Chapter 182
There is a window on the east and south sides of Ye Manzhi and Wu Zhengrong's room. When the sun rises in the east in the early morning, the whole room is filled with sunlight.
This time, when building a bathroom outside the bedroom, Wu Zhengrong only opened a door in the wall, and the original window on the east side was completely preserved.
So, under the watchful eyes of his daughter-in-law, Dr. Wu simply flipped a latch and easily opened the window that separated the two of them.
"When did Director Xiaoye come back? Why didn't you call me?"
Ye Manzhi was naked, with one leg standing in the bucket and the other leg outside the bucket. Her arms were busy protecting her chest. At this vulnerable moment, she didn't want to talk to him at all.
Especially since the other party only took off one coat, so he was still dressed neatly.
"I came back this morning. I wanted to give you a surprise," she answered succinctly, then ordered, "I forgot to bring the soap. Go find it for me."
Trying to get the man away.
Wu Zhengrong stood still, smiling and asking, "Did Youyan come back with you?"
"No." Seeing him unbutton his shirt upon hearing the answer, Ye Manzhi's pale face instantly turned red. She urged, "Hurry and get me some soap!"
Wu Zhengrong was quite obedient this time. He hung his shirt on the hanger and helped her get the soap.
While he turned around, Ye Manzhi quickly pulled her legs back in, and after shrinking herself into the bathtub, she finally felt less embarrassed.
She glanced out through the glass window, her eyes falling on the broad, strong back.
Wu Zhengrong has training tasks all year round, and his muscles are all hard.
But Ye Manzhi is not obsessed with chest muscles and abdominal muscles. She only likes back muscles and must hug them at critical moments.
Wu Zhengrong passed the soap through the window, leaned against it, and asked, "Is the water still hot?"
"Do you want to take a shower together?" Ye Manyi, who had just taken a peek at the other person's back muscles, asked inexplicably.
Wu Zhengrong was amused by her words and waved for her to come closer.
"What are you doing?" She lay on the edge of the bathtub, leaning forward slightly.
Wu Zhengrong gently pinched her chin and skillfully gave her a kiss that was not innocent.
When his breathing became rapid, he let her go, kissed her forehead and said, "The bathtub is too small to fit two people, but I can add some hot water for you."
"..." Ye Manzhi said dissatisfiedly, "You don't come in, and you don't leave, aren't you annoying?"
He was clearly stripped down to his pants, yet he still stood by the window watching her take a shower.
It would be better to let someone in than to be stared at by him like this!
Ye Manzhi lay beside the bathtub and glared out in reproach.
The incandescent light in the bathroom was on, and the warm yellow light fell on the man, dyeing her favorite long eyelashes into light gold.
The waist and abdomen lines are also very obvious.
Ye Manzhi glanced outside a few times, not knowing what he was thinking, when suddenly a nonsensical idea flashed through his mind.
How come the two of them, one standing inside the window and the other standing outside, look so much like the first meeting of Pan Jinlian and Ximen Qing?
When Pan Jinlian lifted the curtain rod and hit Ximen Qing, it seemed to be the same situation at that time.
Dr. Wu is Pan Jinlian standing in the window, and she is Ximen Qing who is tempted by her beauty.
Seeing her lying on the edge of the tub and laughing non-stop, Wu Zhengrong asked, "What are you laughing at?"
Ye Manzhi happily told him the analogy of Pan Jinlian and Ximen Qing.
"Who is Pan Jinlian?" Wu Zhengrong raised his eyebrows.
"You!"
No self-awareness at all.
Hearing this, "Pan Jinlian" took a step forward, stepped onto the windowsill, and stepped into the bathroom.
"There's a door right next to you, why are you jumping out of the window?"
Wu Zhengrong whispered a few words, and after receiving a shameless evaluation, he grabbed the man by the waist and carried him out of the bathtub.
"Is this newly built wall soundproof?" Ye Manzhi asked nervously.
This wall is close to the corridor between the two houses, and people occasionally pass through the corridor.
