Siheyuan: Grassroots Counterattack

After leaving the Ministry of Industry, Li Tianyi went straight to the steel rolling mill. He needed to communicate with Li Huaide. In two days, the machines would arrive and they had to find a suitable place to store them.

Arriving at the steel mill, Li Tianyi went to Li Huaide's office and asked his secretary to go inside and talk before he knocked on the office door.

The door opened and a female worker walked out with her head lowered. Li Tianyi didn't look at her for long, but just walked past her.

At this time, Li Huaide was sitting behind his desk, correcting documents in a serious manner. He looked up when he heard someone walking. "Tianyi is here, come and sit over here."

Then he invited Li Tianyi to sit on the sofa. The secretary served Li Tianyi a cup of tea. After the secretary left, Li Tianyi said, "Uncle, I just came back from the Ministry of Industry. In two days, the ministry will ship a few machines to me. I need the factory to find a place to put them and send a few people to help me. I need to dismantle all the machines."

"Okay, don't worry about this. Uncle promises to arrange it for you." Li Huaide promised.

After chatting with Li Huaide about something else, Li Tianyi left the office. He never mentioned the incident with the female worker from beginning to end. He had already told Li Huaide twice before. He didn't care, and Li Tianyi didn't want to interfere too much.

Li Tianyi returned to his office. He hadn't been there for more than a month, and the office was covered with a thin layer of dust. Li Tianyi cleaned the office, then took out a book and started reading it.

Two days passed like this. Li Tianyi looked at several machines in the warehouse and then directed the workers to dismantle the wooden boxes outside the machines.

In the days that followed, Li Tianyi disassembled the machine while drawing its blueprints. When it came to the core technology of the machine, Li Tianyi sometimes made no progress for half a month.

The superiors seemed to know that research is not something that can be accomplished overnight, so the leaders in the department never urged Li Tianyi.

Half a year passed like this, and it was already winter of 1960. The disaster in New China was getting more and more serious. On % to % of the streets, there were rarely people except during working hours. In order to reduce consumption, people basically stayed at home unless they had nothing to do.

Although Li Tian's family had enough food, in order to make his family look less different, they also made reforms in their diet. When Li's mother cooked in the morning, she would make sure everyone was well fed. At noon, the family basically ate at the unit. Although the food was not very good, at least they could eat their fill.

At night, Li's mother would cook some porridge for everyone to drink and be full. Li Tianyi had protested before, but was suppressed by Li's father and mother.

The only one in the family with a good complexion was An An. Although he was a little thinner, compared with children of this era, An An looked white and plump.

At this time, Li Tianyi's research has come to an end. He has studied these machines thoroughly, and the work of organizing the drawings is about to be completed.

That night, Li Tianyi, who was about to rest, suddenly heard his door being slammed. Li Tianyi immediately became alert and asked Xiaoxue to look after An An, while he himself put on his clothes while shouting replies.

"Who is it? It's so late and you're knocking on the door so loudly."

The person at the door didn't say anything, but just knocked on the frame and banged on the door. Li Tianyi didn't go to open the door first, but went to the cellar quietly, left dozens of kilograms of corn flour, and put all the other things into the cellar.

Then he slowly came to the gate and asked, "Who is it? It's so late."

But the man still didn't reply, so Li Tianyi said, "Speak. If you don't speak, I won't dare to open the door. Who knows if you are robbers?"

At this time, the person outside had no choice but to say, "Brother Tianyi, please open the door quickly. I am Yan Jiekuang."

Li Tianyi heaved a sigh of relief, but at the same time, he suddenly became furious. "Yan Jiekuang, are you sick? Why are you smashing my door so late at night?"

As Li Tianyi opened the door, he saw Yan Jiekuang standing outside with a sly look in his eyes. Yan Jiekuang quickly signaled Li Tianyi to speak in a low voice, then he approached Li Tianyi and said, "Brother Li, you don't know, something happened in the courtyard. My dad asked me to call you over."

"What happened?" Li Tianyi's heart immediately tightened.

"Brother Li, don't ask any more questions. Just go there as soon as possible." Yan Jiekuang seemed very anxious, but how could Li Tianyi believe him so easily.

"Tell me what's going on first. If you don't explain clearly, I'll go back to sleep."

Just then Xiaoxue came out of the house, "Tianyi, what happened?"

Li Tianyi quickly turned around and said, "Xiaoxue, it's nothing, go back to the house and look after An An first."

Xiaoxue could only go back to her room after hearing this. Then Li Tianyi looked at Yan Jiekuang and said, "Tell me, what happened?"

"Brother Li, you don't know, the courtyard was very lively tonight. I don't know who discovered Yi Zhonghai and Qin Huairu fiddling with something in the cellar, so they shouted and locked the cellar door from the outside."

"Everyone in the hospital ran out when they heard the shouting, and they trapped the two of them in the cellar. That's why my dad asked me to call you to watch the fun."

Li Tianyi was so angry at this time that he could not get over it. Finally, Li Tianyi said to Yan Jiekuang: "Thank your father for me. It's so late. I won't go. You should go back quickly."

Yan Jiekuang had no choice but to go back to the courtyard to find his father. Li Tianyi closed the door and entered the house, where he saw Xiaoxue patting her son and looking towards the door.

Seeing Li Tianyi coming back, Xiaoxue hurriedly asked in a low voice what happened. Li Tianyi simply said something to Xiaoxue, and then they turned off the lights and went to sleep.

The next morning, when Li's mother and others came to have breakfast, Li Tianyi talked about what happened last night. Li's father was speechless after hearing it, because it was his son's fault for having a good relationship with Yan Bugui.

Father Li briefly explained what happened last night, and Yi Zhonghai evaded the question by saying that he was delivering corn flour to the Jia family. In fact, everyone knew what happened, but no one pointed it out.

In this day and age, if there is a thief in a yard or someone has an affair, they will be pointed at by the neighbors.

Everyone lives in the same courtyard, and no one will feel uncomfortable.

What is happening in the courtyard now is a kind of spice for Li Tianyi, a way to relax when he is tired from work.

Li Tianyi came to the steel rolling mill to continue his work, striving to complete the work as soon as possible.

Another half month passed like this, and Li Tianyi finally completed all the work. Looking at the nearly one-meter-thick drawing in his hand, Li Tianyi smiled with satisfaction.