Siheyuan: Starting from 1958

Just when Yi Zhonghai thought that the young man in front of him would cry with joy, excitedly ask him to be his disciple, and beg him to be his master, an unexpected scene occurred.

The young man standing in front of Yi Zhonghai showed no excitement at all. Instead, he asked righteously in front of many workers around him: "Master Yi..."

"As far as I know, you have trained quite a few apprentices in our workshop, but it seems that none of them has passed the third-level fitter exam."

"There has been a rumor in our workshop that a certain master is worried that his apprentice will starve to death if he teaches his students."

“When I teach my apprentices locksmithing skills, I always like to keep some tricks in reserve.”

"All other machinists' apprentices have passed the fifth-level machinist exam, but your apprentice, Master Yi, is the only one who has not passed the third-level machinist exam. The old master in the rumor is not you, right?"

"I don't want to be an apprentice to an old master who likes to keep his secrets to himself, and then work hard all my life to become a third-level fitter."

"And you were punished several times at the steel mill. I won't go into the details of why you were punished."

"If I really take you as my master, I will definitely be criticized in the future at the steel mill."

"So even if I work as a regular worker in a workshop for my whole life and never have a master to teach me, I will never take an old fitter with questionable character as my master."

Yi Zhonghai's face suddenly turned red with shame, his head almost dropped into his crotch, and he wanted to open his mouth to refute the other party.

But no matter how hard I racked my brains, I couldn't find any reason to refute it, because what the other party just said was true.

At this moment, a level 6 fitter who was a little younger than Yi Zhonghai and looked down on Yi Zhonghai from the bottom of his heart suddenly spoke up.

"well said……"

"Whether we are being a person or learning an art, we should always put character first."

"If you don't have a good team, even if you become a senior fitter by chance, you will fall flat on your face one day in the future."

"Young man, although I am only a level 6 fitter, because the steel mill has not held a level test for a long time, if I am allowed to take the test now, I will definitely have no problem passing the level 7 fitter test.

“Although I am still a little behind Master Yi in terms of skills, I never hold back when teaching my apprentices.”

"If I remember correctly, my most capable apprentice has already passed the sixth-level fitter exam. I wonder if you would like to take me as your master."

"If you like, I can take you as my apprentice."

Standing in front of Yi Zhonghai, he, who had a rebellious look just now, became excited in an instant, strode to the sixth-level fitter who had just spoken, and without any hesitation, knelt down in front of him.

"Master, I am willing to take you as my master..."

After saying that, he kowtowed to the other person three times.

The sixth-level fitter seemed very satisfied with this apprentice. He helped him up personally and introduced his other two apprentices to him, looking very happy.

Looking at Yi Zhonghai again, his blushing face had turned ashen.

He never expected that the other party would rather learn from a level 6 fitter as his master than learn from himself, who has level 8 fitter skills.

Seeing his fellow workers pointing fingers at him, Yi Zhonghai knew that the best way to restore his reputation now was to find an apprentice and make the other party willingly become his disciple.

Soon he fixed his eyes on another apprentice who didn't have a master yet. Seeing Yi Zhonghai striding towards him, the apprentice knew what he wanted to do no matter how stupid he was, and he frowned and refused before Yi Zhonghai could speak.

"Master Yi..."

"If you want me to be your disciple, forget it..."

"I will never take an old fitter with questionable character as my master, otherwise my father will beat me to death with his shoe insoles when I get home from get off work."

Just when Yi Zhonghai was embarrassed and didn't know how to respond, another fitter next to him who was only level 5 suddenly said: "Young man..."

"I think I'm a pretty good person, except that my level as a fitter is a little low, only level five, but I'm still qualified to take in apprentices."

"If you like, you can learn benchwork from me after you finish your job as a porter this month."

The second apprentice who was chosen by Yi Zhonghai went straight to the fifth-level fitter after hearing this, knelt on the ground and began to kowtow.

After two apprentices in a row refused to be his apprentices, Yi Zhonghai didn't know how to describe his bad mood at the moment.

If he had known this, he would rather pay someone to help Banggeng complete the moving task, rather than accepting an apprentice in front of all the workers in the workshop, which was really a disgrace to him.

Although it was embarrassing, Yi Zhonghai seemed to be in a fight with these apprentices today, and he was determined not to give up until he found an apprentice.

I went straight to the third apprentice, but was rejected again.

When it came to the fourth apprentice, the other party did not refuse, but put forward a condition that Yi Zhonghai found difficult to agree to on the spot.

"Master Yi... I can take you as my master, but you have to agree to two conditions." This young man is not like the three honest men Yi Zhonghai had seen before. His brain works even faster than Bang Geng's. As far as being sneaky and cunning is concerned, the two Bang Gengs can't compare to him.

In order to accept a disciple and save his face, Yi Zhonghai tried his best today.

I quickly replied, "What conditions... As long as they are not excessive and do not violate the principles, I will definitely agree to them."

The young man replied without thinking, "After becoming your disciple, I can freely choose my partner when I work as a porter. You cannot force me to form a team with Bang Geng in the name of master."

"The deputy director who manages us has said that team formation must be voluntary on both sides and no one can force it. Otherwise, it would be a violation of the rules and regulations of the steel mill."

Yi Zhonghai's face suddenly turned red.

The purpose of finding an apprentice among the apprentices is to find someone to team up with Banggeng and help Banggeng complete the daily moving tasks.

If the apprentice that I have found with great difficulty does not agree to team up with Banggeng and is unwilling to help Banggeng complete the handling task, then why do I still need an apprentice? Can't he just spend his days in the workshop?
But at this moment, Yi Zhonghai had been forced into a corner by a group of workers for the sake of his reputation. If he refused now, it would be even more embarrassing.

Facing the other party's provocative gaze, he could only nod: "Okay..."

"I agree to this condition. Do you have any other conditions?"

The young man continued: "There is one more condition..."

"From now on, whenever you teach Bang Geng the locksmith skills, I will stand by your side. No matter what tasks you assign to me, Bang Geng must complete them with me. This is to prevent you from using my time to do things to teach Bang Geng special things and not teaching me the real locksmith skills."

"As long as you agree to these two conditions, I will take you as my master now." (End of this chapter)