"I don't know. I haven't tried it yet." Wu Zhengrong was enveloped in warmth and kissed her neck, saying, "Please restrain yourself."
Ye Manzhi tried her best to restrain herself, but she was still worried about the newly built brick wall.
When her head was buzzing and dizzy from the collision, she hugged the man's neck and ordered: "I don't want to stay in the bathroom anymore, carry me out!"
Wu Zhengrong asked, "Isn't the new bathroom good? I see you like it very much."
"Why are you asking so loudly?" Ye Manzhi's cheeks flushed and she reached out to cover his mouth. "There's an echo in this bathroom!"
Wu Zhengrong casually lifted a corner of the curtain on the air vent, glanced outside and said, "There's no one here, what are you afraid of?"
"You really are..."
Ye Manzhi was simply stunned by his shamelessness. He actually dared to lift the curtains in such a state.
Even though the air vent is at the top, what a shame!
Wu Zhengrong kissed her and said, "Don't be so serious. Just focus. I'll help you take a bath and try out the new shower head."
…
That night, Ye Manzhi finally used the new shower head made by Wu Zhengrong, deputy director of the 1062 Institute, but because she had no strength, she enjoyed it while sitting in the bathtub.
After being wrapped in a towel and carried back to bed, she breathed a long sigh of relief.
Wu Zhengrong kissed her on the lips and suggested, "Director Xiaoye, our family uses towel blankets quite frequently. Would you consider buying another one?"
This was the dowry that Ye Lai Ya brought with her when they got married.
“…”
Ye Manzhi felt that there might really be some kind of magnetic field between the couple, otherwise they wouldn't be so in tune with each other!
She pointed to her luggage and said, "I bought two bags at the Canton Fair, one for Youyan and one for me."
Wu Zhengrong doesn't use this thing.
To buy a towel blanket, you need industrial coupons, so Ye Manzhi has never been willing to buy one.
But items at the Canton Fair did not require tickets, and on the last day of the conference, a lot of retail industrial products were released.
She went on a business trip to Guangzhou this time and received a daily food allowance of 1.2 yuan and 50 cents for accommodation, a total of 1.7 yuan.
After 40 days, you can receive nearly 70 yuan in travel allowance.
So, when the Canton Fair closed, she didn't feel sorry for the money at all and bought all the things that her family needed but had been reluctant to buy.
She wrapped herself in a towel and slid to the bedside like a silkworm chrysalis. She asked, "We have so many new independent toilets in our compound. How much does each household have to pay?"
"About forty yuan," Wu Zhengrong said, wiping her hair with a towel. "Our two projects cost a total of over ninety yuan."
Ye Manzhi hummed.
Ninety yuan is not a small amount, but she thinks it is worth it as she can have her own toilet and bathroom and improve her living conditions.
"Can all the bungalows in our commune be equipped with toilets?"
"Only public rental housing is available. People won't pay for private properties."
Ye Manzhi lifted the towel that was blocking her view, looked at him and asked, "What do you think about me building a toilet for the yard on Xincheng Street? My grandparents are old, and it's inconvenient for them to go to the public toilet. Can we take advantage of the city's construction project to build a toilet at home?"
"It should be possible. You should contact the commune as soon as possible and ask them how far along their project is."
*
Accountant Xiao Wu was not at home, so the couple lived happily together again.
Ye Manzhi told Wu Zhengrong about what she saw and heard at the Canton Fair, and also informed her of the good news that Zhu Kehai had been beaten black and blue by workers. The two chatted until they could no longer open their eyes, and she reluctantly fell asleep.
The next morning, Dr. Wu, who had been idle for more than a month, took on the task of making breakfast for his wife and waking her up.
Ye Manzhi ate a breakfast from her hometown in a daze, and made an appointment with Wu Zhengrong to watch a movie after get off work. The couple went out to work together.
Factory Manager Xiaoye has been on a business trip for over a month and has a lot of work to follow up on.
Especially for orders for banquet dishes, she is quite confident about the European market and feels that canned banquet dishes can be sold in the Chinese community in Europe.
