142 warship base

  After a fiery and festive Spring Festival, Lin Zhenhua set off on another trip before Xiaofang returned to school. This time, his destination was Shanghai.

  "Is this Manager Lin? I am Wang Baoxing, the guard warrior of the Thruster. Our Director Liu has a meeting today and cannot come to pick you up. Let me take you to the base first to rest."

  Outside Shanghai Railway Station, a handsome young man in naval uniform saluted Lin Zhenhua and introduced himself.

  "Thanks for your hard work, Little Wang..." Lin Zhenhua shook hands with Wang Baoxing and then pointed to the three people following him, saying: "These three masters all came with me. This is Master Sun Changyuan, this is Master Peng Gang, and this is Master Peng's apprentice, Master Yang Wenyong."

  Wang Baosheng hastily stepped forward and bowed to the workers one by one, causing Sun Changyuan and others to be busy thanking him repeatedly.

  A minibus with a local license plate came over, Wang Baosheng led the crowd onto the bus and closed the door. The minibus turned around, left the train station, and headed towards the warship research institute base in the suburbs of Shanghai.

  Including Lin Zhenhua, the four people from Hanhua Factory were visiting Shanghai for the first time. Lin Zhenhua was not particularly surprised by the prosperous scene on the streets, but Sun Changyuan and others kept looking out of the window with wide eyes, occasionally exclaiming in surprise. Fortunately, there were many seats on the bus, so each person could occupy a window seat.

  "Master, Shanghai is more prosperous than our Changsha..." Yang Wenyong said to Peng Gang with emotion. He has now been officially assigned to be an apprentice under Peng Gang, currently only operating the universal sharp bed, and will consider transferring to CNC milling machine in the future.

  "Of course," said Sun Changyuan, "Shanghai is China's largest city."

  "How come I heard Beijing is bigger than Shanghai?" Yang Wenyong asked.

  "No, it should be Shanghai that's bigger than Beijing. Look at the things we usually buy, they're all made in Shanghai and are of the best quality, have you ever heard of anything made in Beijing?" said Sun Changyuan.

  Zhang Gang refuted: "Old Sun, what you said is also incorrect. Beijing is the political center, where the Party Central Committee is located, and it's not a place for industrial development..."

  "Master, have you been to Beijing?" Yang Wenyong asked Peng Gang.

  Peng Gang shook his head: "I'm just a small worker, how can I have the chance to go to Beijing? This time coming to Shanghai is still thanks to Manager Lin's blessing. You see, such good things as business trips to Shanghai are not something we workers usually get."

  Yang Wenyong said angrily: "Of course it should be you, Master. We came here to do business, not to go window shopping."

  Lin Zhenhua sat in the front row chatting with Wang Baosheng, when he heard Yang Wenyong's words, he smiled and turned his head to say: "Everyone, don't worry, we have a shopping group. In the end, we will arrange a day for everyone to stroll along Nanjing Road and buy some Shanghai goods..."

  "Hurray!" The three workers in the back row cheered together.

  The bus left Shanghai city and drove through a large rural area before finally entering a compound with naval soldiers standing guard at the gate.

  This courtyard looks unimpressive from the outside, but the long wall that stretches as far as the eye can see gives rise to endless reveries. Once inside, everyone's eyes widen in amazement, and all they see is a wide, tree-lined avenue stretching into the distance, with buildings scattered about on either side of the road.

  These buildings are either ordinary bungalows, three or four storeyed small buildings, or single-storey workshops that are over ten meters high. The intervals between the buildings are very wide, showing that the owners here do not care about land at all.

  Unlike the local factory area, all trees and green hedges here are trimmed neatly. The white ash painted on the tree trunks to prevent insects is strictly consistent in height, and from a distance, they all seem to be on a straight line. This neat and uniform style seems to subtly hint that this is a militarized management world for visitors.

  The minibus drove along the main road for a while, then turned into a residential area and finally stopped in front of a three-story red brick building. There were seven or eight such buildings around, with two rows of green trees on either side, cleverly separating the building from other structures in the residential area.

  Wang Baoxing said to Lin Zhenhua, "This area is called Xiaohong Building, where our base-level cadres live. Director Liu lives in the suite on the left side of the first floor."

  "How come, Director Liu won't let us stay at his place?" Lin Zhenhua asked.

  "Of course not, we have a guest house, your accommodation, Director Liu has already arranged it. It was Teacher Qin who asked me to bring you back home first and said that he wanted to entertain you first before sending you to the guest house..."

  As they spoke, Tai Mu had already come out of the small building. After a few months back in Shanghai, Tai Mu had completely restored her Shanghainese attire, wearing a well-fitted floral cotton-padded jacket that accentuated her plump figure, exuding an air of elegance and refinement, no longer resembling the female statistician who used to wear work uniforms.

  "Kobayashi, and Master Sun, Master Peng, you've all arrived, welcome, welcome..." Tai Hong enthusiastically greeted everyone, and it seemed that her personality had also become more cheerful than before.

  "Master Tai!"

  "Mrs. Liu!"

  Sun Changyuan and Peng Gang both used a past title, after shouting, they felt that something was not quite right, but couldn't say what exactly. The other party is already a Shanghainese, while still using the Hanhua Factory's local title, which seems to be not quite right.

  Lin Zhenhua walked up straightforwardly and shouted: "Hello, Teacher Tai."

  Tai Ying's face broke into a smile, and she said with a hint of reproach: "What's with the 'Teacher Tai'? Just call me Sister Tai. Look at Sun Shifu and Peng Shifu, they're not formal with me."

