Chapter 4

"You don't even know how to open the window when smoking? Are you trying to choke us to death!"

"Smoking so much early in the morning, did your wives not let you into bed yesterday!"

"Damn it, I can't even see the yarn clearly!"

The Technical Department was filled with smoke, causing a group of women knitting sweaters to curse loudly. Women in this era were a presence that could "hold up half the sky." Factories, reclaiming wasteland, building water channels, etc., all had their figures.

Subject to the national defense requirements of previous years, women also participated in militia training, and coupled with the poor public security in recent years, women's personalities were also quite fierce. People with weak personalities would suffer in this world.

The group of Technical Department personnel who were smoking also laughed carelessly. This kind of scolding was much lighter than the scolding from their own wives. People's tempers in this era were fiery. Once it got to the evening, those living in the tube-style building wouldn't stop quarreling and cursing until 12:00 midnight.

In the factory, there was even more of this kind of scolding. When could it be less? If you couldn't stand being scolded for a couple of sentences, you would have been angered to death long ago.

After all, once you entered a state-owned factory and got a permanent employee position, it was equivalent to an "iron rice bowl." There was no such thing as being fired in this era, unless you made a scene and proposed to quit. Otherwise, even the factory leadership couldn't fire a troublemaker. At most, they could deduct some money. After all, this factory belonged to the country, and the permanent employee worked for the country. The factory leadership was just managing it on behalf of the country. Theoretically, they were the same as the employees. What qualifications did they have to fire people?

If you really didn't care about being promoted, and didn't care even if money was deducted, then here, there was nothing to be afraid of. Since you weren't afraid, then whoever you didn't like, you would just curse at them. Otherwise, would you be able to take the grievance? That wouldn't be treating yourself poorly.

Li Dongling continued to look at the newspaper in his hand. After finishing the one in his hand, he took a few more newspapers from Zhou Wenyang's desk and the desk of Zhang Ao, who was making up for lost sleep. Looking at the news in these newspapers, Li Dongling had a general understanding of the market situation in the past two years.

Now in the country, the hottest things were real estate and development zones. Over 20,000 real estate companies popped up in Yazhou to speculate on land, including a host of future real estate giants like Feng Lun, Boss Pan, Boss Wang of Vanke, etc., who were all upgrading in Yazhou now. Most of the future routines were probably learned in Yazhou at this moment.

This Hanxi Provincial Economic News in Li Dongling's hand reported the current heat of real estate in Yazhou using a few small stories of unknown truth. Someone signed a contract at a sales office on the first floor, and before they even walked out of the sales office, someone offered a higher price to buy the house in their hand, and they could make a profit by turning around.

There was also a drunk person who slept at the entrance of the sales office. When he woke up, he found that he had become the first person to line up to buy a house. Just as he wanted to leave, several people wanted to buy his spot. For this, there was a scramble and price hike. Finally, a wealthy businessman from Xiangshan bought the qualification of being the first to enter the sales office for 70,000 yuan, and this person got rich overnight...

It was unknown whether these small stories were true or false, but they were written vividly, as if seen with one's own eyes, making people feel that as long as they arrived in Yazhou, they could pick up money, no matter what they did!

Looking at these reports, Li Dongling shook his head. People in this era hadn't experienced too many routines, and coupled with the authority of the media in this era, it was estimated that quite a few people would be stimulated to rush to Yazhou.

Besides the heat of real estate, the concept of development zones was also blooming everywhere in the country. Even Pingyang City was no exception, circling a large piece of land to establish a development zone.

After flipping through several newspapers, the reports were basically the same. Finally, in the corner of a newspaper, Li Dongling saw something different.

A newspaper reported a piece of news from Yanjing. Facing the doubling of prices this year, it was rumored that the authorities required several major banks, as well as local banks, to take back a portion of the money lent out in the past few years. It was unknown whether the news was true or false, but the wind had been spread.

Li Dongling looked at this piece of news for a long time before moving on. Then there were reports that domestic transportation was tense. Whether it was trains, cars, etc., they were all running at full capacity. And energy like coal, oil, etc., and raw materials like steel, iron, aluminum, and various scarce metals were also quite tense.

After flipping through for a long time, Li Dongling rubbed his eyes. Seeing these reports, Li Dongling finally had an understanding of the current market situation in the country.

Drinking tea and reading newspapers, the morning basically passed. In the middle, there were several situations on the factory floor, and people were sent to ask the Technical Department to handle them.

