Inaugural Address of 1970

  Lin Zhenhua is not a reckless young man. Once he made up his mind to take over the labor service company, he began to plan it thoroughly. Peng Shaozhe and two others are his most reliable friends in the factory, and he must tie them to his chariot so as not to become a lone wolf in the service company. As for Yang Xin, although she is also a temporary worker, Lin Zhenhua does not intend to let her return to the service company to work for the time being. Peng Gang has been rehired by the labor service company, but his identity is already that of a retired worker, so Yang Xin is currently the only on-the-job CNC milling machine operator. With time, she will make some achievements in operating CNC milling machines.

  Under the temptation of Lin Zhenhua's luxurious dinner, Peng Shaozhe, Chu Hongyang and Zhao Yongqun agreed to start a business with him. In fact, the temporary workers they are currently doing in the factory are also welfare-oriented, and there are not many positions on those posts that have them, and without them, there are not few.

  Apart from Peng Shaozhe and others, at Lin Zhenhua's request, the factory department also cleared out some other temporary workers who were not doing their jobs properly, making a total of 70 or 80 people, and handed them over to Lin Zhenhua to deal with. Perhaps because Lin Zhenhua had brought too many surprises to everyone, the factory leaders all secretly harbored a glimmer of hope, thinking that Lin Zhenhua might really be able to make something out of it.

  "Everyone, from today on, our labor service company will start doing its own business."

  On a large lawn in the factory area, a group of temporary workers, men and women, stood or sat together, listening to Lin Zhenhua deliver his inaugural speech.

  "This is what has been going on for some time now. All of us present here are temporary workers, waiting for our parents to retire so we can take their place as formal employees. However, all of your parents are still young and it will be over a decade before they reach retirement age. Can we force them to retire at this point?" Lin Zhenhua said, looking around at the crowd.

  Everyone's face showed some awkward expressions, and no one spoke. They certainly knew that forcing their parents to retire was a very unfilial thing to do, but what else could they do?

  Lin Zhenhua continued: "Even if everyone can replace going to work and become a formal worker, will they be worry-free? In this era, it's not like the time of our parents. Our parents' lives were just about having enough food, other material consumption was impossible to satisfy. But what about our generation? We want to get married, at least we need 48 legs (a Chinese idiom for a lot of money), TV sets, bicycles, and watches, these are the three big things. Later, with the development of technology, we also need refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners... think about it, can we afford them with our current salary?"

  "Xiao Hua, what's the point of saying all this?" a young man asked, "Who isn't living like this now? We're not in America."

  "It's all useless talk, if there's a way to make money, who wouldn't be happy to go and earn it?" Another young man chimed in.

  Lin Zhenhua looked up at the two of them, recognizing that they were indeed the two troublemakers Yang Xin had mentioned, Shi Guojun and Cao Wengqiang. These two men were both in their late twenties, much older than Lin Zhenhua. Back when Lin Zhenhua was still a young student, they had already been sent to work on a farm as educated youth, so in terms of seniority, Lin Zhenhua was like a younger brother to them. Due to years of being marginalized by society, they had become somewhat cynical and dismissive, and the hat on Lin Zhenhua's head that signified his position as manager of the service company didn't impress them in the slightest.

  "Guo Jun and Wen Qiang said it well, I volunteered to be the manager of this labor service company, just to find a way for everyone to make money. My goal is that within two years, every person will become a thousand-yuan household." Lin Zhenhua threw out a long-planned heavy bombshell, he knew that in order to make everyone believe in him, the only way was to give them the hope of getting rich. These factory heirs were different from their parents, their parents would be convinced by Lin Zhenhua's skills, but they wouldn't, what could convince them was wealth.

  "A household with an income of 10,000 yuan? Did I hear that wrong?"

  "Let me calculate, two years, 24 months, I need to earn 40 yuan per month to have 1000 yuan."

  "40 isn't enough, how can I pay for family expenses? At least I need to earn 50 yuan a month."

