Chapter 62
Ye Manzhi carefully selected three semi-new bicycles. When she returned to the office with her meal ticket and bicycle keys, all members of the Reform Office were present.
The district attaches great importance to this reform work, and the district mayor will personally take charge and serve as the director of the Reform Office.
The eldest sister Liang Qiuyan, who just assigned work to everyone, was originally the deputy director of the District People's Committee Office. This time she will also serve as the deputy director of the Reform Office and be responsible for the daily work of the new department.
In addition to the director and deputy director, the other ten members were seconded from the Policy Research Office, Industrial Bureau, Finance Bureau, Street Office and other units.
Ye Manzhi was in charge of distributing meal tickets to everyone. When it came to the last person, Li Tingting, she stopped her and asked, "Ye Manzhi, are you from Guangming Street?"
"Yes, from the Guangming Subdistrict Office."
"Then do you know Dong Cheng?"
Ye Manzhi shook her head. There were nearly 20,000 residents on the street, and it was impossible for her to know everyone.
"Where's Luo Xiaojing?"
Ye Manzhi shook his head regretfully again.
"Where's Lin Qingmei?"
He was about to shake his head, but suddenly he nodded, "Meet me, Qingmei is my good friend!"
"Then we're so destined to meet!" Li Tingting said happily. "Lin Qingmei and I were classmates in the district committee's theoretical study class, and we've even attended several city-sponsored social dances together."
Ye Manzhi smiled and said, "Qingmei is really good at ballroom dancing. I learned it from her!"
In an unfamiliar environment, through a series of twists and turns of relationships, I got to know an "acquaintance".
This made her slightly uneasy mood suddenly calm down.
Li Tingting was obviously delighted to have found someone familiar to keep her company. She pulled her close and asked, "Xiao Ye, when we're divided into groups later, do you want to be in the same group with me?"
"Do we still need to divide ourselves into groups in the office?" Ye Manzhi looked puzzled.
"Of course we have to! Didn't you notice that only three liaison officers from the subdistricts are here?" Li Tingting whispered. "We have three comrades from the Finance Bureau as well! I just asked Director Liang. Your three subdistricts have the most handicraft cooperatives. We'll use you as pilot areas first, and each pilot area will form a reform team."
Ye Manzhi smiled and said, "That's fine. If Director Liang doesn't have other plans, we can form a group! By the way, can you ride a bike? The boss has allocated three buses for us. If we really divide ourselves into groups like you suggested, maybe each group can get a bike."
Upon hearing this good news, Li Tingting couldn't help showing surprise on her face. "Yes, I can, but I haven't ridden it much."
Ye Manzhi thought to herself, it seems that she is not a country bumpkin. The comrades in the Finance Bureau must have seen the world. They are so happy, which shows that the treatment in the Reform Office is indeed very high.
The three bicycles that Director Liang applied for the new department quickly captured the attention of his colleagues.
After everyone cleaned up the office and had lunch in the cafeteria, Liang Qiuyan organized a mobilization meeting for the comrades in the Reform Office.
Just as Li Tingting said, Director Liang first divided everyone into groups.
Each group has a street liaison officer, a comrade from the Industrial Bureau, and a comrade from the Finance Bureau.
The average age of Ye Manzhi and Li Tingting is only in their early twenties. The third member assigned to their group by Director Liang is the mature and steady Feng Dacheng.
Unlike several other middle-aged male cadres in the office, Feng Dacheng has particularly thick hair, a white, plump, round face, and squints when he smiles.
If he wore an apron over his cadre uniform and said he was the canteen chef, people would believe him.
However, Comrade Feng Dacheng, who was mature and squinting, took the lead in firing at everyone after completing the grouping.
"Director Liang, our Reform Office has already been established. My words might seem like a cold shoulder or an afterthought, but after receiving the assignment from the bureau leaders, I've actually had my doubts about this reform."
Liang Qiuyan nodded unsurprisedly. "Since this is a pilot project, it means everyone is participating in this work for the first time. It's normal for some comrades to have doubts. If you have any questions, please raise them as soon as possible so we can discuss them together."
"Okay, let me start by explaining my thoughts," Feng Dacheng said bluntly. "Handicraft cooperatives are collective in nature, meaning that when they were first established, members contributed money to the partnership. As far as I know, almost everyone in the cooperative has invested, either in cash or in equipment. We're now trying to transform collective cooperatives into state-owned enterprises. Is there a theoretical basis for this? In practice, it's completely..."
