The Fiery Era: Becoming an Industrial Giant

Chapter 170 Father-in-law and Mother-in-law Return Home
Sijiucheng Railway Station.

Zhou Zhiqiang held up a homemade sign, which was actually just a patchwork of a wooden stick and a wooden board with several pieces of paper hanging on it, bearing the name Guo Linhua.

As soon as the train pulled into the station, Guo Yuting couldn't help but tug at Zhou Zhiqiang and say, "It's here, Zhiqiang, is this the one?"

"Probably. Dad and the others should have bought hard sleeper tickets to come back. We'll definitely be able to wait for him here."

After Zhou Zhiqiang finished speaking, he held the sign high, as if afraid that Guo Linhua and his mother-in-law would not see it and miss it.

After the train came to a complete stop, people began to disembark en masse. At this point, Zhou Zhiqiang held the sign high so that everyone getting off the train could see it.

Not long after, Guo Yuting spotted her parents, who were leading a child, getting off the bus. She excitedly called out, "Zhiqiang, Mom and Dad are over there! Dad! Mom! Zhiqiang and I are here!"

Guo Linhua, who was in the distance, also heard his daughter's shouts. He looked up and saw his student and son-in-law holding a wooden sign with his and his wife's names on it, waiting for him by the pillar.

"Our daughter and Zhiqiang are here to pick us up, let's go quickly."

Guo Linhua said this to his wife, and then quickly came over with bags and packages.

Once they were close, Guo Yuting excitedly stepped forward and hugged her mother, Mei Xiuxue, saying happily, "Dad, Mom, you're finally back! You've been gone for three years!"

Seeing her daughter's eyes welling up with tears of joy, Mei Xiuxue comforted her, saying, "Alright, you're a grown woman now that you're a mother, don't cry at the station."

Guo Linhua said from the side, "You yourself shed tears, and you're talking about your daughter."

"You old man."

After Zhou Zhiqiang finished processing the wooden sign, he stepped forward to take the backpack from Guo Linhua: "Dad, let me carry these backpacks."

"Okay, thank you for your hard work."

After handing over all the bags he was carrying to Zhou Zhiqiang, Guo Linhua looked at the outstanding young man before him with increasing satisfaction.

After three years apart, his student seemed to have completely transformed.

Although it's still the same face, he exudes confidence, and his smile gives people a comfortable feeling while also conveying a sense of leadership.

This was completely different from Guo Linhua's impression of Zhou Zhiqiang. In his memory, the student was diligent and hardworking, but somewhat taciturn due to family reasons.

However, when I saw Zhou Zhiqiang again three years later, he seemed like a completely different person.

“Zhiqiang, although I learned some of what you did from the letter, I still don’t know the details. Now you have to tell me properly.”

Guo Linhua patted Zhou Zhiqiang on the shoulder and felt that his son-in-law's body had become much stronger, his shoulders almost as hard as steel.

"Okay, Dad, I'll talk to you properly when we get back."

Zhou Zhiqiang said with a smile, "Let's go home first. The buses are so crowded right now, we'll probably have to wait for several if it's late."

Yuting and I have bought all the groceries for home, so we can cook as soon as we get back.

Guo Linhua smiled and nodded, saying, "Okay, let's go back and talk about it later."

After saying that, Guo Linhua told his wife and daughter to go home first. Zhou Zhiqiang and Guo Yuting took all the things they brought. As for his elder brother's son, he stayed with Mei Xiuxue.

At their first meeting, the children were quite unfamiliar with Zhou Zhiqiang and Guo Yuting, but after Guo Yuting gave them a few candies on the way, they gradually became acquainted.

Guo Yuting asked curiously, "Mom, didn't you say that my eldest brother and sister-in-law had two children? What about my little nephew?"

"They're too young, not old enough to start school yet, so we won't bring them back."

Mei Xiuxue said, "They'll stay with them for a few years, and then maybe a few more years before they have to be sent back."

Guo Yuting nodded and said, "I see."

After leaving the station, the group headed towards the bus stop.

However, there were so many people waiting at the bus stop that they missed the first bus and had to wait for another one before Zhou Zhiqiang and his friends finally managed to squeeze onto the bus.

After being crammed into the car for a while, Zhou Zhiqiang and his group finally got off near Nanluoguxiang.

After getting off the bus, Guo Linhua said with lingering fear, "There were just too many people. I almost thought I was going to be crushed to death."

Zhou Zhiqiang said, "There are quite a lot of people, but it's a pity that our factory's drivers are on holiday, otherwise I would have borrowed a car from the factory to pick you up."

Guo Yuting replied with some pride, "Dad, Zhiqiang is now the deputy director of the Second Machine Tool Factory, and he might become the director in two years."

He now commutes to get off work in a car, and he hardly ever rides the bicycle you bought him.”

But Guo Yuting remembered it wrong. The new car was replaced with a 26-inch bicycle for her to ride. Zhou Zhiqiang used to ride the old bicycle that Guo Linhua left behind.

