Deputy Director Zhu

  Lin Zhenhua's low-key performance gave Zhong Rulin a very good impression. As a porter, Zhong Rulin didn't have high expectations for people, and his standard for evaluating someone was whether they respected him. Porters were considered to be at the lower end of the social hierarchy in the factory, so Zhong Rulin was extremely sensitive to other people's attitudes towards him. Lin Zhenhua himself became a porter without any complaints, and he treated Zhong Rulin with great respect, which made Zhong Rulin think that this young man had exceptional character.

  Zhong Rulin took Lin Zhenhua back to the metalworking workshop, distributing the materials he had brought to each machine while introducing Lin Zhenhua to the workers and masters in the workshop. Hanhua Machinery Factory was a medium-sized enterprise with over 500 people, and as the son of the factory's owner, Lin Zhenhua knew only a limited number of people. He had heard some of the masters' names before, but it wasn't until today, when Zhong Rulin introduced them, that he could match the faces to the names.

  The masters were more familiar with Lin Zhenhua, who had lost his parents in an accident a few years ago, which was a big sensation in the factory. Everyone would often discuss the situation of Lin Zhenhua and his sister, so they were not unfamiliar with him. Of course, there was another reason why everyone knew Lin Zhenhua, which was somewhat embarrassing - that was because Lin Zhenhua had been notorious for being mischievous and causing trouble in the factory when he was younger, often getting caught by the head of security, Su Yongsheng, and receiving a good scolding.

  "Xiao Hua, this is Zhou Houcheng, Master Zhou, an eighth-level car worker." Zhong Rulin pointed to a man in his late 50s and introduced him to Lin Zhenhua.

  "Hello Master Zhou." Lin Zhenhua bowed respectfully to Zhou Houcheng.

  Zhou Houcheng nodded: "Ah, you're Old Lin's kid, right? Just back from serving in the army?"

  "Yes, I just got discharged."

  "Hmm, after serving as a soldier for two years, I've made progress." Zhou Houcheng said.

  Lin Zhenhua could only bitterly smile. In these two days, the phrase he heard most was "has improved", no choice, his original self was really too unbearable.

  Lin Zhenhua followed Zhong Rulin all the way, bowing his head in respect, and suddenly felt a bit dizzy. In a daze, he thought he saw a resentful gaze sweep over him. He quickly raised his head to see Yang Xin standing beside a milling machine, secretly looking at him. Next to Yang Xin was a middle-aged female worker who was intently operating the machine, while Yang Xin was apparently assisting her.

  "This is Jiang Tiemei, Master Jiang." Zhong Rulin pointed at the middle-aged female worker and introduced her to Lin Zhenhua.

  "Master Jiang." Lin Zhenhua still greeted politely.

  Jiang Tiemei raised her head expressionlessly and glanced at Lin Zhenhua, then turned back to Yang Xin and said, "Yang Xin, didn't I ask you to bring me the calipers?"

  Yang Xin was originally sneaking a peek at Lin Zhenhua, but when Jiang Tiemei asked the question with some displeasure in her tone, she quickly withdrew her gaze and hastily went to find the caliper in the toolbox. Jiang Tiemei reached out and took a caliper from the nearby shelf, saying discontentedly: "Where are you looking? The caliper is on the shelf and you can't even see it?"

  Yang Xin's face suddenly had some embarrassment, and he muttered: "Master, I didn't see."

  Jiang Tiemei ignored her and began measuring the workpiece on the milling machine with a caliper. Throughout the process, she didn't give Lin Zhenhua a good face.

  Lin Zhenhua scratched his head, turned around and looked at Zhong Rulin. Zhong Rulin also smiled awkwardly and whispered: "That's just how Master Jiang is, he has a bad temper."

  "Uh... did I offend her or something?" Lin Zhenhua asked in a low voice.

  Zhong Rulin shook his head: "I don't know about this, you in the past... hmm, even if there was, it would have been at least two years ago."

  Lin Zhenhua looked at Yang Xin with an apologetic gaze, feeling that he had implicated her and caused Jiang Tiemei to take advantage of her. However, Yang Xin no longer dared to look at Lin Zhenhua again, standing beside Jiang Tiemei, carefully watching her every move, fearing that she would make another small mistake.

