Courtyard House: A Major Power's Heavy Industry, Hand-Crafted Nuclear Fusion

At dusk, at the Hongxing Courtyard.

The atmosphere in the courtyard today felt unusually eerie.

The third uncle of the front yard, Yan Bugui, was already waiting at the door early in the morning, holding a tattered palm-leaf fan in his hand, seemingly cooling himself off, but in reality, his shrewd little eyes were fixed on the alley entrance.

Major events at the factory spread like wildfire throughout the entire residential compound before the workers even left work.

Xu Damao has fallen from power!

He was dismissed from his post and relegated to cleaning toilets!

Su Zheng made a great contribution, and even the top leader personally received him and scolded Deputy Factory Director Li!

The difference between this rise and fall is like night and day.

"Here it comes!"

Yan Bugui suddenly let out a low cry and stretched his neck.

At the entrance of the alley, a hunched figure slowly moved towards them.

Xu Damao was wearing dirty old work clothes and carrying a tattered net bag containing a few hard cornbread buns.

Before he even stepped into the courtyard, an indescribable stench wafted over on the wind.

It smelled of years of accumulated grime from the dry toilet and the stench of disinfectant lime, enough to give you a headache.

"Ouch!"

Yan Bugui exaggeratedly covered his nose, took three steps back, and fanned himself rapidly with a palm-leaf fan:

"Da Mao, did you...fall into the latrine? This smell is even stronger than the sewer!"

If Yan Bugui had dared to speak like that normally, Xu Damao would have already retorted.

But today, Xu Damao just numbly raised his head. His usually shiny face was now ashen, and his eyes were filled with a deathly aura.

He didn't even glance at Yan Bugui, keeping his head down and walking along the wall like a rat crossing the street.

Jia Zhangshi, from the Intermediate People's Court, was sitting at the door sewing shoe soles when she smelled the odor. She was about to curse when she saw it was Xu Damao, and the profanity she was about to utter turned into a gloating laugh.

"Hey, isn't this Projectionist Xu? Oh wait, I should call him Cleaner Xu now! Tsk tsk tsk, who would dare eat anything you bring back now? It'll just reek of shit!"

Qin Huairu was washing vegetables nearby, and seeing Xu Damao's disheveled appearance, she felt a mix of emotions.

Just as Xu Damao was about to pass through the hanging flower gate, wanting to escape this humiliating scene.

"Ring ring—"

A crisp, melodious bicycle bell suddenly rang out at the entrance of the alley, instantly drowning out the whispers in the courtyard.

Everyone instinctively turned around.

As the sun sets, a brand-new Phoenix bicycle, its frame gleaming and reflecting a golden-red light, comes speeding by like a chariot.

The people in the car were upright and dressed in brand-new dark blue cadre uniforms, the four pockets of which highlighted their different statuses.

He held the handle with one hand, his expression calm. The confidence and composure that emanated from his very being formed a suffocating contrast with Xu Damao, who was huddled in the corner.

It's Su Zheng.

What made the birds even more green with envy was that there was half a carcass of pork tied to the back of Su Zheng's bicycle!

Yes, half a door!

It weighs at least forty or fifty pounds!

The white fat and the bright red lean meat gleamed enticingly in the setting sun.

This is a reward specially approved by Director Yang.

The big boss said, "Give us the manpower if we need it, and the supplies if we need them." Su Zheng casually mentioned that he wanted to improve the food, and the logistics department immediately sent over half of a freshly slaughtered pig.

"Gulp."

A chorus of swallowing sounds echoed in the courtyard.

In an era when buying meat required ration coupons and each person only had a few ounces of meat coupons per month, the visual impact of half a pig was no less than driving a Ferrari back to the village in later generations.

Su Zheng squeezed the brakes, and the car came to a steady stop at the door.

He glanced at Yan Bugui, who was covering his nose, and then at Xu Damao, who was huddled in the corner. A faint smile appeared on his lips.

Excuse me.

Only two words.

But Xu Damao seemed to have heard a royal decree. He trembled all over and shrank back to the side in a panic. His legs were so weak that he almost sat down on the ground.

Su Zheng pushed his cart, carrying the half-portion of pork, and swaggered past Xu Damao.

The aroma of meat mixed with the smell of new clothes being washed completely overpowered the stench emanating from Xu Damao.

This is not just a physical crushing, but a punishment of one's dignity.

It wasn't until Su Zheng's figure disappeared into the backyard that the yard erupted in chaos.

"Half a carcass! That'll take until next year to eat!"

