Siheyuan: Xu Damao's New Life

"Come in." Xu Damao quickly put his legs down from the table. If someone saw it, he would look too unstable.

"Chief Xu, Chief Yang wants you to come over here," the man said.

"Okay, I'll go right away."

As soon as Xu Damao entered the section chief's office, he saw Section Chief Yang sitting on the sofa smoking, with two young men standing next to him.

"Da Mao is here, please take a seat. Your two apprentices have just finished reporting and completing the formalities, and they came to me. Let me introduce them to you." Pointing to the tall and strong young man, he said, "This is Li Da Zhuang, he has graduated from junior high school for two years, and he is the nephew of Director Li." Pointing to the slightly thinner one, he said, "This is Sun Guo An, he just graduated from junior high school, and he is the nephew of Director Wang."

Xu Damao looked at the two men. Li Dazhuang looked like a loyal and honest man, while Sun Guoan looked quite smart.

"Okay, don't be too restrained, you two are all family." Xu Damao said.

"Da Mao, I'm leaving these people in your hands. You have to teach them well!"

"Hey, you're not confident in leaving it to me? Okay, I'll take the man away."

"Go ahead, go ahead. Take them to get acquainted with each other first."

Xu Damao took the two back to his office, "Just do it, don't stand all the time. From today on, I will be your master, and I don't have so many rules. Three years of apprenticeship is the factory rule, but I will teach you as soon as possible, and I believe that it will not be difficult for you to become regular employees. I will not hide anything and will teach you slowly. Dazhuang is older, so he will be the senior brother in the future, and Guoan will be the junior brother. You two should get closer to each other in the future."

"Yes, Master. We will listen to you from now on." The two said in unison.

Xu Damao nodded in satisfaction at their attitudes, "Come on, I'll take you two to the equipment room and show you what we're eating."

Xu Damao took out the key and opened the door. The three of them first walked into the small cubicle where Xu Damao used to slack off. Xu Damao pointed at the chair and said, "This is where I usually maintain the equipment. The tools for disassembling and maintaining the projector are in the drawer of the table. I'll teach you when I need them. If we don't go out to show the movie, you can just stay here and slack off. We'll add two more chairs when the time comes."

The two nodded to show that they understood. Xu Damao led the two people into the equipment room and pointed to the rows of boxes with labels and said, "These boxes contain film. There are labels on the outside of the boxes. We need to prepare the film before each screening." He pointed to the projector on the south table and said, "This is what we eat. This thing is very precious and must be handled with care."

Xu Damao then introduced the screen, microphone, speakers, various connecting cables, etc. one by one. The two of them felt dizzy after hearing all these things that they had no contact with normally.

"Okay, today I will first take you two to get acquainted. You both graduated from junior high school, have a certain cultural foundation, and should learn quickly. You know, we projectionists must not only be able to show movies, but also be able to explain them. Nowadays, many movies don't have subtitles, and even if they do, not many people can read. This requires us to explain them. First of all, we must be very familiar with every movie, and the explanations should not be stereotyped. We must add some of our own understanding on the basis of conforming to the main theme."

Xu Damao walked out from the inner room, opened the drawer, took out three notebooks and handed them to the two of them. "These are the notes I took when I was an apprentice. They record various screening knowledge, the general plot of each movie, and my own opinions. Each of you should prepare a few notebooks and copy them down."

"Yes, Master, we will copy it when we get back. We will study hard so that we can help you as soon as possible." Sun Guoan said. Li Dazhuang also nodded honestly.

"Okay, let's stop here for now. It's almost noon. I'll take you two to the cafeteria for lunch. In the afternoon, we'll go to the logistics department to get a desk. You two will work in my old office from now on." After Xu Damao finished speaking, he took his two apprentices straight to the cafeteria.

There were not many people in the cafeteria at that time. Liu Lan was wiping the tables in the hall. She saw Xu Damao and two other people coming in and shouted, "Hey, Xu Damao, why did you come so early today? Who are those two people following him? They look unfamiliar." Liu Lan was a famous loudspeaker in the steel rolling mill and was very well-informed.

Xu Damao glanced at Liu Lan and said, "These two are my new disciples. I brought them here to have dinner and to teach them the way." Then he asked quietly, "How did you feel yesterday?"

Liu Lan's face flushed immediately. Li Huaide was so brave yesterday that he made her suffer. It was Xu Damao who called her yesterday, which meant that he must have something to do with this matter. Liu Lan lifted her hair and said, "It was you who did this, wasn't it?"

"No, I just got a prescription from an old Chinese doctor in the countryside, which is specifically for that aspect. You should know the effect." Xu Damao admitted it very readily. He just wanted to spread the news through Liu Lan's mouth, so that people would come to him continuously, and he would never be short of money in the future! Xu Damao smiled proudly.

Liu Lan rolled her eyes at him, not wanting to pay any attention to him, and continued to wipe the table with her head down.

The three of them found an empty seat and sat down to chat. Li Dazhuang said, "Master, we discussed and wanted to treat you to dinner tonight. Do you have time?"

Xu Damao guessed that they were afraid that he was not teaching them wholeheartedly, so they wanted to have a meal with him and give him some gifts in order to get closer to him. They would feel uneasy if he did not go, so he agreed.

The three chatted for a while, and the kitchen staff in the cafeteria began to bring up pots of cabbage and potatoes, as well as white flour buns and two-grain flour buns. As they were happily watching them work, the music for the end of get off work sounded, and Xu Damao quickly took the two of them to the front to seize the opportunity.

The staff who served food in the cafeteria were already in place. The window of Xu Damao was Ma Hua, Sha Zhu's apprentice. When Ma Hua saw that it was Xu Damao, he snorted coldly, "What are you eating?"

"Two servings of potatoes, two servings of cabbage, two servings of tofu soup, and six white flour buns." Xu Damao handed over the lunch boxes and meal tickets for the three people.

Ma Hua glared at Xu Damao, took the lunch box with one hand and picked up the rice spoon with the other hand, scooped a full spoonful and began to shake the spoon. Ma Hua was angry. Fatty took advantage of the master's absence that day and went to the courtyard to deliver the message and came back to find the canteen director directly. The big pot dishes were cooked by Fatty and another master, and he, the senior brother, had no chance. He thought that it was because Xu Damao beat his master that this happened.

Xu Damao took a look at this and warned: "Ma Hua, I think you are a good person, but don't follow your master's example and do stupid things. Think about it, Sha Zhu is still lying at home!"

Ma Hua shuddered when he heard this. The miserable state of his master appeared before his eyes. It was he who sent him to the hospital that day and stayed with him for the whole night. Looking at the two tall young men following behind Xu Damao, Ma Hua gave up the idea of ​​flipping the wok.

Xu Damao asked his two apprentices to find a corner with their lunch boxes and start eating. "You two have to go to the finance department to get some internal tickets for our factory. If it's not enough, you can send some gifts and spend some money to buy more."

The two nodded to show that they understood. At this time, the older workers also came to eat one after another, and the canteen became lively. Xu Damao also greeted people he knew from time to time.

After lunch, the three of them went back to the office to rest for a while. In the afternoon, when it was time to go to work, Xu Damao took his two apprentices to the equipment room, instructed them to bring a projector and put it on the table, and then began to explain it to the two apprentices seriously.