Chapter 148
The news that Ye Manzhi took employees to take photos on the construction site spread throughout the food factory within two days.
Many people are keeping a wait-and-see attitude towards this young female factory director, especially several deputy factory directors in the leadership team, who all want to see what she can accomplish after taking office.
I didn't expect this to happen!
Wang Shihu, the deputy technical director, choked on his tea when he heard the news.
"Did she really go to the factory site to take pictures of the workers?"
Secretary Tang Jie explained, "We took a group photo with the workers, and we brought along a member of the publicity department."
"What's the point of taking a group photo? We might as well get some equipment back."
Tang Jie smiled and said, "It seems to be quite effective. A few days ago, several workers in the canning workshop wanted to transfer to other positions, but they haven't been active in the past two days. The construction site over there is doing quite well."
"..." Wang Shihu put down his teacup and muttered, "The dog has grown horns and is causing trouble in foreign countries."
This factory manager Xiao Ye is really capable of making trouble!
However, if she doesn't bother with this kind of thing, there really is nothing for her to bother with.
In other factories, production and operation are important tasks, and the deputy factory director in charge is usually the one with more experience and higher ranking.
But at the food factory, production and operations are personally managed by Niu Enjiu, and many section chiefs and workshop directors often bypass the deputy factory director and report directly to the factory director Niu Enjiu.
Therefore, neither Chen Qian, the deputy director of production, nor Ye Manzhi, the deputy director of operations, holds as much power as outsiders imagine.
Wang Shihu watched the fun and thought, it depends on whether this capable factory director Xiao Ye has the ability to get benefits from Lao Niu.
Some people think that Director Xiaoye is capable, while others see her shining points.
The arrival of a young factory manager seems to have indeed brought some vitality to the factory.
While having lunch in the cafeteria that day, the union chairman Pi Yuzhen took the initiative to find Ye Manzhi.
"Director Ye, the city is organizing a long-distance running competition. How about I sign you up?"
Ye Manzhi asked with great interest, "What kind of long-distance running competition is this? Do we just need to send a few people to represent the factory, or do we need to mobilize all the employees to sign up?"
"This is the first time our city is holding a city-wide race to celebrate May Day and commemorate May Fourth. Vice Mayor Zhang is taking the lead in organizing this city-wide race, and the Municipal Federation of Trade Unions has mobilized cadres and employees from all units to actively participate."
"Chairman Pi," Ye Manzhi asked, "How's the registration process at our factory? Has Director Niu signed up?"
Pi Yuzhen chuckled and said, "I haven't asked the others yet, but Director Ye, you're the youngest director in our factory. You need to set a good example in this kind of activity! Support the work of our union!"
The previous factory leadership team was composed entirely of men, and most of them were in their forties or fifties. They had always had little interest in the cultural and sports activities organized by the trade union.
Every time they attend an event, they only play a role of watching the fun and applauding.
The leaders mainly focus on production and ideological and political studies, and are not keen on cultural and sports activities, which leads to low enthusiasm among employees to participate.
The work of the food factory union has always been neither hot nor cold.
Now a seemingly capable factory manager named Xiao Ye has arrived, finally injecting vitality into the stagnant food factory.
This gave her, the union chairperson, a glimmer of hope.
As expected, Factory Manager Xiaoye lived up to her expectations and readily agreed, "Okay, Chairman Pi, please sign me up. Exercise is a good thing, and the union should encourage employees to exercise more. Last year, I participated in a provincial-organized cross-river swimming competition. I practiced for over two months beforehand, and my fitness has really improved significantly. I could only swim a little over 200 meters at first, but I eventually managed to swim across the river!"
Pi Yuzhen looked at her in surprise: "Director Ye, crossing the Binjiang River is not easy. You must be considered a good swimmer, right?"
Ye Manzhi didn't mention that she was wearing a swimming ring. She pretended to be modest and said, "I can't say I'm a good swimmer. I swam relatively slowly at the time. The only reason I was able to swim all the way through was due to two words: persistence. When we do revolutionary work, sometimes we just need the perseverance to grit our teeth and persevere..."
