Chapter 157
Ye Manzhi often sighed recently that the little guy was too smart and also quite a headache.
Comrade Wu Yuzhuo, who is about to turn five, can already read picture books without the help of pinyin, and she can also understand road signs and billboards on the street.
Therefore, it was not difficult for her to understand the content of the telegram.
It was impossible for Ye Manzhi to find an excuse to fool her.
"Did my father write the telegram?"
"Yes, it's from Dad."
"Come quickly! Are you coming to Shanghai?" Wu Yuzhuo asked cautiously. "Mom, are you going to Shanghai too?"
"What are you thinking? Mom still has work to do. She can't just leave like that!"
Ye Manzhi pulled her back to the room, sat on the bed and continued to remove the quilt, while thinking about the contents of the telegram.
Dr. Wu has always been reliable in his work. He sent her a telegram specifically because the industrial exhibition must be valuable.
You wouldn't ask your wife to travel thousands of miles just because you miss her, right?
Wu Yuzhuo lay on the edge of the bed, helping his mother pull out the loose threads on the quilt. He asked in disbelief, "Mom, you really aren't going to Shanghai?"
"Not necessarily. It depends on the unit's arrangements."
"Does going to Shanghai require taking a train, just like going to Beijing?"
"Well, Shanghai is even farther than Beijing." Ye Manzhi heard something behind her words and tried to scare her. "Training is so tiring. You can only sit, there's no place to lie down. You can sit for three or four days at a time, and your butt hurts."
"I'm not afraid of a sore bottom," Wu Yuzhuo said, leaning over to discuss, "Mom, can you take me with you when you go to Shanghai?"
"I can't bring them. What adult would bring a child to work?"
Ye Manzhi really wanted to go to the Shanghai Industrial Exhibition. Regardless of whether he could find suitable canned food production equipment, at least he could see the world.
Moreover, there are several large food factories in Shanghai, and she wants to learn from other factories and find out the gaps.
However, she had no problem going on a business trip alone, but it was not possible to take the child with her.
These days the management of migrant population is very strict, you can’t go wherever you want.
Must have work permit and letter of introduction!
Children like Wu Yuzhuo have basically no chance of traveling far away except to visit relatives with their parents.
Their family has no relatives in Shanghai. If they lie about this kind of thing and are found out and caught, she and Wu Zhengrong will never be able to explain themselves even if they have eight mouths.
If she really wants to go to Shanghai, she can only go alone and cannot bring her child with her.
Ye Manzhi is usually easy to talk to. Every day after get off work, she queues up to buy sweet soup for her children, but she rarely gives in on matters of principle.
She refused bluntly, and Wu Yuzhuo could naturally hear that there was no room for negotiation.
It's impossible for her mother to take her to Shanghai to find her father...
Wu Yuzhuo lay on the bed, holding Lihua in her arms and sulking, and stopped helping her mother to pull out the thread.
After her parents went on business trips, she became the poor little girl that no one wanted!
Of course, Ye Manzhi couldn't leave the child alone at home. She had to at least let Wu Yuzhuo celebrate his fifth birthday.
Moreover, it is not certain whether the unit will approve it. After all, the food factory does not have much funds to invest in canning equipment.
"Baby, if mommy goes on a business trip, do you want your great-grandparents to come to our house to accompany you, or do you want to live with them?"
Now everyone in the Ye family goes to work, even the fourth brother has to go to the cinema to sell melon seeds, so if she goes on a business trip, the only place Wu Yuzhuo can go is the Wu family's old house.
Wu Yuzhuo said gloomily, "Let's go to Grandma's house!"
Then she won’t have to go to kindergarten!
Her great-grandfather is happy to let her study at home!
Ye Manzhi put down the scissors and stroked her fluffy hair. "Okay, stop pouting. Riding the train is not fun at all. It takes so long and my butt hurts. You don't have to go to school when you go to Grandma's house, and Grandpa and Grandma will buy you delicious food. How nice! For your birthday this year, Mom will buy you a small cake!"
