Chapter 157: Why Can’t You Tolerate Us?
Old Hu walked around and expressed great satisfaction.
The food factory here was operating in good order, with a management system more sound than any he had seen.
How to put it?
Even if Lu Qiaoge wasn’t here, it would still operate very well.
This made one’s mood quite complex.
You know, many people were reluctant to let go of even the small things they held in their hands.
Old Hu greatly appreciated this magnanimity, but instead of praising her, he reminded Lu Qiaoge to guard against arrogance and impetuosity, to proceed steadily, to report everything to him no matter what happened, and that he would take responsibility if problems arose, and she must not act on her own.
How could Lu Qiaoge act on her own?
She was the most diligent in reporting work.
Lu Qiaoge obediently agreed.
Old Hu told Lu Qiaoge that he had found a retired worker for night duty, with salary coming from the food factory.
No problem with that—not to mention anything else, just the handicraft group’s income alone could cover salaries for the food factory workers.
Not to mention the daily income from the department store.
Old Hu got on his bicycle and went to the Grain Bureau.
At first he thought it was just small-scale, who would have thought it seemed like they were going to scale up?
So get grain and oil as much as possible, try not to stop production.
But now, even stopping production wouldn’t be a problem.
While riding his bicycle, Old Hu suddenly thought, had Lu Qiaoge anticipated this long ago, so she divided the food factory into two groups for mutual support?
Exactly, it must be like that.
Even Factory Director Hao, that old fox, said that girl was too clever, so Lu Qiaoge saw the current situation very clearly and had countermeasures ready early!
Lu Qiaoge didn’t know Director Hu had thought so much.
She went over what Director Hu had just said in her mind, then told Meng Qingshan: “Keep operating in the current state, Brother Meng, I’ll head back to the neighborhood committee first. If anything comes up, you can come find me. Oh, right, Director Hu said he found a retired worker for night duty starting tomorrow. When he arrives, check his character discreetly, don’t let him notice. After a while, I’ll apply to install a telephone line and phone for our factory.”
Meng Qingshan said excitedly: “If we can install a phone, that would be great.”
Even Meng Qingshan himself hadn’t imagined that a small handicraft workshop under the neighborhood committee could get foreign trade orders.
And the food produced by their food group was in supply exceeds demand.
When he first came here, some envied him, some were jealous, but most looked down upon it.
They advised him not to waste time on this pickle factory.
Didn’t he know how the pickle factory went under back then?
How many factories under the neighborhood committee had disbanded?
So this one wouldn’t last long either, and when it collapsed, they’d lose everything, and maybe even have to sign IOUs and take on debt.
Was it worth wasting time for no reason?
Luckily he was particularly persistent back then and didn’t take those words to heart.
Though the factory director was younger than him, she inexplicably gave him a sense of being a reliable backing.
He said to Lu Qiaoge: “Factory director, rest assured, I’ll work hard!”
Meng Qingshan was a reliable person, so of course Lu Qiaoge felt assured. After all, she was drawing double salary, so the neighborhood committee work still needed to continue.
As for being tired…
Anyway, she didn’t have to do manual labor; just using her brain and mouth was fine.
Before even reaching the neighborhood committee doorway, Sister Qiao coming out of the office spotted her and her eyes lit up: “Qiao Ge, I was just about to go to the food factory to find you.”
Lu Qiaoge: “Is there something up?”
“Yes, the Ding family in the fifth district came yesterday, saying their second daughter-in-law won’t support the old couple and wants the neighborhood committee to step in.”
Lu Qiaoge asked: “How old are the elderly couple? Do they have retirement pay and a house?”
Sister Qiao didn’t answer right away but ran to the window and said to Sister Hua inside the room: “I’m going to the Ding family with Qiao Ge. Tell Deputy Director Huang she doesn’t need to rush over.”
Sister Hua poked her head out, saw Lu Qiaoge standing at the doorway, and smilingly waved to the pretty little girl.
Lu Qiaoge also grinned and waved back at Sister Hua.
Speaking of it, everyone in the general office was great; she really liked being with them.
The atmosphere was harmonious, just like one big family.
On the way, Sister Qiao told Lu Qiaoge: “Old Ding Man and Old Ding Woman are seventy-two and seventy. Old Ding Man retired long ago, but Old Ding Woman has no retirement pay. They live in a unit-allocated house.
The house is quite small. Old Ding has two sons and two daughters. They used to live with the eldest son, then the second son split off.
Ding Laoda’s view is that he’s already supported the parents for over twenty years, now it’s the second son’s turn. I’ve been to Ding Laoda’s second brother’s home; he’s okay with it, but his wife is firmly against it.
She told me at the time that if the old man and old woman moved in, she’d divorce immediately.
Reportedly the couple has a good relationship and the family is harmonious, so the second brother is firmly against both divorce and his parents coming to live with him.
But the old man and old woman really have nowhere to live. The granddaughter-in-law just married in, can’t have her sleep on the floorboard, so the old man, old woman, and the eldest couple sleep on the floorboard.
Out of desperation, the two came to the neighborhood committee, hoping we can go persuade the second daughter-in-law and do some ideological work.
Supporting parents is the children’s responsibility anyway; he doesn’t want to take it to the leaders and make his son lose face.”
Lu Qiaoge nodded, basically understanding.
Sister Qiao and Lu Qiaoge soon arrived at the fifth district.
Now Old Ding Man and Old Ding Woman were both at the eldest son’s home.
When Lu Qiaoge and Sister Qiao entered the room, they saw a white-haired elderly couple sitting pitifully on bundled-up luggage, heads down wiping tears.
Seeing Sister Qiao and Lu Qiaoge arrive, Old Ding Woman cried: “Why didn’t Deputy Director Huang come? Can you two handle this? If it’s not resolved, this old woman can’t live and can only jump into Hongxing Lake.”
Sister Qiao immediately said: “Granny Ding, it won’t come to that. We can discuss things, and we can talk them over properly. Comrade Lu and I came here today precisely to solve the problem.”
Old Ding Man said: “Look at our current situation. It’s not that my eldest son is shunning us; there’s really no place to live. My wife and I are at this age—even if we go to the second son’s home, how many more years can we stay?
But the second daughter-in-law refuses to let us go, and says she’ll divorce if we do. My second son is still reluctant to divorce; isn’t this forcing us old couple to our deaths?”
Lu Qiaoge glanced around the room.
Only just over thirty square meters.
Though Jiangcheng here could be considered spacious with low population density, when the houses were built back then, cement, red bricks, rebar, and such were scarce supplies, so each household’s place wasn’t large, just to house more families.
This was the advantage of the apartment building.
But the downside was that the areas were all small.
Ding Laoda also had four children.
Now three sons were married but hadn’t been allocated housing yet.
Over thirty square meters for more than ten people was indeed very difficult.
Lu Qiaoge thought of her own family’s small house; she’d see this through to the end, because a new idea had come to her mind.
Having understood the situation here, Sister Qiao said: “Let’s go to Ding Jianshe’s home to learn more about the situation, then once we have it clear, we can all sit down together to resolve it, how about that?”
Gratitude to the treasures for the monthly passes, love you all, wish everyone a happy holiday!