  Just as Lin Zhenhua had expected, the moment he made the promise of becoming a thousand-yuan household, the temporary workers were stirred up and began to discuss it heatedly. Currently, they could only earn more than 20 yuan per month, and most of them couldn't even get that much, with their parents taking away all their wages and leaving them with only a little pocket money. If it was really possible to become a thousand-yuan household in two years as Lin Zhenhua had said, what a wonderful scene it would be!

  "What, don't you believe me?" Lin Zhenhua swept his gaze over the crowd, his eyes shining with confidence. It's no wonder he was confident - currently, he only had 70 or 80 men under him, each receiving 1,000 yuan, totaling around 700,000 to 800,000 yuan. Lin Zhenhua's personal savings already exceeded 100,000 yuan, so even if he had to dig into his own pocket, he could still fulfill this promise.

  "Xiao Hua, aren't you bragging?" asked a girl named Luo Yongmei. Most of these temporary workers were children of the factory's employees and knew each other, so even though Lin Zhenhua had become the manager, they still habitually used his old nickname to address him.

  "Of course not." Lin Zhenhua said, "Xiao Mei, don't you know my character yet? Am I the kind of person who brags?"

  "Everyone knows, aren't you that kind of person who likes to brag?" Luo Yongmei said with a smile, covering her mouth.

  "This... let's not mention past heroics, wasn't that just ignorance when we were young?" Lin Zhenhua said with embarrassment, he knew that his previous self had a very poor image in the factory back then, and those lies and boasts were unavoidable.

  "You say you're not bragging, but how can you guarantee that? Who can be clear about things two years from now?"

  Lin Zhenhua thought for a moment and said: "How about this, let's set a phased goal first. Before the end of this year, I guarantee that everyone's average salary will reach 50 yuan."

  "It's really 50!" The temporary workers exclaimed.

  "Xiao Hua, if you can really give everyone a salary of 50 yuan, then everyone will definitely listen to you," Shi Guojun said. "However, what makes you think everyone will believe you?"

  Lin Zhenhua said: "I don't have anything to guarantee either. How about this, my monthly salary is 43 yuan now, from now on, until next year's Spring Festival, there are still 6 months left, my total salary will be 258 yuan, I'll put it all in the service company as collateral. If by the end of this year everyone's salary can't reach 50 yuan, I won't take a single cent of my salary, and I'll use it all to treat you guys to dinner, how about that?"

  "Is that true?" Cao Wenqiang asked hesitantly. He had thought Lin Zhenhua would say something grandiose or vague, leaving himself some room for retreat, but he didn't expect him to be so bold as to bet his six months' salary with everyone. More than 200 yuan was not a small amount of money back then, and no one knew why Lin Zhenhua would stake such a large sum on a labor service company that had nothing to do with himself.

  Lin Zhenhua looked around in the crowd, pointed to a 20-year-old girl and said: "Bi Min, I want to assign you as the accountant of our service company, are you willing?"

  The girl named Bi Min was stunned for a moment, somewhat disbelieving: "Lin... Manager Lin, are you talking about me?"

  "That's right." Lin Zhenhua nodded and said.

  This is Bi Min's father, Bi Wan Kui, a rightist who was sent to Hanhua Machinery Factory for labor reform. In those years, he suffered a lot. Bi Min grew up in such a family and has been quiet and reserved since childhood. Lin Zhenhua chose her as an accountant precisely because of this trait; if she were more mischievous, it would inevitably bring some trouble to herself.

  "I... I can do anything." Bi Min said with her head down.

  "Alright, I hereby declare in front of everyone that starting from this month, my salary will be collected by Bi Min. After collection, it will be directly deposited into the savings account, and the deposit slip will be locked in a safe by Bi Min. If I fail to fulfill my promise before the last month of this year, I will use my entire salary to treat everyone to dinner. Have I not made myself clear enough for you all to believe me?" Lin Zhenhua asked with great enthusiasm.