*
A telegram from Wu Zhengrong made his daughter depressed for the whole weekend.
Even though my mother took me to the big bathhouse to take a bath and gave me a 1.5-cent ice cream, my mood still didn't improve.
Ye Manzhi failed to appease the person, so when she went to work, she did not mention the Shanghai Industrial Exhibition to Niu Enjiu.
She asked Zhou Ruyi to collect some information about the Shanghai Industrial Exhibition in advance.
Zhou Ruyi searched for two days but said awkwardly, "Director, I've only seen news reports in the People's Daily about foreign guests visiting the Shanghai Industrial Exhibition. A general from Sudan and the Deputy Prime Minister of Kenya both visited the exhibition, but I can't find any separate reports about this particular exhibition. I contacted the comrades at the Industrial Bureau, but they only have information from two years ago and asked if we would like it."
"Well, then let's go with the one from the year before last." Ye Manzhi glanced at his watch and said, "I have to go to the workshop today, so you don't have to go. Go to the Industrial Bureau first and get the information back."
The "Angang Constitution" is being promoted in full swing in the cannery workshop. In addition to allowing workers to participate in management, cadres must also go to the workshop to participate in labor.
Ye Manzhi goes to the workshop on a fixed day every week to do actual work.
In the morning, I work in the canning workshop, and in the afternoon, I go to the candy workshop, pickle workshop or pastry workshop.
Anyway, she has to run around four workshops a day, not only doing the work but also solving practical problems in the workshops.
In addition to her, everyone in the supply and marketing department also has to go to the workshop.
After Meng Lie became the deputy section chief of the supply and marketing department, he did not take any major actions for the time being, but he strongly supported the implementation of the "Angang Constitution."
He said in the department that the supply and marketing department was under the charge of Deputy Director Ye, and even Deputy Director Ye went to the workshop to work, so the comrades in the supply and marketing department could not just sit in the office and do nothing.
Of course, we must also work at the grassroots level and take the initiative to contact the masses!
His words were not welcomed by his colleagues, but they occupied the commanding heights in every sense and no one could refute them.
Therefore, since Meng Lie became the deputy chief of the supply and marketing department, all the staff of the supply and marketing department responded to the call and went to the workshop to work for a day in batches.
When Ye Manzhi went to work in the candy workshop, two salesmen from the supply and marketing department were already sitting at the counter and working.
There are several rows of counters in the workshop, and workers sit around the counters, wrapping the cut kraft candies in candy wrappers.
When Ye Manzhi first started doing this job, his work efficiency was very low, mainly because the toffee candy had to be wrapped in two layers of paper: one outer packaging layer and another layer of anti-stick glutinous rice paper.
The rice paper is thin and brittle and can be easily broken into pieces if you are not careful.
With more practice recently, Director Ye’s efficiency has improved, but the defective rate still cannot be reduced, and unqualified products have been sent back by the team leader several times.
Two salesmen in the supply and marketing department are in a similar situation to her.
"I remember when I was on a business trip to Guangzhou, I saw that all the food factories there were using automatic packaging machines," said salesperson Su Qin. "Using machines to package candies is much faster than wrapping them one by one by hand. Why doesn't our candy workshop have machines?"
Another salesperson nudged her with his leg under the table, signaling her to stop interfering.
Doesn’t the workshop director know that using machines is more efficient?
The director didn’t even mention it, so why are they making such suggestions?
Ye Manzhi had worked in the candy workshop many times and had actually discovered this problem a long time ago.
Nowadays, everything emphasizes mechanization, and the candy workshop is the least mechanized workshop.
From boiling sugar, making sugar, to packaging, almost everything is done manually.
Boiling sugar and making sugar is fine, but as Su Qin said, packaging can definitely improve efficiency and reduce the defective rate.
