"Li Ye, hurry up and look at today's newspaper."
At eight-thirty in the morning, Lu Zhizhang hurried into Li Ye's office and placed that day's newspaper on Li Ye's desk.
Li Ye laughed. "What could make you, Old Lu, this nervous? You're usually not like this! What, has the sky fallen?"
"The sky certainly won't fall, but if the wind blows and rain falls, people can still get soaked, can't they?"
Lu Zhizhang's face was grave. He pushed the newspaper farther forward across the desk, urging Li Ye to read it quickly.
Without even looking at the paper, Li Ye said lightly, "You want me to read about the spirit of the conference that just ended? Even if the state is going to rectify the economic order, it doesn't have much to do with us!"
In late September 1988, the Third Plenary Session of the Thirteenth Central Committee was held in the capital. It determined that the focus of reform and construction over the next two years would be placed on improving the economic environment and rectifying the economic order, to reverse the excessive rise in prices. The aim was to compress overall social demand, curb inflation, and straighten out the economic order.
This was the aftermath of the failed "Price Breakthrough." The consequence was that the economic transformation which had only just raised its head on the mainland plummeted in a single fall, and a whole series of reforms entered a low ebb.
First Branch Factory was a model of economic reform. For office staff who often used newspapers to guess the "weather forecast," the sight of a few clouds was enough to make their whole bodies turn cold.
"So you already knew!"
Lu Zhizhang was extremely surprised by Li Ye's words.
He had received the newspaper directly from