Chapter 833

Li Ye and Lu Zhizhang chatted for the whole morning, and in the afternoon, Lai Jiayi arrived at his office with a smile on her face.

"Is Deputy Factory Director Li back to work early? Oh my, your child at home is still so young, and you've been on a business trip for so long; you should have stayed at home for a few more days."

Seeing the document bag in her hand, Li Ye asked with a smile: "Does Big Sister Lai have something to see me about?"

Lai Jiayi smiled and said: "Yesterday, Factory Director Lu told me to organize the materials regarding the housing allocation and hand them to you for review once Deputy Factory Director Li returned. So, aren't I here to deliver them to you now?"

"Old Lu said to hand them to me for review?"

Li Ye found it a bit strange because he had met with Lu Zhizhang in the morning, and Lu Zhizhang hadn't mentioned this; besides, Lu Zhizhang was the top leader, so these materials should have been given to him.

Furthermore, a word like "review" wasn't appropriate to use on Li Ye.

Because Lai Jiayi's actual rank was half a level higher than Li Ye's, and she usually maintained a high-and-mighty attitude in front of him; it was very out of character for her to ask Li Ye to review them today.

【Is she doing this to belittle me on purpose? Or does she want to use one peach to kill two warriors?】

Within a unit, the distribution of power is very strict; if a deputy usurps the power of the superior, a drama of dragon-fighting and tiger-battling might unfold.

By that time, the monkey sitting on the sidelines watching the show might just be able to snatch the chestnuts from the fire.

Therefore, Lai Jiayi's behavior was suspected of sowing discord between Li Ye and Lu Zhizhang.

But Li Ye still reached out and took the materials: "Then give them to me! I'll touch base with Old Lu later, and then we'll convene a meeting of worker representatives to study it before posting the list."

Lai Jiayi's eyes flickered, and she smiled indifferently: "Hi, the workers have already discussed this list many times. Factory Director Lu said that as long as you, Deputy Factory Director Li, think it's appropriate, that's fine."

"How can I decide this matter on my own? It must be decided by everyone."

Li Ye opened the document bag, pulled out the documents, and after looking at them, asked with some confusion: "Big Sister Lai, is this all the employee data for those who submitted housing applications? Why is there so little?"

"Many who don't meet the basic criteria have been initially screened out according to the system. More than half of our factory consists of young new employees; they don't even have a partner, so how can they be eligible to apply for housing? With more monks than porridge, we certainly can't satisfy everyone..."

Lai Jiayi stated a long list of reasons as a matter of course, and then she saw Li Ye's cold gaze, which made people very uncomfortable.

Li Ye and Lu Zhizhang had asked Lai Jiayi to compile the housing situation in the factory, to get a clear understanding of all employees' housing conditions, and then decide how to allocate the houses and to whom.

Now, it was the other way around: for three hundred housing units, she had submitted a list of three hundred and seventy or eighty applications. This was just leaving a symbolic bit of work for Li Ye and Lu Zhizhang!

【Why are you so diligent? Why are you so capable?】

Li Ye and Lu Zhizhang had been applying for land, allocating special funds for housing, and finding construction teams; seeing that the buildings were almost topped out, Lai Jiayi had actually done most of the work of allocating the welfare housing?

Does this mean the First Branch Factory is run by your family?

Seeing Li Ye's cold gaze, Lai Jiayi smiled and said: "If Deputy Factory Director Li is not satisfied with this list, then I will go back and have the union people go down and visit again, listen more to the masses' opinions, and then come up with a new list."

"No need, the houses are about to be topped out, and the workers are all looking forward to spending the winter in the new houses! Old Lu and I will discuss it and come up with a solution as soon as possible!"

Li Ye directly rejected Lai Jiayi; counting on someone like her, whose belly was full of schemes, to think wholeheartedly for the masses was no better than counting on a girl used to making quick money to turn over a new leaf!

Lai Jiayi's expression turned ugly. Although Li Ye hadn't shown her that kind of rank-based respect before, at least he had treated her as an equal, neither humble nor pushy.

But the current Li Ye clearly disliked her and didn't even bother to pretend anymore.

This made Lai Jiayi very angry; as a deputy division-level cadre coming to the First Branch Factory to be a union head, she was already very aggrieved.

Two months ago, when the main factory wanted to transfer Li Ye back, Lai Jiayi had already cleared the air with her connections; as soon as Li Ye left, she would take over his position.

According to her thinking, this position of Li Ye's should have been hers; Li Ye was just the tree-planter who opened up the market, and he should have let his successors enjoy the shade.

But now, a twenty-four or twenty-five-year-old young man was actually looking down on her, a senior in her forties?

"..."

Li Ye was actually speechless.