So, after reporting the situation at the Canton Fair to Niu Enjiu, she discussed with him the distribution of banquet food orders.
"We've received a lot of export orders for braised pork trotters, four-joy meatballs, and braised pork elbows, but we've stopped producing canned banquet dishes in the past two years. Director, should we transfer personnel from various workshops to form a new one, or should we give the orders to Workshop 4 and have them produce luncheon meat while also handling banquet dishes?"
Niu Enjiu looked through the order records she brought back, and there were orders totaling 150,000 RMB.
This number is neither big nor small.
The original equipment used to produce original pork can be used to produce banquet dishes. If we speed up the work, we estimate that the task can be completed in a month.
"Director Ye, what do you think? Will there be any follow-up orders for this kind of banquet dishes?"
"I'd like to set up a workshop dedicated to producing banquet dishes. Overseas Chinese, especially those in Southeast Asia, are quite receptive to these dishes, and many Chinese restaurants use canned banquet dishes. However, there are only five manufacturers in China that can produce banquet dishes, and none of them are their core business. If we can put some effort into this, we might have unexpected gains."
Niu Enjiu said, "We don't have any idle workshops in our factory right now. You can organize production in other workshops first. Once the equipment from the soda workshop is moved to the soda factory, our factory will have a lot more free time. Then we can set up a banquet food workshop."
Ye Manzhi thought this was fine, so after leaving Niu Enjiu, she went to the deboning team in the canning workshop.
Let them keep all the pig's trotters and pork elbows and hand them over to the canning workshop to produce banquet dishes.
She had been busy at the factory all morning. At lunchtime, she ran into Yu Youfang in the cafeteria. She took her lunch box and sat over to ask, "Mr. Yu, I heard that Director Zhu was injured while we were on a business trip and is in the hospital. I'd like to go see him later. Do you want to go?"
"I'll go too. A broken bone takes a hundred days to heal. Director Zhu will have to stay in bed for about three months this time."
"Ah? Isn't his nose bleeding?"
He was also beaten black and blue.
"It's a broken ankle." Yu Youfang shook her head and said, "I asked Director Ding from the factory office this morning. He often visits Director Zhu. I heard that the broken ankle was diagnosed yesterday afternoon."
"It's been three or four days. How come he just diagnosed the fracture now?"
She thought Zhu Kehai was in the hospital as a patient.
Zhu Kehai did want to be a patient at first, but he didn't have to be hospitalized.
But after being discharged from the hospital, I have to go back to work in the factory.
He was beaten by Liao Jie and his face was bruised. Wouldn't he be laughed at if he went back to work?
The bruises on his face and ankles had not subsided, so he had a ready-made reason to stay in the hospital.
But after two days, the bruise on my ankle not only did not go away, but became even more severe, causing unbearable pain at the slightest touch.
The doctor checked him again and confirmed the fracture yesterday afternoon.
Ye Manzhi and Yu Youfang took advantage of their lunch break to visit a patient at the People's Hospital.
Seeing Director Zhu entertaining them with a purple right eye socket, Ye Manyzhi thought of several sad things before suppressing the smile from the corner of her mouth.
"Director Zhu, how did you get hurt like this?" Ye Manzhi said in shock as she sat on the bench. "I heard it was just a nosebleed and she'd be back to work in two days. How come your ankle is broken? That Liao Jie was really rough!"
Speaking of Liao Jie, Zhu Kehai said with a gloomy face: "I have reported the situation to Director Niu. I hope the factory will deal with Liao Jie's problem seriously."
"Of course, he must be dealt with seriously!" Ye Manzhi accidentally caught a glimpse of his smudged face and quickly looked away, struggling to suppress a laugh as she said, "Liao Jie is young and reckless, but Director Zhu, why did you so impulsively engage in a fight with him?"
"Who fought with him? He hit me first!"
"Huh?" Ye Manzhi deliberately looked at Yu Youfang, seeking approval, and said, "If it wasn't a fight, then why are both of your injuries so serious? One has a dislocated shoulder, and the other has a broken ankle!"
