Chapter 166
On the morning of National Day, in the dim light, the entire family compound was busy.
It was rare for Ye Manzhi to get up early, and the first thing he did was to run next door to call his daughter to get up.
Her little one also wants to participate in the National Day parade, so he can't be late today.
However, when the door opened, there was no one inside.
She raised her voice and asked, "Wu Zhengrong! Where are our words?"
"The kids from the children's group called me out before daybreak," Wu Zhengrong buttoned his shirt and raised his chin toward the window. "They're rehearsing outside."
“…”
Ye Manyi casually put on a coat, pushed open the door and walked out.
The layout of the family compound was in the shape of a "N" (Chinese character). She walked out of the fork in the road where her home was, and soon saw a formation of child soldiers on the main road.
A group of children were waving small colorful flags under the leadership of older children.
Wu Yuzhuo got up early, without combing his hair or washing his face, and without even putting on outer pants, he ran out to train wearing only fleece pants.
And he was standing in the last row of the formation, the last one.
The team was arranged according to height, and since she was young, it was normal for her to stand at the end.
But Ye Manzhi was worried that her short legs could not keep up with the pace in front. What if she fell behind and got lost?
However, her worries were obviously unnecessary, as the children's group's parade had many different styles.
They are forming a square formation!
Wu Yuzhuo rushed to the front in a short while.
Ye Manzhi stood on the side of the road with several other parents to watch the fun until the children's group's rehearsal was over, and then she took her daughter home.
As soon as she entered, she praised Wu Zhengrong, "Youyan performed really well, and the children's group was well prepared. Their team was able to change their formation, and as they marched, it became the word 'work.' They worked hard and fast, and they were full of energy. It was quite meaningful."
Wu Yuzhuo pricked up her ears to listen to her mother's praise. Everything was fine at the beginning. When she heard the latter part, she hurriedly explained: "Mom, our formation is not 'gan', it's 'eleven'!"
Ye Manzhi: “…”
Wu Zhengrong laughed unkindly, and his chest began to vibrate.
Ye Manzhi glared at him angrily and asked, "What are you laughing at?"
If you have the guts, come and brag!
After she saw the word "work", she was still a little confused and racked her brains to come up with the phrase "work hard and fast" to praise her daughter.
Wu Yuzhuo was coaxed into washing up and having breakfast. Wu Zhengrong looked at Director Ye, who was praising him without words, and the curve of his lips could not fall.
"You'll be late if you laugh again!" Ye Manzhi pinched his waist and, with rare kindness, took the military uniform from the hanger and put it on him. "Can you wear this suit more often in the future?"
“Who would wear it when there’s no activity?”
Apart from taking photos, Wu Zhengrong only wore military uniform when attending major events.
Ye Manzhi had a photo of him wearing a suit hidden in the pocket of her wallet. She would take it out and admire it from time to time, which showed how much she liked this outfit.
At this moment, Wu Zhengrong himself was standing before her in the same suit, his posture erect and his air of valor intensifying. His expression was more relaxed than the man in the photo, his eyes gentler. When he lowered his eyes to look at her, his dense, long eyelashes cast a shadow.
Ye Manzhi was eager to offend Dr. Wu.
But Wu Zhengrong, wearing a military uniform, had a foreign name - Chaste Levsky.
Kissing is quite difficult.
Ye Manzhi hesitated for a while, helped him button up his coat, and carefully counted the military medals on his chest.
"Is there one missing? Didn't you just get a new one two months ago?"
Ye Manzhi is still very concerned about the honors he has achieved.
It seems that the work of the institute has made some major progress. The cooperation with Binjiang No. 2 Machinery Factory and the last trip to Shanghai were all aimed at applying their scientific research results to the army.
After August 1st, Wu Zhengrong and his neighbor Zhou Suo brought back a military medal.
Wu Zhengrong thought for a moment and said, "It seems to be in the drawer of the study."
Ye Manzhi went to the study to find it, and then personally pinned the latest military medal on his chest.
"Our comrade Wu Zhengrong is amazing! Excellent!"
Her heart was overflowing with love, and she couldn't help but stand on tiptoe and kiss him on the chin.
Wu Zhengrong held her waist and said with a smile, "You used the same rhetoric when you praised Youyan, and your coaxing tone didn't change at all."
"I'm sincere!"
Everyone in the family had their own tasks to do, so the couple didn't spend too much time at home.
After having breakfast together, they sent Accountant Wu to Zhou's house next door and handed him over to Sister-in-law Zhenfang.
