The next day, the courtyard returned to its usual tranquility.
But Lou Xiao E and Xu Da Mao did not reconcile. As soon as dawn broke, Lou Xiao E went back to her parents' home.
Xu Da Mao tried to persuade her several times, but he couldn't get his wife to come back.
He Yu Zhu gloated, "Xu Da Mao, you made a big splash last night."
"Sha Zhu! I never thought you were so cowardly. You didn't dare to stand up for yourself in such a situation." Xu Da Mao said.
He Yu Zhu chuckled, "It's alright, you should have your moment in the spotlight, Xu Da Mao. But what about your wife? It won't be easy to get her back this time. These capitalist's daughters are not easy to deal with."
Xu Da Mao was very angry, "Sha Zhu, even if she's a capitalist's daughter, she's still better than you being a bachelor."
"Even if I am a bachelor, I wouldn't want a capitalist's daughter!" He Yu Zhu said disdainfully.
"You'll say that until you find someone." Xu Da Mao snorted and rode the bicycle the factory had assigned him to the steel mill.
Xu Da Mao often went to the countryside to show movies, so he could ride the bicycle assigned to him by the factory. Of course, in principle, it was also forbidden to use public vehicles for private purposes. He could only borrow a bicycle from the factory when going to the countryside to show movies.
Xu Da Mao had just returned from showing movies in the countryside two days ago and hadn't returned the bicycle to the factory yet.
"Yang Xuan, you are now an engineer. You should be able to get a bicycle ticket. Buy one someday. Then I can hitch a ride with you to work." He Yu Zhu said.
These days, everything needed a ticket. Ordinary industrial tickets couldn't buy a bicycle, you needed a special bicycle ticket.
The steel mill was a huge factory with tens of thousands of workers, but the number of bicycle tickets allocated each year was very limited. These tickets were of course reserved for the factory leaders first. Even Yi Zhong Hai, an eighth-grade fitter and an advanced worker at the factory, couldn't get a bicycle ticket. You can imagine what it was like for ordinary workers.
As for He Yu Zhu, the canteen chef, it was even harder for him to get a bicycle ticket.
But Yang Xuan had now become an engineer, a technical cadre, so the opportunity to get a bicycle ticket would naturally increase in the future. Many cadres in the technical department rode bicycles to work. The workers in the steel mill were envious of them.
Arriving at the technical department, Yang Xuan stayed for a while, then took his proposed technical upgrade plan to Workshop One.
Yang Xuan was like returning home, greeted with enthusiasm by the workers in Workshop One.
Director Guo personally accompanied him, "Engineer Yang, welcome back to Workshop One. We've been looking forward to your return to improve the technical processes in Workshop One."
"Director Guo, don't go through all this formality. Just let me get started as soon as possible. I don't know if my upgrade plan will work. Let's start with the machine I used to operate. After all, it's the one I'm most familiar with." Yang Xuan said.
"No problem. The machine you operated hasn't been assigned to anyone else yet. It's just sitting there empty. I'll have Lao Zhou assist you." Director Guo said.
Lao Zhou was of course Zhou De Min, Yang Xuan's former master.
"You little rascal." Zhou De Min patted Yang Xuan on the shoulder hard.
Yang Xuan greeted Zhou De Min and some of the fitters he knew well in Workshop One, and then officially started working.
Yang Xuan was very familiar with the machine. He often maintained it in the past. Zhou De Min had taught him how to do it. Because of the regular maintenance, this machine was still in excellent condition. There wasn't a speck of grease on it. Unlike some of the other machines in the workshop, which were not properly maintained, the chains and gears were covered in grease that had become a paste. This greatly affected the precision of the machines.
Soon, Yang Xuan had disassembled the machine into its parts.
Yang Xuan only needed to modify some of the core components of this machine to improve its precision. The overall structure was almost unchanged. Therefore, the upgrade was not very difficult.
Yang Xuan was not planning to dramatically improve the precision of the machine right away. This was not realistic, after all, Yang Xuan needed to achieve a "from zero to one" improvement.
"Master, let's go to eat together." At noon, Yang Xuan stopped what he was doing and said to Zhou De Min.
"You go first, I'll stay here, you can take over for me later." Zhou De Min said.
"It's alright, just leave it here." Yang Xuan didn't think much of it.
Zhou De Min smiled, "What if someone accidentally takes the wrong part and the upgrade fails? This is your first project in the technical department, you can't have any problems."
Yang Xuan understood. As the saying goes, it's good to have an elder around.
This possibility was quite high. There were quite a few schemers in this workshop.
Yi Zhong Hai and Qin Huairu might secretly try to sabotage him.
"Okay, I'll go get some food and we'll eat together." Yang Xuan said.
"Okay." Zhou De Min nodded.
He Yu Zhu was really well-informed, "Yang Xuan, I heard you're going to Workshop One to do technical upgrades today?"
"You have good intel." Yang Xuan laughed.
"Don't underestimate me, even though I spend all day in the canteen. Everyone from Workshop One comes here to eat. They all have loud voices, and I can't help but hear what's going on in the workshop." He Yu Zhu laughed.
Yang Xuan nodded, "That's true."
"Be careful. Some people are just waiting for you to fail. If your first project as an engineer is a failure, you might be sent back to the factory. You'd lose big time." He Yu Zhu said.
Yang Xuan nodded and carried two lunch boxes full of food to Workshop One.
"Several people were hanging around here earlier. If I hadn't been here, I don't know what would have happened." Zhou De Min said.
"Most people are good." Yang Xuan said.
"Qin Huairu and Yi Zhong Hai came by earlier too." Zhou De Min said quietly.
Yang Xuan's brow furrowed. Those two schemers were up to no good.
"Don't mind them. Let's try to finish upgrading this machine today." Yang Xuan said.
"Are you going to finish the upgrade so quickly?" Zhou De Min asked in surprise.
Yang Xuan shook his head, "It's not that easy. I need to improve the precision of this machine first. Only then can we make more precise parts. We don't have any machines with higher precision, so we can only improve it little by little."
"Take your time and be careful. You can't finish a technical upgrade in one go." Zhou De Min said.
Yang Xuan nodded.
As Yang Xuan upgraded the machine, time flew by. Before he knew it, nearly two months had passed. During this time, Yang Xuan had raised his engineering skills to Mastery, while his fitter skills had reached Max Level.
With Max Level fitter skills, Yang Xuan's machine upgrade process became even more effortless.
Although there were always people trying to sabotage him, several times they tried to take away key components when Yang Xuan and Zhou De Min weren't looking, but Zhou De Min stopped them in time.