Chapter 181
Liao Jie is an employee of the canning workshop and is also a factory worker. His father and elder brother both work in the food factory.
The year he graduated from junior high school, the city's control over employee establishment was not so strict. At that time, the food factory was expanding, and his father invited the deputy director of the canning workshop 3 to have a drink and then let him work in the canning workshop.
Relying on his status as a factory worker, he was able to work in the factory, which was his social advantage.
However, after entering the factory, this identity quickly became a disadvantage.
Employees of large state-owned factories can enjoy housing benefits. After accumulating a certain number of years of service, they can apply for housing from the factory.
The leaders of the food factory did not explicitly say that the factory workers’ children had no share in the house.
But every time the houses were allocated, these factory kids had to stand at the back in style.
The logistics department has housing records for every employee. His father is an old employee of the pickle workshop. As early as the year when the food factory’s family compound was built, he was allocated a 22-square-meter one-bedroom and a half apartment.
When distributing housing, the company gives priority to employees who have housing difficulties. Liao Jie lives in the staff compound with his parents, brother and sister-in-law. His conditions are much better than those of other people of the same age in the factory.
Originally, Liao Jie was quite satisfied with his living conditions.
The staff housing estate of their unit has just been awarded the title of "Standardized Unit on the Life and Welfare Front," which makes the residents of the estate quite proud.
But he got married with his partner this year.
The two have no housing.
On his side, there are eight people in total, including his parents, brother and sister-in-law, nephews and nieces, as well as him and his sister, squeezed into a one-and-a-half-square-meter room.
His eldest brother and sister-in-law lived in the small house with their children, while he lived in the big house with his parents, and then used a curtain to separate a single room for his sister.
Under such conditions, how can he spend his wedding night with his wife?
Some parents will go out for a walk at critical moments to provide convenience for their children.
However, if my parents were to take my sister out for a walk, wouldn’t everyone in the compound know what the two young people did at home?
Liao Jie and his wife are not so shameless...
Fortunately, there is always a way out!
The treatment at the food factory is indeed a little better than that at other units, and the welfare housing distribution is more humane.
The factory cannot provide so many houses for young people to get married in a short time, but it also cannot delay young people's lifelong events because of the lack of houses.
Therefore, the food factory came up with a compromise - reserving a mandarin duck building in the staff quarters.
The rooms in Yuanyang Building are all small single rooms with similar layouts, each room is only a dozen square meters.
Any unmarried employee who has not been allocated housing can apply for a single room in Yuanyang Building with his or her newly obtained marriage certificate.
The validity period is one month.
The young couple spent their honeymoon in the Yuanyang Building, but had to return the house to the factory after a month because there were other couples waiting in line for the house.
In order to make the most of this single room, young people not only have to choose an auspicious date when getting married, but also have to consider the room arrangements in Yuanyang Building.
If you get the marriage certificate and then find out that there are no empty rooms in Yuanyang Building, it will inevitably be disappointing.
Therefore, Liao Jie went to the logistics department in advance to inquire about the date when a room would be available, calculated the date to get the marriage certificate, and quickly cleaned the room after the previous couple left.
After carefully decorating the nest with his wife, he happily moved into the Yuanyang Building.
The honeymoon days are quite wonderful.
He humbly discussed with his wife that he would rush home after work every day and try to make full use of the house.
He finally managed to coax his wife into agreeing, but then something unexpected happened on his side.
There is a new deputy director named Zhu in the factory. He is like an idiot and often comes to the workshop to teach workers.
At the beginning, the lectures were given during working hours, and most of the workers had no objection. Sitting and listening to the lectures allowed them to rest for a while, which was more comfortable than working on the production line.
However, not long after, the class time was changed from daytime to nighttime.
Moreover, when Deputy Director Zhu was giving lectures, Director Niu would also come to follow him, and the class would always be delayed until after nine o'clock before everyone could go home.
Liao Jie could only live in the Yuanyang Building for one month, but he had to study two or three days a week and write a study report when he got home.
A wonderful honeymoon was cut short by one third for no apparent reason.
Who can feel comfortable when encountering such a thing?
Liao Jie was teased by his wife several times because of this.
But Director Niu had great power in the factory, so even if everyone had complaints, they didn't dare to skip the evening ideological and political studies.
However, when there was only one week left in the month, the young people finally got the opportunity to take advantage of the loophole!
Director Niu and Deputy Director Zhu acted separately, each taking charge of a workshop.
