The door of the courtyard house has been welded dead

at night.

The Liu family's house was brightly lit, with lights even illuminating the courtyard in front of the door.

The drivers and escorts from the Red Star Factory received a warm welcome; they even had a chicken slaughtered and a five-pound carp brought to them.

The aroma of tender bamboo shoots and mushrooms stir-fried in the mountains masked the smell of pig manure.

Although rural areas may not have a wide variety of industrial products, they are superior to cities in other aspects.

Pig farming and composting boosted grain production in the surrounding brigades and saved them money on fertilizer.

Before the pig farm achieved economies of scale, the production brigade had to go to the county to buy manure collected by the sanitation team every year at the appropriate time.

A truckload of manure costs at least five or six yuan, and a brigade needs to purchase dozens of truckloads a year to meet its annual needs. With pig manure, this expense has been saved.

In addition, there are hybrid piglets bred with white pigs, which have strong disease resistance, grow quickly, have high fat content, and the mortality rate of piglets has been decreasing year by year, forming a virtuous cycle.

Of course, all of this was made possible by the county's policy support, the leadership of the cadres, the support of the livestock station, and finally the collective labor of the members of Daguan Commune, which led to the creation of a pig-raising demonstration base.

The children, holding bowls and chopsticks, wandered around the dining table, their eyes fixed on the sumptuous dishes and the opened bottles of lemon and orange soda.

When adults entertain guests, children are not allowed to sit at the table. However, compared to other children outside the yard, at least they can clean up the leftovers after the banquet.

The other children could only watch longingly from outside the yard. When the adults called them home, they would grab the back of their open-crotch pants and slap their bottoms twice.

"They're having a feast, what are you looking at? Go home!"

Although the land has now been divided among individual households, the old rules should still be remembered by the children.

When it's mealtime, you shouldn't go to other people's houses, no matter how good their food is. If they didn't invite you, don't shamelessly try to freeload.

"You really won't drink?"

"No, no, old man, we don't drink alcohol in this line of work these days. The factory is strict about it. Soft drinks are fine, they're ice-cold from the well, they'll make you feel good!"

Don't you have any common sense? This is ridiculous!
The visitors were from Secretary Li's maternal grandparents' home. The driver and the escort shook their heads vigorously when they saw the liquor being served.

This is a relative who can contact people in Beijing. If this gets back to Secretary Li's ears, good heavens, does he still want to live a peaceful life? Even if he wants to drink, he'll have to choose the right time.

Today's dishes were plentiful, enough to fill our stomachs where we were lacking in oil and fat. After driving long distances these past few days, the drivers and guards have been saving up all the national food coupons.

If they can save this stuff, it's theirs.

"The same goes for soda. Driving is still quite dangerous. It's a good thing not to drink alcohol. Last year, Old Zhang went to deliver grain to the public office. He drove his car into a ditch just because he had a little alcohol at noon."

"Haha, comrades, don't be so polite. You've come all the way here. If it weren't for those two piglets your factory sent twenty years ago, we wouldn't have this model pig-raising village today."

The village secretary chuckled and sat down beside him, trying to lighten the mood at the dinner table. He gestured for Li Feng's uncle to put the wine away, speaking very politely. You couldn't be impolite, the Liu family's background was quite different.

The village party secretary has now been replaced. Kuai's second son has taken over the position. The former party secretary had retired due to old age.

"Why didn't my grandson, Xiaofeng, come back with you?"

Li Feng's maternal grandmother has passed away, but his maternal grandfather is still alive. However, twenty years have passed, and he has aged considerably and become confused. He was not originally scheduled to be seated at the table, but he still stumbled out of the house, reaching out his hand to ask his beloved grandson.

Liu Lei's son, Liu Xiche, quickly left his seat and helped his grandfather inside. The old man was confused, but he kept thinking about his good grandson who was far away in Beijing.

The driver kicked the security guard who was engrossed in eating under the table. After realizing what was happening, the young man who was holding the truck got up from the table and leaned close to the old man's ear, speaking loudly.

"No, Secretary Li hasn't come back yet. Don't worry, sir. He'll definitely come back to see you when he has time!"

"Hey, my grandson is great. He's been smart since he was little, and now he's a factory manager. He's in Beijing, and I know he's busy. When you go back, tell him not to worry about things at home, that we're doing well now!"

The old man spoke somewhat incoherently, but his voice was still quite loud. He patted the guard's hand and solemnly gave him instructions.

"Oh, old man, you've raised a wonderful grandson! Not only are you living a good life now, but our factory is also doing very well. The workers all say he's a great factory manager!"

Whether the escort was speaking to Li Feng's maternal grandfather or to the people at the Liu family's table, the escort flattered Secretary Li of his own factory, hoping that these words would reach Secretary Li's ears and that he would be promoted to a permanent position as soon as possible.

"That's only right. As a cadre, you have to be good to the workers and the people. You have to serve everyone. What's the point of supporting them if you can't? Our family never does anything crooked!" "He's the factory director, but his eldest uncle is still farming. His younger uncle and his cousin, although they've moved to the city, they still make a living by pulling carts. They didn't use connections. Anyone who tried to use connections, I chased them away..."

