Courtyard House: From Bloodsucking Jia Zhangshi to Industrial Giant

On his way back to the courtyard house from Mianhua Hutong, Zhang Chengfei looked at the endless stream of disdain points appearing before him, like fireworks exploding, and thought to himself that Er Ya must have put in a lot of effort tonight.

If she could do this every day, wouldn't reaching the King rank be just around the corner?

But why is Sha Zhu the one with the most dislikes? Could it be that he was bothering Qin Huairu again and got caught by Er Ya and got yelled at?

Or did Er Ya instruct Bang Geng to steal their things again? No, that can't be right. He Yuzhu is the kind of person who takes the concept of "love me, love my dog" to the extreme.

He wasn't afraid of the thieves stealing from him, but he was afraid that the thieves wouldn't steal from his house. In the TV series, every time he was robbed, he would laugh it off, thinking it was a sign that the children were close to him.

Zhang Chengfei was puzzled, but soon he was no longer puzzled.

"What? Brother Da Mao, you're saying Brother Zhu Zi was harassing my chubby niece?"

After listening to Xu Damao's story, Zhang Chengfei suddenly felt a bit oxygen-deprived in his brain.

"Yes, you didn't see it! Back then, that shameless idiot Zhu... Aunt Zhang said she was Uncle Jia's chaste and virtuous woman and wanted to hang herself to show her loyalty... Later, it was Uncle Jia again..." Xu Damao recounted the story with great enthusiasm, gesturing wildly and adding fuel to the fire.

Halfway through the conversation, Sha Zhu returned from the wilderness. Seeing him making fun of him again, he immediately rushed over and beat him up without saying a word.

The two immediately started fighting. To call it a fight would be giving Xu Damao too much credit; most of the time, he was the one being beaten.

The two fought from the front yard to the middle yard, and then to the back yard.

After watching too many fights, Zhang Chengfei got bored. He opened the door and went inside. He turned on the electric blanket, tidied up the stove, and fetched water to wash up.

He didn't go to the Intermediate Court to comfort his chubby niece who had just been "groped," because even a fool could figure out that Sha Zhu didn't even look at Zhang Erya.

Why didn't this guy get married in the original drama? Besides being attracted to Qin Huairu, there was an even more important reason: he had high standards.

In the drama, the women he fancied—Yu Haitang, Ran Qiuye, and Lou Xiao'e—were all beauties.

A person who always appreciates daffodils will not suddenly put green onions in their vase.

What's more, the 3,688 points of dislike provided by Sha Zhu today are no joke. What is this? This is the best evidence that Sha Zhu has been wronged!

Therefore, Zhang Chengfei was certain that the so-called "groping incident" was Er Ya's doing.

Of course, he knew it, but to save his dislike points, he could only pretend not to know.

So, silly Zhu, in this crucial moment, I'll just have to ask you to make do...

After tidying up, Zhang Chengfei lay down on the bed and snuggled into the warm blankets, ready to sleep. At the same time, he was thinking that there were too few entertainment options these days, and that he would build his own radio when he had the chance.

I got sleepy while thinking about it, but I made sure to turn off the electric blanket before going to sleep. These days, the voltage is unstable, and sleeping with an electric blanket on can easily turn you into a roast duck.

He was sleeping soundly, but the Yi family was having a sleepless night.

9:30

After washing his feet, Yi Zhonghai looked at his wife, who was sitting at the table deep in thought, and asked her what was wrong with her today, why she seemed so absent-minded.

An older woman looked over and slowly said, "Old Yi, why don't you go out and have a child with someone else?"

"What?" Yi Zhonghai's eyes widened.

The woman took a deep breath and said, "I'm telling you, go out and find someone to have a child with, bring it back, and I promise to raise it as my own."

Yi Zhonghai was silent for a while: "Did Zhang Erya provoke you again today? She has a foul mouth, don't take her words to heart."

An older woman gave a bitter smile: "She's right. A woman who doesn't have children isn't worthy of being a woman. Old Yi, I know you're loyal and righteous, but I can't let you be gossiped about behind your back because of me..."

"I'm begging you, please go out and have a child with someone to continue the Yi family line, so I won't feel so guilty, okay?"

Yi Zhonghai felt a pang of sadness in his heart, and his lips parted several times. For a fleeting moment, he wanted to impulsively say something.

But the words changed as they reached his lips: "Don't talk nonsense, Xinghua. We've been together for almost twenty years. Don't you know what kind of person I am?"

"Child, it would be great if we had it, but if we don't, we can still live a good life."

He lay down, pulled the covers over himself, and turned his back to the older woman, saying in a muffled voice, "It's late, go to sleep. Don't bring up what we just said again."

The woman could no longer hold back and burst into tears, sobbing uncontrollably on the table.

That evening, Zhang Erya sat on the kang (a heated brick bed), leaning against the wall, reciting "The Road to Shu is Hard." Halfway through, she suddenly slapped her thigh and exclaimed, "It's 'defilement,' not 'improper occupation'!"

She used to never pay attention to her vocabulary when she swore, but now she feels it's necessary to be careful.

"Third Uncle is right, there is no end to learning, keep learning..." Zhang Erya shook her head and continued to recite.

The next two days were pretty much the same: drawing, learning German, and collecting dislike points in the courtyard.

If there's anything worth mentioning, it's that Zhang Chengfei received a huge amount of dislike from Er Ya because of "The Road to Shu".

Furthermore, after a week of hard work by the R&D team, the design work for the mini-tiller is finally nearing completion.

In three days at most, this work will be completely finished.

After lunch break on Friday, Zhang Chengfei went downstairs to wash his face. When he returned to his office, Xiao Ke came over and said that the factory manager wanted to see him.

"Did the factory manager say what he wanted to see me about?" Zhang Chengfei asked.

"No, but judging from Secretary Zhu's expression, it's probably good news."

Great news! Of course I'd love to be included!

Zhang Chengfei walked briskly to the factory director's office on the fourth floor.

Their machine factory was small, unlike large steel mills with many leaders. Many positions here were held concurrently. For example, both the Party Secretary and the Factory Director were held by Fatty Feng.

Then, since Lao Ma from the technical department was actually there to investigate the case and didn't really manage the technical department's affairs, Fatty Feng would also pay more attention to this area.

Zhang Chengfei figured that the reason Feng Dapang was looking for him was probably about the electric kettle.

Upon entering, Fatty Feng's words confirmed his statement.

"The approval from the higher authorities has come through, allowing us to set up a production line to independently produce electric heating cups, without needing to cooperate with the steel rolling mill."

He paused for a moment, then said, "The electric heating cup was developed by you, and no one knows it better than you. So I've decided to appoint you as the workshop manager."

Zhang Chengfei wanted to decline: "I still need to research mini-tillers, and I really don't have the energy."

"I've taken that into consideration, so I've assigned Lao Niu and Lao Pang as your deputies."

You may not know Lao Niu and Lao Pang, but they have over twenty years of work experience and ample experience in grassroots management.

Old Feng told Zhang Chengfei that appointing him as the workshop manager was just a nominal position, and that he wouldn't need to oversee the workshop except during very rare special periods.

"It won't interfere with your work with the mini-tiller. Besides..." Old Feng paused, "and since you're nominally in charge, you can get an extra subsidy."

Zhang Chengfei suddenly realized: "Then how about I take the deputy position, and the head position can be chosen from the two veteran comrades who have contributed the most?"

Seeing that he understood what he meant, Director Feng took out an oily twisted bag from under the table and handed it to him.

"Uncle Feng, what is this?"