Siheyuan: Xu Damao's New Life

Xu Damao slept until about seven o'clock. Seeing that he still had time, he ate in the space before returning to the office. After that, he sorted out all the drawings and went to the main factory office. Today, he had to discuss the issue of the drawings with Li Huaide, Deputy Factory Director Wu, and Zhang Gong from the technical department.

Xu Damao looked at the cleaned office and nodded with satisfaction. These people were quite sensible. They cleaned the office even though he was not working there. Just when Xu Damao was making tea, there was a knock on the door.

"Come in!" Xu Damao said, and then he saw the big face with bangs squeezing in from outside the door.

"Chief Liu, are you here to see me for something?"

"Director Xu, a big thing happened in our hospital this morning!" Liu Haizhong said with a flattering look on his face.

The two of them always tacitly addressed each other by their positions in the factory, and kept their public and private affairs clearly separated.

"Oh? What happened?" Xu Damao became interested instantly. Something happened when he didn't go home one night and he missed the show. The thing that made Liu Haizhong come here so early in the morning must involve Yi Zhonghai or the Jia family.

"Last night, Yi Zhonghai and Qin Huairu were discovered having a secret meeting in the cellar, and then they locked the cellar. This morning..." Liu Haizhong recounted the whole story.

Xu Damao almost slapped his thigh in regret. He actually missed such a wonderful show. It was really wrong of him.

"The impact of this incident is really too bad. We are now cracking down on work style issues, but they are committing crimes in defiance of the law!" said Xu Damao.

"Yes, yes, they must be severely punished. I plan to leave early this afternoon and go to the street office." Liu Haizhong said.

"As the saying goes, if you catch a thief, you should catch the stolen goods; if you catch an adulterer, you should catch both of them. Unfortunately, we didn't catch them in the act this time." Xu Damao thought about it and roughly guessed what happened. It must be Qin Huairu who went to ask Yi Zhonghai to let Bang Geng go. It was unknown who suggested going to the cellar, and then the two of them were discovered and locked up.

"Who says it's not? I don't know who first discovered it and locked it. It would be great if one of our people found it."

"Okay, I understand. I have something to discuss with the factory leaders later. You wait here for a while, and then come with me to report the situation to the factory leaders."

"Director Xu, I...I can do it!" Liu Haizhong's face turned red with excitement when he heard that he could report his work to the factory leader. This was his chance! Damao was really nice, always thinking of him when something good happened.

"What's the right or wrong thing to do? You've experienced it yourself, so just tell the truth when the time comes."

"Okay, okay, then I'll prepare first." Liu Haizhong thought that for such an important occasion, he must prepare what to say next.

"Well, there are cigarettes and tea over there on the coffee table. You can do whatever you want. I still need to sort out some documents."

"Okay, Director Xu."

At that moment, Xu Damao no longer paid attention to Liu Haizhong, but bound various materials into different categories so that it would be convenient to check them later.

At nine o'clock in the morning, Xu Damao estimated that Li Huaide and his colleagues were almost done with their work, so he called Liu Haizhong and went to Li Huaide's factory director's office together.

"Old Li, I came to see you about something." Xu Damao pushed the door open with a stack of documents. Given their relationship, being too polite would seem awkward.

"Da Mao, please sit down. Is this Chief Liu from the training department?" Li Huaide raised his head and saw Liu Haizhong following behind Xu Damao. He had an impression of this man, but he was not sure.

"Yes, he's from the same hospital as us, Section Chief Liu Haizhong. I brought him here this time because I have something to report. Also, this is the drawing I completed while working overtime last night, including a speed-changing tricycle and two types of children's cars for different ages." Xu Damao said.

Li Huaide took the blueprint and took a quick look at it before saying, "I won't play along with you. I'm just going to give it a rough look. Let's call Old Wu and Old Zhang over. I'll just listen to Liu Haizhong's report first."

Li Huaide immediately called his secretary and asked him to notify a few people to come to his office.

