Chapter 245

Before accepting the invitation, Ye Manzhi asked Teacher Ouyang about the situation on campus.

After learning that there had been accidents during two lectures, he revealed his family background in advance to create an atmosphere where everyone was one family.

She looked out at the hundreds of eyes in the auditorium and said with a sincere sigh, "I'm truly happy and proud to see so many female classmates here who came from worker, peasant, and soldier backgrounds."

"I started working in 1956. That year, women accounted for 14% of the total workforce nationwide, while only 16.5% of women were enrolled in cultural programs. At the time, I worked in a neighborhood office, and when I helped factories organize recruitment, I had to specifically write the words 'gender neutral' on the job notices; otherwise, all the candidates would be men."

"With the rapid development of our country's economy, the ranks of female workers have grown, and employment opportunities for women have broadened. Previously, women either worked in the fields or stayed at home doing housework, with only a small number of women workers concentrated in the light industry sector."

"But twenty years later, we have women comrades in heavy industry, transportation, infrastructure, and other sectors, and every industry has its own female leaders."

Ye Manzhi smiled and recounted, "There's the female bulldozer operator Hu Qingmei on the construction site of the Small Third Front, the female helmsman Luo Zhongfang on the Binjiang ship, the female winch operator Ma Ru at the coal mine, and a female oil surveying team at the oil field. These comrades are all outstanding representatives of our province's March 8th Red Flag bearers."

The female classmates listened attentively, and Wu Yuzhuo, who was standing with everyone, also stared at his mother on the podium.

Ye Manzhi looked down at the audience and asked, "Has Comrade Wang Suhua from the Economics Department arrived?"

After hearing her sudden question, everyone looked around, looking for Wang Suhua.

Wang Suhua, who was called, was pushed out by the classmates around her and stood up embarrassedly.

Ye Manzhi raised her hand to suppress it. "I've heard of Comrade Wang Suhua's name for a long time, but I didn't expect to meet her on the campus of the Provincial University. Some of you may not know about Comrade Wang Suhua's deeds, but she is very famous in our Binjiang light industry system. She used to be a female worker at the Binjiang Knitting Factory. She always completed the production quota ahead of schedule every year. The most impressive thing was that in 1972 she was already doing the work for 1974."

“Wow—”

We are all classmates and know each other's backgrounds roughly, but if the person himself does not tell us such work details, others generally have no way of knowing them.

The classmates turned around and looked at Wang Suhua. They didn't expect that she, despite her small stature, was so capable at work.

Ye Manzhi also admires female comrades like Wang Suhua.

The factory's profitability, whether the product designs are fashionable, and whether they are popular in the market are all things that company leaders need to consider.

Most of the workers just followed their leaders' instructions and worked hard.

As a worker, Wang Suhua does his job to the utmost and is definitely one of the best workers.

Among the workers, peasants and soldiers who were recommended as college students, there were some who had connections and relationships, but there were also those like Wang Suhua who entered the university campus based on their real abilities.

Wang Suhua's cheeks turned red when her classmates looked at her, but she still stood there with her back straight and a smile.

Ye Manzhi introduced her deeds, raised her hand to press it, invited her to take a seat, and continued to ask: "I remember there was a comrade named Yang Qingyun in the Industrial Economics Department..."

Before she could finish, Yang Qingyun was pulled up by her classmates by the arm.

"Comrade Yang Qingyun isn't well-known, but there's a very famous group of workers in her unit. They're Su Zhengfang's group in the anchor chain section of the steel casting workshop at Dehua Shipbuilding Company. This year, they were awarded the provincial-level March 8th Red Flag collective title. Of the 12 women in the group, 11 are mothers. And yet, this group has been established for fourteen years and has consistently completed its production targets ahead of schedule every year. Am I remembering correctly?"