However, anyone could hear the boastfulness in Guo Yuting's words; her smugness was not concealed at all and was written all over her face.

"how about you."

Guo Linhua pressed, "Zhiqiang is the person I chose, of course I know his abilities. I heard you were transferred from the hospital's logistics department to the street office, is it because you were slacking off?"

"Dad, what are you saying? I had just given birth to Bo Cai and was in the hospital all day. What if Bo Cai caught a disease?"

Guo Yuting defended herself somewhat embarrassedly, saying that although she also found the increasingly busy work in the pharmacy a bit unbearable, she absolutely could not admit it.

"Besides, the neighborhood office is also serving the people. I haven't been slacking off or not working. You're just prejudiced against me."

Guo Linhua glanced at his daughter and said in a calm tone, "I know you."

Unable to win the argument, Guo Yuting turned to Mei Xiuxue to complain, saying, "Mom, look at my dad..."

Mei Xiuxue watched her husband scold their daughter, smiled but didn't say anything. However, she felt her eldest grandson tugging at her, so she looked down and found that her eldest grandson, Guo Chenghua, was standing still and didn't want to move.

"Chenghua, what's wrong? Are you tired from walking?"

Zhou Zhiqiang, with his sharp eyes, noticed that his nephew's eyes were fixed on the candied hawthorn stall, so he said, "Want some candied hawthorn? Yuting, buy a skewer for Chenghua, a few to whet his appetite."

"Row."

After Guo Yuting finished speaking, she patted Guo Chenghua's little head and said with a smile, "Little Chenghua, next time you want to eat something, just tell your aunt."

After saying that, Guo Yuting went and bought two strings of candied hawthorns.

These vendors are small, local businesses. The "Four Cleanups" campaign hasn't started yet, and the neighborhood committee is tacitly approving of it.

The regulations were lax during the period before the Lunar New Year; as long as you didn't sell in front of the street office patrol team, you were fine.

A skewer costs five cents and has only four or five hawthorns on it, with pitifully little syrup; however, it's still a decent snack and very appealing to children.

When Guo Yuting returned with the candied hawthorns, Guo Chenghua couldn't resist reaching out to ask for some. However, after receiving the candied hawthorns, he immediately said to Guo Yuting, "Thank you, Auntie."

Upon seeing this, Zhou Zhiqiang thought to himself, "Quite polite. It seems my father-in-law and mother-in-law have done a good job teaching him." After the group returned home, Guo Linhua felt somewhat unfamiliar with the courtyard house; it had changed quite a bit in the past three years.

Zhou Zhiqiang said embarrassedly, "Dad, we made some changes, renovated the yard, and dug a bigger cellar."

"It's great, it looks much better than before, and the toys in the yard are also suitable for children to play with."

Guo Linhua nodded as he spoke, then remembered something and turned to ask, "Zhiqiang, didn't you also buy a courtyard house?"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Zhiqiang said, "That's also in Nanluoguxiang, the No. 131 compound, but it's now rented out to the street office as public rental housing."

Yuting and I were thinking that when Bocai grows up and needs a house to get married, we'll go to the neighborhood office to take the house back and then move in.

Can public rental housing be taken back?

"Yes, it's possible. It will definitely be possible then."

Zhou Zhiqiang said with certainty that when the time comes, there will be a policy for clearing out property owners, and those with complete property certificates and other formalities will be cleared out one by one.

Besides, he'll definitely reach the provincial level, or even the bureau-level, by then. If he can't even get his house back, what will become of him?
Guo Linhua originally wanted to hold his grandson, but Zhou Bo was fast asleep, so he didn't wake the child.

Afterwards, he went out and took a careful walk around the yard. Guo Linhua nodded as he looked around. There were grapevines in the corner and children's toys in the yard.

The front yard was also neat and tidy, and there were even more books in the study, mostly in mechanical, electromechanical and semiconductor fields. He certainly didn't have these books before; they must have been bought by his son-in-law.

"Dad, have a cup of hot tea."

Just as Guo Linhua was looking through the documents in the study, Zhou Zhiqiang pushed open the door and walked in with tea and snacks, saying with a smile, "Mom and Yuting went to prepare lunch. Bocai was woken up by the prickles and is playing with Chenghua in the yard now."

"Come on, Zhiqiang, let's sit down and talk."

When Guo Linhua saw Zhou Zhiqiang come in, he pulled Zhou Zhiqiang to sit down in the study and then asked, "The letter wasn't clear. Tell me about what happened these past few years. How did you become the deputy director of the Second Machine Tool Plant?"

"Actually, it's nothing much. It's just that when I first started working at the Dafeng Agricultural Machinery Equipment Factory, I wanted to research something."

Zhou Zhiqiang smiled and told Guo Linhua everything he had done in recent years.

He was able to successfully develop and manufacture small tractors in his early years thanks to the connections left by Guo Linhua.

Zhou Zhiqiang used Guo Linhua's name to visit and seek help from many people before the project was successfully launched.

