Chapter 250: Acceptance Speech

Two days had passed since Zhou Dafu had been scammed.

Because the police station had been busy with counterintelligence matters over the past two days, Yang Daguo and Wu Fei were temporarily held in custody and would be dealt with once things settled down.

Zhou Dafu wasn’t in a hurry anyway—he figured the money would come back eventually.

However, good news never spreads far, while bad news travels thousands of miles!

Word of Zhou Dafu being scammed had already made its way back to Zhoujiazhuang.

Unsurprisingly, the guy nearly had his legs broken by his parents. Once they learned that the money was already being recovered—just temporarily held at the police station until the case was closed—they held back from beating him, but he still got a brutal scolding, and his parents took all the money on him, afraid something like this might happen again.

Zhou Dafu knew this was entirely his fault, so he didn’t resist. On the contrary, he willingly handed over the money to his parents for safekeeping.

After all, that money at the police station—according to Uncle Sixteen—was already enough to buy a job post.

Quite a few people in Zhoujiazhuang were jealous. Who would’ve thought that Zhou Dafu, so quietly, had managed to earn so much? Even though it wasn’t all his, it still came to over two hundred yuan.

You had to understand—most families in the village couldn’t even scrape together that kind of money.

The old party secretary pointed at Zhou Dafu and scolded him before saying, “It’s lucky that Yimin reacted quickly, otherwise those scammers would’ve left the capital already. Then your money really would’ve been gone…”

Only someone as thick-skinned as you could take this in stride. If it had been another villager, they might’ve ended up jumping into a river. After all, a few hundred yuan is a lifetime of savings, wiped out in one go.

“Secretary, after seeing a ghost, who wouldn’t be scared of the dark? Don’t worry, there won’t be a next time,” Zhou Dafu promised.

After this experience, he finally understood—if you have connections and don’t use them, you’re just a damn fool.

Zhou Yimin had already received notice in advance: the steel factory was going to hold a factory-wide commendation meeting today.

Early that morning, sunlight bathed the entire steel plant compound. The employees were in high spirits—after all, every time there was a commendation meeting, quite a few people benefited, and lunch was always better than usual.

Since today’s meeting was an important one, unless there was something extremely urgent, no one was allowed to take time off. Everyone had to attend.

Otherwise, they’d be labeled as “ideologically unmotivated.”

No one wanted that hat on their head.

Such a serious meeting—many new employees had never seen this kind of grand occasion before. They all speculated about what the commendation was for, and who was being honored.

Many of the more “seasoned” employees had already caught wind: it was all thanks to the electric rice cooker invented by Zhou Yimin. So, they already had a good idea of who the star of this event would be.

Once everyone in the factory had assembled, Factory Director Hu surveyed the employees’ spirits and was clearly very pleased.

“Today, I’m sorry to take up everyone’s valuable time!

This commendation meeting is mainly to report to everyone the recent accomplishments our factory has made, the recognition and praise we’ve received from the higher-ups. We must keep working hard, and continue making progress.”

“The leadership has seen the efforts of many outstanding comrades and has given them high praise and the honor they deserve. This is not only a recognition of our factory’s achievements, but also an affirmation of every employee’s hard work.”

After Factory Director Hu finished speaking, another leader took the stage to deliver a speech. And so time passed, one speech after another—it had already been over an hour.

Unlike the standing workers, Zhou Yimin had a seat. Even though he was just a low-ranking leader, a leader was still a leader—he didn’t have to stand like the rest.

The workers stood straight and listened quietly to the speeches, though of course there were still a few whispering or spacing out.

Someone muttered quietly, “I really envy Zhou Yimin. He hasn’t been in the factory long, but he’s already been praised multiple times and even became a leader. Now he’s the main figure of today’s event—such a huge difference between people.”

“Exactly. If my son had even one-tenth of Team lead Zhou’s ability, I’d be perfectly satisfied,” an old worker sighed wistfully.

Someone next to him joked, “Old Yi, quit dreaming in broad daylight. How about you have a son first before making that wish?”

Xu Dong was standing among the crowd, a complicated expression on his face.

They had clearly joined the factory at the same time, yet the gap between them had grown so wide. Zhou Yimin had not only become a leader, but was about to be publicly commended, while he was still stuck as a regular worker in the publicity department, with no visible path forward.

The widening distance between peers made Xu Dong feel deeply uncomfortable.

They were both high school graduates, after all—same education level.

Back when they had just joined the steel plant, Xu Dong had paid attention to Zhou Yimin. He used to think of them as rivals.

Now? There was no comparison to be made.

Nearly every senior leader in the factory had taken a turn speaking.

Then, Factory Director Hu came back on stage. He spoke into the mic: “Comrades, the speeches from the Deputy Director and the Party Secretary were excellent. We won’t take up more of your precious time and delay production—that would not be good.

Now, let’s welcome Comrade Zhou Yimin to the stage to share his thoughts. Let’s give him a round of applause.”

The audience burst into applause. Those who were close to Zhou Yimin clapped so hard their hands turned red, and still didn’t stop.

Factory Director Hu continued, “Zhou Yimin used his spare time to study diligently and has invented quite a few things.

Among them, the electric rice cooker has been considered a breakthrough in technology, and it has already entered official production. The higher-ups have also issued orders for us to ramp up output.”

Zhou Dazhong was ecstatic over his Uncle Sixteen’s achievements—it was almost as if he were the one being honored.

Factory Director Hu gestured with both hands for everyone to quiet down.

Once the crowd had settled, he announced Zhou Yimin’s rewards.

First, a rice cooker produced by their factory. This kind of rice cooker was being manufactured for export to earn foreign exchange and wasn’t available on the domestic market yet—money alone couldn’t buy it.

The workers were all extremely envious.

It was a rice cooker! Just plug it in and it could cook rice all by itself. So convenient.

Next was a 100-yuan cash bonus.

That was almost two months’ salary for most people.

Lastly, there were various vouchers and coupons. The rewards were plentiful enough to make anyone jealous.

When Zhou Yimin got on stage, he also gave a long speech, full of the usual formalities—thanking his coworkers for their support, thanking the leadership for their guidance, thanking the country, thanking the people, and so on.

By the end of it, even Factory Director Hu was stunned.

Was this guy not afraid of getting himself in trouble? He spoke way too well.

But Zhou Yimin had no choice—political correctness was incredibly important in this era. That was one reason he didn’t like speaking in public. He was genuinely afraid of accidentally saying the wrong thing.

Still, expressing gratitude to a long list of people and especially to the Party and the people—well, no one could find fault with that.

(End of Chapter)