Yang Qingyun hadn't expected that she would be named by Ye Manzhi. She nodded excitedly and said, "Yes, there were 12 people in our group before, and all of them were mothers. But last year, my company recommended me to go to college, and the person who took over my position was an unmarried girl."

Ye Manzhi also asked the other party to sit down again.

"Whether it's the advanced figures far away or the exemplary deeds of our classmates nearby, they all demonstrate that women comrades are capable of fulfilling the tasks entrusted to us by the country. As Comrade Chairman said, women are 'a force that determines the victory or defeat of the revolution!'"

As soon as he finished speaking, applause broke out spontaneously in the venue, and Wu Yuzhuo also applauded his mother.

After returning to silence, Ye Manzhi continued, "Everyone was recommended to the university by their respective units. Most of you should have realized that women encounter more difficulties than men in becoming advanced workers."

The students and female teachers nodded subconsciously.

Ye Manzhi smiled helplessly and said, "I've been working for 20 years and have discovered a very interesting phenomenon. Poisoned by the feudal ideology left by history, many people subconsciously look down on the abilities of female comrades. When they were young, some people would say, 'What do you, a little girl, know?' As they get older, they'll say, 'What do you, an old woman, know?'"

There was a burst of laughter from the audience, which quickly died down.

Most of the students here have heard of or seen this situation, and some have even experienced it.

"What was the most outrageous case I ever heard of when I was working at the grassroots level? A leader at a mine in a certain city thought that female employees were particularly troublesome when they got pregnant and gave birth, so he fired all 49 female workers in the mine, 13 of whom were model workers!"

"ah???"

The students' eyes widened and there was an uproar in the meeting hall.

Someone angrily asked, "Senior Sister, did they really fire the female employee?"

"Yes, they were fired, but under the Party and state's policy of protecting women's labor, they received fair adjudication, and all the female workers were finally reinstated and returned to work."

"good!"

The female students applauded.

Ye Manzhi continued, "Besides habitual contempt, we women also face unique challenges objectively, such as the burden of children, housework, and low cultural and technical skills. Can these challenges be overcome?"

No one in the audience responded.

These are all objective difficulties and are not easy to overcome.

Ye Manzhi said with certainty: "From my own experience and the deeds of many advanced female comrades, we can see that these difficulties can be overcome."

"First of all, we female comrades must have a firm sense of mission, a revolutionary outlook on life, and the lofty goal of striving for socialism."

After all, it was a public speech, so Ye Manzhi still had to speak in a high-sounding tone.

When she was doing her work, she didn't actually think so much about it. She just focused on doing her job well in the present and didn't have any particularly lofty ideals.

These are what she summarized bit by bit as she gradually matured.

She didn't mention herself, but only said: "Many advanced workers have continuously created amazing achievements under the guidance of this advanced thinking."

"Secondly, we must have the fighting spirit to overcome difficulties. At the Binjiang Shuguang Machinery Factory, a female worker named Wang Guifen developed an advanced method to prevent tool decarburization and ensure hardness. She encountered many difficulties during her experiments, including disdain from technicians, lack of support from workshop leaders, and distrust from fellow workers. In particular, after her first public trial failed, the factory announced a halt to her experiment. However, Wang Guifen was remarkably tenacious and came to me, requesting to continue. Ultimately, after 132 failures, she finally met quality standards on the 133rd. This advanced method has now been promoted nationwide by the First Ministry of Machine Building, and Wang Guifen was named a National Model Worker that year."

The meeting room was very quiet, and some people felt that Ye Manzhi's words were all clichés.

These words are easy to say but difficult to put into practice, and they do not apply to all lesbians.

Married women have to take care of children, do housework, and balance work. Even if they have lofty goals and the fighting spirit to overcome difficulties, they may not have the time to put them into practice.

Ye Manzhi also knew that the students might not be able to listen to what she said, and Teacher Ouyang did not invite her to come to give everyone clichés.

The common problem among these workers, peasants and soldiers college students is that they have a weak foundation in academic subjects, focus on theoretical and political studies, and their performance in professional courses is generally mediocre.