As a result, the group of people in the Technical Department were either reading newspapers or knitting sweaters, and no one paid any attention. Finally, it was Xu Yiqiao, the section chief of the Technical Department, who named Zhou Wenyang and another technician to go. This morning, Li Dongling had figured out this office 80 to 90 percent, and he had basically seen who the "old workhorses" were.

After lunch, the number of people who returned to the office was clearly smaller. Xu Yiqiao didn't find anything strange about this.

Li Dongling followed Zhou Wenyang around Xicheng Wireless Factory No. 1 and had a deeper understanding of this factory. In his previous life, he had stayed here for less than a week, and coupled with being pointed at, how could he have the mood to understand these things?

"Our Wireless Factory No. 1 used to be one of the large factories in Pingyang City. The Feiyan radios produced were famous throughout Hanxi Province. At its peak, the tax paid in a year could reach 40 or 50 million!"

Mentioning the past, Zhou Wenyang had a look of pride. When he joined the factory, it was the most glorious time for Wireless Factory No. 1. At that time, wearing a factory uniform of Wireless Factory No. 1, one would be looked up to when going out. In Pingyang City at that time, no matter what trendy clothes there were, they couldn't compare to a factory uniform of Wireless Factory No. 1.

Even when going on blind dates, wearing the clothes of Wireless Factory No. 1 was basically a sure thing.

At that time, TV tickets, etc., hadn't been canceled yet. Buying radios, TVs, etc., also required tickets. During the Chinese New Year, the factory also issued a few internal tickets to employees to buy their own TVs and radios, which was actually equivalent to benefits. These tickets could be sold for over 100 yuan outside, which was not a problem at all.

"Now..."

Speaking of the past, Zhou Wenyang's eyes carried light, but mentioning the present, Zhou Wenyang just let out a sigh.

Looking at Zhou Wenyang, Li Dongling was thoughtful. Zhou Wenyang being an "old workhorse" in the Technical Department, besides his personality, probably had true feelings for Xicheng Wireless Factory No. 1 and didn't want it to suddenly collapse one day.

Li Dongling followed Zhou Wenyang around and was also somewhat shocked by the situation of Xicheng Wireless Factory No. 1. It looked like the glory of the Wireless Factory No. 1 was still there, and it was still producing Feiyan radios and Feiyan TVs, but the inventory was already seriously backlogged. The drivers responsible for transporting goods had already started to slack off, and even hid inside to play cards. Zhou Wenyang wasn't surprised by this, which clearly showed that this situation had been going on for quite a while.

Now, Xicheng Wireless Factory No. 1 had over 3,000 employees, of which 1,000 were permanent employees, but over 2,000 temporary workers had also been squeezed in. Basically, every office and department was packed full.

This was just those on the job. Besides paying salaries to these people, they also had to pay pensions to retired personnel, bear medical expenses, etc.

Adding up all these expenses, plus the fuel costs for the transport team, various office material consumption, and subsidies for the canteen, etc., Li Dongling felt that the monthly expenditure of Xicheng Wireless Factory No. 1 was probably between 1 and 2 million. Now, how many radios and TVs could Xicheng Wireless Factory No. 1 sell every month?!

"Tomorrow morning at 8:00, everyone must arrive at the office on time. There will be a meeting for all personnel of the Technical Department. Pass the message to each other. Whoever doesn't come will have their bonus for this month confiscated!"

When getting off work, Xu Yiqiao said to the remaining people in the office with a straight face, clearly having been filled with anger.

"I don't know what's going on!"

Zhou Wenyang and several other veteran technicians like him were all worried. He rarely saw Xu Yiqiao get so angry.

Zhang Ao and the young people in the office didn't care much. They were here just to have an identity and collect a salary. What happened to the Wireless Factory No. 1 didn't concern them at all.

Li Dongling didn't care much either. He borrowed a bicycle from Zhang Ao, preparing to go to the fertilizer plant.

"Beep!"

A roar of a motorcycle came from behind Li Dongling. Turning his head, Li Dongling saw Zhang Ao, wearing a leather jacket and sunglasses, riding a Suzuki 100 motorcycle with a woman on the back, looking cool. He was a completely different person from the one who slept like a dead dog in the office.

Greeting Li Dongling, Zhang Ao suddenly accelerated. The front tire of the motorcycle was suddenly lifted. The woman sitting on the back screamed and hurriedly hugged Zhang Ao tightly.

Li Dongling clearly saw the triumphant look on Zhang Ao's face under the sunglasses. Looking at Zhang Ao, who drove away with a twist of the throttle, Li Dongling smiled and shook his head. There were too many scenes like this in this year...