After singing a few high-sounding lines, she turned to Pi Yuzhen and said, "Chairman Pi, I don't care about the other leaders, but I'm the only female factory director in our factory, so I must take the lead in working with female workers. Let's ask the labor union and the Women's Federation to organize a March 8th women's long-distance running team to represent the factory in this city race. We'll gather all the female comrades in our factory who are physically fit and motivated, and strive to achieve excellent results for the factory!"
"That's great!" Pi Yuzhen said happily, "Leave this to our union and it will be absolutely no problem!"
No matter what the attitudes of other leaders are, it doesn’t matter even if male employees don’t participate. As long as there is this March 8th Women’s Long-Distance Running Team, the union’s mission is basically accomplished.
Ye Manzhi smiled and said, "We'll need the union comrades to coordinate and make sure that when scheduling production shifts, we can take care of the female comrades who signed up for the long-distance run. Once the list of participants is finalized, we'll find time to organize everyone to exercise together."
She has always been active in extracurricular activities. When she was in the Industrial Department, she signed up for all activities that were worth a mention.
In addition to supporting the union's work, she also had her own considerations when signing up for the city race.
Although the food factory is directly managed by the Provincial Department of Industry, it has many opportunities to interact with various departments in the city.
No matter what other factory leaders think, as the deputy factory director, she still has to actively support the activities organized by the deputy mayor and mobilize employees to sign up enthusiastically.
Moreover, there are quite a few female workers in the food factory. Organizing more activities for female workers and providing them with opportunities to show themselves can gradually highlight the advantages and importance of female comrades in the factory.
It has a positive effect on both female employees and her as a female factory manager.
…
Ye Manzhi discussed some details of the activity with Pi Yuzhen. When she met Yu Youfang in the workshop in the afternoon, she took the initiative to invite her to join the March 8th Women's Long-distance Running Team.
Yu Youfang declined politely, "I don't have the energy of you young people, and I've been worrying about those early cherries these past few days. I really don't have the energy to think about anything else."
"Mr. Yu, I heard the early cherries this year aren't sweet enough? Does that have a big impact on the taste of the canned goods?"
Yu Youfang casually picked up a jar and picked out a candied cherry with tweezers and gave it to her. "This is a sample produced according to the original recipe."
Ye Manzhi put the cherry into her mouth, and was caught off guard by the sourness of the cherry, which woke her up completely.
This tastes less like cherry and more like sour plum.
The sweetness of the sugar water seems to be of no use.
"Are these cherries still unripe?"
"Anyway, the sample fruit sent from the orchard is just like this. I don't know what's wrong this year, the fruit is small, sour, and a bit astringent." Yu Youfang complained, "Can't the supply and marketing department be more careful when purchasing raw materials? If they really use fruit of this quality to produce canned cherries, it will ruin our reputation! I'm afraid people will come to the factory with the cans to return them!"
Ye Manzhi narrowed her eyes and asked, "Master Yu, if we add more sugar to the recipe, will it work?"
"The characteristic of canned syrup is that you can eat the fruit and drink the soup at the same time. If the syrup is so sweet, how can you drink it?" Yu Youfang frowned and said, "If it really doesn't work, then we can make candied cherries instead. Remove the syrup and candied the cherries instead."
Although sugar water is no longer used, the amount of white sugar used does not decrease.
If the amount of sugar used exceeds the quota, it will cause other troubles.
According to Yu Youfang, the best way is to return this batch of cherries.
It is better not to produce than to ruin the reputation.
Ye Manzhi took a small jar of sour cherries in syrup from her and took it back to the office.
"Ruyi, while I was away, did anyone from the Supply and Marketing Department come over?"
"Not yet," Zhou Ruyi said, observing her expression. "Section Chief Liu and Deputy Section Chief Cong of the Supply and Marketing Department went to Director Niu's office this morning, then left on their bicycles. They haven't returned yet."
The Supply and Marketing Department has always been like this. For general matters, they ask the deputy director of operations to sign, and important and urgent matters are reported directly to Director Niu.
