The Fiery Era: Becoming an Industrial Giant

Chapter 55 A Petty Complaint [Seeking Monthly Tickets]

"Where's the meat? You said it was radish stew with meat, but it's all radish, and you've cooked all the meat away?"

"What are you yelling about? Isn't this meat? Didn't you have meat in your lunchbox?!"

"This counts as meat? It's not even as big as my fingernail. The meat factory has regulations on how much meat is in a serving of meat. Count how much meat is in my lunchbox!"

"I can't count them. Eat if you want, or leave if you don't!"

"What did you say? You think it's right to take our flesh?!"

On the first day of work, I was in a good mood. As is customary, the canteen would prepare two meat dishes on the first day. The workers had worked hard all morning and were counting on this lunch on the first day of work.

When I got my lunch at noon, all I could see in the lunchbox was radish; my eyesight wasn't good enough to spot the tiny bits of minced meat.

No wonder he got angry!
There was some meat in Zhou Zhiqiang's lunchbox, which might also be due to his clothing.

Workers in blue overalls, cadres in Zhongshan suits, and those in the logistics canteen—these people have sharp eyes and can tell the difference between good and bad.

Zhou Zhiqiang now wears either a Lenin suit or a Zhongshan suit, and the people at the canteen window can tell at a glance that he and Section Chief Lü are cadres.

So the meat and vegetable portions are generous, half radish and half meat.

Others didn't receive the same treatment, presumably because they were skimped on.

Many people who had already sat down to eat got up and went over to help when they saw the argument taking place at the cafeteria window.

"Let's go check it out. There are too many people gathered here. We don't want things to get out of control."

As things got increasingly out of control, Section Chief Lü noticed that the argument was one thing, but some of the workers, unable to contain their anger, started smashing the canteen windows with their lunchboxes and were about to rush into the canteen to drag the person serving the food out and beat them up.

At that time, most cadres were truly willing to step up when something happened; they didn't care whether it was within their job responsibilities or not, they would step up whenever something happened, especially Section Chief Lü, who was a former military officer.

Zhou Zhiqiang quickly grabbed Section Chief Lü and gestured in another direction, saying, "Section Chief, don't worry, the logistics director is already here."

When Section Chief Lü turned around, he saw that Li Zhaotian from the logistics department had come over, along with the canteen director.

Seeing that the two had arrived, he didn't step forward to interfere, since this was, after all, the logistics canteen.

When Li Zhaotian, the logistics director, arrived, he quickly shouted a few words to attract the attention of the people arguing and cursing at each other, and then immediately asked what had happened.

After he found out what had happened from the workers' various opinions, he immediately turned around and called out the canteen staff, and then scolded them all, including the canteen manager.

They were ordered to immediately replenish the missing meat for the workers, and were assured that this incident would never happen again and that they would strictly adhere to the canteen's regulations when serving food to everyone in the future.

These measures effectively quelled much of the workers' anger, allowing the cafeteria to quickly return to normal order.

After seeing that the workers had been calmed down, Section Chief Lü stopped worrying about them. He was just about to turn back to continue eating when he turned around and found that Zhou Zhiqiang had already finished eating, but he had left all the half-cooked radishes behind.

"Zhiqiang, with all that chaos just now, how could you still eat in peace?"

Zhou Zhiqiang said with a smile, "Since Director Li is here, he definitely won't let the workers cause trouble in the canteen. I might as well finish my meal early, even though today's food is terrible."

Section Chief Lü frowned and said, "That's true. What kind of food is this?"

“I told Professor Zhang that when his students come to help at our factory, we will apply for two meal tickets for each of them every day.”

If the cafeteria food is always like this, I'd be embarrassed to apply for their food. Section Chief, why don't you just give me some food coupons and money so I can take them out to eat?

"The food in the canteen isn't even cooked properly, what's the point of eating? In the countryside, only pig feed is half-cooked."

