Chapter 91
The bathtub is as important in the family as the big iron pot, and Ye Manyi has no intention of donating it.
She asked suspiciously, "Comrade Military Representative, you keep urging me to donate my bath tub. Are you trying to avoid labor?"
If there is any disadvantage of this bath tub, besides wasting coal and water, it is also wasting manpower.
The iron bucket was extremely heavy after being filled with water, and she couldn't move it at all.
So, when Wu Zhengrong was away on business, she would go to the public bathhouse to take a bath or just wipe herself at home. As long as Wu Zhengrong was at home, boiling water, pouring water, and draining the water were all Wu Zhengrong's jobs.
Lifting such a heavy tub and bath water every day, the muscles in his arms and lower abdomen became more defined.
Wu Zhengrong looked serious, a smile lingering in his voice as he said, "That little bit of work isn't a big deal. I'm just trying to help you find a way to complete your iron donation mission!"
I don’t know how often other lesbians take a bath, but Ye Lai Ya has insisted on boiling water for a bath every day since she got married.
Originally I only washed it on the two days I had sex, but gradually it developed into washing it on the day I had a rest as well.
Wu Zhengrong suspected that it was because he took such good care of her that she developed the habit of taking a bath every day.
Put yourself in his shoes. If someone could prepare ready-made bath water for him every day, he would also be willing to soak in the bucket.
"I won't donate the bathtub and the big iron pot," Ye Manzhi said, walking around the house with his hands behind his back, tilting his head toward the door. "I just saw Engineer Su go out with his wife and children. Xiaoyu said they were going to look for scrap metal on the street. Why don't we go out and look for some too?"
"Other people don't have to go to school or take the college entrance exam, so they can take their children everywhere. Do you have the time for that?"
"Then what do you think we should do?" Ye Manzhi held out the box of screws and nails. "Everyone's donated so much, we can't just donate this little, right?"
Wu Zhengrong glanced at his watch and said, "Go study first, and we'll talk after dark."
So Ye Manzhi read a book while waiting for dark.
After waiting until the night had completely fallen, I hurriedly followed him out.
"Where are you taking me? Why do we have to wait until dark?"
"Just follow me. Keep quiet and be careful not to attract the patrol."
They took the small road leading to the 656 factory area. Their covert behavior made Ye Manzhi suspect that he wanted to steal something from the factory.
She followed the man anxiously, and when she arrived at the door of a warehouse after many twists and turns, her previous guess was finally confirmed.
Ye Manzhi quickly stopped the man and said, "After all, these are the factory's things, so we should be cautious."
"Why are you so timid?" Seeing her scrabbling around like a thief, Wu Zhengrong took out his key and unlocked the door, teasing, "If you don't use some extraordinary means, you'll have to hand in your bathtub."
Ye Manzhi stopped him and tried to dissuade him, saying, "Instead of coming here in the middle of the night to undermine the foundations of socialism, why not just hand over the tub? At least you'll have peace of mind!"
"You're not even as brave as a soybean." Wu Zhengrong muttered, opened the warehouse's iron door, and led the man inside. "This is the warehouse allocated by the factory to the military representative office. I use it to store junk."
Wu Zhengrong handed her the flashlight and picked out the worst and most rusty one from the pile of car tires in the corner.
Then he took out the tools he had prepared in advance and removed all the removable parts of the tire, leaving only a wheel hub aside.
"This one wheel hub is enough for our family to complete the iron donation mission."
Ye Manzhi asked quietly, "Can this thing be taken out of the factory?"
"Yes, this isn't from the factory. I took it off an American's car. It's been out of production for a long time and can't be matched. It's just taking up space in the warehouse."
Ye Manzhi squatted beside him, illuminating the area with a flashlight, and accused him, "Then why were you sneaking around like that? I thought you brought me to the factory to steal something!"
"All the people living near my house are factory leaders. If they find out, none of the tires in my warehouse will be safe."
