Chapter Five Work Injuries
Jiang Chuan recounted the past with a calm demeanor. He glossed over all the major turning points in a few words, but Lin Yu pieced together a vivid and relatable personality from the fragmented pieces she heard.
This man, who has experienced the rollercoaster of fate, possesses a calm and composed demeanor forged through trials, a vitality that remains upright even after being broken and reborn. These qualities have shaped Jiang Chuan into who he is today; he is like a self-contained oasis, a perfect companion both materially and spiritually.
Lin Yu always received boundless affirmation and tolerance from Jiang Chuan. She felt the love flowing in that support, even though she couldn't see the source of that love.
But Lin Yu couldn't help but wonder, while she received a constant stream of material and spiritual strength from Jiang Chuan, what exactly did he want from her?
Jiang Chuan turned and got out of the car, then went around to the passenger side to open the door for Lin Yu. Lin Yu followed behind him, watching him open the trunk, pull out the suitcase and put it on the ground, then lean out of the trunk and take out a bunch of pink and white ranunculus flowers and hand them to him.
The ranunculus has a short blooming period, but it was in full bloom, complemented by a few white freesias, which balanced out the peony's lack of fragrance. Lin Yu mentally gave Jiang Chuan a thumbs up for his aesthetic sense.
A large bouquet of flowers, simply wrapped in kraft paper, was held in Jiang Chuan's slender fingers, as if clutched to Lin Yu's heart. She took the flowers with delight and sniffed them. "These flowers are quite delicate."
Jiang Chuan smiled noncommittally. "We complement each other perfectly."
Lin Yu reached out and gently tugged at Jiang Chuan's sleeve. "How about tonight?"
She was stunned as the words slipped out of her mouth; dew from the bouquet was dripping down the parchment paper and onto the tips of her shoes. But the warmth surging in her chest at that moment was too real, those subtle moments piling up into a soft impulse.
"No need to wait until the weekend, I'll come to your house tonight after dinner."
Lin Yu saw Jiang Chuan's eyelashes tremble gently in the sunlight, and a warm smile bloomed on his lips.
"good."
After seeing Lin Yu off, Jiang Chuan didn't start the car immediately. He leaned back in the leather seat, his eyes half-closed, letting the lingering scent in the car erode his reason. That faint, sweet fragrance mingled with the scent of freesia, appearing and disappearing, just like the woman herself, elusive and hard to grasp.
He took a deep breath, knowing full well that it was just a common mixture of laundry detergent and shampoo, yet he let it unconsciously ferment in his heart, forming a unique imprint that reminded him of the day he first met Lin Yu.
......
Lin Yu's design institute belongs to a large environmental protection group. Although the group's headquarters are located in the center of Shanghai's economic and trade zone, the company's main revenue comes from its self-built environmental protection plants scattered throughout third- and fourth-tier cities.
The factory buildings are built and operated by the company itself. The project covers the entire industry chain from design and construction to operation, resembling a series of independent ecological landscapes.
In this closed-loop model, the role of the design institute becomes quite subtle. Nominally, it is an internal department that provides services for projects, but in reality, it plays the role of a powerful, technology-driven service provider.
In negotiations with equipment manufacturers, construction teams, and project companies across various regions, the design institute, thanks to its technical expertise and the implicit authority granted by the group, managed to maintain the professional integrity and voice of its technical staff.
Privately, the relationships between these parties are quite delicate. The design institute engineers feel that the manufacturer is conservative and rigid, and the construction team is rough around the edges and doesn't pay attention to details. The construction team complains that the design drawings are impractical and just theoretical. The project company, on the other hand, feels that everyone is making trouble for them.
But strangely enough, all these undercurrents of mutual contempt never truly surfaced. Everyone tacitly maintained a facade of peace and cooperation, simply because everyone was bound to the same chain of interests, and if one suffered, all suffered.
No one would be foolish enough to jeopardize a common goal that ensures everyone gets a share of the benefits, all for the sake of a momentary impulse.
In Lin Yu's fifth year working at the design institute, the company took over a waste-to-energy plant renovation project in Feicheng. The first phase of the project had been running for more than two years, but government subsidies for environmental protection projects were decreasing year by year, and there was a significant shortage of waste in the area.
The factory was already operating at a loss when it was first taken over. The company's original intention was to use the factory as a starting point to open up waste storage and transportation channels in surrounding cities and counties, and to leverage the existing loss-making project to attract other cooperative projects throughout the province. Therefore, they had little interest in whether the project could turn a profit.
However, the company plans to adjust the entire furnace incineration control system to use a more intelligent control mode in order to attract government funding and investment. Lin Yu happens to be in charge of the design work for this part.
Therefore, at the beginning of the year, Lin Yu, who was in charge of the control group, was assigned to the project site to coordinate with the project company, construction party and manufacturers to handle the design and construction progress of the entire project.
Lin Yu wore construction site clothes and a safety helmet every day, climbing up and down with his fellow workers, covered in dust and dirt, and stayed there until the end of the year.
With the Lunar New Year approaching, many construction sites have temporarily suspended operations. Lin Yu plans to finish his current work and return to Shanghai first, and then discuss the remaining work next spring.
