Courtyard House: I fish in the heavens, a professional bird abuser.

"He Yuzhu? Foolish Zhu?"

Lou Zhenhua's brows furrowed instantly, his eyes behind his gold-rimmed glasses filled with incomprehension and deep suspicion. "Yuanchao, are you sure? That kid... I heard he was just fired from the cafeteria for his lifestyle issues, and now he spends all his time drinking at home, acting like a ghost. You want him to be your assistant? Isn't that... isn't that just asking for trouble?"

In his view, having a fool like Sha Zhu participate in such a precise and important technological transformation project was like asking a bull to do embroidery—utterly absurd.

"Director Lou, I'm sure."

He Yuanchao's tone was unusually firm, his eyes calm and composed, showing no hint of joking. "I need someone who can do dirty and hard work, is strong, and will never ask a single question about why. There is no one more suitable than him in the entire steel rolling mill."

He paused, then added, "Besides, he's from the same clan as me, so I'm more comfortable using him for certain things, and I feel more at ease with him. As for his flaws... people can be reformed, right? Giving him a chance to redeem himself is also giving him a way out. I believe that under my 'guidance,' he'll be very obedient."

He Yuanchao's final word, "guidance," was quite meaningful.

As Lou Zhenhua looked into He Yuanchao's deep, calm eyes, which seemed to see through everything, his doubts gradually disappeared, replaced by a deeper appreciation.

He got it.

He Yuanchao is "making use of waste" and demonstrating a method of controlling people!

He took a "useless person" whom everyone looked down on, an enemy with whom he had a grudge, and brought him under his command to use for his own purposes.

This requires not only technical skills, but also courage, skill, and absolute confidence!

"Excellent! What a wonderful saying, 'People can be reformed'!" Lou Zhenhua clapped his hands in admiration. "Yuanchao, your vision and demeanor are more like a general leading troops than a fitter! Alright! We'll do it your way! I'll issue a notice immediately to rehire He Yuzhu from the factory, transfer him to the technical department, and temporarily place him in logistics to be your assistant! His salary... will be the same as his previous level-two chef standard!"

"Thank you, Director Lou."

……

That afternoon, a transfer order stamped with the bright red seal of the personnel department of the steel rolling mill was delivered to the courtyard like a bomb.

Sha Zhu, who was drunk and disheveled inside, was dragged out by Liu Haizhong, who rushed over after hearing the news.

When Liu Haizhong finished reading the transfer order in a complex tone, a mixture of jealousy, envy, and disbelief, Shazhu was completely stunned.

"...It is hereby decided to re-employ Comrade He Yuzhu back to the factory, transferring him to the Technical Department as a special assistant for the technical transformation project, effective immediately..."

Technical Department? Specialized Assistant?

Sha Zhu shook his groggy head, thinking he was hallucinating from drinking too much.

How could a fired cook like him possibly get into the technical department? And what kind of assistant would he be?

"Silly Zhu! You...you got incredibly lucky!" Liu Haizhong shoved the transfer order into his hand with a sour look, his eyes like he was looking at a fool who had won the lottery. "It's He Yuanchao! He Yuanchao personally asked Director Lou for you! To be his assistant! You...you'd better get ready and report to the technical department tomorrow! Your salary will be at the level of a second-level chef! My God..."

He Yuanchao? He specifically asked for me?

Sha Zhu sobered up almost instantly!

He looked at the transfer order in his hand, then at the face in Liu Haizhong's hair that seemed to say, "Your ancestors' graves are emitting auspicious smoke," and his mind was in complete chaos.

Humiliation, anger, resentment... were instantly replaced by a stronger emotion called "shock" and "absurdity".

That bastard He Yuanchao, he's already being lenient by not ruining me, and now he's specifically asking me to come back to work? And into the technical department?

This is... like a weasel offering New Year's greetings to a chicken—it's up to no good!

He's definitely up to something, trying to find a new way to torture me in a place like the technical department!

Sha Zhu's first thought was to refuse!

