Chapter 29: Who is behind you?

  Apart from Ning Mo and others, Qin Hai didn't have any other friends in Pingyuan County, so after dinner, he stayed in his room organizing the knowledge he brought with him from his past life. He was worried that as time passed, this knowledge would gradually be forgotten, which would be a pity.

  "Dong dong dong, dong dong dong!"

  The door was knocked. Qin Hai got up and opened the door, seeing a man standing outside with a dignified appearance, who looked like he was around 30 years old, with a hint of pretended dignity on his face, but his restless eyes betrayed his inner weakness.

  "Who are you looking for?" Qin Hai asked in surprise.

  "Are you Qin Hai?" the newcomer asked.

  "I am. May I ask who you are?" Qin Hai used his hand to prop up the door frame, blocking the person's intended action.

  "I am Zhai Jianguo, Director of the Office of Qingfeng Agricultural Machinery Factory." The man introduced himself with a loud voice.

  "Oh, it's Director Di." Qin Hai nodded and withdrew his arm, pointing to the room with his finger, saying: "Please sit inside."

  Qin Hai had heard of Dai Jianguo's name from Ning Mo and others, and also knew that he was the confidant of the current factory director Wei Baolin. Qin Hai had been at Qingfeng Factory for several days, but had always been in the workshop with Leng Yueming and others working on technical innovations, and had never come into contact with these cadres from the administration office, so he couldn't recognize Dai Jianguo either. He couldn't figure out what Dai Jianguo meant by coming to his door personally, however, since the other party had already announced his identity, he naturally didn't dare to refuse him, after all, the other party was also a mid-level cadre in the factory.

  Dai Jianguo entered the room, scanning Qin Hai's room with a critical eye, even walking to the desk and peeking at what Qin Hai was writing. Of course, the formulas and molecular structures on the paper were incomprehensible to Dai Jianguo. Dai Jianguo's casual behavior made Qin Hai feel a hint of annoyance, but he wasn't an impulsive person and wouldn't lash out at Dai Jianguo over such a trivial matter.

  "Director Zhai, please have a seat. Sorry, I don't have any hot water here, so I won't be able to make you tea." Qin Hai pulled out his own chair and gestured for Zhai Jianguo to sit down, then sat down himself on the edge of the bed, waiting for Zhai to speak.

  If Di Jian Guo hadn't come in with such an arrogant attitude, Qin Hai might have gone to Wang Xiao Chen's side to borrow some hot water to pour for Di Jian Guo to drink. The title of office director couldn't intimidate Qin Hai, but after all, they were colleagues from the same factory, and it was impossible for Qin Hai to be so rude to a guest.

  However, from knocking on the door to entering, Jia Jian-guo always put himself in a superior position, as if Qin Hai should be afraid of him and flatter him out of reason. This attitude made Qin Hai unhappy. Since you want to act like a bull, I won't be polite to you, at least I won't offer you water to drink. As the old saying goes, "You can't force a bull to drink water", Qin Hai thought to himself.

  Dai Jianguo didn't bother with such formalities as offering Qin Hai a drink, thinking that a single working man should be quite sloppy and scattered, and it was probably true that there was no hot water in the house. He came to see Qin Hai today not to establish any emotional connection with him, but to convey Wei Baolin's instructions and put pressure on Qin Hai, so whether or not he had a drink was not within his scope of concern.

  "Are you Qin Hai?" Zhai Jianguo sat down in the chair, reconfirming Qin Hai's name. He had already asked this question once when he came in, but that didn't stop him from asking again. In his opinion, interrogating someone always started with verifying their name.

  "Yes." Qin Haiyu pondered over Di Jian's intentions and replied expressionlessly.

  The next question should be about the other person's gender... Jia Jian Guo swallowed his words, he didn't want Qin Hai to think he was too stupid.

  "Are you an agricultural machinery technical school graduate?"

  "Yes."

  "Are you from Jiangshan County?"

  "Yes."

  "How long has it been since we arrived at Qingfeng Factory?"

  "Four days."

  "After arriving, who have you been in contact with?"

  "This is getting interesting." Qin Hai burst out laughing. He saw through it, the other side wanted to show off their power and give Qin Hai a warning. But was Qin Hai so easily intimidated? To say nothing of Zhai Jianguo being just an idiot with low IQ and EQ, even if he were facing Ge Dongyan, a special forces soldier, would Qin Hai be afraid?

  He put on a serious face and began to report to Ji Jian-guo in an orderly manner: "The people I've been in contact with, there's Du Xin-xin from the office, Luan Su-qin from the labor union, Director Miao, Master Peng Jin-gen, Master Liu Jian-ping, Master Wei Jia-li, the plump female chef who serves food in the cafeteria, Mr. Kong from the pesticide factory's Wèi Mín Cān Tīng restaurant, and oh yeah, Mr. Kong's daughter Little Fang..."

  "That's enough!" Zhai Jianguo was initially listening quite seriously, but when he heard Qin Hai mention even Kong Xiaofang, an NPC of the first level, he couldn't help but get annoyed. "Get to the point, talk about the key people."

