Chapter 122 New Technological Breakthrough
"Your family raised me? Why didn't you tell me that I started when I was six years old, holding you by my hand and holding Li Qiulan in my arms?"
Jiang Haitang's eyes were calm as she stared at Li Shengjie. Li Shengjie didn't dare to speak.
"If you really want to argue, I was the one pulling you along. Don't be so quick to object. Whatever you three are wearing or stepping on, which one wasn't made by me?"
"Do you need me to help you recall what life was like in your house? We lived in a woodshed, didn't have enough to eat, didn't have warm clothes, washed clothes by the river in the winter, worked in the fields under the scorching sun in the summer, and were beaten, scolded, and bullied."
"There is no favor owed to me, so you don't need to ask for repayment."
Jiang Haitang finished speaking in one breath, ignored them, and turned around to go home.
Wu Xiuyun immediately slapped her thigh and howled, "What a sin! I raised my daughter for over ten years, and now she doesn't recognize her as her mother! If I hadn't taken you in, you would have starved to death on the roadside!"
"Sister-in-law, let's not talk about the past. We don't have any other requests. Just let us live in this yard, as before, and provide for Qiulan and me to go to school." Li Shengjie looked at the yard with greedy eyes.
This yard is much more decent than his brother's small house. It would be nice to live here.
Jiang Haitang laughed out loud: "Your brother didn't die on the battlefield, and you still want to suck my blood? I pay for your schooling, but you don't even consider whether you are worthy of it."
"Sister-in-law, you weren't like this before. How come you've changed so quickly after just a short time in the city? Do you have someone else outside? This is not good. You're a woman, how can you find another man?"
Li Shengjie's expression looked as if Jiang Haitang had done something shameful.
"Oh, didn't your brother say that we didn't get a marriage certificate and wanted to dissolve our marriage? Why, your brother is already married, and I still have to observe three years of mourning for him?"
The onlookers, based on the previous rumors in the factory, began to discuss it.
"Haitang suffered a lot when she was in the Li family before. Fortunately, this girl is capable. Otherwise, she would have been tortured to death by your family." Aunt Kong couldn't stand it anymore and started to blame.
"Who are you? Why are you meddling in other people's business? What right do you have to interfere in our family affairs?" Li Qiulan cursed when she saw an old lady suddenly appear and dared to criticize their family.
"Your family's affairs? Everyone in the factory knows about this. Haitang has nothing to do with your family, and yet you still have the nerve to talk about it."
"If you ask me, a blessed girl will not marry into an unblessed family."
"Haitang, are you really so cruel? After all, I took you in." Wu Xiuyun still wanted to play the emotional card.
"Take him in?" Jiang Haitang squatted down, looking Wu Xiuyun in the eye. "I came to your house when I was six, and you married me to Li Ergou when I was twelve. I worked in the production team during the day, and washed and cooked for your family at night. When Li Ergou faked his death and you fell ill, I knelt at the village entrance to beg for a doctor. When the whole family couldn't eat, I went door to door begging for help... It was me who raised you all these years!"
Li Shengjie panicked and reached out to pull Jiang Haitang's sleeve: "Sister-in-law, don't be angry, we..."
"Don't touch her!" Lu Liangchen appeared at the door at some point. He took two steps forward and stood in front of Jiang Haitang with his iron tower-like body.
Li Qiulan's eyes lit up. This was the person she had been thinking about day and night. She had been wondering how to find him, and now she met him. Isn't this fate?
She hurried forward with a smile on her face, but before she could even say a word, she was frightened by Lu Liangchen's cold eyes and took a step back.
"Leave now, immediately." Lu Liangchen's voice was low but carried unquestionable authority. "Otherwise, I will ask the security department to take you away."
The crowd also started to make noises.
Aunt Wei shouted, "No need for the security comrades. We'll send them back to Li Ergou. Whoever owns them should raise them. There's no point in giving them to someone else!"
Soon, several people came forward and dragged the three members of the Li family away.
Before leaving, Li Qiulan did not forget to turn around and glare at Jiang Haitang. Her resentful eyes seemed to want to eat Jiang Haitang.
Wu Xiuyun was thinking in her mind how to make this "ungrateful person" submit.
Jiang Haitang looked at their receding backs, the cold wind blowing her hair.
"Thank you everyone!"
"If this shameless family comes again in the future, leave it to us." Aunt Kong said loudly.
"Yes, Engineer Jiang, you still have to be busy with the R&D projects in the factory. You can't waste your time on these idiots."
"Yes, yes, leave it to us. If they dare to approach Engineer Jiang's yard, we will chase them away."
Jiang Haitang smiled, a smile that was relaxed and relieved - this time, she finally didn't have to be afraid anymore.
Time flies, and in the blink of an eye, it is already 1975.
On the first day of the new year, the ice on the glass windows had not yet melted, but heat was already rising from the workshop.
The loom was singing merrily, and the wool was fluttering in the sunshine like golden snow.
Jiang Haitang watched the snow-white cashmere stretching into clouds on the carding machine, being combed layer by layer on the roving machine and the fine spinning machine, and finally turning into shiny and soft wool yarn, which shone with a pearly luster under the fluorescent light. Her eyes became hot.
“It worked, it worked!”
