Love in the Courtyard: Starting with Engineers

As Liu Haizhong followed the flow of people into the steel rolling mill in the morning, he saw a figure from behind that looked like Xu Damao.

Liu Haizhong squeezed through the crowd and came to the back of this person, shouting:

"Xu Damao, what are you doing here?"

Xu Damao turned around and saw Liu Haizhong, and said, "Oh! Second Uncle! Of course I'm here to work."

"Going to work? Weren't you fired from the steel rolling mill?" Liu Haizhong asked in confusion.

"I was fired, but the steel mill can't do without me!"

"After all, I'm the projectionist, unlike you guys."

Xu Damao said with a smug look on his face.

Liu Haizhong was furious at Xu Damao's smug look.

"I don't know what underhanded methods they used to get in."

"And let me tell you, I'm a team leader now, so I'm considered a leader in some way."

Liu Haizhong also said proudly.

"Hey~ Second Uncle, what do you mean by underhanded methods?"

As he spoke, Xu Damao whispered to Liu Haizhong, "I was personally invited back by Factory Director Zheng!"

Liu Haizhong said with disbelief, "Who do you think you are, that the factory manager invited you?"

Seeing that Liu Haizhong didn't believe him, Xu Damao said, "Not only that, they even gave me the room the deaf old lady used to have!"

"I'll take my wife and move back home after get off work."

After saying that, Xu Damao walked into the steel rolling mill.

"What? You got it?" Liu Haizhong said in surprise.

He originally planned to go to the street to ask if he could rent it to himself, because he intended to rent it to Liu Guangqi as a wedding house.

Unexpectedly, Xu Damao snatched it away.

As I walked toward the workshop, I suddenly realized that Xu Damao had said he was bringing his wife back.

"Could it be that Lou Xiao'e has returned?" he wondered.

Li Yu was organizing the production data of the machine tools for the past two days, while Bai Ling was idly reading the newspaper beside him.

There was a knock on the office door.

Li Yu, without even looking up, said, "Go in!"

Zhou Qiming pushed open the door and came in, saying, "Come and see what kind of state the workshop has become!"

Li Yu looked at Zhou Qiming, puzzled, and asked, "What do you mean, 'how'?"

When Li Yu arrived at the workshop, he saw that everyone was working in an orderly manner.

He asked Zhou Qiming, "Is there a problem?"

"What's wrong? This is a big problem!" Zhou Qiming said anxiously.

"Look at us, we only have about two hundred people, and we're not only producing rolling mills, but now we're also making machine tools. We really can't hold on any longer!"

Only after Zhou Qiming reminded him did Li Yu realize that they were indeed short-handed.

Not only that, the workshop is now smaller.

Li Yu said to Zhou Qiming, "It was my oversight. I'll go to the factory to deal with it right away."

Zhou Qiming complained to Li Yu, "Director Li, besides your high-tech work, you should also take some time to manage the workshop."

"Look at me, I've lost so much weight, and now everyone comes to me for everything."

Li Yu patted Zhou Qiming on the shoulder and said, "Young people should do more and learn more! This is the organization testing you!"

After saying that, Li Yu turned and left the workshop.

"Hey! What did you say? I'm older than you, and you're calling me a young person?" Zhou Qiming shouted.

Li Yu's voice drifted from afar: "Being old doesn't stop you from listening to me. Just do your job well!"

A young technician standing nearby burst out laughing.

Zhou Qiming said angrily, "Go, go, go get to work! I can't control him, but I can't control you?"

Seeing that Zhou Qiming was angry, the young technician was not afraid and returned to the control panel with a smile.

Li Yu arrived at Li Huaide's office.

"Brother Li, we're short-handed in our workshop. What do you suggest we do?" Li Yu said to Li Huaide, crossing his legs.

"What can we do? What else can we do? How much do you need? I'll see if I can coordinate with other workshops for you."

Upon hearing Li Huaide's words, Li Yu replied, "I need at least 300 people."

Upon hearing that Li Yu wanted so many people, Li Huaide exclaimed loudly, "What! You want to start a factory with three hundred people?!"

"What can I do? Look at me, I'm dealing with both machine tools and rolling mills. What can I possibly do?"

"If the steelmaking furnace hadn't been relocated to another factory by the Ministry of Industry, our workshop would have needed even more manpower."

Upon hearing Li Yu's words, Li Huaide said, "Don't bother me with this situation. Just call Minister Liu yourself!"

Upon hearing Li Huaide's words, Li Yu directly dialed Minister Liu's office from Li Huaide's office.

After a few rings, the voice of Minister Liu's secretary came from the other end of the phone: "This is Minister Liu's office. Who are you?"

"I'm Li Yu from the steel rolling mill. I need to speak with Minister Liu about something."

Then the person on the other end of the phone said, "Wait a moment."

The secretary knocked on the door and then opened it to go in.

"Minister Liu, this is Li Yu from the steel rolling mill on the phone."

Minister Liu said to his secretary, "Turn it around!"

After the secretary left, Minister Liu picked up the phone on his desk and said, "What do you want, kid?"

When Liu Jie heard that they were hiring, he thought, "Why are you asking me about such a trivial matter?"

Unexpectedly, Li Yu asked to recruit five hundred people.

"Why did you hire so many people? Do you know that some machine repair shops only have a few hundred people?"

Li Yu replied, "Well, there's nothing we can do about it. We'll need this many people; you know how machine tools are."

"Besides, our workshop is too small. How about you just let us set up an independent factory for it? What do you say?"

Minister Liu interrupted Li Yu upon hearing this, saying, "Independence? You want to take the steel rolling mill's people and equipment and declare independence?"

"Whenever you come up with something that the steel mill can't handle, I'll definitely find a way to help you."

"Now you just stay obediently in the steel rolling mill. Since the workshop is too small, I'll expand it for you."

Li Yu knew immediately that there was no hope of independence in the short term, and he hadn't expected Minister Liu to agree anyway.

I was just thinking of trying my luck, whether I had any or not.

Just as Li Yu was about to hang up, Minister Liu continued, "By the way, a reporter from the People's Daily is coming to the steel rolling mill to interview you this afternoon. I'm warning you, don't you dare say anything out of line!"

"Alright, alright! I'm the most discreet person," Li Yu said with a smile.

After hanging up the phone.

Li Huaide, who was standing to the side, was dumbfounded. Li Yu had told him to recruit 300, but he never expected that Li Yu would tell Minister Liu 500.

"Weren't you just recruiting 300? How come you're suddenly recruiting 500?"

Li Yu replied helplessly, "I originally intended to hire 300, but I was thinking of negotiating with 500, but who knew Minister Liu would agree so readily!"

Li Huaide was speechless. He hadn't expected that Minister Liu would value Li Yu so much that he would agree to such a condition.