backlash
The narrow meeting room is already quite full once a large wooden table is placed inside, but there is still enough space for a few people to sit and hold a meeting.
Now the place is packed with people, and everyone is talking non-stop. It's as noisy as a supply and marketing cooperative that has just delivered grain.
Zhang Ping'an's younger brother, who had just finished speaking, suddenly changed his mind and brought Zhu Qiuguo along. They didn't care about the occasion and started arguing.
As they talked, both brothers became enraged and started fighting each other. Zhang Pingkang was weak and was at a disadvantage from the start. Fortunately, Zhu Qiuguo was no pushover. After going to the countryside, she had developed considerable strength and took sides between the two brothers, occasionally giving Zhang Pingkang a surprise attack.
She had cut her nails half a month ago, and now they had grown a layer of hair. She habitually reached out to tug at Zhang Ping'an's hair.
She learned this technique while fighting with older women in the countryside.
Their sons wanted to do disgusting things, but there were always a few who would rush over and call her a slut without even asking what happened.
Families that raise sons like this are usually not very normal, including the mothers themselves.
But Zhang Ping'an's hair was short, the kind of buzz cut that the men in the workshop liked.
In the workshop, both men and women prefer short hair. Women who are reluctant to cut their long hair and want to keep it to sell at a hair salon will tie it tightly into a bun at the back of their heads.
Zhu Qiuguo's iron claw-like hand landed on Zhang Ping'an's scalp, her sharp nails scraping five bloody marks on his head, which quickly swelled into five winding red worms.
Zhang Ping'an let out a "howl" and was about to hit Zhu Qiuguo. He had no habit of not hitting women, or rather, none of the Zhang family did.
He turned his head and successfully turned around, but Zhang Pingkang immediately seized the opportunity and used his elbow, which was bent at an acute angle, to grab Zhang Ping'an's throat. Years of grievances welled up in his heart.
His subordinates also lost their composure, and Zhang Ping'an's face gradually turned from a deep red to a bluish-purple.
It was only after Zhu Qiuguo patted Zhang Pingkang's hand that he finally regained his senses.
As soon as Wang Xingye rushed in, he started talking non-stop like a flood. Having learned his lesson from his earlier experience, he left himself no way out this time.
The matter of Wu Dong embezzling the welfare benefits of sugar factory workers many years ago has been brought up again. It is said that he embezzled the money to bribe the leaders, not Sun Ming, but the one who had already retired.
After failing to gain power, he became even more greedy for money. His methods were no longer as crude as before, and he could easily be found out by a sugar-boiling worker in the workshop. Although logistics were in Li Yuanhong's hands, the factory office handled a lot of machine procurement, and there was plenty of profit to be made from it.
Wang Xingye also knew what the Revolutionary Committee was like; if others could use it, so could he. So he devoted himself to exaggerating the amount to an infinite amount.
In fact, the machines that Wu Dong was responsible for buying had various problems due to kickbacks, and this part of the work had unknowingly been taken over by Meng Songying.
Wang Shuitao frowned. This made it easy for Wu Dong to seize this opportunity to counterattack, rendering everything else invalid.
She clenched her fist and pressed it to her lips, then coughed lightly twice in a mocking manner.
Wang Xingye quickly realized what was happening and tried to smooth things over, saying that the embezzlement was definitely true, but he didn't really know the exact amount.
Despite his advanced age, he still pretended to be innocent, tilting his head to look up at the ceiling and saying, "Director of the factory office, I was thinking that if I poached some money from the sugar factory, my family would be rolling in gold and silver."
Wu Dong flew into a rage and slammed his fist on the table: "Stop talking nonsense! Do you have any evidence?!"
Lin Jiuyang remembered the gold bars Wu Dong had bribed the Revolutionary Committee, his eyes practically sparkling like gold coins, and he no longer cared about the evidence.
He stopped watching the Zhang family's drama and put on a stern face, looking like a righteous official seeing the people pleading their grievances: "Hey, hey, hey, the Revolutionary Committee is handling a case here. Wu Dong, don't intimidate the witnesses, or I'll have to take you back for questioning."
With support, Wang Xingye tearfully recounted how Wu Dong had suppressed him over the years.
Every day it's just sweeping, sweeping, sweeping. This kind of work doesn't lead to promotions or raises, and Wang Xingye accepts it.
He was never capable of doing the factory office work; he was blinded by greed back then, thinking he could be a leader, and ended up running headlong into Wu Dong's spider web.
But Wu Dong even withheld the portion of his salary that would have increased with seniority, refusing to give it to him.
Tears streamed down Wang Xingye's face, which was etched with wrinkles from years of emotional distress: "Boss, even for such a small amount of money, Wu Dong still tries to embezzle it. That's what they mean by 'plucking feathers from a passing goose.' Tell me, with that kind of personality, how rich must his family be?"
Finally, he brought up Wu Dong's slander of his colleague.
According to Wang Xingye, he had been biding his time all these years, collecting evidence of Wu Dong's crimes, and had written it all down in a notebook. He was a compliant citizen and had never thought of reporting to higher authorities, so he told the newly appointed deputy director Wang Shuitao about it.
