Courtyard Houses: The Great Masters of a Nation Hidden Within

Factory Director Yang nodded: "Okay, mainly because he's only been here for a month, there's not enough time. I'll think about it, we need to give him some responsibility, but we can't spoil him. Right now, Chief Engineer Chen is personally mentoring him."

The leader understood the underlying meaning in Director Yang's words and nodded, "Hmm, you've thought of everything very thoroughly. You'd better make good use of this young man."

Director Yang readily agreed, and the leader shook hands with him before getting into the car and leaving.

The next day, Friday, early in the morning, Chief Engineer Chen was also in Director Yang's office.

The two were arguing about how to divide the reward for 3z-591. Everything else was fine, but the main issue was Gao Jianguo.

After thinking for a while, Director Yang spoke with Old Chen, saying, "Regarding Jian Guo's matter, I'm wondering if this approach will work. After completing this series of tasks, his rank will definitely rise two levels. 3Z-591 counts as one level, and I reckon he can also get one level in the thermocouple area."

Old Chen thought about it for a moment and agreed: "Pretty much. Every single thing he's doing is a big deal. Wow—he's almost an eighth-level engineer in the blink of an eye? If he works for another two years, this level won't be enough for him to climb any higher."

Factory Director Yang chuckled: "When that time comes, it'll be the higher-ups who'll have a headache, not us."

Old Chen chuckled, "What you said makes sense. But this level, 3z-591, needs to be kept secret. How can we release it? We don't even have a reason."

Factory Director Yang remained calm: "That's easy. Just don't publish it; we'll simply add the numbers to the administrative and financial records."

Will it pass at the factory meeting?

"For group 3z-591, from beginning to end, I was responsible for drafting the opinions, reporting them to the 17th Ministry of Machine Building, and then the 17th Ministry of Machine Building issued the directives. This was the order from above."

Old Chen nodded: "That would be the most efficient way."

Director Yang then came up with another arrangement: "Give him a few people to lead his own group. He needs some room to maneuver and see what new tricks he can come up with. Don't tell anyone about this yet; just get the preparations done. Once the thermocouples come into play, use them as an excuse to bring it up again, and incidentally get his section-level benefits sorted out."

Old Chen laughed: "What's the big deal? A section-level clerk doesn't get you anywhere. At best, he's a level 19 clerk, earning 78 yuan a month—less than he's making now. He's on the technical track, not in administration."

The "section chief" rank, you could say it exists, but it's not really recognized in the official staffing system. It's just that among a bunch of clerks below the section chief, you have to pick out a leader to get that title.

To say it's useless wouldn't be entirely true. Once the title is established, power and responsibility follow, and this thing really has nothing to do with rank.

Factory Director Yang waved his hand: "Let's just leave it there as a formality for now. It's better to have an extra layer of preparation."

Old Chen didn't care: "Do whatever you want, I have nothing to say."

The Ministry of Machinery responded very quickly; the notification had already reached the factory office by the time they were about to leave work in the afternoon.

The correspondent also brought a less important piece of news: the research management seminar had been postponed. Apparently, it was due to traffic congestion; people from remote areas simply couldn't make it. The meeting was originally scheduled for Saturday, but by this point, not even a quarter of the attendees had registered, so it was moved to Monday.

The department simply issued a direct notice, so the adjustments to group 3z-591 were merely glanced over by other factory leaders to indicate that they were aware of them.

Director Yang and Old Chen called Gao Jianguo, Sister Fang, and Liu Qiang over from Old Chen's office and read out the reward to them on the spot.

Gao Jianguo, having been assigned to his post for less than a month, was promoted to engineer, level nine, a promotion that's unprecedented. That speed is astonishing. In Gao Jianguo's previous life, following the normal path, after graduating from university, he would first work as a technician, also known as an intern, for a year before being eligible to be promoted to assistant engineer. Then, an assistant engineer would have to endure another four years before even reaching the edge of becoming an engineer. And that would only be if he had a prestigious company and everything went smoothly.

Sister Fang and Liu Qiang's salaries were raised by one level, but their professional titles remained unchanged. This is similar to the "enjoy the treatment of a certain level" scheme; you get to experience the benefits, but your level isn't permanently tied up, and you can always take it back if something goes wrong.

Even so, the two were already overjoyed. What was this "level" thing? Could it be cooked in a pot? The real benefits were what mattered.

Besides, with Corey having such a powerful backer, as long as they play the supporting role, their rank will be resolved sooner or later. Both of them knew this perfectly well.

For them, being able to improve their salary by conducting experiments was an incredibly rare opportunity. Even if they didn't do this experiment, they'd still have to do other experiments; after all, it's just working a regular job.

So in a project, if you see a good job, just grab it. For ordinary people, the work they do in different projects is actually pretty much the same, but the rewards are vastly different—the rewards could be money, fame, experience, lessons learned, or a little bit of everything.

Gao Jianguo was overjoyed. His rank and benefits had jumped significantly; it would be a lie to say he wasn't happy. No normal person would act this way.

Now that's settled; his salary has officially surpassed Yi Zhonghai's ninety-nine yuan and become part of the courtyard's payroll. Well, it's only three yuan more.

He only received his level 10 technician salary of 86.5 yuan for one month. No, it wasn't payday yet; he hadn't even received that salary.

As for other awards, those aren't things that can be decided in ten days or half a month. They require gathering all the work done by the entire system for a whole year, breaking it down, and evaluating it comprehensively—it's still a long way off. But Sister Fang and Liu Qiang aren't thinking about those things. They're listed relatively low on the project's credits, but if they could actually win some kind of collective honor, it would be very useful for them in the future.

After letting Sister Fang, who was beaming with joy, leave with Liu Qiang, Director Yang also returned to his room. Old Chen then stopped Gao Jianguo and told him about postponing the seminar.

Gao Jianguo wasn't bothered; he had all the materials prepared, so it didn't matter which day the meeting was held. However, one thing puzzled him: "Master, didn't the comrades who arrived earlier waste several days' travel expenses? Will the ministry cover them?"

Old Chen laughed: "No way, that just shows you lack experience. For these kinds of less urgent assignments, most organizations will allow extra days for business trips. It's not easy to travel, and the opportunity is rare, so letting them take the chance to explore the local area, run errands, and bring back some local specialties is a fair price to pay for their journey. In this case, the comrades who arrived early simply moved their shopping for local products from after the meeting to before it started."

Gao Jianguo finally realized that there was more to it than met the eye, and that he was still too inexperienced.

Although I don't have to go to meetings on Saturday, I still have a ton of things to do.

The people working on the LYP-6 aero-engine are still exchanging ideas here; they've been arguing all day, and they'll have to continue tomorrow.

3Z-591 is going to expand production, and Gao Jianguo, who is in charge of the core research, will definitely have to go along with it. The factory has already been making arrangements for this non-stop, and the preliminary work has already begun.

Finally, there is one more important matter at hand.

On weekends, he has to go to Lou Xiao'e's house.