Chapter 54
◎End of Educated Youth Life (Revised)◎
He bid farewell to his companions in the collective household one by one. Although the others were very envious, they still tried their best to show a positive attitude and sent off another companion who was leaving the educated youth point.
Zhou Shunian had finally escaped the hard life of being an educated youth. As for them, they still didn’t know how long they would have to endure in this place.
He got on the tractor bucket, and the tractor started to rumble. The wind, carrying dust, swept across his cheeks. When he reached the commune, Zhou Shunian found a mailbox, put a stamp on the letter he had written, and sent it out.
First, he would take a tractor from the Hegouzi Brigade to the county, then take a public bus to Wanqiu City, where he could take the train to the capital. The platform of the Wanqiu City train station was like a boiling pot. People carrying carrying poles, carrying bedding, and leading children were so crowded that their feet couldn’t touch the ground. Zhou Shunian clutched the greasy train ticket and squeezed towards the ticket gate. The large yellow handbag was pulled out of shape by the people behind him.
After half an hour, he finally squeezed onto the train. The carriage was very crowded, with no empty space. The glass windows of the hard-seat carriage were covered with dust. The carriage was hot and stuffy, and a sour and strange smell wafted into his nose, almost making him vomit his breakfast.
Zhou Shunian found a window seat according to the seat number on his ticket and closed his eyes to rest.
From Wanqiu to the capital, it would pass through four cities and was expected to take a day and a night.
After a while, the train started to move. The wind from outside rushed into the carriage, dispelling the strange smell. The scenery outside came into view. The rice fields, divided into blocks by green field ridges, had the artistic conception of a water town in the south of the Yangtze River. Zhou Shunian took a sip of water to soothe his throat. When he was about to put the water bottle back, he found a red peace knot in the side pocket of his handbag.
He recalled in his mind that this peace knot was given to him by Su Juesheng’s little sister, Tangtang, when he left Yuanlin County. This peace knot was very delicately and carefully made. The string was tied in a fine swastika knot at the intersection, and the tassels extending from the four corners were of the same length. He held this peace knot in his palm, and a trace of indescribable warmth welled up in his heart.
This was Zhou Shunian’s first time in the capital. It was different from other places. The sunlight was a bit dazzling. The vermilion city walls, the sunlight shining on the asphalt road through the diamond-shaped glass, the flow of bicycles like a black river, the long queue in front of the non-staple food store, the white pastries in the showcase, and the lively melody of “The East is Red” playing on the radio.
But he didn’t stay for long and chose to go directly to the Capital Machinery Factory to report.
After arriving at the factory, Zhou Shunian first went to the personnel department to submit the various materials he had prepared in advance.
The female clerk saw the name on it and sized him up a few more times. “You’re that firefighting hero, right?”
Zhou Shunian was not used to this title.
The female clerk couldn’t help but laugh. “Don’t be nervous. Your deeds have spread throughout our factory. Young people are very brave.”
After submitting the materials, he had to fill out various forms such as the employee registration form. The head of the personnel department talked with the new employees, and there was a physical re-examination.
After completing the onboarding process at the Capital Machinery Factory, Zhou Shunian successfully became an apprentice at the machinery factory.
…
Zhou Shunian had been an apprentice at the Capital Machinery Factory for half a year. In these six months, he mainly did odd jobs for his master, such as oiling the machine tools, wiping the equipment, learning to use a file to grind parts, carrying raw parts, recording production accounts, and participating in workshop studies.
On this evening, a batch of imported equipment needed to be unloaded at the Capital Machinery Factory. Moving this large equipment from the factory gate to the workshop was a strenuous job, but many workers were willing to stay and unload the goods. There was an overtime pay of 30 cents per hour for unloading the goods.
Zhou Shunian also came over with his master.
“Didn’t they say the goods would arrive at seven? Why is it 7:30 and we still don’t see the truck…” a worker grumbled, and at the same time, he slapped a mosquito that had landed on his arm to suck blood.
“Why haven’t the goods arrived yet? This is too slow.” They were a little dissatisfied. The overtime pay was calculated from the start of unloading. If the goods didn’t arrive, their waiting time would not be counted.
Amidst the grumbling of the crowd, a large truck carrying goods drove towards the factory gate. After the truck stopped, the supervisor came over and directed them to start unloading.
The supervisor raised his voice. “Everyone, pay attention. The batch at the front of the truck is precision equipment. Be careful when loading and unloading. The goods in the middle have high shockproof requirements. Put a piece of old cotton quilt underneath. The batch at the back of the truck has wires. Be careful to avoid contact with moisture. All goods should be sorted and stacked by area to ensure that the categories and positions correspond and are not mixed up. When moving, you must lift and place them steadily. Be careful not to tilt or bump them. Is that clear?”
“Clear!”
The twenty-odd workers involved in the unloading simply divided the work and began to move this batch of imported equipment from the gate to the workshop.
At this moment, a clerk ran over and stopped the workers who were moving the equipment inside. “Wait, this equipment can’t be moved in yet! Supervisor, the positioning line drawn yesterday was washed away by the heavy rain. When I was re-surveying with the ink fountain just now, I found that the foundation hole of the boring machine was three centimeters off from the drawing. If we move it in now, it will be very troublesome to adjust the position of the equipment again.”
