Courtyard Houses: The Great Masters of a Nation Hidden Within

After dealing with all the congratulatory people, Gao Jianguo turned around, returned to his desk, grabbed something, and headed towards Chief Engineer Chen's room.

As soon as he stepped into the office, before he could even open his mouth, Old Chen spoke up: "How's Jianguo doing? Feeling incredibly proud, huh? Are you practically floating on air?"

Gao Jianguo chuckled. Old Chen's words were both a subtle way of telling him not to get cocky and a roundabout way of congratulating him: "What are you getting so cocky about? This is nothing, there's an even bigger one coming up."

Old Chen was both amused and annoyed: "Ha, you think it's too small? You don't care about the bonus the factory gives you, do you? What a waste of all the money I put into getting you bicycle tickets."

As if by magic, Gao Jianguo pulled an iron box from his pocket: "How could that be? Here it is, a tribute to Master."

Old Chen's face hardened: "Stop! Put your things back. Do you think I need something from you?"

Gao Jianguo waved the box in front of Old Chen, then smoothly continued, "Alright, Master is honest and upright, I'll take it back then."

Just as he was about to pull his hand back, Old Chen sniffed sharply, his eyes lighting up: "Wait a minute! You can't take back something you've already given away! You have no manners at all!"

Old Chen's sudden turn was so clever; it really showed his down-to-earth nature.

He reached out and grabbed the box, lifted the lid, and took a deep breath: "Smells good! Where did you get this? This stuff isn't easy to find."

"A classmate of mine works in Hangzhou, and he got it from West Lake and sent it over."

"Alright, alright, that's settled for now. You go ahead with your business. I need to discuss something with Old Yang." As soon as Old Chen got his hands on the goods, he turned on everyone and scurried out with the tea box in his hand. He was definitely off to show off to Director Yang. As for how many tea leaves would be left after showing off, that was another story.

After getting off work in the afternoon, Gao Jianguo passed by the bulletin board, where a crowd had gathered. Looking from a distance, he saw that next to the notice about the militia posted by the security department that morning, there was another large red paper with the words "Good News" clearly visible from a distance.

A few whispers drifted over from the crowd.

"Gao Jianguo is always around, seemingly doing good things on both sides."

"Absolutely! This guy's really made something of himself."

Feeling quite pleased with himself, Gao Jianguo headed home full of energy. Halfway there, a thought struck him: it wouldn't be right not to celebrate this good thing with his closest buddy. He found a secluded spot, pulled out a few pre-cooked dishes—just simple steamed or boiled meals—stuffed them into his pocket, and headed to Wang Tiezhu's house.

Wang Tiezhu knocked on the door, and as luck would have it, the person was home. Before Wang Tiezhu could even speak, Xiao Fang rushed over, saying, "Uncle Gao is here! Uncle Gao, please sit down!"

She greeted him like a little adult, her short legs wobbling as she used all her strength to drag the chair for Gao Jianguo.

Gao Jianguo scooped Xiao Fang up in one gulp, and Xiao Fang giggled with delight.

Wang Tiezhu joked, "I think this girl was raised for you."

Gao Jianguo sat down, laughing smugly. Wang Tiezhu looked at him and said, "Old platoon leader, that smell on you must be from food. With so much, something good must be going on today. Tell me, hurry up and tell me."

Gao Jianguo ignored his urging and first took out a bowl of braised pork with preserved mustard greens, a boneless braised chicken, and a pork hock with pickled cabbage from his pocket, serving them all in earthenware bowls of different sizes. He then called to Wan Yueying, "Sister-in-law, just boil this pork hock with some water, and the other two can be steamed. You and Lao Er should eat more good food to nourish your bodies. I'll have a couple of drinks with Lao Wang."

Wan Yueying didn't stand on ceremony with him at all, just responded and took the food to the stove to get busy.

Gao Jianguo turned to Wang Tiezhu and told him what had happened that day. After listening, Wang Tiezhu gave him a thumbs-up: "Old platoon leader, it has to be you. You haven't lost your skills from the army, and you're still a scientist just as good. I haven't even been selected as an advanced worker every year, but you got one as soon as you joined the factory."

"I wouldn't dare call myself a scientist, I'm far from that level," Gao Jianguo said, teasing Xiao Fang. "But it's still a good thing, two good things at once. That's why I thought of coming to you to celebrate first."

"If you hadn't come to me first about this, I'd never forgive you. Perfect timing! I noticed you only have a watch but no bike, which is really inconvenient for you to travel back and forth. I got you a bicycle voucher the other day, and this comes at just the right time, haha."

Wang Tiezhu was still thinking about his car, which pleased Gao Jianguo, though he really didn't need it: "Well, thank you very much. The factory gave you a reward, it's from the approved project for the blast furnace. Keep this one for yourself, it'll be very useful."

"Your factory is really generous. Okay, I'll save the money then." Wang Tiezhu turned to Wan Yueying and said, "Your brother's lucky; he's getting married soon. Give him this ticket."

Wan Yueying, busy with her hands and talking non-stop, said, "He'll be ecstatic this time, thank you, Jianguo!"

Gao Jianguo, holding his water glass, looked bewildered: Why are you thanking me? What does this have to do with me? Aren't you going to thank Wang Tiezhu? Oh, that's your man, then it's alright.

Amidst laughter and conversation, Wan Yueying heated up the food Gao Jianguo had brought and served it on the table, while Wang Tiezhu brought a bottle of wine, and the group began to eat.

Gao Jianguo and Wang Tiezhu chatted and drank, while Wan Yueying ate and looked after Xiao Fang. Xiao Fang ate a bite of braised pork belly in the left hand and a bite of pork hock in the right, her features all scrunched up together, her eyes squinting into slits with happiness.

While they were eating and chatting, Gao Jianguo suddenly remembered something: "Isn't your institute busy? I see you left work quite early today."

Wang Tiezhu shook his head: "We're swamped. Our jurisdiction is huge, and with a large company like your factory in our area, the limited manpower, plus the joint defense team, is simply not enough. We're constantly complaining about the security situation. It's only because your sister-in-law is pregnant with her second child that I can occasionally come back early to check on her."

Gao Jianguo's mind raced for a moment: "Didn't our factory establish a core militia? I checked, and they've arranged shifts, three shifts a day, and there are quite a few of them, more than thirty at a time. But since people and things in the factory are easy to manage, they don't actually have much to do. Why don't you connect with our security department and organize a joint police-civilian effort? Our factory's militia team has personnel and equipment; you can discuss it and see if we can help you in any way."

Wang Tiezhu had just picked up a piece of pork hock, his chopsticks hovering in mid-air. After thinking for a moment, he stuffed the meat into his mouth and swallowed. "Hmm, this is something that could be done. Police-community cooperation, hey, I've never really thought of this before. I'll talk to the station about it and see if we can include you too."

Gao Jianguo quickly waved his hand: "No, no, no, my technical department already has enough on its plate. You can discuss this with our security department, don't drag me into it. Besides, I'm good at fighting enemies, not petty thieves, not worth it, haha."

It was past 8 p.m. when they finished their meal. Gao Jianguo pinched Xiao Fang's chubby cheeks and said goodbye to the family: "Let's go, sister-in-law. Let me know when you run out of formula, don't worry about causing me trouble."

Gao Jianguo hummed a little tune as he walked back, feeling that he had forgotten something with Wang Tiezhu. He thought about it for a long time but couldn't remember. He shook his head and thought, "Forget it, I won't think about it anymore. If I can't remember, it means it's not a big deal. I'll deal with it when I remember, and if I can't remember, then forget about it."