Ye Manzhi said seriously, "The third point I want to make is that if we female comrades want to be advanced and be on par with or even surpass male comrades, we must learn skills well and improve our cultural and technical level."

"Comrade Chairman Mao's 'July 21st Directive' enabled a large number of workers, peasants, and soldiers to enter university campuses. In my opinion, this decision was quite wise. Why?"

"Because everyone has come from the grassroots and has rich work experience, they must have encountered various difficulties in their work. Worker-peasant-soldier college students come to campus with problems."

"Although I took the Gaokao (National College Entrance Examination) that year, I had two years of work experience before that. Many of the questions I encountered at work were answered on the university campus. Like everyone else, I cherished this rare opportunity to learn. For four years, I never missed classes, was late, or left early without reason. Even when I was pregnant, I didn't neglect my studies. I almost gave birth to my daughter during the physics exam..."

"Ha ha ha ha……"

Wu Yuzhuo, who was almost born in the examination room, was a little embarrassed.

The students laughed good-naturedly.

However, most people still listened to her words.

Ye Manzhi said that her speech was about sharing her experience, but in fact she rarely mentioned her own situation.

Many of the examples she cited were stories of other outstanding lesbians.

Therefore, suddenly turning the topic to herself still attracted the attention of her classmates.

Ye Manzhi looked at these young faces and sighed, "Provincial University is a nationally renowned key university. The fact that you are able to sit in the classroom and study here already exceeds that of at least 90% of women in the country. The difficulties we face will only become more difficult for other women."

"Some graduates of the Department of Economics and the Department of Industrial Economics will be employed in the industrial and commercial sectors, while others may return to their original units. Regardless of where they go, you will be the backbone of future socialist construction. Your suggestions or decisions may impact the performance evaluation of a team, the production efficiency of a workshop, the profitability of a company, and even the future of an entire industry and countless families."

"It's been more than ten years since I graduated from the provincial university. During this period, I've encountered countless difficulties and solved countless problems. But every solution has benefited to some extent from the Chairman's works and the knowledge I accumulated during my university years."

"Comrade Chairman said, 'We Communists are like seeds, and the people are like the soil.' When we arrive in a place, we must unite with the people there and take root and blossom among them."

"These instructions apply equally to everyone. The hundreds of female students here are like seeds. Once you return to your jobs, they will take root and blossom. When other female comrades encounter the same difficulties you faced, I hope you can offer appropriate solutions."

Someone bravely asked, "Sister, have you found a solution for others?"

Ye Manzhi spoke candidly, "Some were found, some were not. When I was working at Shuguang Factory, we established the 'July 21st Workers' University' to improve the educational level of female workers. Both men and women were welcome to enroll. Later, we held women's study classes specifically for female employees. We not only organized them to study Chairman Mao's works to improve their theoretical knowledge, but also to improve their technical skills at work. However, we also encountered the practical problems mentioned earlier: no one to take care of the children and no one to cook at home."

"Sister, what did you do?"

Ye Manzhi chuckled, "That's an easy problem to solve. I was already the director of the Revolutionary Committee at Shuguang Factory at the time. The Revolutionary Committee set up a late-night nursery and after-school care center at the factory, where all preschoolers could play and eat. Elementary school students could also go to the after-school care center to study. As for housework, let the male comrades in each family share the responsibility. If anyone dared to hinder the learning and progress of the female comrades, the Shuguang Factory Party Committee would contact the other unit to file a complaint. We are all educated people, why should only the female comrades be allowed to do housework?"

"Ha ha ha ha……"

"That's great, let's do it this way from now on!"

Someone chuckled and said, "Then you have to become the director of the Revolutionary Committee before you can have such a say."

However, being a director or bureau chief is really impressive!

Ye Manzhi spoke in a gentle manner and answered almost every question. The female students raised their hands and asked questions enthusiastically.