"The city is calling for donations of tires to concentrate resources on a major project. These tires are useless anyway, so it's a good idea to hand them in."
Ye Manzhi often felt that her army representative comrade was not very progressive and always sang a different tune when everyone was getting excited.
Wu Zhengrong put away the screws he had unscrewed and said calmly, "You can hand over all the scrap metal at once, but you have to think carefully about what you're going to use next time you're asked to donate steel or iron."
The scale of this mobilization of residents to donate scrap steel and iron has been very large, and every household has spared no effort to support national construction.
Ye Manzhi felt that after collecting so much scrap steel, the city would not need another wave of mobilization.
However, she thought about it carefully and realized that this kind of thing was really hard to say.
If there was a second round of iron donations, she would have no choice but to hand in the bath tub.
In order to take industrial development to the next level, the fact that she took a bath was really insignificant.
Although the two men came to the warehouse through a small path, they walked out of the factory gate with confidence when they left.
Wu Zhengrong carried the broken wheel hub and left openly under the noses of the soldiers on duty.
On their way home, the two saw many residents searching for scrap steel on the streets.
Several sections of the barbed wire fence on the wall of the children's school were stolen by someone, and the security guard was standing at the foot of the wall cursing.
Observe everyone you pass by with a critical eye.
Ye Manzhi felt inexplicably nervous and wanted to laugh, and with mixed feelings he transported the wheel back to the compound.
However, as soon as they entered the east gate, they heard their dog Sunflower barking.
Sunflower has now grown from a little one to a bigger little one.
Perhaps due to the limitations of the pug breed, Kuihua did not grow up to be a warrior like a military dog as Wu Zhengrong expected, and was not good enough to guard the house.
But the sunflower has a strong sense of territory and its calls are loud enough.
Ye Manzhi and Wu Zhengrong both used it as a doorbell. As long as the sunflower barked, it meant that there were guests coming.
Ye Manzhi ran home quickly and saw her fourth sister-in-law standing at the door. She asked in surprise, "Sister-in-law, why are you here at this time?"
"I came out to look for your fourth brother and happened to walk over here, so I stopped by to ask." Shen Liangmei asked anxiously, "Laiya, have you seen Man Gui?"
"No, I haven't seen him for several days." Ye Manzhi opened the gate, held down Kuihua, who was still trying to bark, and let the fourth sister-in-law in. "How long has he not been home?"
"He went out last night. He said he was going out to find some scrap metal to help with a family assignment. But when I went to the service station to mix noodles at four in the morning, he still hadn't come back. I thought he would be back during the day, but Mom said Mangui didn't show up at all today."
Ye Manzhi poured her a glass of water and said, "Did Fourth Brother go to some factory to deal in scrap metal? Our streets have been almost completely ransacked. He might have gone to a distant place, so it's normal that he won't be back for a while."
Fourth brother is a grown man, and Ye Manzhi is not worried about his safety at all.
Shen Liangmei hesitated for a moment, then saw Wu Zhengrong, who had just entered the room carrying the wheel hub, and asked hesitantly, "Brother-in-law, haven't they been cracking down on gambling in the factory recently?"
"No, I didn't hear anything." Wu Zhengrong shook his head. "What's wrong?"
Chen Liangmei came to her sister-in-law's house at night, actually just to confirm whether Ye Mangui had been arrested.
The last time he stayed out for two consecutive nights was when he was caught by the factory security department while gambling with a group of people.
Shen Liangmei suspected that he was gambling again, and it was not without reason.
Although Ye Mangui learned to drive a car, he was allergic to the smell of diesel. After driving for half an hour, he had to get out of the car and vomit for two minutes.
Given his situation, which company would dare to hire him as a driver?
So, he is still tinkering with flowers, birds, fish and insects at home.
Shen Liangmei was afraid that he would have nothing to do, so she took the opportunity to go out gambling under the pretext of looking for scrap metal.
