Siheyuan: Starting from 1958

Lin Tao was about to go crazy. He pointed at the helpers who were adding wild vegetables to the noodles and yelled, "What are you doing?"

"Didn't you hear what I just said?"

"The remaining two cups of flour can be used to make steamed bread without adding any wild vegetables..."

"How dare you disobey orders in front of me? You really don't respect me as your team leader."

Just when Lin Tao thought that these kitchen helpers would be trembling with fear because of his scolding, a kitchen helper who was kneading a steamed bun suddenly stood up and said, "Team Leader..."

"They are a little hard of hearing. They probably didn't hear your order just now."

"Besides, these two-grain flours are originally intended to be used to make steamed bread with wild vegetables. It doesn't matter if we add some ingredients. As long as we can sell them and the workers like to eat them, that's fine..."

No matter how stupid Lin Tao was, he knew that these kitchen helpers were teaming up to deal with him.

I really want to get angry and teach them a lesson.

But this is Canteen No. 1, not Canteen No. 2, which he once had the final say over.

Wang Dong also serves as the canteen monitor. As long as he is in the canteen for one day, he will not be able to manage the canteen staff.

Otherwise, Wang Dong could cancel his decision with just one sentence.

Faced with this situation, there is no other way except to be angry in my heart.

…………

A workshop in a steel rolling mill.

As Director Yang's confidant and a technical backbone in the workshop, Yi Zhonghai also received orders to discredit wild vegetable steamed bread and prevent Wang Dong from promoting wild vegetable steamed bread in the steel rolling mill.

He had a grudge against Wang Dong. Yesterday afternoon, Wang Dong replaced him with a worker, leaving him with only the deputy director of the steel mill's kitchen.

I felt both angry and jealous.

But he and Wang Dong do not belong to the same system, and there is a Deputy Director Li standing behind Wang Dong.

Even though he was a senior fitter and technical backbone of the steel rolling mill, and even Director Yang had to greet him when he saw him, he still couldn't do anything to Wang Dong.

Disrupting Wang Dong's promotion of wild vegetable steamed bread at the steel rolling mill is undoubtedly the best way to strike him down.

This was the first task assigned to him by the steel mill. If he failed to complete it, it would prove that Wang Dong was not capable of being the deputy director of the kitchen.

Director Yang, who shared the same hatred for the enemy, could easily expose Wang Dong's true colors and remove him from his position as deputy director of the kitchen.

So even without Director Yang's order, Yi Zhonghai would try every means to sabotage Wang Dong's promotion of wild vegetable steamed bread at the steel rolling mill.

During the break, Yi Zhonghai suddenly asked, "Have you heard about it?"

"The factory leaders want us to eat wild vegetables in the future and save grain for our own cooking..."

"Zhu Zi is a level 10 chef in the kitchen. He told me last night that the wild vegetable steamed bread made in the factory is particularly unpalatable. Apart from filling your stomach, it has no other benefits..."

"The steel mill belongs to all of us workers. No matter what, we cannot allow them to withhold food for themselves and leave us workers to eat steamed buns with wild vegetables..."

"This is simply sucking the blood of our workers..."

Several fitters from Director Yang's camp agreed: "Old Yi is right..."

"Without hard-working workers like us, there would be no steel mill today. Why should we eat steamed bread made from wild vegetables while the leaders hide in the kitchen and eat steamed buns made from white flour?"

"We also want to eat steamed buns and steamed corn bread with two grains of flour. We don't want to eat steamed corn bread with wild vegetables added..."

Under the leadership of these senior fitters, most of the workers in the workshop were persuaded.

Everyone was filled with righteous indignation, thinking that the factory leaders were really like Yi Zhonghai said, saving the white flour and two-grain flour for themselves and letting them eat steamed buns made with wild vegetables.

At the same time, they secretly made up their minds that if the cafeteria really made wild vegetable steamed bread at noon today, they would definitely not eat it.

Of course, there were a few workers who did not speak out. Their conditions were the worst in the workshop, and in their eyes, as long as they could fill their stomachs and save money, eating wild vegetable steamed bread was no big deal.

…………

Time flies by.

The cafeteria, which was quiet just now, quickly became lively.

Thousands of workers swarmed to the food window, and soon there were more than ten queues several dozen meters long in the canteen.

"Comrade, please help me get a vegetarian dish and half a pound of steamed bread..."

One of the workers took out the receipt and payment for the lunch meal as usual.

The kitchen helper who served him the food did not take the steamed bread immediately after receiving the ticket. Instead, he introduced with a smile: "Comrade..."

"Today the kitchen added two kinds of wild vegetable steamed bread."

"One is 4.2 jin of flour and 1 jin of wild vegetables, and the other is 3.2 jin of flour and 1 jin of wild vegetables."

"If you buy the former wild vegetable steamed bread, you can get one more wild vegetable steamed bread with these money tickets."

"If you make a good wild vegetable steamed bun, you can get two more with this money."

"If you want to eat steamed bread made of two grains of flour without wild vegetables, you will need one less steamed bread with these banknotes than before."

This worker is from a workshop in a steel rolling mill.

Instigated by Yi Zhonghai, he believed that the purpose of the canteen making wild vegetable steamed bread was to withhold everyone's food rations.

After hearing the words "wild vegetable steamed bread", my first subconscious reaction was to refuse.

But before he could finish his words, he heard the canteen kitchen helper announce the price of the wild vegetable steamed bread.

Although he is a fitter, it doesn't mean that he doesn't count.

For the same price, the steamed bun without wild vegetables costs one less, while the steamed bun with wild vegetables costs one more. The difference between the two is the same as the difference between two steamed buns.

With this calculation, although the amount of flour in the wild vegetable steamed bread is less, the price is also lower.

And even with the addition of wild vegetables, the portion didn’t decrease.

It means that you can eat two more wild vegetable steamed buns for the same price.

Although a lot of wild vegetables were added, those vegetables were free and no money was spent.

His family was not very wealthy, and the few steamed buns made from half a pound of flour that he had at noon every day could at most keep him from going hungry, but was far from filling him up.

Now he can have two more steamed buns and no longer have to go hungry halfway through work like before. Of course, he chooses to ask for two more wild vegetable steamed buns.

Make a decision immediately: "I want wild vegetable steamed bread, the cheapest kind..."

Before, I could only buy five steamed breads for the same price, but today I got seven.

He looked at his fellow workers who were making steamed buns made of two-grain flour around him. There were only four steamed buns in their rice bowls, three less than he had.

A smile immediately flashed across his face, and he was happy about the wise decision he had just made.

In order to stop Wang Dong from promoting wild vegetable steamed bread in the steel rolling mill, Yi Zhonghai made a few steamed breads made of two grams of flour without hesitation.

Just when he thought that all his fellow workers in the workshop would eat steamed bread made of two grains of flour like him.

A shocking picture appeared.

Most of the workers around were actually eating steamed buns cooked with wild vegetables. Judging from the expressions on their faces, the steamed buns cooked with wild vegetables did not seem as bad as imagined. Some of the workers even looked like they were enjoying it.

Yi Zhonghai was confused and quickly asked the workers around him why. When he learned that wild vegetable steamed bread was cheaper than two-grain steamed bread, and that the kitchen staff and factory leaders had not withheld food from everyone, his face immediately turned red. (End of this chapter)