"Okay, Comrade Liu Haizhong, you can tell me whatever you want to say." Li Huaide said.

Liu Haizhong said nervously: "Director, this is what happened. I live in the same compound with Yi Zhonghai and Qin Huairu from the same workshop. This morning, everyone found that Yi Zhonghai and Qin Huairu were locked up in the cellar together..." Liu Haizhong then told Li Huaide the situation again.

Li Huaide was so angry that he slammed the table. "This Yi Zhonghai! Last time, he helped this Qin Huairu cheat in the work grade assessment. Considering that he was a veteran, the factory only demoted him by three grades. Who knew that he would go even further this time and directly locked him up in the cellar with Qin Huairu, a widow? This is really outrageous!"

"Old Li, what happened to make you so angry? I heard you slamming the table from a long distance away." Wu Changzheng said as he walked into the office. Zhang Tianchi, an engineer from the technical department, also walked in. He was discussing the issue of technology update with Wu Changzheng.

"I'm so angry, let Comrade Liu Haizhong talk to you!" Li Huaide said as he distributed special cigarettes to everyone.

Wu Changzheng glanced at Liu Haizhong with a sharp look. This Fatty Liu was promoted by himself, but now he actually went to Li Huaide to report something. Does this mean he doesn't take me seriously? Although I don't like to fight for power and profit, and just want to protect my own piece of land, it's still easy to deal with a small section chief like you.

Since the factory director asked him to speak, Liu Haizhong had no choice but to tell the story again.

When Wu Changzheng heard that it was not a technical matter, he felt much less resentful. It turned out that Liu Haizhong, Deputy Director Xu, Yi Zhonghai, and Qin Huairu were all from the same compound. No wonder they went directly to Xu Damao to report.

"This matter indeed needs to be dealt with seriously. The higher-ups are cracking down on work style issues right now. If this isn't defying the law, what is it? Old Li, how do you think we should deal with this?" Wu Changzheng asked.

Li Huaide pondered for a while and said, "This incident has a very bad impact on our factory. How about this, Yi Zhonghai will be directly demoted to a first-level worker, but he will continue to do the work of a seventh-level worker; Qin Huairu will be transferred to the sanitation team to clean the factory area, and the two of them will be given a serious warning. As for the others, let's see how they perform first!"

"Okay, I have no objection!"

"I agree!"

"Comrade Liu Haizhong has a good understanding. The factory needs old comrades like you who dare to fight against unhealthy tendencies and evil practices." Li Huaide praised.

Liu Haizhong nodded and bowed modestly.

"Okay, we are going to have a small meeting now. Comrade Liu Haizhong, you can go back and get busy first."

"Yes, Director." Liu Haizhong turned around and walked out the door, closing it behind him. He had just been praised by the director, and now walking in the corridor he felt as if his bones had become lighter.

"This is the new blueprint that Damao just brought. You two are experts in this area. Can you take a look at it?" said Li Huaide.

The two of them then picked up the drawings on the table and started looking at them.

After more than ten minutes, the two of them finished looking through the drawings.

"The drawings are relatively simple, and our branch factory can also produce it. But considering the current living standards of most of our people, the price of this stroller is probably a bit high."

Xu Damao said: "Then let's set the price lower in China. In fact, I designed these two baby strollers mainly for the overseas market. We can earn foreign exchange."

"Okay, this is a good idea, I totally agree with it. Lao Zhang, what do you think?" Wu Changzheng asked.

"I don't think there is any problem. Children's cars can be made of ordinary steel, as long as they are strong. This way the price can be reduced. For export, we can try to produce some high-end products and earn as much foreign exchange as possible!" said Zhang Tianchi.

Li Huaide finally made the decision and said, "Okay, since everyone agrees, then this matter is approved. So, Damao, you quickly arrange for people to produce some samples so that I can take them to the department for project approval. Lao Wu, you and Lao Zhang can see if you can upgrade some technology to free up some production capacity."