Siheyuan, my new life

After wolfing down his breakfast, Guo Yongping quickly washed up, changed into a blue Zhongshan suit, checked his watch—it was already 7:20 a.m.—slung a worn-out military backpack over his shoulder, pushed his bicycle out of the house, locked the door, and headed towards the courtyard gate.

At this moment, on the street outside the courtyard, groups of three or five workers hurried towards their workplaces, chatting in hushed tones.

When Guo Yongping arrived at the gate of Hongxing Steel Rolling Mill on his bicycle, he saw four guards with Type 56 semi-automatic rifles slung over their shoulders standing on either side of the gate, their eyes fixed intently on every worker entering the factory.

Guo Yongping saw several workers riding bicycles to work ahead of him dismount five or six meters away from the steel mill gate and walk towards it. He quickly squeezed the brakes, and his bicycle came to a steady stop. He then dismounted and, like the workers, pushed his bicycle towards the factory gate.

As Guo Yongping reached the gate, a security guard gestured for him to stop and then said in a serious tone, "Comrade, this is an industrial area. Entry is prohibited without permission. Please show your identification."

Guo Yongping quickly took out his work ID from his shirt pocket, handed it to the other person, and said with a smile, "Comrade security guard, I am Guo Yongping, a newly hired clerk in the procurement section of the logistics department."

The security guard took the work permit, examined it carefully, and then handed it over directly: "Comrade Guo Yongping, please come in."

After putting away his work permit, Guo Yongping calmly pushed his bicycle into the factory gate, but inwardly he sighed. In his previous life, although he had been sending out resumes and attending interviews everywhere after graduating from university in order to find a satisfactory job, he had never thought of working in a factory tightening screws. Every time, he would choose a well-known large company. Now that he had transmigrated to this parallel world, he had no choice but to start working in a factory.

However, Guo Yongping was also very clear that the social atmosphere of this era was completely different from that of later generations. In later generations, even if you did nothing all day and stayed at home lying around, people would at most gossip behind your back, saying that you were young but not ambitious and had no future. In fact, it was highly likely that no one around you would care except your own family. You should know that in many places, even neighbors living on the same floor and across the hall do not know each other's names.

However, the situation is completely different now. A single young man who idles around all day, without a job but not lacking food and drink, will probably be reported to the street office and police station by his neighbors before long. In the early days of the People's Republic of China, many enemy agents who had been lying in wait were exposed because of a slight flaw in their daily lives.

Guo Yongping didn't want to transmigrate only to be ruined by these trivial matters. Now that he possessed the "Heaven Rewards Diligence System," once he figured out how to acquire system merit points, he believed that with the system's help and his general knowledge of the historical process and major events of the next sixty years, even a pig could rise to prominence. He had no intention of entering politics. In the next life, he was just a greenhorn fresh out of university. Even with the memories of the next sixty years, if he were to step into officialdom, he probably wouldn't be a match for those seasoned veterans. He might even be completely taken advantage of, sold out and left counting the money for the seller.

Suddenly, Guo Yongping paused for a moment before continuing to push his bicycle toward the parking shed in front of the office building. He had just remembered that he hadn't checked in for the day because he was thinking about his "Heaven Rewards Diligence System".

So Guo Yongping silently said "check in" in his mind while parking his bicycle. A line of light gold text appeared on the system interface in his mind: "Congratulations to the host for successfully checking in. You have received 100 merit points, a complete set of technical data for the White Eagle 2032 hot-rolled strip mill and a 1:100 model."

Guo Yongping glanced around and saw that in just a short while, more than a dozen people had parked their cars at the shed. Although he didn't recognize any of them, he could tell from their clothes that they were mostly office staff working in the factory. The factory workers wore blue work uniforms, while the office staff were mostly dressed casually. The men were dressed similarly to Guo Yongping, mostly in Zhongshan suits of varying ages. The women were more varied, some wearing blue, gray, or yellow Lenin suits, and some, whose families were clearly well-off, were even wearing woolen coats.

Guo Yongping decided it was not appropriate to linger there any longer, so he followed the flow of people toward the office building.

The office of the Purchasing Section of the Logistics Department of Hongxing Steel Rolling Mill is located on the ground floor of the office building. Two days ago, after Guo Yongping came to the factory to complete his onboarding procedures, he had already met with Yu Changgui, the head of the Purchasing Section, with the help of the personnel department staff. Therefore, after entering the office building, he went directly to the first room on the right with the wooden sign that read "Head of the Section Chief's Office".

I gently knocked on the office door, and a slightly hoarse male voice came from inside: "Come in."

Guo Yongping pushed open the door and entered the office. It was a room of about ten square meters. A No. 3 stove was burning in the room. Perhaps because it had just been lit, wisps of coal smoke were still rising from around the stove lid. A yellow desk was placed directly opposite the door. On the desk, besides an old-fashioned black crank telephone, there were several thick stacks of reports. A middle-aged man in his forties with a receding hairline was sitting behind the desk and was looking up at him.

Guo Yongping quickly greeted him with a smile: "Hello, Section Chief Yu. I am Guo Yongping, who has been assigned to our Procurement Section. I am officially reporting for duty today."

Section Chief Yu Changgui's originally serious face broke into a smile. The young man in front of him was very well-mannered. Apart from his accent, which still had a slight Henan flavor, he showed no signs of the awkwardness one would expect from someone who had just come to Beijing from the countryside. He smiled and said, "Welcome Comrade Guo Yongping to work in the Purchasing Section of the Logistics Department of our Hongxing Steel Rolling Mill. Don't be so nervous. Your uncle, Section Chief Dou, and I have been old friends for many years. He calls me Uncle Yu in private. In the future, as long as you work hard in our Purchasing Section, you can come to me with any difficulties you encounter at work or in life."