Chapter 75 Profound and Unfathomable: You get promoted, I'll just lie low.
"I'm so happy to have taught Qin Xiangxiang such an excellent apprentice. She's so lucky to have become a factory manager." Master Li couldn't stop smiling in the textile factory.
A female worker named Zheng couldn't help but say, "He's just a temporary factory manager. There's no guarantee the textile factory on this run-down island will even be built."
“A temporary factory manager is still a factory manager. If she does a good job, why can’t she be promoted to a permanent position? This is her good fortune!” Master Li was happy to train several factory manager apprentices. Her ancestral home was Mingzhou, and she hadn’t been back for many years. Now that she had the opportunity, she was willing to be seconded there for three years.
Qin Xiangxiang's biological mother, Zhou Aodong, will soon become the factory manager's assistant. She won't have to worry about the old factory mistreating her when she returns in three years. So why not?
"Xiao Qin had the opportunity to become a factory director in her early twenties; it was her destiny."
Ge Jiajia smiled and said, "Thinking about it, with such a kind heart, she can definitely become a good factory manager."
"That's right. Yesterday when I went to the cafeteria, I heard Old Zhao's wife talking about Xiangxiang."
The female worker Zheng, who was standing nearby, was furious after hearing this. Her uncle had competed with Zhou Aodong for the position of factory manager's assistant, and Zhou Aodong had won. Now, Zhou Aodong's daughter was also inexplicably having good luck. How could Qin Xiangxiang possibly become the factory manager?!
That's absolutely impossible!
The other residents in the same old apartment building also knew that Qin Xiangxiang had become the temporary factory manager. The Xu family next door were watching her closely, not thinking about anything else, but about when Qin Xiangxiang would transfer her household registration.
If Qin Xiangxiang transfers her household registration, the Ding family's house will be taken back by the housing management office, so the Xu family will still have a chance to get the house back.
Xu Ruwei muttered to herself, "Qin Xiangxiang actually became the factory director?"
Like everyone else in the Xu family, Xu Ruwei had hoped that Qin Xiangxiang would find another job and move her household registration out. But she never expected that Qin Xiangxiang would be so lucky as to become a factory director. Even if it was a small factory director on a remote island, she was still a factory director and belonged to the category of "cadre"! She could be considered a cadre in terms of age and experience, and it even represented that she had worked at the grassroots level.
If she has the opportunity to be transferred back to Shanghai with the army in the future, the Shanghai Textile Factory will definitely arrange a leadership position for her. At that time, will she still need this old apartment? Qin Xiang, who has become a cadre, can be allocated a better apartment.
Qin Xiangxiang, who grew up with her, has now become a cadre.
I thought Qin Xiang wanted to go to a remote island to suffer, but instead, he rose through the ranks and became a cadre. You know, while cities are nice, it's very difficult to get promoted to a cadre position in big cities and factories. There are too many applicants for too few positions, and you have to be exceptionally outstanding to get a position of real power.
At that time, many educated youth with junior and senior high school education went to the countryside. Some of them have now become commune cadres or even commune secretaries. Those with high levels of education are easily promoted in poor and remote areas and become the top two leaders of important units. Some urban cadres send their best children to be educated youth to hone their skills, get promoted in the countryside, make achievements, and rise through the ranks.
Unexpectedly, Qin Xiangxiang also caught this spring breeze.
Xu Ruwei's heart clenched painfully.
Qin Xiangxiang was doing the accounts at home. She never used to keep accounts and would spend as much money as she had. But now, after spending some time with Li Jianzhi, she had also developed a bit of a hobby of planning.
Before, I didn't have enough money to spend, but now I have a surplus every month. Saving money is a bit addictive. I have money left over every month, which I can save to buy big items.
Not counting Li Jianzhi's side, she originally had 110, plus 36, which makes 146. There are three adults and one child eating in their family now, but Li Jianzhi eats at the mess hall more than half the time.
If you calculate carefully, their family consumes 80 to 100 jin (40-50 kg) of grain, rice, and flour per month, which would cost 15 to 20 yuan here. Other expenses include vegetables, eggs, bean products, oil, etc.
An ordinary family of four can barely afford to eat their fill on 30 yuan a month.
