The Courtyard House: Xu Damao's Aunt is the Queen of Women

The next morning.

Liu Hao didn't wake up until ten o'clock. He sat up, rubbed his slightly sore eyes, threw off the covers, got off the kang (a heated brick bed), put on his clothes, and walked out of the bedroom.

Last night, after solving the computational problems in the two boxes, he started exchanging academic ideas with Professor Qian and Professor Guo. The more they talked, the more engrossed and impressed they became. They talked until midnight before the two geniuses returned to the base.

The mind of a peerless genius is truly incomparable to that of an ordinary genius, nor can it be compared to that of a pseudo-genius who has cheated.

He can solve and optimize various equations and formulas, but he lacks the ability to create!

Professor Qian, you always talk about systems, directions, the next ten years, the next thirty years, the next fifty years, the overall national strategy, and how to build a space program from scratch.

He could string together a bunch of scattered questions into a grand, comprehensive framework in a single sentence, his vision was so lofty that it amazed him.

And what about Professor Guo? He can rattle off all sorts of ideas about transonic, hypersonic, exotic perturbations, and detonation mechanics with ease.

He could point out the mathematical path to break through a problem that no one had ever encountered before with just a few words. The concepts, methods, and conjectures all came from scratch.

The two sang in harmony, one stabilizing the sky, the other standing firm on the ground; one building the skeleton, the other filling in the flesh and blood.

It constantly refreshed his understanding, making his limited computing power seem like that of an accountant who only knew how to use an abacus.

Others create rules, create the world, create disciplines; he's just a cheat code that can calculate quickly.

"Is the husband feeling discouraged?"

Ye Juan appeared like a ghost, startling Liu Hao.

"Hey, what are you doing!"

"Why are you so timid? I've been in the living room the whole time. You were just too engrossed in thinking about me to notice me."

Ye Juan reached out and gave Liu Hao a big hug, then looked up and asked, "Ye Zhen just came over and told me before you even got up that they're heading to Bosten Lake first."

"Are you going fishing? Can you take me with you?"

Liu Hao lowered his head and kissed Ye Juan's soft, moist lips, then said with a smile, "You stay..."

Ye Juan sighed, feeling a sense of frustration, like a hero whose talents have been wasted.

"I didn't have much to do at the farm. Chang Wei was really capable. He managed the entire labor camp like an iron barrel, keeping everything in perfect order."

"He had everything in order: production tasks, discipline control, safety precautions, and material accounts. The entire farm was well-organized, production was stable, and safety was guaranteed. With him in charge, the farm was as stable as Mount Tai."

"Moreover, she speaks very well and is very thoughtful. You should train her well, she will definitely be your right-hand woman in the future."

Liu Hao was a little surprised. Ye Juan had such a high opinion of Chang Wei?

But then he thought about it again and he understood.

Because in Urumqi, the director of the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau had told him that Chang Wei had already been internally selected to be transferred to Urumqi as the deputy director in charge of labor reform and public security, a genuine deputy director-level candidate.

It was because of his arrival that Chang Wei was left at the Ushtala First Labor Reform Farm to assist him.

At the age of 42, Chang Wei was promoted to deputy director-general based on his own abilities, which shows how capable he is!

"I definitely need to train him; I plan to bring him back to Beijing."

"Of course, we'll invite them over for dinner another day. I really like his wife."

"OK!"

……

Bosten Lake.

Located southwest of the Ushtala First Labor Reform Farm, more than 20 kilometers away from Bosten Lake, it takes less than an hour to drive there.

Today is the Lantern Festival. The farm is closed for the holiday, but the prisoners are still on duty and have to work.

The inmates of Ward 95 got up before dawn, and together with the prisoners from two squads of Ward 10, they set off in a grand procession, driving oxcarts, horse-drawn carts, donkey carts, and mule carts.

You can take a car to get there, so you don't have to walk, but you have to walk back!

Today was another sunny day with clear skies and no clouds, but the temperature was -13 degrees Celsius. The wind was a little less, making it a rare good day.