  "Who's the key person? That's only Fatty, aka Ning Mo. I've never weighed him before, but he must be at least 90 kilograms, that's not the point, it's just very heavy! Qin Hailai was having a great time teasing Zhai Jianguo, this little guy, being an office director is so arrogant, and even comes to my room to show off his authority."

  "How did you and Paozi... uh, I mean Ningmo get to know each other?" Zhai Jianguo didn't know if Qin Hai was genuinely foolish or just pretending to be, and he had the urge to correct Qin's misunderstanding of the word "key point", but after thinking about it, he felt it was too much trouble, so he could only follow along with Qin's train of thought and shift the topic to Ningmo.

  Qin Hai was cleverer than others, from Di Jian's questioning, he felt that the other party's intention seemed to be on Ning Mo, but for a moment, he couldn't guess why the other party wanted to care about Ning Mo. He didn't want to reveal his relationship with Ning Mo, so he pretended to be annoyed and said:

  "Never mind, that dead fatso. At first, I just wanted to ask him to help me carry my luggage with his bicycle, but he had to blackmail me into treating him to a meal. As a result, I had no choice and invited him and several others to dinner as soon as I arrived at Qingfeng Factory, using up half of my dispatch fee. By the way, Director Di, I also want to ask if I don't have enough money, can I get an advance on my salary?"

  "Are you blackmailing me to foot the bill?" Zhai Jianguo felt somewhat surprised. He had specifically gone to Old Kong's place yesterday to understand the details of Qin Hai and Ning Mo's dinner, and Old Kong had sworn that Ning Mo was the one who had paid the bill. But from Qin Hai's current statement, it seemed that Qin Hai was the one who had paid, and Ning Mo was blackmailing him into doing so. If their relationship was like this, then the speculation that Ning Zhongying had instructed Qin Hai to sabotage the washing machine business would not hold water.

  "I'll ask you again, didn't you say in the factory that Qingfeng Factory's switch to producing washing machines is a dead end?" Zhai Jianguo decided to put aside Ning Mo's topic for now and instead investigate Qin Hai's crime of deceiving people.

  Qin Hai knew that Di Jian Guo was well-prepared, and the origin of these rumors had naturally been verified. He thought that what he said did not constitute a crime, so there was no need to worry about Di Jian Guo pursuing it, and thus frankly admitted: "That's right, I said those words."

  "Why did you say that?" Ji Jian Guo asked.

  Qin Hai smiled and said: "The rise and fall of Qingfeng, a single person has responsibility. I think the decision-making in the factory is problematic, so I naturally want to express my own opinions, this is also a manifestation of loving the factory like one's home."

  "You're just a vocational school student, what do you know about decision-making in a factory?" said Zhai Jianguo.

  Qin Hai shrugged and said: "So, Director Di thinks what I said is wrong?"

  "Of course not," said Jia Jian Guo.

  "Qin Hai Dao: 'Oh, since it's not right, then I'll take back these words.'"

  Dai Jianguo's eyes widened and he pressed for an answer, "It's not enough to just take back these words, you must honestly admit who taught you to say them."

  "Am I myself, must I even be taught how to speak by others?" Qin Hai retorted.

  Duan Jianguo said: "This is impossible, you are just a technical school student, it's impossible for you to say something like this."

  Qin Hai smiled and said, "Director Di, you're not being reasonable. You just said that everything I said was wrong. I'm a vocational school student, it's true, and when it comes to the factory's decision-making, if I can't say anything right, then so be it. But must I also be unable to say anything wrong?"

  “...” Jia Jian's brain was no match for Qin Hai's, and Qin Hai's twisted logic instantly left Jia Jian speechless. Right, as a vocational school student, he didn't have the level to say the right thing, did he even lack the level to make mistakes? The rumors circulating in the factory about the risks of switching to washing machine production were actually not unreasonable, but rather too reasonable, so much so that Jia Jian firmly believed that Qin Hai couldn't have said such things. But earlier, in order to criticize Qin Hai, he had vehemently denied these words, now how could he justify himself again?

  "Qin Hai, don't misjudge the situation. The decision made by the factory was personally overseen by County Governor Guo and is irreversible. You can only admit defeat and be honest to have a way out." Zhai Jianguo's reasoning was not working, so he shifted to intimidation.

  Qin Hai pretended to be confused and asked: "What does Director Di want me to admit honestly?"

  "Recognize what kind of person is behind your back." Ji Jian Guo said.

  Qin Hai was sitting on the bed, with his back against the wall, which had a large poster of Liu Da's beautiful woman stuck to it. He turned his head and looked at it, then turned back and smiled at Di Jian Guo: "The person behind my back... isn't that Liu Xiaoqing? How come, Director Di, at such an old age, you're still chasing stars?"

  "Chase your sister..." Zhai Jianguo was choked by Qin Hai and almost spat out a mouthful of old blood.