When He Dali was the deputy director of operations, he seemed to be in the same situation.
Ye Manzhi put another cherry in her mouth, squinting her eyes because of the sourness, thinking, if every time there is an emergency, the Supply and Marketing Department and the Finance Department report the situation directly to Niu Enjiu without her, then wouldn't her position as the deputy director of operations be completely sidelined?
From now on, I’ll just be a signing deputy factory director.
However, in the current situation, she couldn't find a way to break the deadlock.
She had not been in the food factory for long, but she could somewhat see Niu Enjiu's status in the factory.
The food factory has grown from a small canning factory to the comprehensive food factory it is today, producing nearly 300 kinds of products, and the factory director Niu Enjiu has made an indelible contribution.
When he first became the factory director, it happened to be the First Five-Year Plan. The province integrated industrial resources and merged many small factories in the city into the First Food Factory, causing the scale of the First Food Factory to expand several times in a short period of time.
This made Niu Enjiu quite high in the factory.
Moreover, many department and workshop supervisors were promoted by him, including Liu Sheng.
Liu Sheng did not report his work to her, firstly because they had some disagreements before, and secondly because he had Niu Enjiu's support, which made him feel fearless.
*
Ye Manzhi couldn't think of a good way to change her situation for the moment, and according to her observation, Chen Qian was not much better than her, and the head of production planning seemed to report directly to Niu Enjiu.
Having someone to keep her company made her feel much better. She signed a bunch of leave requests and reimbursement forms and went home on time.
Tomorrow is the weekend and the factory has not arranged any shifts for her, so she plans to try running the route of the city race.
Her boasting had spread far and wide, and many people knew that she had successfully crossed the Binjiang River.
Therefore, Director Xiao Ye, who was burdened with a heavy burden, believed that she must not let down in this city race. She announced the news that she would participate in the long-distance race when she got home, and tried her best to mobilize Dr. Wu and Comrade Wu Yuzhuo to join her in a trial run.
Wu Yuzhuo had no idea about long-distance running, but as her mother's number one supporter, she nodded almost without hesitation.
By the way, I made a small request, "Mom, can I have a soda? Just two sips!"
"Can."
Ye Manzhi doted on her fan for a moment, then turned to look at the man still writing and drawing on the blueprint: "Dr. Wu, what are your plans for tomorrow? Can you join the family activities and follow your smart and beautiful lover?"
"..." Wu Zhengrong was still drawing various lines on the drawing. Without even looking up, he said, "Talk properly."
Ye Manzhi readily changed the subject: "Deputy Director Wu, can you run with me tomorrow?"
"Can."
Wu Zhengrong was even more straightforward than his daughter and didn't even make any extra requests.
Director Xiao Ye was moved and thought that her husband was much more reliable than her own daughter. Dr. Wu really supported any decision she made unconditionally!
That night, she took Wu Zhengrong to the room and danced two ballroom dances with him. The couple had a romantic moment.
However, the next morning, when she finally got out of bed and was about to take her husband and child out for a test run, Wu Zhengrong got a three-wheeled motorcycle with a sidecar from somewhere.
Riding on the motorcycle seat, he asked, "Director Xiaoye, do you plan to start the race from the compound or from the starting point of the city race?"
Ye Manzhi: “…”
Could it be that she was the only one doing the test run? Were these two riding their bikes after her?
Wu Yuzhuo had already swooped over like a little bird, calling out to his father repeatedly: "Dad, is this big car yours? Can I sit in it? Can you ask my brother Cheche and brother Qiuqiu to sit with us?"
"It's a car borrowed from the provincial military region." Wu Zhengrong carried his excited daughter into the sidecar.
The institute has recently cooperated with the military region, and he often runs back and forth. This car was borrowed from the military region.
"Why didn't you tell me you had a motorcycle earlier?" Ye Manzhi also looked at the car curiously.
She often saw sidecar motorcycles near the military academy, but had never ridden one.
If she had known that Dr. Wu could get a motorcycle, she would not have run.