There are many people participating in the parade today. Children like Wu Yuzhuo are not only easy to be trampled, but also likely to be taken away by people in the chaos.
The couple was worried about their young daughter, but they didn't want to stop her from participating in such a meaningful activity.
I can only ask Sister Zhenfang for help and ask her to follow the commune cadres and watch the children's group parade today.
It just so happened that her third child, Zhou Mo, was also a member of the children's group.
…
The family of three said goodbye in the compound and went their separate ways.
Ye Manzhi hurriedly drove to the food factory to join up with the main force of the unit.
The starting point of today's parade is the entrance of each unit and the end point is the Municipal People's Committee.
However, because the theme of the parade was "Congratulations on the great achievements in the fifteen years since the founding of the People's Republic of China and cheers for the great victory of Chairman Mao's thoughts", after fifteen years of construction, Binjiang has changed from a consumer city to a comprehensive industrial city centered on the machinery industry.
Therefore, the front row of the parade is composed of major state-owned factories, showcasing the construction achievements of the past 15 years.
Heavy industry units can only display diagrams and models. After all, heavy industry machines are huge and cannot be easily pulled out for display.
In comparison, light industrial enterprises such as food factories, textile factories, and garment factories are very easy to please.
The food factory’s parade included not only charts and good news, but also actual displays.
Their factory's product catalog was the size of a book, and everyone in the parade could hold one or two products.
After everyone gathered at the factory gate, Niu Enjiu, the Party Secretary and Factory Director, first gave a mobilization speech to everyone.
However, as he spoke, he felt that something seemed wrong.
"Director Ye, Engineer Yu, why are you wearing work clothes?"
The parade formation of their factory was led by the factory leadership team, followed by cadres and worker representatives selected from various departments and workshops.
The worker representatives are model workers, advanced individuals, and March 8th Red Flag Bearers at all levels of the province and city. Most of them are front-line production workers and wear white work clothes.
But the cadres sitting in the office usually wear Zhongshan suits, Lenin suits, and cadre uniforms.
In order to participate in today's National Day parade, many cadres specially picked out their cleanest and tidiest clothes.
Niu Enjiu wore a Zhongshan suit.
But look at what Ye Manyi, who is standing in the same row with him, is wearing?
Director Xiaoye was wearing the same white overalls as the other workers in the workshop! He also wore a white work cap and arm sleeves!
Isn't this a conspicuous bag?
The four male factory managers were all wearing dark cadre uniforms, and only she, the female factory manager, was wearing white work clothes!
The unique dress immediately made her stand out!
Besides her, chief engineer Yu Youfang, union chairman Pi Yuzhen, women's director Li Qiong, and even the manager of the breeding base Dai Xianhua, were all wearing white work clothes!
What’s going on with these female cadres?
Ye Manzhi smiled and said, "Director, we women want to wear the same colored clothes for the parade to make the team look more organized, but it's impossible for everyone to wear the same clothes, and we don't have the cloth coupons to make new clothes. After discussing it, we decided to just wear work clothes. After all, we all have to work at the grassroots level, and we all have work clothes!"
Pi Yuzhen agreed: "It's nice to be dressed neatly like this!"
Other male leaders: “…”
You are in order, but what should we do?
Gay men seem a little out of touch with the masses when compared with lesbians!
Niu Enjiu wanted to talk to Director Ye, but Ye Manzhi had asked him about clothing before, and he said that as long as the clothes were appropriate, female comrades did not have to wear the same style of clothes as male comrades.
He thought that Ye Manzhi was a young female comrade, and her usual dressing style was not particularly conservative. Young people might have their own ideas.
I didn’t expect the young man to be wearing work clothes…
Niu Enjiu glanced at his watch and saw that there were still a few minutes before departure time.
He immediately said to the people in cadre uniforms, "Since everyone is wearing work clothes, let's change as well, so that the team looks as coordinated and unified as possible."
More than ten people rushed back to the office to change their clothes.
So, when the Binjiang No. 1 Food Factory's formation walked into the endless parade, it was a neat white formation.
Moreover, each person was holding two products in their hands, which was completely different from those factories that only carried models.
Others waved colorful flags, towels, and bouquets of flowers, while they waved cans, soda, biscuits, candies, and bread...
In the middle of the team were two male workers responsible for beating drums and gongs, while the others kept shouting slogans.