  Yang Wenyong stood behind the crowd, wanting to speak but not knowing what to say. Tai Miao caught sight of him and asked in surprise: "Whose child is this? Master Sun, Master Peng, he doesn't seem to be either of your children?"

  Lin Zhenhua smiled and pulled Yang Wenyong to the front, saying: "Wenyong, this is Liu Suozhang's lover, you call her Tai Ayi."

  "Qin Ayao is great..." Yang Wenyong obediently shouted.

  Tai Ying Le said: "What a handsome little guy! Xiao Lin, who is he?"

  "This is our Hanhua company's young worker, Yang Wenyong, who is now an apprentice to Master Peng. He is one of the reserve talents we are focusing on cultivating, and this time I brought him to Shanghai to broaden his horizons."

  Qin Hong invited everyone into the house. Liu Xianghai's home was very spacious, with a living room alone covering over 80 square meters, furnished with a set of artificial leather sofas. The host seemed to be worried that the artificial leather would wear out after prolonged use, so they had also placed a crocheted cover on top of the sofa. The other furniture in the house looked like it was from an earlier era, but its quality was excellent and gave off a high-end appearance.

  "These are all the furniture from my family's past..." Qin Mo saw Lin Zhenhua polishing the furniture and explained with a hint of pride, "During the ten years of turmoil, they were occupied by the leader of the rebels, but now they have been returned to us. This sofa set is new, bought when Xiang Hai became the director, as there are more people coming to our house, it wouldn't be proper without a sofa."

  "Is Director Liu usually very busy?" Lin Zhenhua asked.

  Qin Mo smiled and said: "... Lin, I'm warning you, don't ever call Xiang Hai 'Liu Suozhang' again. He told me a few days ago that if you dare to call him Liu Suozhang, he won't help you out and will make you go back to the Light Industry Bureau to get an introduction letter..."

  "I wouldn't dare, I wouldn't dare..." Lin Zhenhua hastily apologized, "Tai Jie, you also know that if the letter of introduction from the Provincial Department had been useful, I wouldn't have come to ask for Old Liu's help. I know this matter has put Old Liu in a difficult position, but there's no other way, our Jiangnan Province really can't solve it on its own..."

  "It's okay, I've told Hai that Lin is his friend and the Hanhua factory is his wife's family home. He'll do his best to take care of your matters," said Tai Mo.

  A few people sat down on the sofa and Tai Xian served everyone fruit, chatting with them for a while. Liu Xianghai finally came back.

  "Is Kobayashi here?..." Liu Xianghai was still outside the door, but his voice had already come in. This way of speaking was rare when he used to be a woodworker, probably after becoming the director, he gained confidence and unconsciously added a few more domineering tones to his speech.

  Lin Zhenhua and others stood up together to welcome Liu Xianghai.

  Liu Xianghai walked into the room in his military uniform, handed the bag to Taimo and took off his hat, which Taiyan hastily caught.

  "Old Liu!..." Lin Zhenhua shouted with all his might.

  "Ah! Xiao Lin!..." Liu Xianghai responded excitedly, walking up and shaking hands with Lin Zhenhua tightly, "Good one, Xiao Lin, not bad, still the same as before..."

  Lin Zhenhua withdrew his hand, shook it and said: "Comrade Lao Liu, I want to remind you that as a teacher-level cadre, can't your strength be not so big like a woodworker's?"

  "Hahaha...". Liu Xianghai burst out laughing, turned around and greeted Sun Changyuan, Peng Gang and others separately, forcing them to call him "Old Liu..." instead of addressing his position. As for Yang Wenyong, he had no human rights in this situation, Liu Xianghai patted his shoulder and praised him with a loud voice, saying "This kid is not bad".

  Everyone rearranged their seats, and Lin Zhenhua finally had the opportunity to carefully examine Liu Xianghai.

  Compared with a few months ago, Liu Xianghai's mental outlook has improved significantly, and his eyebrows are full of the spirit of spring breeze. However, his wrinkles seem to have increased, and his eye bags are more pronounced. When he was a woodworker, his hair was still black and oily, but now some silver threads can be faintly seen.

  "What's wrong, Old Liu? Are you very busy with work?" Lin Zhenhua asked with concern.

  "Very busy!" Liu Xianghai nodded and said, "Meetings that can't be finished, documents that can't be read. Sigh, let's not talk about my things for now, let's talk about yours..."

  Lin Zhenhua said: "We've already told you about our business in the letter, it's just that we need to ask for your help to contact an enterprise with large-scale CNC machines to help us process a few sets of molds."

  "Isn't Yan Yuan and his tempering machine enough?..." Liu Xianghai asked, "I remember you had a good relationship with Xiao Yan, last time he came to Shanghai for the meeting, he even mentioned you to me..."

  Lin Zhenhua was thinking of having fun, last year at the Hongchang factory, Yan Yuanhe was still trying to persuade Hu Yang to work for him, but who knew that in the blink of an eye, Hu Yang became Liu Xianghai, and the wood model worker became the director of the institute, two levels higher than Yan Yuanhe. I don't know how awkward Yan Yuanhe felt when he met Liu Xianghai at the meeting.

  "Lao Yan's forging machine has a pressure of only d tons, which is not enough. We've calculated it before, our mold requires at least z tons of forging machine to forge, if we can get on the 10,000-ton machine at Jiangnan Shipyard, that would be even better..."