Chapter 460: The Public-Private Partnership Storm

Seeing the Li family members acting so fiercely, four plainclothes officers quickly stepped forward to subdue the three of them and put them in Handcuffs.

At this moment, more Police swarmed into the courtyard, pulled up a cordon, and tightly secured the scene.

By the time the Police took away Li Yong's corpse and his entire family, everyone in the courtyard felt a chill—if the He Family's house had truly been set on fire, the entire courtyard would have burned down.

Yi Zhonghai, Liu Haizhong, and Yan Bugui held an all-courtyard meeting overnight and finally reached a unanimous decision: drive out the remaining members of the Li family and sell their house at a set price to anyone in the courtyard who wanted to buy it.

Time flew to November, and He Yuzhu's marriage approval still had not come down; it was still in the review stage.

Factory Director Yang had previously said that the approval process would take about three months to wait, and now that just over two months had passed, it was normal.

Although Chen Xueru was unhappy about this, there was nothing she could do.

A few months ago, the Silk Store and clothing shop she managed were designated as pilot units for Public-Private Partnership in the Qianmen area.

At first, Chen Xueru was arranged to serve as the deputy Manager in charge of technology, while the higher-ups appointed a public-side Manager to come and manage things.

However, this Manager knew nothing about the business but insisted on interfering everywhere, and was also full of hostility toward Chen Xueru, so she simply stopped caring and went on leave.

Two months later, the operations of Xueru Clothing Store fell into chaos.

Although the shop's area was not large, it was connected to over two thousand workers behind the scenes.

It started when a client from the Soviet Union ordered five hundred down jackets; after the goods arrived, the other party discovered a large number of defective products and demanded a full refund, plus compensation for twice the loss of the payment.

Next, Liushi Trading Company ordered a batch of trench coats, which also had quality issues; the other party demanded a return of the goods and compensation for losses.

The cash flow, which had originally been quite abundant, was suddenly cut off, and they couldn't even pay the wages.

The main reason for this situation was that after this Manager Xiao entered Xueru Clothing Store and saw that although the storefront was small, the trade volume was shockingly large, he thought: isn't this just an oversized tailor shop? Anyone can manage it, so he began to seek benefits for his leaders, relatives, and friends, hiring over 100 people in one month.

He even replaced the small foremen Chen Xueru had previously used with the confidants he had newly hired.

In order to repay his kindness, the newly appointed management personnel desperately demanded that the staff save wherever possible, using defective fabric for the production of those import orders.

They naively believed that since the goods were shipped across the ocean, could the other party really send them back?

As a result, large quantities of returns followed one after another.

Of course, it was impossible to say that He Yuzhu had no hand in this—the Liushi Trading Company with the largest volume of returns naturally listened to him, and that Soviet down jacket merchant was also a staunch friend of Chen Xueru.

As for those dismissed small leaders, they were all Chen Xueru's confidants.

Since the new leader shouted about saving money every day, they let those confidant tailors do exactly as these leaders instructed, and the outcome was destined.

What angered Chen Xueru the most was that after this Manager Xiao signed a contract with several newly arrived Soviet merchants to discuss business, he agreed to credit, and after all the silk and other goods were shipped out, those merchants could no longer be contacted.

This deal directly resulted in three billion yuan of bad debt, wiping out everything Xueru Clothing Store had accumulated over these years.

This incident had an extremely negative impact on the merchants in the Qianmen area; many shops would rather close their doors than engage in Public-Private Partnership.

When the higher-ups saw that the matter was serious, they sent leaders from the neighborhood office and the Commercial Bureau to visit Chen Xueru three times to invite her back.

At first, Chen Xueru refused to do anything. It was not until the leaders of the Commercial Bureau stepped in that she agreed to come out of retirement, and she put forward several conditions, such as transferring Manager Xiao away, clearing out the personnel he was responsible for hiring, and sending a public-side deputy Manager who understood the business to come over and supervise.

During these two months, the Diesel Engine that He Yuzhu was responsible for developing achieved a major breakthrough—the prototype test was successful, and it had run for over 1000 hours without failure.

This Diesel Engine was not only stable in performance but also over 30% more energy-efficient than similar products; it could be widely used in many fields such as agricultural irrigation, industrial equipment support, infrastructure construction, and the transportation industry, showing considerable application prospects.

Inside the office of the Ministry of Heavy Industry Machinery Bureau, Secretary Liu gently placed a freshly brewed cup of tea in front of He Yuzhu.

He Yuzhu took a sip, put down the teacup, and asked, "Secretary Liu, is there any important task for specifically calling me over this time?"

Secretary Liu nodded, his expression serious: "After the news of the successful test of the Diesel Engine you developed spread, many places hoped to introduce it and build factories. I have received six formal applications on hand, and after comprehensive consideration by the Ministry, three locations were approved: Chongqing, Luoyang, and Guangdong. Luoyang is easy to handle; it belongs to a Soviet-aided project with a solid foundation; Chongqing also has a certain industrial base; only Guangdong... can be said to be starting from zero. Therefore, I hope you can go there to support for two years and get the factory on the right track."

Upon hearing this, He Yuzhu shook his head repeatedly: "Secretary Liu, to tell you the truth, I am a bit intimidated by that place. The climate is too hot, the language is not understood, though the food is alright."

Secretary Liu smiled: "I am not asking you to go as a Factory Director, but inviting you to go as the Chief Engineer in charge of technology. Moreover, in the next two years, most of my work focus will also be placed there."

Only then did He Yuzhu relent: "If you are presiding over things there, then I am willing to go. However... can you also help me urge my marriage application? I have been waiting for quite a while, and it still hasn't been approved."

Hearing this, Secretary Liu sighed softly and said: "Xiao He, let me tell you the truth. From a personal perspective, I do not approve of you marrying Comrade Chen Xueru. Her status is defined as a 'small proprietor,' but this is actually the result of deliberation—given the scale of her operations, she is actually between a capitalist and a 'small proprietor.' Of course, I know you had a hand in this; the 2000-plus workers under her are actually all freelance small merchants... she is just an agent... only you could think of such a method. If you really marry her, it will... I'm afraid it will have an impact on your future development."

He Yuzhu was silent for a moment, then sincerely replied: "I understand your considerations. But I never wanted to pursue an official career anyway; I have known Xueru for many years, and she is sincere toward me; I cannot let her down."

Secretary Liu looked at his firm expression and finally sighed: "Alright. I will try to find a way for your marriage application. However, you must handle the Guangdong Tractor Factory project beautifully for me."

He Yuzhu immediately promised solemnly: "As long as you are leading this project, I guarantee to go all out. As for the equipment, I can resolve it from Hong Kong."

Secretary Liu nodded, a gratified smile appearing on his face.

"By the way, there is one more thing; can you also transfer my father and the Section Chief Li Huaide under him over there for two years?" He Yuzhu said somewhat insidiously.

"What do you mean by this?" Secretary Liu asked, puzzled.