A nation's industrial development begins with junior engineers.

"Come in!" a voice with a northern Jiangsu accent called out.

"Sir, this is an urgent report from the Security Bureau, a joint report from the Ministry of Agriculture and the First Ministry of Machine Building. However, both reports are about the same thing!"

"Oh? That's unusual. Let me see it! Ahem~~"

"Sir, you should smoke less. The doctor said so..."

"Hey! What I'm talking about is nothing. You should go and keep an eye on Brother Desheng! His is the real chimney!"

The man refused to budge, saying, "Sir, I've already taken care of this today."

The old man with a northern Jiangsu accent laughed heartily: "You little Zhao, alright, alright, I'll listen to you!"

After speaking, the old man stubbed out his cigarette and picked up the joint report to take a look.

Then an urgent report from the Ministry of Security was pulled out.

This report is much more detailed, including not only relevant drawings but also several black and white photographs.

There was a photo that the old man looked at very carefully.

"Alright, alright! As soon as I ask you, you all say there are many difficulties, one difficulty after another."

"But I must say, there are always more solutions than problems!"

"Look, isn't this just the principle behind a child playing with a bamboo water gun? Change the mindset, and it becomes something that benefits the country and its people."

The old man is waving a photo of an old farmer operating a hand pump well, with water gushing from the wellhead.

The middle-aged man, referred to as Xiao Zhao, also nodded.

"Yes, according to relevant comrades' calculations, this hand pump well can replace 5 laborers during the busy farming season!"

"That's right, this hand pump has a lot of limitations; it can only be used by relying on existing wells."

The old man paused for a moment, then said, "A change is a good thing!"

"Progress is good."

"Even if it's just a tiny bit, if all our comrades across the country make even the slightest progress, we will eventually regain our former glory!"

"Has Brother Desheng read the report from the Ministry of Machine Building?"

"I watched it, and the instructor said it's very good and worth promoting!"

The old man nodded thoughtfully: "Is this difficult to make? Will it add extra burden to our comrades?"

The middle-aged man shook his head repeatedly: "No, not only that. The inventor of the hand pump well also said that it would be perfect to use the turtle steel produced in the commune's earthen blast furnace."

The old man then laughed heartily, “Good, good, good! I’ll sign it right away and have the relevant departments speed up production. Time waits for no one, we’ll fight this damned fate!”

As he spoke, the old man stretched out his hands and stood up to loosen his muscles and bones.

The middle-aged man surnamed Zhao quickly stepped forward to help tidy up, and shook the file folder in the security room. Surprisingly, a photo was also crossed out.

The old man picked it up and saw that it depicted two bigwigs from the Ministry of Machine Building and the Ministry of Agriculture eating noodles with garlic.

Behind the two of them, a circle of villagers stood around, each holding a large bowl.

A young man was standing in front of them, bending down to tie a little girl's hair with a ribbon.

"Haha, these two guys are eating so deliciously, it's making me hungry!"

"Go get me a bowl of noodles too! And add a clove of garlic!"

The middle-aged man surnamed Zhao, beaming with joy, stopped what he was doing and hurriedly agreed.

You see, the old man has been eating very little these past two days, and everyone is worried.

Unexpectedly, a photo sparked my interest in having a meal.

that is really good!

Before long, the old man had eaten noodles with garlic, and the more he ate, the more satisfied he became.

"Is this little guy the inventor?"

Secretary Zhao glanced down and said, "Yes, it's him."

Seeing that the old man was in a good mood, and wanting him to rest more, Secretary Zhao started talking about something unrelated.

"You didn't see it yesterday, but Old Xia from the Ministry of Machine Building and Old Yang from the Ministry of Agriculture almost got into a fight at the briefing."

"Oh?" The old man indeed looked interested.

Seeing the old man's interest, Secretary Zhao's stern expression brightened a bit: "Old Yang wants to transfer this young fellow to the Ministry of Agriculture, and wants him to oversee the promotion of hand pump wells."

"Minister Xia, however, refused to release him, saying that Old Yang's side was just all talk."

"The two started fighting over a disagreement, but luckily Old Liu from the General Office was there and managed to calm them down."

The old man laughed loudly upon hearing this: "The two of them are over a hundred years old combined, yet they act like children. It's outrageous!"

"So what's this kid's opinion?"

Secretary Zhao was speechless for a moment, stammering for a long time without managing to utter a complete sentence.

The old man understood and raised his hand: "Alright, you all, how many times have I told you to learn to respect talent. Especially the returning students, you must value their personal wishes!"

Secretary Zhao could only nod repeatedly as he listened to the old man speak. Only after the old man finished did he add a sentence.

“This kid is someone we trained ourselves, not someone who came from outside.”

"Oh?" The old man straightened up.

"After graduation, this kid didn't leave the steel rolling mill for a whole year. I guess he still has feelings for the factory. Back then, when Secretary Liu from the Ministry of Machine Building offered to transfer him there, he didn't even agree!"

The old man laughed heartily.

He walked to the table, picked out a photo, and wrote a message on it.

"Here, give this to the young comrade."

"Also, please pass on a message for me: Health is the most important thing, so remember to balance work and rest!"

Steel rolling mill, factory manager's office.

Yang Youning was personally pouring tea for the two elderly people.

"Master Qin, Master Lin, once you're in the steel rolling mill, we'll be family!"

"Tell me if you have any difficulties!"

After some hesitation, the two elderly men finally spoke up, with the bolder Mr. Qin saying, "Factory manager, we don't have any special requests, it's just that the machinery factory has been withholding our wages for three months. When would you like to pay us?"

"Three months!" Yang Youning exclaimed in surprise. "That's impossible! Why aren't they paying salaries?"

It's important to know that at this time, state-owned enterprises had already implemented wage reforms.

Each state-owned enterprise would hand over all its profits, and then the relevant departments would issue withdrawal slips to the finance departments of each factory.

After the finance staff tallied the amount, they withdrew the cash from the bank and returned to the factory to distribute it.

Because it was a planned economy, regardless of whether your business was doing well or not, your salary was guaranteed to be paid in full, at most you wouldn't get some benefits.

How come there's no salary?

When asked this, the usually shy Master Lin raised his voice.

"At first, the factory manager said that the department had not assigned any tasks, and that our wages would be halved. We were honest and believed whatever he said. But the following month, he said there were no tasks either, and everyone only received 5 yuan for living expenses."

"Then, that son of a bitch said he was going to pull strings in the ministry to find a mission. But he didn't show up for three months."

"We were worried that he might have been detained by some bigwig in the Ministry of Machinery Industry, so we rushed off to look for him."

"Hey!"

Master Lin slammed the teacup down on the table, covered his face with his hands, and began to sob silently.

Master Qin patted his old friend on the shoulder, sighed, and continued, "The Ministry of Machinery said they never saw anyone, and besides, our pay slips have been issued every month."

"The full amount!"

"Huh? Did the factory manager deduct your wages? That shouldn't be the case. Isn't this all handled by the finance department? He shouldn't have access to this area." Yang Youning was a little confused.

In his life, he had never been involved in finance. Wasn't that all handled by the government? He didn't need to worry about it; he could focus solely on boosting production.

Master Qin forced a bitter smile: "Our factory's accountant is the factory manager's sister-in-law."

Gan!

"You can do it like this?" Yang Youning said he learned something new.

"Call the police! Arrest them! Bring them back and execute them!" Yang Youning jumped up and down.

"We caught them! But the money's gone!" Tears welled up in Master Qin's eyes.