Chapter 109: Afraid of being asked, one keeps silent
Yan Xue has always adhered to the principle of using reason with those who have dignity and using fists with those who have no dignity.
Zhou's father is obviously not the former, so there is no need to reason with him. Instead of hoping that he will have a change of heart, it is better to make him afraid.
At least fear is useful for people like this. Yan Xue looked at Zhou Wenhui and said, "It depends on whether you can be so ruthless."
If it were Zhou Wenhui back then, she would definitely not have been able to bear this decision, but she has been working for several years now and knows that some things must be decided decisively.
If she doesn't act decisively, some people will become more and more demanding, and then not only she will be dragged down, but also Weiguo.
It hadn't been easy for them to have the life they had today, and she didn't want it to be ruined. Besides, if her father had any plans for the center, it would affect Yan Xue, who had brought her here.
Thinking of this, Zhou Wenhui's eyes became more determined. She looked at Yan Xue without hesitation and said, "What should we do? You tell me."
A few days later, Zhou's mother came again without mentioning the purpose of her visit. She just came to help Zhou Wenhui clean the house.
Old people always have a way of finding something to do no matter how clean your house is, and then nagging you, thinking you are not living a good life.
When Zhou Wenhui bought some things for her to take back with her, she said to Zhou Wenhui, "Keep the money you earn for yourself. Why buy these?"
"Not all of them are for you." Zhou Wenhui pointed to a pair of lace-up cloth shoes inside. "Didn't Wenmin say that her feet have grown so fast in the past two years that the shoes are always too tight?"
Because of her personal experience, she always felt more sorry for her younger sister who was still staying in that family, and she would always take care of her if she could.
After everything was bought, Zhou's mother didn't say anything else. When Zhou's father asked about it when they got home, she still hesitated and said that she couldn't persuade him.
"She's really grown too powerful!" Zhou's father immediately became furious and slammed the cigarette in his hand on the table.
"I don't think she necessarily doesn't want to." Zhou's mother tried to explain on her daughter's behalf. "She's just a temporary worker at the training center. How can her words have any impact?"
In fact, it won’t be like that soon. The bureau will release a batch of regularization positions this fall, and the training center can get at least one.
But the Zhou family was clearly unaware of this. Father Zhou even raised an eyebrow, "What's wrong with being a temporary worker? After all, she was trained by their technician Yan. Can't she just go and beg him?"
But this person is not so easy to please. Favors are always given in small amounts, and Technician Yan doesn't owe them anything.
Besides, last year when Jianmin graduated, he wasn't in a hurry and let Jianmin go to the countryside, but this year he's worried about the son of a factory director...
Although she didn't know that Wenhui had been transferred to the county last year, Zhou's mother still felt that Zhou's father only thought about himself and ignored his children.
She didn't even dare to say this, but Zhou's father still scolded her for being useless. Zhou's father was still thinking about whether to let his second daughter go next time, so that Wenmin could at least say a few words to Wenhui.
As a result, when he arrived at the unit the next day, he was called to the office by the secretary, and the factory director Ma was also called there.
The two were still confused when they saw the secretary look at Director Ma and ask, "I heard that Lao Zhou was promoted to deputy director. Did he give you a ginseng?"
Director Ma's face immediately changed, and he even said it was impossible. Zhou's father also quickly denied it, "That's not true. Don't listen to their nonsense."
"But I received a letter of complaint that detailed the details, even down to the size of the ginseng."
The secretary took out a letter and placed it on the table without showing it to the two. "This matter is very serious. It was only sent to me. If it was sent to the committee..."
If it was sent to the committee, it wouldn't be the secretary who would talk to them. They would immediately lose their jobs and be dragged out to be criticized.
Both of them looked very unhappy. They didn't know who had brought this up after so long.
And even if the secretary talked to them, the matter could not be resolved peacefully. Both of them would have to stop the work at hand and accept the factory's investigation first.
They really couldn't stand up to scrutiny, especially Zhou's father. Few people knew that Director Ma had confiscated his ginseng, but some people knew that he had originally wanted to marry his daughter to the Jiang family.
As a result of the investigation, Zhou's father was directly dismissed from his position as deputy director, who had only been in the position for a few years. The former team leader was also not able to keep his position and became the most ordinary employee in the factory.
