[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-that-year-the-flowers-bloomed-in-1981":3,"chapter-that-year-the-flowers-bloomed-in-1981-that-year-the-flowers-bloomed-in-1981-chapter-876":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","That Year, the Flowers Bloomed in 1981",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2295294,4489,"Chapter 876","that-year-the-flowers-bloomed-in-1981-chapter-876",876,"\u003Cp>March 3, 1988, the sixteenth day of the first lunar month.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When workers from the Light Vehicle Company returned to work after the Lantern Festival, they suddenly found a notice posted on the bulletin board, and thousands erupted in chaos.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Factory No. 1 had finally received another batch of personnel transfers from the headquarters, adjusting eight hundred workers over at once to bolster the production line currently being reconfigured and installed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I’m on the list, my name’s on the list, hahaha, I’ll be reporting to Factory No. 1 next week!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What the hell, why did you get picked? Be honest—who did you bribe?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Those selected for transfer to Factory No. 1 endured the envy and resentment of their colleagues, while those left behind inevitably grew irritable.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Eight hundred? Why only eight hundred? They’re already producing just one model, the 130, with over three thousand workers, and they’ve brought in two advanced tech projects—how could they possibly need fewer than five or six thousand?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Could it be like last year again—hiring some outsiders and adding more children of factory workers?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“That still doesn’t add up! Three times eleven is thirty-three, we should be transferring at least two thousand from here! Why only eight hundred?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I think something’s off—if they’re hiring children of factory workers, why haven’t we heard a whisper? Could this be ‘rich water flowing into someone else’s field’?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Let’s go ask Personnel Section together—everyone goes. The law can’t punish us all; they owe us an explanation.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I’ve devoted twenty-eight years to this unit. They kept saying better days were coming—now better days are right here, and why should I hand them over to outsiders?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The chief factory manager stood in his office, watching the crowd surge toward the bulletin board, then flood toward the administration building, and he couldn’t put a name to the feeling inside him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If this “digging at one’s own foundation” had happened in another unit, it would have sparked outrage from righteous veteran workers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But judging by the current scene, it was obvious how much these workers, left behind and not transferred to Factory No. 1, despised and loathed the headquarters.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>【Let some people get rich first? Hahaha~ Let you get rich first, then make you spend a hundred or so to buy people’s loyalty? What a joke—a colossal joke!】\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The chief factory manager couldn’t help laughing out loud.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Factory No. 1 had gotten rich first, but it refused to help the headquarters that gave it birth and raised it, refused to help the headquarters most in need of blood transfusion—only willing to take workers over and squeeze out their sweat and blood.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet the chief factory manager never asked himself: if he had gotten rich first, would he have given those workers, who sweated buckets for every penny, an extra one or two hundred yuan in wages—or did he only resent Li Ye and Lu Zhizhang as ungrateful traitors for not obeying his orders faithfully?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On New Year’s Eve, the chief factory manager humbled himself to speak with Lu Zhizhang and Li Ye, and they agreed to jointly develop the 1041’s potential.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After the Spring Festival, Factory No. 1 accepted the chief factory manager’s proposal, agreeing to allocate technical resources to help reconfigure the 1041 production line at headquarters—but they also made one small request: to borrow two thousand veteran workers from headquarters to assist with installing and operating the new production line.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>How could the chief factory manager agree to such a demand?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Factory No. 1’s average wage was already over two hundred, heading toward three hundred; headquarters barely scraped by at a hundred or so. If they lent workers over, wouldn’t it be like throwing meat buns to a dog—never to be seen again?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So the chief factory manager turned the tables, giving Li Ye only an eight-hundred-person quota, and letting Li Ye and Lu Zhizhang pick names outright.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because he knew well: Li Ye and Lu Zhizhang favored hardworking, earnest workers, and despised slick, cunning ones.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Earnest workers could indeed get the job done—but they could do nothing else; it was the slick, cunning ones who caused trouble, who set traps and sabotaged everything.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The chief factory manager stepped away from the window, locked his office door from the inside, sat back down at his desk, and picked up the phone to dial.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The workers would surely storm Personnel Section—when they called him later, he’d be on the line.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Hello, Old Cao! The New Year’s over, right? Hahaha, how are your dad and mom? No no no, I’m not rushing to ask about work transfers—this kind of thing, even if I wanted to rush, I couldn’t.