I painted an aircraft carrier on the courtyard house for Dongda University.

Outside the ward, a man's complaining voice drifted over: "Don't you know how to control your son? You knew that woman was transferred to the steel mill, yet you still told him where she was. Now your son has a broken arm, a broken leg, and has been shot. Are you satisfied now? A doting mother spoils her son. That woman was married before, didn't you know that?"

If Zhou Weiguo were here, he would definitely recognize the woman being scolded as Gai Ziwang from the neighborhood committee.

Just then, footsteps could be heard in the distance along the corridor.

Wang Dajun hurriedly went to greet them: "Old Zheng, Brother Zheng, Sister-in-law, you've arrived!"

The old man asked anxiously, "Shuang'er, what happened? How did your arm break?"

Wang Dajun had no choice but to recount what had happened.

"What? Hongxing Steel Rolling Mill? Zhou Weiguo?" the old man exclaimed in surprise.

Wang Dajun nodded.

The old man glanced at his son's second wife without making a sound, and seeing that she was calm and showed no signs of anything amiss, he frowned and looked away.

The middle-aged man, Zheng, standing to the side, looked grim and said coldly, "Fine, fine, Hongxing Steel Rolling Mill! Ever since Yang Weimin left, they've gone increasingly outrageous. Their factory expansion has taken land I have great use for, and before I've even settled accounts with you, you've already broken my son's arm. We'll settle this score slowly!"

These words made the woman next to him lower her head, but the corners of her mouth secretly turned up.

The old man beside him had a gloomy look in his eyes and gritted his teeth, saying, "Don't be reckless. The situation at the steel rolling mill is special."

"Dad, Xiaoshuang has been bullied. Are we, the Zheng family, just going to put up with this? What will others think of us then?"

Upon hearing this, the old man with a gloomy gaze narrowed his eyes slightly, like a venomous snake ready to strike at any moment.

"He broke the arm of my grandson, the only son in three generations, and I tolerated it? Ha!"

................

Two months have passed in the blink of an eye.

What intrigued Zhou Weiguo was that neither the Zheng family nor the Wang family had made a single move in the past two months.

In his understanding, this kind of person was not the type to not fight back after being beaten. He even suspected that someone higher up had intervened.

For more than two months, Zhou Weiguo spent far more time at home than at the factory. The reason was simple: the entire factory was undergoing massive infrastructure construction, even involving the engineering corps. He had nowhere to stay even if he wanted to.

Fortunately, the newly built workshops and office buildings in the eastern part of the steel rolling mill have been completed, and all the staff in the western part of the plant have been transferred to the eastern part.

The entire western perimeter wall has been heightened and reinforced, and all the security personnel have been replaced by people sent by the General Staff.

A wall was built between the east and west sections, leaving only one passage, which was guarded by people sent by Lao Zhang and Lao Wang. The entire west section is now like an iron barrel.

Besides his ten workshops, the only other place in the entire West Factory area was the expanded Second Canteen. The Second Canteen was now quite large, capable of accommodating 2000 people at the same time. Except for leaving Sha Zhuzi to Li Huaide to cook for him occasionally, Wu Laoge and Dasheng Ersheng were both kept in the Second Canteen. As for the other apprentices, they took turns cooking in the East District.

All the college students that Qin Lao promised to assign have arrived, with more than two hundred people coming at once. Under the leadership of Zhang Heng, Liu Jing, and the first batch of college students, they were divided into groups and assigned to various workshops to study the blueprints provided by Zhou Weiguo. They have already made some initial progress, since the blueprints he provided are all feasible solutions for the small group.

The former factory offices and other buildings have been converted into temporary dormitories. He had no choice; his group of college students were working like crazy on the advanced blueprints, as if they had found some kind of treasure.

Forget about 996, some people have made it 715, no matter how much you try to persuade or scold them.

As soon as he leaves, people go about their business as usual.

In the end, Zhou Weiguo had no choice but to temporarily convert the former factory office into a dormitory and greatly improve the food standards, even providing late-night snacks.

What makes Zhou Weiguo happiest is that his independent workshop has also been renovated. Two-fifths of the workshop is private space, and behind the huge office bookshelves is a very secretive vault.

The vault, similar to those in a bank, requires two keys and two sets of passwords to open. Inside, the three-tiered space is filled with shelves crammed full of items.

The shelves were filled with all sorts of technical documents he had brought back from his childhood. Although these documents were only a small part of what he had taken from his childhood, they were enough to support the research and development tasks of his workshop for several years.

As for the keys and passwords to open the vault, he gave one key each to Lao Zhang and Zhang Heng, and the two sets of passwords to Da Shan and Er Niu, so that they could enter on their own if he wasn't there.

What he liked most was his secluded rest area behind the office, where he often rested with Tian Zao and Natasha at noon.

The changes to the courtyard houses are also quite interesting.

Ever since the older woman became pregnant, Yi Zhonghai has been like a completely different person.

He stopped meddling in the affairs of the courtyard, worked diligently at the factory, and was exceptionally serious about teaching his apprentices.

In just two months, the apprentices have made more progress than they have in the previous ten years.

Workshop foreman Guo Dapizi even asked Zhou Weiguo if he could apply for a reduced sentence for Yi Zhonghai. Zhou Weiguo remained noncommittal, but was curious about how Yi Zhonghai would react if he knew the truth.

The Liu family has changed even more.

Liu Haizhong was charged with some crime by Li Huaide, but he was sentenced to one year of labor reform and sent to the Hongqi Commune outside the city.

When Lao Liu's wife found out, she was so frightened that she fainted. She was already desperate because she had lost all her money, and now Lao Liu had lost his job too.

But in the blink of an eye, Liu Guangtian became a purchasing agent at a steel rolling mill, which shocked everyone in the yard.

Now Liu Guangtian has become the patriarch of the family. As for his mother, she hardly ever hits him; she practically worships him. Every night, just like Liu Haizhong used to, Liu Guangtian drinks a small glass of liquor and eats a fried egg. Liu Guangfu can always get half a fried egg, while his second aunt can only stand by and watch helplessly, since the entire Liu family's income depends on Liu Guangtian.

Occasionally, Liu Guangtian would bring some meat when he returned from the countryside, and sometimes he would even give some to Zhou Weiguo as a gift.

Zhou Weiguo didn't refuse; at worst, he could help Liu Guangtian out when the harvest was bad in a couple of years.

Besides these, there's another interesting thing about the Liu family. Wang Meili, the fat girl from the neighborhood office, originally had her eye on Liu Guangqi, but he ran away. In the blink of an eye, she set her sights on Liu Guangtian in the courtyard. After all, they are brothers and look quite alike. In addition, Liu Guangqi is now a legitimate purchasing agent, so Wang Meili became even more interested in him and would run into the courtyard every few days. However, she would always avoid Zhou Weiguo whenever she saw him.

The Yan family continued to enjoy their bland food, the deaf old woman continued to pretend to be deaf and mute, Bang Geng continued his petty theft, and Qin Huairu dreamed of a certain man all day long.