You have to know that even if you are just a team leader, you will get a five-dollar hard work fee in addition to your salary every month, not to mention that if you are an official, you will have some power.
Zhou's father was so angry that he couldn't sleep for several nights in a row. He kept thinking about who was so wicked and wrote a letter to report him.
Later, Director Ma secretly asked him whether his son could still get the job, otherwise he would have to go to the countryside. Then he suddenly realized that this matter could be related to that dead girl?
Otherwise, if he wanted to expose it, he would have done it long ago. Why wait until he has been sitting in the position of deputy director for four years and only remember it now?
Zhou's father immediately drove to the county and angrily found Zhou Wenhui. He slapped her in the face and said, "You did such a bad thing!"
Zhou Wenhui accepted it, but didn't give him a second chance. "If you come to me again, I'll write again, directly to the committee."
Father Zhou raised his hand and then stopped it mid-air, pointing at her, "You, you ungrateful bastard!"
Zhou Wenhui looked at him without wavering, "At worst, you can lose your job. I can support my mother, Wenmin, and Jianlin. That's better than you forcing me like this all the time."
The fact that she could say such words so calmly showed that she was really brave enough to take the risk.
But Zhou Wenhui dared to take the risk, but his father did not. If he lost his job, Zhou Wenhui might not support him.
He doesn't know how he will live by then. He is already in his forties. He can't go to the countryside to open a piece of land and farm, right?
In the end, Zhou's father was sent away by the guards called by Zhou Wenhui. His face was ashen when he left, but there was nothing he could do.
He wanted to find someone else to speak up for him, but Yan Xue and the others ignored him. The only guard who didn't quite understand the situation looked at the others and shut up.
Seeing the figure angrily walking out of the training center, Yan Xue squeezed a towel with cold water and handed it to Zhou Wenhui, "Apply it."
"Thank you." Zhou Wenhui took it and pressed it against her face. Seeing the concerned looks from the others, she curled her lips and said, "I'm fine. At least it's resolved."
The reason why Zhou's father has the final say at home is that he is the only one in the family with a job. How could he possibly gamble with this?
Sure enough, until September, Zhou's father and mother never came again. However, Liu Weiguo took the time to come back from the provincial capital and brought back a lot of things.
I bought a rag doll for Airong, which is not sold in the department stores in this county. Little Fatty also gave me a set of building blocks, which are also not sold in this county.
Airong loved it so much that she wanted to be held while eating, sleeping, and even going to the nursery. But Zhou Wenhui took it away.
Little Fatty also studied it enthusiastically at home for many days. He would take out the toys from the cardboard box every day and put them back after playing with them.
So Yan Jigang sat at the table, he sat on the kang, Yan Jigang memorized the words "Hello" and "Good Maoning", he sat on the kang and said "Hello" and "Good Maoning".
After saying "Mao Ning", he whispered to Yan Xue: "What kind of cat is Mao Ning?" He also knew not to disturb his uncle's studies.
Yan Xue laughed, "Morning doesn't mean cat, it's a word foreigners use, meaning someone who's very far away."
When school started in the fall, Yan Jigang successfully entered the first grade of junior high school and also had an additional foreign language class. Recently, after school, he always had to memorize the words he learned.
Even in those days, foreign language classes in middle schools were quite casual. The teachers taught whatever they knew. In the same grade, some classes learned Russian, some learned Japanese, and some learned English.
Yan Jigang's class was learning English. When the young boy came back, he secretly told Yan Xue that his classmates all wanted to learn Japanese.
After all, ZR has established diplomatic relations now, and they are still selling things to R. What if they learn Japanese and it comes in handy in the future?
Yan Xue thought that learning English was nothing special. After all, it would be the mainstream in the future, and last year the president of Old M came to visit, sending a signal of easing relations.
It was Teacher Yan Jigang's pronunciation. To Yan Xue, it wasn't just Chinglish, it also sounded like a local dialect...
She held it in for a while, but couldn't help asking her brother, "Is this how all your teachers teach?"
"Good morning." A light male voice just happened to sound at the door. Yan Xue looked over and saw Qi Fang who had just entered.