The canning workshop 3 is under the charge of Deputy Director Zhu!
So Liao Jie seized the opportunity and went straight home after get off work, skipping two nights of ideological and political studies to cherish the short time they were together.
On the last night of his honeymoon, Liao Jie had classes again, and he planned to do the same and skip classes again.
However, due to the significant drop in attendance in the first two classes, Zhu Kehai came to the workshop to block people before he got off work.
He took the attendance list and called the roll one by one, and no one was allowed to miss class.
Liao Jie didn't want to pay attention to him, so he gave his coworker a look and wanted to run away with him to pee.
Zhu Kehai said, "Participating in ideological and political studies and improving ideological and political awareness are the top priorities of our current work. Some comrades have extremely poor organizational discipline and repeatedly skip classes! For such comrades..."
He stood at the gate of the workshop and gave a long speech. He not only required the comrades who skipped classes to write self-criticisms, but also asked them to add extra class hours to improve their understanding.
Someone in the crowd grumbled, "Isn't production the top priority? Director Zhu doesn't do his job all day, he just lectures us. If he put his work ethic into logistics, every employee in the factory would have housing."
"Haha, that's fine. He's the factory director, so let's do whatever he says."
The staff packed up their things and prepared to come back to class after having dinner.
Liao Jie had no choice but to take his lunch box to the cafeteria. When he met his elder brother in the cafeteria, he asked his elder brother to sign in for him to the study class so that he could take up a place.
He quickly left the factory with his lunch box, anxious to meet his wife at the cinema and go home together after watching the movie.
However, before he walked out of the factory gate, he was stopped by the security guard Lao Qin.
"Xiao Liao, do you have classes in the workshop today? You are not allowed to miss classes again!"
Liao Jie took out a cigarette and gave it to him, and said in a gentle voice: "Master Qin, my brother has gone to class for me, and I have something urgent to do at home. Can you please be flexible with me?"
"I really can't make any concessions!" Master Qin said helplessly. "Your workshop's absenteeism was so severe the last few times, Director Zhu was furious. Today, he gave me a roster and asked me to help him stop people. If I really let you out, I'll be the one who gets caught."
Liao Jie tried to persuade him for a quarter of an hour but still failed to get him released.
Master Qin said awkwardly, "Xiao Liao, why don't you go get a note from Director Niu or Director Zhu? I'll take the note, and you can come and go as you please."
The new factory manager Zhu is a bit serious, and he is just a security guard. If the other party catches him, he will be in big trouble.
Liao Jie returned to the workshop with a lot of anger, and saw his elder brother being dragged to the front of the workshop by Director Zhu, and being scolded like a grandson in front of all the employees in the workshop.
The anger that had been pent up in his heart for a month suddenly flared up!
He ran over and pulled his eldest brother behind him, frowning and saying, "Director Zhu, my brother doesn't have any classes today. He came to our workshop to listen to the class. What's wrong with asking for progress?"
"Is he just here to attend the class? I called Liao Jie's name, what did he say?" Zhu Kehai glanced at him, "Improving ideological and political awareness is..."
"Director Zhu, we are the working class, authentic and red-blooded. Whose ideological awareness is higher than ours? We toil away to complete the factory's production tasks. What contribution have you made to the factory? Why do you have to lecture us all day long?" Liao Jie said angrily. "The workers are exhausted during the day, and still have to listen to your lectures at night. You are nothing. If there are any lectures, it's Director Niu, Director Ye, and Director Chen who teach us! The other directors have fought alongside us, the working class. They have lived and eaten with us, and struggled with us in the workshop. Who are you?"
Brother Liao didn't expect his younger brother to say such words in front of the deputy factory director. He quickly stepped forward to stop him and winked at him.
You openly challenge the deputy factory director. Don’t you want to do this anymore?
He glanced at Director Zhu's sullen face and pushed his brother, "Stop talking! Apologize to Director Zhu right now!"
Liao Jie was very angry, how could he be stage fright at this time!
Thinking of the preparations he had made in advance for the mandarin duck apartment, the careful planning, and the time wasted by Zhu Kehai in the past month, his eyes turned red with anger!
His house couldn't accommodate so many people, and there was a younger sister living in his parents' room.
After moving out of the mandarin duck room tomorrow, he and his wife will live separately.
He went back home and his wife went back to the collective dormitory at her workplace.
Many young people live like this nowadays. Although the couple has complaints, they can tolerate it and just want to use this month to get along well with each other.