The workers at the construction site and the person in charge of liaising with the manufacturer were also preparing to leave one after another, and the security at the construction site was lax. The incident occurred on the eve of New Year's Day.
As usual, Lin Yu arrived at the temporary housing early in the morning to draw. Around noon, he suddenly heard arguing outside the door. The noise grew louder and louder, occasionally mixed with the sound of metal clashing.
Lin Yu closed his laptop, pushed open the door, and peeked out. A dozen or so people were gathered at the canteen entrance not far from the prefabricated houses. Lin Yu recognized three of them as company employees. One of the younger men was Xiao Zhang, a newly recruited operations staff member at the construction site; the other two, slightly older, were the company's engineers, Engineer Feng and Engineer Ma.
Lin Yu recognized the group of people facing him, who seemed to be at each other's throats. The man at the front was a slender, refined-looking middle-aged man with a buzz cut, followed by seven or eight tall, burly men dressed as migrant workers.
The burly men spread out in a fan shape, holding iron bars, and surrounded Lin Yu's colleagues. When Lin Yu rushed over, the two sides were arguing fiercely, with occasional shoving.
Unfortunately, most of the construction workers had already left, and the site manager had taken a few employees out to buy pre-holiday supplies. As lunchtime approached, there were fewer than six people left on site.
This group also included Lin Yu, Ms. Wang from the finance department, and a nearly 60-year-old cafeteria worker. It must be said that the timing of their disturbance was remarkably precise.
Just as Lin Yu was about to step forward, the finance lady hiding nearby grabbed her and pulled her into a nearby small room, locking the door behind her. "Lin, don't be so reckless! You're just a young girl, it's too dangerous!"
"Sister Wang, what's going on?" Lin Yu pulled Sister Wang to sit down in a chair in the conference room.
"The company is having some cash flow problems and owes several manufacturers final payments. It's almost the end of the year, and they couldn't wait, so they brought people to cause trouble, blocking the parking lot and even blocking the cafeteria so that everyone can't eat!"
Lin Yu had heard a little about this matter. In recent years, the company has been gradually expanding its business scope, which inevitably requires increased financing, and the money has been used to develop productivity. There are indeed overdue payments to these small distributors who have only recently started cooperating with the company and have little bargaining power. Previously, someone from the headquarters had even driven to the company's building and put up banners.
As an ordinary employee, she could certainly empathize with the manufacturers, who were also working hard to make ends meet; but she was powerless to change anything at the company level. "You're in finance, are you familiar with the payment situation?"
Sister Wang straightened the hem of her suit, pushed up the bottom of her glasses, and leaned closer to Lin Yu, whispering, "The company's funds should be used wisely, Lin. As long as your salary isn't delayed, don't worry about anything else! Understand?"
Lin Yu smiled noncommittally, patted Sister Wang's thick hand, and said with a hint of sarcasm, "Sister Wang, you'd better be careful not to let them see you!"
"Oh, of course, I've locked all the doors. By the time the chief engineer and the others come back, these guys should be leaving. I'm used to it. Before, some people even camped out on the floor in front of our office. Most of them were just bluffing!"
Following Sister Wang's advice, Lin Yu planned to stay in the room until her boss returned before making any further plans. However, she suddenly remembered that her phone and computer were still in the next room, and the door wasn't locked.
If these people rush in to do odd jobs, the newly drawn blueprints won't have been saved yet. After thinking for a moment, I decided to secretly send T out to protect the computer and phone.
Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned. Lin Yu had barely stepped out when he was spotted by the troublemaking manufacturers nearby. The group mistook Lin Yu for the accountant and rushed over, surrounding him and demanding that he immediately allocate funds.
Lin Yu leaned against the prefabricated slabs of the temporary housing, a numb calmness arising from her intense panic. She warily eyed the crew-cut man standing before her and calmly said, "I understand your feelings; we're all just workers. But I'm not in finance, so I can only relay your opinions to my superiors later."
"Young lady, we have no choice. A company as big as yours is bullying a small manufacturer like us. If you don't pay the balance soon, our company will really be dragged down." The man with the crew cut spoke relatively politely.
"What is your name?" Lin Yu realized that he was the one in charge of this incident and needed to calm him down first.
"My surname is Lü."
“Manager Lü, I’m just a designer. All the company leaders have been dispatched today, and the remaining engineers and cooks are all here. They can’t possibly have access to the finance department.”
"Please leave me your business card. I'll report this to the project company's leadership and call you back before 10 a.m. tomorrow. We'll pretend today's incident never happened, and no one will suffer any loss."
Manager Lü hesitated for a moment, knowing that this was the best solution at the moment. Making a scene would not benefit either party, and they couldn't really take hostages.
Lin Yu leaned calmly against the wall, realizing that the situation was largely under control. Of course, this wasn't her doing. She knew perfectly well that these people hadn't come for her in the first place.
Despite their seemingly grand and imposing commotion, they didn't even get to meet a single key figure in the company, let alone a leader who could actually make the final decision on how to solve the problem.
Ultimately, they are just a group of vulnerable people owed wages, venting their anger in the most helpless way. Now that they still haven't received any promises from anyone, they naturally know there's no point in making a fuss anymore.
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