Chapter 15
Huang Li was right when he said that Ye Manzhi has always been a rather selfish person, self-centered and self-satisfied.
In addition, she protects her own shortcomings.
The true nature of the Zheng family and Xue Qiaoer was none of her business. What was most pressing was ensuring the personal safety of the "victim," the fifth brother.
"Brother, I'm going to stay with Qingmei for a few days. I won't be home recently. Can you come home and spend time with our mother?"
"Our mother is so old now, why does she still need my company?" The fifth brother couldn't sit still and squatted in the vegetable patch to catch insects for the pumpkin.
"Hey, you little brats are just not as caring as us daughters!"
“…”
Ye Manzhi used a branch to pull a cabbage worm down and sighed, "Before, even though my eldest sister got married and you moved out to enjoy your life, I stayed home and took care of three people! If I wasn't home, Mom would be left without any of her own children. How helpless she would be!"
The fifth brother was at a loss for words and said, "Even if we're not home, Mom will still be able to live her life."
Chang Yue'e has been married to Lao Ye for nearly twenty years and has long been integrated into the big family. She controls all financial power.
When Ye Lai Ya said this, it sounded as if her mother had suffered a great injustice.
"That's different. Before, there were only six of us. Now we have a sister-in-law." Ye Manzhi showed her true family troublemaker nature. "You don't understand the relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law at all. Our mother just swallowed her bitterness!"
After hearing what she said, Fifth Brother became a little uncertain.
Because of his congenital physical defect, he is more sensitive to other people's emotions. He feels that Chang Yue'e doesn't seem to like his third sister-in-law very much.
"I have to feed the pigs and chickens every day, and I have to take care of the vegetable garden. I can't leave for too long. How many days do you want to stay with Lin Qingmei?"
Ye Manzhi didn't know how many days it would take. "Just go home and spend time with Mom at night. Do whatever you need to do during the day. It won't interfere with feeding the pigs."
She threw the insects she picked out into the chicken coop and watched the chicks flutter over to grab the food.
"Brother, are you going to live in Yueya Hutong forever from now on?"
She wanted to find a new place for her fifth brother to live, but he had to agree to it.
"Well, it's big and cheap, isn't that great?"
"Yueya Hutong is full of people. Most girls wouldn't want to date you if they heard you lived there! And the other day, you were chopping trees in front of the Zheng family with a bunch of big, burly men, yelling and shouting. It was so scary. I'm worried you'll learn bad habits from them."
Fifth Brother: “…”
He is already in his twenties, how can he just become a bad person?
"How about I help you find another house? I'm a probationary cadre in the neighborhood now. I have connections in the housing management department. I can ask them to help me find a cheap house in a good location."
Ye Manlin felt like laughing because his younger sister was more worried than his own mother. He said casually, "Okay, if my cadre sister can help me find a good house, then I will find a partner."
"Okay, just wait to get married."
Ye Manzhi was not bragging. She did have an acquaintance in the Housing Management Office, who was also a student in the tailoring class.
She has a very high attendance rate and is present at almost every event. Sometimes people would bring fabrics to the street office and ask her to help cut them.
"Sister Zhao, do you have a spacious and cheap yard?"
Sister Zhao pulled out the registration book and asked, "How many people live here? What area do you want?"
"For now, we're just one person, so we don't need too many rooms, but we do need a large yard. My brother wants to raise horses, pigs, and chickens. By the way, Crescent Moon Alley is out of the question."
"Your brother has a lot of stuff. Crescent Alley is the cheapest. Other areas are definitely more expensive." Sister Zhao pointed at an address. "This one has a big yard, two rooms and a kitchen. It costs seven yuan a month."
"Is there anything cheaper?"
Fifth brother is a Pixiu, the money he earns only comes in and never goes out.
Otherwise, I wouldn’t be raising chickens and growing vegetables in the yard to be self-sufficient.
The yard in Yueya Hutong only costs five yuan, and there is no way that Fifth Brother would bring his family to live in a house that costs seven yuan.
"Seven yuan is already very cheap, Xiaoye. The public housing on our street is different from the housing allocated by the company. The housing allocated by the company is welfare-oriented, and they only charge two or three yuan a month as a token of appreciation. Public housing on the street is generally more expensive. A yard for seven yuan can accommodate a whole family, so it's actually a good deal!"