Some asked about work, some asked about studying in college, and some even asked about family life.

Ye Manzhi picked out what he could say and answered most of them seriously.

At the end of the free question session, she concluded, "After more than a decade away from my alma mater, I'm not coming back empty-handed. Currently, adjustments are being made to some troubled enterprises within the Binjiang light industry system. Students from the Economics and Industrial Economics Departments of our provincial university are all professionals in the economic field and can conduct research at these enterprises and assess the health of state-owned factories."

Yang Qingyun took the lead and asked, "Senior Sister, can we all go? What are we mainly researching?"

"Any interested student can sign up. There are fourteen companies in total, and the school will organize the arrangements. The main focus will be on assessing the production and management capabilities of the companies, such as labor productivity, defective product rate, market feedback on products, technological input, assessment methods for team and workshop leaders, and loopholes in financial management. The goal is to put what you've learned in class into practice."

When these students really encounter difficulties in the enterprise and find that they are not skilled enough, the purpose of this lecture will be achieved.

Someone else asked enthusiastically: "Senior sister, can only female students go? Can the boys in our class go?"

Ye Manzhi smiled and said, "The number of places is limited. All students present today can sign up. As for the male students, I'll leave it to one of your seniors to arrange it."

She is giving a lecture today for the International Women's Day event, and it will be enough if she can make clear arrangements for the girls.

Gay men don't need her to worry about them.

Upon hearing this, warm applause broke out in the auditorium.

…

Wu Yuzhuo and his mother stayed at the provincial university for most of the day. After returning home, he said to his father, "Dad, it's such a pity that you didn't attend the lecture. My mother spoke very well, and everyone responded very well."

"..." Wu Zhengrong glanced at her, "Is it that I don't want to go? Wasn't Director Ye forcibly keeping me at home?"

Ye Manzhi smiled and said, "Who forced you? The venue is full of female students today, what are you going to do?"

She also felt a little regretful that Wu Zhengrong was unable to attend the trial in person.

However, this is not a difficult matter in her family.

Wu Yuzhuo stood in front of her father, cleared her throat, and repeated her mother's speech in the auditorium.

It's not 100% restored, but 90% is there.

Even the names of the March 8th Red Flag Bearers and their units were not left out.

Ye Manzhi: “…”

My daughter, you are making the three or four days of preparation for me seem a little ridiculous.

Wu Zhengrong listened carefully from beginning to end, nodded, and said, "It's very well said, but it's a bit clichéd."

"I think it's a bit much, too," Ye Manzhi whispered, "but you still have to be careful about what you say in school. It's better to be careful."

She didn't want to get herself into trouble because of a speech.

*

The provincial university responded quite quickly and soon contacted the Light Industry Bureau, hoping to arrange for the female students to visit and study in enterprises.

Ye Manzhi has been a bit busy recently, so he handed over the docking work to Chen Teye, the head of the Enterprise Management Section.

Chen Teye is also a graduate of the provincial university, so he must be very concerned about this job, and this can also be regarded as an indirect way of returning home in glory.

She is mainly concerned about two things at the moment.

First, the economic data for the first quarter of this year has been released. Three unfinished fixed asset investment projects that the Light Industry Bureau focused on last year, including an industrial sewing machine project, officially started production in the first quarter.

The total industrial output value of Binjiang's light industry system is 1.02 billion. If it can continue to maintain this momentum, it is expected to exceed 4 billion by the end of the year, once again widening the gap with Dehua District, which has a little over 3 billion.

Secondly, there has been new progress in the imitation of the imported production line of Shuguang Factory. Most of the complete production line has been completed. As long as a few key equipment are imported from Japan, it can be officially put into production.

Kangjian wants to first hand over the two complete machine production lines to Guangzhou and Tianjin, and then recover some of the funds.

However, there is only a complete machine production line, but no cathode ray tube production line, so the two factories are still unable to start production.

