Siheyuan: Xu Damao's New Life

Xu Damao took out the special supply cigarettes he had taken from Li Huaide and gave two to the two of them. He also took one, lit it up and took a deep puff.

After spending a long time together, the two knew that Xu Damao loved to smoke whenever he was thinking about something, and he smoked one cigarette after another subconsciously. Many times, the cigarettes would be burned up before he took a few puffs.

The three of them came to a shaded area and sat down on the curb in the shaded area without caring about their appearance. After smoking his third cigarette, Xu Damao finally had some ideas, but as soon as he came to his senses, he found that Li Huaide and Wang Jinshan were staring at him intently, which scared him.

"What are you looking at? You scared me. Is there something on my face?"

"No, don't I hope you can come up with an idea?"

"I don't have any ideas, but some of them are true!"

"Oh? Tell me."

"You see, our factory's products cannot compete with other factories now, so we get fewer unplanned materials, right?" Xu Damao asked.

"Yes, that's right. Go on!" Wang Jinshan urged anxiously.

"What if our products are very popular?"

"Of course, that can be exchanged for a lot of unplanned materials. If the workers are well fed, the output will naturally increase. The problem is that our factory's products are not good enough now!" Li Huaide also said.

"Just because the current product is not good doesn't mean that future products will not be good either!"

"You mean developing new products? So what new products should we develop?"

"Let me keep this a secret for now, you will know when the time comes."

Xu Damao was actually thinking of the speed-shifting bicycles of later generations. The raw materials for bicycles, except for the tires, are basically available in the steel mills, and the technical requirements are not high. There are also a large number of low-level workers in the factory. Isn't this just like someone giving you a pillow when you are sleepy?

But first he had to draw the blueprints, especially the blueprints of the speed gears. Another thing was to keep it confidential, after all, the technical content of the speed-changing bicycle was not high, and there was no patent at that time, so it was easy for other manufacturers to imitate it.

After the three of them separated, Xu Damao returned to his office and exchanged for an intermediate mechanical design skill and a set of speed-changing bicycle blueprints. If he only had the blueprints but didn't know anything about them, that would be nonsense!

But you can't hand in this drawing right now, or the leaders will see that it's been completed so quickly, and they'll give you countless tasks next time. Xu Damao even found a crowded place, took some tools to his bicycle, disassembled it, and measured the size of each workpiece with a caliper.

"Chief Xu, you took apart this new bicycle. What are you doing?"

"Hey, I'm planning to improve my bicycle. This one is too hard to ride. Before, I had to get off and push the projection equipment when I went uphill."

"Oh, the section chief also knows this."

"Hey, just tinkering around."

From time to time, people passing by were curious about what Xu Damao was doing and asked him questions. Xu Damao accepted everyone and basically gave the same answer.

By one afternoon, most of the people in the steel rolling mill knew that Section Chief Xu of the Propaganda Department was not doing his job properly and had some unrealistic ideas, and wanted to tinker with improving the bicycles himself.

Xu Damao did not explain anything, and went back to the courtyard after work. As soon as Xu Damao entered the courtyard, he was stopped by Yan Bugui, "Damo, you didn't come back yesterday, so you didn't know that something happened in the courtyard!"

Xu Damao couldn't understand why there were only a hundred people here and they couldn't just be quiet.

"Is it about the Jia family applying for provident fund?" Xu Damao asked.

"You're half right! It's the Jia family's business, but it's not about the provident fund. Because of this incident, the meeting couldn't be held." Yan Bugui's expression was a little strange.

Xu Damao looked at Yan Bugui's expression, and was immediately piqued by Yan Bugui. "Second uncle, don't keep me in suspense. Tell me what's going on."

"This is what happened. The decorator you asked yesterday, Mr. Li, is here, and this Jia Zhang..."

It turned out that Master Li came to Yan Bugui yesterday afternoon and he went straight to Yan Bugui. Yan Bugui quickly called all the registered residents over, including the Jia family. Qin Huairu was pregnant and it was inconvenient, so Jia Zhang came along.

Yan Bugui said, "Master Li, the decorator that Damao hired yesterday, has arrived. The renovation work for Damao's and Nanyi's houses was done by Master Li and his team. I believe everyone knows their level. Let's start from the front yard and let Master Li take a look to see what needs to be repaired, how many tiles and materials are needed, and so on."

"Okay, I'll listen to Second Master."

"I'll get the ladder!"

"Let's start with our house! Our house is right in the front yard."

Someone immediately brought a new ladder from a dilapidated back house in the front yard. The back house was very small and half of its roof was gone. No one wanted it, so it was used as a storage room for the compound, and the newly bought cart was also placed there.

Soon, the roofs of all the houses in the front yard were inspected, and Master Li quoted the prices of materials and labor costs for each house. Everyone thought the prices were fair and nodded in agreement. Yan Bugui took notes in a notebook.

When they arrived at Jia's house, Master Li went up to check as usual. After carefully checking the situation, he quoted a price of twenty-five. When Jia Zhang heard the price, she thought it was too expensive and started to make a scene, "Why are other places charging only seven or eight yuan or more than ten yuan, but mine charges twenty-five yuan?"

Master Li explained, "Sister-in-law, your roof is seriously damaged. Didn't it leak last year? One of the wood is rotten and needs to be replaced, so the cost is higher. The other houses only need simple repairs, so it will be cheaper."

"I don't believe it. Are you deliberately raising the price to cheat me because I, an old woman, don't understand? I'll go up with you and take a look." Jia Zhang shouted relentlessly.

"Mom, don't go. The roof is so high that it's not safe." Qin Huairu said to Xiaodang. Banggeng had already run out to play and was not in the yard.

But Jia Zhang was not the kind of person who would listen to advice. Master Li had no choice but to go up to the roof with Jia Zhang. He pointed to a place where the tiles had been broken and said, "That's where the rain is leaking. The wood has rotted a little and has been eaten by ants, so it needs to be replaced."

Jia Zhang walked over, lifted the tiles and looked at it, but after looking for a long time, she couldn't figure out what it was. She really didn't understand this, but she was unreasonable.

Jia Zhang stamped her feet vigorously and said, "Look, I'm fine even if I stamp my feet. The wood must be fine. You just want to charge me more money because I'm an orphan and a widow without a man to rule over me."

When Master Li saw that Jia Zhang was so heavy and yet she dared to stamp her feet, he was afraid that the roof would really collapse, so he quickly climbed down the ladder.

Sha Zhu was also watching the fun in the crowd below, and his bad mouth came back again, "Aunt Jia, please stop jumping around. Don't you know your own weight? Be careful that the roof collapses under your weight."

Jia Zhang was so angry that she pointed at Sha Zhu and yelled, "You bastard, you're almost thirty and still single, be careful or you'll end up with a family without a family. You... Ouch!"

Before Jia Zhang could finish her words, there was a loud bang and a big hole appeared in the roof, and Jia Zhang fell directly from the roof into the house.

"Ouch, ouch, someone come and save me, my leg seems to be broken." Jia Zhang shouted in the house.