Ye Manzhi asked, "He can't be gambling alone, right? Have you gone to his house to look for those people he used to play with?"
"I've looked for them. Hu Liu, Chi Dongsheng, and the two from the Qian family are all at home." Shen Liangmei asked worriedly, "Is nothing wrong with your fourth brother?"
Wu Zhengrong asked the two female comrades to wait at home and went out alone to call the police station and the factory security department.
The answers they received were that they were busy collecting scrap steel and iron these days and had no time to arrest anyone.
"Sister-in-law, go back and rest first. As long as he's not caught by the police or security department, nothing serious will happen to my brother."
Shen Liangmei got a positive answer and felt relieved.
She had the same idea as her sister-in-law. Ye Mangui was a grown man, so as long as he didn't get arrested and have a criminal record, there was no need to worry about his personal safety.
Ye Manzhi sent her fourth sister-in-law out and didn't take the fact that her fourth brother didn't come home at night to heart. Before going to bed, she wrote an essay according to her study plan.
The next morning I went to work as usual.
However, as soon as she arrived at the office today, she felt that the atmosphere was not right.
"Auntie Feng, where are the others? Why are you the only one in the office?"
"Everyone else has gone to watch the fun," Aunt Feng said shockingly. "The lid of the gourd at the entrance of the Industrial and Commercial Bureau was stolen by someone. This morning, a sanitation worker accidentally fell into the gourd while sweeping the street. Everyone is over there trying to figure out how to rescue him!"
"..." Ye Manzhi exclaimed in surprise, "How is the person? Has he been rescued?"
"I don't know. Jinbao and the others haven't come back yet, so they probably haven't been rescued yet."
Ye Manzhi quickly said, "Auntie Feng, please stay in the office and I'll go over and take a look."
Who is so brave!
He even dared to steal the manhole cover!
She hurried to the Industrial and Commercial Bureau and saw a lot of people gathered by the road.
The two fire rescue workers were squatting next to the open horse gourd. Zhao Erhe bent over and shouted into the room, roughly asking the sanitation worker to tie the hemp rope tightly.
After receiving a positive answer, everyone stood in a line like playing tug-of-war and pulled the thick hemp rope back together.
Amid the shouts of "one, two, one" and "slow down, slow down", the sanitation worker who fell into the gourd was finally pulled up.
Of course, the stench from the sewer was also brought up.
The onlookers immediately dispersed.
While evacuating the crowd, Chief Liu instructed the young police officers to check the scrap steel and iron purchasing stations in each neighborhood committee.
"This manhole cover must have been stolen by some idiot and turned in as scrap metal! If they can steal this, they will definitely steal others. Go and see if the other manhole covers are still there. Be careful that someone falls in again!"
Ye Manzhi's mind buzzed as he listened to Chief Liu's instructions.
Her fourth brother Ye Mangui hasn't been home for two days and two nights. Could it be that he took advantage of the dark night and strong wind to steal the manhole cover?
Fourth brother can really do such a thing!
Ye Manzhi immediately ran to the March 8th Service Station and called out her fourth sister-in-law who was steaming buns inside.
"Sister-in-law, did my brother go home last night?"
"No."
Ye Manzhi pulled her aside and whispered about the situation in front of the Industrial and Commercial Bureau. Before she could voice her suspicions, she heard her fourth sister-in-law suddenly exclaim excitedly, "Oh my God! Could Mangui have also fallen into the horse gourd?"
Ye Manzhi: “…”
She thought her fourth brother was the suspect of stealing the horse gourd lid, while her sister-in-law thought her fourth brother was the victim who fell into the horse gourd.
Her next words were blocked by her fourth sister-in-law.
"Little sister, we can't delay this!" Shen Liangmei took off her apron and said anxiously, "A few horse gourd lids were lost on Guangming Street? Let's go and take a look. What if your fourth brother fell in too?"