But now everything has been ruined by the hypocritical Zhu Kehai!
"Our factory has already implemented the Anshan Iron and Steel Constitution. We, the working class, are the masters of the factory. It's not just you who decides what to do! Deputy Director Zhu, aren't you in charge of logistics? Why hasn't the housing problem been solved yet? If you could expand our factory and improve our employees' welfare like Director Niu did, we would definitely listen to you. But you haven't even done your job well. So many employees don't have houses. What qualifications do you have to lecture us all day long? If you have the ability, you should allocate houses to us first!"
His words were supported by many young workers.
Among the employees who were originally looking at this side with eyes wide open in surprise, someone immediately agreed.
"Yes, Director Zhu, you are in charge of logistics. When will the factory allocate housing to us?"
"That's right, there's no room at home for us to get married!"
"If it were Director Niu, he would have done it for everyone a long time ago!"
Zhu Kehai was furious after being contradicted. "What are you all arguing about? This is totally disorganized and undisciplined!"
Hearing them calling Director Niu all the time, he became even more furious.
If Niu Enjiu could really solve the housing problem for the employees, would he have delayed this difficult task until he took office at the factory?
When Niu Enjiu was on duty, the attendance rate in classes in each workshop was above 95%.
Ever since he and Niu Enjiu took over their respective shifts, his attendance rate has been halved.
Isn't this telling everyone clearly that Zhu Kehai's words are not effective and some people don't take him seriously?
Therefore, he made full preparations before coming to class today, wanting to catch a few typical cases and eliminate this evil trend.
Unexpectedly, I met Liao Jie, this troublemaker, who instigated others to join in the fun!
In his previous unit, Zhu Kehai was a full-time manager who was responsible for sending cadres to participate in labor at the grassroots level. He dealt with people all year round and had his own ways to deal with such emergencies.
The most important thing at this time is to get the troublemaker to leave the scene, so as to prevent more workers from being instigated by him to cause trouble and escalate the situation.
"Liao Jie, since you're not motivated and unwilling to participate in ideological and political studies, you don't need to come to class. I'll report today's situation to the factory Party Committee, and the Party Committee will decide how to deal with you." Zhu Kehai calmly pointed outside the workshop. "Please leave the workshop now and don't waste everyone's time."
Liao Jie was even more angry at these words, and his eyes were full of fire.
"Who says I'm not ambitious? Who says I don't want to learn? If I'm not ambitious, then what have I been doing these past few months? I've only been married for less than a month, and I've left my wife at home alone to study. Why do you accuse me of being unambitious?"
At the end of his speech, his voice was choked.
Last year, when the production workload was heavy, he worked day and night in the workshop. This year, he finally had some free time, which gave him time to get married. However, he missed a lot of time to spend with his wife because of his studies.
As a result, he was criticized by his leaders as being unambitious.
The workshop director and deputy director had come to their senses by now and ran out to grab Liao Jie to stop him from continuing to contradict his superiors.
"Liao Jie, what's wrong with you? Are you dizzy from working? What nonsense are you talking about?" The workshop director scolded his workers, then smiled apologetically at his superiors, "Director Zhu, Liao Jie is young and full of energy. He really needs ideological education. Let's give him another chance and let him continue his studies."
"If he doesn't like to hear it, he can leave..."
If Zhu Kehai easily lets go of this troublemaker who contradicts him, what will he have in the factory in the future?
If the workers follow his example, will he still be able to carry out his work?
Thinking of this, he gave the other person a light push on the back and said in a deep voice, "Liao Jie, get out now. We'll deal with your matter tomorrow. Don't delay other people's classes."
He didn't explicitly say he wanted to fire Liao Jie, but to the workers, these words were almost equivalent to firing him.
A worker who had a good relationship with Liao Jie pleaded for him: "Director Zhu, Liao Jie didn't commit any serious offenses, so he shouldn't be fired, right?"
Zhu Kehai glanced at Liao Jie and said nothing.
It seemed like he had tacitly agreed to fire Liao Jie.
Seeing he couldn't escape being fired, Liao Jie was pushed on the back by the other party. He reached out and pushed back, furiously saying, "Whether to fire me or not is the decision of the factory party committee. What gives you the right to push me? The factory director can't reason with the workers, so he wants to use violence?"
Although Zhu Kehai is the factory director, he is only 32 years old. Even a clay man has some temper. What's more, he has taken the position of deputy director of a large state-owned factory at such a young age. He is full of energy and ambition.
