Go back to the prosperous days and become a layman

Chapter 818 817 Backbone

The two insulated boxes made by the research team actually had a flaw—they lacked a backup power supply.

In the event of a power outage, temperature and humidity cannot be controlled, which may cause unnecessary harm to premature infants in incubators.

In response, the students in the research class suggested using batteries or hand-cranked generators to provide emergency power, but Tang Zhitong rejected the idea.

In Beijing right now, although ordinary people often experience power outages or power restrictions at home, hospitals are on the list of guaranteed power supplies, so the possibility of power outages can be ruled out.

If we're talking about providing emergency power to insulated boxes, that would have to be for cities with unstable power supplies.

Tang Zhitong had the students in the research class write this problem into a user manual, intending to hand it over to the production unit for resolution.

After completing the handover, Tang Zhitong rode his bicycle slowly towards Shijia Hutong.

Throughout the journey, Tang Zhitong pondered how to communicate with Miao Xiaoqin about the incubator.

The hardworking Chinese people actually mastered artificial incubation technology in ancient times. In the north, they generally used heated brick beds, in the central region they used vats, and in the southern region they used wooden barrels.

It's purely manual, with no advanced technology involved. Temperature, humidity, and when to flip the eggs all rely on personal experience. In terms of success rate, it's not necessarily higher than that of a hen.

Although this method is more efficient than that of female poultry, it is easy to produce "dumb eggs" if you are not careful. Locals call them "hairy eggs" or "live beads".

Live pearls have not been used as food for very long. It is said to have originated in Nanjing during the late Qing Dynasty. Those who love to eat them regard them as a sacred food, while those who don't like them find them disgusting even to look at.

Tang Zhitong thought that the person who invented this way of eating must be a cultivator, and a heretical one at that. Who in their right mind would eat this stuff?

In any case, inventing this way of eating is a merit, at least it solves the problem of what to do with "dumb eggs" after artificial incubation fails, so that the protein is not wasted.

"Sister Xiaoqin, one of our classmates in the research class was inspired by the incubator and decided to try to make a poultry incubator..." Tang Zhitong gave Miao Xiaoqin a detailed description of the basic principles and functions of the incubator before finally revealing his purpose: "I thought Sister Xiaoqin knew a lot of people, could you help me see if any organizations need it? Domestic ones are fine, and foreign ones are also acceptable."

Because he was unsure whether similar equipment existed abroad, Tang Zhitong was cautious in his description.

"Okay, I'll look into it later. I heard from Director Ye that the insulated box project was a success?" Miao Xiaoqin didn't mind the trouble; she took out her pen and wrote it down in her notebook, marking it with a triangle to show how important it was.

"We're not far from success. Our own tests show that it meets the design requirements. We also sent another one to the maternity hospital today. We'll only be truly successful once they approve it," Tang Zhitong said with a grin.

This is the first project that Tang Zhitong has led since he came here. Watching the insulated box take shape step by step is like watching his own child grow up. The sense of accomplishment he feels is much stronger than just drawing blueprints.

"Then I wish you true success." Miao Xiaoqin smiled and said, "Director Ye instructed that we should celebrate your success on the day of your victory. Let me know when you have set a date, and I will go and coordinate the food supplies."

"Okay! Thank you, Sister Xiaoqin! We also plan to build another incubator. After it's finished, I'll gather the remaining funds and hand them over to you together." Director Ye's thoughtfulness was appreciated by Tang Zhitong.

After more than two months of working on the insulated box project, it is finally ready to be completed.

After returning to the escort office from the Women's Federation, Tang Zhitong participated in some labor with the staff after lunch, weeding in the yard for an hour or so.

There are currently no herbicides available, and the weeds in the fields are more resilient than crops. If left unattended, they can overwhelm the crops in a week or two.

Weeds not only compete with crops for water and nutrients in the soil, but also compete with crops for sunlight once they grow to a certain height.

In hopes of a bountiful harvest, farmers would hoe the fields every week or two after planting their crops, hence the old saying, "After the Autumn Equinox, hang up the hoe."

Before the start of autumn, hoes and people basically don't rest, and the timing of this work is very selective.

If it were a farmer, most would choose to hoe the land around four in the morning, and go home to rest before eight or nine o'clock when the weather gets hot, leaving the weeds that have been uprooted to be exposed to the sun.

Wild grasses are incredibly resilient, and a very few will even regrow their roots under the scorching sun. Even so, farmers will not remove the wild grasses from the fields, because the felled grasses effectively block the sunlight and reduce the evaporation of water from the fields.

This is especially important in today's world where water conservancy conditions are not yet perfect.

This creates a closed loop of weeding, sun exposure, rooting, and then weeding again.

The escort post is different from the countryside. Not only do they not have to worry about irrigation, but they also choose to hoe the fields during the daytime when there are the most people.

