Back to the 80s Machinery Factory

Chapter 539 The Subtle Crisis of the Four Group Leaders
Chen Luyang was taken aback, then said seriously, "Being a monk means you can't eat meat! Sweet and sour pork, braised pork belly, pork ribs stewed with sauerkraut, all gone!"

what? !

Sun Junjun's face instantly contorted in distress.

"Then...then I won't be the abbot, I'll just be an ordinary monk who beats people, and after I'm done, I can go home and eat meat, okay?"

Chen Lingling rolled her eyes helplessly.

"Go back and ask your mom first. We'll talk about it after she agrees!"

On the other side, Chen Xiaoling said happily:
"Jet Li is quite handsome, but I think Wang Xingang is more energetic..."

"Forget it!" Chen Luyang scoffed.

"Can Wang Xingang take on ten people at once? Can he catch a vulture with his bare hands?"

"A man must have real skills!"

"JunJun, aren't you right?"

Sun Junjun exclaimed indignantly, "Yes! Uncle! I want to learn martial arts! I want to become a monk!"

"Monks cannot eat meat!"

"...Then I'll think about it some more."

……

It's quiet at night.

The north wind howled against the window, and Chen Luyang lay on the kang (a heated brick bed), snoring loudly.

I'm exhausted...

After watching the movie, Junjun went home and kept pestering Chen Luyang to spar with him all the way.

Finally, he even had Chen Luyang carry him and simulate light-footed skills on the snow, running from one end of the alley to the other.

Poor Chen Luyang was like a silly roe deer, taking Junjun out to play again and again.

Finally, he simply couldn't run anymore.

Chen Luyang had no choice but to persuade his nephew that light footwork was meaningless, and that stick fighting was the way to go!

I'll whittle a wooden stick for Junjun tomorrow so he can practice stick fighting.

No one dares to mess with someone who knows how to use a stick!

Sure enough, children are the easiest to fool.

Upon hearing that there were big wooden sticks to play with, Junjun immediately abandoned his light-body skills and instead prepared to practice stick techniques with anticipation.

As he slept, Chen Luyang turned over on the kang (a heated brick bed) and scratched his belly with the back of his hand.

In a daze,
What did Chen Jinyue say to me that day...?
The next day, Chen Luyang sat at her desk translating, pausing occasionally to think.

Hey!

It's all my fault for being so naive and inexperienced!
How come I'm so distracted just from a girl holding my hand that I forget everything she's saying?

However, it's definitely not an important matter!

Otherwise, I would definitely remember it.

And so it went until noon when I went to the cafeteria and saw Song Liaosha wrapped in a thick cotton-padded coat, shivering from the cold as she got her food!
Chen Luyang remembered.

"Great Song Dynasty, are you free this weekend?"

"Nothing's wrong, Brother Chen?"

"If you don't have anything else to do, don't make any plans. Come to the zoo with me, your sister-in-law, and her friend."

Song Liaosha asked in confusion, "Why did you call me when you went to the zoo?"

Chen Luyang said, "It's that Shen Xia, the one who climbed Shuanglong Mountain last year. That girl has taken a liking to you, but she can't seem to see you. She asked me to play matchmaker."

To everyone's surprise, mentioning the name would have been better; Song Liaosha immediately refused.

"Forget it! Let whoever wants to go, I'm not going."

Chen Luyang was taken aback: "What's wrong?"

Song Liaosha looked disgusted: "The way that woman looked at me was like a mother looking at her son. It made me feel uncomfortable all over."

Chen Luyang gently advised from the side, "But they're just worried about you!"

Song Liaosha glared at her: "What are you worried about me for?"

Chen Luyang said in a serious tone: "Then there are many more who feel heartache."

"My heart aches for your vulnerability and sorrow, and for your independence and strength."

"It breaks my heart to see you taking care of your younger siblings, and it breaks my heart to see your ambitions soaring."

"I still feel sorry for you, you're like the Northeastern Gorky..."

In the end, Chen Luyang laughed at himself.

Shen Xia is a wonderful girl in every way, except that she has poor eyesight.

None of the things she cherished were related to Song Liaosha.

Still fragile and sorrowful...

If Song Liaosha is fragile and melancholic, then Chen Dazhi could be called Lin Daiyu.

Seeing Chen Luyang's gloating expression, Song Liaosha's expression twisted in disgust.

"Alright, alright, stop being so heartbroken."

"Let's go, let's go! Let's leave this weekend!"

"This time I'll show her what true fragility and sorrow are."

……

In fact, Chen Luyang was not really accepting of Chen Jinyue's suggestion.

He finally managed to get a date with the girl, and he was secretly hoping to be held hands with her again, but instead, there were two extra people around.

Annoying.

If it weren't for the fear of upsetting Chen Jinyue, who might think I wasn't taking her words seriously...
He wanted to pretend he was deaf and dumb and completely forget about it.