"How about we not run around the city today? Do you know how to get to Xiangqian Commune? There's an orchard over there with early cherries ripe. How about we take Yan to check it out?" Ye Manzhi said proudly, "I'll pay for the gas!"
She always felt that there was something wrong with the early batch of cherries in the factory. The sourness was like that of unripe fruits.
Maybe there were better cherries in other people's orchards, and she wanted to go and see.
Wu Zhengrong asked which district or county Xiangqian Commune belonged to, and after figuring out its general location, he waved and said, "Get in the car!"
Ye Manzhi returned to the house, packed a lunch box with biscuits and pastries, filled two bottles of boiled water, and took the can of sour cherries in syrup, which squeezed into the sidecar that she had been curious about for a long time.
The family of three changed their route temporarily and went on a spring outing to the orchard.
Almost all orchards that can provide raw materials to the food factory are within 10 kilometers of the factory area, so the distance is not far if you ride a sidecar motorcycle.
When you arrive at Xiangqian Commune, you don't even need to ask specifically. Just follow the carts and shoulder poles and you can easily find the orchard.
This is the largest orchard in the suburbs, and several companies have contracted fruit trees here.
When the motorcycle stopped outside the orchard, a young clerk from the County Commercial Bureau walked out of the orchard with a gloomy face.
"Secretary Zhao, I'm not trying to shirk responsibility, but your fruit doesn't look ripe. How are you going to let us sell it?"
"This year's situation is rather special. The fruits are indeed ripe. If we don't pick them now, they'll rot on the trees," Secretary Zhao said with a bitter face. "We had an agreement beforehand."
"Even with the agreement, they can't give us fruits like this! We can't sell these cherries even if the price is lowered." The young clerk waved goodbye and left despite the other party's attempts to keep him.
Seeing this situation, Ye Manzhi felt a chill in his heart. It seemed that the fruits this year might be of that kind.
Sour and astringent.
Now that I'm here, I have to go in and take a look.
Ye Manzhi showed her work ID to the orchard staff, and then was taken to the area contracted by the food factory.
Wu Zhengrong casually picked a bunch of half-red and half-yellow cherries from the branch and handed them to the little kid who was drooling with greed.
Out of trust in his father, Comrade Wu Yuzhuo was caught off guard and picked a cherry and put it in his mouth.
Then he cried out “Ouch” and all his facial features came together in pain.
Before I even ate the leaves, my teeth were already broken.
She quickly grabbed a candied cherry and stuffed it into her daughter's mouth, then gave one to Dr. Wu as well, avenging her daughter.
Wu Zhengrong spat out the pit and offered a fair assessment, "This kind of canned food is suitable for pregnant women or people who are prone to motion sickness. Eating a cherry can make you forget about motion sickness."
Ye Manzhi ate several candied cherries and actually got used to the taste.
Compared with other canned fruits, it is indeed much sour, but, how should I put it, it is also quite unique.
Just like Wu Zhengrong said, some people may like this sweet and sour taste.
The three of them looked around the orchard and found that not all cherries were particularly sour. Occasionally, they would come across one or two sweeter cherry trees.
The couple tried a few, but Wu Yuzhuo, who had been cheated once, was particularly vengeful and refused to eat the cherries fed to her by her own father again.
She just pouted and was angry, and didn't talk to her father.
Wu Zhengrong went to the supply and marketing cooperative and bought her a bottle of orange soda. He asked her to drink half of the bottle in one breath. After successfully dyeing her lips and tongue orange, he finally calmed down the grumpy little girl and the father and daughter reconciled.
*
Although covered in dust and dirt due to the dirt roads on the outskirts of the city, Comrade Wu Yuzhuo was still very satisfied to be able to go on a spring outing with his parents.
After returning to the compound, I gave a handful of sour cherries to Yi Yi next door, and then shared my experiences along the way with my little sister.
But Ye Manzhi was not at ease because the large area of cherry trees had been contracted by the food factory.
This thing is like gambling, once you buy it, you can’t leave it.
The reason why we signed a supply and marketing contract with the orchard in advance was because it was difficult to find raw materials for production. No matter whether the fruit is good or bad, they have to take responsibility.