Being repeatedly contradicted and assaulted by workers in public made him feel a little embarrassed and angry.
He pushed the other person's shoulder and said, "Get out of here..."
As the two sides pushed each other, Zhu Kehai's elbow hit Brother Liao's nose.
Brother Liao cried out in pain.
Seeing bright red blood dripping from his elder brother's nasal cavity, Liao Jie was so angry that he lost his mind. He broke free from his elder brother's grip and punched Zhu Kehai in the face.
"Fuck you! The factory director is so great, isn't he?" He threw another punch, not satisfied with the first one, and swung his fist again, "The factory director can just hit people like that?"
Zhu Kehai didn't expect that he would actually dare to hit someone, and he was knocked to the ground without paying attention.
Brother Liao tried his best to hold on to his brother, saying, "He is the factory director, what can happen if you let him hit him?", and then he stepped on the finger of Factory Director Zhu.
Zhu Kehai was hurt again and couldn't help but let out a cry.
"Director Zhu, how are you? Are you hurt?" The workshop director came forward to show concern.
Other workers also rushed over and surrounded the few people to help separate them.
When someone pulled Liao Jie away, they kicked Zhu Kehai on the back.
Someone shouted, "Oh, there are too many people here. Please move aside. Director Zhu can't get up. Don't step on him!", and then stepped on his ankle.
Zhu Kehai's nose was bleeding from the beating. He endured the pain in his fingers with great difficulty, sat up from the ground, and bent his knees to cover his painful ankle.
He just stretched out a hand to ask someone to pull him up, but someone pushed him back to the ground by the shoulder.
"Director Zhu, is your ankle injured? Is it a fracture? You'd better lie down and don't move! Liu Shun, quickly remove the door panel, let's carry Director Zhu to the hospital!"
Zhu Kehai covered his bleeding nose and shouted, "I have no broken bones, let me go!"
The workshop director then shouted, "Listen to the factory director! Everyone, disperse! There are too many people here. It's easy for good intentions to lead to bad consequences!"
He also looked down on Director Zhu, but in order to avoid being punished later, he still had to pretend to stand with Director Zhu.
Liao Jie had already been pulled out by his elder brother and shouted to the encircled group, "Everyone, please bear witness for me. He hit me first, and I fought back. His fracture has nothing to do with me!"
Liu Shun took down a door panel from the office door, and everyone enthusiastically lifted him onto the door panel despite Director Zhu's obstruction.
Then four young and strong men were selected and asked to run out of the workshop carrying a simple stretcher.
Many employees had just finished dinner in the cafeteria and were leaving get off work. Seeing this scene, they asked with concern, "What happened to Director Zhu?"
"His nose is bleeding. Let's take him to the hospital."
Employees: “…”
Director Zhu is really delicate. He just had a bleeding nose, but he actually had to use a stretcher!
*
Ye Manzhi listened to the story with great interest. At the end, she couldn't help but ask, "Did Director Zhu break any bones?"
"No," Zhou Ruyi shook his head, "I heard it was just a superficial wound."
Ye Manzhi let out a rather unkind sigh, then said with a hint of concern, "Hey, Director Zhu's injured. I should go to the hospital to visit him. But I just got back from a business trip, I'm exhausted, and I don't have anything to prepare. So, let's talk about it tomorrow. Then I can ask Engineer Yu to come along and see him."
Yu Youfang must also be eager to see Zhu Kehai's miserable appearance.
"How did Liao Jie handle it?" Ye Manzhi asked again, "How did the employees react to this matter?"
"Liao Jie said he dislocated his shoulder after being beaten by Director Zhu, and he's now in the hospital. The factory hasn't dealt with Liao Jie yet," Zhou Ruyi hesitated. "After all, not many people witnessed the fight, so the employees discussed it for a while and then let it go. But everyone's now focused on the welfare housing distribution. If Liao Jie had a house after getting married, there wouldn't have been such a big fuss."
Zhou Ruyi also lives with a large family, and she also hopes that the company can allocate housing to young employees.
Ye Manzhi frowned and sighed, "The house issue has been brought up every other day, but it's never been resolved. I hope there's a similar solution this time."
Niu Enjiu went to the provincial department for a meeting, and Ye Manzhi didn't have to report on her work for the time being, so she signed all the documents that had been piled up during this period.
I finished reading the last one just as I was getting off work.
She didn't waste time at work and quickly took her luggage and took a bus home.
She missed Dr. Wu so much after not seeing him for over a month!