"Sister Zhao, is there anything cheaper?"
Sister Zhao sighed and searched other registration books. "Aside from Yueya Hutong, there are only three places with houses for less than five yuan. One is right next to Chenjiatun, near the cemetery, and it's four yuan a month, but most people wouldn't want to live there, and I don't recommend it."
"The second one is an old house in Waibozi Hutong. It's been abandoned since liberation and no one has lived in it for several years. Our housing authority doesn't have the money to repair it yet, so it's quite rundown. Five yuan a month, and you'll need to do the repairs yourself. But the location is great; right outside the hutong is the grain depot and the vegetable market."
Ye Manzhi thought that since the location was so good and it couldn’t be rented out, the maintenance costs must be very high.
"And the third one?"
"The third one is a row of bungalows opposite the east gate of the military industrial compound. It costs five yuan a month."
Ye Manzhi thought carefully about the bungalow at the East Gate. "Such a nice house only costs five dollars?"
Sister Zhao laughed and said, "It used to be an abandoned cart shop. After it was rented to Factory 656, they did some repairs themselves, but we still have to charge them 5 yuan a month in rent."
Ye Manzhi asked whimsically, "Has the lease for Factory 656 been terminated?"
"Hahaha, how is that possible! That row of six apartments is all occupied. They used to house the factory's horse-drawn and mule-drawn carriages, but as the factory's fleet of cars grew, they phased out the animal-drawn vehicles. The vehicles were phased out, but the apartments couldn't be left empty, so four of the apartments were sublet," Sister Zhao said mysteriously. "They're all people with connections."
Ye Manzhi knew that this kind of house was not for her, but this did not stop her from chatting with others. It was just a chat after all.
So, she whispered, "There are so many leaders in the factory, and there are many relatives and friends. How can these few houses be enough to share?"
"Haha, that's right." Sister Zhao wasn't from Factory 656, but she was merciless when it came to gossip about other units. "There are six apartments in total, four of which have been sublet. Of the remaining two, one is used as temporary housing for the military representative office, and the other is unused."
"How can such a popular house be left vacant?"
Sister Zhao leaned close to her and whispered, "Last year, someone was eyeing that apartment. Deputy Director Liu from their factory had already approved the sublease. I was almost helping with the paperwork, but the new military representative suddenly stopped us!"
"Wow!" Unexpectedly, another familiar face appeared. Ye Manzhi quickly asked her for confirmation, "Is it Captain Wu?"
"Yes, that's the guy named Wu, the one who came last year," Sister Zhao said excitedly. "I heard that the military representative told the factory leadership meeting that Deputy Director Liu had no authority to dispose of any assets of the military representative office, and that his signature wouldn't count."
"Isn't this a vacant room being sublet? How did it become a military housing unit?"
"Originally, both units were used as temporary housing for the military representative office, but one was actually sufficient, and the other has been vacant for a long time." Sister Zhao shook her head and sighed, "That Captain Wu is such a weirdo. He's leaving a house unused for nothing, preferring to pay rent every month rather than let anyone else live there. What do you think he's trying to achieve? It's bad for his reputation, too!"
“…”
Ye Manzhi was secretly complaining, but what else could he want? Just to establish his authority!
She heard from Old Ye that when Wu Zhengrong first came to the factory, he found problems with many military supplies in the factory.
However, the chief engineer and the deputy technical director were used to the original military representative who followed the rules, and felt that the new one was giving blind orders, which led to a very unpleasant argument between the two sides.
Deputy Director Liu is the technical deputy director of 656.
Wu Zhengrong dared to openly not give face to Deputy Director Liu in the meeting. What else could it be but to establish his authority?
It can't be that he is just bored and wants to offend others on purpose, right?
However, the effect of this show of authority seemed to be too significant. After more than half a year, not only did Deputy Director Liu's relatives fail to rent the house, but no one else dared to show up.
Ye Manzhi thought maliciously, the house is not being used, but rent has to be paid every month. I wonder if Captain Wu regrets it?
*
Although the matter of changing houses was not settled, Ye Manzhi soon found an opportunity to get her fifth brother out of the house.
The next day at work, she received a task - to represent Guangming Subdistrict Office and go to the Municipal Commerce Bureau for a meeting!
