Chapter 258 Is this what you show me to please me?
The once bustling Shangpu Textile Factory has now become a forgotten corner of the times. The factory area is located in the old town, like an old man wearing a cotton robe from the old era.
The factory area is not far from the residential area, but it is surrounded by a tall white brick wall, on which wild grass has even grown, swaying in the cold wind of early spring.
On the other side of this wall is a residential area with wisps of smoke rising from chimneys. At the base of the wall, there are piles of garbage, broken bricks, kraft paper, and shredded newspapers, resembling an incongruous "eyesore." Children play and frolic at the base of the wall during the day.
The factory area is filled with tall plane trees, and the old workshop walls are covered with withered ivy.
The air was filled with the lingering smell of old cotton. The warehouse was piled high with a jumble of old textiles, like a huge graveyard. Some of the stockpiled items were even things from before the founding of the People's Republic of China.
The entire factory was filled with the atmosphere of an elderly person on the verge of death, a stark contrast to the Feiyan Textile Factory, which had been built less than ten years ago.
Hearing that a new factory manager was coming and the entire factory was to be renamed, a sense of sorrow and death, like that of a funeral, rose up in the factory.
Everyone was there to "attend a funeral," but besides the funeral procession, there were also four groups of "medical disturbance" forces preparing to deal with the newly arrived "medical expert"—the new factory director, Qin Xiangxiang.
Reform means "operating," cutting open the abdomen, removing the corrupt and diseased organs. Who can guarantee that they won't be the one to be removed? And who can guarantee that they can truly be cured?
These four opposing forces included the technical conservatives led by Ge Dashan, a master craftsman of the eighth grade. Ge Dashan was the factory's technical authority. He was honest and rigid. Although he was highly skilled, he had long been out of touch with the times. He was afraid of being replaced and looked down on the new weaving methods. He still clung to the old ways.
"Master Ge, this is the 'top scholar's coat' that I asked someone to buy for me."
Ge Dashan frowned: "These clothes don't look like anything special. I've seen plenty of good things back in the day."
"But this is the price!" Master Ge's apprentice quoted a price, and Ge Dashan was immediately stunned. So thick? So cheap? This new type of composite fabric greatly shocked Ge Dashan.
"Master, I've tried it on, and it's warm!"
Master Ge clenched the clothes in his hand. The price was so low, how much did it actually cost? How much was lost in production? And the technology of this fabric... Even if Master Ge didn't say it, he was already curious and in awe of Feiyan Textile Factory's new technology.
I'd also like to meet Qin Xiangxiang, this young female factory director.
The second resistance force at Shangpu Textile Factory was led by Liu Manfu, the former deputy factory director. Liu Manfu was a crony, having risen to the position of deputy factory director purely through nepotism. He was in charge of the factory's logistics and some sales, a lucrative position, and was also a representative of the factory's previous practices of taking kickbacks and shirking work.
Even though Shangpu Textile Factory had been losing money every year, Liu Manfu himself was not losing money... With the new factory director taking over, his good days were over, and he could no longer make a fortune like before.
Therefore, Liu Manfu incited a number of people to resist the new factory director and resolutely oppose reform and cooperation.
"How old is Qin Xiangxiang? I've seen more of the world than she's ever been on the road. Do you think she can outmaneuver us?"
The third resistance force in the factory was the "radical youth faction" led by Wang Youyou, the foreman of educated youth. They brought a group of educated youth who had returned to the city. These people were motivated to work in the factory, but they also had a lot of resentment.
Because they are young, they are poorly paid, do dirty and tiring work, and are bullied, insulted, disliked, and slandered by older workers.
Despite their enthusiasm, they lacked both technical skills and abilities. This group of people most longed for reform, and Wang Youyou planned to lead a disturbance, not to force the new factory director to resign, but to hope that the new director would make a clear promise regarding their treatment.
"Brother Wang, I heard that workers at the Feiyan Textile Factory can attend classes for free and even take the college entrance exam? Is that true? Can we do that in the future?"
"Factory Manager Qin provides excellent benefits for the workers..."
"It's still unclear. What if they treat us like stepmothers..."
The last resistance force was the administrative perfunctory faction led by Sun Youdao, the director of the factory office. Sun Youdao was always smiling and was best at paying lip service while secretly going against the rules. He liked to use rules and regulations to trip people up.
With the arrival of the new factory director, Sun Youdao plans to use various regulations and backlogged official documents to trap him.
"...We must cooperate fully with all of Director Qin's work!"
"If you can't do a good job, then step down and make way for someone more capable. Important positions should be left to young people. The higher-ups have emphasized that we need to make cadres younger in the future..."
Before the new factory director even arrived, Sun Youdao received several urging calls from leaders of the Light Industry Bureau, their tone filled with dissatisfaction. Sun Youdao realized that, let alone making things difficult for the new factory director, he himself was in dire straits.
"The higher-ups have scheduled a meeting for the new factory manager tomorrow. How should we respond?"
