Courtyard House: Starting as a mediocre engineer

The aroma of fried food wafted from the kitchen. Wen Yumei was humming a little tune as she fried meatballs. Noticing that Zhuang Zhongchen wasn't paying attention, she secretly popped one into her mouth.

Although there were no refrigerators during this period, the winter temperatures in the north were extremely low. Around the Lunar New Year, the eaves were hung with cured meats and salted fish. Frozen meats were also buried in the snowdrifts in the backyard. Many semi-finished dishes were also prepared, such as fried meatballs, fried fish, and fried peanuts.

Because the steel rolling mill offered relatively good benefits, and the labor bureau and other government agencies also provided decent welfare, the New Year's goods distributed by the company were enough to last until early January. The only downside was the lack of fresh vegetables and fruits. Apart from Chinese cabbage, there were only various pickled vegetables and preserved meats.

"Brother Chen, my parents are soft-hearted and feel sorry for you spending the New Year alone at home. Don't forget to come to my house for our reunion dinner on New Year's Eve!"

"Okay, okay. Isn't that annoying?"

"You're already finding me annoying? You jerk, I'm ignoring you now. Hmph."

"Okay, okay! I admit my mistake! I surrender!"

"Tch! What a disgrace!"

At this very moment, Zhuang Zhongchen is busy drawing blueprints and doing these simple, repetitive tasks.

In terms of workload alone, those later engineers were equivalent to a dozen or even dozens of people today. Indeed, one engineer from the Industrial Cthulhu era was worth an entire team today.

The key lies in the widespread use of computers and the internet. It necessitates data calculations, CAD and other drafting software, other engineering software, and extensive data management…

Take CAD drafting software, for example. It's basically just a matter of clicking the mouse, and there are many commonly used templates that can be easily applied. As long as it's connected to a printer, you can print out as many copies of the drawings as you need.

However, this is currently impossible to do; each painting needs to be done manually, one by one. This would consume a lot of time.

Generally, each engineer has a team. Several assistant engineers and senior technicians serve as helpers, and a large group of technical school graduate technicians are responsible for drawing blueprints.

This shows how difficult the path to advancement is for vocational school students. What skills can one learn by drawing blueprints? Even if someone is a time-traveling cheat, they still need to gain the approval of the supervising engineer.

Otherwise, new inventions simply cannot be approved. Or rather, even if a new invention is made independently, the greatest credit should go to the engineer.

In those days, research funding was extremely scarce. Without an engineer's signature, almost nothing could be done. Furthermore, higher-ups were unlikely to approve funding.

It's important to note that this concept differs from the later understanding of an engineer. Nowadays, an engineer typically represents their entire team. Some teams are even quite large, with over a hundred members.

This includes groups of skilled workers led by senior technicians and engineers, who also assist the engineering team.

It's all very interesting. Later, some absurd questions even started circulating among the people—who is more capable, an eighth-grade worker or an engineer?

This kind of question is similar to asking: Who is the best, the machine gunner, the sniper, or the company commander?

That goes without saying. It's definitely the company commander who commands the machine gunners and snipers. One is the commander, the other is a private. They're not even in the same league; they're not even comparable.

However, back to this particular fraudulent individual, he didn't even have his own team? He could only hold his nose and draw up the blueprints himself!

After drawing for several hours, almost turning himself cross-eyed, he finally prepared to rest for a while when Wen Yumei brought over the food.

"Brother Chen, are you still busy?"

"We should be done soon."

"Do you have the money? Didn't we agree to go to Wangfujing to buy a radio during the Spring Festival?"

"This is a voluntary favor. Aunt Wang from the neighborhood asked me to do it."

"Oh? You don't have any money? How boring!" Wen Yumei chuckled as she sat down next to Zhuang Zhongchen. "Let me tell you! My mom is awful. She makes me hand over 15 yuan a month for food. She's so stingy with her own daughter. I'm saving up for my dowry now, and I've already saved 80 yuan. Hehehe."

Wow! My baby is that amazing?

"Exactly!" Wen Yumei shook her head proudly, wishing she could grow a little tail and wag it all over the place. "When we get married, I'll have 200 yuan as a dowry. You can use your money to buy the four essential items, and I'll save mine. We'll make sure it's a grand affair."

"Almost there! I'm planning to fix up the house too."

"Do you have enough money? Do you need it...?"

"Not for now. I should have some left on me."

"Alright. You handle it... Hey? Brother Chen, where did you get the money? Didn't you owe a lot of money?"

"Surely we have some reserve funds? Just in case we need them unexpectedly?"

"Mmm. Oh, right, last night my mom scolded my older brother, saying he hasn't even found a wife yet. He's not as good as me, his younger sister. Hahaha!"

"What? Didn't your older brother go on any blind dates?"

"I went there. I wasn't chosen either time. They said he ate too much, like a glutton. Hahaha!" Wen Yumei laughed gleefully.

To be honest, Wen Anguo's position was quite awkward, neither high nor low. Although he worked in a government agency, he was just an ordinary employee. He was similar to the later unemployed female teachers, whose goal was to become tenured civil servants. But families of actual civil servants looked down on this kind of situation.

But at that moment, Zhuang Zhongchen suddenly realized something. He seemed to have gotten away with his irregular financial situation this time. But what if there was a next time? And he would be living with Wen Yumei from now on. Could he really get away with it every time?

Thinking of this, Zhuang Zhongchen glanced at the blueprints on the table and had a sudden inspiration: "Meizi, then I'll write a paper. If it gets published, I can even get a fee."

"Really?" Wen Yumei hugged Zhuang Zhongchen's neck in surprise. "Then you must do your best!"

"That's right, hurry up and add some oil." Zhuang Zhongchen laughed as he hugged Wen Yumei and kissed her on the pretty face.

"Ptooey! Ugh! Just a little bit, you're not allowed to move your hands."

"oh oh."

"Did you hear me? Otherwise, I won't come to your house again."

"Then give me a few more kisses."

"You watch! You wicked devil!"

"..."

After a long while, Wen Yumei finally looked away, her eyes still glazed. Waving her little fists, she glared fiercely at Zhuang Zhongchen.

Zhuang Zhongchen chuckled inwardly; the little girl's immunity had indeed improved significantly. He remembered the first time they kissed and cuddle, this silly girl actually fainted. It almost made that scumbag dog spit out his drink!

"Brother Chen, why is time passing so slowly? There's still a year before I can marry you!"

"So you can move into my house now? Nobody's stopping you. We can get the marriage certificate in a year at most."

"Pah! You filthy scoundrel! I'll fight you to the death!"

"Hey, don't bump into things. I'm afraid you'll get hurt."

"This is outrageous! I'll never forgive you!"

"Ha ha!"