I painted an aircraft carrier on the courtyard house for Dongda University.

The next morning.

Zhou Weiguo hurriedly rode his motorcycle to the steel rolling mill to attend the mill's commissioning ceremony, which was prepared by Lao Li. Natasha, too lazy to attend such meetings, dragged Tian Zao along to accompany her for a prenatal checkup.

This production launch ceremony was precisely the unveiling ceremony for the expanded steel rolling mill, meticulously prepared by Li Huaide. For this ceremony and the large lunch, Old Li had practically run around begging for supplies, almost begging and pleading with everyone he could.

According to Li Huaide, this was the first time in the history of Hongxing Steel Rolling Mill that the employees had been served four dishes and a soup. That's right, four dishes and a soup.

You should know that in this day and age, a meal of four dishes and a soup is a standard that only high-ranking officials can enjoy.

Normally, if the factory canteen has half a meat dish and one vegetable dish, it's considered a very good treatment.

However, in order to motivate the workers to complete the relocation and production as soon as possible, Li Huaide made a promise of two meat dishes, two vegetable dishes, four dishes and a soup.

Today, although the steel rolling mill has not yet developed into a large factory with tens of thousands of employees, it still has no fewer than 7000 employees.

The meat processing plant only allocates 3000 jin of pork to the steel rolling mill each month.

This was only because the steel mill had received preferential treatment from higher authorities; in the past, the quota was pitifully small, only 1500 jin per month. 3000 jin may seem like a lot, but if you average it out over a single meal of meat and vegetables every week, it's almost negligible.

In addition, in order to support the research work of the West Factory, Li Huaide allocated a relatively large meat quota to the Second Canteen, so the number of times that the thousands of employees in the East Factory could eat meat was pitifully small.

Therefore, in order to complete the tasks assigned by his superiors, promote the major restructuring within the factory, and resume production as soon as possible, Li Huaide did everything in his power.

Fortunately, after much negotiation, he contacted three meat processing plants, and they finally agreed to deliver 3000 jin of pork this morning. That's enough for one meal, and on average, each ordinary worker would get about half a jin of meat.

For this reason, Li Huaide often boasted about it to Zhou Weiguo.

As Zhou Weiguo's car drove into the steel rolling mill, he keenly sensed that something was amiss.

None of the security personnel were in the building, and they all looked anxious.

When he drove his car to the entrance of his workshop, the scene before him puzzled him even more: everyone inside the workshop was standing outside.

As soon as the car came to a stop, Erniu rushed over.

Zhou Weiguo hurriedly asked, "What's going on? Why are people standing at the door?"

"Oh? Master, you didn't know? This morning when everyone arrived at the factory, we found that the water and electricity were cut off."

Erniu answered with a surprised look.

Zhou Weiguo frowned. At the same time, the water and electricity were cut off? This had never happened before.

It's important to understand that if all the water and electricity are cut off, the entire steel rolling mill will be almost paralyzed.

Moreover, today there is a production launch ceremony that Li Huaide has meticulously prepared, which seems suspicious no matter how you look at it.

Just then, the sound of hurried footsteps came from behind. Zhou Weiguo turned around and saw Li Huaide running towards him in a panic. Without saying a word, he grabbed him and pulled him into the workshop.

Zhou Weiguo, looking bewildered, entered the workshop and asked Li Huaide, who seemed unusually upset, "Old Li, what's wrong with you? Is a ghost chasing you?"

Li Huaide forced out an expression that looked worse than crying, sighed, and said, "For the country, something terrible has happened, a really big disaster."

"Stop talking nonsense and tell me what happened!" Zhou Weiguo asked urgently.

Li Huaide plopped down on a chair next to him, lit a cigarette, and slowly said, "I suspect our steel rolling mill is being targeted."

Zhou Weiguo narrowed his eyes, signaling him to continue.

Last night, several close friends called me one after another to ask if I had offended anyone.

"After that, I received notices from various units, including the district power bureau, the district water supply company, the No. 2 scrap steel plant, the No. 1 chemical plant, the Qian'an iron ore plant, and even the meat processing plant and several other small factories, all of which called to say that there were supply problems."

"The power company said there were serious faults in the power lines and transmission and transformation facilities, and repairs would take one to two weeks; the water company said pipeline maintenance would take at least five days; other plants cited production issues as the reason for adjusting their supply, with the smallest supply being reduced by 40%."

"This is having a huge impact on our steel rolling mill. How am I supposed to handle this? Weiguo, tell me, who is this shameless person pulling these strings behind the scenes?"

"I just called my superiors, and they said they would contact the scrap metal plant and iron ore plant immediately to confirm the issues, but the other units aren't under the Ministry of Metallurgical Industry's jurisdiction!"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Weiguo sneered inwardly, thinking that it was highly likely that the Zheng and Wang families had finally made their move, and he had been waiting for two whole months.

Li Huaide looked puzzled and said, "Weiguo, what time is it? How can you still laugh? This is no joke. Thousands of people in the factory are waiting for meals. If the factory shuts down for a week, it will be a big problem, and we will all be held responsible. What's more, I promised the workers today that they would have four dishes and a soup, but the two meat processing plants in the districts that we had agreed on said they were out of stock. Only one meat processing plant in the commune delivered meat. If there's no meat for lunch, how am I going to explain it to the workers? Weiguo, tell me the truth, do you know what's going on?"

Zhou Weiguo nodded and asked, "Old Li, do you remember what happened at the factory two months ago?"

Li Huaide, feigning sudden realization, said, "It really is them? I knew something was off; most of the problems this time are from district-level units. But for the sake of the country, given the current situation, we can't just sit idly by. Why don't you give your superiors a call?"

Zhou Weiguo joked, "Why aren't you fighting?"

"Hey, don't kid me, I can only call Vice Minister Wang and my father-in-law to report this. That's all I can do."

Zhou Weiguo nodded, but something still felt off. The other party's actions seemed grand and impressive, and seemed poised to deliver a severe blow to the steel mill, but at this level, to go to such lengths just to humiliate it was hard to understand.

Besides, didn't they find out anything about my identity? If they had, why would they dare to take action in this matter?

Just then, hurried footsteps sounded outside the door, and a man rushed in, shouting, "Report!"

Li Huaide's face darkened, and he asked irritably, "What is it now?"

The man quickly said, "Report! A lot of people have arrived at the west gate of the factory—the Public Security Bureau and the Industry Bureau—they insist on entering the factory to investigate. There are too many of them. Director Li, Chief Engineer Zhou, you two should go and take a look!"

Li Huaide's face turned deathly pale instantly, and he exclaimed in shock, "What? These people are going too far!"

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