The Grandmother in the Siheyuan

Chapter 193 Expecting Childbirth
In the evening, the whole yard was filled with fragrance. When Liu Hua walked into the courtyard, he smelled an enticing aroma. The smell was quite mixed, with the flavor of noodles with soybean paste and dumplings.

What day is it today? Are we all trying to improve our food today? Dumplings and noodles with soybean paste are delicacies that every household makes to celebrate when good things happen.

"Hua Zi, we're having stuffing today. You'll have a bowl, so you don't have to cook."

"Hua Zi, our family has small bowls of fried food. I'll bring you a bowl when the time comes. You can try my wife's cooking skills."

Liu Hua asked with a smile: "What good things are you doing today? Let's prepare something delicious. It's not the end of the month yet. Be careful that the food money will be used up and you will have nothing to eat at the end of the month."

Yan Fugui directly handed a bowl of dumplings to Liu Hua: "What a good day! Four children from our courtyard went to the steel mill to apply and were all admitted on the spot."

"Then we should celebrate." Liu Hua nodded cheerfully, "But why are you all so enthusiastic towards me? I'm still a little uncomfortable with it."

Yan Fugui generously said: "It has spread everywhere. If you hadn't designed and manufactured the new steel rolling mill, the steel mill wouldn't have been able to expand its recruitment. Everyone is benefiting from you. Isn't it my due to treat you to dumplings?"

"Then I'm welcome." Liu Hua smiled and said, "Actually, this is all arranged by the organization and the superiors. It has nothing to do with me. I'm sorry."

There were four families, two sent noodles, two sent dumplings, and they all said that there was a bowl for Liu Hua, but the bowl was not big.

After all, the celebration was mainly for themselves, and the gift to Liu Hua was at most a small bowl, just for him to taste and share in the good cheer. Four bowls were just enough for Liu Hua to eat.

Today, Yan Fugui was generous enough to make dumplings stuffed with cabbage, half of which was meat and lard. Perhaps in the past ten years, the Yan family had never been so extravagant.

The steel rolling mill recruited nearly a thousand new employees at once. In order to put these new employees to work as soon as possible, a proposal was made at the factory committee meeting to set up several subsidies. Anyone willing to take an apprentice would receive a subsidy of two yuan per month, and for each additional apprentice taken, an extra yuan would be given.

However, in order to prevent people from doing things perfunctorily, the apprentices will be given an assessment every half a month. The content of the assessment is not very deep, but anyone who passes the assessment will receive an additional two yuan subsidy from the master.

If the apprentice can operate independently within three months and ensure quality, quantity and safety, he/she will be rewarded with a 15 yuan apprenticeship bonus.

The subsidy was so generous that it directly stimulated the steel rolling production line and made the masters so excited that if they took in a few more apprentices, the subsidy would be nearly half a month's salary.

So these days you can see that the masters on the front line of steel rolling are followed by at least five apprentices each. The masters give orders loudly, and if some apprentices do not have a good attitude towards learning, they will be directly punished physically. If the apprentices cannot learn, it will affect the master's subsidy.

There was no such thing as humane teaching at that time. It was natural for the master to beat his apprentice. When the apprentice returned home, he would be beaten by his parents. After the beating, the parents would bring gifts to apologize to the master.

Your master is teaching you how to make a living, but you are so lazy about it. This is unacceptable. Your parents will have to say, "You can beat your child as much as you want. If he doesn't listen, beat him to death."

If the master is willing to beat you, it means that there is still a possibility of saving the apprentice. If there are some who are hopeless, the master will directly return them to the workshop director. You have to know that this apprentice is still an apprentice. If his attitude towards work and study is not correct, the factory will directly fire you. It's nothing big. It really proves the saying that if you don't want to do it, there are plenty of people who are willing to do it.

The factory building was built, and while the interior decoration was being carried out, the rolling mill was assembled. The speed can be described as racing against time.

The Beijing Daily reported on the construction speed of the steel mill more than once. The Red Star Steel Mill became the talk of the town for a while, and Li Huaide was praised by his superiors several times.

It was a coincidence that Liu Hua was not in the factory on the first day the new production line was put into operation. His wife was about to give birth, and Liu Hua sent her to Union Hospital three days ago because the due date was approaching, and the earlier she could prepare, the better.

Liu Qing's brother and sister-in-law had to be arranged in a good ward. Since they couldn't afford a single room, a double room was arranged for them.

The person in the same ward was the daughter-in-law of a leader of the city supply and marketing cooperative. She was a pretty nice person. As soon as Liu Feifei moved into the ward, the two of them became like sisters.

As the daughter-in-law of the supply and marketing cooperative leader, think about it, how could she be short of supplies? There was milk powder, malted milk, biscuits, etc. on the bedside table.

This person shared this with Liu Feifei enthusiastically. She was fine with it, but her mother-in-law was a little unhappy.

There was a yin and yang in the words. Liu Feifei ate their food for free, but this daughter-in-law was not a pushover either. She started to argue and directly said a few words to her mother-in-law.

When Liu Feifei went to check, there was no one else in the ward, so the daughter-in-law directly lectured her mother-in-law: "What on earth are you thinking? Do you want to bring disaster to our family?"

The mother-in-law said disapprovingly: "It's just a few words, what's the big deal? She is justified in eating our food for free."

"No wonder my father-in-law always says you are petty." The daughter-in-law frowned and said, "Don't you think about where this is? This is Union Hospital, the best hospital in the country. To be able to stay in a double room here, do you think the people here don't have a background?"

"Didn't she say her husband is an engineer?" The mother-in-law said disdainfully, "He doesn't even have an administrative level. I don't know how much money he spent and how many people he hired to get him to live here."

"The best engineers are equivalent to department-level cadres in the ministry. Can our father reach that level in his lifetime?"

The mother-in-law sneered: "You also said that is the best, can the men in their family reach that level?"

"The man is only in his early twenties this year." The daughter-in-law sighed and said, "He is already an engineer at such a young age. How do you know that he can't reach that level? Do you know what it means to be an engineer for a long time?"

Although the mother-in-law didn't think her daughter-in-law was right, she stopped being irritated and just kept a cold face.

After get off work in the afternoon, Old Liu came directly to Union Hospital with Liu Ma and a lot of things. He was supposed to send Liu Feifei over today, but unfortunately, the couple both had something to do today.

Liu Feifei was picked up by Liu Qing. As soon as Liu Qing entered the ward, she complained, "Why doesn't the second girl get a single room?"

Father Liu said helplessly: "This is Union Hospital. How can we live in a single room if we don't have a certain level? The old man can live here, but we are not at this level yet."

Aunt Liu said unwillingly, "Isn't Huazi's treatment enough?"

Father Liu shook his head: "His level of treatment is enough, but he is young and already attracts attention. Don't make it too ostentatious."

(End of this chapter)