Ye Manzhi listened to him carefully choosing his words as he spoke for about ten minutes.
To sum it up, it is very simple. Is it legal to turn collective property into the property of all the people?
Feng Dacheng is an old hand in the government. He has his doubts, but some things cannot be said too directly, so he has to express his views in a roundabout way.
In fact, when Ye Manzhi first received the task, a similar thought flashed through his mind.
Although she has been working for half a year, she usually deals with mass work and is closer to ordinary people in terms of thinking.
Transforming a cooperative into a local state-owned factory, literally speaking, could easily be interpreted as the transformation of private into public, and of personal into state.
This is not an easy thing to say!
The reform work has not yet started, but she can already imagine the resistance she will encounter.
Feng Dacheng spoke obscurely, but even a young person like Ye Manzhi could understand what he meant, so others could understand it even more easily.
Liang Qiuyan emphasized seriously, "I want to make one thing clear! The city's decision to transform the cooperative into a state-owned factory is not intended to seize personal or collective property! After the factory conversion, members' share capital will be returned in cash, and a certain amount of depreciation will be provided for production tools and factory buildings. One of the important tasks of the three comrades we have transferred from the Finance Bureau is to return the members' shares."
As for the theoretical basis of this reform, she asked the researcher sent by the Municipal Party Committee Policy Research Office to clarify the doubts for everyone.
Yu Zhenfang, a middle-aged female researcher, said with a smile, "Don't be too nervous. Since the city leaders want to launch a pilot program, they must have done some research beforehand."
She gave a very common example.
"Walk out of the District People's Committee gate and turn right. There's a repair cooperative. Is that also considered a handicraft cooperative?"
Everyone nodded.
"I went to see it this morning. There are eight technicians in this cooperative. They used to work alone as individual repairmen, and it was private property. Then the eight of them joined forces to form a cooperative. Those who have money contribute money, and those who have tools contribute tools. The cooperative has become collectively owned. Do you all understand what I mean?"
Those who can be sent to the Reform Office are the best and brightest from various units.
It is impossible not to understand these most basic situations.
So he continued to nod.
Yu Zhenfang is engaged in theoretical research, but when explaining theoretical issues, he is very down-to-earth.
"This small repair shop shows that collectively owned cooperatives evolved from individual private ownership. Why can't collective ownership be transitioned to a higher level of public ownership? The cooperative economy is not static! This issue has already been discussed in the Ta Kung Pao. Interested comrades can take a look."
Ye Manzhi wrote down the specific date and planned to go back and find the Ta Kung Pao to take a look.
She usually only reads local newspapers and the People's Daily, and has rarely read other newspapers.
Yu Zhenfang continued, "As for whether it's necessary to transform cooperatives into state-owned factories, I think it's absolutely necessary! Let me first share with you a few real-life cases."
"Our city's Fifth Ironworks Society is quite large. Last year, a hardware company placed an order with them for 2,000 axes to support disaster relief efforts in other provinces. Disaster relief work, after all, doesn't guarantee high profits. As a result, due to low profits, 1,400 of the 2,000 axes produced by the society were returned due to substandard quality!"
"There's also the Dongfeng Cotton Weaving Cooperative. They originally wanted to expand their production, but after distributing dividends to members at the end of the year, they didn't have enough money to buy more machinery. The city's Second Cotton Weaving Factory had over ten unused electric iron and wood looms that could have been used by the Dongfeng Cotton Weaving Cooperative. But since one is a state-owned factory and the other is a collective cooperative, the city can't transfer the equipment..."
“…”
Ye Manzhi took notes quickly and then summarized it for her in her mind.
Collective enterprises have shares and dividends, and members are more focused on their own interests and economic benefits, and are unwilling to accept tasks with major political significance.
Moreover, the equipment of the cooperative is collectively owned and cannot be transferred between cooperatives or between cooperatives and factories, and the state has no right to control it.
This can no longer meet the needs of rapid development of socialist construction.
Ye Manzhi pricked up his ears to listen to the discussion of the big guys, feeling like he was in a refresher class.
After an afternoon of discussion, everyone realized the importance of reform.