Ye Manzhi felt that his fourth brother would not be so unlucky, and it was impossible for such a coincidence that a series of horse gourd-eating incidents occurred on Guangming Street.
However, just as she had this thought in her mind, she heard a commotion not far away.
Someone suddenly shouted, "There's someone in this gourd too!"
Ye Manzhi: “…”
The aunt and sister-in-law quickly ran over with a group of people.
Shen Liangmei rushed to the side of the sewer and shouted, "Ye Mangui! Is that Ye Mangui down there?"
An exasperated female voice came from below, "What are you shouting about? I'm not Ye Mangui, so you won't save me?"
Shen Liangmei patted her chest and said, "It's okay, it's okay. The one below is not your fourth brother. Let's go and have a look in other horse gourds."
Although it’s not Fourth Brother, the rescue work still needs to be done.
Ye Manzhi called a young waiter from the state-owned restaurant next door and asked him to run to the Industrial and Commercial Bureau.
The fire rescuers, don't leave yet, there is another person waiting to be rescued.
She squatted by the well and said some comforting words to the lady inside. She waited until Chief Liu and his men arrived before she went to accompany her fourth sister-in-law to check other horse gourds.
Thanks to that bold bastard, most of the manhole covers on Guangming Street were stolen.
When the two saw the uncovered horse gourd, they ran over and shouted a few times.
But no missing persons were found in Ma Hulu after that.
Ye Manzhi breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Maybe we're worrying too much. My fourth brother won't be so unlucky."
However, perhaps it was the telepathy between husband and wife, or some other mysterious reason, Shen Liangmei always felt that Ye Laosi had fallen into a horse gourd and did not give up searching.
When we were almost at the Anti-Imperialist Fair, we finally heard a familiar cry for help from a horse gourd.
Shen Liangmei said excitedly: "See, I said your fourth brother must have fallen into the horse gourd! We arrived just in time!"
Ye Manzhi: “…”
If I didn't know it was impossible, I would have thought that Fourth Brother was thrown down by her based on her confident tone.
Forget it, let’s save people first.
The first time is the first time, and Ye Manzhi asked his fourth sister-in-law to comfort his fourth brother here, while he went back and invited the firefighter who had just completed the second rescue mission to come over again.
When Fourth Brother was found, he had been in the sewer for more than ten hours.
I was thirsty, hungry, and dizzy from the stench of the sewer.
Judging from the time, he fell in yesterday evening and was the first of the three victims to fall into the gourd.
However, since the Anti-Imperialist Market was located in a remote area and those two days were not market days, he shouted at the top of his lungs but no one came to rescue him.
If Shen Liangmei had not been inexplicably convinced that he had fallen into the horse gourd, he might have starved to death or been suffocated to death in the horse gourd.
Even though he had been deafened and tears were streaming down his face due to the smoke, the fourth brother who was dragged up still spoke harshly without any momentum.
"If I find out which bastard stole the manhole cover, I'll definitely break his leg!"
Ye Manzhi brought two basins of clean water and poured them over him from head to toe, saying in disgust, "Brother, stop yelling! You stink! Who told you not to go home so late at night and wander around in such a remote place?"
"Pfft," the fourth brother spat out. "The only reason I didn't go home was to help our family complete the mission! There are a few abandoned bungalows over there, and there are a lot of iron sheets pressed under the roof tiles. Once I pull out those broken iron sheets, our family's mission will be completed!"
Ye Manzhi: “…”
Well, at least Fourth Brother is doing his job.
Let my fourth sister-in-law take him home to take a bath, and it would be best if she takes him to the hospital for a physical examination.
After making sure that no one had fallen into trouble in the other gourds, Ye Manzhi returned to the street office with a group of people.
"Jinbao, have you found those manhole covers? It's too dangerous without them. We can't let the residents on our street jump in like dumplings."
"The police station has already found it. It's all piled up at the scrap steel and iron purchasing station."
