Siheyuan: Sizhu starts blindly and takes a new path

When Secretary Chen heard Sha Zhu haggling over the word count of his application, he said angrily, "Director He, 1000 words is not enough. You should know that my original application to join the party was a full 5000 words. My introducer was very satisfied after reading it, and the organization quickly approved my application."

Sha Zhu nodded after hearing this: "Does it mean that the more words you write, the easier it is to pass?"

"You can say that, but not entirely. What's important is the embodiment of ideological awareness. Think about it, if you write fewer words, your thoughts are not fully expressed, and not thorough; but if you just write 1 words, it's useless." Secretary Chen explained to Sha Zhu seriously, "So, you need to study hard, experience it with your heart, delve into it, and improve your ideological awareness, so that you can write an application with profound understanding."

Sha Zhu finally understood what to do. He held the Party Constitution in his arms and said, "I understand, Secretary Chen. I will study it carefully and strive to submit a qualified application as soon as possible."

After Secretary Chen left, Sha Zhu started studying hard in the office. Fortunately, he had been reminded by Mr. Ren to read Selected Works of Mao Zedong, so it was relatively easy to understand the Party Constitution. He spent an afternoon reading the General Program over and over again. Through the General Program, he knew what the Party was, its purpose, its guide to action, what it had experienced in the past, what tasks it had completed, what achievements it had made, and its general task in the transition period, which was to gradually complete the socialist transformation of agriculture, handicrafts, and capitalist industry and commerce, and gradually realize the industrialization of the country. It also had to work with the people of the country to complete the task of liberating Taiwan.

Sha Zhu returned home excitedly and told Yu Li: "I was reading the Party Constitution this afternoon. I want to join the Party and follow the Party to better serve the people." As he said that, he handed the Party Constitution to Yu Li and went to cook.

While coaxing Liuyi, Yu Li looked at the "Party Constitution" and quickly finished reading the general outline.

The two of them ate and continued to discuss their new acquaintances.

"Since the Party Constitution states that we should gradually realize 'from each according to his ability, to each according to his work', then I don't need to hide the fact that I cook for others, right? And I can also let MCA and Fatty take on some less demanding meals."

"No, you should pay attention to the sentence that says 'Change the remaining part of capitalist ownership into public ownership, change the remaining part of individual laborers' ownership into collective ownership of the working people, completely eliminate the system of exploitation, and eliminate the root cause of the system of exploitation.' Your cooking is an act of exploitation and being exploited, and is the root cause of exploitation."

"How could that be? I have worked hard. Isn't that what 'from one according to one's ability' means?"

“Yes, you worked and did your best, but you did not work for public ownership or collective ownership. You worked for yourself.”

"What happened to the individual?"

“Capitalists and small business owners are individuals. They hire workers to work for them, which is exploitation. No matter how much they pay the workers, the wealth generated in the end belongs to the capitalists and small business owners personally.”

"But cooking for others doesn't generate wealth, and they still paid me?"

"Then we are talking about what wealth is. Wealth is not just money and material things. Spirit and health are also a kind of wealth. When they eat the delicious food you cook, they get spiritual and food satisfaction, and they also get wealth. This is just like the wealthy families in the past who hired housekeepers and servants. The wealthy families spent money to buy the fruits of the labor of the servants so that they don't have to do the things they don't want to do."

"But those people not only give money every time, but also a lot of food. How do we calculate this?"

"These can be seen as rewards or gifts from them, or as a certain sentiment, but the essence of the matter is still an employment relationship, because you received money. If you don't receive money and just help, then it's not an employment relationship. But would you not receive money?"

"Of course not. First, I can't work for nothing. Second, they don't need that. Third, we don't have such a good relationship with many families."

"Yes, just like the deaf old lady, we cook for her and take care of her every day because of our relationship. I think since you want to join the party, you'd better not cook for her in the future."

"So you mean you won't do anything, including the wedding banquet. That will mean a lot less income." Sha Zhu pointed at the meat on the plate, "These will also be much less."

"Those wealthy families should gradually stop cooking for them. For those with whom you have a good relationship, you can go less often and stop charging them. For wedding banquets, I think you can discuss with your director to set up a service team to provide this kind of service to the people in need around you. Doing so may harm the interests of some people. If you can do this privately, other cooks in the factory can do it, and some cooks who don't have formal jobs are also doing it, so there will be a lot of resistance."

Sha Zhu suddenly felt that the meat on the plate was no longer delicious, and he was not very enthusiastic about joining the party. The loss was too great. If it was just his own loss, it would be fine. He still had several apprentices here.

"Don't want to? Do you think the loss is too great?"

Sha Zhu nodded and said, "Well, if it was me before, it wouldn't be a big deal. But now the problem is that I have you and the kids, and Ma Hua and the others are working with me. If they suddenly stop, my salary is high and with you, we don't have to worry about food and drink, but they are a bit troublesome, especially Ma Hua, who has a large family and relies on him to support the family."

"So I said we should stop it gradually and set up a service team. The service team is a public one and we can implement the principle of "everyone does their best and gets paid according to their work"."

"But you just said it would harm the interests of some people?"

"Your cooking skills are well-known in our area. Many families hire other chefs because they can't hire you. You can use your fame to attract people."

"But I can only host one wedding banquet on weekends, so it's useless to attract everyone."

"Zhu Zi, what's the difference between you and other chefs? What attracts customers to you?"

"Cooking skills, what else could it be? A chef makes a living by his cooking skills."

"Yes, if you teach those chefs who are worse than you and improve their skills, wouldn't it be enough to attract customers?"

"But I need the master's consent to teach people. After all, it's not easy to pass on skills. I'm afraid that the apprentice will be left without a master. Besides, even if the master agrees, it's not something that can be learned overnight."

"Not all customers can afford to pay. If they pay high, you go. If they pay low, then it's naturally an ordinary chef who goes. There's nothing to say about this. As the old saying goes, 'cheap goods are not good.'"

Sha Zhu rubbed his face and thought for a long time, "It's not easy to do."

"If it were easy, someone would have done it long ago. How could it be your turn? If you can do this, your reputation and position will be improved. You just said you were afraid of teaching an apprentice without a master. You are no longer a worker. Don't always think about doing the work yourself. You should help more people gain better abilities. When their abilities and incomes improve, they will trust and respect you more. You will have more supporters and your position will be more solid. Even if someone has ideas, they can't shake your current position. Think about it carefully?"