the workers, but also displays a range of machines, including large steelmaking furnaces and various rolling mills.

However, to be fair, these machines are indeed more advanced than those in China, after all, Russia's industry is not weak now.

As the documentary played, several factory managers whispered among themselves.

An hour later, the movie ended, and everyone returned to the living room.

Vice Minister Bai looked at everyone and said very seriously.

"In recent years, with the explosive growth of high-end machine tools, the demand for steel has also increased, but our steel production is seriously insufficient."

"Everyone just watched the movie. What are your thoughts? Feel free to share them and let's discuss them."

The people present looked at each other, and finally, Director Tang of the Steel Research Institute couldn't stand it any longer and stood up to speak.

"Everyone, to be honest, we are still far behind Russia in terms of industry. In the area of ​​steelmaking furnaces, we are no match."

"However, the quality of our steel is no worse than theirs, and in some areas, we even surpass them slightly."

"Therefore, I believe that the most important thing now is to improve the steel rolling process so as to increase steel production."

Well! Director Tang's words infuriated several steel rolling mill directors.

What does this mean? So they're trying to shift the blame onto us? Of course, the factory managers refused to admit it, and Factory Manager Gao immediately retorted.

"Director Tang, you are in charge of steel research, and we are in charge of steel production. But there's one thing you need to understand: if those machines can't keep up, what can we do?"

"That's right! Director Gao is right. Take our No. 2 Steel Rolling Mill for example! Some of our machines are from the Republican era. What are we supposed to do?"

Factory Director Wu echoed Factory Director Gao's words, expressing the difficulties faced by the steel rolling mill.

After the two finished speaking, Director Yang could not remain silent.

Just as he was about to speak, he was interrupted by Vice Minister Bai.

"Gentlemen, I've called you here today not to have you pass the buck, but to have you think of a way to solve this current problem?"

As soon as Vice Minister Bai finished speaking, the group, disregarding any excuses or wrangling, began to whisper among themselves.

But there's just no way to deal with this; what's the use of just talking about it?