Ye Zhi asked a few children to go fishing with other family members in the courtyard, and then invited Director Li into their house.
Director Li had been to Ye Zhi's home a few years ago. When he came again, he saw that the house seemed to have not changed much, except that the walls had been fanned with dust and plastered with white grease, making it look more spacious and brighter.
Festive spring couplets and window decorations are pasted on the window sills and doors of several rooms, adding a touch of the festive atmosphere of the Spring Festival.
Because it was Chinese New Year, Lu Wei brought a lot of tea home. Many guests came during the New Year holidays, and Ye Zhi's tea-making skills improved.
After making the tea, Ye Zhi held the porcelain cup in both hands and brought it to Director Li, saying, "Director Li, I'm sorry for not welcoming you well. Please have some tea."
Director Li nodded, picked up the teacup and took a sip, "Thank you."
Director Li looked at Ye Zhi while drinking tea.
At this moment, Ye Zhi was already dressed like a respectable woman in the provincial capital. Both her hairstyle and clothes were very fashionable, making people unable to help but take a second look at her.
When he met her at the door just now, Director Li didn't recognize her at first. Although Ye Zhi had been outstanding before, she was now even more beautiful, like a big star on TV.
Then, the two exchanged pleasantries, and at the end, Ye Zhi took the initiative to ask about the current situation of the textile factory.
Director Li finally waited for Ye Zhi to bring up this topic. He had known for a long time that Ye Zhi had opened a clothing factory in Yangcheng. He heard that it was getting bigger and bigger, and she was also preparing to create her own brand. To be honest, as the person in charge of a factory, he also wanted to make the factory bigger and better like Ye Zhi. But the reality is that the situation is getting worse and worse, and the factories can no longer afford to pay their wages.
If the losses continue, there will be only one outcome: closing down.
Director Li sighed softly and said, "Comrade Ye, you also worked in a textile factory before. To be honest, our factory has all the common problems of state-owned factories. The workers are not enthusiastic about their work, and some of them even like to take some fabrics home from the factory."
"Now, whether in the city or in small places like ours, there are small clothing workshops run by individual households everywhere. I believe you know this situation in Guangzhou. Guangzhou is now the largest textile city. It is difficult for us old factories to operate. Especially since our prices cannot beat those of individual households, our textile factory has been losing money every year for three consecutive years."
Ye Zhi listened carefully to what Director Li said. To be honest, the common problems of state-owned factories were clearly exposed under the impact of economic opening. The workers were not motivated at work, the products were backward, the styles were old, and the prices could not be lowered. There was really no way to compete with today's individual businesses.
Seeing that Ye Zhi didn't say anything, Director Li continued, "In the past two years, the organization encouraged contracting. At that time, an investor from Hong Kong contracted it, but the losses increased year by year. At the end of last year, they said they would stop doing it."
Ye Zhi understood what Director Li meant, so she went straight to the point and asked, "Director Li, is there anything I can do to help the factory?"
Ye Zhi has always kept in mind the factory's tolerance and compassion for her. Now that Director Li is old and has put aside his own pride to come to her, she will do her best to help if she can.
With Ye Zhi's words, Director Li became much bolder. "Comrade Ye, you have run the Yangcheng clothing factory so well, how about we contract our factory to you?"
Ye Zhi had already understood what Director Li had just said. When she heard Director Li speak, she didn't think too much and just said, "Director Li, I'm sure you know that I already have a clothing factory, but I can't do it in two places. In order to take care of the children, most of the things are handed over to Chen Fang to help me." "Besides, the scale of the textile factory on our island is larger than mine. My ability is limited. If I were to contract it, I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to take it all by myself."
The contracting system requires the company to be responsible for its own profits and losses, and also requires the company to pay a fixed profit to the local government. If the factory continues to make losses year after year, it will not only fail to make money, but will even lose money.
When Director Li heard this, he thought there was a chance, and said hurriedly: "As long as you are willing to take on the contract, it will be fine. As for how many people to hire, you can decide freely."
"Then how do you plan to contract it to me?" As she spoke, Ye Zhi added more tea to Director Li's cup.
Director Li wiped his hands on his thighs and said, "30,000. Every year, we will hand over 30,000 to the local department."
Thirty thousand is not a lot, but for a textile factory, it is a lot.
Ye Zhi didn't keep it a secret, "Okay, but I have a condition."
