A nation's industrial development begins with junior engineers.

At seven o'clock in the morning, as the sky gradually brightened, more and more pedestrians appeared on the road.

He Yuzhu rummaged through his bag and pulled out a dirty mask, putting it on. He returned to the person in the red armband and spoke softly.

"Report! He Yuzhu has completed the street cleaning."

The woman in red armbands took out her notebook and flipped through it again: "Wow, time flies. He Yuzhu, you only have two more days left."

Hearing what the red armband said, He Yuzhu secretly breathed a sigh of relief, picked up the broom, and was about to leave.

"Hey, wait a minute!"

He Yuzhu stiffened, turned around rigidly, and waited nervously for the red armband to speak.

"Here's the thing, there are quite a lot of people at the parade rehearsal today, and I'm short-handed. If you can keep going all day, I can waive the rest of the days for you."

He Yuzhu hesitated for a moment, but after thinking it over, he agreed.

After all, it's just one day. I can grit my teeth and get through it. As for the steel mill, I guess I'll just consider it absenteeism.

Being absent from work is better than losing your job.

Huh? Wasn't He Yuzhu released by Yi Zhonghai through Li Huaide's connections? Why is he sweeping the streets here?

Tsk! How should I put it?

The problem arose from his mouth.

Do you, dear readers, still remember He Yuzhu's "bold statement"?

That's right! It's that line, "Believe it or not, I'll skin you alive!"

This one sentence made Li Huaide's plan to bail out the person linearly more difficult!

It turned out that, under the instructions of the deaf old woman, Yi Zhonghai went directly to ask Li Huaide for help.

Li Huaide figured that with his connections, getting someone out of trouble would be easy. He figured he could take this opportunity to befriend the level 8 fitter at the factory, so he readily agreed.

The original plan was to find Xu Damao, get him to write a letter of understanding, and then take the letter of understanding to the police station, and the person would be released.

Li Huaide, whom Jiangxia met at the clinic that day, was there to do this kind of thing.

Unfortunately, when Yi Zhonghai took the letter of understanding to the police station for questioning, he was met with a lukewarm response.

"The victim must be present in person!"

So Xu Damao was dragged to the police station again. In front of the station chief, he signed a document and accepted five yuan in compensation from Sha Zhu. Only then did the station chief nod and indicate that the matter of the beating was over.

Just as the group was about to take Sha Zhu out, the director casually uttered a single sentence that plunged Sha Zhu back into despair.

"They've dropped their business, but what about his insulting of the police? Openly resisting arrest! He even wanted to skin us police officers alive? Who gave him the guts!"

Well, even Yi Zhonghai is at a loss.

They had no choice but to find Li Huaide again and report the truth.

Li Huaide didn't know why He Yuzhu was so arrogant, but it was really beneath him to give up after only getting half of it.

They reluctantly came up with another plan: to use the factory's security department's name to get the man back from the police station. After all, there was some overlap in their jurisdictions, and since Sha Zhu was a worker at the steel rolling mill, it was all legal and compliant.

Once the person returns to the factory, whether to arrest or release them is entirely up to the security department. With Li Huaide's network of connections, there are still a few security guards in the security department he can command, so it's practically a matter of Li Huaide's word.

Unfortunately, Wang Kui's ruthless crackdown on Zhao Dezhu made the security guards below behave themselves. Li Huaide called several people in a row, but no one dared to step forward and do it.

Helpless, Li Huaide went through a long and complicated process, using some influence from higher-ups, before finally getting the police station chief to relent.

"Reform through labor! Four hours a day for a week, to observe the results!"

At this point, Li Huaide was too lazy to bother anymore; it wasn't worth it for a cook!

So our king of words, He Yuzhu, ended up sweeping the streets.

Therefore, please think twice before you speak!

Meanwhile, in Jiangxia...

Wang Kui finally managed to pull Jiang Xia, whose skin was all wrinkled from soaking and who still didn't want to leave, out of the bathhouse.

The two of them wandered off, hoping to get another meal at the Ministry of Agriculture's canteen, but unfortunately, there was nothing left for them to eat at one o'clock in the afternoon.

Fortunately, the cafeteria staff remembered that the two had gotten out of the minister's car, and after searching for a while, they gave each of them two steamed buns that had been made that morning.

Something is better than nothing, and it just so happens that neither of them is picky.

As Jiang Xia left the ministry building, munching on a steamed bun, he saw a sign on the street and couldn't move.

"Shunlaidong?"

"That's Donglaishun!"

"Oh, I know, the one that sells roast duck. Let's go get some! It's been so long since we've had meat!"

Wang Kui sighed and scratched Jiang Xia's messy hair.

"Stop eating. Come back to the office with me first. Let me interrogate you to see if you're a spy from the south!"

"Huh?" Jiang Xia's eyes widened, her face filled with disbelief.

"Brother Wang, you're actually joking?"

"You were the one joking with me first, okay? Everyone in Beijing knows Donglaishun. They sell roast duck, and the roast duck shop is in Dashilan!"

"Hey, as long as it's meat! It's on me, let's go!"

Wang Kui grabbed him again and said, "What are you thinking about? What time is it? Nobody's even opened the door yet!"

Jiangxia glanced at the entrance of Donglaishun Restaurant and, sure enough, several large wooden planks sealed the gate tightly beneath the marble-carved archway. A small wooden sign hung to the side, with the words "Lunch Break" written in red.

"Let's go, we'll come back later, they don't open until 4 o'clock. Go fix your hair first, it's a complete mess!"

Wang Kui scratched Jiang Xia's messy hair and led him forward.

Jiang Xia glanced at the street sign: No. 33 Jinyu Hutong, "Siliang Hair Salon"!

The walls were decorated with marble, the floors with terrazzo, and the windows facing the street were all adorned with large panes of glass, much like the street-facing shop windows of a modern shopping mall.

Looking through the window, the interior was brightly lit, and the leather barber chairs were full of people. The barbers were all dressed in white coats, like doctors in a hospital.

The male barber wore a tie, while the female barber wore a butterfly collar.

It looks incredibly high-end.

Perhaps because it's close to National Day, there are a lot of people getting haircuts. There's a long queue outside, mostly young women.

How long has it been since this was done?

Jiang Xia clicked his tongue, looked at a barber stall at the corner of the alley, and pulled Wang Kui over there.

The stall owner, an elderly man in his sixties or seventies, was shaving someone sitting on a recliner.

The stall wasn't big; there was a small steamer basket on the left and a peat stove on the right. On the stove was a washbasin, and next to the washbasin stood a towel stick with several white towels neatly arranged on it.

When the old barber saw Jiang Xia and his companion approaching, he asked, "Gentlemen! Are you here for a haircut?"

Before Jiang Xia could reply, the person on the recliner spoke up: "Hey! What did I tell you? There are no more 'masters' anymore! Everyone's a 'comrade' now! You just can't seem to change. Be careful the neighborhood committee doesn't send you away for 'training' again!"

As he spoke, the person on the recliner, covered with a hot towel, turned his head toward Jiang Xia and said, "Young man, you have good taste. Master Qian is a master craftsman in this area; his skills are definitely no worse than the shop across the street!"

Master Qian smiled sheepishly and said to Jiang Xia, "Young man, don't mind it. I'm getting old, and I'm just used to calling you that."

Jiang Xia smiled and said, "It's nothing, it's just a form of address."

Wang Kui habitually looked around.

There was no one around, except for a sanitation worker wearing a mask who was sweeping a large broom idly.