From the History of the Republic of China to Raising Children in the 1970s

17

Li's mother adapted very well to the life in the county town. The yard here is relatively large, which is enough for her to do. Li Chengye wanted to take another day off to help at home, but Li's mother urged him to go to work quickly.

On Monday morning, Li Chengye went to the factory after having breakfast at home. When he arrived at the office, Hu Liren had not come yet. He found a rag and started cleaning.

"Brother Li, you are here so early?" Li Chengye heard a voice just after wiping the table. When he looked up, he saw Hu Liren walking in with a fried dough stick in his mouth.

"It's late. Do we have anything to do today?" Li Chengye put away the rag and sat down at his seat.

Hu Liren finished the last bite of the fried dough stick, walked to his seat, picked up the calendar on the table and looked at it, "Today is Monday, right, there is a meeting at nine o'clock. Our union has a meeting on the last Monday of every month, and it happens to be today."

This answer was completely beyond Li Chengye's expectations, "Meeting? About what? Do I need to make any preparations?"

"It's just an ordinary work meeting, talking about how the work this month is done? What are the key points of the work next month? Usually the chairman speaks up, and we just listen." Hu Liren had attended many meetings before, but he was relatively calm about this matter.

"Is that so." Lu Chengye nodded and didn't ask any more questions.

It was almost nine o'clock. The two took their notebooks and pens and prepared to go to the meeting room on the second floor. When they went there, they also called the people next door. Because there was a meeting today, the four people next door were all there, but no one visited the workers' homes.

There was a rectangular table in the middle of the meeting room. Sister Lan's group sat on one side, and Li Chengye and Hu Liren sat opposite them. The two seats near the blackboard were reserved.

At the meeting, Li Chengye finally saw the chairman of their union again, and met their vice chairman for the first time. The offices of the two chairmen were on the second floor. At nine o'clock, they walked into the meeting room together.

"Chairman Wan, Chairman Xu." When the two chairmen came in, everyone stood up and greeted them with a very warm voice.

The two slowly walked to their seats and sat down. Then Chairman Wan pressed down on everyone with his hand a few times, "Sit down, let's start the meeting now."

Everyone sat down, and their eyes fell on Chairman Wan. They saw a notebook in front of him, which should have a lot of words written on it. He took out a pair of glasses and put them on. His movements were a little slow, but no one dared to urge him. They just waited patiently.

"This month is also coming to an end. Our union has done a lot this month." It seems not, right?

"We have solved many disputes in the factory, especially Comrade Jiang Lan, who has solved many difficult problems this month, such as..."

Everyone listened attentively. Chairman Wan explained in detail some of the problems that the union had solved, although there were only a few things.

"Although the past achievements are very outstanding, but..." He paused and looked at the faces of everyone present, and then slowly said: "These are all things of the past, and we cannot linger on them. We have more important work to do next."

"You are right."

"That's right."

"That's how it should be." Everyone present responded.