Chapter 37

Ye Shouxin was able to rise from a rural cowherd to a seventh-level welder and workshop foreman. He did have some life wisdom.

Ever since his wife told him that his daughter was dating someone and asked him to observe the college students in the factory, Ye Shouxin immediately set his sights on Wu Zhengrong.

I never considered a second candidate.

He knows his daughter best.

What college students, those who work in technology, are all smokescreens to blur the focus.

No matter whether it's an object or a person, this girl always likes good-looking ones.

Which college student in the factory is as good-looking as Wu Zhengrong?

Moreover, someone in the compound saw them dancing at a party a while ago. When asked about it, Ye Shouxin always responded with "I don't know", "Impossible" and "Nonsense", but he still had some concerns in his heart.

The key point is, Wu Zhengrong once gave Maotai to Lai Ya!

Lai Ya's explanation of the reason for sending the wine was vague and unclear, and he felt there was something fishy as soon as he heard it.

Moutai is so precious, why would a man give wine to a woman for no reason?

hehe.

All signs indicate that this person is most likely Wu Zhengrong.

Therefore, when he got home from get off work that day, he shared this conclusion with his wife.

Chang Yue'e asked suspiciously, "Are you overthinking this? It would be embarrassing if we got this wrong."

"It's definitely true. He used to call me Foreman Ye, but today he took the initiative to call me Uncle Ye," Ye Shouxin analyzed it clearly. "Throughout the entire 656, he only called me, Old Ye, Uncle. That's because he wore leather pants over cotton pants. There must be a reason."

If her daughter's partner is really Wu Zhengrong, Chang Yue'e has nothing to complain about. The two of them have been on a blind date before, and it was introduced by the organization, so there won't be any big mistakes.

"The last time he came to the hospital to mobilise for the air raid alarm, I didn't even get a clear look at his face, but he looked quite tall, with straight shoulders. How about asking Lai Ya to bring him back to see?"

Ye Shouxin walked around twice with his hands behind his back, shook his head and said, "Let's just pretend we don't know and don't ask her."

"What's so good about pretending about this?"

"If Xiao Wu comes to our house, shouldn't Lai Ya also go to his? Once both sides have met each other's parents, the wedding won't be far away. Think about when the eldest and second sons got married, wasn't it the same process? They got the marriage certificate in just one or two months."

Wu Zhengrong is already 26 years old, and his family must be anxious about his marriage.

Lai Ya is only 18 years old, so the Ye family is not in a hurry.

Even though it was Old Ye who took the initiative to arrange that blind date, the situation has changed. His daughter now has a job and is a state official, so why is there such a rush to get married?

"You have to listen to me on this matter. You have to keep calm! We don't know how far they've talked about it. If my daughter doesn't bring it up, we'll just pretend we didn't notice!"

*

The couple decided to play dumb for a while, and Ye Manzhi thought that there was no need to make a big fuss in the early stages of a relationship.

Anyway, she didn't intend to hide it deliberately. When her family asked, she would just inform them.

What she was thinking about was the construction indicators of that primary school.

Jin Ping hasn't replied yet, but I have to let Director Mu know about this in advance.

If the Municipal Bureau takes action and the Street Office is completely unprepared, the leaders will be in a passive position.

Therefore, after thinking it over in her mind, she reported to Director Mu the general situation of her conversation with Jin Ping over the weekend.

"Don't the city leaders agree with the street's proposal to advance funds?" Mulan asked.

"The municipal bureau has very strict control over primary school quotas," Ye Manzhi explained, explaining the city's decision to prioritize supporting middle schools. "If the subdistrict office can't fully fund the project, we might have to wait another year or two."

Mulan frowned and fell into deep thought.

Newly built primary schools are different from literacy schools.

Literacy schools are a phased project. You just need to find an idle yard, tidy it up and start classes.

However, public primary schools need to build formal school buildings, and the construction costs are conservatively estimated to be one to two thousand yuan.

The source of such a large amount of funds is a problem.

At the regular street meeting that day, Mulan informed the unit internally about the construction of the primary school.

"Everyone's been working very effectively lately, especially Xiaoye. The literacy classes are doing very well. Factory 656 has also agreed to assign three more teachers to the elementary school for its children, which should help solve the problem of some students finding it difficult to enroll. However, building an elementary school in the subdistrict will require a considerable amount of funding. Let's put our heads together and come up with a solution."

According to Ye Manzhi's estimation, the person most likely to oppose raising funds to build a school should be Zhang Qinjian.

She was mentally prepared for his criticism.

However, Zhang Qinjian did not rush to open fire this time. The first person to raise objections was Zhuang Ting, who had a good relationship with her!

"Director, I don't think it's reasonable for the neighborhood committee to fund schools. Building schools is the job of the Education Bureau. They're shifting the burden onto the grassroots level, which is simply adding to our burden."

With Zhuang Ting leading the charge, Liu Jinbao also expressed his opposition. "Our neighborhood isn't well-off to begin with. Taking out a few thousand yuan in school construction funds would likely impact other work. National Day is approaching, and the city wants us to hang flags and banners on the streets, which will cost a lot of materials. We don't even have enough money for ourselves, so how can we subsidize the school?"

Liu Jinbao felt that Ye Manzhi was taking this matter for granted.

The actual situation of the street office is completely ignored.

Building a primary school is not the job of the street office at all. Isn't this just looking for trouble and bringing trouble upon yourself?

Ye Manzhi understood his concerns, but still explained: "Building a primary school is not the job of our street, but ensuring that school-age children have access to education is our job..."