  "Believe!" the crowd shouted loudly. Lin Zhenhua's loyal followers, led by Peng Shaozhe, who were embedded in the crowd, took the lead in applauding, and everyone else followed suit without suspecting anything. In fact, every young person had a flame in their heart, but it had been suppressed for too long, and these flames had turned to ashes. Now Lin Zhenhua had rekindled hope in everyone, and they secretly looked forward to it: perhaps this little Hua really has some skills?

  "Alright, since everyone believes in me, I will now formally take office." Lin Zhenhua declared.

  "Alright, we support Manager Lin!" Chu Hongyang shouted from within the crowd.

  "Support Manager Lin!"

  "Support Manager Lin Da! Long live RMB!"

  The temporary workers also shouted along, half of them were cheering and the other half had truly accepted Lin Zhenhua. Children who grew up in that era did not have so many ideas about freedom and equality, they thought it was a matter of course for someone to lead themselves, as long as this leader could make them look good, could bring them hope, they didn't mind the leader's age or experience.

  Lin Zhenhua and others shouted a few times, then waved his hand to signal everyone to quiet down, and continued: "I have several announcements. First, I've given our labor service company a name, called Hanhua Industrial Development Co., Ltd. From now on, when you mention it to others, just say this name."

  "Why?" someone asked in puzzlement.

  "If the name is not correct, then the words will not be smooth." Lin Zhenhua said, "We want to make money, we can't always rely on making money from our own factory, but we have to go out and make money. If we go out, if we say that we are a labor service company at every turn, it's inevitable that others will look down on us. Taking the name of Hanhua Industrial Company helps us establish an image."

  "Alright, got it. Let's move on to the next one." The crowd responded with giggles and laughter, they also thought that Hanhua Industry sounded pretty cool, when dating, saying that you work at a labor service company doesn't sound very good.

  "Article 2, I will simply divide the work and temporarily appoint several people in charge. Chu Hongyang will be the head of the business department, responsible for contacting business with me. Zhao Yongqun will be the head of the production department, responsible for daily work. Peng Shaozhe will be the head of the administrative department, responsible for logistics and administrative affairs."

  "Manager Lin, why are all the people you find your buddies?" a young worker asked with a smile, but without any blame.

  Lin Zhenhua also smiled and replied, "Who says they are the only ones who are my buddies? We all grew up in the same factory. The first time I went to steal radishes from a farmer with Hongyang was when we followed Guojun and Wenqiang, two big brothers."

  "Is this true?" Shi Guojun asked in surprise.

  "Of course." Lin Zhenhua nodded seriously. In fact, he didn't remember who taught him to steal turnips for the first time either, maybe it was self-taught and hard to say. But Hanhua Factory's children all had experiences of stealing turnips and sugarcane in the past, being caught by farmers, having their pants pulled down, and returning naked, which happened frequently. He claimed that he followed Shi Guojun and Cao Wengqiang to steal turnips from a young age, just to get closer to everyone.

  "In fact, the several department heads I mentioned are all nominal positions and not recognized by the factory," Lin Zhenhua said. "I arranged it this way just for work needs. Cadres serve everyone, and since we are the youngest, we should be serving even more. Of course, these cadres welcome supervision from everyone, if someone else does a better job than them, we can replace them at any time."

  "Alright, let's all listen to Manager Lin." Shi Guojun said, leading the way. He didn't have any opinion on who should be an official, anyway he himself didn't want to be one.

  "Third, before we get in touch with business, everyone must seize the time to practice their skills diligently. Zhao Yongqun is in charge of this matter and will record each person's progress in learning technology. If we have business but our technical skills can't keep up, I'll be in breach of contract."

  "Don't worry, the basic techniques are all manageable." Cao Wenqiang nodded in response. The children from the factory had been playing with iron wires, iron blocks, angle irons and round steels since they were young, and their technical skills were passable.

  "The fourth thing is what we are going to do now. The factory has agreed to allocate the four mu of land behind the garage to Hanhua Industrial, and next week, Peng Shaozhe and Zhao Yongqun will be in charge, and everyone will start clearing the site and building our own factory."