The mixer had been a success—an enormous success. After the brief awkward lull at the beginning, it had quickly heated up.
By the dancing segment in the latter half, the huge dance floor had scarcely enough room to set a foot down. Some men and women who wanted to get to know each other better could not even squeeze in for a dance.
But Li Ye had been furious. At the very start, the girls from the First Branch Factory had been far too enthusiastic, prompting the leaders from the other mixer units to joke with Li Ye and Lu Zhizhang that the women of the First Branch Factory were truly brave, daring to pursue free love.
Those were the ones who had put it nicely. The Labor Union big sister from the cotton mill had a fiery temper and unleashed a barrage at Li Ye, even saying things like, "You brought girls who were already spoken for to a blind date?"
So the next morning, as soon as work began, Li Ye summoned Huang Mengjia to his office and gave her a blistering dressing-down.
"Huang Mengjia, you must give me an explanation. What was going on with the women in our unit? Were they really that desperate? With people from so many mixer units watching, Director Lu and I were laughed to death."
Huang Mengjia looked up at Li Ye, then lowered her head and said weakly, "I didn't expect it to turn out this way either! When I went to count the male employees, all the female employees found out,
"They strongly objected to unequal treatment between men and women, so I came to ask for your instructions. You agreed too. They were usually all so quiet at the factory—who knew they would be so proactive on site?"