Hearing Ye Zhi's affirmative answer, Director Li wanted to agree to her without even listening.
Ye Zhi took a sip of tea and smiled slightly: "The textile factory was changed into a duck and goose feather processing factory."
"This..." Director Li's expression froze, and he couldn't believe his ears.
Ye Zhi explained: "I believe that Director Li, you also know that Yangcheng's clothing industry is now the best in the country. No matter how we reform, we will never surpass it. If it is just for profit, we should reform thoroughly."
"In the past two years, a new product called down jackets has emerged. Duck and goose feathers are used in the clothes, and there are large and small duck breeding bases on Qiongzhou Island. Nowadays, every household likes to raise ducks and geese. During the Chinese New Year, people also slaughtered a lot of chickens, ducks and geese. They have no other use, either thrown away or composted. But if we spread the news and exchange matches or money for the useless things they have, I believe everyone will be happy to give the feathers to our factory."
“Then we can turn waste into treasure.”
Director Li was eager to make a move, but he suppressed his excitement. He thought for a while and said, "How about this, if you are not in a hurry, I will go back and have a small meeting with the leaders of the factory and give you an answer then?"
Ye Zhi smiled and said, "I hope the factory manager can make a decision as soon as possible. After all, the Spring Festival is a very good opportunity."
Director Li nodded: "Okay."
Two days later, Director Li gave her a reply and expressed his willingness to do as Ye Zhi said.
That night, Ye Zhi talked about this with Lu Wei. Actually, Ye Zhi was not short of money now, but seeing that the textile factory was now on the verge of collapse, she couldn't help but want to lend a hand.
Down jackets will be the trend in winter in the future, and the demand will increase. Although the clothes are only produced for one quarter, as long as all manufacturers cooperate and increase the demand, there is no need to worry about not making money.
After hearing this, Lu Wei had no objection. He just hugged her and smiled: "What should we do? You are getting more and more powerful. Our whole family depends on you to support us."
Lu Wei knew that if it weren’t for Ye Zhi’s identity as a military wife, she would definitely do better in the clothing business.
But it was precisely because of this identity that she became restricted in her actions. Apart from making suggestions behind the scenes, she had no chance to show her talents.
Ye Zhi smiled and leaned into his arms, "Silly boy, when I didn't have a job before, didn't you support me?"
Lu Wei: "It's different. Although you don't have a job, you have contributed your youth and sweat to our family. You have survived two near-death experiences and given birth to four children. You are much greater than me."
"Thank you, my dear wife." Lu Wei hugged her tightly in his arms and pressed a kiss on her black hair with his thin lips.
Ye Zhi truly felt the sincerity of Lu Wei's words and said with a smile: "Comrade Lu, you are a glorious soldier serving the motherland and the people. You have worked hard."
"Thank you."
Several children were sneaking around the door of the room, watching their parents hugging each other. Lu Xingyun couldn't help but say, "Hey, look at mom and dad, they are kissing again."
"Why are they always kissing? Are they going to have another brother or sister?"
"No way! Dad said that he won't have any more brothers or sisters in the future. We are enough for them!"
"Then why are they kissing? Look, they're even sticking out their tongues."
“Eh…”
Lu Xingzhou held Lu Xingyun and said, "Come on, Lu Xingyun, we are a family, I want to kiss you too..."
"Get lost! Who the hell wants to kiss you? Your mouth stinks!" Lu Xingyun pushed away Lu Xingzhou who was approaching him, showing disgust.
Ping Ping and An An looked at each other and said, "We can't bear to see you anymore. We are going to bed now."
"Good night, brother."
"Good night, sister."
Ye Zhi, who heard the children talking in the room, blushed, pinched Lu Wei's arm, and said, "Didn't I tell you to close the door? Look, the kids saw it again."
Lu Wei chuckled: "It's so hot, why close the door? We're not doing anything."
"Is this nothing? Your son said we are going to have a brother or sister..."
"You also know that your two sons are ignorant, right? A kiss is enough to make a baby..."
"Isn't he also your son? That's not right, Comrade Lu Wei. Did you already know how to have a child when you were as young as Nianniansuisui?"
To be honest, when Ye Zhi was a child, she also thought that holding hands meant getting married and having children.
Isn’t Lu Wei, this old antique, actually?
Lu Wei met his wife's suspicious eyes and instantly felt that he had shot himself in the foot. He immediately raised three fingers and swore: "I swear, I don't know either."
