Courtyard House: Starting as an eighth-grade worker, with too many wives.

Xu Damao didn't leave; instead, he poked his head further inside.

"Director Li, please don't take it to heart. That's just how he is; he doesn't know how to appreciate kindness."

Li Jianguo glanced at him:

"Xu Damao, go to the third canteen and call Nan Yi here."

Xu Damao's eyes lit up, and he turned and ran.

---

Nan Yi arrived very quickly, still panting when he entered.

"Director Li, you wanted to see me?"

Li Jianguo gestured with his chin towards Sha Zhu:

"Chef Nan, Chef He is joining the project team starting today. You'll be the cook for the first canteen from now on. Please take care of today's meals."

Nan Yi paused for a moment, looked at Sha Zhu, then at Li Jianguo, and nodded:

"Don't worry, I'm good at cooking."

Sha Zhu slammed the spoon into the pot:

"What's it to you? Get lost!"

Nan Yi's face darkened:

"Master He, what have I done to offend you? We're both cooks in the cafeteria, who's more superior than whom?"

Sha Zhu took a step forward and raised his hand to push him—

Li Jianguo reached out, grabbed Sha Zhu's wrist with his five fingers, and twisted it to the side.

Sha Zhu cried out and swayed to the side. Before he could react, he was slapped across the face.

Snapped!

It was crisp and clear.

The entire kitchen could hear it clearly.

Sha Zhu covered his face, stared wide-eyed, and was speechless for a moment.

Liu Haizhong, who had somehow squeezed in, approached Li Jianguo with a broad smile:

"Director Li, congratulations! Everyone's heard about your new appointment. If you need anything done for you, just let me know, and I, Liu Haizhong, will be there whenever you call!"

He turned to Sha Zhu and Yi Zhonghai, his face hardening:

"What's wrong with you two? You're doing this for the country's development, and you're being so picky! What kind of behavior is this?!"

Yi Zhonghai was so angry his face turned blue:

"Liu Haizhong, this is none of your business, shut up!"

The bangs actually straightened his back:

"Why can't I say it? I'm supporting Director Li's work and the national project!"

Li Jianguo ignored the two of them, his gaze sweeping over Sha Zhu, Yi Zhonghai, and Jia Dongxu:

"Two o'clock in the afternoon, in the ore section behind the threshing ground. I want to see you there."

After saying that, he turned and left.

---

At two o'clock in the afternoon, the sky was heavily overcast, and the wind felt like knives on my face.

Behind the ore yard, piles of iron ore were stacked there, covered with a thin layer of frost.

Sha Zhu, Yi Zhonghai, and Jia Dongxu stood there, their hands in their sleeves, necks hunched, and feet stomping on the ground.

Li Jianguo walked over from the furnace and pointed towards the pile of ore:

"Move the ore over here."

Yi Zhonghai's face froze:

"Li Jianguo, I'm a level eight fitter, and you're making me do this?"

Li Jianguo looked at him:

"So what if you're an eighth-grade fitter? You're part of my project team now. You do whatever I tell you to do."

"I won't do it!"

Yi Zhonghai flicked his sleeves, turned around, and left.

Li Jianguo's voice came from behind, unhurried:

"This new project was decided by the government. Are you trying to sabotage the national plan by abandoning it now?"

Yi Zhonghai's feet were planted firmly on the ground.

He slowly turned his head and looked at Li Jianguo, his eyes filled with shock, anger and disbelief.

Li Jianguo just stared at him, neither dodging nor flinching.

After a while, Yi Zhonghai lowered his eyelids, walked back step by step, and bent down to move the ore.

---

The stone was so cold it pricked your hand.

When Yi Zhonghai moved the first stone, he felt something was wrong. The stone was like it had teeth; it seemed to bite even through his canvas gloves.

After carrying it several times, my hands started to go numb.

After moving it a few more times, the numbness will subside, and the pain will return.

He put down the stone and tried to loosen his grip—with a ripping sound, a layer of skin stuck to the stone was torn off his palm.

Blood beads appeared, densely packed, and in the blink of an eye, they stained the entire palm red.

Yi Zhonghai looked at the hand and began to tremble.

He opened his mouth, and a hoarse, suppressed sob escaped his throat.

Tears welled up in my eyes.

