In 1978, I was admitted to Harbin Institute of Technology

Chapter 326 Relying on Bloodsucking, Hongguang Factory Upgrades Its Equipment; Factory Director Xie's Inflation Is Truly Outrageous.

"Factory Manager, there are four telegrams for you from Hong Kong!"

The mailroom received four telegrams from Hong Kong at the same time, which they took very seriously and delivered to Xie Jianguo's office immediately.

Only in the morning can we find Director Xie.

Especially now that the Lunar New Year is approaching.

"What the hell?"

Xie Jianguo was completely baffled. Seeing the message, he exclaimed, "Who the hell wants cured meat? Why would they specifically look for Xie Wei?"

After saying that, Xie Jianguo casually tossed the four letters into his desk drawer.

There are drinking parties at noon, and there are drinking parties in the evening.

However, Factory Director Xie declined his evening engagements today—Xie Wei and Xie Rou, the siblings, have returned, and Factory Director Xie wants to personally pick them up from the train station.

"Hey, my little one, you've grown so tall! Come on, let this old man have a good taste of you!"

At the exit, Xie Jianguo saw that Xie Rou, whom he hadn't seen for over a year, had grown much taller and changed a lot. She was wrapped in a bulky military overcoat. If Xie Wei, carrying a travel bag, hadn't been there, Xie Jianguo wouldn't have recognized her.

"Hey, get out of here! You reek of alcohol!"

Xie Rou didn't give her father a kind look at all and pushed him away directly.

Xie Jianguo wasn't angry when Xie Rou pushed him away; he knew his daughter's personality well.

"came back?"

Xie Jianguo looked at his son and suddenly noticed that Xie Wei looked much more haggard than before. He couldn't help but feel a pang of sadness. "What the hell did you go to university? You've gotten yourself into this state!"

"Dad! Let's go back first, I'm tired."

Xie Wei was truly exhausted.

On the train, he reflected on everything that had happened since he arrived in this era and realized that he had been frantically pursuing results while neglecting too many things.

It's a good time to take a good rest during this holiday.

“Your mom knew you were coming back today, so she killed two chickens yesterday and washed the cured meat… She got up early this morning to cook the cured meat and sausages, and started stewing the chickens at noon…”

"Dad, are you coming or not? If not, I'll take the bus home by myself."

Xie Rou urged them on from the side.

"Okay, okay, get in the car, we're leaving now!"

Although his daughter treated him badly, Xie Jianguo, the old father, was not unhappy about it.

The Xie family is still counting on their daughter to bring honor to the family.

"I'll drive. Don't drive after drinking in the future."

Xie Jianguo reeked of alcohol, which Xie Wei could smell from afar. He knew why Xie Jianguo was drinking, and even that Xie Jianguo's actions were at Xie Wei's behest. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been worried at all when his mother, Liu Mei, told him about it.

"it is good."

Xie Jianguo did not refuse.

Xie Wei got directly into the driver's seat of the Golden Deer, while Xie Rou curled up in the back seat and closed the door, clearly not wanting her father, who reeked of alcohol, to sit next to her.

Left with no other choice, Director Xie, who usually sits in the back seat, had to move to the front passenger seat.

After starting the car, Xie Wei silently drove towards home, passing many construction sites along the way.

After the reform and opening up, construction projects were launched all over the country.

Chengdu, as the political and cultural center of Southwest China, is also developing rapidly.

The car was completely silent; none of the three men spoke.

Xie Wei suddenly brought Xie Rou home. Xie Jianguo sensed something unusual from his exhaustion. Knowing that his son had always been opinionated, he didn't press Xie Wei for an answer.

The atmosphere inside the car became oppressive.

Even Xie Jianguo couldn't take it anymore.

It's not easy to ask about their work, as most of Xie Wei and Xie Rou's jobs involve classified information; there's no need to ask about their studies, as both children excel academically.