The factory leaders and workshop directors have not mentioned the issue of installing machines, simply because they are worried that the workshop staff will be laid off.
With the machines, it is inevitable that the workshop will reduce staff.
How will so many employees be accommodated by then?
Especially in the past few years when there was a shortage of food, after these workers were laid off, they either went to the countryside to engage in production or, like Fourth Brother, tried to make a living in the free market.
The leadership of the food factory turned a blind eye to the current situation in the candy workshop, which was quite humane from the employees' perspective.
Ye Manzhi sat across from the workshop director and said with a smile, "Director Zhen, Xiao Su is right. We can consider improving the level of mechanization in our workshop and installing two sets of automatic packaging machines."
"Haha, the factory has a lot of money to spend right now," Director Zhen said in a humming voice, wearing a mask. "The candy workshop has enough staff and can handle it. We won't cause any more trouble for the factory."
Ye Manzhi didn't refute him, but raised her voice slightly and said, "It's not necessarily that the factory has to pay for all the machines. I think everyone has seen the soda machine in our factory's candy station, right? That machine was invented by Du Tao from the canning workshop. The canning workshop is piloting the "Anshan Constitution," implementing the "two participations, one reform, and three combinations." The soda machine is a product of this combination. Cadres, engineers, and workers work together to solve the problems in the workshop. If our candy workshop also has technical talents, we can follow the canning workshop's example and make some small inventions and innovations to save the factory some expenses."
"With the machines, the extra workers in the workshop can be assigned to other positions," Ye Manzhi asked. "Everyone has heard, right? Our factory is going to produce soda, and we'll need a lot of workers on the production line."
Director Zhen hurriedly asked, "Director Ye, are we really going to produce soda? I heard that the imported production line may not be handed over to our factory!"
"It's been preliminarily confirmed," Ye Manzhi nodded and said, "I just got news this morning that the provincial department plans to hand over this production line to Binjiang. When the time comes, our factory will cooperate with the Binjiang Industrial Bureau to set up a factory to produce soda."
The workers at the table immediately erupted in excitement. "Director Ye, can we really produce soda?"
"yes!"
"That's great!"
The factory workers all have a strong sense of collective honor. The unit's business is increasing, which shows that they are developing better and better.
The factory is doing well and everyone will feel proud when they go out!
Ye Manzhi was wrapping candy wrappers and encouraging everyone to find ways to increase the mechanization level of the workshop and improve production efficiency.
But she felt that it was useless to just shout slogans at the workers in this matter, and the factory had to come up with corresponding incentive measures.
After returning to the factory, she went to Director Niu's office again.
Ye Manzhi is a deputy factory director who loves to visit people and comes to Niu Enjiu's office at least once every other day.
Because she came so often and liked to come in and sit when she had nothing to do, Director Niu's secretary Qin Gang even prepared a special teacup for her.
Ye Manzhi thanked him for the tea and said to Niu Enjiu, "Director, I'd like to report to you on the implementation of the Anshan Iron and Steel Constitution in our canning workshop."
Niu Enjiu actually didn't want to hear about the Anshan Constitution, but Ye Manzhi really loved visiting him.
He couldn't just kick the female comrade out, so he not only had to treat her with good tea and water, but also had to listen to her chatter.
"I won't go into other details, let me first talk about the results of the three-in-one approach!" Ye Manzhi took a sip of tea and asked, "Director, our factory's successful application for that Japanese soda production line must have something to do with the soda machine at the sugar water station, right?"
Niu Enjiu nodded.
The day before yesterday, he sent a few bottles of freshly brewed peach soda to the department leaders for tasting, and said frankly that this was their newly developed fruit juice soda.
It is ahead of other units in terms of taste and craftsmanship.
The leaders of the Industry Department were willing to move that production line to the First Food Factory due to various factors, and perhaps the fruit soda also contributed to it.
