Chapter 291 Settled
The early morning sunlight shone into the courtyard through the mist, and when Jiang Haitang woke up, she smelled the familiar aroma of millet porridge.
She got up and put on her clothes, only to see Aunt Cai already busy in the kitchen.
"Oh, my little ancestor, why are you up so early? You still have a while to go to work, lie down for a while."
Aunt Cai turned around and saw Jiang Haitang, and hurriedly wiped her hands and came over to help her.
"I'm awake." Jiang Haitang said with a smile.
"You are a double now, so you have to be careful."
Jiang Haitang held Aunt Cai's hand and said, "Aunt, I'm not that squeamish. But you were exhausted yesterday. Why did you get up so early?"
"Hey, we country folk are used to getting up early." Aunt Cai quickly filled a bowl of golden millet porridge, and brought out a plate of pickled cucumbers and two boiled eggs. "Try it quickly. This is the new millet I brought from home. It's the most nourishing porridge."
The porridge had a rich aroma. Jiang Haitang took a bite and found it tasted really good.
She looked at Aunt Cai's busy back and thought of what they had discussed yesterday: "Aunt, when will Uncle Dashan go home today?"
"I went to the machinery factory early in the morning and planned to go see Dazhu and then go back."
"Come to think of it, I haven't seen Dazhu for a while. Auntie, you should go see him."
Jiang Haitang thought, let Aunt Cai go and see Dazhu, the two factories are not far away.
"Taking care of you is my top priority. If Dazhu is free, just come and see me."
Aunt Cai was busy and answered Jiang Haitang's questions casually.
"We have to worry about what we planned yesterday. Liangchen hasn't been back from a meeting these two days. When he comes back, tell him about our plan." Jiang Haitang was still thinking about this.
"Haitang, your health is the most important thing. Don't take it lightly just because you're young. We can't do the embroidery work until you're well again."
"I'm really fine. Haven't you seen that I'm in much better health now?" Jiang Haitang held her forehead. She felt that she was in good health, so why were they all worried about her?
As she was speaking, a voice came from outside the door: "Aunt Haitang, there's a letter for you!"
It turned out that a neighbor's child brought a letter to Jiang Haitang.
Aunt Cai hurried to get it.
Jiang Haitang opened the letter and saw that it was a letter sent from Hong Kong. It was written by Wu Huiting and contained some requirements for wool sweaters. It mentioned the trademark issue and asked if there was any solution.
"What a coincidence." Jiang Haitang put the letter aside and said, "Aunt Cai, I'm afraid we can't delay the trademark matter."
Aunt Cai asked, "What's going on? Why are you so anxious?"
Jiang Haitang repeated Wu Huiting's request.
"This is really Qiao'er's mother opening the door for Qiao'er. Qiao has arrived home."
Aunt Cai originally thought that Jiang Haitang might have come up with this idea in order to promote the Qingshuigou Brigade, so she didn't think there was any rush.
Now it seems that the trademark issue is indeed an important issue.
"How about letting Uncle Dashan stay one more night? After Liangchen finishes the meeting tonight and finalizes the matter, let Uncle Dashan go back and tell the captain?"
"Oh, I wonder if this old man will know to come back later."
"I'll call the machinery factory and ask them to tell Dazhu."
Aunt Cai was relieved after hearing this and said with a smile, "It's more convenient in the city. I was thinking about it. This is not in the mountains, and you can't hear us shouting in the mountains."
After dinner, Jiang Haitang went to work. Aunt Cai felt that she couldn't sit idle either, so she started to busy herself inside and outside the house. Under Aunt Cai's care, the small house became much cleaner and fresher.
After Zhao Dashan came back, he was not idle. After knowing that he had to wait for Lu Liangchen to come back to discuss something, he began to take the initiative to find work to do in the yard. After trying, he found that the vegetable garden had thawed, so Zhao Dashan simply helped to turn over the soil in the front and back yards.
I also chopped a lot of firewood for them. When they had nothing to do, they squatted in the yard and smoked pipes.
In the evening, Lu Liangchen came home from get off work. As soon as he entered the door, he smelled the fragrance of food. He saw Zhao Dashan and Aunt Cai in the house, and greeted them with a smile.
"Aunt Cai, Uncle Zhao, are you here?"
"Oh, you are the factory director, how can we be worthy of being called uncle or aunt by you?"
"You are Haitang's uncle and aunt, so you are my uncle and aunt." Lu Liangchen said very politely: "Haitang hasn't come back yet?"
"He hasn't come back yet."
"Aunt Cai, Uncle Dashan, you must have had a hard journey." Lu Liangchen quickly put down his briefcase and greeted them warmly.
"It's not hard, not hard at all. We arrived yesterday and have already rested for a night." Zhao Dashan knocked on the pipe, stood up, and smiled innocently.
As they were talking, they heard the door open. It turned out that Jiang Haitang had returned.
Aunt Cai said with a smile, wearing an apron, "Haitang is back. Go wash your hands and have dinner. I stewed an old hen to nourish you."
Jiang Haitang immediately understood and said, "Aunt Cai, is that the old hen you brought yesterday? Why didn't I see it? Did you hide it?"
"Oh, kid, it's enough for you to have meat to eat. Why do you care where it comes from?" Aunt Cai interrupted.
The atmosphere at the dinner table was warm and lively.
Aunt Cai kept picking up food for Jiang Haitang, muttering about things pregnant women should pay attention to and sharing some advice from experience.