When Yan Xue heard this pronunciation, she immediately recalled the time when she was assembling a semiconductor radio and the man's words "the fans started fighting".
Qi Fang's gaze also fell on Yan Xue. Just now, Yan Xue called Yan Jigang and asked Yan Jigang that question. It was obvious that she knew that Yan Jigang's pronunciation was wrong.
But rural middle schools do not teach foreign languages, just like rural middle schools do not teach people how to grow wood ear mushrooms, or learn about welding and lemons.
It’s just that some doubts have been in my mind for a long time, and gradually they have become a book. It’s very interesting to turn the pages one by one, and I’m not in a hurry to see the ending immediately.
Maybe one day this book will turn the page forward and reveal more to him. Qi Fang didn't ask any more questions.
Yan Jigang repeated his pronunciation and blinked his eyes, "Has my brother-in-law also learned English?"
"Yeah." Qi Fang glanced at Yan Xue before explaining, "My brother-in-law's teacher said that we can't just learn Su Erguan's techniques, we need to look more at foreign countries."
Su Changqing's awareness is quite advanced. After all, when the two countries were in the honeymoon period, experts from Suerguan did not allow the country to see information from other countries.
This is primarily a matter of stance, but in reality, much of the Su'erguan technology was captured from Europe during World War II, and development was slower than in Europe and the US at the time. For example, the RT-12 used by the forest farms was derived from a tractor captured from Country D on the battlefield.
The domestic technology in this area originated from Su'erguan in the 1950s, which is only equivalent to the technology in Europe and the United States in the 1940s. It is even more backward and has basically not been updated.
At least one FAW Jiefang brand car has been in production for more than ten years and will continue to be produced. It has been produced for more than 30 years before a new model is launched.
Su Changqing is indeed a talent in scientific research. He dares to innovate and is not complacent. It's a pity that he lived in the wrong era.
Yan Xue looked at the man and found that he was also looking at her with a quiet look in his eyes. He was probably thinking about the teacher as well.
But compared to that year, there are so many more people around him: Yan Xue in front of him, a little fat boy on the kang, and a brother-in-law at the table.
In just a moment, the fat boy had already pulled Yan Xue and pointed at the building blocks he had put together, "House."
Yan Jigang repeated the pronunciation again and pointed to another word, "How should this be pronounced?"
Qi Fang didn't think about it anymore. He went to help his brother-in-law with English tutoring first. When he was free in the evening, he took out the letter he brought back from get off work.
"Who wrote this?" Yan Xue washed her hair in the main room and asked casually as she came in.
"Zhou Li." Qi Fang handed the letter to her directly, "Look." He took the towel from her hand and helped her wipe it.
Qi Fang's movements were skillful and gentle, so Yan Xue naturally took it and opened it to read the contents.
To be honest, it was a bit surprising, but considering that it was already the second half of 1973, it was not that surprising.
The letter said that the higher-ups were planning to restore the reputations of some veteran cadres. It was a very vague suggestion. Yan Xue turned around and looked at the man. "Can our father and brother come back too?"
"I don't know." Qi Fang lowered his eyes, his expression very calm, but since Zhou Li wrote to him to mention this matter, it was at least possible.
It's not written in the book, and Yan Xue doesn't know whether Qi Fang's father and brother will come back this time or have to wait a few more years.
Moreover, this man had a grudge against his family. He later founded Changqing Heavy Industry and brought down Wu Xingde without relying on his family at all. He couldn't even see his father for the last time.
Thinking about this, Qi Fang had already grasped the end of her damp hair. "Back then, when I went back to Yanjing to ask for help for my teacher's matter, my father and brother turned me away."
The words were calm, but how could his mood be as calm as these words, given that he had such a knot in his heart for so many years?
"I stood outside for most of the day and didn't even see my dad." Qi Fang continued expressionlessly, "And my brother came out and scolded me."
He wiped the hair from the ends to the roots, as if he was talking about someone else's business. "When you scold others for something, they are afraid of bringing trouble to their families. But I insist on getting involved, and I'm afraid of not bringing trouble to my family. You scold me for being raised by the Qi family for the teacher. Why not just change your surname to Su?"