Ye Manzhi said excitedly, "Factory 656 provides salty soda for workers working in high temperatures. A small soda machine costs over a thousand, almost two thousand yuan. But this soda mixer developed by Du Tao and Engineer Liu only costs over a hundred and seventy yuan. Not only does it save the factory money on machinery, it also generates revenue for the sugar water station. Director, our factory should come up with a set of regulations to encourage more workshop workers to exercise their subjective initiative, actively engage in inventions, and save costs for the factory!"
"Du Tao is a front-line worker, right?" Niu Enjiu asked.
"Yes, the one who seals the cans."
The factory had just secured a soda production line, and right now was the time when Niu Enjiu was in the best mood.
He readily decided, "Workers like Du Tao are indeed worthy of encouragement and praise. Let's do this: have the comrades in the Propaganda Department publicize Du Tao's deeds throughout the factory. When we evaluate advanced workers at the end of the year, we'll give priority to comrades like Du Tao and give him a bonus. We'll discuss the specific amount in a meeting and then give it to him in the form of a subsidy. In the future, any similar inventions and creations will be rewarded according to this standard."
Ye Manzhi said, "In the past two years, the province has promoted a number of Red Experts, all of whom are engineers from the working class, and most of them were promoted from heavy industry units. The food industry is labor-intensive, and workers' work is repetitive and monotonous. It is rare to find such talented workers. I think the factory should actively cultivate comrades like Du Tao, for example, by recommending him to study at the Industrial College under the Ministry of Industry, so that we can cultivate our own Red Experts."
The promotion channels for workshop workers are actually very limited. They can only develop along the line of team leader, team leader, foreman, deputy workshop director, and workshop director.
If we can make Du Tao a role model and gradually train potential workers like him to become engineers, it will also allow the working class to see another possibility of development.
Cultivating red engineers is also one of the work achievements of the factory party committee. Niu Enjiu naturally would not object to such a proposal.
He expressed his support on the spot and said that he would discuss the matter at the team meeting.
Niu Enjiu took a sip of tea and thought, can Director Ye leave this time?
He has to go to the Municipal Industrial Bureau to discuss something later.
However, Ye Manzhi's butt seemed to be glued to the chair.
After drinking the empty cup of tea, she refilled her own cup with water and also took care of Director Lao Niu's cup.
Niu Enjiu: "..."
It seems that the story is not over yet.
"Director, I heard that some canning equipment was on display at the Shanghai Industrial Exhibition. After our canning workshop burned down, most of the equipment is still missing. I'd like to take an equipment engineer to the Shanghai Industrial Exhibition to see if there's any equipment that might be suitable for us."
Niu Enjiu sighed and said, "We definitely have the equipment. Many domestic manufacturers can produce canning equipment. The key issue is money. We're about to work with the Industrial Bureau to build a new soda factory. We can't afford not to spend a penny. We have to put in some money to show our support. According to my estimate, we'll have to wait until next summer at least to have some money left over to buy the equipment."
Hearing him talking about money, Ye Manzhi thought to himself that it seemed that there was no hope for this trip to Shanghai.
The factory couldn't afford the money, so it was useless for her to go to the industrial exhibition.
Unexpectedly, Niu Enjiu pondered for a moment, then suddenly changed his tone and said, "Director Ye, you can go and investigate first. If you come across suitable and affordable equipment, the factory will try to find a solution. However, for activities like this without an invitation from the other party, in principle, only one person can attend. You can just go to the industrial exhibition on behalf of the factory to learn about the situation."
Ye Manzhi was stunned for a moment, then nodded and said, "Okay, I'll go check out the market first."
The city does have such a regulation. If invited by the other party, business trip personnel will be dispatched according to the number of invited persons.
In principle, only one person is allowed to travel without an invitation.
The salesmen in the supply and marketing department all work alone. The last time Lao Niu went to Beijing to apply for the luncheon meat export mission, he also went alone and was not allowed to bring any accompanying personnel.
