Chapter Thirty-One: Helping Him Onto His Horse and Seeing Him Off for a While

  When Di Jian Guo went to negotiate with Qin Hai, Wei Bao Lin carried a box of tea leaves and knocked on the door of Old Ning Zhong Ying's house.

  "Who's there?!"

  A loud and clear voice came from inside the house.

  "It's me, Old Factory Director, Xiao Wei." Wei Baolin replied in a gentle voice.

  "Little Wei?" someone inside the house murmured, and then the door opened. A tall, straight-backed old man with a head of grey hair appeared before Wei Baolin.

  "Old Director, I've come to see you. It just so happens that someone gave me a box of good tea leaves and I remembered that Old Director loves to drink Bi Luo Chun, so I brought it for you." Wei Baolin took out the box of tea leaves and handed it over to Ning Zhongying's face with a smile.

  "Oh, thank you then." Ning Zhongying nodded slightly and took the tea leaves, letting Wei Baolin enter the living room.

  "Director Lao, what have you been busy with lately?" After the host and guest sat down, Wei Baolin asked about Ning Zhongying's daily life in a casual tone.

  When Ning Zhongying was the factory director, Wei Baolin was his office director. At that time, the relationship between the two was very harmonious. Wei Baolin had a lot of cleverness in doing things and was very familiar with Ning Zhongying's preferences and habits. He handled all kinds of affairs according to Ning Zhongying's intentions, so he was deeply appreciated by Ning Zhongying.

  After the policy of "capable people taking charge" was implemented, Ning Zhongying, as a veteran cadre who had passed his 50s and didn't have much education, naturally could only retreat to the second line. When the county economic committee asked him to recommend a successor, Ning Zhongying did not recommend Wei Baolin, but instead recommended another deputy factory director. According to Ning Zhongying's words, Wei Baolin was very competent as the director of the office serving the leaders, but it was not suitable for him to be in charge of a factory.

  But Wei Baolin himself didn't think so, he thought that with his university education and being good at dancing, he was a pioneering talent, why couldn't he be a factory director? He took advantage of the connections he made with some county officials during receptions to carry out various lobbying activities, ultimately leading the county to veto Ning Zhongying's recommendation and appoint Wei Baolin as the director of Qingfeng Factory.

  The head of the county economic committee personally came to the Qingfeng factory to announce Wei Baolin's appointment decision, and also appointed Ning Zhongying as the director of the Qingfeng factory research office. He also instructed Ning Zhongying to "help young comrades get on their horses and send them off". At that meeting, Ning Zhongying changed his usual overbearing attitude and remained silent throughout the entire conference. Even when the head of the economic committee asked him to express his views, he simply waved his hand, leaving the head of the economic committee embarrassed.

  After Director Wei and his entourage left, Wei Baolin came to Ning Zhongying with a hint of trepidation, asking the old leader to make demands on him. Ning Zhongying looked at Wei Baolin with a smile that was not quite a smile, then pointed to the sky and then to the ground, saying "take care of yourself" before walking away with a swagger.

  The dog-legs following Wei Baolin, Cui Jianguo, didn't understand the riddle Ning Zhongying had given, and just grinned foolishly. But Wei Baolin, who had followed Ning Zhongying for many years, suddenly changed his face, and even wanted to scold him.

  It was a well-known political joke at that time, referring to the contempt of an old marshal for a "rocket-style" cadre. Whether this joke is true or false can no longer be verified, but Wei Baolin was very clear about the meaning of this action, which was to say that he didn't know how high the sky was and how thick the earth was.

  It has been two years since then. Wei Baolin's governance of Qingfeng Factory was not smooth, and the factory's operating performance continued to decline, attracting a lot of criticism against him. Unexpectedly, Ning Zhongying, who had never looked down on Wei Baolin from the beginning, had never expressed his opinions on the factory's operation, even when Xiang Jiyong, Xiao Dongping and other old subordinates came to his home to vent their grievances, he just smiled and remained silent, refusing to express his views.

  Wei Baolin adopted a strategy of superficial respect and private vigilance towards Ning Zhongying, visiting him every two or three months with small gifts, just like when he was the office director. Whenever Ning needed to use a car or reimburse medical expenses, Wei gave his fullest support, requiring the administrative and financial departments not to be slow in handling Ning's affairs.

  Because Wei Baolin remained humble, Ning Zhongying's attitude towards him was relatively friendly, at least in a state of superficial harmony. Wei Baolin knew that Ning Zhongying had always thought he was not suitable to be the factory director, and after he became the director, it indeed proved Ning Zhongying's prophecy, so Ning Zhongying was extremely disdainful of him. Wei Baolin did not expect to win Ning Zhongying's recognition, he just needed to appease Ning Zhongying and prevent him from undermining his own position.