Lang Qinghong frowned and said, "The neighborhood committee is too careless. The manhole cover was obviously stolen from the street. How can they take back such a municipal facility?"
Liu Jinbao sighed, "Isn't this the big competition for all neighborhood committees? They buried the manhole cover among the other scrap metal and weighed it together, and they just turned a blind eye and got away with it. The manhole cover must be so heavy, so the competition score will definitely skyrocket!"
"I think this matter needs some correction and guidance," Ye Manzhi said. "The city is asking everyone to donate scrap steel and iron. If we donate all the good stuff and then spend money to buy new ones, isn't that a waste? Especially now that there are cases of theft of manhole covers, street guardrails, and school barbed wire..."
Gao Xiaoguang muttered quietly, "We need to hear Director Zhang's opinion on this matter. He wants Guangming Street to win first place in the district competition!"
Now everyone is very enthusiastic about donating steel and iron. If restrictions are added, it will definitely dampen this rapid momentum and put the brakes on it.
Ye Manzhi glanced at the seat next to her and asked, "Where's Director Zhang?"
"I don't know. We haven't seen him since we were rescuing the residents this morning."
Aunt Feng, who stayed at home, also shook her head and said, "It seems that Lao Zhang hasn't come to work yet. I haven't seen him all morning."
The street director never punches in at work. Sometimes, Zhang Qinjian leaves home and goes directly to the district or city for meetings.
Everyone knows about this situation and just casually shows concern about Lao Zhang's whereabouts.
However, after lunch break, when Ye Manzhi wanted to find Zhang Qinjian for his signature, he found that Zhang was still not there. He waited until after three o'clock in the afternoon, but Zhang Qinjian still did not show up in the office.
This is very abnormal.
What kind of meeting could last so long? And Zhang Qinjian hadn't reported it in advance.
Ye Manzhi felt something was wrong, so he quickly took out the contact book and asked Liu Jinbao and Zhao Erhe to go to Director Zhang's house.
Let’s take a look at Director Zhang’s situation.
Although Zhang Qinjian is the director of the street office, he is not a resident of Guangming Street. His home is on another street in Zhengyang District.
Ye Manzhi asked them to take a car to Director Zhang's house and urged them, "Go quickly and come back soon. Call us when you have the results."
The two agreed very well and fulfilled their promise as soon as possible.
Less than an hour after leaving, Zhao Erhe called back his workplace.
Across from the noise, Zhao Erhe reported in a disorganized voice, "Director Ye, this is bad! Director Zhang has also fallen into the trap!"
Upon hearing this, Ye Manzhi's brain froze for a moment, and he said "Huh?" while holding the microphone.
"Zhao Erhe, stop joking!"
"I'm not kidding! Director Zhang really fell into a manhole! Everyone in their area knows about it! Director Zhang walks to and from work every day. This morning, while on his way to work, he accidentally stepped on a manhole cover on their street and fell! He was rescued this morning."
Ye Manzhi: “…”
"Hello, Director Ye?" Zhao Erhe shouted a few times from the other side when he heard no response.
Ye Manzhi perked up and asked, "How is Director Zhang now?"
"I don't know. We didn't see Director Zhang. I heard he had a broken head and was immediately sent to the People's Hospital..."
Ye Manzhi put down the phone in a daze.
He turned his back and adjusted his expression for a long time before informing other comrades of the sad news.
When they suddenly heard that Director Zhang had fallen into the horse gourd, everyone's reaction was confusion. Then they quickly lowered their heads, trying their best to hold back their laughter, and then showed expressions of surprise and sympathy.
Ye Manzhi understood and didn't bother to look at everyone's expressions. She called Lang Qinghong to go to the hospital to visit the patient, and let the others go home.
In the People's Hospital, Zhang Qinjian was lying on the hospital bed with a piece of gauze on his forehead.