Ye Manzhi felt that the reason for such a regulation was, on the one hand, to reduce the flow of people, and on the other hand, to reduce the consumption of food coupons nationwide.
Before departure, business travelers can go to the city with a letter of introduction to exchange for national food coupons.
If every unit sent people to travel around the country, the national food coupons allocated to the city by the superiors would not be enough.
Ye Manzhi didn't know why Lao Niu changed his mind and asked her to go on a business trip to Shanghai, but since the factory director agreed, she could start preparing.
She first took the letter of introduction from her unit to the district people's committee to get a letter of introduction, then took the letter of introduction from the district to the municipal people's committee to get a letter of introduction in exchange for national food coupons.
Only after obtaining a letter of introduction from the city and national food coupons can one be considered to have the formal procedures for a business trip.
*
When left-behind child Wu Yuzhuo learned that her mother was going to Shanghai alone, her lips were almost pouted to the sky.
She struggled to hold on for a quarter of an hour without speaking to her mother.
Director Ye, feeling guilty, started by explaining to Wu Yuzhuo the letter of introduction and why he couldn't take her out with him.
Then he took her, Lihua and Kuihua to move to the Wu family's old house to help her adapt to life with her great-grandparents in advance.
"Baby, Mom will only be gone for more than a week. I will be back after you spend the weekend!" Ye Manzhi had to coax her crying daughter late at night.
Wu Yuzhuo mumbled through his nasal voice, "Then write me a letter of introduction and take me with you. My aunt said I'm less than one meter tall, so I don't have to pay for the ride or sleep, and I can eat less!"
Ye Manzhi: “…”
It's quite an honor for you to be less than one meter tall!
Wu Yuzhuo is about the same age as Taxi and Qiqiu. The two boys are half a head taller than her, but she is less than one meter tall.
However, according to her grandmother Chang Yue'e, Wu Yuzhuo's development may have been like her mother's.
When Ye Manzhi was a child, she grew teeth and grew taller later than others, and even her menstruation did not start until she was in middle school.
Director Ye really couldn't bring his daughter on the business trip, so he could only cruelly reject the pretty girl who shared a face with Dr. Wu.
Then, at my daughter's request, I bought her a smaller cake that was bigger than the one from last year as compensation.
…
"Director, Director Ding asked you whether to buy a sleeper or a hard seat for your train ticket?" Zhou Ruyi asked her for her opinion.
"Buy a sleeper."
Zhou Ruyi thought she didn't understand the factory's travel regulations and said tactfully, "The finance department can only reimburse hard seat tickets."
Director Niu could only sit in a hard seat.
"It's okay, let's buy a hard sleeper. I'll make up the difference myself," Ye Manzhi said helplessly. "We're in a hurry to get to Shanghai this time, so we won't be staying there for many days. I'll rest well on the train and get back to work as soon as I get off."
The travel reimbursement conditions at the food factory are really not good.
No matter where you go on business trip, only hard seat tickets will be reimbursed. If you want to take a sleeper berth, you need to pay the difference yourself.
It's okay for short business trips, but Binjiang is too far from Shanghai, and the price difference for round-trip tickets is nearly 30 yuan.
When Ye Manzhi first started working, his monthly salary was less than 30 yuan.
However, she couldn't let others suffer, and she didn't want to sit in the car for three or four days.
She would rather pay the 30 yuan difference and take a hard sleeper!
She excused herself in her heart, saying that this way she could conserve her energy, improve her efficiency after getting off the bus, and start working directly!
…
When Zhou Ruyi went to the factory office to reply to Director Ding, he was seen by Wang Shihu's secretary Tang Jie.
Tang Jie returned to the office and reported to his superior that Deputy Director Ye was buying a train ticket to Shanghai.
He was quite confused. The factory didn't have much cash, so why would Director Niu let Deputy Director Ye go to Shanghai to check out the equipment?