The day before they learned that the new factory manager was "finally" coming, the four major forces each had their own agendas and were on high alert.
Ge Dashan led the workers to clean and polish the old imported looms in the workshop; Sun Manfu paced anxiously back and forth in the office, thinking of various ways to deal with the situation, such as using "old Shanghai rules" and the factory's "complex network of personal relationships" to give the new factory director a hard time, or he could try to gain the new factory director's trust.
Wang Youyou then held a meeting with several key members of the educated youth group to discuss how, upon the arrival of the new factory director, they would proactively raise concerns about the poor welfare benefits and the differential treatment of educated youth, thereby exerting pressure.
Sun Youdao had compiled a huge pile of documents, reports, factory production data, and reports on machinery and equipment, intending to keep the new factory manager bogged down in endless meetings and paperwork.
The entire factory was on high alert, awaiting the big storm the next day.
However, near the end of the workday in the afternoon, a junior clerk from the factory office rushed into various workshops and departments, panting, carrying a megaphone to deliver the latest announcement:
"We have received a notification from our superiors that General Manager Qin is tied up with important matters, and the meeting originally scheduled for tomorrow will be postponed for a few days. The specific time will be announced later!"
...
As soon as the sound came from the loudspeaker, it was as if someone had pressed the pause button on the entire Shangpu Textile Factory. Everyone's face was blank, and the atmosphere was extremely strange.
If I had to sum it up in one sentence, it would be like this: "I took my pants off, and this is what I get?"
Ge Dashan stopped wiping the machine, a strange sense of disappointment welling up inside him. "I thought she could bring some new technology or process..."
Liu Manfu squatted in the outhouse for a moment, then returned to his office, plopped down, and took a sip of cold tea: "I've been to the toilet more than ten times this afternoon. What kind of mess is this? It's like punching a cotton ball?"
Wang Youyou and his fellow educated youth workers looked at each other in bewilderment, swallowing back all the prepared remarks. Their earlier high spirits vanished like a punctured balloon.
"Brother Wang, do you think this new factory manager might not be happy to take over our factory? If we all refuse to cooperate and drive her away, that'll be exactly what she wants!"
"The Feiyan Textile Factory is doing so well, generating so much foreign exchange every year. Why bother to manage and reform our old factory?"
Wang Youyou was speechless: "But...but isn't she a model worker?"
Model workers are those people with an overflowing sense of responsibility, always eager to do everything and take on all the responsibilities... Yeah, why would they have to be so foolish as to reform?
Everyone knows that Shangpu Textile Factory is a mess.
On the other side, Sun Youdao looked at the pile of documents he had prepared and felt like a fool for the first time!
Sun Youdao slumped into his office chair, utterly exhausted. "This is too torturous. It started last year, and I've been waiting and waiting. By the time I got here this year, I'd lost five or six pounds!"
They were always waiting for instructions from the Light Industry Bureau and the new factory director. Once or twice, the "boy who cried wolf" scenario kept playing out at the Shangpu Textile Factory.
They had finally mustered the courage, their nerves on edge, ready to give the new factory manager a hard time, only to find that he simply "postponed it for a few days" and didn't even show up.
The determination to resist in the past was gradually eroded and dissipated by this constant suspense.
The educated youth, led by Wang Youyou, were now even more afraid that the "new factory director" wouldn't come.
Even if you're raised by a stepmother, you still have a mother!
"They get to eat meat at the factory, so we can just have some soup, okay?"
"If we get a new factory manager, I'll look 10 years older and more haggard."
Qin Xiangxiang was still unaware of the specific situation of the Shangpu Textile Factory. She was eating and drinking in the city, trying to make up for all the delicious food she had missed in the past few years.
Across from the movie theater are pan-fried buns, fried tofu and vermicelli soup, gluten and tofu skin soup, chicken and duck blood soup, curry beef soup, creamy chicken noodles... and the food factory's cream cakes and coffee.
Li Jianzhi also plans to take his camera and his wife and children around to take photos and check in before the start of the school year.
For soldiers, studying and further education are actually rare opportunities to spend time with their families and children.
Li Jianzhi also takes his son, Xiaopang, for a run every morning. The father and son also practice boxing together to build muscle. Li Jianzhi plans to prepare a muscle-building meal for himself to improve his physique. His son, Xiaopang, is at the age of rapid growth and should also supplement his protein intake.
In Qin Xiangxiang's opinion, "The so-called supplementation of protein is just a pretext to eat meat!"
"I need to eat more protein too!"
Zhou Aodong covered his forehead: "...Your family."
On this day, Assistant He called Qin Xiangxiang.
"Factory manager, your methods are truly brilliant! The Shangpu Textile Factory has already sent people to surrender, and they even asked me about your preferences. I guess they're trying to curry favor with you!"
Qin Xiangxiang was dumbfounded: "Trying to please me? Weren't you going to give me a hard time?"
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