The person who came was Assistant An, the assistant of Minister Zhao. "Engineer Jiang, Minister Zhao would like to see you."
"Assistant An, did Minister Zhao say what it's about?" Jiang Si was packing up her things at the moment.
She had an appointment with Professor Li to go to the construction site later.
"I'm not quite sure about that," Assistant An replied.
Normally, when it came to tasks assigned by the leaders, they just followed the instructions and rarely asked questions.
However, after a moment's thought, Assistant An added, "Professor Li is also there."
Hearing that Professor Li was there too, Jiang Si had an idea. She asked the assistant to wait for a moment.
Then she sorted out the materials related to the embassy district design project.
It was most likely about this project that Minister Zhao was summoning them at this time.
When she was almost done packing, the two of them walked and chatted as they went.
Unexpectedly, just as they were about to go upstairs, they met Deputy Minister Xu at the stair - corner.
"Xiao Jiang, busy?" As soon as he saw her, Deputy Minister Xu greeted her with a beaming face.
Maybe because of the previous investigation into the mole, Jiang Si paid extra attention to the people on the list.
Especially to every word and deed of Deputy Minister Xu.
Although Deputy Minister Xu always greeted her with a smile, somehow, Jiang Si felt that his look at her today was a bit strange.
She couldn't quite put her finger on exactly what was strange about it.
Before she could sort out her thoughts, Deputy Minister Xu walked past them and headed straight to the other side of the corridor.
After a few knocks on the door, it opened inward.
Against the light, Jiang Si couldn't see clearly. She only knew that the person who opened the door was somewhat thin.
After they exchanged greetings, Deputy Minister Xu stepped aside and walked in. Then the door closed.
Above the third floor were the offices of the leaders.
Jiang Si rarely came up here.
However, she had met most of the leaders in the unit.
As far as she could remember, there wasn't any leader who matched the description of the person who opened the door.
Perhaps she had been staring at the door for a bit too long. Assistant An explained, "That's the office of Secretary Yan."
"Secretary Yan? Which Secretary Yan?"
"The one from the Discipline Inspection Commission."
The Discipline Inspection Commission was an important department in the unit. Jiang Si was curious. "Why have I never seen Secretary Yan?"
"Secretary Yan was seriously ill before and had been on sick - leave at home for more than half a year. He's only recently started coming back to work as his health has improved," Assistant An said, seeing that Jiang Si had taken the initiative to ask about Secretary Yan.
"Normally, he doesn't see many visitors either. Most of the work is handled by Deputy Minister Xu."
"Xiao Jiang," just as they were having a low - key conversation, a familiar voice came from above the stairs.
Jiang Si looked up and saw Professor Li standing at the stair - head.
Apparently, he had been waiting for a while.
Seeing that Professor Li had come to pick her up in person, Assistant An tactfully found an excuse to leave them some space.
After Assistant An left, Professor Li followed Jiang Si's line of sight. "What's wrong? Why are you standing here in a daze?"
Jiang Si came back to her senses and quickly walked up to the fourth floor.
She also told Professor Li about the encounter with Deputy Minister Xu just now.
"He told you?" After hearing this, Professor Li shook his head helplessly. "I knew he just couldn't hold it in..."
"Hold what in?" Jiang Si looked completely confused.
Now it was Professor Li's turn to be surprised. "What? Didn't Deputy Minister Xu tell you?"
"No, he just said hello."
After saying that, Jiang Si looked at him curiously.
Unexpectedly, Professor Li just smiled. "Let's go in first. Minister Zhao is waiting."
So he was going to keep her in suspense?
Although she was very curious, since Professor Li had said so, Jiang Si didn't ask any more questions.
As they were talking, they arrived at Minister Zhao's office.
Jiang Si stepped forward and knocked on the door.
"Come in," a voice came from inside.
Minister Zhao was looking at some documents. When he saw them come in, he pointed to the two sofas opposite with a smile.
"Take a seat. The teapot is right there. Pour yourself a cup of tea if you want."
Although he was the top leader in the unit, Minister Zhao was amiable and didn't put on any airs.
Seeing this, Jiang Si wasn't polite and sat down gracefully.