---

Jia Dongxu and Sha Zhu weren't much better off.

Both of their palms were covered in cuts, horizontal and vertical, the white flesh exposed and oozing blood. They squatted beside the pile of ore, spreading their hands out, looking at the wounds, neither of them speaking.

Silent for a long time.

Jia Dongxu spat angrily onto the ground:

"This can't go on. He's just using his position for personal revenge! I refuse to believe I can't deal with him!"

Sha Zhu gritted his teeth:

"We need to think of a solution. If this continues, he'll drive us crazy."

Yi Zhonghai raised his head, his eyes red-rimmed, with tear stains still clinging to his face.

"Let's go find him!"

---

When the three men burst into the furnace room, Li Jianguo was standing there looking at the data.

He looked up and saw three angry faces.

"All moved?"

Sha Zhu took a step forward, opened his palm, and showed it to Li Jianguo, his blood-stained hand:

"Li Jianguo, this is just you using your position for personal revenge! We're quitting!"

Li Jianguo glanced at the hand, then his gaze returned to Sha Zhu's face:

"It's such a small job, why are you complaining?"

His voice wasn't loud, but every word came down like a nail:

"When I was in the Northwest, even in the dead of winter, I was still out mining. Which worker hadn't been injured? Which one had complained of hardship or exhaustion? Are you the only ones who are human? Are you the only ones who are precious?"

Yi Zhonghai's lips moved, but he didn't say anything.

Sha Zhu's hand slowly drooped down.

Jia Dongxu took a step forward:

"Stop talking nonsense! You're an engineer, have you ever suffered like this? You're just using your position for personal revenge! I quit! Even if it were the King of Heaven himself, I'd say the same thing! If you're so capable, do it yourself!"

Li Jianguo remained silent.

He took a step forward and kicked Jia Dongxu in the chest.

Jia Dongxu was sent flying, his back slamming into a pile of ore with a crash, sending stones tumbling to the ground.

Before he could even get up, Li Jianguo was already in front of him, kicking him repeatedly.

"They complain when you ask them to do a little work! Ask them—"

He gestured around, and the workers in the furnace room all stopped what they were doing and looked in his direction:

"Who hasn't moved ore? Who hasn't suffered from frostbite in winter? Who hasn't had cracked hands? Are you some kind of precious person?"

Jia Dongxu curled up on the ground, holding his head, groaning and crying.

The surrounding workers, who had been holding back their anger for a long time, started to speak up one after another:

"Director Li is personally overseeing things, and you're still full of complaints? If you're so capable, why are you working as laborers?"

"If you're not capable, then get to work honestly, and stop dawdling like a woman!"

Yi Zhonghai lowered his head, his face burning with embarrassment.

Sha Zhu clenched his fist, but he never raised it.

Li Jianguo stopped and glanced at the three of them:

"This is the first time, so I won't punish you. Each of you will be fined ten yuan, which will be used to buy more work safety equipment for the workers."

All three people looked up at the same time:

"On what grounds?"

Li Jianguo narrowed his eyes:

"For the time you've wasted, if you utter another word, go straight to Director Yang, and there will be no place for you in the steel rolling mill."

He pointed towards the door:

"Get lost. Get to work."

---

The stove is lit.

The flames licked the furnace walls, and waves of heat surged outwards.

Several elderly professors walked in, led by materials expert Professor Zhao, whose hair was mostly white, but whose eyes were very bright.

"Jianguo, I heard you've been keeping an eye on the stove? Any ideas?"

Li Jianguo spread out the blueprints and pointed to several places:

"Current engines are generally too heavy and have only average corrosion resistance. I plan to use high-silicon aluminum alloy for the cylinder block and cylinder liners, ductile iron for the pistons and piston rings, and alloys for other components as well. Specific parameters will need to be determined through experiments."

Old Zhao leaned closer, stared at the blueprints for a long time, then looked up:

"Take your time. How was this parameter calculated? We're short of a math expert here..."

"Need not."

Li Jianguo took a stack of papers from his bag and handed them over:

"As long as it conforms to normal parameters, that's fine. I'll do the analysis."

Old Zhao took the stack of papers, flipped through them, and looked up at Li Jianguo with the eyes of someone looking at a monster.

