Feng Yanyan bit her lip. The factory manager had spoken, and she dared not disobey. "I'm sorry."

Factory Director Wang was dissatisfied with her attitude and reminded her, "Since it's an apology, shouldn't the name of the person being apologized to be added before it?"

Feng Yanyan's face stiffened, and she could only apologize to Yu Yao and Wu Huaiqing again. This time, she dared not play any tricks.

"Comrade Yu Yao, Manager Wu, I'm so sorry!"

Yu Yao and Manager Wu hummed in agreement, without saying that it was alright.

The meaning is clear: you can apologize, but whether I forgive you or not is up to me.

Feng Yanyan smiled awkwardly and said to Director Wang, "Director, I've finished the inspection and I'm going back to the main factory now."

"Wait!" Director Wang called out to her, "Since you're already here, it's not too late to go back after I finish speaking."

Feng Yanyan had just lost all face and dignity, and being asked to stay here would make her feel extremely uncomfortable.

"Since everyone is so interested in the competition, I'll explain the arrangements for the finals. To ensure fairness, the factory leaders have decided to hold two rounds of the finals. In the first round, any of you here could potentially become a judge..."

Since it concerned whether she could advance further, Yu Yao listened with extra care.

According to Director Wang, the final round will consist of two parts.

The first step was anonymous voting for canned goods.

All canned goods were evaluated according to four categories: canned meat, canned seafood, canned vegetables, and canned fruit. The names of the canned food developers were kept anonymous.

In other words, none of the workers involved in the evaluation could distinguish which canned food was developed by which person.

This method minimizes the possibility of cheating; as long as your product has a superior taste and texture, you can stand out.

The judges for the selection were not worker representatives appointed by the factory, but rather each workshop selected its own representative to vote anonymously on behalf of the workshop, except for the researchers participating in the competition.

The second step is to let the market decide who the ultimate champion is based on the amount of money consumers actually spend.

In the first stage, the top five companies with the most votes for each type of canned food were selected to start production. They produced an equal number of cans and distributed them to supply and marketing cooperatives, department stores, and railway stations in Guangdong Province. Whoever developed the best-selling canned food was the final champion.

"I know everyone is very curious about the champion's reward," Director Wang smiled and continued, "First of all, all the canned goods that enter the second stage will receive a pound of pork, two pounds of soy sauce, and a pound of brown sugar, in addition to the five yuan R&D reward mentioned before. This is something that all R&D personnel who enter the second stage of the finals can receive."

Upon hearing this, several workers around couldn't help but cheer. They were all experienced workers who had participated in the competition. Whether they could win the championship was another matter, but they were confident that they could enter the second round of the finals.

These rewards are not a small amount; taking them home will make my family happy for a long time.

If the reward for just entering the second round of the finals is this generous, how good must the reward for the final champion be?

Everyone present pricked up their ears to listen to what Director Wang had to say.

"I won't talk about the runner-up and third place; they'll be posted in detail on the bulletin board later. I'll just talk about the champion."

At this point, Director Wang deliberately kept everyone in suspense, saying, "The person who wins the canned food R&D competition will first become the foreman of the new production workshop, using the most advanced international canned food production line to complete production tasks, and will be paid according to the fourth-level wage standard."

"What? The salary is paid according to the fourth-level salary?"

Yu Yao was also a little surprised.

You should know that Wang Chuntao had been a class monitor for so long, but her salary was only level four. Now, the new class monitor is already at level four salary, which is fifty-one yuan a month.

This isn't a one-time reward; it's something you actually receive every month.

The salary was not only tempting to Yu Yao and others who participated in the competition, but even Zhao Shengli and the others, who had long been class monitors, were somewhat surprised.

But that wasn't the most exciting part. What really got everyone excited was the final extra reward.

"The champion of this competition will receive an additional prize: a Capital Snowflake brand single-door refrigerator."

When Director Wang said this, everyone present gasped.

Some people thought they had misheard and asked again, "Director Wang, is the refrigerator you're talking about the one that can freeze popsicles and keep food from spoiling?"

Factory Director Wang nodded. "It's this refrigerator."

Fang Qiaoqiao, even more excited than Yu Yao, held her hand and exclaimed, "Yao, it's a refrigerator! It's actually a refrigerator!"

Everyone else was just as shocked as Fang Qiaoqiao.

"If I had a refrigerator, I would make popsicles every day. I heard that they can be made with just water, and each time you buy them, they cost at least one cent."

"I heard that with refrigerators, pork can be stored for several months. I wonder if that's true."

People's understanding of refrigerators comes from freezers in factories and supply and marketing cooperatives. Although this understanding is one-sided, it does not affect the level of discussion.

Although the Soviet Union helped design the Capital Snowflake brand single-door refrigerator in the 1940s and 50s, household refrigerators were still quite scarce in the market, except for collective enterprises such as supply and marketing cooperatives and cold drink shops.

Especially in island areas where temperatures are generally high, owning a household refrigerator is something that three generations of a family can brag about.

Aside from state-owned factories, supply and marketing cooperatives, and military cold drink rooms, which have freezers, refrigerators in private homes are probably unique to Scorpion Poop on the entire island.

Not to mention how surprised everyone else was, even Director Wang and the other worker representatives who already knew about it found it to be quite extraordinary.

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