Chapter 684: The Warehouse Has Surveillance

He Yuzhu smiled and said unhurriedly, "Leader, I am not a saint. I cannot possibly let Liushi Trading Company lose money to buy things for the Rolling Mill. With my father in this position, there are still people in the factory who remember this favor and remember to pay it back. But to have Liushi Trading front the capital for someone who stabs me in the back, that is going too far."

Secretary Liu did not speak on the other end of the line.

He Yuzhu knew that this leader was still dissatisfied with his approach.

He explained, "Rest assured, I will not interfere with the factory's business operations, but I will not help anymore either. Since this is to let Li Huaide gain experience, he should overcome the difficulties himself and find ways to solve the problems."

"Very well," Secretary Liu said flatly.

He knew in his heart that He Yuzhu had truly been wronged this time. He had been investigated for a long time without any issues being found, yet he was not restored to his original position; even the person who reported him had not received any punishment.

"I understand. Have Liushi Trading Company transport that batch of equipment to the Lingnan Tractor Factory, and transfer the blueprints over as well. I will have a word with the military side..."

The corners of He Yuzhu's mouth curled: "I will follow your arrangements. But regarding the Red Star Farm, you must keep a tight grip on it. You absolutely cannot let Li Huaide mess around, otherwise, those Experts will have a hard time."

"You can rest assured about that, I will handle it well," Secretary Liu promised quite readily.

After the phone hung up, He Daqing leaned in from the side, his brows knitted together, and asked in a low voice: "If you do this, will it make Secretary Liu resent you?"

"I don't care. Am I made of mud, without a shred of temper? The people who set me up this time haven't been punished at all, Liu Haizhong has become a Workshop Deputy Director again, and Xu Damao is still showing movies as usual. This shows that someone above is very dissatisfied with me. Since that's the case, why should we still help them?"

He Daqing was stunned for a moment, then nodded, a flash of ruthlessness in his eyes: "Zhuzi, this time Dad stands on your side. At worst, I'll quit being Deputy Factory Director!"

"It won't come to that," He Yuzhu waved his hand, a meaningful smile appearing at the corner of his mouth, "You are currently in charge of propaganda and the labor union, which is also a good job. Let me give you an idea..."

After hearing it, He Daqing's eyes lit up instantly, and he slapped his thigh hard: "This method of yours is great! Pushing Li Huaide to the forefront and making everything the factory does and its goals public—this move is brilliant!"

A few months later, the Rolling Mill indeed underwent earth-shaking changes.

It was just that it didn't change for the better; it fell into complete chaos.

Every single thing Li Huaide did and every decision he made was broadcast by the Propaganda Section without missing a word.

At first, Li Huaide was quite proud, walking with a spring in his step and talking about his management philosophy to everyone he met, afraid that others wouldn't know what he was doing.

But as time went on, not a single one of the boasts he made at the beginning could be fulfilled.

Only then did Li Huaide vaguely realize—he had been set up to be roasted over a fire.

First was the matter of importing precision machine tools.

The factory couldn't come up with enough foreign exchange, and Liushi Trading Company firmly refused to front the funds, so the key equipment ultimately failed to enter the factory.

Without this batch of machine tools, the task of producing Heavy Trucks for the military would certainly not be completed within the stipulated time.

When the incident occurred, it was only after Li Huaide's father-in-law personally stepped in to coordinate that the Military Factory split some of the tasks to other factories.

But Li Huaide's reputation had been completely ruined.

He found Deputy Director Nie and slapped the table: "Old Nie, don't you have connections? How come you can't even get this little bit of foreign exchange approved?"

Deputy Director Nie spread his hands, his face full of helplessness: "The Ministry doesn't have that much foreign exchange at all. I can't just conjure it up like Sun Houzi, can I?"

"Why is it that every time He Daqing doesn't have foreign exchange, he can borrow it, but you can't?" Li Huaide's voice even changed pitch.

"I've checked, He Daqing has always borrowed from Liushi Trading Company. But the Boss of this company won't even see me, how am I supposed to borrow?" Deputy Director Nie was also anxious.

Li Huaide gritted his teeth: "Your relationship with Zhou Hao is so solid, why don't you go to him?"