Their food standards are high; they need to order milk and occasionally buy cakes, chocolates, cookies, candies, and fried foods to satisfy their cravings. But Qin Xiangxiang gets a subsidy for making detachable collars, and her family also has a vegetable garden and hens that lay eggs... It costs them about 45 to 60 yuan a month.
Even if food expenses are fifty yuan a month, and other miscellaneous items like soap, laundry detergent, clothes, and shoes cost twenty yuan, the total monthly expenses would be seventy yuan, leaving a surplus of seventy-six yuan. If you can save seventy-six yuan a month, you can save up to nine hundred yuan in a year to buy a Rolex watch.
Qin Xiangxiang: "Wow!"
Saving money so quickly, but isn't it making yourself suffer too much? You save more than you spend.
Li Jianzhi also thought so: "There is no need to save so much. Fifty a month is for food expenses. You and the child will also need to buy other things. You don't need to be so frugal. If you spend eighty a month and save sixty-six, you can save seven or eight hundred a year."
You can also save up money to buy an imported watch. Imported watches hold their value well, which is equivalent to buying gold and storing it.
Qin Xiangxiang nodded, "Okay, then it'll be eighty."
“When we go to buy imported watches, let’s buy a piano together.” Li Jianzhi scratched the woman’s palm. Although there was no need to save money in this era, saving money with his wife made him feel more hopeful for the future.
Li Jianzhi: "Saving money is not as good as getting promoted. If I get promoted again, I'll earn 140 or 150 a month. If you become a formal factory manager, you'll earn at least 80 or 100. Together, we'll earn almost 300 a month."
Qin Xiangxiang froze, her face expressionless as she thought: You get promoted, I'll just stay put.
Let the textile factories on the island be built slowly, there's no rush.
"Is our colleague Xiao Qin really the factory manager?"
"It's still temporary at the moment."
“Her family sends her money every month, forty or fifty yuan a month.”
"Comrade Li has married such a wife, it's truly enviable."
As Chen Ruifeng walked along the road, he heard these comments, and it felt as if a sharp sword in the void had pierced his heart.
Recalling his foolish act of showing off his imported watch in front of Li Jianzhi, Chen Ruifeng's face turned green. His sense of superiority in front of Li Jianzhi vanished, and recently he has been avoiding Li Jianzhi every day, unwilling to see him.
As long as I don't see him, I won't feel heartbroken. It's a pity that we live in the same building, so we see each other all the time, which is frustrating.
While her husband Chen Ruifeng was trying to evade responsibility, his wife Zhao Yangyang was more determined. Zhao Yangyang felt that Qin Xiangxiang was currently just a figurehead factory director earning a salary of thirty-six yuan. Once the textile factory was built, who was to say that he wouldn't be discarded after his usefulness was over? There would always be someone parachuted in to take the credit.
Furthermore, whether this textile factory can even be built is still a question.
Zhao Yangyang was more concerned about the progress of the textile factory than Qin Xiangxiang, the temporary factory manager. She inquired about it from time to time. That day, she tried her best to ride her bicycle home and rushed upstairs. When Chen Ruifeng came home, she excitedly told him, "I told you long ago that the factory manager downstairs wouldn't be able to take on the job so smoothly. Now there's a big problem."
Chen Ruifeng: "What?"
"There's a problem with the land acquisition; they're arguing about it. The commune is unwilling to give it up, saying that the land encroaches on residential land, and the commune members don't agree to that."
"This textile factory isn't something you can just build whenever you want. It involves requisitioning collective land. There's nothing we can do if the members don't agree. Are we going to forcibly seize the land?"
"Although those monsters and demons are no longer popular, some people say that the land has good feng shui and should be kept for building houses. Many villagers disagree, saying they want to keep it for homesteads."
“Some are also unwilling to relocate.”
Chen Ruifeng muttered to himself, "What feng shui treasure land? If it were really a feng shui treasure land, people would have built houses there long ago. How could it still be here now? It's just that there was a population boom in the 1950s and 60s. Now, young people of marriageable age are all getting married and having children, and they all want to find a good place for their own use."
The villagers were naturally unhappy about the requisition of their collective land, and there were probably a few troublemakers who had already planned out the location of their own homesteads.