Thinking of the four telegrams he had received that morning, he couldn't help but ask Xie Wei:

"Do you have friends in Hong Kong? That bastard sent four telegrams in a row, asking you for cured meat..."

"What?"

Want some cured pork?
I know several people in Hong Kong, and I have someone specifically in contact with the people at Tak Shing. People there don't eat cured meat.

The remaining one is Wang Zheng...

Wang Zheng wants to eat cured meat?

"I sent a letter before, and your mom happened to be visiting you at the time, so I had her bring it to you. Didn't you see it?"

My mother sent me a telegram?
This has never been mentioned before.

Xie Wei immediately realized that it was a telegram sent by Wang Zheng. In order to avoid the international community discovering the relationship between Xingkong Investment and Harbin Institute of Technology, he had Wang Zheng send a telegram to Chengdu when he had something to do.

For urgent matters, there's no need to use Chengdu as a transit point.

He made an agreement with Wang Zheng, but forgot to tell Xie Jianguo.

"Where's the telegram?"

"In my office."

Xie Wei's home is in front of the Hongguang Factory, so he drove his car directly into the factory first.

After just over a year away, Xie Wei could hardly recognize the Hongguang Factory in front of him: the old iron gate had been replaced by a modern automatic retractable gate, and the old guard post had glass installed on three sides.

Inside the factory area, there are three new seven-story office buildings, all with one-way glass on the front.

On one side of the factory, in the area that was originally the final assembly workshop, a building with more than ten floors under construction is still not finished. Even though it is almost Chinese New Year, construction has not stopped.

The original Soviet-style brick and wood structure factory buildings have all been replaced by modern factory buildings with light steel structures.

It's a very impressive and modern factory.

"Our factory is considered quite impressive in the entire Xin'nan area..."

Seeing his son looking around the factory, Xie Jianguo said proudly, "This is all thanks to you..."

Xie Wei just smiled.

He felt incredibly bitter inside; no wonder even the bigwigs above had to step in.

Hongguang Factory invested a lot of money in building office buildings and factories, while the units whose technical personnel were transferred became contract manufacturers, and some couldn't even pay wages without orders from Hongguang Factory.

Some factories that had their technical staff transferred but did not receive production assignments from Hongguang Factory were doomed.

Xie Wei did not go upstairs.

Without a doubt, given Dad's personality, the interior decoration shouldn't be bad either.

Otherwise, the higher-ups wouldn't have sent him back specifically to deal with the problems at Hongguang Factory.

Everyone knows that Xie Jianguo's appointment as factory director was driven by Xie Wei.

How can I tell my dad?
The plan was proposed by Xie Wei. Although Xie Jianguo was only responsible for its execution, he did a lot of things himself. The factory's success today is not entirely due to Xie Wei's efforts alone.

People walk past the office building from time to time; they are mostly new faces.

Since Xie Wei didn't know him, Xie Wei didn't exchange many pleasantries with him.

Xie Wei went straight back to the car.

"Brother, when are we going home?"

Xie Rou didn't want to stay in the car and kept asking Xie Wei questions.

Xie Wei could only keep comforting her. Fortunately, Xie Jianguo soon came downstairs and handed Xie Wei four opened telegrams.

"Yes. This is it."

"To the post office!"

Xie Wei immediately understood why Wang Zheng was in such a hurry when he saw the contents of the telegram. What was this talk about distributing cured meat? What was this talk about wanting to eat cured meat? It all stemmed from Wang Zheng's reluctance to distribute profits to the Hong Kong employees of Starry Sky Investment, and his need for Xie Wei's opinion.

"Didn't the ministry say they'd send someone? Right, I guess the higher-ups are worried that the person they send will hinder Wang Zheng, or even oppose my plan..."

Xie Wei quickly understood the problem.

"The post office is almost closed by now!"

It was already getting dark. Xie Jianguo raised his wrist to check the time; it was almost 5:30.

"Even after get off work, you have to call back. Dad, you're the factory manager, surely you can't even handle something this simple?"

