Chapter 111
While Wu Zhengrong was busy serving her daughter, Ye Manzhi had already brought her mother into the Western restaurant.
For this meal, Chang Yue'e specially changed into her most valuable dress and leather shoes, and even put on red lipstick before going out.
However, when she actually entered such a beautiful and magnificent Western restaurant, she still felt a little uneasy.
Seeing this, Ye Manzhi teased in a low voice, "Mom, haven't you seen the world with my grandpa? Why are you still acting like a country bumpkin, just like when I first came in?"
"Your grandpa's a sausage maker, what good place can he take us? I've only been to a Western restaurant on China Street once, and the decor wasn't anywhere near as luxurious as this one."
Seeing that she ordered seven or eight dishes in one go, Chang Yue'e advised: "It's just the two of us, why did you order so many dishes?"
"I brought a lunch box," Ye Manzhi said in a low voice. "The food here is expensive, but we don't need meat coupons. Your son-in-law told us to cook as much as we can and take the leftovers back to him and my dad."
Chang Yue'e: "..."
This son-in-law is good in every way, except...
He looks like a gentleman, but actually he is not a good person.
Why.
never mind.
Chang Yue'e comforted herself that it was much better for a young couple to be in love with each other than to be lukewarm and cold towards each other.
While she was secretly complaining, the dishes ordered by Ye Manzhi were served one after another.
In addition to the must-order dishes such as braised lamb, braised beef, and gratin, she also ordered a large sausage platter.
"Mom, what do you think of their sausages here?"
“It feels pretty much the same as what we make at home.”
Ye Manzhi nodded and said, "I asked around last time. This is what the Western restaurant ordered from my grandfather's sausage factory. Those Soviet experts couldn't tell the difference, which proves that my grandfather's recipe is still very authentic."
"Of course, the recipe was brought by your grandfather from Vladivostok," Chang Yue'e said with a hint of pride, "One recipe can feed our entire family."
Ye Manzhi handed her a piece of buttered bread and asked with a smile, "Since the recipe is so amazing, how about I open a sausage factory for you? I'll let you be the factory manager!"
Chang Yue'e declined the offer, saying, "I'll be able to retire next year, so I'd rather stick with paper boxes at the paperboard factory."
The female worker doesn't have to go to work when she turns 50, and she will be exactly 50 next year.
I just want to get through this year at the paperboard factory.
The paper box factory where she worked paid piece-rate wages, and everyone went to the factory to paste paper boxes in exchange for free distiller's grains to take home and feed the pigs.
Therefore, Chang Yue'e worked intermittently and no one cared about her, so she could take care of her daughter during the confinement period and raise the child.
"Besides, pork supply is so tight right now. Where can we get the meat to make sausages?"
"We have a farm in our neighborhood now, and it's quite large. Including the pigs we raise for other units, we have over eighty!" Ye Manyi leaned forward and whispered, "If we hand all the pigs over to the city, Zhang Qinjian will definitely not be happy. But if we open a small meat processing plant in the commune, send the live pigs to the factory, and make agricultural and sideline products, that would be a different story."
In addition to profits and taxes, the most important thing is that they can keep the pork in the commune.
The city's control over non-staple foods is not as strict as that over live pigs and cattle.
As long as these sausages are not included in the national production plan, they are unplanned products and the factory can contact the grocery stores on Guangming Street to sell them on the street.
Then all the residents of the entire street will benefit from it.
Chang Yue'e took a sip of red wine and said unmovedly, "I'm already old. I can retire in another year. Why are you messing around like this?"
"Retired workers refer to those in state-owned and state-private joint-venture enterprises. They receive pensions after retirement. You're not a state-owned enterprise worker, and your length of service is less than 15 years. After retirement, you'll just go home to cook and take care of the children, and you won't even receive a pension. What's the point?" Ye Manzhi said, imitating Grandpa Wu's tone. "You're not even 50 yet, and you're in good health and energy. This is the right age to strive for a career!"
"..." Chang Yue'e was speechless. "At my age, what else can I strive for?"
It's not true that she has never worked in her life.
When she lived with her first man, she managed a silk shop for her husband's family.
He worked himself to death all day long, but ended up with nothing good, and his own son was almost drowned.