It's no wonder that he had a knot in his heart. At that time, he had nowhere to turn to and his family was his only hope, but he was treated so ruthlessly.
When he rushed back from Yanjing, his teacher had already passed away. Some things are like a thorn in the heart that is difficult to remove.
He didn't have the time to remove it. After all, Wu Xingde had stolen his teacher's research results from him and was promoted all the way. If he wanted to bring him down, he had to be more ruthless and work harder than anyone else.
Qi Fang didn't want to mention these old things before, but he suddenly brought them up today. Yan Xue was a little surprised.
As if he knew what she was thinking, Qi Fang paused and lowered his voice, "I have to let you know clearly, so that you won't be embarrassed later."
Although with her intelligence, she could guess roughly even if he didn't say it, but why did she have to guess?
This made Yan Xue curl her eyes. "Why should I be embarrassed? As long as you don't feel embarrassed."
"I'm fine." Qi Fang had already been scolded. "If they come looking for you, just put the blame on me."
"Then why didn't you put the blame on me when the Xue family came looking for me?"
Yan Xueke still remembered how he had confronted Xue Yongkang. He never said that it was her who didn't allow it or didn't agree.
That was the first time she truly felt that there was someone who could stand in front of her, so why couldn't she help him?
Yan Xue smiled and smoothed her hair. "Things don't necessarily have to get to that point. There were just some signs of it, but the person hasn't come back yet."
Under the light, a pair of eyes were bright and clear, and Qi Fang couldn't help but say "hmm", "Then I'll listen to you."
As he spoke, he helped her tuck the scattered hair behind her ears and said, "You can say whatever you want, do whatever you want."
"Aren't you afraid that I'll persuade you to reconcile with your family?" Yan Xue asked, "After all, a harmonious family is the foundation of everything."
Qi Fang was very sure, "You won't." He touched her earlobe and said, "You never make decisions for others casually."
Yan Xue is like this. After all, there are some feelings that only the person himself knows best. Sometimes the so-called persuasion is actually forcing one's own ideas on others.
She had been advised too much in both of her lives. She didn't like it and didn't want to impose it on others. Unexpectedly, Qi Fang saw it so clearly.
Yan Xue narrowed her eyes, grabbed the man's hand and leaned forward, "As long as you feel happy."
Qi Fang took the opportunity to hold her in his arms, as if he was holding an entire peaceful world, "Yeah." He felt his heart calm down.
Unfortunately, before he could say anything more, there was a sound of footsteps approaching outside, and the captain of the adultery-catching team, Qi Yanyu, had finished listening to the broadcast.
Qi Fang hesitated for only a second between fooling his son first and continuing at night, and provoking his son and not being able to continue at night, and decisively chose the former.
So the little guy ran in, looked left and right, didn't see anything wrong, and happily jumped into his mother's arms.
In mid-August, Qi Fang's modified Jiji 50 had been in use for more than a month, proving that there were indeed no performance issues.
After the news was reported, Secretary Tang immediately allocated another sum of money to buy spare parts, and in September, the two remaining machines with the most serious problems were also repaired.
All that's left is to wait for the weather to get colder. To be honest, Secretary Tang himself has little confidence. After all, the hydrostatic system was working fine before. Who would have thought that it would break down as soon as they went up the mountain?
So when logging started, he instructed the forest farms that had changed their systems to report any situations in a timely manner.
Several forestry secretaries were unsure, so after hearing his instructions, they decided to go up the mountain themselves to see whether the newly installed system could be used.
The old tractor driver had seen Master Tang test the machine before, and said, "As long as the cold weather doesn't affect it, there shouldn't be any problems."
"Is it really the same as those old batches of timber collected in other cities?" Their forestry secretary still didn't believe it.
After all, we were all waiting for the provincial government to allocate funds to replace the system, but after waiting for a while, the system was not replaced. Who wouldn’t feel uneasy if they changed it themselves?
The old tractor driver was not the type to talk nonsense. He put on a hat and gloves and got on the machine directly. After getting used to it, he quickly turned the power to maximum.
Seeing him dragging so much wood down the mountain, the forestry secretary's eyes widened. Then he made one trip, no problem, two trips, still no problem, three trips...