  Lin Zhenhua walked around the workshop, not only recognizing everyone in the workshop but also observing the equipment. The gold processing workshop consisted of two interconnected single-story factory buildings, each with two rows of various machine tools, including universal lathes, milling machines, planers, grinding machines, radial drilling machines, and deep hole boring machines. Most of the equipment Lin Zhenhua had seen before in the practical training factory at Huqing University. Of course, the CNC machine tools that Lin Zhenhua was more familiar with were nowhere to be found in this workshop, and at that time, it was also difficult to find a few in the country.

  Alas, it's really outdated. Lin Zhenhua lamented in his heart. With such equipment, what kind of fancy things can be played out? It's a wonder that these people are eager to become technicians and operate such devices, what kind of maturity can they have?

  "Xiao Hua, you don't recognize these machines, do you?" Zhong Rulin saw Lin Zhenhua staring blankly at the equipment and thought he was stunned. "I've been a porter here for so many years, I can only call out the names of these machines, but I'm not clear what they're specifically used for. Look, that one's called a lathe, this one's called a milling machine, I think they're all about the same."

  "Oh, I know a bit about this." Lin Zhenhua said, "The main movement of the lathe is the rotation of the workpiece, and the movement of the tool is the feed motion. The milling machine is just the opposite, the rotation of the tool is the main movement, and the movement of the workpiece is the feed motion..."

  His words were almost out of his mouth, without any idea of hiding. Zhong Rulin listened to it and felt vaguely that Lin Zhenhua could say so, he should have some confidence. He was about to ask Lin Zhenhua where he learned these things, when he suddenly heard someone behind him say in a loud voice: "Well said, young man, whose apprentice are you?"

  Zhong Rulin and Lin Zhenhua turned around, only to see a tall middle-aged man standing behind them, about 40 years old, with a straight waist and a somewhat military demeanor, his face calm and authoritative, looking at Lin Zhenhua with great interest.

  Lin Zhenhua did not recognize the middle-aged man, but Zhong Rulin hastily greeted him: "Director Zhu, ah, I didn't see you just now."

  "Director Zhu?" Lin Zhenhua looked at Zhong Rulin with inquiring eyes, he was the son of a factory cadre, and the factory leaders knew him more or less, but had never heard of such a Director Zhu.

  "My name is Zhu Tiejun, I transferred to our factory last year as the deputy director. Are you a newcomer? Who are you learning technology from now?" Director Zhu introduced himself.

  "Report, my name is Lin Zhenhua, I'm a veteran, assigned to work in this factory, just reported for duty today. I am... Master Zhong's apprentice." Lin Zhenhua instinctively gave Zhu Tiejun a salute and answered in the language he was used to from his time in the army. However, when mentioning that he was someone's apprentice, he paused for a moment, because porters were general laborers without much technical skill, so there wasn't really any talk of masters and apprentices.

  "Veteran?" Zhu Tiejun obviously had some affinity for Lin Zhenhua, "Which unit did you retire from?"

  "I was a scout of a certain regiment of a certain army before I retired," Lin Zhenhua replied.

  "Oh, I just so happen to have a comrade in that division. Your division must have participated in the counterattack of self-defence war, right?"

  "Yes! Our troops have been fighting all the way to Mount Liang."

  "Not bad, not bad," Zhu Tiejun said. "Unfortunately, I retired too early, or else I would have been able to catch up with this battle as well. You just reported today, so who taught you all that knowledge about machine tools?"

  What Lin Zhenhua said earlier was just some basic knowledge of mechanical processing that any ordinary machine worker would know. But being able to say it so fluently is not easy, and Zhu Tiejun became interested in Lin Zhenhua because of this.

  "This...," Lin Zhenhua was a bit tongue-tied, "Report to Director Zhu, I was originally the son of our factory, so I knew something about it. Also, during my time in the army, I also learned a bit."

  "Hmm, it's good that you like learning," Zhu Tiejun said. "You're now an apprentice to Master Zhong, so does that mean you'll be a porter?"

  "Yes."

  "Are you willing?"

  "I am willing, it is all revolutionary work, I obey the arrangement." Lin Zhenhua said with a flourish, he didn't understand Zhu Tiejun's character and thought that speaking some revolutionary language was always correct.