"A man's mouth is a lie!"
Ye Zhi found Chen Fang and her eldest brother, second brother and third brother, and together they contracted the textile factory on the island.
The textile factory that has been in operation for more than a decade is about to undergo a revamp. However, this time, Ye Zhi still decides not to participate in all the decisions of the factory, but to hand over the management rights back to Director Li.
Since Director Li was so proud to come to her, he must have the purest sense of responsibility towards the textile factory. Ye Zhi felt that she could trust him enough to manage the factory.
Time suddenly passed to 1986 amid the laughter and joy of children.
After the former Haidao Textile Factory was transformed into a duck and goose feather processing factory, it finally turned from loss-making to profitable.
In addition to the 30,000 yuan that Ye Zhi handed over to the local government, she also earned nearly 60,000 yuan.
It was just enough for the five people they had contracted to share equally.
Although the profit is not much, the fact that we were able to turn losses into profits shows that the reform was successful.
Director Li could never have imagined that the textile factory that was on the verge of bankruptcy would be revived in this way.
But what shocked him even more was that when he gave the money he earned to Ye Zhi, Ye Zhi gave him all the money and said, "Use this money to buy dehydration and drying equipment, and the rest is your dividend, Director Li."
When Ye Zhi took over the contract, she made a rule that workers would get more pay for more work. In addition to a fixed salary, they would also receive performance bonuses.
Director Li has worked hard for the factory and should be rewarded as he deserves.
Ye Zhi didn't want to make money from the beginning, she just wanted to help the textile factory get through the difficulties. Now that the textile factory has found a way out, she is happy and it can be regarded as repaying the kindness the factory has shown her.
Director Li thought Ye Zhi was joking. After all, this was nearly 20,000 yuan!
In recent years, the term "ten thousand yuan household" has become popular, and anyone with tens of thousands of yuan will be very rich.
Ye Zhi smiled and said, "I'm not kidding. The country is promoting the construction of the Four Modernizations. It is a trend to replace manual labor with machines. Next year, the factory will receive more and more orders. If we still rely on manual labor, the supply will not meet the demand."
Director Li: "That's indeed the case."
Ye Zhi: "Director, thank you for your hard work over the years."
Without Director Li, the factory would have probably closed down long ago.
The greatest credit still goes to him.
On the eve of the Spring Festival in 1987, Lu Wei and Ye Zhi went to Guangzhou and bought a color TV.
When the children saw the new product, they were so excited that they watched it several times in front of the TV. They even refused to go to the beach to play volleyball with their friends in the staff quarters who came to join them.
Seeing that the two pairs of twins from the Lu family stayed at home without going out, the children in the staff quarters also walked in curiously.
As soon as I entered the door, I saw them watching a TV series, and the TV was speaking Cantonese.
So they couldn't help but come over and ask, "Lu Xingyun and Lu Xingzhou, what are you looking at?"
Lu Xingyun and Lu Xingzhou, who were preparing to go to junior high school, shrugged their shoulders, shook the visitor's hand off, and said, "Don't make a fuss. Let's sit down and watch together."
Lu Zhixia and Lu Zhiqiu held a bowl and ate strawberries slowly, their eyes focused on watching the fighting scenes on TV without blinking.
Ye Zhi and Lu Wei looked out from the kitchen and saw that the originally large living room was now crowded with children of all ages, who were gathered around the brand new color TV and watching The Legend of the Condor Heroes with great interest.
Ye Zhi nudged the person next to her with her elbow and said, "Isn't this the TV show you said you wanted to watch? Don't you want to watch it with us?"
Lu Wei glanced at the group of naughty kids outside and said disdainfully, "Do you think I'd like to squeeze in with them?"
Ye Zhi rolled her eyes at him and said, "Stop talking so much. We all watch our own TV. How can I bother you?"
As soon as he finished speaking, several boys outside tried to imitate Guo Jing on TV and wanted to play with swords. The living room suddenly became noisy.
Lu Wei snorted and laughed: "See? I should have bought an extra one to put in the room."
He didn't want to squeeze with a bunch of little kids; he wanted to watch it with his wife.
Ye Zhi simply closed the kitchen door and said, "Why do we need so many TVs? Maybe in a year or two, there will be electronic products with bigger screens and brighter colors."
And it was already good enough to be able to buy one, and I wanted one more, as there were only a few color TVs in the entire residential compound.