Wang Shihu put down the teacup and snorted in his heart. Why else could it be? The old cow wanted to get rid of the leaf-filled branch!
Several factory managers have actually come to their senses recently.
Ye Manzhi has been working in the factory for more than four months. He is young and his working methods are relatively gentle. Even though he is a new official, he has not caused any big trouble.
This female factory manager was always cheerful and had never had a quarrel with any of her team members. She also seemed to get along well with Niu Enjiu, visiting him almost daily to chat. Of course, she also frequently visited the offices of the other deputy factory managers.
In general, Director Ye looks like a female cadre with gentle manners and a friendly personality.
However, if you think about it carefully, you will find that several suggestions put forward by Ye Manzhi after taking office were adopted by the factory for various reasons.
The breeding base was established, the sugar water station was booming, the "Angang Constitution" was piloted, red experts were trained, and even the newcomer Meng Lie in the Supply and Marketing Department might have been brought in by her.
Director Ye didn't do anything earth-shattering, but his working methods were subtle and effective, and he almost achieved all his goals.
Isn't this enough to make others more vigilant?
Niu Enjiu sent Ye Manzhi to Shanghai directly, most likely because he didn't want her to meddle in the affairs of the soda factory, and he also wanted to cool down the "Angang Constitution".
*
Ye Manzhi didn't know that the team members had studied her recent performance several times.
She was going on a business trip, so of course she had to hand over the work on hand clearly.
She is not worried about other work, but she is worried that the "Angang Constitution" will not be implemented smoothly.
Therefore, she temporarily entrusted the contract work of the canning workshop to her reserve ally, Deputy Director Chen Qian.
Whether we can win people over depends on Director Chen’s performance this time!
After settling her work at the unit, she still had to go home to appease the clingy Wu Yuzhuo.
However, when she returned to the old house after get off work today, Wu Yuzhuo finally stopped playing the pouting duck.
People even asked with concern: "Mom, have you bought your train ticket? When are you going to Shanghai?"
"This Saturday."
Wu Yuzhuo walked around in front of her a few times with his hands behind his back, then stretched out his hand and mysteriously stuffed a few envelopes into her arms.
"Whose letter is it?"
"From Shanghai," said young comrade Wu Yuzhuo proudly, "My great-grandfather said that as long as I have this, I can go to Shanghai!"
Ye Manzhi looked through several envelopes one by one. They were all sent from Shanghai Children's Publishing House.
"Grandpa, what is this?" She looked at the calm old man.
"Haha, this is the publishing house that publishes '100,000 Whys'. When they were editing and revising the book, they collected topics from people all over the country and solicited their opinions. Youyan also participated in this activity and wrote a letter to the publishing house."
At that time, his great-granddaughter's handwriting was as bad as a dog's, so the letters were either written by him or written in pinyin.
Anyway, it provided the publisher with a lot of questions.
These letters are replies from the publishing house.
"Nowadays, we're advocating that learning scientific knowledge should also be revolutionary. We can let Youyan go to that publishing house in Shanghai and study hard."
The leaves on the branches asked, "Grandpa, is this okay?"
"It will definitely work!" the old man said confidently. "Vice Principal Chen's grandson also wrote a letter to the publishing house. That guy went to Shanghai a few months ago in the same way! When it comes to Youyan's turn, there shouldn't be any problem. Take these replies to the neighborhood committee office to get a letter of introduction. Say that our comrade Wu Yuzhuo is progressive in her thinking and also wants to engage in revolutionization. Anyway, she doesn't need a ticket to ride the bus. Reading thousands of books is not as good as traveling thousands of miles. It would be good for her to go and see the world. Then let Wu Zhengrong find a way to arrange for her."
Ye Manzhi glanced at Wu Yuzhuo, who was less than one meter tall and smiled secretly.
What kind of progressive ideas can this little brat have?
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