Ye Manzhi handed the fruit and brown sugar that had been sent to the family members, and asked about Director Zhang's injuries. Seeing that he looked rather embarrassed, she sighed and said, "Director, you've really suffered an unexpected disaster this time! You didn't go to work today, so you don't know what's happening on our street! Five horse gourd lids were lost on Guangming Street. We rescued three residents from the gourds this morning, and my brother also fell in..."
Hearing that he was not the only one who had lost someone, Zhang Qinjian quickly asked, "Did your brother also fall into the horse gourd?"
"Of course he did. He went out to look for scrap metal last night and accidentally tripped and fell. His injuries were worse than yours."
Ye Manzhi took the opportunity to talk to him about the large-scale loss of municipal facilities.
"Director, the city is asking citizens to donate scrap steel and iron, but some people, in order to complete the competition, are even stealing horse gourd lids and municipal fences. If we don't stop this, I'm afraid it will get worse."
Zhang Qinjian had suffered a great loss of face today, so he nodded weakly. "You're right. Theft from public facilities must not be tolerated!"
Ye Manzhi suggested, "Why don't we talk to the neighborhood committee director and ask him to ensure that all the iron and steel we turn in is discarded. We can take broken iron pots, broken iron buckets, rusty nails and bolts, etc., but we should try not to take any usable ironware, so as to avoid unnecessary waste caused by people rushing for quick success and instant benefits."
Zhang Qinjian leaned against the head of the bed, frowned and thought, this would definitely lower the results of the Guangming Street competition.
However, he has already been hospitalized because of this. If a horse gourd lid is dropped every ten steps on Guangming Street, his commute to get off work will be too dangerous.
"Director Ye, you can do whatever you want. The work of donating steel and iron cannot stop. We still need to mobilize everyone to contribute more to industrial development!"
Ye Manzhi knew that he had implicitly agreed, so she returned to Guangming Street and convened a basic meeting to rearrange the work.
*
Although Zhang Qinjian was sick, there was an enthusiastic Liu Jinbao in the unit who was willing to help out. Ye Manzhi handed the work to him and started doing her own thing.
After she passed the political review and physical examination, she started filling out her college entrance examination application form.
Apart from Tsinghua University, Peking University, Provincial University and Normal University, Ye Manzhi had never heard of any other universities.
She had no idea what major to apply for.
She wanted to discuss filling out her college application with Wu Zhengrong, but Wu Zhengrong was always too picky and could not give any useful suggestions except Tsinghua, Peking University, Fudan University and Nankai University.
After reading the introductions of all the colleges and universities, I asked her to apply to the provincial university.
Ye Manzhi was married and reluctant to leave her parents, so her choices were limited. She had to choose not only a university in her own province, but also a local university in Binjiang.
She felt that Wu Zhengrong's advice was unreliable, so she took her application form and went to the old house to ask for advice from a professional like Grandpa Wu.
The first sentence Dean Wu said made Ye Manzhi full of confidence in the college entrance examination.
"To support the rapid economic development, hundreds of new colleges and universities have opened nationwide this year, quadrupling the number of previous years. We have quite a few newly established professional colleges in Binjiang, too. Feel free to apply to any of them; you'll probably be accepted."
Ye Manzhi's confidence grew, and he asked sincerely, "Grandpa, how about I apply to Binjiang University of Finance and Economics?"
"What's the point of a School of Finance and Economics? The best economics program in the province is right here at our provincial university."
"..." Ye Manzhi was silent for a moment, then pointed at the name of another school and asked, "How about Binjiang Youth Political College? Can I apply to the Political Science Department?"
"The Youth Political College is uninteresting. The teachers are seconded from the Provincial University. The best political science department in the province is at our Provincial University," Dean Wu said disdainfully. "Don't even look at other schools. Just apply to the Provincial University!"
Ye Manzhi: “…”
As expected of grandparents and grandchildren, they boast in exactly the same tone!
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