Moreover, the food factory has already paid a 20% deposit. If the contract is torn up, it will lose thousands of yuan.
She had just found out the situation of the early cherries over the weekend, and a few days later, Niu Enjiu called a work meeting.
Discuss issues concerning early cherries.
In addition to the factory director and deputy director, chief engineer Yu Youfang, the supply and marketing section chief, the production planning section chief, and the four directors of the canning workshop were all present.
After Niu Enjiu raised the question, Ye Manzhi spoke first with doubt: "Director, when was the problem with this batch of early cherries discovered?"
"About a week."
"Then why didn't anyone report this to me before?" Ye Manzhi looked at Liu Sheng, the head of the Supply and Marketing Section. "Such a big deal, why didn't the comrades in the Supply and Marketing Section communicate this to me in advance?"
Liu Sheng said, "The situation is urgent. I reported it directly to Director Niu."
"Of course, it's right to report to the factory director. But as the deputy director of operations, responsible for the canning workshop, how come I haven't heard any reports from the supply and marketing department? If Section Chief Liu doesn't have time, he could have asked the deputy director, or even the clerk, to brief me on the situation. A week has already passed, so they wouldn't have even had that much time, right? Now the factory director is calling a meeting to discuss the early cherry issue, and I'm completely in the dark and unprepared. Isn't this delaying work progress?"
“…”
The meeting was already tense from the very beginning.
Everyone turned their attention to Ye Manyi and Liu Sheng.
Director Ye looks young, but unexpectedly he has a tough temper and even attacked Liu Sheng in public.
Niu Enjiu coughed lightly and said in a smoothing tone, "The Supply and Marketing Department was indeed negligent this time. Please pay more attention next time."
"I think the director's wording is spot on. It was negligence," Ye Manzhi said seriously. "I hope everyone will pay more attention to their work. We should learn from the February 27 fire and not be careless. Director, I'm younger than most of you here and tend to be more blunt, but there are some things I have to say."
Niu Enjiu: "..."
This is not over yet.
Ye Manzhi said, "Deputy factory directors have their own responsibilities and are responsible for their respective areas of responsibility. Take today's incident, for example. The supply and marketing department didn't tell me anything beforehand. What if something went wrong with this batch of cherries and caused financial losses to the factory? As the deputy factory director in charge, wouldn't I bear some responsibility? But I'm completely unaware of this. Who would be held responsible then? Could the supply and marketing department be held responsible?"
Since you don't think of her when good things happen, it's best not to look for her when someone needs to be responsible.
Yu Youfang drank her tea silently, and sighed in her heart, there must be some reason why he was transferred by the provincial department to be the deputy factory director at such a young age.
She had already given Ye Manyi a sample of the candied cherries to taste, so it was obviously impossible to say that she was completely unaware of it.
However, Ye Manzhi chose to attack Liu Sheng in front of so many people, which could be regarded as killing the chicken to scare the monkey.
If others wanted to ignore her and report the matter to a higher level, they would always have to consider whether they would be publicly humiliated by Director Ye.
Ye Manzhi's expression softened, and he said to Niu Enjiu, "I've just been speaking my mind, and I've taken up some of the meeting time. I hope everyone can focus on revolutionary work and stop being so careless. Director, let's continue the meeting."
Compared with the hanging Liu Sheng, Niu Enjiu's Qi cultivation skills are obviously better. He did not make any comments on Ye Manyzhi's words and calmly turned the page on this little episode.
Let’s get straight to the topic of today’s meeting.
The question is what to do with this batch of cherries.
Yu Youfang spoke first. "These sour cherries consume a lot of sugar, and we don't have the necessary production equipment yet. One canning machine alone simply can't keep up. Cherries don't store well, and if they're not canned in time, they'll rot easily. I suggest abandoning this batch of cherries and cutting our losses."
Niu Enjiu said: "I have been negotiating with the heavy machinery factory these days to borrow their canning equipment, so that we can add an extra sealing machine."
"Even if we have two sealing machines, it's not enough, and where will we get the extra sugar?"
