Courtyard House: Starting as a mediocre engineer

September 1st, a wonderful day that brings tears of joy to children all over the country.

Early in the morning, Banggeng skipped and hopped off to school with his new schoolbag on his back. Carrying the hopes of his whole family, he laughed and danced with joy all the way.

Seeing the earnest anticipation on Qin Huairu and Jia Zhangshi's faces, Zhuang Zhongchen almost burst out laughing. He hoped that in a month, the boy would still enjoy school!

After arriving at work, Zhuang Zhongchen began his daily routine. Things haven't been too busy lately, and there haven't been any major issues in the vocational skills department.

As the afternoon drew to a close, another uneventful day came to an end, and the colleagues gathered together for a chat.

"Let me tell you! There's a research institute next door to my aunt's house, and I heard they research Western medicine. A few days ago, their rats escaped from their cages, and they're getting the neighborhood residents to catch them. They'll give you three cents for every one you catch!"

"Wait, why would researching Western medicine require raising mice?"

"Who knows? Don't interrupt, it's only three cents a mouse. It almost made the cats nearby laugh hysterically."

"And then what happened? Were they caught?"

"Of course we caught them. More than a dozen escaped, and we caught over a hundred."

"what?"

"But the research institute wouldn't admit it, saying their rats were white. There was a huge uproar right there!"

"Holy crap! This research institute is so shady! Aren't they all rats too? These days, do they even judge rats by their fur color?"

"Exactly. It was during the 'Four Pests' campaign a few years ago. Otherwise, we could have caught tens of thousands. How much money would that have generated?"

"And then what happened? Did the research institute provide any more funding?"

"In the end, they gave it to me. The black rat gave me a dime."

"..."

Zhuang Zhongchen glanced sideways. What a pitiful little white mouse!

Just then, someone rushed over: "Zhuang Ke, there's been a safety incident at the welfare home. Engineer Cheng and the others have already left; you need to be on standby."

"Welfare home? What accident?" Zhuang Zhongchen was taken aback.

"The details are still unclear. We just need to get all departments here as quickly as possible."

For important places like welfare homes, there's no way to delay for several hours, let alone set off slowly. Therefore, Engineer Cheng and his team needed to get to the scene as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, Zhuang Zhongchen had to remain in the office on standby. What if another safety incident occurred elsewhere?

Unexpectedly, just over twenty minutes later, Engineer Cheng made an urgent call from the site, briefly introducing the situation of the welfare home.

Isn't today the first day of school? A nearby school organized a performance to show their appreciation to the students. A group of Young Pioneers came to the welfare home and put on a cultural performance.

But midway through the performance, the building suddenly collapsed. Fortunately, it didn't completely collapse, and everyone evacuated in a panic. Unexpectedly, after reaching safety and taking a headcount, they discovered that three children were missing.

Good heavens! The disappearance of three children has become a major incident.

Zhuang Zhongchen quickly got up and called several technicians; they needed to rush to the scene to provide support…

Riding that motorized tricycle, a group of people rushed into the gate of the welfare home in a great hurry.

As soon as he jumped out of the car, he saw many firefighters and rescue workers. Zhuang Zhongchen quickly found Engineer Cheng: "Have you found the child?"

Engineer Cheng gave a helpless wry smile: "Found them. These three are such mischievous kids, they didn't even watch the show, they ran off to play outside."

"That's good! It's good that everyone's alright." Zhuang Zhongchen breathed a huge sigh of relief. "How's the house?"

"Do you see the cracks? The windows here are shattered, and even the doors are warped. I have notified the construction bureau to have the construction company send technicians to inspect the dangerous buildings, and also to dispatch a team of construction workers."

"How could this happen? Have you found the reason?"

"They were performing a large chorus at the time. The atmosphere was very lively, and the children were jumping around in unison."

"Resonance?"

"Yeah! That's resonance. Damn!"

"How could there be dilapidated buildings in the welfare home? Weren't they discovered before?"

"Didn't a few years ago, many people fled to Beijing, resulting in a large number of abandoned babies? The original welfare homes weren't enough, so they were temporarily housed here. This must be a converted old warehouse, right?"

Holy crap!

Thank goodness! It was a false alarm. The atmosphere at the scene became more relaxed, and many people smiled.

At that moment, several higher-level leaders also arrived, and they began handling the follow-up matters. Other things could wait; the priority was to make sure all the children were settled.

"Reporting to the leader, I have a tricycle here that can help take the children."

"Okay! Thank you for your hard work. We'll settle you in a nearby school first. If there aren't enough dorm rooms, we can set up temporary beds in the classrooms. Also, have you notified the bus company? Tell them to arrange a few buses as soon as possible..."

Unlike later times, when every work unit had numerous vehicles, this era was different. Many of the people who came, even the leading cadres, rode bicycles. Therefore, having one more tricycle was already quite a privilege.

However, when the tricycle started and the sound of the motor was heard, everyone was stunned.

"Wait a minute, what kind of vehicle is this? I've never seen one like it before. Do tricycles have engines now?"

"Boss, this is the car that Xiao Zhuang from our unit modified."

"Oh! Let's see how well this car performs. By the way, how much did you spend?"

"It costs 800 yuan in total. It also includes another bicycle, which also has an engine."

"Huh? You didn't mispronounce the number, did you?"

"I guarantee there aren't any. But according to Xiao Zhuang, some spare parts are obtained through friends. If you calculate the actual cost, this kind of tricycle should cost between 1500 and 2000 yuan."

"That's quite cheap, isn't it? How durable is it? Is the failure rate high?"

"I don't know. But so far, it doesn't seem to have broken down, right?"

"oh oh."

At this time, Zhuang Zhongchen was unaware that some leaders had already become very interested in motorized tricycles.

This is actually a misconception in thinking. In Zhuang Zhongchen's mind, a three-wheeled motorcycle must be a good thing. Once it's publicly displayed, how could no one want it?

To be honest, that idea isn't wrong. Those people who were just watching the spectacle actually really enjoyed it!

However, in those days, the development of new products was largely irrelevant to the general public, as they had no choice. They could only buy what the stores offered. There was even a rationing system that completely restricted their access.

Only with leadership support can new products truly be developed. Sufficient production resources can only be obtained for things that leaders like.

In other words, a leader's personal preferences can determine the fate of a product. This is completely different from the logic that followed.

This time, it was a lucky accident; he just happened to fail in front of these leaders!