Love in the Courtyard: Starting with Engineers

As soon as the school bell rang at Hongxing Elementary School in the afternoon, Yan Bugui grabbed his keys and dashed into the school's storage room.

This storage room is piled with dilapidated desks and chairs, worn-out chalk stubs, and old lesson plan papers used by teachers.

While others complained that these things took up too much space, Yan Bugui regarded them as treasures—those scraps of paper with writing on them could be collected and sold to recycling stations for money.

Even the scraps of lesson plan paper could be cut into small strips to use as draft paper, and he wouldn't waste a single penny.

He squatted down and carefully bundled the waste paper he had collected over half a month into a stack. He weighed it in his hand and grinned, "It's about two cents, enough to buy a piece of pickled vegetable."

This scene was witnessed by Nannan and Xiaopang, who were hiding outside the door.

Nannan's eyes darted around, and she tugged at Xiaopang's sleeve, whispering a few words to him.

The two men waited until Yan Bugui locked the storage room, then walked away humming a little tune.

Before he even reached the door, Little Fatty had already figured out where Yan Bugui had hidden the key. He pulled out the rusty brass key from the crack in the bricks on the windowsill and unlocked the door in no time.

"Hurry up!"

Nannan lowered her voice and, together with Xiaopang, carried out the bundle of waste paper. They also brought over the used notebook covers from their classmates, mixed them together, and carried them back to the classroom.

The next morning, Yan Bugui hummed a little tune as he went to the storeroom to retrieve some waste paper. When he opened the door, the corner was empty; the bundle of waste paper was nowhere to be seen.

"My paper!"

Yan Bugui let out a loud cry, slapping his thigh in distress, and searched around the corner three times.

"That's what I saved up for half a month! Two cents! Enough to buy three popsicles!"

He stomped his feet as he walked toward the classroom, and immediately saw Nannan and Xiaopang leading their classmates, using scrap paper as draft paper to write and draw.

Yan Bugui's temper flared up instantly, and he rushed over in three strides, yelling, "You, you all..."

Yan Bugui pointed at Nannan, his lips trembling, his face flushed red, his heart aching with pain. "That's my paper! It's the paper I was going to sell as scrap!"

"Teacher Yan,"

The little girl looked up at her, her face beaming. "These papers will just gather dust in the storage room anyway. Why not use them as scratch paper? It'll save us from wasting new notebooks. Don't you always say we should be frugal?"

Little Fatty chimed in, "That's right! We're just responding to your call!"

Yan Bugui was speechless, staring at the scribbles on the scraps of paper. "What a disaster... two cents gone... and the pickled vegetables gone too..."

After saying that, he covered his eyes and left with a pained expression, looking as if he had lost some precious treasure.

Nannan and Xiaopang looked at each other, then covered their mouths and laughed so hard they couldn't stand up straight.

Just as evening was approaching, the sound of bicycle bells could be heard at the entrance of the alleyway in the Longxing Factory residential compound.

Li Jianshe was pedaling a 28-inch bicycle with his wife on the back seat. A cloth bag hung on the handlebars, containing a few coarse grain biscuits and a small bottle of canned fruit.

As soon as the two entered the courtyard, they saw Nannan running back from outside, holding a string of candied hawthorns.

"Uncle Jianshe! Auntie!" Nannan dropped the branch she was holding and rushed to Li Jianshe.

Li Jianshe's wife smiled and took out some biscuits from her cloth bag, stuffing them into her daughter's hand: "Eat slowly, they're freshly bought and smell delicious."

The group entered the house. Li Yu had just returned from the workshop and was still covered in coal dust.

Upon seeing Li Jianshe and his wife, Li Yu quickly said, "Uncle Li! Aunt Zhang, you've arrived!"

Looking at Li Yu covered in coal dust, Li Jianshe's wife said with heartache, "You're the chief engineer now, why don't you pay attention to your appearance? We just came to see our little girl; we haven't seen her in so long."

As he spoke, he patted the coal dust off Li Yu's head.

After Li Yu finished showering and changing his clothes, he came out and started talking to Li Jianshe about the machinery factory.

The two chatted about the mechanical repairs in the workshop. The wife and Bai Ling sat on the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed) chatting about everyday things. Nannan sat next to them, chewing on a biscuit and chattering about the embarrassing things she had done to Yan Bugui, making the two adults laugh non-stop.

A few days later in the steelmaking workshop

"It's done! It's done!" Old Wang clutched the report, tears welling in his eyes. "The material for the engine blades has passed the test!"

A thunderous cheer erupted in the workshop. At the same time, Li Huaide, clutching the report, ran towards the broadcasting room, his voice trembling: "Comrades! Great news! Our nickel-based alloy has met the standards! Far exceeding the targets!"

That evening, a sudden, urgent alarm blared over the factory's loudspeaker: "Attention all personnel! Two suspicious individuals have been spotted outside the east wall of the factory, carrying unidentified equipment. They are suspected to be foreign spies! Proceed to investigate immediately!"

Li Yu's heart sank instantly.

Almost simultaneously, a call came to his office from the National Defense Industry Office, the tone grave: "Chief Engineer Li, news has come from the Coast Guard that three fishing boats from Country R have once again intruded into the territorial waters of the Bohai Bay. This time, they not only released chaff and flares but also attempted to ram our patrol boats, displaying extremely arrogant behavior! You must strengthen the factory's defenses recently."

The office was brightly lit. Li Yu and Li Huaide stared at the map on the wall, their brows furrowed.

"These Japanese devils, how come they're acting like madmen?" Li Huaide slammed his fist on the table, indignant.

Li Yu stared at the Bohai Bay on the map, his voice as deep as tempered iron: "The reason is simple."

He held up his fingers and listed them one by one:

"First, the US is backing us up. Since the two places were returned to China, they have always regarded us as a thorn in their side, instigating the R country to frequently provoke us, just to disrupt our defense research and development pace and curb our development."

"Secondly, R country itself is resource-poor. They have long coveted the fishery and mineral resources of the Bohai Bay and want to take advantage of the chaos to fish in troubled waters and gain some benefits."

"Third, and most importantly, we've made a breakthrough in engine materials. They've always been convinced that we can't build high-performance fighter jet engines, but now that we've cracked this tough nut, we've dashed their hopes, and they're naturally desperate."

Li Huaide suddenly realized what was happening, and gritted his teeth, saying, "A bunch of bastards! Do they really think we're easy to bully?"

The suspects who were caught were interrogated overnight by Zhang, the company commander of the security department, and finally confessed when they could no longer bear it.

They were local residents who had been bribed. One of them said, "The people who contacted us were all masked, but they didn't look very tall, and they spoke with an accent."

"They asked us to come and steal scrap steel and other materials near the machine factory, and we thought it wouldn't be a big deal, so we came."

Looking at the two wounded men in front of him, Li Yu said to Li Huaide and Company Commander Zhang, "They were most likely sent by the Japanese. They want to use our scrap materials to determine if we've made any recent technological breakthroughs."

"From now on, all waste materials from the machinery factory must be disposed of in a unified manner and absolutely cannot leave the workshop."

Li Huaide quickly replied, "No problem, I'll arrange it tomorrow."