"You look down on your father!" Xie Jianguo said with some dissatisfaction.

It's no big deal to just have the post office close a little later. "If telegrams weren't so useless now, our factory's confidential office would have gotten a telegraph machine... Right now, we have an internal exchange system, and each department has an internal telephone installed. We also have separate telephone lines from the post office to connect with other branch factories. This makes communication much more convenient, and we don't have to send someone on a special trip like before."

"..."

Every time Xie Jianguo introduced what new additions the factory had made, Xie Wei's bitterness increased.

The old man only cared about the money in his unit. For the sake of convenience, he kept giving presentations on the modernization of Hongguang Factory, but forgot about how other units where technical backbones were transferred from Hongguang Factory were doing.

People are struggling to make ends meet, yet you're living a life of luxury every day. How can people not be envious?

Don’t worry about scarcity but inequality.

"There's plenty of cured meat; all my brothers and sisters received their share according to plan. If you want some cured meat, wait until next spring when someone goes south to work, and ask them to bring it to you."

"What kind of nonsense is this?"

Xie Jianguo was completely bewildered when he saw the contents of the telegram provided by Xie Wei.

Although the Xie family now has high salaries for both father and son and they don't lack money, they still can't waste it like this.

"Send it like this. This is for Wang Zheng."

Xie Wei offered an explanation.

We can no longer let Wang Zheng send telegrams directly to Chengdu; it's too much of a hindrance.

Xie Jianguo stepped in, and the postmaster of the post office in the eastern suburbs industrial zone, who was about to leave work, personally arranged for someone to send the telegram. The postmaster even warmly prepared to invite Xie Jianguo for drinks, but Xie Jianguo directly told him that his children had returned and he wanted to spend time with them.

“For more than a year, I’ve been at the dinner table almost every day, and your mother is very dissatisfied with me.”

Xie Jianguo explained after getting into the car.

"you deserve it!"

Xie Rou, who had remained silent all along, looked at him with disdain and said, "They've become incredibly arrogant just because they have a little power! They've forgotten the hardships they endured in the past."

"What are you saying, kid! How could I forget the hard times we had before? My thermal underwear is full of holes..."

Xie Jianguo was unhappy.

He doesn't care when others say he's arrogant.

But if he, as a father, doesn't have a good image in his daughter's eyes, how can he be a father?

Although Xie Jianguo has never had any fatherly authority in front of his daughter Xie Rou, he can't control his daughter who "wants to fly".

"Dad, please don't go out drinking anymore."

Xie Wei sighed.

He knew why Xie Jianguo wanted to go out drinking. Even if Xie Jianguo didn't want to, countless people would want to drag him down with them. It was still early days of reform and opening up, and Chengdu was not as developed as the coastal areas. Otherwise, under all sorts of sweet talk and temptations, Xie Jianguo might have been ruined—the kind of ruin he couldn't recover from.

Especially issues related to lifestyle.

Why believe that your cheap father didn't commit any moral transgressions?
If he really commits a crime, the higher-ups won't let Xie Wei come back.

Xie Wei even forbids accepting gifts.

However, Xie Wei didn't care about the various supplies the factory manager sent to his home or the drinking sessions.

He understood Xie Jianguo's personality; if this aspect was also restricted, then Xie Jianguo would want more than just this little bit.

An "honest man" who would injure himself to help his son return to the city and who would catch his factory manager cheating on him so his son could go to university, would be unable to stop once he started accepting expensive gifts and money.

The only valuable gift he received was the mink coat that the school "rewarded" Xie Wei with.

"Huh? You don't drink? You know why I drink..."

Xie Jianguo was stunned.

Now, drinking at the dinner table every day has almost become his job and life.

To get more support and better policies for the factory's development, you have to drink; to poach people from other companies, you have to drink; to deal with the many companies that want to cooperate with Hongguang Factory, you still have to drink...

"The situation has changed. Let's talk about it when we get back."