Because there are many people, the work done will be seen by most people...

…………

Tang Rong received a letter from Tang Zhitong today.

Looking at the list of schools and majors in the letter, Tang Rong was deeply moved. She was afraid that even the teachers at her own school didn't know so much about how many majors these schools offered.

However, Tang Rong was not entirely satisfied with her cousin's suggestion. She put the letter away and planned to go home to discuss it with her father and eldest brother first, and if necessary, consult her second brother as well.

Today is school holiday, and most students will go home. Resting is secondary; the main purpose is to bring back food for next week.

To allow Tang Rong to focus more on her studies, she won't be going home this weekend.

As agreed when Tang Rong returned home last time, Tang Gang would bring her food rations tomorrow.

There are less than two months until the college entrance examination and one month until the application period ends. Although she can wait until she goes home next time to discuss it with her family, Tang Rong feels that she should go back today and finalize the application as soon as possible.

After school, Tang Rong took the leftover dry food and went to find Su Nianbin.

The siblings are in different schools, one in high school and the other in junior high. Fortunately, the city is not big, and the two junior high schools are not far apart.

"Sister, are you... going home?" Su Nianbin was somewhat surprised to see Tang Rong carrying a bundle.

To increase their study time, as agreed by both families, they would take turns sending someone to deliver dry rations to them on weekends, and each of them would only need to return home once every twenty days or so. "Hmm. Do you have enough dry rations? If not, leave mine. Is there anything you want to say to your family? Is there anything you need to bring back?" Tang Rong didn't come to invite her younger brother home, but rather thought that she would bring back anything he needed so that he wouldn't have to wait an extra week.

"I still have some rations. Wait for me a bit, I'm going back to my dorm too." Su Nianbin scratched his head, turned around and went back to his dorm to pack his things.

Su Nianbin heard from his classmates that the roads hadn't been very safe lately, and he was worried about his cousin going home alone.

Buses are now even rarer than cars, and currently only exist in municipalities and provincial capitals. There are no buses in Andong.

As the siblings hurried toward the forest farm, they kept an eye out for trucks and animal-drawn carts heading in that direction, hoping to hitch a ride.

However, things didn't go so smoothly. The driver was saving animal power by walking himself, so how could he let the two young men ride with him?
Throughout the journey, Su Nianbin kept his hands in his satchel, making it appear as if he had broken his arm and was in a cast. In reality, he was holding a knife and was simply using the satchel to conceal it.

The two didn't encounter a single truck along the way, and it was already dark by the time they walked home.

"What's wrong? Didn't you say you weren't coming back this week?" Tang Wenbang's wife, Tang Tianshi, saw her daughter come home and thought she had suffered some grievance at school, so she quickly went up to her and looked her over from head to toe.

"Mom, Brother Anzi replied. I was thinking of asking Dad and my brother to take a look when I get back." Tang Rong took off her bundle and put it on the table. She then went to scoop water from the water vat to drink. The two siblings hadn't brought any water with them since leaving school and hadn't drunk a drop of water along the way. Their throats were practically parched.

"You child, you're all grown up now, why are you still drinking cold water? There's hot water at home." Tang Tian stopped her daughter, grabbed the water ladle, and scooped more than half a ladle of water from the pot on the stove.

Jin Yumei's belly is getting bigger every day, and according to the timeline, it should be in the next few days. As the mother-in-law, Tang Tianshi is now preparing hot water every day, just in case her daughter-in-law goes into labor and she is not prepared in time.

If this were in a rural area of ​​the Central Plains, it might not be possible to do so, because it's hard to find firewood for boiling water there. But it makes sense in a forest farm, where firewood is plentiful.

"It's too hot..." Tang Rong mumbled, though somewhat reluctantly, she still managed to swallow slowly.

Tang Rong, a young woman about to enter university, knew the benefits of hot water for women. Some of her roommates were careless about this and would be in so much pain during their period that they would sweat profusely and have to press their fists against their abdomens while studying.

However, this has become less frequent in recent months because many students' cycles have become irregular...

Tang Wenbang remained silent, picked up his pipe and pipe, and quietly left the house.

Ever since his daughter-in-law became pregnant, his wife has been unhappy about him smoking in the house, saying that cigarettes are bad for adults and children.

Tang Wenbang was not very happy about this. When he had these children, when was there a day when he didn't smoke in the house?
However, over the years, his wife has rarely insisted on doing one thing, so Tang Wenbang is usually very self-disciplined. Moreover, he is also looking forward to the arrival of his grandson. After all, for him, there is no comparison between his son and grandson. His grandson is much more precious to him than his son.

After finishing two pipes of tobacco, when he returned to the house, his wife had already prepared dinner for their daughter, who was busy eating.

"Father, a letter from Anzi." Tang Gang handed the letter to his father as he returned.

