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

Seeing that Zhou Weiguo did not object but stood there quietly watching, one of the people nearby, with sharp eyes, ran to the next workshop and brought Zhou Weiguo's teacup to the two of them.

Zhou Weiguo knew that people in this era attached great importance to the apprenticeship ceremony, so he readily accepted the generous gifts from the two men.

He accepted the offered tea, took a sip, and then helped the two men up. Afterward, Zhou Weiguo walked up to Yi Zhonghai, looked at his face as black as the bottom of a pot, pointed at his nose, and said, "Yi Zhonghai, Jia Dongxu is your apprentice, and these two will be my apprentices from now on. Bring on whatever tricks you have up your sleeve, I'll take them!"

Yi Zhonghai's face darkened further, and he gritted his teeth, saying, "Zhou Weiguo, are you deliberately going against me?"

Zhou Weiguo sneered, "Yi Zhonghai, do you even deserve it? Who do you think you are that I'd go against you? You overestimate yourself! In terms of education, I have a full-fledged associate doctorate; in terms of skills, your proud fitter skills are nothing compared to mine; in terms of background, your factory's chief engineer is my uncle; even if we don't have anything else to compare, let's talk about class background. I've been a poor peasant family for three generations, and my whole family are martyrs and heroes! What makes you think you can compare to me?"

Just then, a worker cautiously said, "Engineer Zhou, I just saw Jia Dongxu dozing off, which is why the parts were ruined. It has nothing to do with Li Erniu; he was just sweeping the floor nearby."

Zhou Weiguo looked at the man seriously: "Are you sure?"

The man said firmly, "I'm sure! It's common for Jia Dongxu to destroy workpieces in our workshop, everyone knows that! He loves to use this to extort money from people, and many people have been extorted by him, but..." The man glanced at Yi Zhonghai and dared not continue.

Zhou Weiguo smiled and said, "Very good! Nothing else matters, and don't be afraid of anyone threatening you. If you encounter difficulties in the future, you can come to me; consider it a favor I owe you!"

Zhou Weiguo looked at Yi Zhonghai with a half-smile: "So, Lao Yi? Are you going to keep coming up with ideas, or am I going to complain to Engineer Song right now?"

Yi Zhonghai's expression changed drastically. He knew the workers were telling the truth. But he absolutely couldn't let Jia Dongxu's story get out. The job grade determination was coming up soon, and although Jia Dongxu was a permanent employee taking over the job, once he had a bad reputation, it would be difficult for him to get promoted.

Yi Zhonghai, barely suppressing his anger, asked, "Zhou Weiguo, what do you want?"

Zhou Weiguo stroked his chin and pondered for a moment: "How about this, Jia Dongxu just asked for 3 yuan, you raised it to 30, that's a tenfold increase. I'm not greedy, I'll raise it to 100 yuan, which is much less than your increase. You compensate my two apprentices 100 yuan."

Upon hearing this, Yi Zhonghai immediately flew into a rage: "Impossible! Absolutely impossible!"

Zhou Weiguo chuckled: "That's simple. Since you're unwilling, then don't blame me for making a huge fuss about this. Do you think Jia Dongxu will be fired from the factory if this gets blown out of proportion? Old Yi, do you think I have the ability to make this a big deal?"

These words caused everyone to gasp again, and Yi Zhonghai also showed fear. Jia Dongxu, who was standing to the side, was already trembling with fear. He hurriedly ran to Yi Zhonghai's side and cried out, "Master, you have to help me! I can't be fired! How will I take care of you in your old age if I'm fired? Master, you've always helped me before, you can't abandon me this time!"

Looking at Jia Dongxu's disheveled appearance, Zhou Weiguo felt nothing but contempt.

Yi Zhonghai glared at Jia Dongxu, then looked at Zhou Weiguo, and gritted his teeth, saying, "Fine, one hundred it is!" With that, he led Jia Dongxu out of the workshop. About twenty minutes later, Yi Zhonghai returned, handed 100 yuan to Li Erniu, and turned to leave.

This scene shocked everyone. "He really gave it to him? That's 100 yuan! The average wage is only 20 yuan now, Yi Zhonghai is really generous!" Discussions rose and fell in the workshop.

Li Erniu, looking bewildered, took the money and ran to Zhou Weiguo to hand it over. Zhou Weiguo smiled, took the money, and handed it to Li Dashan: "It's so hot today, everyone's sweating buckets. Take this money, and when you rest, take a few people to buy some soda and cigarettes. I don't care about Yi Zhonghai's money!"

On the other side, Yi Zhonghai came out of the workshop, a nameless anger rising to his head. He stood by the roadside and smoked half a pack of cigarettes in one go, but his anger had not subsided.

Suddenly, Yi Zhonghai, who was smoking, slapped his thigh and rushed towards the leadership building. After wandering around the building for a while, he finally found the factory director's office. He raised his hand and gently knocked on the door.

"Come in!" Upon hearing the response, Yi Zhonghai cautiously pushed the door open and entered.

When Yang Weimin saw the newcomer, he felt he looked familiar but couldn't quite place him, so he asked directly, "Comrade, who are you? What can I do for you?"

With a beaming smile, Yi Zhonghai said ingratiatingly, "Director Yang, I am Yi Zhonghai from Workshop One, and also the godson of Old Lady Long from Courtyard No. 95."

Upon hearing this, Yang Weimin said "Oh," and a thoughtful expression appeared on his face: "You must be Master Yi, the best technician in Workshop One? And also Grandma Long's godson, what a coincidence. What brings you here?"

Yi Zhonghai said with a forced smile, "Factory Director, I've come to report on a situation."

Upon hearing this, Yang Weimin's expression immediately turned serious: "You speak."

"Factory manager, didn't we just get a new batch of Goose brand machine tools? Someone's letting an outsider use our machines for personal work, and they're even using our materials. What's worse, this person is bullying our employees!"

Yang Weimin's face instantly turned extremely ugly. Before Yi Zhonghai could finish speaking, he directly called over his secretary and asked in a low voice, "I haven't been at the factory recently. What's the status of that new batch of equipment?"

"Factory manager, Chief Engineer Song has already arranged for the technical department to study the newly arrived equipment."

Yang Weimin then asked, "I heard that someone is using the factory's new machine tools to process workpieces for others? Is that true?"

The secretary glanced at Yi Zhonghai, but didn't dare say anything more, only nodding silently.

Yang Weimin's face grew increasingly grim, and he asked sternly, "Was this arranged by Chief Engineer Song?"

The secretary nodded again.

"Nonsense! This is utter nonsense! It's irresponsible and a betrayal of the organization's expectations! How are we going to complete this year's production plan at this rate? We haven't even used the equipment provided by Da'e yet, and they're already giving it to others, using our own materials? What's most infuriating is that outsiders are even bullying our employees! I'm going to find Chief Engineer Song right now and get some answers!"

After saying this, Yang Weimin ignored his secretary's attempts to stop him and stormed out angrily. Meanwhile, inside the office, Yi Zhonghai had a barely perceptible smile on his lips.

Yang Weimin strode to the technical department, took a deep breath at the door, and then pushed it open. Chief Engineer Song was stunned when he saw Yang Weimin storm in. Before he could speak, Yang Weimin launched into a tirade: "Chief Engineer Song, it was only after I applied multiple times that the department finally transferred you to our steel rolling mill. I'm very happy you're here. But I don't understand why you can't treat this place like your own home? We haven't even used the new machine tools ourselves yet, how can you let others use them? Isn't that disrupting production?"

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