Pigs aren't picky, so it's okay to fudge them a little, but it's going too far for the cafeteria to treat them like this.

After hearing this, Section Chief Lü also thought of what Zhou Zhiqiang had said at the meeting: he would ask the Industrial University for a few graduating college students to help. If those people came and ate this kind of food in the cafeteria, Dafeng Machinery Factory would lose all face.

"Wait a minute, I'll go talk to Lao Li."

Section Chief Lü has lost his appetite; the food isn't very tasty and is hard to swallow.

He took the lunchbox and walked directly toward Director Li of the logistics department.

"Old Li, Director Li, wait a moment."

Section Chief Lü approached Li Zhaotian with a lunchbox and said rather rudely, "Your logistics canteen is really not polite. You're feeding us this on the first day. Is it because the factory director and secretary haven't been here lately that the canteen is not doing a good job?"
"Our technical department is going to invite students from the industrial university to help us next week. If the cafeteria serves this kind of food, I'm going to complain to the factory manager."

As the head of the technical department, he was at the same level as the director of logistics, and he also took on production guidance, making his position in the factory much more important than that of the logistics department.

Production is the top priority now, and logistics departments are secondary, serving production.

As for the canteen director, he was just a section chief, a little higher than an ordinary clerk, and strictly speaking, he wasn't even a cadre, let alone a higher-ranking official than Zhou Zhiqiang.

"My dear Section Chief Lü, please don't make a fuss. I will definitely fix the problems in the cafeteria, so don't worry."

Logistics Director Li quickly apologized, saying that fortunately the factory director and secretary arrived late today and did not witness this scene.

Otherwise, he would have received a lot of criticism today.

However, this matter will definitely reach the factory director's ears, and he needs to remedy the situation as soon as possible to avoid being scolded.

"Tomorrow, Section Chief Lü, when you come to get your food, the cafeteria will definitely be different. If it's not good, then you can come and scold me."

After hearing this, Section Chief Lü nodded, saying that it was good that he had the right attitude.

Zhou Zhiqiang then followed up with a smile and said, "Director Li, can our factory find a good cook?"

To be honest, the factory canteen's benefits are really good; there were two meat dishes on the first day back to work. But the cook's skills... well, that's another story. Even the radish wasn't cooked properly.

“This never happened when I started cooking at the age of six, but it happened in our cafeteria.”

Zhou Zhiqiang's words made Director Li blush a little. He also looked at the lunchboxes in Zhou Zhiqiang and Lü Yi's hands, and saw that they were both radishes that hadn't been eaten, and they were even undercooked.

This is a real slap in the face for him, the logistics director. Even though their canteen only has level nine cooks, they shouldn't be so perfunctory.

Director Li turned and glared fiercely at Yu Liang. That ninth-level cook was Yu Liang's nephew.

Then Director Li turned to Lü Yi and Zhou Zhiqiang and said with a smile, "Section Chief Lü, Deputy Section Chief Zhou, it was the cafeteria's fault today, I won't say anything else."

"You'll see the results of my rectification tomorrow. If it still doesn't work, then you can come and criticize me."

"Alright, Lao Li, we're not being unreasonable, but it's just that today is the first day of work, and what the canteen is doing is a bit excessive."

After Lü Yi finished speaking, he turned to Zhou Zhiqiang and said, "Zhiqiang, let's go back?"

Zhou Zhiqiang nodded and said, "Okay."

After Lü Yi and Zhou Zhiqiang left, Li Zhaotian, the logistics director, yelled at the canteen director with a dark face, "Get to my office and give me an explanation!"

I haven't managed the cafeteria for a year, and it's become such a mess.

A level-nine cook can't even stew radishes properly; it looks like it's time for him to go out and recruit a master chef.

Just recently, various restaurants were also undergoing public-private partnerships, and many restaurants frequented by high-ranking officials and dignitaries had closed down. Li Zhaotian felt he could go there and inquire about it.

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(End of this chapter)