With the workers' joyful shouts, Jiang Haitang finally felt relieved.
After more than a month of repeated debugging, the technical team she led finally overcame the difficulties in cashmere yarn weaving.
The wool yarn produced now fully meets the textile requirements of wool sweaters.
A female worker rushed out of the workshop with a ball of yarn that had just come off the production line, shouting "Success! Success!" as she ran.
Soon, there was a noisy sound outside the workshop, and the whole factory began to boil.
In the workshop, more than twenty pairs of eyes were staring at the loom without blinking.
Old technician Lao Zhang stroked the wool with trembling fingers: "This velvety feel and this twist, I saw it once before, and it was imported!"
Soon, many people poured into the workshop and the workers burst into cheers. Some people pulled down the red silk on the workshop wall, tied the wool balls into big bows, and hung them on the machines.
"Don't mess around, don't mess around. We finally debugged it successfully." Lao Zhang shouted hurriedly and anxiously.
Jiang Haitang explained the new process to the enthusiastic workers who gathered around him: "We have improved the spacing between the carding card clothing and adjusted the steam setting parameters..."
Before she finished speaking, young female worker Li Mei held up a sample of wool and said, "Sister Haitang, the sweaters weaved with this yarn will definitely earn the factory foreign exchange!"
Before he could finish his words, he heard someone outside shouting "Success, Success!" and running towards the workshop.
"Why is there still someone shouting outside?" Someone asked curiously, "This reaction is too slow!"
Jiang Haitang also looked outside.
The person who shouted success soon came in from outside. He was a senior official from the factory office.
"Secretary Gao, what success did you achieve? Are you talking about wool?" someone asked quickly.
"It's not wool, it's news from the machinery factory that the patterned jacquard knitting machine has been successful."
When Jiang Haitang heard the news, she was so excited that she couldn't speak.
"That's great, that's great, we can now produce wool sweaters." Jiang Haitang was so excited that she almost jumped up, her eyes were hot.
"That's what the factory director said. He said we should try to produce the first batch of wool sweaters before the New Year."
Secretary Gao was very excited and his tone became high-pitched.
"Comrades, for the woolen sweaters, come on! For foreign exchange, come on! For building a beautiful China, come on!"
I don’t know who started shouting, but in an instant, the workshop became noisy again. Everyone was shouting various slogans, and it was very lively.
As the sun sets, Jiang Haitang walks towards the factory director's office carrying the first batch of finished wool yarn.
The bulletin board outside the workshop has been replaced with a new slogan: "Innovation creates high production, a new chapter in cashmere weaving."
In front of a blackboard, a propaganda officer with two thick braids was writing on it with chalk. Under the title "New Year, New Journey," she wrote: "The old factory is setting new pace. This year we will produce high-quality wool sweaters!"
Someone in some workshop was singing "We Workers Have Power". The loud singing, mixed with the roar of the loom, made the ice flowers on the glass windows rustle.
In the cold wind, she looked at the leafless poplar trees on both sides of the factory road, imagining that next spring, these trees and the cashmere yarn they developed would bloom with new vitality on this land.
The aroma of dumplings wafting from the distant family building, mixed with the unique warmth of cashmere, makes this first day of the new year particularly exciting.
The New Year's wind blew up the loose hair at Jiang Haitang's temples, swept across the red flags fluttering in the factory area, and blew towards a farther place.
The good news of technological breakthroughs coming one after another from textile mills and machinery factories was like thunder in spring, which quickly caused a strong shock in the industry.
This news soon reached the ears of the superiors.
Just after New Year’s Day, Director Tan of the Provincial Department of Economics and Trade personally led a team to conduct research on the two factories.
There were still sporadic snowflakes floating in the sky and the wind was bitingly cold, but it could not dampen Director Tan's enthusiasm at all.
Director Tan's car slowly drove into the gate of the textile factory. The factory was bustling with activity. The workers were busy in an orderly manner, their faces filled with confidence and pride.
"His mental outlook is quite different from before." Director Tan glanced through the window for a few times and said to Deputy Director Wang with a smile.
"We won a big order at the Canton Fair and made continuous technological breakthroughs. Isn't this different?" Deputy Director Wang also had a smile on his face.
"Comrade Lao Hu made great efforts before he was transferred."
"Director Hu certainly made a great contribution, but I heard that the major breakthroughs achieved by the textile factory and the machinery factory were all related to one person."
Director Tan became interested and asked, "Who is this person? So amazing? How could this one person be responsible for the breakthroughs of both factories?"
He has been working in the Department of Economics and Trade for so many years, but he has never seen such a talent.
"You also know this person, she is the female comrade who was injured while fighting a fire last year!" Deputy Director Wang reminded.
"I seem to have some impression of her. She's a pretty young girl."
Director Tan thought about it and remembered this person.
"She's very young. She'll only be 20 after the Chinese New Year. The last time two factories won big orders at the Canton Fair, it was largely due to her contribution."
"We should make use of people like this and not waste their talents," Director Tan said with interest.
"yes!"
"Let's go to the textile workshop first." Director Tan arranged, and the driver immediately drove towards the workshop.
Director Hu and other leading members of the team were waiting for Director Tan in the conference room. Suddenly they received news that Director Tan had gone to the textile workshop, so they hurriedly ran towards the textile workshop.
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