Without waiting for Zhu Kehai to answer, Yu Youfang continued, "I heard that the scene was quite chaotic at the time. It's possible that he was accidentally injured by someone else."
Zhu Kehai kept a sullen face and said nothing. The broken ankle was not caused by Liao Jie, but if it weren't for Liao Jie, he wouldn't have to suffer this pain.
The two of them chose a good time to visit the patient, coming during lunch break, which showed their care without having to stay too long.
Say some polite words about taking care of yourself and then you can retreat.
After leaving the ward, Ye Manzhi and Yu Youfang finally didn't have to hold back their laughter.
Yu Youfang took out a dime and bought two popsicles, handing one to Ye Manzhi. "I think Director Zhu's injury is quite serious. I guess he will have to stay in bed for the near future. I just don't know how his work arrangements will be arranged."
Ye Manzhi thought to himself that when he was not here, the five factory directors and deputy directors were still running the food factory very well.
In fact, it doesn’t matter whether he is there or not.
Sure enough, a few days later, Niu Enjiu convened a team meeting to arrange subsequent work and deal with the follow-up matters of the fight.
Zhu Kehai's inability to go to work has no impact on others. Niu Enjiu can just take back his work and take charge of it himself.
The key is how to deal with the two parties involved in the fight.
"According to our factory's regulations, anyone involved in a fight is eligible for dismissal," Niu Enjiu asked. "What are everyone's thoughts on this matter?"
The deputy factory managers were drinking tea or looking through their notes; no one wanted to get involved in this matter.
Zhu Kehai is indeed annoying, but he is a colleague in the same team after all. After his injury recovers, everyone still has to work together.
The best way to deal with this is to fire Liao Jie.
He evaded ideological and political studies and beat his leader. No matter how you look at it, he was wrong.
Chen Qian didn't have a good impression of the new colleague. Instead of working in his own workshop, he went to other people's workshops to give lectures all day to make himself felt.
He spoke first, saying, "It would be most reasonable to handle this according to factory rules and regulations. But both parties were involved in the brawl. If we only fire Liao Jie, how will the employees feel?"
According to Zhu Kehai, it was Liao Jie who beat him unilaterally.
According to the testimony of other people present, it was Director Zhu who pushed Liao Jie first, and then Liao Jie fought back.
Besides, Zhu Kehai’s fracture has nothing to do with Liao Jie.
If Liao Jie is fired, what should be done with Zhu Kehai who was the first to take action?
Niu Enjiu nodded noncommittally and asked, "Does any other comrade have anything else to say?"
Noticing that neither Jiang Wenming nor Wang Shihu were ready to express their views, Ye Manzhi took the initiative to speak up, "Liao Jie is an employee of the canning workshop, and I am the deputy director of the contracted canning workshop. Although I wasn't at the factory when the conflict arose, I've gotten a general understanding of the situation over the past two days. I think the key to this matter isn't how to deal with Liao Jie, but rather we should look at the deeper issues."
"Since assuming his new position, Director Zhu has been in charge of publicity and logistics. The results of this publicity work are obvious to all. In recent months, there has been a wave of enthusiasm for studying the Quotations and the Works in our factory. The workshop workers are also very enthusiastic in their studies. Take the canning workshop, for example, where the attendance rate has remained above 95% for two consecutive months. I looked at the attendance records for the past two months, and except for the last three classes, Liao Jie has attended all the previous study sessions."
"Some comrades only know that Liao Jie and Director Zhu fought, but they don't know the reason why."
Ye Manzhi briefly introduced Liao Jie's family situation and how he applied for a Yuanyang Building after getting married because he had no housing.
"The last three classes were during the last week they had the right to use Yuanyang Building. After moving out of Yuanyang Building, the newlyweds would have to go back to their own homes. Even if they got married, they wouldn't have the conditions to live together."
Other factory managers: “…”
Then it seems quite reasonable for Liao Jie to beat people.