After a while, he glanced in Qi Lao's direction:

"Old Qi told me before that you were a genius, and I didn't believe him. Now I do."

He patted the stack of papers:

"I'm completely convinced that this project is in your hands. Keep an eye on the details below, and we'll have results soon."

The younger experts behind him all looked at Li Jianguo differently.

People younger than them are even more capable.

There really are people more capable than you.

Li Jianguo smiled, lowered his head, and continued to discuss the details with them.

---

Sha Zhu, Yi Zhonghai, and Jia Dongxu stood beside the pile of ore, but no one paid them any attention.

The wind was howling, and the wind made the wound on my hand ache terribly.

Jia Dongxu clutched his chest, grimaced, and spat on the ground:

"The day he's alone, I'll put a sack over his head and beat him up!"

Sha Zhu didn't say a word, but the hatred in his eyes was like a knife.

Yi Zhonghai hung his head, looking at his bloodied palm, lost in thought.

Suddenly, all three of them had a rumble in their stomachs at the same time.

Then came the second tone, and then the third tone.

A sharp, intense pain shot up from the bottom of my abdomen, and I couldn't suppress it.

Sha Zhu's face turned pale:

"Damn... what did the cafeteria serve today...?"

Yi Zhonghai squeezed his legs together:

"Quick...find a toilet..."

The three of them turned and ran, their postures contorted and their appearance disheveled.

The factory's toilets were always hidden in the most inconspicuous corners.

The three grown men, now looking like rabbits being chased by hounds, clenched their buttocks, bent over, clutched their lower abdomens tightly, and sprinted towards the low wall in the distance with twisted and hurried steps.

The wind whistled past their ears and into their collars, making them shiver, yet layers of cold sweat seeped from their backs—a desperate warning from their bodies before their physiological defenses were about to completely collapse.

Jia Dongxu ran at the front, his face already turned a purplish-red, his cheeks clenched so tightly that you could hear his teeth grinding together. His legs seemed to be twisted together, and his steps were incredibly awkward.

Sha Zhu clung tightly to him, hissing and gasping for breath, his expression as if if he took one more step, the back door would be completely breached.

Yi Zhonghai was the oldest and lagged behind. His old face was deathly pale, beads of sweat rolled down his forehead and hit the ground, and he stumbled along, almost falling several times.

The dilapidated wooden door was finally approaching.

The three of them reached out almost simultaneously—and slammed the door open with a bang, squeezing inside.

Seeing that the simple squat toilet was still there, my heart, which had been hanging in my throat, finally settled back down into my stomach with a thud.

"Damn! How come there's only one hole?!"

Jia Dongxu was the first to rush into the cramped cubicle. Staring at the lonely black hole in front of him, his face instantly fell.

Before the words were even finished, Yi Zhonghai and Sha Zhu squeezed in one after the other. The tiny space was instantly packed full, making it difficult to even turn around.

The three men, with their six eyes, all stared intently at the only latrine.

The air froze for a second.

Then, it exploded.

"I can't take it anymore! You two go out first, let me go first!"

Yi Zhonghai spoke first, his voice trembling with a commanding urgency. He took a step forward, as if to seize the position.

Normally, Sha Zhu and Jia Dongxu might have given in because of his status as an old man and his reputation as an eighth-level fitter.

But now?

When a person is in such a hurry that they're about to burst, who cares about your status as an old man or not!

"Don't give me that! First come, first served, you know? I was the first one to rush in!"

Jia Dongxu's eyes were bloodshot. He roared as he reached for his belt. At the same time, he used his body to block the entrance, forcefully pushing Yi Zhonghai and Sha Zhu out.

"I'm the oldest! Jia Dongxu, get out of my way!"

Yi Zhonghai panicked completely, no longer caring about appearances, and reached out to grab Jia Dongxu's arm with terrifying force.

Sha Zhu was jumping up and down anxiously. His eyes darted around, and he shouted at the top of his lungs, "Jia Dongxu! Your family still owes me four hundred yuan! Let me go first, we can talk about the money later!"

"Get lost!"

Jia Dongxu was completely oblivious to what was happening at that moment. He clutched his waistband tightly, his face contorted with rage, and turned to yell at Sha Zhu:

"If you fucking try to take it from me again, I'll drag you down with me!"