When they arrived at the Municipal People's Committee, Niu Enjiu and Jiang Wenming held up a sign that read "Binjiang No. 1 Food Factory."
Ye Manzhi and Chen Qian held up banners that read "Be self-reliant, work hard, and always be at the forefront."
Everyone shouted: "Learn from Daqing when running, take big steps every year, climb to the top step by step!"
Ye Manzhi shouted loudly, "This year the food factory has added more than 30 new products and even acquired a Japanese soda production line. Isn't it climbing to new heights?"
People from other units looked at their team and couldn't help but sigh, "Life is getting better and better now. That food factory can actually produce so many different products!"
The food factory team wore uniforms, had banners and slogans, and everyone was holding two products. It was colorful and lively, and they successfully got a close-up shot from a reporter from an unknown newspaper.
Seeing this, Ye Manzhi quickly smiled brightly and moved the can of pickles in her hand to the side to avoid having her face blocked by the can.
Mass parades across the city continued into the afternoon, and fireworks were set off in People's Park that evening.
Ye Manzhi and Wu Zhengrong also brought their daughters to join in the fun.
But she was always thinking about the photos taken by the reporters, so she took all the newspapers of that day when she went to work the next day.
Check the newspapers for reports about the First Food Factory.
"Ruyi, are these all the newspapers have?"
Zhou Ruyi nodded. She knew what the factory director was looking for, but there was indeed no special report about the First Food Factory in today's newspaper.
The Binjiang Daily devoted a large amount of space to introducing yesterday's grand parade. It only mentioned the Binjiang No. 1 Food Factory when introducing the parade team. Apart from that, there was no other report.
There are no photo reports either.
Ye Manzhi felt a little regretful, but it was understandable. With so many companies in the city participating in the parade and hundreds of thousands of people taking to the streets, there wasn't enough space to report on them all!
It doesn’t matter if there is nothing. Ye Manzhi put the newspaper away and stopped dreaming about it.
However, the next day, when she was going home from get off work, Wu Zhengrong suddenly called her "Worker Xiaoye".
"What are you yelling about?" Ye Manzhi glared at him, "Don't give me nicknames!"
She just attended a parade in her work clothes and Dr. Wu started calling her a nickname.
What's wrong with the female workers!
She comes from a working-class background, she is very glorious!
Seeing that she didn't give the expected reaction, Wu Zhengrong paused for a moment and asked, "You haven't read the newspaper yet?"
"Yes."
Wu Zhengrong asked, "Didn't you read today's People's Daily?"
"I haven't had time to look yet."
Ye Manzhi usually pays close attention to local newspapers, reading the Binjiang Daily and Binjiang Evening News every day to stay informed about local developments. However, she usually reads national newspapers like the People's Daily and Guangming Daily over several days.
Their family subscribed to the People's Daily. After hearing what Wu Zhengrong said, she took out today's newspaper and started reading.
On page three, there was a report titled "Grand rallies and parades across the country celebrate National Day."
"According to Xinhua News Agency on the first day, today, people in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangzhou, Binjiang, Wuhan, Chengdu, Xi'an, Taiyuan, Hohhot, Anshan, Lanzhou, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Fuzhou and other places held grand rallies and parades to solemnly and warmly celebrate..."
For this type of report, Ye Manzhi usually just reads the title and glances through it.
However, because there were so many pictures today, she paid special attention.
As soon as she paid attention, she saw her face and Chief Engineer Yu’s face in the picture below!
They were standing in the front row of the parade, relatively close to the side.
When the camera lens came over, they were the first to enter the frame.
She held a banner in one hand and a can of pickles in the other. Yu Youfang held a can of hawthorn and baby biscuits in her two hands respectively.
Chief Engineer Yu’s expression was rather serious, but Ye Manzhi was squinting her eyes and smiling at the camera!
Factory Director Xiao Ye wondered why she was so happy and smiled so joyfully. Compared with Chief Engineer Yu, she looked a little silly.
However, being able to be featured in a newspaper, especially a major newspaper like People's Daily, made her joy suddenly reach its peak.
She stared at the photo and exclaimed, "The Xinhua News Agency reporter's camera is really good. The photo of us is so clear. The faces of the employees in the back are also quite clear. Even familiar people can recognize them!"
Wu Zhengrong agreed with amusement: "Yeah, the picture is indeed quite clear."
Ye Manzhi was just about to say that he should buy a few more copies of People's Daily and cut out the pictures on them to save, but when his eyes moved downwards, they suddenly stopped.