The old man pulled the pipe from behind his belt, waved it in his hand, and looked like a child.

The escort and the driver at the dinner table exchanged a glance. In any case, Secretary Li had never allowed his own people to enter the factory through the back door.

Those who got into the factory through Secretary Li's connections were either disabled veterans like Li Xuewu, or hardworking individuals like Director Ran, whom everyone in the factory respected.

"Oh dear, hurry up and take the old man inside. He's getting old and confused. It's alright, everyone keep eating, don't worry about him!"

Li Feng's aunt brought out a large bowl of preserved mustard greens from the kitchen and placed it on the table. After wiping her apron, she looked somewhat embarrassed, perhaps because she had been hit by the opium pipe back then.

“Our Secretary Li has been in the factory for over twenty years. I was also in the transportation department back then, but I was on the third shift, not the second. I watched him rise step by step.”

"From the drivers in our transportation department, to the head of the safety section, to the deputy head of the transportation department, then from the head of the department to the deputy director of the logistics department, the deputy factory director, and finally to the top boss of the factory!"

"The old man is senile, but he's not confused. More than 20 years have passed, and you could say he's the person who has made the biggest changes and contributions to our factory. He's done real work; otherwise, we would have been like other factories, unable to even pay wages!"

"Secretary Li is a good leader and a good cadre. He devoted himself wholeheartedly to the factory. I, Su Shiliang, can say this: without him, there would be no Hongxing Factory as we know it today!"

The driver picked up the large tea mug on the table, took a big gulp of ice-cold soda, wiped his mouth, and then glanced at everyone at the table. As a long-time employee of the transportation department, he had witnessed all the changes in the factory over the past twenty years.

"Oh, what are you saying? Eat your vegetables, eat your vegetables. We country folk don't know any grand principles, but he's doing well at the factory, which makes us relatives proud!"

The younger aunt (Liu Qiang's wife), who hadn't yet sat down at the table, had her son refill the large tea mug in front of the driver with chilled soda. She was content, anyway. Liu Qiang had bought a three-wheeled motorcycle, and now that the family had a vehicle, he could choose any daughter-in-law from the surrounding villages.

Now two more mules have come back. Wow, this is life now! I never dared to dream of it before. Content people are the happiest.

"You're probably not that old now. The factory's doing well, so you should be able to get a promotion, right?"

Secretary Kuai isn't concerned with anything else. For an official, reputation and such are all superficial. Position is the platform for demonstrating personal abilities, and youth means there are still more possibilities.

"She's over forty, but among cadres of that level, she should still be considered young!"

"It's quite difficult to get promoted further. Our factory is a military factory at the division level, which is already a large unit. Secretary Li is the top leader, which is roughly equivalent to a division commander in the army. If we go any higher, we'll be generals!"

"To be honest, the factory workers don't want Secretary Li to be promoted. He's the one who brought our factory to where it is today. The workers trust him and are willing to work for him. If he's promoted, the factory will suffer a huge loss."

The driver and the village party secretary clinked glasses, and from the perspective of grassroots workers, the driver assessed whether their secretary still had the potential for further promotion. It seemed so, but the workers were reluctant to let him go.

The best scenario would be to work in the factory for another ten years or so, until retirement, which would also align with the aspirations of grassroots workers.

"Gudong~!"

The village party secretary took a sip of wine to calm his nerves. He never expected that a big shot would actually emerge from the village he was in charge of. At over forty years old, he was a full-fledged division commander, which was no different from a full-fledged department head.

If the driver next to him wasn't exaggerating, the Liu family really might produce a golden phoenix.

"No matter how high his official rank is, he is still my nephew. If he does a good job, I will have face."

“Secretary Kuai, regarding the pigs, there’s a loan that has to be repaid. The proof that they entrusted us with raising them is still with me. Back then, the brigade and commune knew about it. It was a written agreement between my brother and the factory. We raised them, and each family got half. We’ve been raising them for so many years, and they’ve never come back for them. Now that the pigs are breeding, they should take half of them—ten pigs. It’s only right.”

"As for the purchasing station, my family won't have as many pigs ready for market this year. If they insist on making me pay, I'll just have to call my nephew!"

Li Feng's uncle picked up his teacup and clinked glasses with the village secretary. The factory paid for the pigs, which was much more profitable than selling them to the purchasing station. The purchasing station charged seventy jin per pig, and these ten pigs definitely had to be excluded from that calculation.

"The commune knew about this back then. As for foster care, I'll put in a good word for it later. Don't bother with the purchasing station."

Regardless, the face of a division-level factory director must be given, especially since the other party had taken advantage of a loophole in the past and signed the contract by having the factory foster him.

After the piglets were distributed, everyone in the brigade started to say that the pigs were raised for a state-owned enterprise. Later, the piglets were transferred from the brigade to the commune, and remained so for ten years.

It wasn't until pig farming was liberalized and received support from the county that the number of pigs in Daguan Commune experienced explosive growth.

"When you go back, please thank your factory manager for the village. Without his two pigs, there wouldn't be the Daguan Pig Farm we have today. We welcome him back. Please come back sometime and give us some guidance on our work back home." (End of Chapter)