Love in the Courtyard: Starting with Engineers

Li Yu slept soundly until dawn, when he was awakened by the noise in the courtyard.

He got up, put on his clothes, and stretched his body.

Pushing open the door, the morning air, carrying a hint of coal smoke, rushed in, and there were already quite a few people walking around in the courtyard.

In the front yard, the third uncle, Yan Bugui, was tending to his few half-dead flowers, but his eyes kept glancing around, and his ears were perked up, catching any slight movement.

Upon seeing Li Yu emerge, Yan Bugui immediately put on his habitual, shrewd smile.

"Hey, Xiaoyu's up? Is your head alright?"

Li Yu twitched the corner of his mouth.

"Thank you for your concern, Uncle Lao San. I'm much better now."

As she spoke, she turned and went back to her room to take a basin to the public water pipe to wash up. As she passed the middle courtyard, the Jia family's gatehouse was tightly closed, but there was clearly a shadow moving behind the curtains.

[Ding! Received 88 malicious emotion points from Jia Zhangshi, 88 malicious emotion points from Qin Huairu, and 100 malicious emotion points from Bang Geng.]

The sudden surge in emotional points startled Li Yu. As expected of the tyrant of the courtyard, he had contributed so many emotional points even before they met.

Li Yu quickly washed up, went back to his room, used 10 emotion points to exchange for several large meat buns, ate them, and then went out.

Today was the day he went back to work at the factory, and he changed into his faded but still relatively clean work clothes.

Before leaving the hospital, he specially changed the lock he had prepared for the thief's staff. As soon as he left the hospital, he ran into Qin Huairu, who was also going to work at the steel mill.

Qin Huairu's eyes were still a little red and swollen, and her face looked haggard. When she saw Li Yu's eyes flicker with complicated emotions, she lowered her eyes and called out softly, "Brother Li Yu... going to work?"

Surprisingly, there was little resentment in her voice; instead, there was a hint of weakness and caution.

[Ding! Qin Huairu's fear level is 100]

Li Yu nodded, without stopping, and said, "Mm."

Li Yu walked out of the courtyard gate, leaving the noise and scheming behind him.

The streets were already bustling with activity, filled with the sounds of bicycle bells, footsteps rushing to work, and the calls of breakfast vendors, creating a vibrant and lively atmosphere.

The Hongxing Steel Rolling Mill wasn't far away, just a 20-minute walk. Following my memory, I arrived at the factory gate and entered the factory area. Huge workshops and factory buildings stood there, the roar of machines carried far, and the air was filled with the smell of metal and machine oil.

The technical department is located in a relatively quiet two-story building.

As Li Yu walked into the technical department office, several pairs of eyes fell on him, some curious, some scrutinizing, and some indifferent.

"Li Yu, you've arrived?"

A bespectacled, kind-looking middle-aged man walked over. He was the deputy head of the technical department, surnamed Wang, and was one of the few leaders in the original owner's memories who had been relatively kind to him.

"Hello, Director Wang"

Li Yu nodded.

There happens to be an old-fashioned punch press in the third workshop, which has been running unsteadily lately. The maintenance team went to check it out and said that the parts were worn out and they had to wait for spare parts.

Why don't you go take a look first? It would be best if you could figure something out, but don't force it if you can't. Just be careful.

"Okay, Section Chief Wang, I'll go take a look first."

Li Yu agreed.

There just happens to be a Basic Mechanical Repair Mastery skill in the system shop. Let's see how good this skill is.

Thinking about it, Li Yu opened the system shop and redeemed "Basic Mechanical Repair Mastery".

[Master of Basic Mechanical Repair (Proficient in repairing any type of machinery)]

Looking at the 117 emotion points remaining on the system panel, it seems I need to "communicate" with more people.

As I carried my toolbox to Workshop 3, I was immediately met with tremendous noise and heat.

The workers were busy with their own tasks, and when they saw this young technician approaching, they only glanced at him and didn't pay much attention. The original owner of this body had a low profile in the factory, and his skills weren't outstanding; he was one of the unremarkable types.

The malfunctioning punch press sat in the corner.

Li Yu greeted the senior mechanic in charge and then began to inspect the protective cover. An even stronger smell of engine oil wafted out.

He first observed any unusual noises and vibrations during machine operation, then stopped the machine, cut off the power, and began disassembling part of the outer casing.

His movements were not only skillful and steady, but also without any unnecessary steps. The tools seemed to come alive in his hands; he twisted, knocked, flicked, and probed, completing the entire process with effortless grace.

Li Yu quickly located the problem: a bearing on the main drive shaft was severely worn, with excessive clearance, causing unstable meshing of the linkage gears, resulting in abnormal noise and vibration. The repair team's diagnosis was correct, but the bearing was a rare type, and spare parts were indeed hard to come by.

He squatted there, his mind racing. Combining his past life's experience with the repair skills he had acquired from the system store today, he immediately determined that he could adjust the clearance of the auxiliary gear next to him.

Readjust the meshing of the transmission gears.

While it won't completely solve the problem, it should be able to get the machine running, and we can replace it once the parts arrive.

The operator standing nearby was completely shocked by Li Yu's smooth and skillful operation, amazed that this young man was so technically proficient.

About an hour later, Li Yu stood up and wiped his sweat.

"Master Zhang, shall we try installing it?" The dust cover was reinstalled, and the power was turned on.

The punch press emitted a low starting sound and then began to run.

Although you can still catch a very subtle noise if you listen carefully, it's much better than the teeth-grinding friction and impact sound from before, and it runs much more smoothly.

Someone in the surrounding crowd exclaimed, "Hey! That's impressive!"