Xie Wei sighed silently.

"problem occurs?"

Xie Jianguo, who had been lounging lazily in his chair, suddenly sat up straight and looked at his son with a worried expression.

Seeing that Xie Wei remained silent, she became even more worried.

"No wonder they suddenly brought me back! And they even said they wanted me to go to the Institute of Mathematics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences... Turns out, Director Xie got too arrogant and dragged me into this mess!"

Xie Rou's sarcastic remarks immediately made Xie Jianguo anxious.

Forgetting to explain to her daughter, she anxiously asked Xie Wei, "Was it really my fault? I'll resign right now... Anyway, the school doesn't need Hongguang Factory's funding... I've never been a comfortable factory manager!"

Director Xie's words were against his conscience.

He's having a very comfortable time as the factory manager.

I can't let it affect my son's future.

He had already retired, and now he's being rehired, which basically means he's hit his ceiling and there's no possibility of him being promoted to a higher level.

Moreover, his position as factory director was originally obtained through his son's help, and his current position is inextricably linked to Xie Wei.

My son is different.

Even as students, they have a strong voice in school. Once they are assigned jobs, they can leverage the network of contacts they've built up at school to infinitely raise their career ceiling.

"Don't listen to your second sister's nonsense, it's nothing serious, we'll talk about it when we get back."

While saying Xie Rou was talking nonsense, Xie Wei wished he could give Xie Rou a thumbs up.

He didn't mention this at all along the way, but Xie Rou was able to guess half of the reason.

Let Dad worry for a bit first, then it will be much easier to persuade him to give up on the disorderly expansion of Hongguang Factory by poaching people.

"Really?"

Xie Jianguo simply didn't believe it.

However, Xie Wei was focused on driving and even slowed down, which made Director Xie very anxious, but he didn't dare to say anything more.

It was completely dark outside, and the car lights were off. Xie Jianguo could only vaguely make out Xie Wei's expression through the light from the headlights—it was very serious.

I was filled with even more fear.

The car was parked outside the yard.

To Xie Wei's surprise, whether it was the factory or his father who paid for it, the dirt road from the highway to their home, which was originally impassable, was widened and even paved with cinders so that the car wouldn't slip on the muddy road even when it rained.

A flat area outside the yard had been cleared, big enough to park at least five or six cars, and it was also covered with cinders.

"You're back? I'll go get the dishes right away."

Liu Mei, wearing an apron, had already come out to greet them. Although she had just been to Harbin not long ago, she was still so excited to see her child home that tears streamed down her face.

It's getting late, and the chicken in the pot is almost overcooked.

"What's wrong, Director Xie? This food isn't to your liking? If you don't want to come home and eat what I cook, then go eat somewhere else. Don't come back with such a sullen face!"

As soon as she sat down at the table, seeing Xie Jianguo's gloomy face, Liu Mei, who had long been dissatisfied with Xie Jianguo, instantly erupted.

She believed that Xie Jianguo was unhappy that she hadn't attended the social gatherings at the banquet.

Xie Jianguo did not argue as he usually did, but instead looked at Xie Wei.

Xie Wei sighed and picked up a chicken leg from his bowl. "Didn't you always say that the chickens Mom raises taste the best? Hurry up and eat!"

"Mom, that's not what Dad meant. Dad, let's talk while we eat."

If I don't say anything, I won't be able to enjoy this meal.

Once I explain it clearly, my parents won't worry anymore.

"Actually, Hongguang Factory was influenced by the university in this matter. The university has been poaching too many core personnel from major research institutes and universities in the past two years, and the higher-ups are not happy about it..."

"what?"

Xie Jianguo was stunned. "Development requires a large number of talents. If we cultivate our own talents, we simply can't keep up with the pace of development. What can we do if we don't poach people? Aren't they all state-owned enterprises?"

This was something he simply couldn't understand.

"Something happened at the school?"

Liu Mei also began to worry.

(End of this chapter)