"I did! He has no way out either!" Deputy Director Nie spread his hands, his whole person collapsing.

"Fine, fine, fine, let's say you have no way for that. But the Beidaihe Fishery has already been changed to your people, why can't they supply salted fish or dried fish? Now the canteen is full of complaints, even the people in charge of logistics at the Ministry are scolding me, and the quota originally given to them has been cut off too!"

"Factory Director Li, the fish at the Beidaihe Fishery were fished out in October," Deputy Director Nie's voice lowered, "Now we can only rely on small Fishing Boats to go out to sea, and we can't catch much at all."

In fact, the reason why the Red Star Rolling Mill's fish pond in Beidaihe had no fish was because He Yuzhu hadn't gone to South Korea to collect fish to replenish it in September or October of that year.

In previous years, he would use his space to transport back large quantities of sea fish to fill the pond.

As soon as the new Factory Director took office, the people at the fishery fished as hard as they could, fishing until they hit the bottom.

"Old Nie, do you know what others are saying about you?" Li Huaide suddenly laughed, his laughter full of mockery, "They say you can't do anything right, but you're number one when it comes to eating."

Deputy Director Nie's face darkened: "I heard it long ago, it must be He Yuzhu having Yu Haitang spread it privately. Factory Director Li, let's not talk about each other, weren't you played too? The broadcast station broadcasts everything, even when production tasks aren't completed, can't you manage it?"

"How can I manage it?" Li Huaide sighed helplessly, "He Daqing asked me for instructions three months ago to make the factory's affairs open and transparent so that the workers would all know. If I suddenly change my tune now, what would that look like?"

No sooner had he finished speaking than the factory area suddenly fell into chaos.

"Oh no—!"

"Fire—!"

Successive shouts poured in from outside the window.

Li Huaide and Deputy Director Nie were both stunned, looked at each other, and bolted downstairs.

The two rushed out of the office and saw at a glance that flames were shooting into the sky in the direction of the warehouse, with black smoke billowing straight into the sky, dyeing half the sky black.

Li Huaide grabbed a worker who was running wildly, his voice changed: "What exactly is going on?"

"The labor protection warehouse is on fire!" The worker was covered in sweat, dropped the sentence, and continued running forward.

"Is anyone putting out the fire?" Li Huaide shouted from behind.

"The fire is too big, the fire department has already been called! Our factory's fire brigade can't suppress it at all!" The worker's voice was drowned out by the noise.

Not long after, several fire trucks rushed into the factory area with sirens blaring.

Fire hoses were laid all over the ground, and high-pressure water jets shot into the sky.

Two hours later, the fire was finally completely extinguished.

The warehouse had burned into a ruin, the charred steel frames stood there crookedly, and a pungent burnt smell permeated the air.

Li Huaide stood in front of the ruins, his face as black as the bottom of a pot.

He turned around abruptly and roared at Wang Qiang of the Security Department: "What are you people good for! The warehouse caught fire, and there wasn't even a warning!"

Wang Qiang stiffened his neck: "Factory Director Li, you are wronging us. If we hadn't reported the fire early, the adjacent warehouses would have burned down too."

"How did you report the fire?"

Wang Qiang swallowed his saliva and pointed at the ruins, "Their warehouse received a large batch of labor protection supplies today, all of which are flammable. After they were stacked inside, no cleaning was done, and the person in charge of the warehouse went to another warehouse to play cards. By the time we saw the smoke, the fire had already erupted!"

"What monitoring? What did you see?" Deputy Director Nie's expression changed as he asked.

"We have installed monitoring in every warehouse, don't you know?" Wang Qiang said with a hint of schadenfreude.

"What surveillance? I don't know anything about it either." Li Huaide looked toward Wang Qiang.

"When Factory Director He was in office, he had surveillance installed in every Warehouse," Wang Qiang said unhurriedly.

"Why didn't you report this matter to me?" Li Huaide was somewhat exasperated.

He suddenly remembered his affair with Qin Huairu. At that time, he had only seen some photographs and had always wondered how they were taken; now he finally understood that many of his actions had long since been recorded.