Siheyuan: Grassroots Counterattack

After Jia Dongxu passed away, the Jia family kept a low profile for a while. However, as the disaster became more and more serious, the money for buying food had been spent, and Jia Zhang was unwilling to spend a penny for her own retirement.

Qin Huairu had no choice but to ask Yi Zhonghai for help. At the beginning, Yi Zhonghai was quite reserved and would just give the Jia family a few pounds of corn flour and send Qin Huairu away.

As for Qin Huairu, she was able to barely get by thanks to Sha Zhu's selfless help. However, as the shortage of materials at the steel mill became more and more serious, the factory also issued a notice to the canteen, prohibiting canteen staff from taking leftovers home, so that Sha Zhu's three large boxes of meals were also cut off from supply every day.

This made Qin Huairu's life even more difficult. Sometimes she would wonder if she should just leave the Jia family and find another family to marry into.

But she couldn't bear to leave the child, the child was her biggest weakness. At this time, Qin Huairu's belly was already very big, and since Jia Dongxu's death, Jia Zhang's style of the old Buddha was even more stable. She didn't look after the child at home, didn't do housework, and went out to chat every day with a shoe sole.

She hadn't finished a single sole for several months. If Qin Huairu argued with her, she would scold her for being unfilial and want to kick her out of the Jia family.

But if Qin Huairu's attitude becomes a little tougher, Jia Zhang will soften again, but she will return to her old ways after a few days.

After a few times, Qin Huairu stopped caring about Jia Zhangshi. Seeing this, Jia Zhangshi became even worse. When she was greedy, she would secretly go out to improve her life, without caring about her grandchildren at home.

During this period, Qin Huairu also borrowed food from Li Tianyi. Li Tianyi did not refuse. He asked Xiaoxue to prepare 20 kilograms of corn flour and said that she did not need to pay it back.

Qin Huairu could feel that Li Tianyi gave her food out of pity for her and had no regard for her at all. Unlike that old fellow Yi Zhonghai, every time he gave her food, his eyes seemed to be glued to her.

If she wasn't pregnant now, Yi Zhonghai would have taken action long ago. She wanted to find someone to talk to about this, but when she looked around, was there anyone who could make the decision for her?

I had mentioned this matter vaguely to Sha Zhu before, but Sha Zhu, that fool, trusted that old guy Yi Zhonghai so much that Qin Huairu gave up in the end.

As the seasons changed, it was already the twelfth month. As the overall environment was not good, the factory closed early and all benefits were cancelled.

Li Tianyi just came back from a meeting at the Ministry of Industry. It was a complete holiday. Just now in the ministry, the superiors asked all departments to broaden their horizons, brainstorm, and strive to develop new ideas to help the country overcome difficulties.

Li Tianyi thought about what the country lacks the most. In addition to food, it is machines, and the foreign exchange used to buy machines is the top priority.

Li Tianyi plans to start from this aspect and design several advanced machines for future generations, export them abroad and earn foreign exchange faster.

He already had some ideas in mind and planned to start putting them into practice after the Chinese New Year.

Today is Chinese New Year, but there is no festive atmosphere on the streets. Children who used to run around are basically nowhere to be seen this year. Li Tianyi rides his bike into the alley, and the alley is quiet. Even Comrade Yan Bugui, the gate god of the courtyard, is not at his post.

As soon as he entered the house, An An, who could run without any problems, rushed over, yelling at Li Tianyi to take him out to play, and climbed onto the bicycle while saying that.

Li Tianyi had no choice but to push his bicycle back to the street. The two of them walked around the city, and An An didn't mind the cold, looking around happily.

Everyone had a very depressing time this year, including the Li family. Although there was still a lot of grain and meat in the cellar, Li's mother did not dare to cook much, as who knew how long the famine would last.

Time passed slowly and it was time to go back to work. Li Tianyi returned to the steel rolling mill and began to design his own plan. He planned to design a semi-automatic washing machine. Washing machines also appeared in foreign countries today, but semi-automatic washing machines did not appear until a few years later.

With this washing machine, I believe the country can make a quick buck. After a few days of hard work, the drawings were finally ready. All we had to do was make the samples and submit them.

Li Tianyi took the drawings to find Li Huaide immediately. At this time, Li Huaide had been the factory director for more than a year, but had not achieved any outstanding performance. He was very anxious about this and even looked for Li Tianyi. However, Li Tianyi also said that he currently did not have any suitable projects for the steel rolling mill, and according to the current domestic situation, even if there were projects, they could not be carried out.

Li Huaide knew that this was true, so he could only wait. When Li Huaide saw Li Tianyi coming to him with a stack of drawings, he immediately stood up excitedly, "Tianyi, do you have a new project?"

"Director Li, this is my newly designed semi-automatic washing machine. The main market is overseas, and it can help the country earn more foreign exchange."

"Great, finally it's time for you to make an effort." Li Huaide happily took the blueprint and flipped through it. He didn't understand the technology, but he was willing to listen to other people's opinions.

"Tianyi, whatever plans you have, uncle will definitely support you with all his strength."

"Uncle, I want to make a sample first, and then report it to the Ministry of Industry. Although I have drawn the blueprint, I am not very sure about the motor inside it."

"Okay, let's do it." Li Huaide agreed without hesitation. "Hey, Tianyi, you don't know that it's not easy to run a steel mill. The two leading projects in our factory are also reducing production, especially the tractor project. Foreign countries have already produced tractors similar to ours, and our country's exports have decreased."

"We are still producing on the machine racks, but the profits are very small. In addition, the special steels allocated to us by our superiors have been reduced. If there are no new projects, the rolling mill will probably have to give workers a holiday like other factories."

Li Tianyi usually doesn't pay attention to production issues, so he really doesn't know what Li Huaide said.

A month later, Li Tianyi asked the steel mill welder to weld the frame of the washing machine, while he himself began to study the motor and turbine equipment.

During this period, Qin Huairu gave birth to a daughter just like in the original drama. Her wife said that when Jia Zhang heard that her daughter-in-law had given birth to another granddaughter, she was so angry that she went home directly from the hospital, leaving Qin Huairu alone in the hospital.

Oh, this statement is not accurate. Qin Huairu was not the only one there. Sha Zhu was busy running around. When the child was taken out, Sha Zhu held the child and cried.