Chapter 61

The last rain of deep autumn drizzled nonstop; He Yuzhu sat in the office, boredly watching the leaves fall outside. This is the benefit of being a leader: if you don't feel like working, you can sit in the office and drink tea.

"Zhuzi, you're pretty idle." The Factory Director entered the office with a smiling squint, "The experts who came by have left, and they sang high praise for your craftsmanship."

He Yuzhu smiled; it turned out the Factory Director had come to praise him.

"From now on, work well, manage the canteen properly, and I'll consider raising your rank for the New Year."

"It's all for the factory's service; there's no rush about the rank." He Yuzhu suddenly recalled Yi Daye's trouble, "By the way, I have something else to report."

He Yuzhu took out a notebook from the drawer and began to tell the Factory Director in detail what Yi Daye had been doing in the Courtyard House, saying that although he had been criticized in a bulletin, it seemed useless.

We need to come up with something stricter.

"He really shows no remorse, but he hasn't committed any serious fault in the factory, and there's no good basis for punishing him; I'll think about it again." The Factory Director shook his head, "You can't just accuse someone without cause."

The Factory Director said a few more things, then went off to attend to other matters.

"Since you haven't made a mistake, let's find a way to make you commit one. In the Courtyard House you're Yi Daye, but in the Steel Rolling Mill you're just an old worker."

He Yuzhu came to the canteen in the rain, first checking Ma Hua's work; now that the expert had left, there was no need to busy himself with the special stove.

The noon meal was still relatively simple: stir-fried cabbage, braised string beans, soy-braised radish, and tomato scrambled eggs, taking advantage of the last bit of vegetable yield.

The canteen also tried to increase the variety of vegetables.

He Yuzhu sat behind the window, saw Yi Daye approaching, and gestured to Ma Hua meaning to give Yi Daye something "nice."

"One portion of radish, one portion of cabbage."

Ma Hua flipped his spoon, dropping a portion of sauce soup and several chunks of old cabbage into Yi Daye's lunchbox. Seeing He Yuzhu sitting there, Yi Daye said nothing and returned to his seat.

"Yi Daye, look what Zhuzi gave you—still a Courtyard House resident." Qin Huairu pushed the pickles in front of her, "Try my pickles; I added brine shrimp oil."

Qin Huairu came over to test Yi Daye's attitude, to see if, because of Jia Zhangshi, he disliked her.

After finishing the meal, Yi Daye casually dumped the cabbage and radish from his lunchbox into the slop bucket; at that moment a canteen aunt came over, glanced, and picked up a notebook to record something.

Yi Daye didn't notice any of this; he happily chatted with Qin Huairu as they left the canteen.

The workshop work remained tiring; everyone worked for over an hour, then came out for a cup of water, a cigarette, to relax properly. Yi Daye was the same, he was the same, he was holding a large tea cup and gulping it down.

"Next, the canteen bulletin: the canteen recently held a 'recalling hardship, thinking of sweetness' activity, which got a strong response; we had thought everyone already understood thrift, but today the bulletin still points out that some comrades are not practicing thrift."

"Next, the roll call: someone from a certain workshop, Yi Moumou, someone from another workshop…"

Yi Daye, who was drinking water, almost choked; he thought he hadn't done anything, so why was he on the bulletin? This was utterly embarrassing; originally he wasn't popular in the workshop, and now he's become the target of everyone.

He Yuzhu, you're really vengeful.

"Yi Zhonghai, you're also an old comrade—how could you make such a mistake? This isn't just you losing face; you're dragging the whole workshop into disgrace."

As soon as the workshop chief arrived, he frowned and criticized Yi Daye.

"Chief, I didn't do anything; it's He Yuzhu striking back at me." Yi Daye stubbornly replied, "Besides, the canteen food isn't good; the taste is off."

"Hmph, you're still making excuses, aren't you? I've looked into it carefully." The workshop chief stared at Yi Zhonghai, "If the canteen were at fault, I'd personally take you to confront them, but this time you've given them a handle to grab you by the neck."

"It's fine; don't hang out with widows, and don't worry about others gossiping."

Yi Daye was dazed, thinking, "I only said a few words—why is He Yuzhu targeting me?" The key is he doesn't know whether this matter is over.

If there are further moves, he'll have no foothold.

In the afternoon He Yuzhu delivered the materials to the Factory Director's desk, requesting some punishment for workers who wasted grain. Looking at the name at the top of the list, the Factory Director secretly shook his head.

This is really going to finish off Yi Zhonghai.

But he didn't intend to say anything, after all He Yuzhu had helped him more, and who made Yi Zhonghai so stupid as to let someone easily catch him in a bind.

Yi Zhonghai, feeling a bit dispirited, was busy at his workstation when the workshop chief came over with the Factory Director's secretary; he sighed and said, "Old Yi, the higher-ups' punishment measures have come down—you'd better watch out."

"Given Yi Zhonghai's repeated failure to mend his ways and his moral corruption, we are transferring him out of the workshop to the Garbage Disposal Station, hoping he will correct his mistakes in the future."

This Garbage Disposal Station is somewhat different from Qin Huairu's Street Cleaning Squad; here it's specifically for monitoring pipelines, and the workers here are all problematic ones.

These workers are all troublemakers; the leadership can't deal with them right away, so they're dumped here, where there's normally no specific work, and of course their wages are paid at the lowest rate.

"Leaders, you can't do this—I'm an eighth‑level worker." Yi Zhonghai grabbed the Factory Director's secretary's clothing, "I haven't done anything wrong; I shouldn't be sent there."

"You were already morally corrupt, and now you've added grain waste; I hear you throw your weight around in the Courtyard House—if not you, who should we deal with?"

"I haven't; these are all slander."

"Whether you have or not, you know yourself; go to the Garbage Disposal Station, behave well, and you might be back in a few days."

Yi Daye knows that the leadership says that to everyone who gets sent there, but over the years no one has managed to return to their original post.

He Yuzhu suddenly moved against him, leaving him no chance to defend himself.

"What to do, what to do." Yi Daye returned to the Courtyard House still muttering about this.

"Yi Daye, you've finally come back…" Jia Zhangshi hurried over to meet him.

"Get lost, it's all because of you, you old thing." Yi Daye suddenly pointed at Jia Zhangshi, "Without you, there wouldn't be today."

"What do you mean by that?" Jia Zhangshi didn't understand why Yi Daye suddenly spoke to her like that, "What do you mean 'have or not have'? Don't you know whether you have it or not?"

Yi Daye pushed Jia Zhangshi away and went home with a grim face.