"Xiao Ye," Wei Zhen said helplessly, "You're still too young to demand perfection in everything. Grassroots work doesn't happen overnight. Funding shortages for primary school construction are an objective fact, and this is the same across the city and even the country. If the students can't enroll this year, then we'll have to wait until the country recovers and has the funds to build a school. It won't be too late then!"

Zhao Erhe crossed his arms and asked, "Sister Wei, if the Education Bureau doesn't give us quotas, will elementary school students have to wait forever? If your own child is too old to go to school, will you have to wait year after year?"

Wei Zhen slammed the table and said, "How can we mix public and private matters? Let me tell you, if my child couldn't go to school, I would understand the country's difficulties and let my child study at home! Even if we start building a school now, it won't be fully operational until next year, and elementary school students will still have to start school a year later. What's the point of rushing to build a school now?"

Ye Manzhi heard that the two of them had been having some unpleasantness recently over welfare work, but the fact that they were using the issue of building a primary school as a culprit made her a little upset.

She didn't speak again after that.

Mulan's original intention was to get everyone to work together to find ways to make money, not to pour cold water on them.

She had not expected that so many people would oppose the construction of a primary school.

When the final vote was taken, only Ye Manzhi and Zhao Erhe agreed to raise funds to build the school.

Feng Chaoyang abstained.

Zhuang Ting, Liu Jinbao, Wei Zhen, and Zhang Qinjian voted against it.

This result made Ye Manzhi a little disappointed.

In order to obtain the quota for school construction, she even used Wu Zhengrong's connections.

However, before the quota was released, internal strife broke out within the subdistrict office...

She didn't take care of the school affairs in the afternoon. She completed the marriage registration procedures for a couple and then left work on time.

Wu Zhengrong must still be working overtime in the factory right now, and given his temper, he probably wouldn't feel bad about doing a favor, since she already appreciated it anyway.

She first opened mailbox No. 16 and took out the note left by Wu Zhengrong.

There were only a few words on it - "The full moon is in the night sky."

Ye Manzhi subconsciously looked up at the sky, it was not dark yet.

What does this mean? Is this a riddle?

Unable to figure it out, she stopped thinking about it, put the note away, and went to find Lin Qingmei with her bag to exchange work experiences.

Lin Qingmei works in the district cultural bureau, where the office ecosystem is much more complicated than that of the street office.

After listening to her talk about the meeting and asking in detail about what each person said, I guessed, "You're just being too involved to be in the right place!"

"What am I obsessed with?"

"You only have that much office funding, and I've used it to run the school. What will happen to others when they need funds to carry out their work? You're causing public outrage!"

"Our office budget is not even enough to build a toilet. We must find a way to raise funds from outside."

"Can you raise thousands of yuan for school funding all by yourself? Do you need other people to help with the fundraising?" Lin Qingmei snorted and laughed. "After the school is built, the credit will definitely go to your director, and then you, who are in charge of education. If others don't benefit, why would anyone agree to build the school?"

Ye Manzhi was speechless: "I often help others with their work. Hygiene, safety, publicity, these are not my jobs. When they ask me for help, I still do it!"

"Oh, forget it. I don't understand the things going on in your unit."

Lin Qingmei is also a newcomer in the workplace and is not much more mature than her.

These suggestions are the limit.

"Go back and ask your Captain Wu. He sits at the same table with the factory leaders, so he definitely knows more than us!"

Speaking of Wu Zhengrong, Ye Manzhi remembered the note she had just received.

"What do you mean by 'a full moon in the night sky'?"

"It means a big moon hanging in the sky," Lin Qingmei laughed. "With my limited literary knowledge, I can only write reports to fool our leaders. I can't rely on me for anything else."

*

Ye Manzhi didn't get an answer from Qingmei, but the four words "fool the leader" were heard to his heart.

After returning home, I hugged the kitten and rubbed my belly for a while, then sat down at the desk and started writing in my diary.

The process of practicing calligraphy is too boring, so she has recently replaced writing calligraphy with writing a diary.

First, I put Wu Zhengrong's note into my personal cookie box. Then, on the first line of my notebook, I wrote, "A full moon is in the night sky," followed by a note: "I don't understand what you're saying."

After recording today's work content and everyone's speech at the regular meeting, Ye Manzhi listed one, two, three ways to "fool the leaders" at the end of the diary.

She revised it several times and after making sure there were no problems, she took the initiative to find Director Mu at work the next day.

In case there were eavesdroppers, she invited people to the yard.

"What's so mysterious?" Mulan asked with a smile.

“It’s still about building a school.”

"Fundraising is indeed a bit troublesome, but the school must be built. Let's wait for a reply from the city first."

Ye Manzhi whispered, "Director, I don't think fundraising is the key. The key is the target. As long as we have the target, we can build the school however we want. The city can't do anything to us. They can't take the target back, can they?"

"Well, what idea did you come up with?"

"I think we must be resolute when facing the municipal bureau and not show any hesitation." Ye Manzhi leaned close to her and said, "It's already autumn, and autumn is short here. Winter is only a month away. The ground freezes easily in winter, making it unsuitable for building houses. It will take at least another four or five months before we can start construction in the spring of next year."

"Anyway, we already have the school quota. In the meantime, let the Education Bureau allocate land and assign teachers. Then we can find a small courtyard and start school for those dozens of first graders right away. We can tell the public that we're teaching while building a new school building, so there won't be any delays."

Mulan pondered the implications of her words and continued, "After winter, we can find a way to raise construction funds. If we can, we'll build the school. If not, we can wait. These children are already in school, so we can't just dismiss them. It would be even better if we could wait until the Education Bureau resumes funding for the primary school. Xiaoye, is that what you mean?"

"Hehe, that's about right."

Mulan muttered in amusement, "Are you trying to cheat your boss? You're not trying to apply for a quota, you're trying to cheat for one!"