Siheyuan, my new life

Despite being a tall man of 1.8 meters, and always being glib and prone to showing off, Xu Damao is actually quite timid, even cowardly. When he heard his father mention that he had another way to become an official, his dejected look vanished instantly, and he looked at Xu Fugui with burning eyes, wanting to know what this opportunity could give him to change his fate.

Unfortunately, when Xu Fugui uttered the words "join the army," Xu Damao immediately slumped down as if he had lost his parents. Although he had never personally experienced the cruelty of the battlefield, let's not forget that Xu Damao himself was a projectionist. Even if he hadn't been officially hired yet, his projection skills were definitely up to par thanks to his father Xu Fugui's complete instruction. Otherwise, Xu Fugui wouldn't have planned to leave the Hongxing Steel Rolling Mill and make way for Xu Damao to become a projectionist at the Xicheng Cinema after his son was officially hired.

For ordinary people, watching movies might be a rare thing, but for projectionists like the Xu family father and son, they deal with movies almost every day.

In this era, projectionists were not just qualified to show movies; they also had to explain and promote the content of the films while showing them. Often, projectionists were also responsible for publicizing national policies and regulations. It's important to know that even though the People's Republic of China had been established for ten years, the vast majority of people were illiterate, especially in the rural areas. In each production brigade, there were very few people who had received formal education. After all, before liberation, the high cost of going to school was simply unaffordable for ordinary people.

Because it is necessary to explain the films being shown, projectionists need to watch and understand the content of the films in advance. In addition, Xu Fugui, in order to hone his son's projection skills, privately supervised Xu Damao to practice in the projection room, especially training his son's explanation ability.

In this era, many films depicting war have been produced, such as "The Southern Expedition and the Northern War" in 1952, "The Crossing River Reconnaissance" in 1954, "Dong Cunrui" and "The Plain Guerrilla" in 1955, and "Shangganling" and "Railway Guerrilla" in 1956. As one of the few units with projection equipment and projectionists, Hongxing Steel Rolling Mill usually screens movies for its cadres and employees in its own factory every week. More often, it screens movies in nearby factories and communes and production brigades according to the tasks assigned by the higher-level propaganda department.

To hone his projection and narration skills, Xu Damao watched these movies repeatedly. The brutal war scenes terrified him, especially after watching the movie "Shangganling," which terrified him so much that he had nightmares for several days in a row.

Now, upon hearing his father, Xu Fugui, suggest that he join the army, Xu Damao's mind immediately conjured up the brutal war scenes from the movie "Shangganling." He was unwilling to risk his life to seek merit and promotion on the battlefield. He knew that bullets had no eyes on the battlefield, and if he died in the hail of bullets, even if he earned the honor of being a "martyr," he would have to pay with his precious life.

Xu Damao is an extreme egoist at heart. He has no sense of dedication. He is not even nineteen years old yet and has not married. He has plenty of time to enjoy life in the future, so he will never put himself in danger.

Xu Fugui sighed softly: "I will not agree to let Damao risk his life to join the army. The reason I said that just now was to tell you two not to have unrealistic and absurd fantasies all day long."

At this point, Xu Fugui looked at his wife, Liu Lanhua, and solemnly said, "What you mentioned about spending money to give gifts is indeed a way, but there's a prerequisite: our son has to meet certain conditions. This isn't like before liberation, when you could buy an official position just by spending money. The situation is completely different now. To put it simply, if the steel mill's propaganda department has a transfer opening, and three people are competing for it, one of whom is our son, Damao, if Damao's qualifications surpass the other two in every way, even just compared to the other two..." "If the people are roughly equal, then in this situation, spending money to bribe someone would greatly increase Da Mao's chances of getting the transfer opportunity. However, if Da Mao's qualifications are far inferior to the other two, then no matter how much money he spends, the leader is unlikely to risk public condemnation by not promoting the outstanding person and instead giving the opportunity to someone who lags behind. Leaders also have rivals, and if a rival finds fault with someone, they could lose their position. If you were the head of the propaganda department, would you take such a big risk and put yourself in danger for a little money?"

After listening to her husband's words, Liu Lanhua glanced at her dejected son and said with a wry smile, "Alright, Da Mao, stop thinking about things all day. Right now, you should focus on learning projection technology and try to get a permanent position as soon as possible. Don't mess with the female colleagues in the department. Do your best to perform well at the steel mill. Your father and I will do our best to support you whenever you have the opportunity. Okay, let's eat quickly, the food is getting cold."

The atmosphere at Fang Dahu's house, which was also in the backyard, was in stark contrast to that of the Xu family. At this moment, the five members of the Fang family were sitting around the octagonal table, eating and talking in hushed tones.

Fang Dahu's wife swallowed the steamed bun she was eating and said in a low voice, "Honey, this Hao Aiguo deserves his bad luck. He always acts like a big shot in the courtyard, talking to people with his nose in the air. He's just like that good-for-nothing Second Uncle Liu Haizhong. Today, on my way home from get off work, Xue's eldest daughter and I heard the workers around us talking about this guy."

Fang Dahu downed the liquor in his cup in one gulp, then happily picked up a piece of braised beef and put it in his mouth. His wife was currently working as a temporary worker in the canteen of the security training base. Although her salary was only eighteen yuan a month, the canteen's benefits were excellent. In addition to a monthly quota of three jin of braised beef or pork, she would also receive several jin of flour and cornmeal every now and then. With the current reduction in food supply, without these things his wife received, their family would not have enough food to eat, let alone be able to eat braised meat so often.