"Me neither, I don't know either!" Su Ya's mind was also a mess.

"Su Ya, I'm asking something I shouldn't, but Hou Liwei in the office, haven't you two been seeing each other? What if he..." Liu Juanjuan's words hit her heart like a heavy punch.

In a flustered state, she said, "I'm not, I'm not dating him! I don't know what to say! I haven't even thought about dating him. He keeps contacting me, but I've always treated him as a friend."

Su Ya's slightly tearful expression made Liu Juanjuan afraid to ask any more questions.

The repair shop wasn't cleaned much; the dust on the floor was simply splashed with water. As for the windows, Xu Shuai and Liu Quan just swept them a few times with newspapers, leaving traces of wiping.

Xing Baohua went to the public restroom and didn't return for a while. Xu Shuai went to find him and found him squatting by the bus stop not far from the restroom, watching two old men play chess.

Upon closer inspection, I was amused. There were no strangers among them, and everyone knew each other. One of the old men was the toilet attendant, and the other was the bicycle attendant at the factory's bicycle shed.

"Uncle Zhou, Uncle Wang, and Hua Zi, are you three having a meeting at your department? Tell me, are there any officials lower in rank than you?" Xu Shuai said with a smile.

Xing Baohua laughed heartily, while the two old men shook their heads with wry smiles. If Xu Shuai hadn't brought it up, Xing Baohua wouldn't have expected the three of them to have such a misunderstanding.

The head of the repair department, the head of the parking lot, and the director of the restrooms—they were all permanent employees, figures of real power.

After the joke, Xing Baohua asked Xu Shuai, "Why did you come over? Is something wrong at the store?" After asking, the two walked back side by side.

"It's nothing. Didn't you ask me to inquire about the factory next door?" Xu Shuai said.

"Hmm, what's the news?" Xing Baohua asked in response.

“There’s someone who used to work at their factory, who came to work at our factory. I saw him at the gate and called him over to chat for a bit. He just told me that their factory transferred a new factory manager this morning,” Xu Shuai said as he walked back with Xing Baohua.

“They have a factory manager now. Isn’t their factory almost out of workers? We need to find out about this quickly. The No. 138 Cave Factory needs to recruit workers to resume production, and there are quotas for workers,” Xing Baohua said.

"What do you mean by this?! You really want to go to that lousy factory?! What are you thinking? Their workers came to our factory because they couldn't get paid. And you still want to go there? Are you asking for a beating?" Xu Shuai said with a tone of exasperation.

"Do you think you'll amount to anything working in that cramped repair shop?" Xing Baohua asked.

“At least we get paid, and if we’re hungry we can eat at the factory. Ten jin of grain coupons can last us half a month. They can’t even get enough to eat there, you know that?” Xu Shuai said loudly.

"Alright, I'll listen to you this time. Let's see what their new factory manager can do. Keep an eye on this for me." Xing Baohua took a few steps forward, then suddenly stopped and said to Xu Shuai, "Adding flowers to brocade is never as good as providing charcoal in the snow!"

"No, what does this mean? Why are two idioms suddenly popping out of nowhere?" Xu Shuai was completely baffled by Xing Baohua's last sentence. He kept scratching the back of his head.

Factory Director Li from the machinery plant smoked two cigarettes in a row in Director Hou Baoguo's office. Director Hou's office had been renovated and was now more spacious. The old sofa had a fabric spring seat, but now it was leather and very comfortable.

Director Hou Baoguo had a meeting and hadn't returned yet, so he could only sit here patiently, drinking tea and smoking.

He wasn't there for foreign guests to come to the factory for maintenance; the factory office would handle that. He came for the 138dong Factory, hoping to buy some time to arrange the position of factory director. However, with the arrival of the newly appointed city leaders, the plan went awry.

Half an hour later, Director Hou Baoguo opened the door and came in. When he saw Factory Director Li, he stood up, waved his hand, and said, "Sit down."

He walked to the sofa and sat down next to Director Li. He picked up the cigarette that Director Li had placed on the coffee table, lit it, and said, "The director of Factory No. 4 was appointed by the Organization Department. The bureau provided a list, but the Organization Department did not adopt it."

"Who is the factory manager?" Factory Manager Li asked.

"I've seen the file of the new director of the Liuzhen Agricultural Machinery Station in Nanbianchuan County. He's a very capable person. He did an excellent job at the station for eight years. The mountainous area there is very short of water, and under extremely difficult conditions, he managed to drill more than two hundred wells for the local people." Director Hou briefly introduced the resume of the new director of the No. 4 Factory.

"Whose path did you take to get here?" Director Li asked.

"I don't know. Here's what we'll do: after we finish receiving the foreign guests tomorrow afternoon, call him to the bureau so everyone can get to know each other. As for the land swap, the city leaders have agreed in principle." Director Hou paused for a moment, then added:

"However, your factory will need to come up with a significant amount of capital, which could be substantial. You should be prepared."