The materials department allocates production raw materials on a quarterly basis. If the factory wants to divert sugar from other tasks, it will be unable to do so.
Liu Sheng composed himself and said, "Mr. Yu, we signed a contract with the orchard for the early cherries a long time ago. If we break the contract, the commune will suffer a huge loss, and it will be difficult to cooperate with them in the future."
They have been cooperating with the orchard of Xiangqian Commune for three years, and only this year's fruit had problems.
The production planning section chief responded, "Mr. Yu, it's too late to temporarily purchase other fruit. If we abandon this batch of cherries, it will affect the completion of this year's production target."
Yu Youfang: “…”
The group discussed for a whole morning and chose the latter between giving up early cherries and increasing the sugar quota.
In order to complete this year's production tasks, canned cherries need to continue to be produced. After increasing the amount of white sugar, the syrup cherries will be turned into sugar sauce cherries to ensure the canned flavor.
The Supply and Marketing Department will find a way to deal with the sugar usage that exceeds the quota.
The Supply and Marketing Department reports directly to Ye Manzhi, the deputy director of operations.
After the meeting, Ye Manzhi left the meeting room directly.
Liu Sheng wanted to discuss the sugar quota with her, but he couldn't catch up with her.
The province's sugar industry is controlled by the newly established Provincial Sugar Industry Company, and the newly appointed deputy manager is the secretary of the director of the Provincial Department of Industry.
It would obviously be more effective to let Ye Manzhi, who is also the secretary of the leader, come forward.
However, Ye Manzhi didn't want to pay any attention to him at all.
When I should have been reporting my work, I didn't think of her. Now that I have to ask someone to do something for me, I want to push the blame onto her!
Liu Sheng doesn’t look good, but he has beautiful ideas!
She returned to the office and said to Zhou Ruyi, "I'm going to visit the workshop and orchard in the next few days. You stay at the office and look after the house. If you need anything, come to the candy workshop or canning workshop to find me."
Zhou Ruyi knew that she didn't want to meet the people from the Supply and Marketing Department, but the production of canned cherries was imminent.
If the Supply and Marketing Department fails to obtain the sugar quota and production is affected, will Director Ye be implicated?
She couldn't understand what her leader was thinking, so she nodded worriedly.
…
Ye Manzhi did not plan to use his connections at the Provincial Sugar Industry Company, as Jiang Feng was a newly appointed leader.
If she suddenly ran to ask Jiang Feng to loosen his fingers and give more sugar to the food factory, it would be embarrassing.
Regardless of whether Jiang Feng agreed or not, her not-so-deep friendship with Jiang Feng might be completely exhausted.
Instead of looking for a sugar quota everywhere, it is better to think of other ways.
Ye Manzhi asked Yu Youfang for a few cans of candied cherry samples, and then went to the Provincial Navigation Administration.
Chen Zhuoyue had received Ye Manzhi's call a long time ago and was waiting at the office gate.
Seeing Ye Manzhi's figure, he smiled and said, "Director Ye, we have a party this month. If there is anything urgent, can't we talk about it then?"
"Squad leader, I can't wait until the end-of-month party for this matter. Haha, I'm here for business!"
Chen Zhuoyue was Wu Zhengrong's middle school classmate. After Ye Manyi married Wu Zhengrong, she also had some contact with his classmates.
Especially during the years when she was studying at the provincial university, she was studying and taking care of her children at the Wu family's old house, and she often met these classmates.
Chen Zhuoyue led the way, took her to his office, and asked with a smile: "Director Ye, what business do you want to discuss with me?"
"Captain, I remember that food is sold on trains, but it seems like they don't sell anything on the ferry over at the dock?"
"We do have some, but not many passengers buy them. It's easy to get seasick on a ship, and experienced passengers generally don't buy food on board. So, the shipping administration's revenue from food isn't as much as the railways'."
Ye Manzhi pulled a can of syrupy cherries from her bag, handed it to him, and said, "Captain, let me show you our factory's new product. This syrupy cherries are especially effective for seasickness, nausea, and vomiting. If we put this on your ferry, it'll definitely sell out!"
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