  Upon hearing Wei Baolin's greeting, Ning Zhongying leaned back on the sofa and smiled slightly, saying: "What can an old man like me be busy with? Every day is just eating, waiting for death, there are no other things."

  "Hey, Director Wei can't say that." Wei Baolin said with a reproachful tone. He scanned the room and saw a Go board on the dining table with black and white pieces arranged on it. He walked over to take a closer look and then said, "Director Wei is replaying a game? Hmm, this seems to be the game between Jiang Zuojin and Kobayashi Koichi from the Sino-Japanese Go Tournament. What a pity for Jiang."

  Ning Zhongying didn't respond to Wei Baolin's probing, only smiling silently. He knew that the more Wei Baolin acted like this, the more important things he had to say. Those little tricks of Wei Baolin's might work on the county leaders, but in Ning Zhongying's eyes, they were just some petty gimmicks, and it was pointless trying to deceive him.

  "Right, old director, I came to visit you today for two reasons. First, to see how you're doing and if there's anything inconvenient in your daily life. Second, I'd like to ask for your valuable opinions on the management of Qingfeng Factory, so that we can use them as a guide when making decisions."

  "My temper you know, not in its place, do not plan for it. The county has given the Qingfeng factory to you, so everything is up to you now, what's the point of this old man speaking nonsense?" Ning Zhongying said.

  Wei Baolin said, "You can't say that, the old factory director is after all the old leader of Qingfeng Factory, who knows the situation of Qingfeng Factory best, and also has the deepest feelings. How can the business decisions of the factory be made without the guidance of such an old leader like you?"

  Ning Zhongying ignored Wei Baolin, took a cigarette from the ashtray on the tea table next to him, lit it himself, and remained silent.

  Wei Baolin knew that this was Ning Zhongying's way of allowing him to speak, and if Ning really didn't want to listen to the factory's business problems, he would get up and see his guest off at this time instead of smoking himself.

  "It's like this, as the national planned tasks are getting fewer and fewer, our traditional business in Qingfeng Factory has been shrinking continuously, it's already very hard to support such a big factory. Some time ago, several of our factory leaders and middle-level cadres went to several domestic cities for investigation, finally found a new product direction for Qingfeng Factory, I suppose the old factory director has also heard about it?" said Wei Baolin.

  Ning Zhongying shook his head and said, "I haven't heard anything."

  Go ahead and pretend! Wei Baolin muttered to himself in his heart. Since he was convinced that Qin Hai was slandering the prospects of the washing machine market under Ning Zhongying's orders, then Ning Zhongying's claim that she didn't know about Qingfeng Factory's new business direction must be a lie. The fact that they were switching to producing washing machines was almost common knowledge throughout the factory, how could Ning Zhongying possibly not know?

  Actually, Wei Baolin was really wronged by Ning Zhongying. The fact that the factory is switching to producing washing machines was only revealed at a mid-level cadre meeting on Monday, and today is Thursday, so it's only been three days. After Ning Zhongying stepped down, he usually stays at home and doesn't go out, and news about the factory is always passed on by cadres and workers who come to visit him. These past few days, coincidentally no one came to chat with Ning Zhongying, so he really didn't know about the switch to producing washing machines.

  To say, Ning Zhongying's beloved son Ning Mo knew about this matter, but whenever Ning Mo saw Ning Zhongying, he would hide like a mouse seeing a cat, and wouldn't dare to bring up the factory's decision-making issues with his father. Besides, these days Ning Mo has been preoccupied with making extra money outside, what does it have to do with him whether the factory switches to producing washing machines or aircraft carriers?

  Ning Zhongying denied knowing the new business direction of Qingfeng Factory, and Wei Baolin had no choice but to introduce it to him first. It was said that Wei Baolin's chosen new business was producing washing machines, and Ning Zhongying's face clearly showed a hint of disdain.

  "Lao Changzhang, what do you think of the direction we've chosen?" Wei Baolin asked.

  Ning Zhongying flicked the ash off his cigarette into the ashtray, then said slowly and deliberately: "I only have two words to evaluate this direction."

  "What two words?" Wei Baolin asked.

  "Nonsense!" Ning Zhongying replied crisply.

  Although Wei Baolin had mentally prepared himself, when he heard such straightforward criticism, his face turned ashen.

  "Old factory director, this direction was chosen by me and Xiao Di, as well as several other middle-level cadres." Wei Baolin said with a hint of grievance.

  Ning Zhongying said, "Whether it's a big deal or not has nothing to do with the number of people. You're the head of the factory, you can decide how to run it. However, if you want my opinion, I only have one sentence: nonsense."

  "Alright..." Wei Baolin said with a hint of compromise, "Can the old factory director please explain clearly why he thinks this decision is nonsense?"

  "Agricultural machinery and washing machines, apart from both having a 'machine' character, have no other connection. If an agricultural machinery factory can produce washing machines, then maybe in the future they can also produce airplanes, which also share a common character." Ning said.