Director Liang felt that this kind of discussion was very necessary. If even the people in the Reform Office were working with doubts, it would be even more impossible to convince the members to agree to transfer factories!
*
In the first few days, the Reform Office worked in the district to plan a reform plan. They did not need to go to the cooperative for research for the time being, so they did not need to use the public bus.
Ye Manzhi wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to learn how to ride a bicycle as soon as possible.
Feng Dacheng is a cadre of the Industrial Bureau and usually rides a bicycle to and from get off work, so the bus allocated to the group by the Reform Office can be used in turn by Ye Manzhi and Li Tingting.
Li Tingting said that she could ride her bike to take her when she went out for research, but the journey was so long, and Li Tingting was also a female comrade, so she didn't feel comfortable asking others to do the work all the time. They must take turns!
“How long does it take to learn to ride a bike?”
"If you're fast, you can learn it in half an hour. If you're slow, it might take months." Wu Zhengrong said succinctly, "It depends on your understanding."
Ye Manzhi said confidently, "I think I have a good understanding. When I was a kid, I went to Shidao Street to play, and several fortune tellers said I had a good aptitude for understanding."
"..." Wu Zhengrong laughed, "Fortune tellers are just like matchmakers. They can make anything sound exaggerated."
"Hateful." Ye Manzhi secretly kicked him with her toes under the table. "You should be able to let me learn to ride a bike in three days, right?"
Wu Zhengrong really couldn't guarantee anything about this kind of thing. Learning to ride a bike seemed to have nothing to do with intelligence or physical strength.
There was a young man in the military representative's office. He was strong and smart, but unfortunately he just couldn't learn to ride a bike.
"I'll try to help you learn it as quickly as possible."
After eating in the cafeteria, the two went straight home to get the car.
The road from the east gate of the military industry compound to Yard No. 16 was flat and the snow had been cleared, which was perfect for her to learn to drive.
Ye Manzhi pushed his bicycle out of the yard and looked at the flat path ahead, feeling a little hesitant.
"If I learn to ride a bike here, will I run into other factory leaders?"
Wu Zhengrong swore confidently, "No, look, there's no one on this road."
At most, they would lean on their windows to take a look, but they would not say anything in front of them.
Out of long-standing trust, Ye Manzhi believed his lies again and straddled the seat while holding the handlebars.
"Be careful!" she warned worriedly, "I made this new cotton-padded jacket for the New Year. I really like it. Don't let it break!"
Wu Zhengrong: “…”
I don't feel sorry for myself, but I feel sorry for my clothes.
"Well, ride boldly."
He controlled the handlebars with one hand and held the seat with the other. He pushed Ye Manyi around twice to let her experience the feeling of riding a bike.
Ye Manzhi didn't feel anything, he just felt that the vision was quite high and it was quite interesting to be pushed by someone.
One pushed the other and the other rode, and they soon arrived at the gate of the compound.
Before Ye Manzhi could hold the handlebars to turn the corner, he met a female comrade who had just picked up her child from school.
The child sat on the beam while his mother pushed the bicycle into the yard.
The two sides met at the door. Before Ye Manzhi could react, he heard the mother of the child opposite burst out laughing.
Ye Manzhi looked at herself, then at the little girl on the beam opposite, and her face turned red instantly.
Fortunately, Wu Zhengrong raised his voice in time and said, "When learning to ride a bike, pay attention and don't look left and right. Your center of gravity is unstable, causing the handlebars to shake back and forth..."
Indirectly tell people that they are learning to ride a bike.
When they returned to Yard 16, the blush on Ye Manzhi's face gradually faded away.
They can do very intimate things in private, but everyone in this courtyard is an acquaintance. If someone sees Wu Zhengrong pushing her on a bike like a child, she will definitely be teased by the aunties and sisters who know her for a year!
"How about I try it myself?"
"Can."
When Wu Zhengrong was learning to drive, he didn't seem to need anyone to support him. Whenever he felt he was about to fall, he would support himself with his legs. After trying a few times and mastering the balance, he naturally learned to drive.
He let Xiao Ye try boldly, followed behind her and helped her hold the back seat of the car, and then repeatedly reminded her that if she felt she was about to fall, she should stretch her legs first to control her balance.
He spoke in great detail and Ye Manzhi listened attentively.
