area51novel Chapter 247 Income Submission
Chapter 247 Income Submission
After hanging up the phone, Xu Damao walked around the office excitedly. He seemed to have seen Sha Zhu kneeling down to beg for mercy, and the cooks handing over their scarves and watches with sad faces... and he saw himself finally standing proudly at the highest point of the courtyard.
The next day, the steel mill’s loudspeaker suddenly announced a new regulation: “From today on, all income from out-of-town services must be turned in in full, and individual commissions must not exceed 5%…”
The cafeteria was in an uproar. Ma Hua ripped off his scarf and threw it on the chopping board: "What the hell is this!" The other cooks also smashed pots and bowls. Several head chefs of the cafeteria went to Sha Zhu's office to discuss countermeasures.
Sha Zhu listened to everyone's complaints but was surprisingly calm. He just silently wrote down his cooking experiences and ideas in a notebook. Everyone gradually quieted down after seeing Sha Zhu's appearance.
"Master! Please say something!" It was the young Ma Hua who spoke anxiously.
Sha Zhuju took up his notebook and said to everyone, "Why are you in such a hurry? The new rules don't say that we can't volunteer." He winked meaningfully, "Starting tomorrow, we'll change the name to 'Workers, Peasants and Soldiers Volunteer Kitchen Help Team'."
A week later, Xu Damao was stunned to see the new report: the service times were zero, but letters of thanks from the military region and various units kept pouring in. Even more infuriating was that the cooks suddenly wore new leather shoes, and Ma Hua even had a Shanghai watch on his wrist.
"They are taking bribes in disguised form!" Xu Damao roared in the office.
Li Huaide slapped a letter in front of him and said, "Look, this is a letter of praise from the military region's logistics department. Do you want to check the military region's accounts?" Li Huaide folded the letter again and said, "But he got the praise and benefit, but we are disappointed. This is embarrassing for me."
Xu Damao's eyes lit up after hearing this. That night, he squatted under the locust tree outside the courtyard gate and watched Sha Zhu come back drunk with half a pack of Daqianmen cigarettes sticking out of his pocket - those cigarettes were hard to buy even with coupons.
"He Yuzhu!" Xu Damao finally couldn't help but jump out, "Don't be so proud! I know you and Yang..."
Sha Zhu suddenly took a step forward, and the smell of alcohol mixed with his murderous gaze frightened Xu Damao so much that he took three steps back, tripped on the stone steps and fell on his back.
"Xu Damao," Sha Zhu patted the "Advanced Worker" badge on his chest, "Do you know why the cook always gets to eat meat?" He leaned over and whispered, "Because the cook knows that the pot lid cannot be lifted when the fire is not hot enough."
Xu Damao, who was despised by Sha Zhu, said angrily: "Sha Zhu, maybe the heat has come, or should we force it to eat?"
It turned out that before in Li Huaide's office, Li Huaide clearly expressed his dissatisfaction with Sha Zhu.
Under the office light, Li Huaide tapped the letter of praise on the table, his face becoming increasingly gloomy.
"Da Mao," he said in a voice so soft that it seemed as if he was talking to himself, "Don't you think these cooks are too ungrateful?"
Xu Damao immediately leaned forward and said, "Director Li, they are openly defying the instructions of their superiors!"
Li Huaide suddenly slapped the table, and the sound of "pa" scared Xu Damao so much that he shuddered. "Notify everyone. Starting tomorrow, all canteen staff will gather in the canteen to study after finishing their meals and on their days off! Collectively recite "Quotations from Chairman Mao", improve their ideological understanding, and better serve the employees!"
The next afternoon, more than 30 cooks were gathered in a canteen, and each was given a copy of the Little Red Book and a thick stack of manuscript paper. Xu Damao specially transferred two people from the Propaganda Department to supervise and guide them, and he himself moved a chair and sat aside to monitor.
"Comrades!" Xu Damao knocked on the blackboard eraser. "From today on, we will arm your minds with Mao Zedong Thought!"
Ma Hua muttered quietly: "The hand that I used to hold a kitchen knife should now hold a pen..."
"Ma Hua!" Xu Damao shouted, "Copy the paragraph 'Serve the People' twenty times! Comrades, we are asking you to recite the Quotations from the Past for the good of everyone, to improve your spiritual civilization, so that you can better follow Chairman Mao and the Party in building our new China."
Silly Zhu sat in the last row, watching several masters clumsily holding fountain pens with their thick fingers, ink staining their fingertips, staring at the densely packed words in the red book, their brows furrowed into knots. Master Zhang next to him had already started snoring, and was woken up by Xu Damao hitting him with a piece of chalk.
At night, when they got off work, the cooks gathered in the toilet to smoke. Ma Hua rubbed his sore wrists and said, "Master, it's obvious that they are trying to punish us!"
Sha Zhu blew out a smoke ring and suddenly laughed: "Why rush? Let them be proud for two days first."
The chefs are busy learning. Without work outside, they can no longer provide the steel mill workers with a free meal once a week. The workers have been enjoying free meals for more than four years, and now they are suddenly gone. How can everyone not object?
The sudden cancellation of the free meals in the steel mill canteen every Friday was like pouring a bucket of cold water into a boiling oil pan, and the entire factory was in an uproar.
The workers were crowded in front of the window with their lunch boxes. When they heard that the free meals with meat were gone, Master Wang from the forging workshop got angry. “Isn’t it available every week? Isn’t this a benefit of our factory? How can it be gone just like that? Are you bullying the workers?”
Someone corrected Master Wang, "Master Wang, you are wrong. Free meals are not a factory benefit. They are earned by Director He and the chefs working for other companies, and then they give them to everyone. This is a benefit given to us by our canteen. You are an old man too, how could you forget it?"
"It's my fault. I've been eating for so long that I forgot about it. I always thought it was a welfare provided by the factory. I forgot about our well digger, Director He, and the chefs in the cafeteria. Thank you. But how come it's gone? Liu Lan, Team Leader Liu, tell me what happened?"
Before Liu Lan could speak, someone else answered Master Wang's question.
"That's right! We used to have braised pork every week!"
"I heard that the cooks were locked up and made to recite the Quotations..."
"Damn Xu Damao! He must be the one behind this again!"
Dissatisfaction spread like wildfire. During the afternoon shift, the machines in several workshops stopped - workers squatted in groups of three or four in the corners, shouting that they "didn't have the energy to work."
Xu Damao hid in his office and dared not show his face, but the scolding outside the window kept floating in:
"Xu Damao, that bastard, is living a life of luxury while leaving us starving!"
"I heard that he was entertaining guests at Hongbinlou the day before yesterday!"
"Pah! What the hell!"
Li Huaide's situation was even worse. As soon as he entered the workshop, he was surrounded by a group of female workers:
"Director Li, my child is growing!"
"My man does heavy physical work!"
"Yes! We are all counting on that free meat and vegetables to satisfy our hunger!"
"You are in a high position and don't care, but we ordinary people look forward to it every week."
Master Zhang, an old fitter, blocked the road and said, "Director Li, we workers are reasonable. We support you in studying, but we can't let you guys go hungry while doing revolution!"