Lu Wei thought about it and said, "Yes, the development has been too fast in recent years. Do you think there will be TV screens as big as the ones we use to watch movies on the beach?"
Ye Zhi said without hesitation, "Of course there will be. Maybe the screens in movie theaters will be as big as our houses in the future."
Lu Wei frowned, not quite agreeing: "That's a bit exaggerated."
Ye Zhi put down the lobster in her hand and said, "How about we make a bet? If there is such a big screen in the future, you must agree to one condition of mine."
Lu Wei chuckled: "No problem, I don't believe there can be such a big screen."
》
On New Year's Eve, they started to have the reunion dinner early.
The newly bought color TV is basically never turned off. I even turn it on to watch the news while eating.
In the past, we could not finish eating all the seafood we caught at the sea. Now, the children in the family have grown up, especially the two brothers Lu Xingyun and Lu Xingzhou. They are at the age of eating poor food and have big appetites. They basically finished up most of the large table of seafood prepared by Ye Zhi and Lu Wei. After finishing the meal, they were still thinking about the rice dumplings that would be eaten later.
Ye Zhi then said to Lu Wei: "Your two sons can eat a whole cow."
The two fourteen-year-old sons are at the age of growth. They have grown more than twenty centimeters in the past two years. They are tall and thin. No matter how much they eat, they only grow taller and not fat. She is very worried.
Lu Wei smiled and said, "It's good. We didn't have any before."
Ye Zhi felt a little ashamed after hearing this.
She didn't experience a time of lack of food and clothing. Not long after she came here, she married Lu Wei and lived a life with plenty of seafood and fruits. The seafood that others threw away as garbage became a delicacy to her. She was really satisfied over the years!
Marrying Lu Wei was the best decision she had ever made!
While thinking, Lu Zhixia and Lu Zhiqiu suddenly shouted, "Mom and Dad, look, Grandpa is on TV."
Hearing this, Ye Zhi and Lu Wei both looked up at the TV. Because of the color, it was easier to recognize the characters. Even after only two or three seconds, they saw Commander-in-Chief Lu Xiangqian on TV.
Lu Wei pursed his lips and smiled: "Yes, it's Grandpa. You can call Grandpa and Grandma tomorrow morning to wish them a happy new year."
"Okay, we haven't talked to grandpa and grandma on the phone for a long time. I want to call grandma!"
"Grandma will definitely give us a big red envelope again!"
"Grandpa doesn't even give me red envelopes, so I don't want to fight with him."
Ye Zhi: “…”
Ye Zhi taught her, "No, you kids have to greet your grandparents, great-grandparents, and great-grandparents. Don't leave anyone out. Do you understand?"
"Oh, I see."
After the children finished their reunion dinner, they used their New Year’s money to buy fireworks and went to the beach to play.
Ye Zhi and Lu Wei sat in the living room, looking at the pile of dishes and chopsticks, neither wanting to start.
Ye Zhi glanced at Lu Wei and said, "We haven't been back to Beijing for a long time. Why don't we go back to visit our parents after the New Year?"
In the past few years, Zhang Xiaomei and Ye Aiguo have been in Yangcheng, and Ye Zhi has had many opportunities to see them.
However, at the end of last year, the two elders also returned to Xitang Town. I heard that the eldest and second brothers were planning to open a factory, so the two old people went back to help.
Because Beijing is far away and difficult to get to by plane, I have only been back once in the past few years, and I came back after staying there for just a few days.
So Ye Zhi wanted to wait until Lu Wei was free and then go back together to take a look.
Lu Wei nodded: "Okay, I'll follow your arrangements."
Hearing this, Ye Zhi glanced at the mess of cups and plates on the table and said, "Then wash the dishes first."
Then Ye Zhi smiled and said, "Didn't you say that? Gong (gong) Xi (xi) Fa Cai."
Lu Wei: “…”
"How can I, a poor soldier, make money?"
Ye Zhi smiled and leaned over, pecked him on the cheek: "I want to be rich, your wife, otherwise how can I support those money-eating beasts of yours?"
Lu Wei smelled Ye Zhi's sweet fragrance, pursed his lips and smiled: "That's about right."
Ye Zhi pinched his arm and urged him, "Hurry up and take a shower. After that we'll go to the beach to watch the bonfire party and set off fireworks."
"Yes, Commander!"
…
At the end of 1987, my country held its first public auction of state-owned land use rights.
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