Siheyuan: Xu Damao's New Life

As soon as Xu Damao and his men entered the cafeteria, they were stopped by someone. But before he could get angry, he heard the man say, "Chief Xu, let's put our raincoats on the right, and then come over here to the table to drink a bowl of ginger soup to get rid of the cold, so as not to catch a cold. The food in the cafeteria is ready, and you can eat anytime."

"Oh, that's how it is. The guys in the cafeteria are very considerate. Let's go have a bowl of ginger soup to get rid of the cold before we eat."

After Xu Damao finished speaking, he put away his raincoat first, then walked to the table where the ginger soup was placed, picked up the bowl and drank it. After everyone had finished drinking, he led everyone to the cafeteria to get food.

Someone came over and whispered, "Chief Xu, I was in a hurry to leave today and didn't bring my meal ticket!"

"Just eat your food. The factory knows how hard everyone works. Look what's written on that big sign over there!" Xu Damao said, pointing to a big sign next to the cafeteria window.

When everyone heard this, they looked over and saw a sign that read, "Food is free, but no waste." Everyone instantly felt that their hard work was worth it and that the factory had not forgotten them.

The chef who served meals to their team was Ma Hua. Although he had not severed his relationship with Sha Zhu, he no longer thought about transferring to Canteen No. 8 where Sha Zhu was. Instead, he stayed in Canteen No. 1 and accepted Nan Yi's instructions from time to time.

"Director Xu, what do you want to eat?"

"Two steamed buns and two dishes will do."

Ma Hua picked up a big spoon and scooped a full box of vegetables. The two steamed buns were also quite big. Xu Damao thought he was being specially taken care of, but when he saw that everyone was doing the same, he realized that this must be something that Lao Wang had specifically instructed.

Xu Damao was holding his lunch box and was about to find a place to eat when he was stopped by the canteen director Xu Dabao.

"Chief Xu, the leaders are all over there, eating and having a meeting. You should go over too." Xu Dabao said, pointing to a corner of the cafeteria.

Xu Damao saw that it was true. Four tables were put together, and a circle of leaders were eating around the table. Only one workshop director was talking. Those with lower ranks were not even qualified to sit at the table. They could only stand outside and listen while eating.

Xu Damao also found a place to stand and eat, and at the same time take a look at what this unconventional meeting was discussing.

I only heard the old director say: "We are running out of bags in the factory. If there are not enough in the afternoon, we can only use the bags for food as an emergency. Now everyone is urging us to get more sandbags. The demand is too great."

Li Huaide said, "I will call my superiors in a while, hoping to get some material support. But it's raining heavily in the whole city now, and there is a shortage of materials everywhere, so don't have too high expectations. We can solve what we can solve by ourselves, and we can do it at our own convenience when necessary! After this is over, if anyone has any questions, please tell us now. If you don't tell us now, you can find a way to solve it yourself!"

Xu Damao also stepped forward and said, "Let me report on the progress first. Due to insufficient manpower this morning, we only transferred a small half of the supplies here. But now that we have more manpower, we will definitely be able to complete it before the evening. The rest are not afraid of water. I have some suggestions. In order to prevent emergencies, should we leave some people on duty at night?"

"I also heard that some workers' homes were still leaking, so they came directly to the factory to ask if the factory needed to provide some subsidies. As we all know, no one has surplus food at home. If the heavy rain continues, should we consider the living problems of the workers in difficulty?"

Li Huaide nodded as he listened. His brother Damao really thought it through carefully. This was indeed a problem.

"Well, this matter is rather complicated. The three of us will meet to discuss it later. We really cannot let the workers feel disappointed."

Several more people spoke up next. Problems that could be solved were solved on the spot, and those that could not be solved sought support from their superiors. It can be said that this meeting was completely free of the usual procrastination and buck-passing, and was instead very concise and efficient.

After the meeting, Xu Damao continued to lead people to move materials. When the number of people increased, Xu Damao divided the people into two groups, so that they would not have to go back and forth, which not only increased the rest time, but also improved efficiency.

At 4:30 in the afternoon, after a busy afternoon, the last few trucks of supplies had been unloaded, and the sandbags at the entrance of the workshop were piled up. Xu Damao asked people to wait in the workshop, and he went to find Li Huaide to see if there were any other tasks.

"Director, the task on our side has been successfully completed. I came here to report and see if there are any other tasks." Seeing that there were other leaders around, Xu Damao directly addressed the director.

"Da Mao, you came at the right time. We have already discussed the issue you raised at noon. The factory has decided to give a subsidy of five kilograms of coarse grains and two and a half kilograms of fine grains to all employees who come to rescue, and to give ten kilograms of coarse grains and five kilograms of fine grains to the poor households in the factory for living. It happens that you are free now, so I will leave this matter to you. Here is the list and addresses of the poor households registered in the factory." Li Huaide picked up a few pages of paper and handed them to Xu Damao.

This is a good thing to enhance one's reputation, but Xu Damao couldn't help but frowned when he took it and looked at it. The number of these poor households is not that large, and the total amount of food distributed is not much. It's just that the addresses are a bit scattered, so it seems that we have to act in batches.

"Okay, leave it to me, but you have to arrange a few vehicles for me, otherwise I won't be able to transport so much food."

"That's no problem. The factory's supplies have basically been shipped out. I'll assign three vehicles for you to wait at the new workshop. You can load the food and set off. After the food is distributed, you can go home directly. Lao Zheng and I will be on duty with a few people at night."

Xu Damao nodded. "Is there any leader who hasn't come yet? Are they really going to be punished?"

"Several of the old directors left by Director Yang didn't come, and some who were on business trips don't count." Li Huaide's face turned strange as he spoke, "Didn't you notice that there are fewer people in your department and workshop?"

Xu Damao had been busy all day and didn't notice who was absent. Now after hearing Li Huaide's reminder, he recalled that he seemed to have not seen several of his deputies today.

Xu Damao was incredulous, "None of the three of them came?"

"Guodong came and I ran into him halfway. I assigned him other tasks. Both of your deputies live in the district government compound, and their fathers are also acquaintances. They came together at noon today. They insisted on riding their bicycles in such bad weather. As a result, they both fell into a ditch. One of them sprained his leg and the other broke his arm. It was their father who called me from the bureau."

After hearing the explanation, Xu Damao's expression became interesting. This ditch had cost him two of his generals. He must go and have a look some other day.

"These two disgraceful things, wait until they come back and see how I'll deal with them!" Xu Damao said pretending to be angry.

"Hey, no, no, they didn't do it on purpose. They just wanted to ride over here because they were in a hurry! You can't punish them without knowing the reason."

"Okay, let's give Brother Li a favor today. I'll go and arrange for people to load the food first."

Xu Damao returned to the workshop where supplies were loaded and gathered everyone together. "I just received a job to distribute some food to the poor employees in the factory, 10 kilograms of coarse grains and 5 kilograms of fine grains. In addition, each of us who participated in the rescue will also receive half of the reward. Let's go to the next door to load the truck first, and then we will divide it by area. After distributing the things, we can go home directly."

"That's great! We are running low on food at home and wondering where to buy some!"

"Yes, with such heavy water, the food station is not open, not to mention the black market and pigeon market."

"Okay, everyone hurry up, finish your work quickly and hug your wife to sleep."