Below the picture was a line of small text that read, "Female workers from Binjiang Food Factory participated in a parade to celebrate National Day."
Ye Manzhi glanced at the photo and then looked at the subtitle.
All the people captured in the camera, including the several employees behind them, were actually lesbians!
If we interpret this photo as real female workers, then she and Yu Youfang are indeed quite simple, and their smiles are full of joy of completing production tasks!
She spends half of her time every week in the workshop. As the chief process engineer, Yu Youfang also spends a lot of time in the workshop.
There’s nothing wrong with saying that they are female workers in a food factory!
Anyway, it’s a good thing to be in the newspaper. Ye Manzhi is not that picky and keeps the newspaper carefully.
After her daughter takes the newspaper to kindergarten to show off, she can keep the photo.
*
The National Day parade is over, the tribute has been completed, and the food factory's work for the whole year has entered the final sprint.
Niu Enjiu shifted his work focus to completing production tasks.
The nerves of several deputy factory managers were also tense.
Everyone has a production task that needs to be completed. When evaluating cadres at the end of the year, in addition to the work that each cadre is in charge of, the completion of the production tasks of the contracted workshops will also be considered.
There are less than ninety days left this year, and some of the more advanced workshops, such as the pickle workshop and the bread workshop, have completed their annual production tasks and entered 1965 ahead of schedule.
However, most of the workshops have not yet completed their production tasks and need to work hard to catch up.
At the factory-wide staff meeting, the factory director Niu Enjiu put forward the slogan "Revolution and hard work, always stand in the forefront, cadres can go to the sea, and the masses can catch dragons", calling on everyone to work hard for 90 days and ensure that the annual production task is completed!
All factory managers who are responsible for the factory must go to the workshop to work as assistants.
Every day I start working in the factory at dawn.
The two workshops that Ye Manzhi is responsible for - the candy workshop and the canned food workshop - are still relatively dangerous.
The problems in the candy workshop are relatively simple. In order to prepare goods for the Spring Festival, the last quarter of each year has the heaviest tasks. Everyone just needs to follow the plan formulated by the production planning department and carry out production step by step.
However, the canning workshop is insufficiently equipped, with only three and a half sets of equipment. If the annual production task is to be completed, three shifts must be operated.
A shift is eight hours and the machine runs non-stop all day.
Ye Manzhi spends almost every day in the workshop, and Niu Enjiu is also in the workshop with her.
"Director Niu, why don't you go back and take a break?" Ye Manzhi suggested, "I'll watch over here."
"It's okay. The canning workshop has a lot of production to do. I'll come over and keep an eye on it myself."
Niu Enjiu sat in the corner of the workshop, looking through the new systems formulated by the canning workshop.
Ye Manzhi: “…”
The production schedule is tight, and having someone to help her share the burden can really make her feel a lot more relaxed.
But it would be best if this person is not Director Lao Niu.
She has been promoting the "Angang Constitution" in the canning workshop for the past six months and has been visiting the workshop almost every day.
She also invited Chen Qian to formulate those new systems together with the employees, and adjusted them many times.
After spending a long time together, everyone naturally became familiar with each other.
Whenever there is any urgent matter in the workshop, the workshop director and employees will habitually consult her.
Ye Manzhi subtly reminded the workshop director to consult and report to Director Niu more often.
Before the "Angang Constitution" was promoted throughout the factory, she still wanted to maintain a good relationship with Director Niu and preserve the appearance of unity.
However, after consulting with Director Niu, the instructions given by Director Niu sometimes conflicted with the new system of the workshop.
For example, in order to save production materials and reduce costs, when formulating the job responsibility system for the seasoning group, it was required that the remaining soup per shift should not exceed 20 kilograms.
However, Niu Enjiu required that production efficiency be improved. The seasoning team on the day shift should prepare more soup so that production would not be delayed due to insufficient soup. The unused soup could be given to the other two shifts.
This results in too much soup remaining during the day shift, making it difficult for the next two shifts to control the amount.
Sometimes there is not enough soup for the night shift, and sometimes there is too much, and the team leader will punish us.
The leader of the night shift seasoning group looked for Ye Manzhi several times, hoping that she would give everyone some advice.
What ideas could Ye Manzhi have?
She couldn't tell Director Niu that our workshop has already established rules and regulations, so please stop giving orders.
Director Niu came to help her out of kindness, to help her share the pressure, and besides, she also had to maintain unity with Old Niu!