He became much more diplomatic, not saying that he didn't trust the other two deputy directors, but only saying that he hadn't gathered enough evidence before, giving a reason that could save face.
Fortunately, no one investigated further here.
However, Wu Dong discovered this, so he asked Zhang Ping'an to frame Wang Shuitao. Also, because he always felt that Sun Ming had taken his factory director position, he also reported the factory director.
Meng Songying never listened to him, and as a result, she was also sued.
Wang Shuitao sighed, shook her head, and looked at Wu Dong with a regretful gaze: "Director Wu, look at you, why did you do this? You should have turned back before it's too late."
Wu Dong was so disgusted he almost threw up his dinner from the night before.
Meng Songying didn't dwell on Wu Dong, but instead turned to Sun Jiadu and Zhao Bu: "So, you also harbor resentment and slander Director Wang."
He simply stated it calmly, as if it were already a settled fact.
Sun Jiadu was fond of taking advantage of others, often stealing half a head of garlic or a few scallions from his neighbors. These days, it's said that a close neighbor is better than a distant relative, and these neighbors were even workers at the same factory. Garlic and scallions weren't particularly valuable here, and borrowing from each other was commonplace. But Sun Jiadu didn't like to repay favors, so he always did these things when people weren't home, which became theft.
Zhao Bu himself didn't steal, and he had a good reputation before he brought his parents to the dormitory.
His family was a typical example of being allocated a whole single dormitory room, where a family of four lived: a husband, a wife, and two daughters.
When his wife first married him, they agreed that she would live in their small family home while her parents lived in the countryside. However, after giving birth to their second daughter and finishing her postpartum confinement, she acquiesced to Zhao Bu's repeated request to bring her parents to live with them.
From then on, a small room housed a family of six. Zhao Bu had one bed, his two sisters were still young, and his wife slept in the same bed with them. His parents had another bed, and the rest was used to store boxes and miscellaneous items.
Of course, it's very uncomfortable.
But what bothered Zhao Bu's parents the most was that they would go outside to collect glass bottles. The long and thin ones were leftovers from drinking soda, and the round and plump ones were canned goods in syrup. Without exception, they could return them to the store and get their deposit back.
In other words, it's a disguised form of stealing money.
After a while, the neighbors were naturally unhappy. The neighbors here include the entire building. Although the old man would cover his chest and pretend to be sick to avoid paying when they came to his door to demand an explanation, he was actually quite agile and could climb the stairs eight hundred times a day.
The old man couldn't be reasoned with, so the neighbors approached Zhao Bu. But Zhao Bu, who was usually reasonable, became a completely different person when it came to his parents. No one was allowed to say a bad word about his parents.
Even if his parents were indeed the ones who did something wrong.
When Wang Shuitao first heard the person who came to complain about this family's affairs, she thought it was her own family's secrets that had been exposed; the sense of déjà vu was just too strong.
Later, when the wall was being built, the five families, including these two, who were always up to no good in disrupting the harmony and stability of the workers' community, were caught and fined.
The canteen now receives subsidies from these five families every month.
Wang Shuitao also looked at the two men as Meng Songying questioned them: "So that's how it is. It seems I was too lenient that day. I should have handed you over to the police directly. The local police station would have provided you with a prison meal."
Lin Jiuyang, intrigued by the gossip, asked with great interest, "Oh? Director Wang has a grudge against these two? That's quite a few enemies. How did they become enemies?"
Meng Songying: "The sugar factory has nearly a thousand employees."
Li Yuanhong added, "Yes, out of so many people, only three said bad things about our Director Wang, which shows her good reputation among the workers. She is truly a good leader."
It was Wang Xingye who explained the whole story.
Even a mosquito's leg is meat, so Lin Jiuyang waved his hand and decided to take out some money from these five families. He instructed his men to remember to pay the fines.
None of the people present showed any intention of pleading for them.
Although only two people came forward, Wu Dong certainly couldn't have only found two people who were willing to help him frame Wang Shuitao. The other three must have also been approached, but they were unwilling to step forward, and they didn't even bother to warn him.
They're just playing the fence-sitter.
Sun Jiadu and Zhao Bu are both timid. Last time, they were easily swayed when Wang Shuitao stepped in. Judging from Wu Dong's tone, they thought he was confident and that this matter would definitely succeed.
They just wanted to vent their anger, but who knew they would see this scene when they came in. Wu Dong was in a precarious situation. Apart from saying a few words with their chests puffed out at the beginning, the two of them shrank into the corner and remained silent.
Lin Jiuyang had had enough of the commotion: "Alright, that's settled then. Director Wu, you see, someone has filed a complaint against you, and they have evidence. The Revolutionary Committee can't just ignore this, can they? Shall we go take a trip?"
Wu Dong didn't know how things had developed to this point. It was as if he had returned to the old days when the position of factory director was right in front of him, but then he was hit with a blow when Sun Ming was parachuted in.
He sat there, his face ashen, refusing to move. The more proud he had been of having the Revolutionary Committee as his weapon, the more terrified he was now.
My legs went weak with fear, and my teeth were clenched so tightly they were practically chattering.
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