In the afternoon, we returned to the rubber workshop.

As Chen Luyang walked into the room, she asked Du Han to call the four group leaders to her office.

while walking,

Suddenly Chen Luyang stopped in her tracks.
He took two steps back and peered sideways into the corner of the workshop.

On an open space closest to the vulcanizing machine, Xiang Guowu was leading more than twenty young people in a bustling activity.

Chen Luyang narrowed her eyes and quietly observed for a long time.

Xiang Guowu, with his sleeves rolled up and covered in sweat, squatted in front of the machine, gesturing and occasionally reaching out to correct a young man's posture.

Although his hands were covered in black grime and his trousers were a mess from the glue splattered from the vulcanizing machine,
But when he talks about his work, he speaks with great energy and can explain complex procedures clearly in just a few words.

A group of young people stood on tiptoe around him, their eyes shining as they listened. The atmosphere seemed even more enthusiastic than when they were actually working.

hey~
This national martial art is quite impressive!

Chen Luyang raised an eyebrow.

These twenty young men were originally selected from four groups.

People are restless and prone to making doubts.

I felt like I was kicked out, and I had some negative feelings about it.

Unexpectedly, Xiang Guowu didn't put on any airs at all. Instead, he rushed to the front line, handling everything from the smallest details to teaching as he went.

In just two days, these twenty people became familiar with him.

Good.

"Brother Xiang!" Chen Luyang called out.
"Come here."

Xiang Guowu was demonstrating on the machine tool when he heard Chen Luyang's voice. He wiped his hands, which were covered in black marks, and replied cheerfully:
"coming!"

As he spoke, he put the tools on the table, said, "Just do as I say," and then strode over to Chen Luyang.

Five people entered the office. Just as Dong Mangui closed the door, Chen Luyang cut to the chase and asked:
"How did the rubber issue fare during the factory's trial run?"

Huang Pingtao spoke first: "Director, we have re-inspected more than 1,200 rubber pieces in the past few days, and scrapped more than 30 pieces. "The batch of materials we rushed to finish before had rubber sleeves that were too hard and cushioning pads that were too soft. When the truck was loaded and braked suddenly, the truck body would shake."

"In response to these problems, we adjusted the formula, switched back to qualified raw materials, and recalibrated the process time."

"After small-batch testing, the hardness and rebound of the test material met the standards. The hardness of the shock-absorbing rubber sleeve was around 55, and the buffer pad was around 65. The pass rate was 99%."

"Over the weekend, the test vehicle team drove more than 90 kilometers and braked hard five times, and there was no more shaking."

"Mm." Chen Luyang nodded.

Problems are not scary, as long as they are resolved in time.

"I called you all here today mainly because of another matter."

Chen Luyang said, "I had dinner with some classmates from the provincial university over the weekend, and they said the rubber gloves in the lab were too thin. I was wondering if we had any ideas on how to increase the thickness of the gloves to meet their experimental requirements?"

Ok? !

The four people and Xiang Guowu were taken aback.

The rubber workshop has been extremely busy lately.

Running tracks, boiler plant seals, chemical plant gaskets, and key components for the fly-up and fusion workshops...

With tasks piling up, the workers were exhausted.

Now the director has proposed procuring laboratory gloves for the provincial university?

Can everyone handle this?
Moreover,
Shouldn't lab gloves be the job of a rubber factory?
The group exchanged glances.

Although he had doubts, Huang Pingtao spoke first:

"Director, the rubber gloves used in the lab are different from the work gloves we usually use."

"Lab gloves need to be resistant to acids, alkalis, and solvents, which is why they are thin and easy to handle. If they were thicker, more natural rubber and fillers would have to be added to the formula to make them stronger. But that would reduce their elasticity, and they would feel tight on the hands after wearing them for a long time, which would also reduce their dexterity."

Zhao Yuejin chimed in: "And it has to meet the laboratory requirements, and we also have to ensure that the thickness is sufficient and that it's not prone to cracking. The quality control team can monitor the hardness and tensile strength, but we need to do several batches of samples before we can get the results. We're short-staffed right now, so the timeline has to be pushed back."

Sun Jianbo said cautiously, "Director, it's not that we can't do it, but we'll need to put in more effort. Right now, we're rushing to finish the car parts, so if we want to squeeze in this work, we'll have to switch shifts, otherwise we won't be able to manage both."

After the group finished speaking, the room fell silent.

Chen Luyang leaned back in her chair, her fingers tapping lightly on the table.

He understood what everyone meant.

He is capable.

But right now we're short-staffed and have a lot of tasks, and this job isn't within my job scope, so getting involved would just be adding to the burden.

Chen Luyang did not immediately express her opinion, but instead turned her gaze to Xiang Guowu, who had remained silent.

"Brother Xiang, what's your opinion?"

Xiang Guowu was stunned for a moment, not expecting Chen Luyang to call his name.

Originally, he was just standing at the back, a mere observer.