After that, his career took off. After securing excellent foreign trade orders for his small tractors at the Canton Fair, Zhou Zhiqiang's career progressed rapidly.

He was then recommended by Professor Fei to join the large hydraulic press project, and he caught the eye of Deputy Leader Wu of the Ministry of Machine Building, who appointed him to work on machine tool research and development at the Second Machine Tool Plant.

The Second Machine Tool Plant has now been revitalized, and it will increase investment and expansion next year. Zhou Zhiqiang is confident that within the next three to five years, the Second Machine Tool Plant will become the number one in the country.

"I'm sorry to have troubled you, Zhiqiang."

After hearing this, Guo Linhua was amazed by his son-in-law's achievements.

He had only been gone for a little over three years, or four years in total. He had sent Zhou Zhiqiang to Dafeng Agricultural Machinery Equipment Factory because he thought that his old friend would take care of him there and that Zhou Zhiqiang and his wife would live a good life.

Unexpectedly, Zhou Zhiqiang soared to great heights. Guo Linhua couldn't help but wonder if Zhou Zhiqiang would achieve even greater success if he were assigned to the technology department of a ministry.
"We have to develop the factory while also taking care of Yuting."

"Dad, that's not true. Actually, Yuting takes care of everything at home."

Zhou Zhiqiang scratched his head and said, "I've been working overtime every day for the past year or so. I usually don't get back until after 10 p.m., and sometimes I'm still busy until 1 or 2 a.m. when I get back."

But Yuting takes good care of the family on her own, and Bocai has grown up to be quite strong.

"Wasn't it someone else who helped her? Don't try to be nice to her. Don't I know my daughter? She's definitely not as hard-working as you are."

Guo Linhua didn't believe that his daughter could manage the household so well; he was sure that someone else was helping her.

"Your current development is beyond my guidance. As for CNC machine tools, I only remember that Tsinghua University and the research institute have developed and manufactured a set. You can use them then. Haha, I'm confused. You must have some ideas."

Guo Linhua laughed halfway through his sentence. He suddenly remembered that his son-in-law student was already the deputy director of the Second Machine Tool Factory and would soon become the director.

Guo Linhua didn't believe his daughter's claim that she would soon become the factory director, but if he heard it from Zhou Zhiqiang again, he would be absolutely convinced.

Especially after hearing that the position of factory director was concurrently held by the party secretary, who hardly did any work and whose production and technological research and development were all handled by Zhou Zhiqiang, Guo Linhua knew that his son-in-law would definitely become the factory director in two years.

The reason Zhou Zhiqiang wasn't appointed as factory director is simply because he's too young, a point Guo Linhua understands.

The Second Machine Tool Plant was, after all, a factory at the deputy department-level, and Zhou Zhiqiang was only in his twenties. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that he was the youngest deputy department-level official in the country.

Moreover, his son-in-law is a Level 5 engineer, which is almost the same as his position as an associate professor. Guo Linhua felt truly gratified after hearing this.

Guo Linhua then asked, "By the way, what about your parents?"

“The Zhou family in Hongqi Village has nothing to do with me anymore. The two of them were sent to the quarry. Although they haven’t returned the money they stole back then, the court ruled that their family’s future work points will be deducted by half and they will have to pay it back slowly.”

Zhou Zhiqiang casually remarked that he had a very bad impression of the Zhou family, considering them complete strangers.

Moreover, the Zhou family had no descendants at the time, so they took the original owner of the body in order to provide for her in her old age. But after they had their own descendants, they changed their attitude towards the original owner.

They have no gratitude but are enemies, and they deserve to end up like this.

"As for my biological parents, my mother is dead, and my father is a military attaché stationed abroad. He is currently in Africa and may not return until the year after next."

Last Chinese New Year, Yuting and I went to Aunt Fang's house to celebrate.

Upon hearing this, Guo Linhua said, "Let's go see her this year, or ask her if she'd like to spend the New Year together."

Your parents weren't wrong back then. Sacrifices during the revolution were inevitable. Your mother also sacrificed herself on the path of revolution, Zhiqiang. Try to accept it.

"Okay, I understand, Dad."

Zhou Zhiqiang nodded and said that he had obtained the original owner's memories, but he felt a little sorry for the original owner's biological mother.

Revolutionary youths were precious back then, especially since they were carrying a sum of money to join the Shaanxi-Yan'an Revolutionary Army. Unfortunately, they met with misfortune before reaching their destination.

"Then Yuting and I will go ask Aunt Fang tomorrow."

Before Zhou Zhiqiang could finish speaking, the study door was pushed open, and Guo Yuting rushed in, saying, "Dad, Zhiqiang, dinner's ready, come out quickly."

"I know, you should calm down too."

Guo Linhua immediately dropped the friendly expression she had when chatting with her son-in-law, and turned to her daughter with a stern face, saying, "You're a mother now, why are you still acting like a young person, all loud and boisterous?"

Next time, knock before entering; it's a matter of etiquette.

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(End of this chapter)