Siheyuan: Grassroots Counterattack

Spring went and autumn came, winter came and summer passed, and in the blink of an eye it was already the summer of 1961. Li Tianyi had been staying in the steel rolling mill, occasionally going on business trips, but he never went too far.

Sometimes machines in other factories broke down, but they were unable to repair them, so they would come to the steel rolling mill for help, and Li Tianyi would go there to help repair them.

When he came back, these factories would give him some gifts, more or less. Although Li Tianyi's business trip was not free, it was a matter of personal relationships, and no one would be so bad as to behave like a bad person.

Of course, Li Tianyi would collect some every time, but he would not collect all, nor would he collect nothing. So in the past year or so, his family had no shortage of things, and they had never bought any cloth for their clothes.

As for the courtyard, he hadn't been back for a long time. Father Li and his family ate in his courtyard every day, and they stayed here during the Chinese New Year, so he had no chance to go back.

And if there is any problem, people like Yan Bugui's family will come to the courtyard to find Li Tianyi.

Yan Bugui came here and asked Li Tianyi for help. His second son has graduated from junior high school two years ago and still has no formal job, so he goes to the streets to find odd jobs every day.

The time for my youngest son to go on a blind date is approaching, but since he doesn’t have a job yet, it will be difficult for him to find a partner.

So he came to Li Tianyi for help. As for his eldest son Yan Jiecheng, he has also been allocated a house, which are two back rooms in the courtyard, and he lives with his parents.

Although it is a house at the back, they are very satisfied with it. Houses were in short supply before, and now when a famine strikes, the street office has allocated many houses to the victims. Now there are many families living in one house in the city.

This is also one of the reasons why Yan Bugui came to Li Tianyi in a hurry. After all, the earlier you get a job, the earlier you can get a house.

"Tianyi, do you have any news?"

Li Tianyi was also impressed by this old man. He had already helped his eldest son find a job, but he didn't expect that he would come to find one for his second son again. It was really rude of him.

Li Tianyi didn't want to get involved in this matter. Although it was just a matter of words for him, he had no relatives or friends there. He was just an ordinary neighbor. How could he have the nerve to ask him for help?

"Uncle San, you're really making things difficult for me. I didn't notice any job openings. You can go to the street office and ask. I'm sure there will be some news there."

"Hey, Tianyi, don't say that. Uncle San knows that you have a lot of connections, so please help Uncle San this time."

But Li Tianyi still shook his head and refused to give in. Yan Bugui had no choice but to start saying nice things to him. Li's father next to him also advised Li Tianyi that if he knew where there were job openings, he could help ask.

Seeing that his father had spoken, Li Tianyi thought for a moment and said, "I haven't heard any news about the steel mill. I'll ask other factories for you, but we've agreed that I'm only responsible for helping to get the news. As for whether we can get in, it all depends on Yan Jiefang's ability."

"And if you don't get in, you can't blame me."

Yan Bugui hurriedly thanked him and said that he was not an ungrateful person. After Yan Bugui left, Li Tianyi asked his father, "Dad, why do you have the time to care about this?"

He knew that Father Li was not the kind of person who liked to meddle in other people's affairs, but he didn't expect that he would speak up for Yan Bugui today.

Father Li held his grandson in his arms, looking contented. He teased his grandson while answering Li Tianyi's question, "What do you know? The Yan family is not easy either. The family split up after the eldest son got his room. Now Yan Jiefang is making trouble at home all day, saying that Old Yan is partial and found a job for his eldest brother, and now he doesn't care about him."

"I guess Old Yan couldn't stand Yan Jiefang's trouble anymore, so he came to you for help."

"If you can help, please help."

Li Tian nodded slightly, "Okay, I'll ask in the next two days, but I feel that the steel mill is in trouble. I don't want to go to my uncle for such a small matter. If there is any movement from my uncle, there may be problems."

"You can't go to your uncle. You can ask the factory you know if they are hiring." Li's father agreed with Li Tianyi's words. Li Huaide is now the director of the steel mill and can no longer do whatever he wants.

Li Tianyi had talked to Li Huaide before, and later Li Huaide became much more restrained in the factory, especially in relationships between men and women.

In the following few days, Li Tianyi was either at the steel rolling mill or on the way to other factories. Of course, he also asked about Yan Jiefang's matter, but people all over the country were not able to get enough food to eat, and the orders in the factory had been reduced by more than half. How could they recruit new people?

So that's how the matter ended. Li Tianyi also mentioned it and asked them to pay attention to it, but he didn't expect that there would be a follow-up to this matter.

That day Li Tianyi went to the textile factory to repair a machine. After the machine was repaired, Li Tianyi explained it to the technicians of the textile factory. The deputy director of the textile factory next to him immediately came forward and asked Li Tianyi to go to the office to rest.

Li Tianyi also wanted to clean the oil off his hands, so he went to the office with the deputy factory director.

Because he often came to the textile factory, he was very familiar with Deputy Director Zhou. The two of them did not exchange any pleasantries and just sat on the sofa and started drinking tea.

When it was almost done, Deputy Factory Director Zhou said, "Mr. Li, I have found some clues about what you asked me to find out."

"Oh? Director Zhou, what kind of job is this?" Li Tianyi was very surprised. Who would be recruiting workers at this time?

So Deputy Director Zhou told the whole story.

It turned out that an old employee of the meat processing plant passed away. They had only one son in the family, and his wife both worked in the textile factory, so there was an idle job in the family. He wanted to exchange this job for some money. Life was hard, and at least some money could buy some food.

After hearing about it, Deputy Director Zhou asked about the price, because the old man was a master chef in the slaughterhouse, commonly known as a butcher. Once he entered the factory, he could follow other master chefs to learn, so the price would not be too low. After all, this is a skill and a ability to make a living.

"Mr. Li, the price is 700 yuan. You can enter the factory as an apprentice and take the exam after you graduate. The apprentice salary is 18 yuan per month. When you become a formal worker, the salary is 23 yuan per month. The salary after that depends on your ability. The higher the level of the exam, the higher the salary."

"Thank you, Director Zhou. I understand. I will give you news by tomorrow afternoon at the latest."

After that, the two of them stopped talking about the matter, and the sound of laughter could be heard in the office.

After leaving the textile factory, Li Tianyi did not go home. Instead, he went to the department first to collect last month's benefits, and then went to the hospital to wait for Xiaoxue to get off work.

When Li Tianyi and Xiaoxue returned home, they heard loud laughter from the yard. Li's father was standing in the yard teasing his grandson, and Li's mother would occasionally poke her head out of the kitchen to take a look at her precious grandson. Only Li Tianhu, the poor kid, was oppressed by his mother in the kitchen, helping to pick vegetables and make fire.