Accompanying her was her female friend Liu Jinbao.
Their usual activities were limited to Guangming Street, and they had never even attended district meetings. They were suddenly assigned by Director Mu to attend a meeting in the city, and they were both excited and nervous.
"Xiao Ye, why did Director Mu specifically ask us to come to the meeting? Does he think we are particularly important to him?"
Ye Manzhi didn't think too much about it and said very practically: "Maybe it's because we are the best looking!"
"Haha, you're right! Let's have a meeting and bring honor to Guangming Street!"
When the two men came into the city from the suburbs and walked into the conference room on the second floor of the Municipal Bureau of Commerce, most of the seats were occupied.
Since the seats were not assigned, Ye Manzhi took the initiative to choose the only two empty seats in the first row facing the podium.
"Shall we sit in the back?" Liu Jinbao didn't want to sit under his leader's nose.
"It would be so nice to sit up front!" the country bumpkin Xiao Ye whispered. "It's so rare to come to the city for a meeting. I don't know when the next one will be. Sitting in the front row means I can see the leaders clearly, hear their speeches clearly, and have more things to talk about when I get back!"
Liu Jinbao felt that what she said was a bit unreasonable, so he had to follow her and sit in the first row.
The banner above the rostrum read "Municipal Commerce Bureau's Coal Shape Promotion and Introduction Conference."
Liu Jinbao asked quietly, "What is briquette?"
"I haven't heard of it. Since this is a promotional event, this briquette must be a new product. It's normal that we don't know it."
"Ahem," Deputy Director Zhang said, coughing softly on the podium, signaling the official start of the meeting. "The two young comrades in the first row are absolutely right. Briquettes are a new product produced by our city's coal company. We must now respond to the central government's call for coal conservation and promote them to the general public."
Deputy Director Zhang took out two pieces of honeycomb coal from the box and formally introduced to everyone the benefits of using this kind of shaped coal.
He talked on and on for half an hour.
Ye Manzhi helped him summarize the following points in his notebook: save coal, save firewood, save transportation capacity, save trouble, and keep it clean and hygienic.
Anyway, it’s better than loose coal.
Ye Manzhi thought, no wonder Director Mu sent them here, the content of this meeting is really not important.
It is still summer now, and people use coal mainly for making fire and cooking, and the amount used is only half of that in winter. I am afraid that promoting honeycomb coal at this time will not be very effective.
Deputy Director Zhang's next words also confirmed her thoughts.
"Since briquette coal has just been put into production and the output is not large, we will set up three pilot coal stations in the city starting this month. After returning home, you can organize and mobilize residents in your jurisdiction to buy honeycomb coal at these three pilot stations for trial use."
Liu Jinbao muttered, "It's over. Whenever there's a new thing or policy, it's us grassroots cadres who are the first to be promoted. Just watch, if our street office wants to mobilize everyone to use honeycomb coal, then we have to use honeycomb coal first!"
Leaders need to be knowledgeable in their choice of words. If they just want to "mobilize" residents, then they just need to go back and publicize it.
But since "organization" is still required, it must come with specific tasks!
Ye Manzhi had been working for less than a month and had not yet learned to understand her leader's subtext. After he reminded her, she finally understood.
It seems that the Ye family will most likely switch to this kind of honeycomb coal.
Therefore, when the leader asked everyone if they had any questions, Ye Manzhi raised his hand and asked a question.
"Director Zhang, what's the consumption of honeycomb briquettes? If I use fire to boil water, cook rice, and cook vegetables, how much honeycomb briquettes do I need each month?"
"That's a very good question. Our bureau and the coal company have conducted a pilot program with employee families. A typical family of seven or eight people consumes around 100 to 110 yuan of honeycomb briquettes per month. Our retail price is 35 yuan per thousand yuan. That means the monthly cost is no more than 4 yuan."
Ye Manzhi quickly calculated in her mind that her family of eight would spend about four dollars and fifty cents a month on coal, which she would have to mix with firewood to make up for it.
If what Deputy Director Zhang said is true, then using honeycomb coal instead of loose coal should save one dollar in coal and fire costs every month.
It’s really a good deal.
Ye Manzhi and Liu Jinbao brought the spirit of the meeting back to Guangming Street. As Liu Jinbao said, before mobilizing residents to buy honeycomb coal, Director Mu first called on all cadres to take the lead.
