Courtyard House: Starting as a mediocre engineer

The Spring Festival temple fair was bustling with crowds, vaguely restoring the lively scene of the past.

Although conditions have been tough in recent years, and the authorities have temporarily closed several major temple fairs in Beijing, the people's desire to celebrate the Spring Festival remains strong. As a result, these temple fairs have spontaneously formed around the Spring Festival.

Of course, when the 63rd anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China arrived next year, the government, in accordance with public opinion, organized an unprecedented temple fair. Its scale was so vast that it stretched for three miles and attracted an astonishing 530 million visitors.

Keep in mind that the total population of the capital city at that time was only 500 million. This was unprecedented and will likely remain so for a long time.

That said, even though this year's event was spontaneous and organized by the public, it still attracted a large number of ordinary people to visit...

Beside Zhuang Zhongchen, Wen Yumei kept laughing and chuckling, her eyes already crinkling into crescent moons with laughter.

"Brother Chen, is my older brother really that useless? Did you really buy him off with just one barbecue?"

"Yes! He entrusted you to me. From now on, you're one of our old Zhuang family members."

"Oh, you're so annoying! Talking nonsense!" Wen Yumei said coquettishly. "If you dare to bully me, my brothers will definitely back me up. Hmph."

"It's nothing, it's just treating BBQ Season again."

"what?"

"If the barbecue season isn't enough, then add Quanjude as well."

"Huh?" Wen Yumei laughed. She nudged Zhuang Zhongchen lightly. "My older brother is so embarrassing! He's as greedy as Pigsy. I'm ignoring him from now on. Hehehe."

To be honest, Zhuang Zhongchen still finds it quite funny when he thinks back to that day.

After going to the barbecue restaurant, the group drank a few cups of "cat urine" (a type of strong liquor), and they started calling each other brothers.

To be honest, it's not necessarily true that there's any conflict between them. Besides, that's just how men in Beijing are; once they're at the same table drinking, they're generally easy to talk to, and they're often reluctant to make small talk, let alone fall out.

Ultimately, it was simply that Wen Anguo, as the eldest brother, was indignant. Wen Yumei was also too young, just a schoolgirl, and he was afraid she would be deceived. In addition, Zhuang Zhongchen's family was relatively poor, and his reputation within the organization wasn't great, so there was some prejudice against him.

However, neither the man nor the woman was married, and Wen Yumei was already 16 years old. Zhuang Zhongchen owned a house and had a respectable job. Furthermore, he possessed a naturally beautiful succubus physique and was always charming and eloquent.

More importantly, my younger sister Wen Yumei especially likes it?

Given that, it's really hard for outsiders to say anything wrong.

In this way, Zhuang Zhongchen's hospitable hospitality was considered a great honor for Wen Anguo and his group. What else could they do? They might as well close their eyes and go along with it!

Interestingly, in the subsequent task settlement, the system even rewarded me with 20 shopping vouchers?

This almost brought Zhuang Zhongchen to tears of joy. After deducting the 5 intelligence cards he bought, he could still earn 15? This was the first time he'd ever benefited from intelligence. It was incredibly exciting; damn, this was so hard-won!

However, in this choice, Zhuang Zhongchen seems to have stumbled upon a lucky break—turning an enemy into a friend. Undoubtedly, this is the approach that yields the greatest reward.

To be fair, making this choice is quite difficult.

Just then, Wen Yumei excitedly grabbed Zhuang Zhongchen's arm: "Brother Chen, hurry up and line up, there's a magic show here."

"become!"

Amidst the friendly smiles of those around her, Wen Yumei suddenly felt shy. Realizing that the distance between them seemed too intimate, she jumped aside like a startled rabbit, eliciting laughter from the crowd.

"It's all your fault!" Wen Yumei stomped her feet in embarrassment.

"Yes, yes, it was my fault."

"You're in the wrong. Don't come near me! Hmph!"

Honestly, dating these days is quite troublesome. Men and women need to maintain a personal distance; ideally, they can't even hold hands. Married couples can be a little more intimate; the wife can hold onto her husband's sleeve or hem and follow closely behind.

As for how to distinguish between unmarried men and women and married couples? That's even simpler.

Unmarried girls wear long braids. They wear various styles, including pigtails, double ponytails, single ponytails, and even ram's horn braids. Married women, on the other hand, wear their long hair up in a bun. It's like the lyric from the song "My Deskmate"—"Who tied up your long hair?"—which implies marriage.

As for married female cadres, they usually cut their hair into a "Hu Lan" style, making them quite easy to identify.

That being said, while social attitudes are relatively conservative, it's not as extreme as some people claim. Nobody's going to bother with the occasional intimate gestures of ordinary people.

However, the young girl was shy, and upon hearing the laughter, she hid behind Zhuang Zhongchen like a little quail.

"Brother Chen, let's go!"

"Wait, let me buy you some roasted sunflower seeds."

"Watch! They're all laughing at me. I am the watch!"

"..."

……

With the Spring Festival over, Zhuang Zhongchen had unknowingly traveled through more than half a year.

During this period, Zhuang Zhongchen both established himself and enjoyed life. To be honest, he didn't really do anything; at least subjectively speaking, he was just completely laid-back.

Unlike other transmigrators, he either fights to the death against the beasts of the courtyard; flirts with girls everywhere; builds a major power's industry; or he's building a major power's industry while embracing girls...

Overall, this transmigrated protagonist with overpowered abilities is quite laid-back. He's rather content with his life as an insignificant nobody.

However, many things are not subject to human will.

Just after the first month of the lunar calendar, Zhuang Zhongchen's home received two unexpected visitors.

"Excuse my intrusion, you must be Engineer Zhuang?"

"Yes! It's me."

"We're from the translation bureau. We've noticed you've translated a lot of technical documents recently. Would you be able to spare some time to help us translate some urgently needed materials?"

"Translation Bureau?"

"Yes! Our translation agency is..."

Through their introductions, Zhuang Zhongchen gained a general understanding of the translation bureau.

In the early days of the People's Republic of China, the government established a special translation bureau to focus on translating the latest scientific and technological materials from abroad.

However, after a period of adjustment, various drawbacks of centralized translation were discovered.

The first priority is composing translations. Is translating medical data more important? Or is translating physics data more important? With only a few translators available, which type of data should they translate first?

Secondly, specialization is key. A scholar skilled in translating medical documents would be practically an outsider if given physics materials. The translation would be fundamentally inaccurate.

After all, each discipline has its own specialized foreign language vocabulary, and it's impossible to be proficient in everything. Trying to translate everything will result in translating nothing well in the end.

This centralized translation model ultimately led to widespread complaints from various departments!