Yan Bugui's eyes turned red. "This Su Zheng, he's really risen from humble beginnings to become a phoenix!"

At the Jia family's gate, Banggeng cried out, his mouth watering, "Mom! I want meat! I want meat!"

Madam Jia glared fiercely at the backyard, muttering curses:

"Eat, eat, eat! You'll die young from overeating! You don't even know how to help your neighbors; you have no sense of public morality whatsoever!"

Qin Huairu looked in the direction Su Zheng had left, her eyes filled with regret that was almost overflowing.

If only... if I had treated Su Zheng just a little bit...

……

Back home, Su Zheng hung the meat on the beam, cut off a large piece of pork belly, and prepared to make braised pork to reward himself and his apprentice.

As the smoke rose from the chimneys, the aroma of meat once again overwhelmed the entire courtyard, making the night exceptionally unbearable.

Su Zheng sat at the table, not in a hurry to pick up his chopsticks.

In his mind, the system interface that had been silent for several days suddenly lit up with a golden light.

[Ding! Detected that the host has completed the first phase of the core task: establishing industry authority and eliminating internal obstacles.]

[New branch of the tech tree unlocked...]

With the notification sound, the tech tree, which had only lit up "Civilian Basic Industry", suddenly extended a red branch to the right.

The icon for that branch is a crossed sword and shield.

[Individual Weapon Systems (Light Weapons)]

Su Zheng's eyes suddenly lit up.

Although he could manually operate the grinding machine and modify the equipment before, that was mostly due to his micro-management skills with the "Eye of Truth" and his knowledge from his previous life.

Now that the system has officially unlocked this module, it means that he will obtain military design blueprints and material formulas that are ahead of their time!

"This reward has come at just the right time."

Su Zheng had a sudden thought and clicked on that branch.

Among the rows of gray icons, several basic icons have lit up:

High-precision cold forging process for gun barrels

Modular firearm design concept

High-performance propellant formulation

......

"With these, the previous rifle design process can be accelerated considerably."

"Even upgrading the performance of the existing rifle by one level would not be a problem."

Feeling the massive flow of knowledge flooding into his mind, Su Zheng couldn't help but smile slightly.

Just then, there was a knock on the door.

"Knock knock knock".

"Master, it's me, Zhao Ming."

Zhao Ming sounded a little out of breath, as if he was carrying heavy objects.

"Come in."

The door opened, and Zhao Ming walked in carrying a long, rectangular wooden box, followed by Section Chief Wang from the security department.

Section Chief Wang looked worried and sighed as soon as he entered the door: "Engineer Su, you'll have to help your brother this time."

"What's wrong?"

Su Zheng gestured for the two to sit down and poured them a glass of water.

Section Chief Wang pointed to the wooden box and said with a bitter face, "This is a batch of guns that we just brought back from the militia training ground. They said our factory's militia company is going to have a live-fire shooting test next week, but when we tested the guns today, eight out of ten were terrible shots."

"The soldiers complained that the rifling of the guns was worn down, and the bullets flew sideways. I thought about applying for approval for new guns, but the higher-ups said that production capacity was tight and that we should find a way to overcome the problem ourselves."

Section Chief Wang opened the wooden box, revealing several gleaming but actually worn-out Type 38 rifles and Hanyang rifles inside.

"Engineer Su, didn't you say last time you could make guns? Look at these old relics, is there any way to save them?"

Su Zheng put down his teacup, walked over, and picked up a Type 38 rifle.

Under the scan of the "Eye of Truth," the wear and tear inside the gun barrel was clearly visible.

As Section Chief Wang said, the rifling is almost completely worn away. With this kind of gun, even hitting the target at 50 meters depends on the wind direction.

"rescue?"

Su Zheng casually pulled the bolt, and upon hearing the loose sound, a meaningful smile appeared on his lips.

At this moment, the [Individual Weapon System] that he had just unlocked in his mind was flashing wildly, with countless modification options flooding the screen like a waterfall.

He threw the gun back into the box with a sharp crack.

"Section Chief Wang, don't bother trying to salvage this kind of garbage; it's a waste of time."

Section Chief Wang's heart sank: "What? Even you can't do anything about it?"

"No."

Su Zheng turned around, looking at the half-eaten pork hanging on the wall, his eyes flashing with a fanatical light that made Section Chief Wang's heart pound:

"What I mean is, instead of patching up the garbage, let's... build a new one ourselves."

"A real gun that would leave even the commander-in-chief speechless!"