Ye Manzhi raised his hand without saying a word to support the leadership's work.
After get off work that day, she didn't even have dinner. She went to Waibozi Hutong and found her fifth brother who was waiting in line for work.
"I was just looking for you," Fifth Brother threw down his whip, jumped out of the car and asked, "How long will you stay at Lin Qingmei's house?"
There was no one guarding Yueya Hutong, and he was always afraid that the chickens in the chicken coop would be stolen.
"Don't worry about your chickens and ducks for now. I have a job that makes a lot of money. Do you want to take it?"
Ye Manzhi went straight to the point.
Fifth Brother is a big money-lover, and she doesn't believe that he will remain indifferent.
Hearing this, the fifth brother really became interested: "What kind of work?"
Ye Manzhi recounted her visit to the city for a meeting. "Our subdistrict office, police station, grain depot, health center, housing management office, and post office all need to order honeycomb briquettes. Based on the coal coupons everyone has, we'll order three months' worth. Assuming each household needs 350 pieces, we'll need to bring back tens of thousands of pieces of honeycomb briquettes."
"Don't we have honeycomb coal at the coal station nearby?"
"No, you have to go to the pilot coal station in the city to buy it. The retail price is 35 yuan for 1,000 pieces of honeycomb briquettes, but if everyone buys together, we can get the wholesale price of 31 yuan, which is cheaper than buying loose coal."
The fifth brother thought it was just a coal transportation business and said with a smile, "Okay, I'll call a few more people and we can all work together to get the coal back in one trip."
Ye Manzhi wanted to send him out for a while, so how could he finish the work in one trip?
"Don't look for so many people! There are three pilot coal stations, two in the city and one in the eastern suburbs. Although it's the farthest away, suburban vegetable farmers can get a 4% discount on the wholesale price when buying coal! I've made an agreement with Director Mu that if you go to the suburban station to haul coal, the 4% will be yours, and we won't pay you any additional travel expenses or labor fees. After all, transporting 10,000 pieces of honeycomb coal is no easy task, so we'll save both of us money."
The fifth brother was quite talented in accounting. He could move the abacus beads when he was four or five years old, and he could get the result after doing simple calculations in his mind.
So, the youngest brother just gave the number, and he calculated that he could earn 12.4 yuan by selling 10,000 pieces of honeycomb coal.
You can earn 12 yuan in a few days, even if you have to pay the cooperative, it is definitely a big deal!
Seeing that he was interested, Ye Manzhi pretended to be helpless and said, "As for where to get the letter of introduction from the suburban vegetable farmers, you have to figure it out yourself. We can't do anything about it."
Fifth Brother has a wide network of contacts; he knows everyone from all walks of life.
It shouldn't be difficult to find a vegetable farmer in the suburbs.
The fifth brother nodded and said, "I know two fellow villagers in Dayanggou. They helped me hatch these chicks."
"..." Ye Manzhi didn't want to bother with his chicks and old sows, so she got straight to the point. "This honeycomb coal is in great demand, and you'll have to queue up early in the morning. So, it's best to leave in the evening, stay overnight at our grandmother's house, and then queue up at the coal station the next morning to buy coal. This batch of coal is just a neighborhood commission, and there's no rush for it. You only need to haul it once a day, and don't tire Hongzao out."
The Ye family's hometown is in the countryside, not far from Dayanggou, so it is indeed more convenient to start from there.
The fifth brother was thinking about making money and felt sorry for the red dates, so he gladly accepted his sister's proposal.
*
Because he wanted his fifth brother to stay in his hometown for a while, Ye Manzhi, a biological son of the Ye family, decided to accompany him personally. They would set off on Saturday evening and return by car on Sunday afternoon. They could also play in the countryside for a day.
However, just as they were about to set off, something big happened on Guangming Street!
Because the 656 factory had to requisition land for expansion, and the land covered many families' ancestral graves, dozens of protesting residents clashed with the workers on duty, which then turned into an armed fight, resulting in five workers being seriously injured and more than ten people being slightly injured.
Five seriously injured workers are receiving emergency treatment in the hospital.
The fight broke out in the evening. Director Mu and Deputy Director Zhang had already rushed to the hospital. Even Aunt Feng, a special person who never worked overtime, came out for the first time to comfort the family members.
