Love in the Courtyard: Starting with Engineers

Bai Ling held Nannan's hand, clutching the household registration booklet, the factory union's letter of introduction, and half a jin of grain coupons, standing in front of the first-grade registration desk.

"Principal, this is my daughter. Please take good care of her." Bai Ling smiled and handed over the materials.

The principal of Hongxing Primary School had already received a call from the Education Bureau informing him that Li Yu's daughter was coming to register today.

So he's been waiting at the registration desk all day, afraid of missing out.

"Of course, of course," the principal quickly replied.

After completing the formalities, the principal personally led Nannan to her class, which was basically made up of children from Longxing Machinery Factory.

On the podium, Yan Bugui was lecturing with sweat pouring down his face. The reason Yan Bugui was like this was because the children in Longxing Family Compound all had powerful backgrounds, making them difficult for him to manage, which made it hard for him to teach.

He turned his head and saw the principal himself leading a little girl over. He quickly smiled and walked to the door: "Principal, what brings you here?"

"Oh, I've brought a student to your class. This is Li Nannan, the daughter of Chief Engineer Li. You'll have to take good care of her!"

Swallowing hard, Yan Bugui replied, "Yes, Principal."

When Yan Bugui heard that it was Li Yu's family, he felt like the sky was falling, because the eldest sister in the Longxing family compound was Li's daughter.

He often heard his classmates say how amazing Li Nannan was.

Just then, Nannan walked into the classroom by herself. As she passed by Xiaopang, he quickly moved over to make room for her.

"Come sit here."

"Hmm," then Li Nannan sat down next to Xiao Pang.

As soon as he sat down, the chubby boy started talking badly about Yan Bugui. After exchanging a few pleasantries with the principal, Yan Bugui began the lesson.

While Yan Bugui turned around to write on the blackboard, Xiao Pang quickly took out a small handful of fried noodles from his pocket, and Nannan tiptoed and carefully sprinkled them into the enamel mug.

The next second, Yan Bugui picked up the jar and took a big gulp.

"Cough cough cough!"

The strong aroma of the fried noodles mixed with the tea made him cough and his face turn red. The whole class burst into laughter, while Nannan and Xiaopang lowered their heads, their shoulders shaking uncontrollably.

Enraged, Yan Bugui slammed his fist on the table and shouted, "Who did this? Step forward!"

The classroom was completely silent; no one admitted it.

Yan Bugui's face turned pale and then red, and finally he could only say resentfully, "The whole class is to copy these new words ten times! Hand them in first thing tomorrow morning!"

When school ended, Nannan told Bailing what had happened in the classroom that day. When Bailing heard that Yan Bugui was actually teaching Nannan's class, she immediately planned to ask Li Yu that evening if she wanted Yan Bugui to switch classes.

As soon as Li Yu entered the house that evening, Bai Ling told him about what had happened that day. Li Yu smiled at first.

Then he said, "It's alright! Although Yan Bugui is scheming, he's not stupid. He wouldn't dare do anything to Nannan. On the contrary, he's most likely afraid of Nannan."

Hearing Li Yu say this, Bai Ling didn't say anything more. Anyway, she figured Yan Bugui wouldn't dare to do anything. He had already been scared out of his wits back in the courtyard.

The next day, Li Yu was looking at data in his office.

"President Li! President Li!"

Li Yu peeked out and saw Li Huaide jump out of the car, wipe the sweat from his face, and shout while holding up a document: "The State Planning Commission's raw material allocation order has been approved! Chromium, nickel, and tungsten are all available, but niobium and tantalum are a bit tight. I've already contacted our sister factories!"

Li Yu's eyes lit up, and she hurried downstairs: "Great! How's the workshop schedule?"

"It was all arranged long ago!"

Li Huaide shoved the documents into his hand. "Furnaces No. 1 and No. 2 in the smelting workshop have been designated as R&D lines. Old Wang is leading the welding team, and Zhou Qiming is in charge of stamping. They're working three shifts a day! The canteen's night meals have also been upgraded—cornmeal porridge with boiled eggs, all you can eat!"

The two talked as they walked quickly toward the workshop.

As soon as he entered the gate, he saw the workers already lined up and entering the workshop, each one looking energetic and directing their apprentices to inspect the equipment. Seeing Li Yu arrive, they quickly came forward to greet him: "Chief Engineer Li, the plan is out? Let's get started!"

Li Yu handed the blueprints to Lao Wang, pointed to the parameters, and said, "First, try the first plan. Pay attention to temperature control; be sure to go slowly and steadily!"

Old Wang patted his chest and said, "Don't worry! We'll go all out for the reunification of Taiwan!"

Meanwhile, in the classrooms of Hongxing Elementary School, a "war" over chalk is taking place.

The school bell rang, and Yan Bugui walked into the classroom with his lesson plan, his brows furrowed deeply. He habitually walked to the podium, opened the drawer—it was empty, not even a new piece of chalk.

"What happened?"

Yan Bugui's face darkened as he looked at the entire class. "Where's the chalk we just got yesterday?"

No one spoke. Nannan and Xiaopang lowered their heads, their shoulders shaking as they tried to suppress their laughter.

It turns out that Yan Bugui was always stingy. Every time he received new chalk, he would lock it in his drawer and only use the leftover chalk stubs in class.

Yesterday after school, while he was in a hurry, Nannan and Xiaopang secretly distributed all the new chalk from his drawer to their classmates.

"Tell me! Who did this?" Yan Bugui slammed his fist on the table in anger, his glasses sliding down to the tip of his nose.

Nannan secretly looked up at his exasperated expression, secretly amused. She had always disliked Yan Bugui's stingy attitude towards chalk, and now she was going to see how he could be so miserly.

Just then, the class monitor stood up and whispered, "Teacher Yan, all the students have used up their chalk, so we can't write."

Yan Bugui's face turned pale and then red. He touched the key in his pocket, hesitated for a long time, but still couldn't bear to open the spare chalk in the drawer.

He cleared his throat and, forcing a smile, said, "Well... well, today I'll give the lesson orally. Listen carefully!"

After a class, Yan Bugui was sore from talking that he didn't write a single word on the blackboard.

The students were getting sleepy, but Nannan secretly passed notes to Xiaopang. The notes had a drawing of Yan Bugui frowning, which made Xiaopang almost burst out laughing.

As soon as the bell rang, Yan Bugui stormed off, clutching his lesson plan.

Nannan and Xiaopang smiled at each other and gave each other a high five.

Little Fatty leaned closer and whispered, "Nannan, you're amazing! Now Teacher Yan can't be stingy anymore!"

Nannan proudly raised her chin: "Hmph, serves him right for being so stingy!"

As the two were talking, Yan Bugui returned, clutching several new pieces of chalk in his hand, and walked up to Nannan with a gloomy face.

Nannan's heart tightened, thinking she was about to be scolded, but Yan Bugui shoved the chalk into her hand and said irritably, "Take it! Share it with your classmates! Don't you dare steal my chalk again!"

After saying that, he turned and left, but as he reached the door, he turned back and added, "Everyone, pay close attention in class tomorrow!"

Nannan stared blankly at the chalk in her hand. This stingy teacher, Mr. Yan, didn't seem so bad after all.

On her way home from school, Nannan skipped and hopped along, clutching the remaining chalk in her hand.