Bosten Lake was frozen solid, with a thick layer of ice stretching all the way to the horizon, gleaming coldly white in the sunlight.

The reeds on the bank were frozen solid and brittle, their stalks standing straight and tall, making only a dry, crisp sound when the wind blew.

More than two hundred prisoners lined up and bent over to cut reeds on the frozen lake shore.

The sickle swung down, snapping and cracking, the frozen reeds snapped in two with a dry, crisp sound.

Everyone wore tattered gloves, their fingers frozen stiff and purple, yet they dared not pause for even a moment.

The cold air from the ice seeped up the soles of my shoes, making my feet numb and my calves stiff. I could only keep moving to keep warm.

"You idiot Zhu, haven't you eaten yet?"

Ye Zhen chased over Sha Zhu, Liu Haizhong, Yi Zhonghai, Xu Damao, Liu Guangqi, and Liu Guangtian to chisel the ice.

Sha Zhu gripped the meter-long ice chisel tightly, his palm gripping the smooth wooden handle. He aimed the four-sided chisel at the ice and said in a deep voice, "Supervisor Ye, I'll start breaking the ice!"

After saying that, he raised the ice chisel high and stabbed it down hard. With a loud crash, fine ice shards flew up from the ice surface, leaving a shallow ice pit.

Ye Zhen frowned and said in a deep voice, "Push harder! This ice layer is seventy or eighty centimeters thick. Just poking at the surface won't work. Push deeper!"

Xu Damao, holding a five- or six-pound octagonal iron hammer, pounded it down on Liu Guangtian, who was holding a steel chisel. His hands were already starting to ache.

"Director Ye, this ice is too hard! It hurts my hand from the impact when I hammer it!"

"Even if it hurts, we have to smash it!"

Ye Zhen stepped forward and kicked the ice under Xu Damao's feet.

"The ice in this lake is at least 60 centimeters, if not 70 or 80 centimeters. Without hard work, we won't be able to break through even after dark! Work together well, Sha Zhu, you two, hammer and chisel to widen the hole, get to work!"

Sha Zhu grunted and exerted his strength again, slamming the ice chisel down repeatedly, making the ice pit deeper and deeper.

Liu Guangtian quickly placed the chisel against the edge of the ice pit, while Xu Damao gritted his teeth and swung the sledgehammer, the thuds echoing across the ice.

"Wait! Liu Guangtian, hold the chisel steady, don't let it wobble!"

"yes!"

Liu Guangtian quickly gripped the chisel tightly, not daring to deviate even slightly.

Xu Damao was panting heavily, and his hand paused for half a second before Ye Zhen's voice came through.

"Xu Damao, stop slacking off! Quickly use the ice hook to pull out the broken ice, don't block the ice hole!"

Xu Damao quickly picked up the ice hook next to him, bent down and hooked out the broken ice in the hole. His fingers shivered as soon as they touched the ice shards, but he didn’t dare to delay and could only grit his teeth and speed up his work.

A cold wind swept by, carrying ice shards, and Ye Zhen stood by, watching closely and occasionally offering words of advice.

"Silly Pillar, change your position and chisel a neat hole in the ice!"

"Xu Damao, raise the hammer higher and smash it down!"

The three of them dared not stop, and with the sounds of ice chisels breaking the ice and iron hammers striking the ice, they slowly chiseled through the thick layer of ice.

The three people next door, Liu Haizhong, Liu Guangqi, and Yi Zhonghai, were much faster at chiseling ice, and soon they had chiseled out a large ice hole.

On the shore not far away, a GAZ-69 jeep drove up and stopped. The guard Wang Kai, who was driving, and Lin Tong, who was in the passenger seat, got out of the car first. One of them carried a Type 56 semi-automatic rifle and the other carried a Type 56 assault rifle. Both of them had pistols hanging from their waists.

Liu Hao and Ye Juan got out of the car and just then saw Qin Huairu and Jia Zhangshi carrying bundles of reeds as they walked over.

"Qin Huairu, Jia Zhangshi, is cutting reeds hard work?"