Ye Manzhi and four other newcomers were assigned more difficult tasks by Deputy Director Zhang.
In order to prevent someone from getting carried away and seeking revenge, which may lead to a second fight, the street office and the police station will organize two joint patrol teams.
The patrol location is near the cemetery!
Ye Manzhi was preparing food and drinks for the journey and was happily waiting for a horse-drawn carriage ride. When she heard the message from Deputy Director Zhang at home, she felt a blackout before her eyes.
“???”
These people are really something. Why would they choose any other place to fight? Why would they fight next to a cemetery?
No need to worry about disturbing the peace of the ancestors!
She was like a donkey pulling a millstone, going around in circles at home for several times. Finally, she had to let her fifth brother go first, and she stayed to join the patrol.
Nowadays, both cities and rural areas are implementing equal pay for equal work for men and women. Women can do the same work as men.
Even though she was scared to death, she had to bite the bullet and endure the fear to follow!
The patrol team was divided into two groups. The group Ye Manzhi belonged to consisted of three street cadres and three local police officers.
Because there were too few people and they seemed too vulnerable, everyone brought a handy self-defense tool when they set out.
Ye Manzhi chose the light and practical ash hook, Zhuang Ting carried the broom, and Liu Jinbao carried a shovel for his life.
The group of people, armed with self-defense weapons, marched towards the cemetery.
Liu Jinbao initially carried the shovel on his shoulders, but when he couldn't carry it anymore halfway, he put it on the ground and dragged it.
Sparks flashed from time to time as the shovel rubbed against the stones, and the crackling noise, combined with the desolate atmosphere near the cemetery, seemed particularly terrifying.
"Liu Jinbaoer, can you make your shovel shut up?" Lei Tao from the police station couldn't stand it anymore.
Liu Jinbao argued: "When you walk next to a cemetery, you have to make some noise. Otherwise, the silence is creepy!"
Everyone was annoyed by the shovel, but they also felt that he had some truth in his words, so they just let him continue making noise.
When we were about to reach the outskirts of the cemetery, we suddenly heard a dog barking from the opposite side, followed by three or four white flashlight lights shining over.
"Who is it? Stop moving forward immediately!"
Hearing this, Lei Tao also shook the flashlight in his hand and shouted: "Patrol team, what are you doing?"
"What patrol? This area is under control. Please retreat immediately!"
Lei Tao turned and asked the other two police officers, "Is this place under control? Why haven't I heard about it?"
"If we're under control, will the director still let us patrol? We should go over and take a look. Be careful not to let anyone take advantage of us."
So the group of six ignored the warning and continued forward. Less than twenty meters away, they were surrounded by several people in green military uniforms.
The flashlight beam passed over the faces of the six people one by one, stopped for a moment when it reached the branches full of leaves, and continued to move to the right.
Xiao Qin, dressed in military uniform, muttered to himself, "From a distance, I saw three white figures clanging and floating towards me. Now, I finally figured out they were police uniforms. It was terrifying!"
He said a few words to the people around him, then ran to the west side of the cemetery to inform his superiors that he had caught someone he knew.
Soon, Wu Zhengrong came over with big strides.
"Which unit are you from?"
"I'm from the Guangming Street Patrol. There was a fight last night, and our leader asked us to guard the scene to prevent anyone from taking advantage of the situation."
"guard?"
Wu Zhengrong's eyes swept over the ash hooks, shovels, and brooms in their hands one by one, and asked subtly, "Who is in charge?"
The six people on patrol looked at each other, but no one responded.
They were a temporary team consisting of only probationary cadres and young patrol officers. No one from the two units could take responsibility or control anyone else.
Seeing that no one was willing to come forward, Wu Zhengrong directly called out their names.
"Comrade standing at the front, please step out!"
Ye Manzhi looked around and found that she was the only one sitting at the front.
Originally, she was standing with Liu Jinbao, but the cunning baby-faced Liu Jinbao secretly took a step back when he was surrounded!
She pointed at herself with her backhand, her tone slightly hesitant: "Are you looking for me?"
Wu Zhengrong was dressed in military uniform, his expression solemn and dignified in the twilight. He nodded and said, "It's you. Follow me!"
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