She has recently been helping Shuguang Factory to negotiate with two other factories.

"Director Qin, isn't the whole machine production line more important than the cathode ray tube production line? The country imports a lot of television cathode ray tubes every year. You can temporarily use imported cathode ray tubes to produce whole machines. The sooner you start production, the sooner you can recover your funds. A single production line costs millions. Don't you feel bad?"

Qin Changzheng was of course distressed, but Shuguang Factory wanted to collect the final payment for the two production lines, how could he agree?

Ye Manzhi said, "As for the financial matters, you two companies should discuss it among yourselves. However, this kind of imitation production line will take up a lot of capital. Shuguang Factory's cash is tied up in the goods. If the funds can't keep up and the progress of the cathode ray tube production line is delayed, then you will be the ones who suffer the loss!"

Qin Changzheng said with a frown: "The annual output value of Shuguang Factory is already over 100 million. Is it still short of a few million? Oh, forget it, I'll talk to Director Kang again."

Ye Manzhi put down the receiver with a smile and looked at Lin Qingmei who had just entered the room.

"Going to the First Industrial Bureau again?"

"Yeah." Lin Qingmei poured herself a glass of boiled water, sat on the sofa and asked, "Did you see the news in the newspaper? The Youth Palace is going to be rebuilt!"

“I see.”

Lin Qingmei said reluctantly, "I still remember the time when we went to the construction site together to move bricks. The Youth Palace was built brick by brick by us Communist Youth League members."

The city's finances were tight at the time, and in order to build its own Youth Palace, Binjiang called on all middle school students in the city to be self-reliant and work hard.

The blueprints for the Youth Palace were drawn up by Soviet experts, but the engineering work was done by these middle school students!

Ye Manzhi couldn't help but sigh, "Time flies! Back then, in order to avoid attending classes in the classroom, we were always very active working on the construction site!"

"Right, right, right. Back then, as long as I wasn't in class, I could do anything! We never missed a single construction activity organized by the school!"

The two reminisced about their carefree high school days. Ye Manzhi said, "The city hasn't gone so far as to tear it down and rebuild. I inquired with the Municipal Revolutionary Committee, and they're only repairing the exterior walls and rebuilding the exhibition halls and theater inside. It seems they're planning to expand the theater."

"That's more like it!"

When it was time to get off work, the two walked out of the office building together.

Ye Manzhi did not go home, but took a bus to the Youth Palace alone as agreed.

In the hearts of their generation, the Youth Palace has an extraordinary status, and it is almost a microcosm of youth and an era.

But for Ye Manzhi and Wu Zhengrong, this place has another special meaning - this is where they first met.

When the organization arranged a blind date for the two of them, Lao Ye bought two tickets for a performance by the Soviet Youth Art Troupe, which was held in the theater of the Youth Palace.

Hearing that the theater was about to be rebuilt, Wu Zhengrong bought tickets for the last performance, "White-Haired Girl" by the Binjiang Ballet.

After this performance, the Youth Palace will officially close.

After more than 20 years of ups and downs, the white building that once combined Eastern and Western European styles has long become dim and mottled.

As soon as Ye Manzhi walked to the gate, he saw Wu Zhengrong waiting there.

He didn't wear a military uniform today. He wore a crisp shirt and trousers. He looked as handsome and refined as he did back then.

Ye Manzhi trotted over to meet him, "Dr. Wu, did you bring your camera? I want to take a picture with you in front of the building!"

"I brought it." Wu Zhengrong stretched out his hand to show her.

"Where's the soda?"

Without waiting for his answer, Youyan ran out of the building with two bottles of soda.

"Mom, do you have the ticket?" Wu Yuzhuo, standing at the end of the ticket checking line, said excitedly, "Hurry up, the ticket checking has already started!"

Ye Manzhi and Wu Zhengrong agreed at the same time.

They both thought that after 20 years, the young couple had become a family of three, which was great.