On January 8, 1988, Light Vehicle Company held its year-end summary meeting. The main leaders all delivered reports summing things up as "the situation is splendid across the board."
"Our factory reached new heights again this year. We assembled more than twenty-six thousand vehicles, achieved an output value exceeding four hundred million yuan, introduced two advanced overseas technologies, and made total investments exceeding ten million US dollars."
"Our factory added more than three thousand employees this year, along with over one thousand housing units. Our total workforce has now surpassed ten thousand."
"Looking ahead to next year, our production base in the northern suburbs will soon be completed. At that time, our factory's scale will rise another level, making us the undisputed leader of the domestic light-truck industry."
"..."
While the leaders above spoke with soaring passion, Li Ye below found it unbearably dull. Yet there were no smartphones to browse in those days, and he was sitting in the second row, so he could only watch his nose, watch his heart, sit primly and properly while his mind wandered beyond the clouds.
While his master Old Ding could only guess at the unit's financial situation, Li Ye could learn more definite facts from Ma Zhaoxian.
Though everything the speakers said was true, with practically no water mixed in, every single point of growth in those achievements had come from Li Ye's First Branch Factory.
Meanwhile, the main factory had nothing whatsoever to do with "the situation is splendid across the board." It was more like a gaunt old man, every step an arduous struggle.
Li Ye had never imagined that the main factory's accounts truly did not even have enough money for the employees' New Year's benefits and bonuses.
This time, not only were they going to disregard their