As she had expected, after Minister Zhao finished reading the documents in his hand, he got straight to the point about the work.
"How's the progress of the previous embassy district design project?"
Jiang Si handed over the materials she had brought and briefly summarized the key points.
Minister Zhao nodded as he listened.
There were specialized personnel in charge of the detailed issues of the design project, so he didn't ask too many questions. Instead, he focused on the project schedule.
He also asked if the other side had put forward any difficult conditions.
"They haven't made things difficult for us," Jiang Si said honestly.
"However, I've communicated with Special Assistant Chi. They have a strict requirement that the project, including the interior decoration, must be completed by the end of the year."
"By the end of the year?"
Minister Zhao couldn't help frowning. "Then it seems there isn't enough time, right?"
The designated construction party for this project was the Third Engineering Bureau.
Normally, large - scale projects were assigned to the First and Second Engineering Bureaus.
The Third Engineering Bureau would only get the projects that the other two bureaus left behind or didn't want.
The Third Engineering Bureau was already short - handed. There were only four months left until the freezing period.
It would be extremely difficult to complete the main structure and interior decoration within this time.
Jiang Si was aware of this, but the problem was that the other side was offering a very generous deal.
"Oh, how much?" As soon as he heard it was a generous offer, Minister Zhao immediately showed interest.
"Special Assistant Chi said that as long as we can complete the project on time and with high quality, they're willing to add an additional 10% to the original payment."
As soon as these words were spoken, the office fell silent for a moment.
"How much?" Reacting, Minister Zhao asked again.
He couldn't have heard it wrong!
An additional 10% would mean more than 800,000 French francs.
At the current exchange rate, it was equivalent to nearly 400,000 Chinese yuan!
Exchange rates of some countries in 1970
Jiang Si nodded, indicating that he had heard correctly.
It was indeed an additional 10%.
"And," after a pause, Jiang Si continued, "they'll leave all the interior decoration and custom - made furniture to the Chinese side for procurement and arrangement."
Although these were unwritten rules, the other side's straightforward offer and such a generous gesture still surprised Minister Zhao.
It was well - known that in this era, the country's foreign exchange reserves were extremely scarce.
Every single foreign exchange income was crucial.
So upon hearing this, Minister Zhao agreed almost without hesitation.
However, the problem of where to transfer the manpower was a thorny one.
The personnel for the foreign - related hotel project definitely couldn't be touched.
The only option was the First Engineering Bureau where Ling Yunfei worked.
"Has the project in Longcheng passed the halfway mark? Maybe we can transfer some people from there," Minister Zhao suggested.
"Probably not," Jiang Si directly rejected Minister Zhao's proposal.
"I've already communicated with Director Ling. Their project is supervised by the provincial government.
"If we transfer people from there, they won't be able to complete their project by the end of the year either."
After all, the cement plant is a prerequisite for large-scale infrastructure projects, and it's obvious that Longcheng is reluctant to let the workers go.
"Then we'll have to recruit a batch of temporary workers," Minister Zhao said. However, it was evident that he was quite troubled by this idea.
As we all know, it's not easy to recruit temporary workers.
At this time, temporary workers were divided into two categories: those within the plan and those outside the plan.
For the ones within the plan, approval from the Ministry of Labor was required.
Their treatment was similar to that of regular workers, except that they didn't enjoy the welfare of housing allocation. There was no other difference.
The most important thing was that the temporary workers within the plan were all registered.
After each project was completed, a certain number of them would be transferred to regular positions. This was an established albeit unwritten rule.
The current problem was that the Engineering Bureau didn't have any extra positions available.
On the other hand, it was also difficult to recruit temporary workers outside the plan.
Apart from the poor welfare and the difficulty in transferring their food ration relations, there was no possibility of them being transferred to regular positions.
Just this factor alone discouraged most people.
At this point, Minister Zhao looked troubled and said, "Let's not even mention whether we can recruit enough people. Even if we can, most of them will be social loafers."
At this time, those who remained in the city were either those with jobs and families or these unruly hooligans.
After all, it was an embassy area over there. If something were to happen to the people we recruit, it wouldn't just be a matter of the project progress. It would be a national embarrassment on the international stage!