So, after remarrying, she became more open-minded. She had a dowry, and she usually ate and drank Lao Ye's food, and she lived a good life without working.
Ye Manzhi sighed, "You don't want to fight, but you have to think about my fifth brother, right? He can't be a coachman for the rest of his life, right? The last time Wu Tongyue's mother came to our house to make trouble, wasn't it because she looked down on my fifth brother's job? If you become the director of a meat processing factory, you can arrange for my fifth brother to work as a seasoning chef or accountant. My fifth brother is so good at calculating, you can let him show his strengths."
My fifth brother can’t get into other units, so how can he not get into the unit where my mother is the factory director?
Chang Yue'e was a little moved by what her daughter said, and put down her knife and fork to think seriously.
After pondering for a while, he shook his head and said, "No, I don't think this meat processing factory will last long. I heard from your fifth brother that the rural communes are now encouraging members to start side businesses at home. Not only can they raise chickens, ducks, and pigs, but they can also grow grain on their private plots. When the commune was first established, all this was forbidden! Now that it's suddenly been relaxed, I guess there aren't enough pigs and chickens in the countryside to supply. Also, I heard from my colleagues at the paper shell factory that it's very difficult to purchase raw materials for the liquor factory. There's very little distiller's grains this year. If there's a shortage of distiller's grains, how can the farms on the street continue to raise pigs?"
Chang Yue'e felt that opening a meat processing factory was unreliable.
If you’re not careful, it might fail in just a few months.
When it comes to food processing, raw materials are the key.
Ye Manzhi sipped her beetroot soup and muttered quietly, "Last year, when the neighborhood first started setting up factories, seven or eight of them went bankrupt within half a month. Let's not worry about how long they can last. Let's get the factory up and running first, and let my brother go in as a technician or accountant. First, he can get the status of an employee of a state-owned enterprise, and second, he can gain some relevant work experience. If he can become a technician, even if the factory goes bankrupt in the future, he can use his experience to work in other factories. At the very least, he can think of a way out at my uncle's workplace."
The fifth brother is a coachman. He has no technical or accounting qualifications or experience, and his legs are not very agile.
Which unit can recruit him into the factory?
But if we can find him a job in a meat processing plant and let him transition here, things will be much easier in the future.
Ye Manzhi curled her lips and said, "Mom, don't always think that Fifth Brother can't find a wife because he has poor mobility. Legs are one thing, but more importantly, it's a problem of his career prospects. Being a coachman means you can see the end of your life. You and Fifth Brother are unwilling to marry a country girl. If he marries a city girl, people will look down on his profession. To put it bluntly, the stupid sons of factory directors and managers can all find wives, so my Fifth Brother can't be worse than their stupid sons, right?"
"Stop teasing your fifth brother!" Chang Yue'e was moved by her daughter's words, but hesitated, "I've never been a factory director. Why would the commune let me be this factory director?"
Her ideological awareness is not very high. If she cannot become the director of a state-owned factory and arrange her son to work as a formal employee, she will not come up with the formula or make any contribution to the factory.
Ye Manzhi said with a smile, "Mom, don't always think that factories are all big ones like Factory 656. When I first started the coal furnace factory, it only had seven employees. A small factory is still a factory, and seven or eight employees are about the same number as our family. If you can manage our family well, you can manage the factory well. As for tax returns, profits, and so on, the commune will take the initiative to help you with them when the time comes. Besides, the timing is right now. If you miss this opportunity, you'll miss it forever. Once the farm stops raising pigs, where can we find you a second position as factory director?"
Although she left Guangming Street and had no say in the establishment of the factory, she could still use the connections she had in her original unit.
Liu Jinbao was eager to get promoted. If she revealed this idea to Liu Jinbao, cadre Liu, who was eager to achieve results, would most likely help her find a solution.
The credit for catching spies is not always there, and work performance must be accumulated bit by bit through these small achievements.
Combining the street farm with the meat processing plant, if done well, would also add a strong touch to his resume.
Chang Yue'e was very touched by her daughter's words. She didn't expect that at her old age, she would still work hard for her career for her son's future.
"If I become a factory manager, I won't be able to take care of your children!"
