Chapter 685: Being a Salted Fish

Li Huaide immediately ordered: "Wang Qiang, that surveillance of yours, can you let us watch it from the beginning again?"

Wang Qiang felt a tightening in his heart, but his expression remained calm as he hurriedly replied: "Reporting to Factory Director Li, this surveillance can only be viewed in real-time; it cannot be recorded, and there is no playback."

Li Huaide was half-doubting, but seeing Wang Qiang speak so decisively, he was momentarily at a loss and waved his hand: "Let's go, take us to see it."

Wang Qiang immediately gave Li Lin a wink. Li Lin understood, took off running, and vanished in a flash.

Li Huaide felt something was wrong and asked casually: "What did you send Li Lin to do?"

Wang Qiang laughed it off: "To find the key. Only three people can enter that surveillance room; others can't get in. When I came out, I left the key with Zou Laoqi. He went on patrol, so I have to find him to get the key."

Li Huaide was skeptical but helpless, and he pressed further: "You installed surveillance in the warehouse, why didn't you report it to us?"

Wang Qiang hesitated for a moment and said: "This surveillance was installed when Factory Director He was here. He said this thing was still in the experimental stage and couldn't be disclosed to the outside..."

Li Huaide's face darkened: "But he is no longer the Factory Director, why didn't you report it to me?"

Wang Qiang stammered: "But... Factory Director He hasn't been removed from his post yet. Besides, this equipment is still in the experimental stage..."

Li Huaide got angry: "Wang Qiang, you've gone too far! You should have reported it to me long ago!"

Wang Qiang hurriedly apologized: "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, this is my fault for not thinking it through."

Li Huaide tentatively asked again: "The surveillance system you mentioned, how come I haven't seen where it's installed?"

Seeing he couldn't hide it anymore, Wang Qiang had to tell the truth: "Those surveillance cameras are all installed inside the speaker cores."

Li Huaide finally understood, but he kept muttering to himself—did those cameras capture footage of him and Liu Lan?

Upon entering the surveillance room, he saw over a dozen devices resembling televisions, which were displaying the real-time situation of each warehouse.

Li Huaide glanced at the screen for the canteen warehouse and immediately broke out in a cold sweat—that was exactly where he and Liu Lan often stayed.

He asked vigilantly: "Wang Qiang, do you three always stare at these screens?"

Wang Qiang said: "Not really, we mainly check the stability of these devices, just spot checks."

Li Huaide clearly didn't believe him: "If it's just spot checks, then what's the point of installing this surveillance?"

Wang Qiang explained: "Didn't I tell you, this is just experimental stuff, and we are currently testing the stability of continuous operation. As for the recording system you asked about earlier, it hasn't been developed yet. Factory Director He's intention is to make it public only after the recording system is finished."

Li Huaide thought about it and felt there was some logic to it. If they really recorded everything all day long, how much film would that take?

He knew a little bit about movie film—his father-in-law often showed movies, and he had chatted with the projectionist. That kind of 16mm shooting film, one reel only lasted ten minutes and was expensive as hell. Thinking of this, he felt more at ease.

In the evening, He Yuzhu received the recording of the warehouse where the incident occurred during the day.

In fact, he had long since finished the surveillance system's recorder, with one for every camera; although it wasn't recording constantly, the person watching the screen could choose to record at any time.

The "no one monitoring" that Wang Qiang said earlier was also a lie; this surveillance room was always being watched, it was just that only eight people knew of the system's existence.

Today, Wang Qiang had no choice but to expose the surveillance room, fearing that Li Huaide would use the fire as an excuse to fire him, so he simply let the place be exposed.

With the big fire in the factory today, He Yuzhu felt it was time to strike back.

He gathered the tapes of Li Huaide's recent actions, the footage of today's incident, and the recordings of those people in the factory playing cards and slacking off, then made a phone call to Secretary Liu.

Secretary Liu happened to be in Beijing recently and came directly to the East Cross Courtyard where He Yuzhu lived.

He Yuzhu showed him the evidence against Li Huaide.

After watching, Secretary Liu was so angry he slapped the table, causing the teacup to fall to the ground and shatter: "Zhuzi! Li Huaide is this kind of person, why didn't you tell me sooner?"

He Yuzhu sighed: "I didn't expose him not because I was afraid of him, but mainly because I was afraid that someone even worse than Li Huaide would come along. After all, Li Huaide is qualified enough to be a Deputy Factory Director in his work. Look at the new Deputy Factory Director Nie; that is a total disaster. The warehouse keepers he recruited gather two tables of cards as soon as they start work, doing nothing all day. If anyone wants to collect something, they have to drag them off the card table. Do you think this is acceptable? I really couldn't stand it anymore, which is why I showed these to you; otherwise, I really didn't want to bring them out."

Over the past few months, Deputy Director Nie had removed all dozen experienced warehouse managers and replaced them with his own people.

These people all had connections. After taking over the warehouse, they not only frequently made things difficult for those coming to pick up goods, but also gathered to play cards as soon as they started work, smoking while playing, and didn't take the fire safety regulations seriously at all.

Today, someone accidentally flicked a cigarette butt onto a bag of labor protection supplies—the spark smoldered slowly in the cotton thread until someone opened the door, and as the air rushed in, the fire suddenly flared up.

Secretary Liu shook his head in anger: "It seems now that this Li Huaide and Deputy Director Nie really cannot be used."

He Yuzhu nodded and poured a fresh cup of tea for Secretary Liu.

The two drank tea slowly, each pondering what to do next.

After a long while, Secretary Liu asked: "How is your printer project going?"

"We have built five hundred units in three months, and we can build three hundred units every month from now on," He Yuzhu said.

Secretary Liu sighed: "Letting Li Huaide run the factory these past few months was truly a failed choice."

He Yuzhu said: "I heard that even steel production has dropped, and the production of Heavy Trucks cannot meet the plan either."

Secretary Liu said: "Actually, I discussed with the Ministry of Heavy Industry last month about having you return to your original post. But the opposition to you in the Ministry is quite strong..."

"Then I'll just resign and go home to recuperate with my wife," He Yuzhu said with a smile.

Secretary Liu glanced at him and also smiled: "That's not a bad idea either."

Once He Yuzhu heard this, how could he not understand? Secretary Liu was reminding him that not working for a while was also an option, so why should he get involved in the factory's affairs? He might as well just be a salted fish.

Once Secretary Liu left, he immediately wrote a resignation letter, resigning even from his position as an Engineer.

Some key leaders of the Ministry of Heavy Industry saw the footage from the Rolling Mill and all felt that if Li Huaide were allowed to continue, the factory would only become more and more dilapidated, and it urgently needed someone capable to pull it back.

Yet, He Yuzhu resigned at this very moment.

This made Secretary Zhao, who supported him, quite dissatisfied, and he decided to leave him hanging for a while.

Therefore, He Yuzhu was completely free.