However, both of them forgot one thing - the branches are full of leaves but the legs are short!
She is of average height among lesbians and is definitely not short.
However, the 28-inch bicycle is a more suitable type of vehicle for gay men. Ye Manzhi's innate conditions are there, and they cannot compare with the long legs of gay men.
When she felt the car was about to fall over, she followed Teacher Wu's instructions and subconsciously stretched her legs.
However, her toes couldn't even touch the ground!
No! It didn't hit the ground!
She fell down in such a miserable state with a scream of “Ahhhh”!
Wu Zhengrong discovered the problem the moment she stretched her legs. Without caring about the bicycle, he quickly put his arm around her waist and lifted her off the seat before the bicycle fell.
"How is it? Are you scratched anywhere?"
Ye Manzhi shook his head in shock.
I had seen Wu Zhengrong riding a bike before, and it seemed quite easy. But when it came to her turn, her toes couldn't even touch the ground. It was such a shame! Such a shame!
Wu Zhengrong went home to get some tools and helped her lower the bicycle seat. "It's my fault. I didn't consider the seat height. When you learn how to ride, you should buy a women's bike. This 28-inch bike is really not that easy to ride."
Ye Manzhi saw that he adjusted the seat height to the lowest level, but it was only lowered a little bit.
She recalled the distance from her toes to the ground and felt that adjusting the height would be of no help.
However, she bravely got back on the seat.
Although there was no one on the path, she still tried her best to control her voice so as not to shout and attract the attention of the neighbors on both sides.
However, even so, when she was supported by Wu Zhengrong on the back seat of the bike and rode unsteadily to an intersection, she still heard a very obvious sneer.
Ye Manzhi thought to himself, who is so annoying? What's so funny about people learning to ride a bicycle?
She followed the sound and suddenly saw Zhou Mu's ugly face behind a glass window.
This picture is actually quite weird.
By this time, the sky had darkened and lights were on in the bungalows on both sides of the path.
The room where Zhou Mu was located had a huge temperature difference between the inside and the outside, so almost the entire glass was frosted, and the situation inside could not be seen clearly from the outside. He opened the small window at the top, revealing his head.
Ye Manzhi stopped the car and asked, "You're standing there like a hanged man, what are you laughing at?"
Zhou Mu and Wu Zhengrong: "::::::"
Wu Zhengrong discovered that Comrade Xiao Ye had a rather sharp tongue.
"Who's the hanged ghost? It's not even the end of the first lunar month yet, can you please be more careful with your words?" Zhou Mu poked his head out and yelled, "You've already fallen like that, why are you still learning to ride a bicycle?"
"I'm happy to learn! Once I learn how to ride a bike, I can ride it myself, instead of having to push a bike from dusk to midnight like some idiots!"
Zhou Mu was furious: "Who are you calling an idiot?"
"Whoever promises me will tell me!"
Zhou Mu actually wanted to talk to her nicely, but Ye Manzhi's mouth seemed to be born to make him angry. They quarreled eight out of ten times they met!
Ye Manzhi didn't want to quarrel with Wu Zhengrong in front of him, as that would affect her gentle and well-behaved image!
So she ignored Zhou Mu, that idiot, and sat back on the car seat, commanding calmly, "Go!"
Wu Zhengrong smiled at the hanged ghost in the window, helped her onto the back seat of the car, and continued pushing her forward.
"Zhou Mu can't ride a bike," Ye Manzhi whispered to him, "Then once I was drunk and my third sister-in-law and I took a ride back to the compound. Zhou Mu was responsible for returning the bicycle from her workplace. He must have walked the seven or eight miles pushing the bike back!"
Wu Zhengrong knew the boy was walking home, so he still played along with his surprise. However, the last thing he asked was, "So you woke up so early?"
Ye Manzhi: “…”
Shouldn’t the focus be on Zhou Mu pushing the cart back home?
She looked up and locked eyes with the man for a few seconds, then snorted and said, "Okay, okay, okay, I was already sober at the time. I only pretended to be drunk just to get a ride from you! I've been planning bad things for you, wanting to do this and that to you. Are you satisfied?"
Wu Zhengrong held the handlebars and smiled for a while beside her. Then he put his arm around her waist and moved her from the front seat to the back seat.