  Zhu Tiejun was not moved by Lin Zhenhua's big words, he frowned and said: "Young man, if you have the opportunity, it's better to learn some skills. First do your job well, in your spare time read more books, find a master to learn some skills. If you learn well, you can also become a skilled worker in the future."

  Lin Zhenhua was not impressed by Zhu Tiejun's encouragement in his heart. With his ability, he could operate all the machines in this workshop, although he didn't dare to compare with Zhou Houcheng, an eighth-level worker, but compared with ordinary fourth- and fifth-level workers, he should be second to none. In fact, the basic operation of machine tools is not difficult, to become a senior technician, one needs to have rich practical experience, and two is to have the ability to understand mechanics, Lin Zhenhua would not lose to anyone in the latter.

  Zhong Rulin saw Lin Zhenhua not saying a word, and quickly answered for him: "Director Zhu, Xiaohua will definitely work hard, he's very smart, it's really a waste to be an ordinary worker."

  Lin Zhenhua finally reacted and continued from where Zhong Rulin left off, saying: "Director Zhu, thank you for your encouragement. I will definitely study hard."

  Zhu Tiejun nodded: "Mm, hope you don't bring shame to us soldiers."

  Having said that, Zhu Tiejun turned around and walked towards other workers, starting to ask about some production-related things.

  "Director Zhu is a good man." Zhong Rulin said quietly to Lin Zhenhua.

  "Really?" Lin Zhenhua said, "Didn't he say he just came last year? How can you be so sure he's a good person?"

  "He's usually down-to-earth, in the workshop, he's completely equal with us workers. When attending meetings with us workers, he can sit anywhere, even on a rusty iron thing, regardless of how dirty it is. If it were another factory director, they definitely wouldn't be willing to sit in such a dirty place." said Zhong Rulin.

  "This is indeed a good factory director, but it's also not enough to say he's good just because of this."

  "And what's more, he is fair in his dealings. No matter who asks him to do something, if it can be done, he'll do it right away; if not, he won't do it even if you ask him to. Whoever tries to bribe him with gifts, he won't accept them. Think about it, a factory director who doesn't take bribes, is there anyone else like that?"

  Lin Zhenhua remembered that after returning yesterday, countless people asked him to take something to give to the director of the factory, in order to get a good job assignment. He couldn't help but nod: "Hmm, in this regard, he is indeed much better than Director Liang."

  "That's right!" Zhong Rulin was delighted to see Lin Zhenhua acknowledging his words. "I'll tell you something else, our factory has an old Rightist named Bi Wanquan, do you know him?"

  Lin Zhenhua nodded: "I've heard of this name, it seems to be the small black house next to the pigpen?"

  "It was him." Zhong Rulin continued, "During the Spring Festival this year, the factory leaders went to each worker's home to pay New Year's greetings. When they passed by the pigpen, other factory heads said that he was an old rightist and it wasn't necessary to pay him a New Year's visit. Zhu Factory Head said, 'What's wrong with being a rightist? Rightists also celebrate the new year.' Then he took everyone along to pay their respects to Old Bi. Old Bi was so moved that he cried, saying that in all these years no factory leader had ever come to see him, and this was the first time."

  "It's not easy to do this." Lin Zhenhua began to have a good impression of Zhu Tiejun. In that era, everyone was still very tense in politics, and Zhu Tiejun could do this, which shows that in his heart, human dignity is much more important than political role. It's really hard to find an official who can do this.

  "So," Zhong Rulin concluded, "he just told you to learn some skills properly, and in the future, you can also become a skilled worker. Don't take it lightly. If you really learn some skills, Director Zhu will appreciate you, and he'll mention it at the factory affairs meeting. It's entirely possible for you to be transferred to a skilled worker position."

  "Should I send something to Director Zhu?" Lin Zhenhua said with a smile, "Twenty rounds, hand grenades and the like."

  "Whatever you do, don't send it," Zhong Rulin said solemnly. "If you have these things, give them to Director Liang instead, Director Zhu won't fall for that."

  "Alright, Master Zhong, I'll give you this pack of twenty first," said Lin Zhenhua, pulling out a box of Red Double Happiness cigarettes from his pocket and shoving it into Zhong Rulin's.