Having been away from the workshop for over a year, he was no longer familiar with management matters such as task assignment and expediting work schedules, and he didn't want to get involved.

Since Chen Luyang had asked, Xiang Guowu didn't stand on ceremony and answered from a purely technical perspective:

"I've seen the rubber gloves in the provincial university's lab before, and they are indeed thin."

"If you want to thicken it, simply adding more rubber is not enough; you also need to adjust the mold size and vulcanization time."

"My suggestion is to borrow two old hand molds and impregnation tanks from a rubber factory or chemical research institute to obtain some basic impregnation process data. We can then test a small batch of samples, increasing the thickness to 1.5 times that of normal gloves, and add some corrosion-resistant agent to the formula. We can then observe the feedback from actual use. If it meets the requirements, we can gradually adjust it based on the laboratory's feedback."

Chen Luyang looked up and asked, "You mean you can do it?"

Xiang Guowu readily agreed, "It can be done, but we have to take it one step at a time."

Chen Luyang countered, "If we really do it, how long will it take to produce a finished product?"

Xiang Guowu pondered for a moment: "Given the current conditions in our workshop, it will take at least a month."

"The workshop has processes for mixing rubber and vulcanization, but the product has changed from hoses to gloves. Although gloves are small, the process is much more delicate. First, you have to figure out the formula, then adjust the mold, and finally, you have to test repeatedly."

"One month is the fastest possible time."

Seeing Chen Luyang and Xiang Guowu getting more and more into the conversation about rubber gloves, Dong Mangui couldn't help but remind them from the side:

"Director, there's something I need to remind you of: all products in the factory are made according to work orders. If we make things without approval, it's considered a violation."

Although the machinery factory is large and has many tasks,

However, all parts production is subject to strict quotas and work orders, and cannot be carried out haphazardly outside of the plan.

Unauthorized mold making and private production are acts that cross the line.

If discovered, the consequences range from a public reprimand to disciplinary action against the entire workshop.

Chen Luyang waved her hand: "I know that."

"I'll handle the rest of the problems. I just want to ask if you can do this?"

Upon hearing this, the four group leaders exchanged bewildered glances.

Nowadays, the workshop's main task is producing car parts. Everyone knows that only by ensuring the success of this production line can we achieve results.

However, rubber gloves were not part of the plan. The thickness and drug resistance had to be reconsidered, and adjusting the formula would be wasteful of materials. Nobody really wanted to be involved.

Just as the group was hesitating, Xiang Guowu suddenly shouted in a loud voice:
"can."

moment!

Four complex and scrutinizing gazes all fell upon Xiang Guowu.

Xiang Guowu didn't care at all.

Anyway, he who is barefoot is not afraid of those who wear shoes.

He's capable of this, he really is!
There's nothing to hide.

"Okay! I get it."

Seeing Xiang Guowu's response, Chen Luyang felt more confident.

"You guys go back to work first."

"I'll consult with the factory leaders again about this matter. Once it's confirmed, we can discuss the details further."

Seeing the four group leaders turn to leave, Chen Luyang called out:
"Brother Xiang, could you stay for a moment?"

Upon hearing this, the four people who had walked out of the office exchanged glances.

Although his expression remained calm, his heart was in turmoil.

As soon as Xiang Guowu returned, Chen Luyang called him into his office twice, assigning him personnel and providing him with equipment.

And it's only been a few days? Those kids are already following Old Xiang around.

If this continues, it won't be long before those young people all start to side with Lao Xiang.

In a flash,

A faint sense of crisis permeated the hearts of the four people.

……

In the office,

Chen Luyang closed the door slightly, invited Xiang Guowu to sit on the sofa, and smiled as she pushed a pot of hot tea in front of him:

"Brother Xiang, how are you adjusting to working in the workshop these past few days?"

Xiang Guowu took the teacup: "There's nothing I'm not used to, it's just that the people here are a bit unfamiliar."

Chen Luyang said cheerfully, "It doesn't matter if people are unfamiliar with each other; they'll naturally become familiar with each other over time."

After a pause,
Chen Luyang's tone became serious: "Brother Xiang, as you know, our rubber workshop is quite large now, but there are only a handful of people who can truly hold their own in terms of technology."

"No matter how capable I am as the director, I can't possibly know everything. In the end, we still have to rely on you experts."

Xiang Guowu quickly waved his hand: "Director, you flatter me too much. I'm just an old worker with some skills, nothing special."

Chen Luyang shook his head and said seriously, "Brother Xiang, the workshop is currently facing a heavy workload and is short-staffed."

"I feel truly at ease and grateful that you can come back at this time."

“I usually have to go to schools, so I’m not in the workshop most of the time.”

“You and Brother Huang are both veterans in the workshop, each with your own strengths. But when it comes to expertise and technology, you are the most capable. I hope you can be a pillar of strength in the workshop and support the technical side.”

(End of this chapter)