Everyone chimed in, "Although Technician Li looks young, his skills are truly amazing."

[Ding! Positive emotion points collected: 10, 10, 15, 20...]

Li Yu was incredibly surprised to hear the system notifications ringing incessantly; he hadn't expected the system could collect positive emotions.

Just then, the system voice came through.

"The host's system is an emotion collection system, so of course it can collect any emotion related to the host."

Just as Li Yu was talking to the system, Deputy Section Chief Wang arrived without anyone noticing.

Looking at the machine running again, a smile appeared on his face, but a trace of gloom flashed across his eyes.

"Good lad! Li Yu, well done! I didn't expect you to have this skill. You even wrote a brief report on your own. I'll recommend you for commendation."

"Section Chief Wang deserves the award."

Li Yu smiled and breathed a sigh of relief. This meant he had initially established himself in the factory, since technical positions ultimately depended on technical skills.

The morning passed by busily working around the machines in Workshop 3. After a busy morning, everyone in Workshop 3 knew that there was a highly skilled technician named Li Yu in the Technical Department.

He can easily solve any kind of problem.

This is also thanks to the fact that the basic repair mastery includes knowledge of repairing almost all machines, as well as some experience from later generations. In addition, the machines in the steel rolling mill only have minor problems, which is why he seemed to be able to handle them with such ease.

When it was noon, Li Yu took his lunchbox and strolled to the first canteen to get his food. Inevitably, he ran into an acquaintance again.

As soon as Li Yu arrived at the canteen, she saw Sha Zhu wearing an apron and serving food to the workers with a large ladle in the kitchen. Just as Li Yu was looking at Sha Zhu, Sha Zhu also saw Li Yu.

His eyes were like knives, and then he switched places with Liu Lan next to him.

"You bastard Li Yu, as long as Master Zhu is still in the cafeteria, you won't get a full meal!"

Sha Zhu thought viciously as he served food to the workers.

Soon it was Li Yu's turn. Li Yu handed the lunchbox to Sha Zhu:

"Two steamed buns and a serving of cabbage and glass noodles"

Sha Zhu glanced at Li Yu and scooped in a large spoonful of food.

But as soon as it came out of the pot, it kept shaking until only a soup base and a few cabbage leaves remained, then poured it into Li Yu's lunchbox, and then picked out two of the smallest steamed buns.

He put down his spoon and reached out his hand: "Sanmao, give me the money!"

Li Yu looked at the little bit of soup and liquid in the lunchbox, but didn't make a fuss. He just raised his voice and shouted into the window.

"Comrade He Yuzhu, do you have Parkinson's disease? Or is there some new rule in the kitchen that the technicians' portions are halved? If you can't even hold a spoon, go to the hospital and get checked out. What are you doing serving food?"

Sha Zhu, his face dark, slammed the spoon into the vegetable bowl.

"If you keep talking nonsense, believe me, I'll smash your mouth. You can eat it or not, it's up to you."

Upon hearing this, Li Yu put the lunchbox on the table next to him, turned around, grabbed Sha Zhu by the neck, and pulled him out through the food serving window.

I slapped him twice across the face.

"You silly Zhu, you never learn! You even tried to smash my mouth. Who do you think you are? Do you know what it means to shake a ladle for a coworker? At the very least, it's taking revenge; at worst, it's disrupting unity and hindering production."

Sha Zhu felt both hatred and fear upon hearing this. He hadn't expected this guy to dare to attack him directly and even accuse him of such a serious crime.

[Ding has collected 188 points of Sha Zhu's fear and resentment.]

Just then, the people around cheered. Sha Zhu had often teased the workers, especially those who had offended him, and they were even more ruthless towards them.

Seeing this, Yi Zhonghai quickly squeezed to the front and grabbed Li Yu's hand.

"Zhu Zi was just confused for a moment. He was just resentful about what happened yesterday. At most, he had a little bit of a desire for revenge. He had no intention of disrupting unity or production."

Looking at Yi Zhonghai, Li Yu thought to himself, "As expected of you, you can make the whole academy run wild and you even know the weight of the hat."

Li Yu was about to speak when a reprimand came from behind him: "What are you all doing standing around like that? What are you doing instead of eating?"

Li Yu turned around and saw Li Huaide, the deputy director of the steel rolling mill in charge of logistics and purchasing. Li Huaide rushed to the front and looked at Li Yu.

"What's going on? Why are you grabbing Sha Zhu?"

Li Yu briefly recounted the events to Li Huaide and handed him the lunchbox.

Looking at the small amount of soup and liquid in the lunchbox, Li Huaide's temper flared, and he sternly questioned:

"He Yuzhu, is this the food you got? Who taught you to serve food like this? I never expected the cafeteria to be like this now."

Then Li Huaide said to Liu Lan:

"Go and call your cafeteria director, Director Liu, out here. I want to show him what kind of cafeteria he's in charge of."

Then Li Huaide looked at the many workers in the canteen and said:

"I didn't know about the ladles shaking in the cafeteria before, but now that I know, that means it can't happen anymore. Anyone who does it will be dealt with seriously!"

As soon as Li Huaide finished speaking, cheers erupted from the surrounding crowd.

Upon hearing Li Huaide's words, Yi Zhonghai knew that this matter was far from over, and his gaze toward Li Yu grew even colder. He planned to hold a hospital-wide meeting that night to teach this kid a lesson.

Li Yu seemed to sense Yi Zhonghai's cold gaze, turned around and met Yi Zhonghai's eyes, which were full of mockery.

[Ding! Received 199 points of resentment from Yi Zhonghai]

Hearing the system announcement, Li Yu felt even more satisfied with Yi Zhonghai.