Chapter 6: The College Student in the Semi-Collapsed State-Owned Enterprise (Fourth Update, Second Update Arrived)

"Mom, think about it. Since the Feng family can do such shameless things, if Feng Bo really goes all out for the position of vice principal and doesn't care about his reputation, and spreads some rumors that are detrimental to Dad, with his connections, wouldn't Dad have no chance at all? If that bastard Feng Bo becomes the vice principal, how can you and Dad have a good life? Won't we be completely at his mercy?"

"That's true..."

The son is right!

We shouldn't have the intention to harm others, but we can't be naive either. If we get tricked by that bastard Feng Bo, our family will be ruined!

After a long while of indecision, Yang Xiuyu finally made up her mind: "Son, you're right. Feng Bo is a despicable person, and it's always better to be cautious with such people..."

At this point, Yang Xiuyu couldn't sit still anymore, "Son, I'm going out. If your father asks where I went, tell him I went to give a student extra lessons."

"Okay, go ahead. I know what to say when Dad comes back."

………………………………………………

After resting for a day, feeling completely recovered and full of energy, Lin Zheng insisted on going to work today. Yang Xiuyu was initially still a bit worried, but seeing that her son seemed fine, she reluctantly agreed. However, she still specifically instructed Lin Zheng to take leave immediately if he felt unwell... that broken-down radio factory had no future, and it didn't matter much whether he went or not.

Seeing the "familiar" factory, the thick willow trees that had just started to sprout leaves, and the dilapidated factory, Lin Zheng couldn't help but sigh.

The district radio factory has a long history, being one of the first radio factories built in the 1950s, covering an area of over 70 acres. Although it was never as famous as brands like Panda and Red Light, before the early 1980s, the "Lisheng" brand radios produced by the district radio factory were well-known in the province and sold widely in neighboring provinces, making it a small but significant regional brand.

However, good times didn't last. After the early 1980s and the start of the reform and opening-up, the old state-owned enterprise's mindset and management methods, as well as its unchanged products, couldn't keep up with the changing times. When small radios and tape recorders became popular in the market, the district radio factory was still producing the same old table radios.

Almost overnight, the people of the district radio factory were shocked to find that the radios they produced, which were in high demand a few years ago, were now unsellable.

No one gave them an answer.

The workers could only watch as their radios sold well, then became unsold, then piled up in the warehouse, and finally, the production line stopped...

After ten years, the district radio factory maintained only a single FM/AM radio production line, with an annual output of less than 10,000 units. The entire factory was almost at a standstill, barely surviving on the insufficient funding from the city government.

This situation naturally couldn't retain the workers. Who could support a whole family?

Thus, the state-owned factory that once had hundreds of employees now had only an old factory manager, a few deputy managers, and a group of workers in their forties and fifties maintaining the factory. The entire city radio factory relied on renting out its factory space as warehouses and its street-front office buildings as storefronts to earn some income, supplemented by the city's fiscal funding, barely allowing the "elderly, weak, sick, and disabled" to get by.

Of course, being able to get by is also a skill. According to common sense, such a factory should have been abandoned long ago, but in reality, the district radio factory still frequently received fiscal funding!

There was a reason for this. The district radio factory had a unique function: being a legitimate state-owned unit, it could serve as a stepping stone for the children of leaders who wanted to enter the system but couldn't easily do so. They could first be registered at the district radio factory and then transferred to other units in the district or city after half a year.

In plain terms, the district radio factory was a stepping stone for many leaders in the district and city to arrange jobs for their relatives and children. Such a good stepping stone couldn't be easily discarded.

Although the district radio factory was just a stepping stone, Lin Zheng's arrival still surprised the old factory manager. He had specifically inquired and found out that Lin Zheng was a high-achieving undergraduate from the University of Science and Technology of China, majoring in computer science.

Heaven! When the old factory manager heard this, he almost fainted: an undergraduate, in ancient times, would be a top scholar, and someone studying computer science, a new and advanced field, was almost like a scholar from the Hanlin Academy. How could such a high-level intellectual end up in our dilapidated district radio factory?

He must have initially gone to a government agency and then been replaced by the child of some leader! The old factory manager believed this. In his view, no other explanation made sense, and he deeply felt that Lin Zheng was being treated unfairly.

But what could he do about it? Although he had a formal position, he was essentially powerless. He had heard that the city was considering shutting down the factory. Well, Lin Zheng was at least a top university undergraduate. Since he had been assigned to this poor unit for an internship, he would try his best to create good conditions for the young man.

Standing outside the window, seeing Lin Zheng cleaning the table and sweeping the floor, the old factory manager felt happy: This is a good kid, such a high-level intellectual isn't arrogant at all, which is truly rare.

The old man was happy, but thinking about how the boy had just fallen into an ice hole, he couldn't help but feel heartache, "Little Lin, let the others do these tasks. You're the first college student in our unit in over ten years. How can we let you do such menial work? Your body isn't fully recovered yet. Take a week off; there's nothing much to do in our unit anyway."

Lin Zheng put down the cloth, wiped the fine sweat from his forehead, and smiled at the old factory manager, "Uncle Wu, it's fine. The doctor said I'm already recovered. Doing some work and sweating will help me recover faster."

"You can't do this, though," the old factory manager said as he walked into the room, snatched the cloth from Lin Zheng's hand without hesitation, and shouted to the outside, "Are all the people dead? A bunch of old women and men not moving, making a little kid like Little Lin do the work."