Young people.
Cough cough.
"I think two issues can be seen through Liao Jie's case. First, the allocation of housing for employee benefits is urgent. The logistics department's work is lagging behind and cannot keep up with the pace of our factory's development. If young people can have their own small home and a place to stay, they won't value Yuanyang Building so much."
"Secondly, the schedule for our ideological and political study classes needs to be adjusted. Directors Niu and Zhu have been using their after-get off work hours to teach the employees for over two months. The employees can still take turns attending the classes, but the two directors have to stay and work overtime every day..."
Niu Enjiu nodded slightly.
Ever since he started attending classes with Zhu Kehai, he had to stay in the factory to work overtime every day.
His usual workload is several times that of Zhu Kehai. He has to study with the class after get off work every day and has obviously looked much more haggard in the past few months.
Doing propaganda together with the other party is a method that hurts the enemy by a thousand and hurts yourself by eight hundred.
Ye Manzhi smiled and said, "I think when it comes to raising ideological and political awareness, what matters is the results, not the form. We all went through our student days. I wonder if you had any 'sit-and-sit' students back then. I was in a class with two of them. They sat in class all day and didn't do anything. Their attendance was exceptional, but they always got zero marks on the exams."
"With the support of Director Niu, our factory has fully implemented the Anshan Iron and Steel Constitution. Each workshop has established work and study groups. After more than two months of study, Directors Niu and Zhu have laid a solid foundation for everyone. We could also try having team leaders organize study sessions during breaks. The factory would periodically organize exams to assess everyone's learning outcomes. Furthermore, competitions could be held between workshops and teams to foster more active participants in studying the Constitution."
Ye Manzhi spoke rather implicitly. What she wanted to say more was that this would free the employees from the study classes.
Those who need to pick up their children should pick up their children, and those who need to take the elderly to see a doctor should take them to see a doctor.
Zhu Kehai's family is taken care of, so he can focus on pursuing career success.
But the employees have to support a whole family, so who can be a hands-off boss like him?
Deputy Director Zhu needs to rest for a while, so Niu Enjiu can take direct charge of the study class.
Ye Manzhi's suggestion touched the heart of his heart.
Without Zhu Kehai getting in the way, he adopted Director Ye's suggestion on the spot.
Taking the opportunity of promoting the "Angang Constitution", everyone can use their spare time to study the quotations and works vigorously.
A quiz is organized every half month and a competition is organized every month.
This team meeting went seriously off topic and started discussing ideological and political studies and employee welfare housing distribution.
Dealing with Liao Jie's matter is not that important.
The factory party committee finally decided to retain Liao Jie's staff position, transfer him from the canning workshop, and assign him to work at the pig farm.
Ye Manzhi stopped speaking for Liao Jie.
It's good to work as a breeder in a pig farm. It may not sound very prestigious, but the benefits are the same as those in a food factory.
If you don't work under Zhu Kehai's supervision, it won't be so easy for him to be framed.
Moreover, urban employees working on pig farms can be allocated single dormitories in the county town, and Liao Jie can bring his wife to stay there for a while.
*
The decisions made at the meeting will take effect on the same day, so everyone does not need to attend the study class after get off work.
Ye Manzhi walked out of the factory gate with the other employees as the bell rang for the end of get off work.
I first went to the pastry shop at the door and bought a pound of tiaozi cake and half a pound of oil tea noodles.
Then she took two paper bags and took a bus to the courtyard on Xincheng Street to give some delicious food to the toothless old man and woman in her family.
"Why are you spending money recklessly again?" Grandma complained and wanted to go to the fields to cook for her.
"I'm the deputy director of a food factory. If I don't bring you some cakes, I'll look like a complete loser!" Ye Manzhi helped her get out of bed and started ordering food. "I want to eat shredded potatoes with vinegar. Grandma, please make me some shredded potatoes."
"Okay, you wait."
"Take your time and do it. I'm going to go to the commune to inquire about something first." Ye Manzhi sent her into the kitchen, waved his hand and said, "I'll be back for dinner later!"