Ye Manzhi thought about it for a few days and said to Niu Enjiu, "Director, the workers in our canning workshop work so hard. Although each shift is only eight hours, the conditions on night shift and day shift are very different. I worked the night shift a few days ago and found that some workers were hungry by two or three in the morning and could only drink water to fill their stomachs. Day shift workers can eat lunch at the factory, but how do we solve the food problem for night shift workers?"
Niu Enjiu's one-man show has a very positive effect at this time.
Without even discussing it with anyone, he just waved his hand and notified the logistics department to assign someone to be on duty in the canteen every night to cook for the night shift workers in each workshop.
In order to save everyone the trouble of walking to the canteen at night, Director Niu also suggested customizing a few dining carts for the canteen.
After the meal is ready, the canteen pushes the food cart to the workshop so that the night shift workers can eat the hot meal in the workshop.
His decision was immediately applauded by all the night shift workers.
The workers in the seasoning group who had previously complained about Director Niu’s blind command stopped complaining.
Ye Manzhi had always wondered how Director Lao Niu managed to have such a powerful voice. While many other factory directors had served for ten or eight years, she had never heard of a director as powerful as this one.
The whole factory listens to him.
Through this experience of cooking for the night shift workers, she had some understanding.
If she were to do this, at most she would have to ask the canteen to start cooking, which is something many factory managers can do.
But Niu Enjiu was able to have the canteen deliver meals to the workshop, which was very heartwarming, whether it was out of sincerity or insincerely.
If she was a night shift worker, she would definitely remember the kindness of Director Niu.
Director Lao Niu has the disadvantage of being strong, but he also has a caring side.
Ye Manzhi felt that some of Director Niu's leadership charm was worth learning for young people like her.
However, studying is studying, she can't let Director Lao Niu continue to work as an assistant in the canning workshop.
She spent half a year promoting the "Angang Constitution" and saw results.
If Director Niu gives blind orders a few more times, the system that has been hard-earned in the workshop may become useless. The workers can bypass many system rules by just saying "Director Niu ordered this."
But she has always believed in harmony and win-win cooperation, and she usually won't quarrel with others unless she can avoid it.
As a deputy factory director, how to maintain a harmonious and good relationship with the top leader is also a very important skill.
Ye Manzhi specially found a brand new notebook, wrote Niu Enjiu's name on it, and made a comprehensive analysis of Director Lao Niu.
I listed the key points about the other person's personality, education, work experience, work achievements, major contributions, etc., and thought about it carefully for several days.
Ye Manzhi thought self-deprecatingly that the last gay man she cared about so attentively was her own Wu Zhengrong.
However, after hearing her words, Wu Zhengrong said, "The last man you paid attention to like this was Zhang Qinjian from the Guangming Subdistrict Office, right?"
Ye Manzhi: “…”
It seems to be true.
However, her attentiveness did have some effect.
After a few days, she came to a conclusion - if she wanted to maintain a good relationship with Director Niu, she must not let Director Niu be idle and must not let him stay in the factory!
Why do you say that?
Looking at the development history of food factories, we can find that in the entire province, Binjiang No. 1 Food Factory is definitely the enterprise that has merged the most with other units.
Except for the canned food business, all other businesses were merged by Niu Enjiu.
Director Niu likes to expand outward!
Through the last cooperation with Shanghai Yimin Food Factory No. 2, we can see some clues.
When Director Niu heard that he could get a free canning production line, he ran faster than anyone else and didn't even care about the soda production line he had just acquired.
Rushing to Beijing and Shanghai.
Therefore, Ye Manzhi believed that if he wanted to get Lao Niu out of the canning workshop without breaking the current balance between the two sides, he could not stay in the factory, but had to go out and expand the territory!
Therefore, after returning from the meeting at the Provincial Department of Industry that day, Ye Manzhi strolled to the office of Director Lao Niu with a cup of tea.
"Director, I want to talk to you about the problems in the candy workshop."
Niu Enjiu asked in confusion, "What happened to the candy workshop? Based on their progress, completing this year's plan shouldn't be a problem, right?"
"We're certainly meeting our production plan, but the candy workshop's waste rate remains stubbornly high. I recently discussed this with Director Zhen, and the raw material with the highest waste rate is the rice paper used to wrap the candies. We purchase this rice paper from outside sources, and it's thin and brittle, easily breaking and shattering after long-distance transportation. Director, can we set up our own workshop to produce rice paper? I heard the city wants to open an edible film factory. Do you think our factory could be a candidate?"
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