Tang Gang had no idea what school his younger sister should apply to for the college entrance examination, because he didn't understand it.

"Hmm." Tang Wenbang responded, picked up the letter, and began to read it with his back to the oil lamp.

As he looked at the various universities and majors, Tang Wenbang recognized the words but couldn't quite put his finger on what they were for when put together.
After reading the letter once, Tang Wenbang understood it. In his understanding, the one that said "risky" meant that his daughter might not pass the exam; the one that said "matched" meant that his daughter would pass the exam; and the one that said "waste of points" meant that his daughter would definitely pass the exam and would have extra points.

At the end of the letter was Tang Zhitong's personal advice. Tang Wenbang thought his nephew's analysis was very good. It was better to have a higher score than to want to eat at a restaurant only to find that he didn't have enough money.

While eating, Tang Rong secretly glanced at her father, wanting to see his reaction, but he remained silent, which made her feel uneasy.

Finally, just as Tang Rong finished her meal and put down her chopsticks, Tang Wenbang asked, "Rong, your brother made it very clear in his letter. Just report it accordingly."

"Dad, our teacher just told us a while ago what kind of score corresponds to which university. According to the teacher, with my score, applying to the Electrical Engineering College would be a waste of several tens of points." Tang Rong hesitated. After more than ten years of hard study, who wouldn't want to get into a good university? Which student would want to waste their score?

According to her teacher, she was a student who had a good chance of getting into Tsinghua or Peking University if she worked hard. Even though she was not familiar with universities, Tang Rong knew the gap between Tsinghua and Peking University and the School of Electrical Engineering.

“You kid, stop thinking about climbing higher. You only have one dollar on you. If you go to a restaurant, and they have 80 cents for food and one dollar for food, which one would you choose? Your brother’s idea is sound; at least you can go to school!” Tang Wenbang agreed with Tang Zhitong’s idea and thought it was a very prudent approach.

“Dad, that’s not the right analogy. Eating is just about filling your stomach, but going to university is different. Which university you go to determines how high you can go in life.” Tang Rong felt that going home to discuss it with her father wasn’t a good option either; the two of them simply couldn’t see eye to eye.

"What's with all this talk about 'high'? Your brother made it very clear in his letter that after graduating from the Electrical Engineering College, he'll go straight to work at the Power Bureau, sit in an office, sheltered from the wind and rain, and live a peaceful and stable life. What's wrong with that?" Tang Wenbang slammed the letter on the table, completely ignoring his daughter's nonsense.

Tang Rong was startled by her father's slap and bit her lip, remaining silent.

“You’re still young, you don’t understand these things. Having a stable job is better than anything else. Don’t always think about climbing higher. If you can’t reach the top, you’ll fall and get hurt. Would your brother harm you? Think about it, doesn’t that make sense?” Tang Wenbang wanted to get angry, but he still patiently explained to his daughter in a low voice.

Students aren't allowed to fill out their college applications at home; they all fill them out at school and submit them directly. Tang Wenbang was worried that his daughter might be stubborn, so he agreed on the surface but secretly applied for something else later.

"But those scores..." Tang Rong knew Tang Zhitong wouldn't harm her, but she still couldn't quite grasp the situation.

"How do you know you can still get this score on the college entrance exam? Haven't you done poorly on exams before? What's wrong with applying to a lower-ranked university? It's safer that way! It's settled then, apply according to your brother's advice! If you dare to apply to a university that doesn't meet your standards, I'll disown you as my daughter!" Seeing that his daughter was still being stubborn, Tang Wenbang played his trump card, threatening to sever ties with her.

Tang Rong hadn't expected her cousin to hold such a high position in her father's eyes. Seeing her father's resolute words, she was stunned for a long time before nodding with tears in her eyes.

Tang Zhitong never expected that he would become the backbone of the Tang family. One of the reasons he asked his cousin to apply to the Electrical Engineering College was to ensure the employment of his descendants. Another reason was the vetting process!
Starting around 1958 when college entrance exams began (no later than the 1959 exam season), each high school would conduct a secret review of each candidate and write the review results on the candidate's application form.

The review results are basically divided into four categories: 1. Can be admitted to confidential majors; 2. Can be admitted to general majors; 3. Downgraded admission; 4. Not suitable for admission.

Anyone categorized as fourth-tier, no matter how good their grades, will be told that their application was inappropriate and they will not be admitted.

This kind of review is highly subjective. Tang Zhitong was unsure how the school's teachers viewed Tang Rong, so to avoid unnecessary trouble, he simply suggested that she apply to the School of Electrical Engineering.

The School of Electrical Engineering is not a sensitive institution, and Tang Rong's grades are very good, plus there are other factors to consider regarding future employment. This is indeed the safest choice.

(End of this chapter)