The workshop was already narrow. Not to mention that it would be impossible to move and adjust so many pieces of equipment after they were moved in, and for precision equipment like a boring machine, every ten centimeters of movement could cause the base guide rail to rub against the ground and create scratches, which would affect the accuracy of subsequent processing. Not to mention that if the foundation bolt holes were misaligned with the pre-embedded bolts, forcing them could crack the equipment base.
A few years ago, a machine tool factory in the capital had to move a machine tool three times due to a positioning error, which ultimately led to the distortion of the worktable guide rail and the complete loss of accuracy.
The supervisor frowned in annoyance. “Why did you only tell me about such a serious problem now?”
“This…” The clerk lowered his head. This was indeed his work mistake.
“Where are the technicians in our factory?”
“The technicians in the factory have all gone to the third factory for technical support and emergency repairs. It will take at least four hours to get back from the third factory by bike.”
The supervisor looked at the empty space in front of the workshop. “Then let’s unload the goods directly and put them on that empty space. Let the workers go back first. We’ll install them tomorrow when the technicians are back. Is that okay?”
As soon as the supervisor said this, the workers on the scene voiced their opposition.
“Supervisor, we’ve been waiting for so long, from six o’clock to 7:30. We haven’t even had time to eat dinner. Now you’re saying to unload them on the empty space? How will the overtime pay be calculated?”
“That’s right. It was supposed to be seven o’clock, but it was delayed until 7:30 before we saw the shadow of the goods. Now that we’ve finally unloaded the goods from the truck, you can’t just let us go back like this.”
“We’ll have to go through all this trouble again tomorrow.”
“We’ve been rushing to meet the schedule recently. If we can’t assemble it smoothly tonight and it delays tomorrow’s technical debugging, it will be difficult to catch up with the delayed production schedule.”
“No,” the clerk said with a difficult expression. “The weather forecast shows that there will be rain from tonight to tomorrow morning. This batch of equipment cannot get wet.”
The supervisor looked at the group of workers in front of him. “Does anyone among you know how to read English drawings? If no one can check the positioning against the drawings, it will be a big delay.”
The group of workers looked at each other. They might not even be able to understand Chinese drawings, let alone the foreign language of the foreigners.
“Let me try,” Zhou Shunian said.
The supervisor’s gaze fell on the young man in front of him. He was wearing a set of blue-gray work clothes and looked very young, about twenty years old. But his demeanor was confident, and he didn’t look childish at all.
“Are you sure?”
“Since you’re already looking for someone among the workers who can read the drawings, and this equipment can’t be moved in now, and the sky is full of dark clouds, the equipment can’t be left in the open to be rained on all night, right? Even if I make a mistake, the worst that can happen is that we’ll have to adjust it again tomorrow. But if the rain damages this equipment, the loss will be even greater. You can just treat a dead horse as a living horse and let me try?”
The supervisor hesitated for a long time before he finally agreed to his proposal. “Alright then, I’ll let you try.”
“The drawings and the manual.”
The clerk quickly handed him the materials in his hand.
The manual was also in English. Zhou Shunian read through the drawings and materials. “A level, an ink fountain, a steel tape measure, with an accuracy of 0.1 millimeters.”
After measuring the space in the workshop with the instruments, Zhou Shunian began to squat down and draw lines with the ink fountain. He quickly drew a new positioning map. After drawing the positioning map, he directed the workers to move the equipment in. The workers had assembled similar equipment before. Under Zhou Shunian’s command, they quickly completed the assembly of the first piece of equipment.
The clerk looked at the finished product in front of him, checked the drawings in his hand, and said excitedly, “That’s right, that’s right, it’s correct. It all matches the drawings!”
…
The assembled equipment successfully completed the debugging the next day and was put into production.
The food at the machinery factory was not very good, but it was much better than that of the educated youth collective household. Zhou Shunian took a bite of a vegetable bun and then a sip of millet congee. Before he could swallow it, he saw the clerk in the blue-gray work clothes walk over. “The supervisor wants to see you.”
Zhou Shunian went to the supervisor’s office.
The supervisor patted his shoulder. “I went back yesterday and looked at the English drawings and manual for half the night. The simple English is easy to recognize, but it’s all professional terminology. I didn’t expect you to understand it with just a glance. You’re not a simple young man.”
“I saw in your file that your parents’ work unit and position, your father is the party secretary of Yuanlin County. That’s not a small official. You, the only son of a county party secretary, went to Wanqiu to work as an educated youth, then became a firefighting hero, and were recruited into the machinery factory. Your resume is really rich…” The supervisor had seen too many incompetent children who got into the factory as workers, into the bank, or into the county party committee as cadres through their parents’ connections. No matter how big a mess they made, there was always someone to clean it up for them.
People like Zhou Shunian, who were hardworking, unassuming, but talented, were really rare.
Zhou Shunian didn’t know how to respond to the supervisor’s words, but the supervisor didn’t expect him to answer. He took out a form from the drawer.
“Comrade Zhou Shunian, after the approval of the higher-level organization, it has been agreed to let you end your apprenticeship early and become a formal worker at the Capital Machinery Factory. You can report to the technical department tomorrow.”
Hearing the supervisor’s words, Zhou Shunian was stunned for a few seconds before he reacted and bowed to the supervisor to thank him, the corners of his lips turning up. “Thank you, supervisor.”