Zhao Yangyang: "I heard from the people at my unit's epidemic prevention station that the people from that commune are not easy to talk to, and it will probably drag on for a long time. There are problems in the land acquisition process. Qin Xiangxiang, the factory director, must be worried."
"If the land acquisition cannot be completed, we will have to choose another site. The time wasted by this delay is making Director Qin's hair fall out."
"As long as the factory isn't built, she won't get a permanent position; she'll remain a bald factory manager earning a meager 36 yuan a month."
"Qin Xiangxiang, I heard that your factory is having problems with the land acquisition process?" Zhao Yangyang asked Qin Xiangxiang when she went upstairs the next day. "If they're going to argue about it, it'll take a long time. Aren't you worried?"
Qin Xiang thought to herself: That would be wonderful.
As long as the textile factory wasn't built, she would serve as the temporary factory manager for one more day, receiving a monthly salary of thirty-six yuan for nothing.
"There's no rush," Qin Xiang thought, barely having time to smile.
Zhao Yangyang stared at Qin Xiangxiang's face, trying to find the slightest hint of worry, but there was none. The woman's excessively beautiful face seemed to radiate a dazzling confidence.
Could it be that Qin Xiangxiang has a solution in mind?
Qin Xiangxiang: "What other information do you know? Tell me."
Zhao Yangyang threatened her: "The people from that commune are not to be trifled with. They say it's a dragon head feng shui site, and they want to keep it to build the main house. If you want to expropriate the land, you'll have to dig it up from his corpse."
“Their ancestors are buried under that land too. Look at that, who would want that?”
Qin Xiangxiang tried hard to suppress the upward curve of her lips. Very well, let them argue for a while longer. If they moved the factory to a different location, it would take even longer. She didn't mind waiting at all. Waiting an extra month would mean getting a month's salary for nothing.
While a factory manager's salary of 100 yuan is certainly appealing, the 36 yuan that can be easily obtained is more suitable for casual slackers.
However, her 36 yuan salary wasn't for nothing; she had to go with the person in charge of land acquisition to argue with the commune cadres and stubborn commune members.
She just stood by and watched, saying as little as possible. If the land acquisition failed, they would have no choice but to move the factory to a different location... It would be even better if they waited a while longer and let Comrade Qin be dismissed for incompetence at work.
Let the most capable person take over as factory manager.
Because that was what she was thinking, Qin Xiangxiang felt very relaxed when she asked her sister-in-law to accompany her and the person in charge of land acquisition to Hongqiling Commune, just like a guest going on a sightseeing trip.
When the people of Hongqiling Commune saw that the factory director was such a beautiful woman and was pregnant, they were all suspicious. They followed Qin Xiangxiang all the way, and more and more people followed, crowding the commune hall.
People in the commune knew that building a textile factory was a good thing, but they couldn't quite grasp exactly how good it was. However, after the land was expropriated, the immediate and direct losses were clearly visible. The commune collective lost land and homesteads, but what benefits could it gain in return?
Rather than causing visible damage, people prefer things to remain the same and live a stable, unchanging life.
The commune director looked apologetic: "Comrade Lin, our entire commune held an emergency meeting, and after a vote by most of the members, no one was willing to accept the transfer of part of the land to build a textile factory. You should choose another location."
“Our commune has very little flat land to begin with, and that place is also a relatively convenient location for external transportation.”
The person in charge of land acquisition said, "We chose this location because of its transportation capabilities; it's a very good location."
"Comrade Lin, but we also have our own difficulties. I have to think more about the villagers. Our villagers are poor to begin with, and many young men can't find wives. The Li family's sons finally managed to get married, but their houses are too small. They saved up for many years to get a plot of land to build houses, and now they're saying it's going to be allocated to them, that it's going to be included in the land requisition..."
Lin Sen, the person in charge of land acquisition, was a medium-sized man with glasses. He pushed up his glasses and glanced at Qin Xiangxiang standing next to him. The young female factory manager had a natural expression and did not look anxious or timid at all. She seemed to be confident. He couldn't help but admire her in secret: She is indeed an elite backbone cultivated by the big city. She is knowledgeable and unfathomable.
“My family’s ancestral graves are buried there. I absolutely disagree with moving the graves to build some damn textile factory!”
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