Courtyard House: Starting as a mediocre engineer

In fact, Zhuang Zhongchen had already inquired about fishing over the past few days. After all, his fishing skill was already at level 1, and he couldn't just waste a skill point!

However, after reading it, Zhuang Zhongchen was almost speechless with astonishment.

Along the riverbank, anglers stood shoulder to shoulder, packed tightly together in a long, narrow line. The moment someone left, someone else would immediately rush in…

Holy crap! I wonder how the fish in the water feel? There are way more of these air force guys than fish, right?

To be honest, this isn't really surprising. If Uncle Yan Fugui can fish, does that mean everyone else can't? Anyway, there are plenty of idle men in Beijing, and fishing is the only way they can supplement their income.

However, this completely gave Zhuang Zhongchen the idea of ​​fishing. With his current fishing skills, he wouldn't even get a single fish. Unless he relied on his looks to lure a few dragon maidens or sea snail fairies onto his hook? Ahem.

As for going fishing in rural areas outside the city?

It's important to understand that nowadays, people's communes exist, and all mountains, forests, and waterways belong to the collective. While members of the commune might be allowed to skirt the rules, outsiders are absolutely forbidden from hunting, fishing, or engaging in similar activities.

If they don't get caught, that's fine. But if they do, not only will all the prey be confiscated, but they'll also be fined and detained. The charge is rather terrible—theft of state property!

Here's a true, dark joke, absolutely true. If you kick a pig a few times while raising it, someone might report you, and you'll be charged with something equally terrible—vandalism.

So, if you hunt a wild boar in the countryside? Unless you have a personal storage space, there's no way to bring it back to the city. There are militiamen patrolling the area, and Young Pioneers on lookout with red-tasseled spears, specifically there to catch these "poaching thieves."

Conversely, within Beijing, aside from the large-scale winter fishing each year, large lakes like Shichahai and Kunming Lake also have annual winter fishing seasons, with the government organizing several large nets to supplement the market's non-staple food supply. At other times, ordinary people are allowed to fish freely, and they keep their own catch. It could be considered a lenient approach, I suppose!

To be honest, the people of that era weren't fools. They'd already thought of everything you could imagine. Why didn't they go to the countryside to hunt or fish? Because they simply couldn't!

……

Arriving at Li Dahai's house amidst joyous celebrations, I attended his wedding. Actually... nothing much happened.

During this period, weddings in the capital were usually held around noon. Guests were also quite sensible and wouldn't wait for the evening meal, precisely because they couldn't obtain enough food coupons. Therefore, unless they were very close relatives and friends, others rarely stayed to make a ruckus in the bridal chamber.

So after a hearty meal, Zhuang Zhongchen took his leave. But as soon as he entered Nanluoguxiang, he ran into Director Wang of the neighborhood committee.

"Aunt Wang, hello!"

"Alright! By the way, Chenzi, wait a moment."

"Hmm? Is there something you need?"

"Aren't you an engineer? Do Aunt Wang a favor. Could you develop a new product for the street factory? It doesn't matter if it makes money or not, the best thing is that it can create a few new jobs."

"what?"

Over the years, as the children of martyrs, Director Wang and other street leaders have always been quite concerned about them, so it's no big deal for them to help out a little.

But suddenly developing a new product? Does he really think he's an all-rounder?

However, in the eyes of ordinary people at that time, engineers should be omnipotent! Not only could they build rockets and satellites, but they could also fix water pipes and change light bulbs at home? They were like Doraemon, seemingly capable of doing nothing.

"Chenzi, are you free now? How about we go check out the street factory?"

"Uh... let's take a look!"

"Let me tell you! Right now, our neighborhood..."

During Director Wang's introduction, Zhuang Zhongchen learned that, like other places, this area of ​​the street was almost entirely composed of small, labor-intensive workshops.

Things like pasting matchboxes or scraps of yarn were usually distributed by the neighborhood committee to families in need. These were then collected and packaged at the neighborhood factory, where they could earn a small profit from the difference.

However, the biggest role of the street factories is not to make a profit, but to provide employment opportunities for unemployed youth in the neighborhood.

As mentioned before, in this era, the government has a lot of control, but this control has its advantages, namely, it must solve the employment problem for everyone!

By the way: like Director Yang sweeping the streets and Ran Qiuye cleaning toilets, although such work is insulting, it is still work, right? No matter how little the income is, they are still able to receive their wages.

This shows that even people from such impoverished backgrounds can be given a job by the government so that they can support themselves.

Therefore, the top priority for each neighborhood has become to create as many jobs as possible!

Of course, waiting for a job assignment from superiors is an option, but that's just a drop in the ocean. Every year, more and more young students graduate, but there are only so many job openings. Therefore, local neighborhood committees have started to find their own solutions, creating new job opportunities themselves.

But here's the problem—creating new job opportunities? It's not that easy.

Following Director Wang, Zhuang Zhongchen arrived at a street factory—the Street Small Hardware Factory.

To be honest, the small hardware factory was a "star enterprise" in the neighborhood. It had a relatively large workforce, over 300 people, and even a few old and dilapidated machines. It could be considered to have moved beyond purely manual labor.

By the way, this also includes Mi Cuicui, who is also an employee of this small hardware factory. And most of them are on the collective employment system.

As for the main products of the small hardware factory? It's the assembly of flashlights. They can produce some simple spare parts themselves, but major components like batteries need to be sourced from other factories. Essentially, they assemble the spare parts of a flashlight into a finished product.

That said, batteries couldn't possibly be produced in such a small workshop. A dry cell battery production line can easily be converted into a bullet production line. That's a high-tech, dual-use military-civilian enterprise; it's simply not a street-side factory.

However, the production capacity of these small, sweatshop-run workshops that rely on manual labor is bound to be limited. They can't get more of the key components from other factories anyway. The annual planned resources are limited, and that's only enough to produce a certain number of flashlights.

Given this situation, the local government will definitely be looking for solutions. If they can develop new products, wouldn't that create new jobs?

"Director Wang, Chenzi... no, I should call you Engineer Zhuang. Welcome to our factory for guidance."

"Niu Ke, let's not be so distant, brother. What's the situation at your factory?"

"I don't know! I have absolutely no experience managing a factory. It's like a monkey becoming king; the neighborhood committee assigned me to be the factory manager. To be honest, our factory has nothing; we can only earn a little bit of labor fees."