"It's okay. The factory can't be set up right away. It will take some time to sort out the internal disputes within the commune. Anyway, her great-grandfather and great-grandmother are taking care of her during the day. After a while, when the baby doesn't need to be fed at night, Wu Zhengrong and I can take care of her."
*
The mother and daughter spent more than an hour eating a Western meal.
Ye Manzhi took her mother to visit a Western restaurant and a workers' club, and then went to the cinema to watch "The Eternal Wave".
She had to go to the Provincial Foreign Affairs Office to receive unified training for foreign affairs personnel the next day. When she hurried home, little Wu Yuzhuo's eyes were almost green with hunger.
Ye Manzhi originally thought she would see a crying baby.
However, when she entered the room, little Wu Yuzhuo was being placed in a washbasin by her father and placed on the washbasin rack.
As soon as the baby hummed, his father pulled the washbasin stand a few steps away.
This happened over and over again, leaving her in a state of wanting to cry but not being able to.
Ye Manzhi washed her hands and hurried over to feed her daughter with a pouty mouth.
While the baby was feeding, she took the time to glance at the washbasin rack.
Wu Zhengrong installed four rollers on the wooden legs of the shelf.
Use the top towel rack as a handrail, and a washbasin rack instantly becomes a baby stroller.
Ye Manzhi exclaimed in admiration: "Comrade Military Representative, you are amazing! You made a multifunctional washbasin stand and saved the money for a cart!"
Wu Zhengrong shook his head. "Don't save the money for the cart. The washbasin stand goes straight up and down, and the center of gravity is unstable. It's fine for coaxing children on flat ground at home, but it's easy to overturn on dirt or gravel roads."
I don’t know if it was because he was sleepy or because his father shook him dizzy, but the baby’s eyelids started to droop while he was eating.
Ye Manzhi kissed her rosy little face and quickly handed the sleeping baby to her grandmother.
Then, he closed the door and asked Wu Zhengrong like a thief: "Is the washbasin stand sturdy? Can you sit on it?"
Wu Zhengrong laughed: "Why don't you give it a try."
Without waiting for the other person to reply, he picked him up by the waist and stuffed him into the washbasin.
"How about it?"
"Not bad. Push me for a couple of laps." Ye Manzhi sat on the shelf, swinging her legs and directing, "Grandpa made an electric rocking bed for our daughter. I've wanted to try it for a long time, but unfortunately there's always someone at the old house, so I didn't have the nerve to try it. I don't know what it feels like when it rocks."
Wu Zhengrong asked, "Do you know why the bed needs to be shaken?"
"To comfort the child."
Wu Zhengrong held onto the washbasin stand's armrest and pushed her around the room a few times. He nodded and said, "A rocking cradle is designed to simulate the environment of an adult's embrace, to soothe a child. So, the feeling of lying in a rocking cradle should be similar to that of lying in an adult's arms."
"What does it feel like for a baby to lie in an adult's arms?" Ye Manyi wanted him to get an electric rocking cradle at home so that she could experience it while coaxing the baby.
Wu Zhengrong did not give any explanation at the time, but after she took a bath that night, she was treated the same way as she was during her pregnancy and was pulled out of the bathtub by him.
She habitually put her arms around his neck to steady herself, thinking that he would wrap her in a towel and put her directly on the bed as he did before.
However, Wu Zhengrong took her in his arms and rocked her from side to side, treating her like a baby.
This was the first time Ye Manzhi had been treated like this since she was old enough to understand. When she realized what was happening, she instantly turned red from head to toe.
She hurriedly pushed him away in a panic: "Stop shaking! Put me down!"
She often sat in a man's arms, but this was the first time she had been rocked back and forth like a child.
Wu Zhengrong rocked her for a while, then stopped with a normal expression and patted her on the butt. "This is what it feels like to lie in a rocking crib. Don't envy your daughter!"
After the initial blush, the blush on Ye Manzhi's face finally faded a little.
Leaning in the man's arms, she pursed her lips and smiled insincerely, "I wanted you to learn from grandpa and build an electric rocking bed in our house, but you just held me and rocked me twice and sent me away!"
Wu Zhengrong smiled and said, "Didn't our family write a 'Determination to Increase Production and Save Money'? This way we can save electricity."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