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Come on, Old Cao, you know me better than anyone—don’t care if it’s a useless post, as long as I can be filial to my parents, even a demotion isn’t out of the question.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The chief factory manager chatted with his friend on the phone for a long time, only hanging up after the noise in the administration building had finally died down.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even a cunning rabbit has three burrows—how could a man hang himself on a single tree?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He had already prepared two options: either win, or leave.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Those not assigned to Factory No. 1 learned the news from headquarters’ Personnel Section: the eight hundred had been personally selected by Factory No. 1, and Factory No. 1 had recruited at least three to four thousand unemployed youths from society.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This instantly shifted the blame—those workers denied the high-paying jobs now swarmed en masse toward Factory No. 1.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Manager Lu, why wasn’t I selected when Factory No. 1 took workers from headquarters? We’ve known each other for over a decade—count on your fingers: among all four riveting and welding workshops, who has more seniority than me, Qing Er?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Qing Er, I know you’re a veteran, but your rank is too high—you’re a deputy director on worker status. We don’t have that many cadre positions here.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Wait, how come you don’t have cadre positions? Just give me the title of deputy director—it’s done! I’m not trying to seize power from the chief director.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Master Qing, Factory No. 1 is a pilot unit for management reform designated by the ministry—each workshop has only two section-level cadre posts. Your situation simply can’t be accommodated.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Qing Er was stunned. In the past, every good opportunity always went to people like him—how had his status become a burden, worse than the slow-witted workers now getting priority?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But just as Qing Er, relying on his seniority and backed by a crowd of workers, was about to argue with Lu Zhizhang, Lu Zhizhang handed him a list.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Master Qing, you know what Factory No. 1 was like when it was first established—the headquarters approved nearly a thousand, but only three hundred showed up; the rest abandoned it themselves.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“But look now—Factory No. 1 is about to reach seven or eight thousand workers. So look ahead—there will be plenty of opportunities in the future!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Qing Er carefully studied Lu Zhizhang’s list—and his temper vanished.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Was Lu Zhizhang telling him there’d be more opportunities later? No—he was threatening Qing Er.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Back then, Guan Liang headed the management reform team and set Factory No. 1’s target at a thousand workers. Later, Lu Zhizhang and Li Ye “usurped the throne,” and many of those thousand refused to come.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Since then, those people—and their children—had all been blacklisted by Factory No. 1.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So if Qing Er now led these temporarily unassigned workers in protest, wouldn’t he be blacklisted too?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Factory No. 1 had grown from three hundred to several thousand in just one year—so absorbing the entire headquarters wouldn’t be hard at all!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Power favors the strong—he couldn’t keep fighting Lu Zhizhang.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If he slammed his fist on the table at headquarters, could they fire him? No, they couldn’t.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But if he angered Lu Zhizhang—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No, he had to back down, had to flatter.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Manager Lu, I’ve taken your words to heart. Next time there’s an opening, please notify me—I’m ready to compete for the position!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Compete for the position” was a phrase newly circulating from Factory No. 1.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was said that shortly after spring, Huang Qi from Assembly Workshop Four at headquarters had come over and taken a written test against all of Factory No. 1’s assembly workers—and was promoted on the spot to team leader.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>【All these years I’ve groveled and kowtowed—and now I have to rely on my skills after all?】\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Workers like Qing Er, skilled cadre members, were still lucky—but others were the exact opposite.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>【If Factory No. 1 swallows up headquarters, what’s left for me? Others compete for positions and become workers on cadre status—am I going to become a cadre on worker status?】\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So not long after the eight hundred were reassigned, Wen Qingsheng personally sought out Li Ye.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Li Ye, the ministry is sending someone to talk to you today—be prepared!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Ye was puzzled—he didn’t embezzle, didn’t corrupt, didn’t mess around with anyone romantically—why did everyone keep thinking he was a bad person?\u003C\u002Fp>",1510,"2026-06-20T05:05:02.628Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","fc0a32d6d19bdc5d484629e3d1b917b8f5fe34f70c0123dd9338f99094d1d9aa","that-year-the-flowers-bloomed-in-1981-chapter-877","that-year-the-flowers-bloomed-in-1981-chapter-875",884,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthat-year-the-flowers-bloomed-in-1981-cover.jpg"]