Lu Liangchen also asked in detail about the situation in the team and talked about Dazhu's work performance in the city, and couldn't help but praise him a few words.
After dinner, Aunt Cai quickly washed the dishes.
On this side, Jiang Haitang had already told Lu Liangchen about his thoughts and Wu Huiting's letter.
Lu Liangchen listened very carefully, his fingers tapping the table unconsciously.
After Jiang Haitang finished speaking, he pondered for a moment.
"This is a great idea! Boss Wu also happens to need this. It can both meet the factory's potential needs and increase the income of the villagers. It's a great thing. But..."
Lu Liangchen first confirmed it, then changed the subject and looked at Jiang Haitang, "Haitang, the most important thing for you right now is to take good care of your health. This matter involves too much energy, so you can't worry too much."
"I know. I'm just making a suggestion. I don't plan to do it myself." Jiang Haitang nodded. "You definitely can't let me do the specific running errands and coordination."
"Then just tell me your ideas and I'll see who is more suitable to do this."
"My idea is to first finalize the design of our hand-embroidered labels and treat it as an outsourced project. The factory will sign a simple processing agreement with the Qingshuigou Brigade. The brigade leader or someone nominated by their brigade will be responsible for management, distribution of raw materials, inspection, and collection of finished products. The factory will settle the bill based on the qualified quantity. This way, our factory saves labor and space, while the villagers benefit – a perfect win-win situation."
"Your thinking is very clear, and this approach is indeed more standardized, avoiding potential trouble later. I'll hold a meeting tomorrow at the factory to discuss this and ask for their opinions. If everyone agrees, we'll communicate with the Qingshuigou Brigade. It would be best if we could discuss this in detail with the brigade leader. We must have the full support of the brigade leader and the Qingshuigou elders for this to be successfully implemented."
Zhao Dashan had been sitting nearby, smoking silently. Hearing this, he said, "Director Lu is right. We need their approval. But they'll definitely agree. This will be of great benefit to Qingshuigou."
If this job is successful, it will make much more money than digging kaolin, so there is no way the team leader would disagree.
"That's settled then," Lu Liangchen agreed. "I'll have to trouble Uncle Dashan to make the trip."
"It's not that hard at all. I'll go back tomorrow afternoon. For everyone's sake, I have to go back even on foot, not to mention taking a car." Zhao Dashan said with a simple smile.
The matter was preliminarily agreed upon and everyone felt relieved.
Aunt Cai chatted with Jiang Haitang for a while, then urged her to go to bed early.
The next day, after Zhao Dashan heard the results of Lu Liangchen's discussion, he immediately returned to the Qingshuigou Brigade.
He had a bumpy journey and only returned to the Qingshuigou Brigade when it was getting dark.
He didn't bother to go home and went straight to the house of the team leader Zhao Zhijian.
Before Zhao Zhijian returned home, he rushed to the brigade headquarters again.
At the brigade headquarters, Zhao Zhijian and several other brigade cadres were discussing something. They were surprised to see Zhao Dashan coming in exhausted.
They knew that Zhao Dashan had gone to the textile factory to see Jiang Haitang these two days.
"Dashan? Didn't you send your wife to the city to take care of Haitang? Why are you back now? Are you so anxious? Did something happen to Haitang?"
Zhao Zhijian stood up eagerly and asked Zhao Dashan.
Jiang Haitang is the hope of their team, and nothing must happen to her.
"Captain, it's good news! Very good news! Haitang has a great thing to do with our team!"
When Zhao Zhijian and the others heard what Zhao Dashan said, they all became happy, and even their eyes lit up.
"I knew Haitang was our team's lucky star. Dashan, tell me, what exactly happened?"
Zhao Dashan explained Jiang Haitang's plan in detail, and especially emphasized that the payment would be based on the piecework, five cents for each embroidery, and an experienced worker could earn more than one dollar a day.
Zhao Zhijian paced back and forth in the room, rubbing his hands excitedly: "This is a great opportunity for women! It doesn't interfere with cooking and taking care of children, and I can still earn some extra income!"
"What do you guys think? Do you think this can be accomplished?"
The team leader suddenly thought that he couldn't make the decision alone on this matter, and he had to discuss it with other team leaders.
The other cadres were shocked by the sudden good news and did not react for a while. Only when they heard Zhao Zhijian asking them did they hurriedly express their opinions.
Naturally, they almost all agreed with this matter, but they felt that they should still be cautious.
Scorekeeper Wang Youcai frowned after hearing this. "Captain, this is indeed a good thing, but if people outside find out, wouldn't this be capitalism? What if the higher-ups give us trouble?"
"How can it be capitalism?" Zhao Zhijian had basically made up his mind. He immediately said, "This is a collective sideline! Just like beekeeping and basket weaving in other brigades, it's a legitimate socialist collective economy!"
Or so, he insisted.
Zhao Youcai stroked his chin, thinking, "That's true...but I've never done embroidery before. Can the women in our brigade, with their rough hands and feet, really do it?"
"I asked my wife about this. She said that many women in the brigade can embroider. We don't understand their women's affairs, but they must know it clearly."
"When you get back, ask your wives who in our team can embroider. If you can find a dozen or so who can, it shouldn't be a problem."
After hearing what the captain said, everyone knew that the captain was moved, and those who had originally wanted to refute gave up the idea.
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