Ye Manzhi was transferred without any preparation and asked confusedly, "What are you doing?"
"There's a hanged ghost in the room spying on you. I'll take you outside to find a place to continue practicing."
Ye Manzhi thought this expired vinegar was not worth eating, but she still quickly lowered her head and lay down. "Be careful when you lift your legs when you get in the car! I saw a man kick his son out of the back seat last time. Don't kick me!"
Wu Zhengrong imagined the scene and couldn't help laughing again. He turned around and rubbed her head.
*
Ye Manzhi learned to ride a bicycle for three days in an open space near the market.
The learning effect was significant. On the third day, without Wu Zhengrong's company, she suddenly grasped the key points.
But she only dared to ride after dark and was too embarrassed to go out on the street during the day.
The main reason is that she somehow learned to ride the bike by sitting on the back seat first, and she hasn't figured out how to ride from the front seat yet!
Although you can ride from the back seat, it looks really ugly when you have to stretch your hands to reach the handlebars.
So, when Wu Zhengrong finished his overtime work and asked her how her learning progress was, she just said that she hadn't learned it yet!
She was afraid that the other party would ask her to get on the bike and ride around twice!
Although Ye Manzhi made slow progress in learning to ride a bicycle, she still chose to take the tram to work in the district.
In recent days, the Reform Office has come up with a rough reform plan.
There are a total of twelve large and small cooperatives on Guangming Street that want to participate in the reform. Ye Manzhi thinks it is a bit too many. Some of the cooperatives are very small and there is no need to build separate factories.
But she has no say in this matter. The main work of the reform is undertaken by the Industrial Bureau, and the Street Office and the Finance Bureau are just cooperating with their work.
Feng Dacheng selected the 3rd Hardware Cooperative from the many cooperatives on Guangming Street as the first reform pilot.
This hardware cooperative is a medium-to-large cooperative with more than 200 members.
From the perspective of efficiency, the company has actually developed very well, and the members receive considerable dividends every year.
However, the biggest problem of this company is that at least 30% of the masters are technicians of level 4 or above, and there are even two technicians of level 5 and one technician of level 6.
They are fully capable of producing products with higher technological content.
However, this hardware company produces a kind of lock all year round, and the technical level of a second-level worker is enough.
The collective economy only pursues economic benefits and there is a huge waste of talent and technology.
Ye Manzhi, the street liaison officer, is responsible for ideological work in the group.
To put it bluntly, she was the one who took the lead in persuading the members to agree to withdraw their shares and transform the cooperative into a state-owned factory.
The liaison officers from the other two streets had already taken action, but Ye Manzhi had not yet made any move.
When Feng Dacheng asked about the progress, she only said vaguely that more careful research was needed.
The key point is that she heard that the mobilization work in the other two streets was not ideal, but the collective cooperatives there were doing very well. Why can you just change the factory when you say so?
This is not a pleasant thing for anyone.
She was worried that if she suddenly showed up at the commune's door as a cadre from the reform office and asked them to transfer factories, the members would resist.
So, after thinking it over again and again, Ye Manzhi decided to hire Lao Ye as a temporary consultant for the coal furnace factory. At that time, as the director of the coal furnace factory, she would take Lao Ye, a seventh-level welder, to the hardware club for a competition and challenge.
Old Ye worked the night shift yesterday. He slept until the afternoon and when his daughter woke him up from bed, his face was full of unhappiness.
"You should do your own work. Why are you calling me? Who brings their dad to work?"
"How can I possibly do something so hateful as to challenge someone in person?" Ye Manzhi said with a smile, "Dad, I'll hire you as my consultant. You'll be the lead! I'll also have to negotiate for the Reform Office later, and I have to be a good person!"
Old Ye said dissatisfiedly: "Why should I be a bad guy?"
Ye Manzhi stuffed a whistle into his hand and said, "I asked Wu Zhengrong to help make this. I'm giving it to you as compensation!"
The last time Wu Zhengrong came to visit her home, she gave her nephew Mai Duo a whistle made from an anti-aircraft machine gun shell.
Several bullet shells welded together can make sounds when blown out. When Maddo received the gift, he was so happy.
Ye Manzhi had already figured it out. Not only did Mai Duo like that thing, but her father was also envious of it!
Give Lao Ye a whistle, and he will definitely be the bad guy for her!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com