Entering the military academy's family compound, she strolled along the boulevard, passing rows of Khrushchev buildings.
The deeper we went, the more we felt that something seemed wrong in the compound.
When she was almost at the fork in the road near her home, she ran into her neighbor Liu Zhenfang who had just picked up her child from school.
"Sister Zhenfang, why are there so many small rooms in our compound?"
"Hahaha, what small room?" Liu Zhenfang laughed. "Those are the toilets in each household! During the time you were away, our compound has changed a lot. Many families have built toilets."
"Is the Military Academy really building a toilet for us?" Ye Manzhi asked in surprise.
In fact, there was a rumor last year that the bungalows in the compound could be equipped with independent toilets. Wu Zhengrong even drew a blueprint to plan the water supply and drainage pipelines for his own home.
Unfortunately, the wind died down and the toilet repair project was left unfinished.
The main issue is repairing toilets, which requires private funding, but the houses everyone lives in are allocated by the state.
If one day I get transferred to another job and leave the military academy’s staff quarters, the money I spent on repairing the toilet will be wasted.
Therefore, most residents are unwilling to pay for it themselves.
Liu Zhenfang smiled and said, "This isn't the Military Academy's initiative. It's your Wu, my old Zhou, and Director Liu from the Air Force Engineering Department who are leading the discussion with the Qingnian Street Commune. The city has recently been installing water and sewage pipes in some public rental housing. The houses in our compound are also considered public property, so we can work with the city's planning. But ours are military housing after all, and the city won't pay for the installation, so the neighborhood committee is inviting families willing to build their own toilets to sign up. The pipes are all uniform, and the more people use them, the cheaper the cost. Almost half of the houses in our area have toilets!"
"Oh, that's great! It's so much more convenient to have a toilet at home! I was wondering why this road is so bumpy and full of potholes."
Ye Manzhi was so excited that she didn't even bother to greet Sister Zhenfang. After saying goodbye at the door, she couldn't wait to unlock the door and go in.
There was indeed a small red brick room in my yard. When I opened the white wooden door, I found a flushable squat toilet inside!
Oh my god! Oh my god! They finally have their own toilet!
She will never have to go to the public restroom again!
Ye Manzhi threw the luggage bag next to Kuihua's doghouse, greeted the enthusiastic Kuihua, and went into the toilet excitedly.
The moment she heard the sound of flushing, she felt happier than if she had signed ten orders!
No, no, no, it feels better than being chosen by the leaders in Beijing!
Ye Manzhi was in a good mood and wanted to prepare some delicious food for Kuihua, whom he hadn't seen for a long time.
But when Wu Zhengrong lived alone, he had three meals a day in the cafeteria, and there seemed to be nothing at home. I wonder how he usually fed Lihua and Kuihua.
Ye Manzhi went into the house and rummaged through the drawers and cabinets. She found a pack of goat milk powder that was about to expire and made a bowl of it for Kuihua.
While Kuihua was wagging her tail and slurping milk, she returned to the couple's room.
Then, she discovered a new world!
She was standing in the yard just now and didn't notice at all that her house had been expanded to the east side!
There was a small door on the wall of their room, and behind that door was a bathroom!
In the bathroom, there was her bathtub that was almost patinaed, water pipes, and a shower head that didn't look very nice. It looked like the handiwork of some comrade.
Ye Manzhi visited for a long time.
She wanted to take a shower in the new bathroom, but she didn't know how to use the shower head!
Since the advanced equipment was not working for the time being, Director Xiaoye decided to return to basics and go to the kitchen to boil some hot water and pour it into the bathtub.
After a long journey of several days, she returned to the company for another day of work today. The moment she sat in the bathtub, she couldn't help but sigh in comfort.
"It's better to go home!"
She squinted her eyes and soaked in the hot water, her skin turning white and rosy from the steam.
After soaking for a long time, Ye Manzhi realized that she had forgotten to prepare soap and could only stand up reluctantly.
However, just as she stepped one leg out of the bathtub, the bedroom door was pushed open.
Dr. Wu, dressed in military uniform, walked in from outside.
When Wu Zhengrong saw the situation in the room, he was stunned for a moment.
The couple looked at each other through the window glass on the bedroom wall.
Ye Manzhi subconsciously raised his hand to protect his chest, but Wu Zhengrong glanced at the window facing the courtyard, and after confirming that the curtains were drawn, he raised his hand and unbuttoned his military jacket.
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