The old lady was thrifty, so we couldn't tell her about building the toilet in advance.
She checked the time and rushed over before the commune closed.
Seeing Mao Qionghua, who had become the commune secretary, Ye Manzhi said with a smile: "Secretary Mao, I, a commoner, have come to the commune to do something for you again!"
"Haha, Xiaoye, please come in." Mao Qionghua invited her into the office to ask her what she wanted.
Ye Manzhi said that she wanted to take advantage of the city's opportunity to install water and sewage in public rental housing to build a toilet in her own yard.
"Don't mention this matter, not now!" Mao Qionghua waved her hand.
"Sister Mao, I'll pay for it myself."
"It's not about who pays," Mao Qionghua whispered. "All renovation projects in the city have been halted."
"Why?"
The Housing Management Office of Xincheng Street responded too slowly.
More than half of the projects at their Youth Street Commune have been completed!
"The issue is quite complicated, but I heard it's about money. Just think about it, if all the public rental housing in the city needs to be maintained and renovated, how much would that cost? The reason we were able to come up with such a large sum of money this year is because the central government allocated 'urban maintenance fees' to the province, and the province allocated 500,000 yuan from that to Binjiang."
"500,000 is a lot, right? Isn't it enough to build plumbing?"
"How could all 500,000 yuan be used to maintain public rental housing?" Mao Qionghua explained, "There are still many urban residents who are homeless and in financial difficulty. 300,000 yuan is used to build residential buildings, 50,000 yuan is used for repairs and laying water and sewage, and the remaining 150,000 yuan has other uses."
Ye Manzhi pondered and said, "Although the maintenance fee is indeed not much after being averaged out to each district and street, it is better than nothing."
"Haha, who says it's not true? The Housing Authority had already made a plan for the repairs, but they stopped the work just as it was about to begin last week."
Ye Manzhi asked: "Why?"
"It's said that the city is illegally using urban maintenance funds. The Provincial Planning Commission and the Construction Bureau came to investigate, and all projects have been completely halted."
Ye Manzhi's heart was burning with gossip, and she whispered, "Did someone make a mistake?"
"It's not the mistake you think," Mao Qionghua shook her head. "I heard it's because the 300,000 yuan wasn't used properly. The province allocated funds to us to build residential housing, but our city built several office buildings and street-facing shops along the street. Doesn't this defeat the original purpose of the grant?"
Ye Manzhi asked, "Have those office buildings been completed?"
"Of course. One is already in use and is now the office building for the woodworking factory. I even went to see another building the other day. It's a three-story brick-concrete building with a large area. I heard it was intended for the Grain Bureau. However, now that the provincial government has called a halt to the construction, it's doubtful that the office building will be allocated to the Grain Bureau."
As a provincial capital, Binjiang has paid more attention to the development of urban appearance in the past two years.
It is said that the leaders want to build stores and office buildings in a good location facing the street and move the residential houses to the back.
These two new office buildings will replace the old office building in a bad location, and then the old building will be converted into a residential building for homeless residents to move in.
If we follow the original plan, the province will turn a blind eye and let it go. At least as long as the residents have a place to live, that's all that matters.
But the crux of the matter is that the city did not implement the plan!
After the wood factory moved into the new building, their original old building was occupied by the glass factory.
Still an office building!
This is a violation of regulations, and was stopped by three provincial departments.
Not only was the remaining 300,000 yuan frozen, but even the 50,000 yuan for maintaining the public rental housing could not be touched.
Ye Manzhi sighed with her and felt sorry for it.
She went home and thought about it for half the night. The next day when she went to work, she strolled to Niu Enjiu's office and told Director Niu the news.
"The city is in a difficult position now. If we don't get rid of that office building, we're definitely not going to get through the provincial government." Ye Manzhi asked quietly, "Director, what do you think about our factory taking over the Grain Bureau's new building? We can just say we can convert it into residential housing. The city spent 300,000 yuan to build several houses, so that office building shouldn't cost much."
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