When it was time to get off work that evening, tractor drivers from other teams couldn't help but come over and ask, "How's it going? Is it working well?"
"It must work," the old tractor driver said. "I've been running it at full power all day and nothing has gone wrong."
"It has been used for half a month and there is no problem." Secretary Tang received the news later.
But no matter whether it comes sooner or later, this is good news. After hearing this, Secretary Tang finally felt relieved.
Moreover, these three machines are all running at maximum power, and can pull a lot more wood every day than before. Several forest farms have begun to ask whether the other machines can also be replaced.
After all, there was no comparison before, so I didn’t notice it. Now the vivid comparison is right in front of me. Who doesn’t want to get more praise and be an advanced person this year?
It was because Qu Mingli had previously asked the small repair shops in each forestry farm to count the degree of machine wear and tear. The news inevitably spread, and the several towns below all knew that the county bureau was going to change the system.
Now that the changes have been made and the results have been seen, more than just these three forest farms want to be changed. Secretary Tang has received many calls from people below asking about the changes recently.
This gave him a headache. When he ran into Qu Mingli at the bureau, he said to him, "You want to change this, you want to change that. Where is the bureau going to get all the money?"
"Everyone wants to be advanced and contribute more to the country." Qu Mingli smiled warmly and was not surprised at all that this situation had occurred.
It would be fine if no one changed, but now some forest farms have changed. Wouldn’t those who don’t change fall behind?
But the bureau really couldn't come up with so much money, so these three machines were modified using the extra income from the wood ear cultivation industry.
"If it really doesn't work, let the interested towns take the lead first." Qu Mingli suggested to Secretary Tang, "We'll report it together later."
He reminded Secretary Tang, "The money from these three stations must be reported to the city and province in the future."
Even if they changed it themselves, they can't pay for it themselves. The things with problems were purchased by the province, not because they had problems using them.
Secretary Tang suddenly understood when he heard this. He went back and called the Forestry Bureaus of several towns. They said they could make the changes, but the money for the accessories would have to be paid by the Forestry Bureaus of each town.
Of course, it is not a free payment. The county bureau has accounts. When the provincial government allocates the funds in the future, it will be directly allocated to each town according to the quantity.
Whether or not to modify these machines and how many to modify depends entirely on the economic strength of the forestry bureaus in each town.
The richest town here is Chengshui Town, which immediately decided to replace the worst-performing unit in each forest farm first.
The most upset was Liuhu Town. They were completely upset when they heard the news. After confirming it again and again, they even came to find Deputy Director An to seek connections.
"Let us cover the cost ourselves first, but what will we use? How can the bureau afford that much money? Didn't the county bureau change before? Why can't our town change it too?"
That was for emergency purposes. There is no other way. Now we have to give it back to Liuhu Town for change. Won’t the other towns be in an uproar?
Deputy Director An didn't dare to say that. "Aren't you selling wild vegetables to Japan this year? It should be no problem to buy a few units first."
The secretary of the Forestry Bureau of Liuhu Town choked. He was quite talkative just now, but suddenly he fell silent.
Deputy Director An saw something was wrong. "What's wrong? Are they not selling well? Isn't it free to pull wild vegetables?"
There is no cost to pick wild vegetables, but there must be wild vegetables to pick on the mountain...
The secretary of Liuhu Town continued to answer questions without saying a word. It was really hard to explain that they had been busy for more than a month, not making much money, and even making people complain.
The main thing is that after the final accounts were settled, the amount each person got was too little, less than 40 cents per day, which was basically working for nothing.
"If we don't harvest the crops this year, there's nothing we can do about it. But it will be fine next year. It's impossible not to harvest this kind of thing every year."
He still explained to himself, "Besides, it's not just our town. Donggou Town also doesn't have the money to cover it. Do you really think every town has clear water?"
That's true. Deputy Director An was about to nod when he heard someone outside say, "Come over and pay the money. Don't you want to modify the tractor?"
The voice was filled with laughter and belonged to the secretary of the Donggou Town Forestry Bureau. When the secretary of the Liuhu Town Forestry Bureau heard this, his heart skipped a beat.
They came to the county to pay the money so soon. Did Donggou Town make a profit from growing wood ear mushrooms this year?
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