Every year when he returns to his hometown to sweep the graves, he only sees sons, grandsons, and nephews sweeping the graves for their ancestors, but rarely sees maternal grandsons or nephews sweeping the graves for grandfathers or uncles.

This is also why many people are obsessed with returning to their roots and returning to the ancestral forest, rather than being lonely and buried in a foreign land.

If they are atheists, that's fine, but people with strong traditional consciousness sometimes worry that after a few years, they won't even have a grave head.

At noon, Li Ye and the others were eating in the small restaurant of the hotel, and then they heard Old Liu say that the domestic financial experts would arrive later. At that time, Li Ye, a graduate of the economics department, would need to sit in and make a record.

Li Ye couldn't push away this kind of work. After all, outsiders couldn't understand many economic terms, and Li Ye also wanted to see what the so-called "experts" looked like.

At 1:30 in the afternoon, Li Ye finally saw the few "experts" invited. They were young, carrying a faint sense of arrogance, and their style was very sufficient.

Especially one of the young girls, that little look, that little chin, were almost raised to the sky.

It was just that when she saw Li Ye, she fell into a state of stagnation.

Cai Minying never expected to run into Li Ye in Japan.

In the first half of the year, Li Ye reminded Cai Minying that the Japanese stock market would have big fluctuations in the second half of the year, so Cai Minying wrote a letter to Group Leader Huang.

Later, the Japanese stock market indeed began to fluctuate. Cai Minying was entrusted with a critical task to come over to help manipulate the market, and within a week, she achieved the greatest result in the history of the national team, so this girl had been very arrogant recently.

It was just that facing Li Ye, she couldn't be arrogant at all.

"This is Group Leader Huang, this is Xiao Cai. Old Liu, don't look at them as young! They are all professional personnel who have returned from the Lighthouse.

This time, it just happened to be in Japan, otherwise they really wouldn't have time to come over to help you analyze the contract data. The financial market situation overseas recently is very complicated; they are really busy..."

Old Liu said with a smile: "I know, I know. Hall Chief Jiang has already told me. Let me introduce you... This is Li Ye, from the Beijing University Economics Department; this is Liu Muhan..."

"From the Beijing University Economics Department?"

Group Leader Huang looked at Li Ye and then smiled: "What a coincidence! This colleague of mine is also from the Beijing University Economics Department. I don't know if Comrade Li Ye knows her?"

Li Ye also smiled and said: "Consider it knowing. It's just that when I was admitted to Beijing University, she had already gone abroad to study. By the time she returned, I was almost graduating."

"Oh, then you are still Section Chief Cai's junior! Today, senior sister came over to help you all; you must treat her well."

"Must treat her well—full, drunk."

"Hahahaha~"

Group Leader Huang and the others were all laughing, but Cai Minying looked at Li Ye strangely: "Are we just considered knowing each other?"

Li Ye said helplessly: "Sorry, Senior Sister, we are very familiar, okay?"

Cai Minying stared at Li Ye for a while, then asked: "Since you are here, why call us over? Also, since you are here, how could you lose money?"

【I said I wasn't familiar with you, but you don't understand the tone, do you? How did you get to the section level with this EQ?】 ===== CHAPTER 831 =====

"Old Zhang! Today, Deputy Factory Director Li and I discussed the welfare housing allocation, and that house of yours is no longer guaranteed..."

"How is it not guaranteed? Based on my seniority and position, I should be allocated a two-bedroom, one-living-room apartment!"

"Hi, I would like to allocate it to you, but Deputy Factory Director Li wants to reopen the meeting for discussion; we'll talk about it then!"

"Even if we discuss it again, it should be allocated to me; either the third floor or the second floor, the fourth floor won't do..."

"Hey, Old Qi! I'm really sorry, that house we agreed on, it's not certain anymore..."

"What do you mean? Who is trying to make an enemy of me?"

"Hi, it's Deputy Factory Director Li's idea, but don't worry, when we have the meeting in a few days..."

Lai Jiayi was worthy of being a union cadre; she was very familiar with mass work and soon pulled together a group of "her own people."

Having spent decades in the unit, could she not know that such a major event as welfare housing allocation could not be decided by her, a union staff member, alone?

But she just made promises to a group of people first.

Once Li Ye rejected all these promises according to the rules and regulations, wouldn't there be conflicts of interest and allocation contradictions?

Since there were conflicts and contradictions, wouldn't there be opposing factions and opposing camps?

Since arriving at the First Branch Factory, Lai Jiayi had been unable to open up the situation; this welfare housing allocation was a rare opportunity!

【Hmph, I've eaten forty years of salt; am I not as good as a wet-behind-the-ears kid like you? You're still too green!】