No matter how down on his luck Sha Zhu is, he can't become a dog for his enemy!

But then I thought about it again, work... salary...

He touched his empty pockets, remembering the debt he'd incurred from drinking yesterday, Qin Huairu's face that needed his "saving," and He Yushui's disappointed and resolute gaze...

A tremendous pressure from reality, like a cold tide, instantly extinguished his pitiful backbone.

"To go...or not to go?" Sha Zhu was caught in a dilemma.

……

The next day, amidst the astonished and jealous gazes of everyone in the hospital, Sha Zhu shaved his beard, changed into clean clothes, and with dark circles under his eyes, he still went to the steel mill with heavy steps.

He didn't know what awaited him: humiliation? Torture? Or...?

When he nervously entered the small, bright, clean conference room that had been specially set aside and filled with blueprints and tools, what he saw was a scene he would never forget.

He Yuanchao was hunched over a large drawing table, holding a precision ruling pen, sketching rapidly on a huge blueprint.

Sunlight streamed through the clean glass window, falling on his focused profile and outlining a golden contour.

His expression was calm, his eyes sharp, his pen strokes precise and steady, his movements fluid and graceful, possessing a captivating charm unique to a technical professional.

The air was filled with the scent of ink and paper, and it was so quiet that the only sound was the soft scratching of the pen tip across the paper.

At that moment, Sha Zhu was somewhat stunned.

He discovered for the first time that He Yuanchao, who wasn't wielding a spatula, was like this.

He was completely different from that fierce, argumentative person who used to be so sharp-tongued in the courtyard.

"You're here?" He Yuanchao didn't even look up, his voice still calm. "There's a task list on the table. By today, find all the parts listed here from the warehouse, clean them, remove rust, sort them, number them, and put them on that shelf over there. It's okay if you can't understand the blueprints, just match them by number."

He pointed to a stack of parts lists and coding manuals piled up in the corner.

Sha Zhu went over and took a look. The list was densely packed, listing hundreds of types of screws, washers, bearings, gears... It gave him a headache.

"Did you understand?" He Yuanchao's voice rang out again, with an unquestionable commanding tone.

"I...I understand." Sha Zhu responded subconsciously.

"Then get to work. Remember, I don't keep idlers here, and I especially don't keep idiots. If you can't do it well, get out."

After He Yuanchao finished speaking, he ignored him and immersed himself back in his world of blueprints.

Looking at He Yuanchao's businesslike, even cold and ruthless, attitude, Sha Zhu felt a surge of humiliation and resentment well up inside him again.

But after looking at the transfer order and touching his empty pockets, he gritted his teeth, picked up the list, and walked out of the meeting room without saying a word.

The days that followed were hell and purgatory for Shazhu.

He Yuanchao was like the strictest supervisor.

The tasks he assigned to Shazhu every day were heavy, trivial, and extremely demanding.

From a mountain of scrap parts, find the only shim that meets the requirements based on an inconspicuous parameter on the drawing.

Using the most primitive tools, a rusty valve is polished until it is as smooth as a mirror, with an error margin of no more than a hair's breadth.

If Sha Zhu made even the slightest mistake, or was even a little too slow, he would be met with He Yuanchao's merciless and chilling reprimand:

"Are you brain-dead? I told you to tighten it to the specified torque, and you used brute force? Trying to break the screw?"

"You call this clean? There's still grease and grime on it! Go back and wash it again! Wash it until you can see yourself in a mirror!"

"You've been doing this little bit of work all morning? Did you not eat or do you not have hands?"

Sha-Zhu was scolded so badly that he almost quit several times.

But whenever he wanted to lash out, the sight of He Yuanchao's terrifyingly calm eyes, which seemed to see right through him, would extinguish his anger. He could only swallow his sweat and humiliation in frustration.

Gradually, Sha Zhu also noticed something was amiss.

Although He Yuanchao scolded him harshly, after each scolding, he would inadvertently tell him in the simplest and most straightforward way what the correct way should be.

For example, he might pick up a wrench and demonstrate what "torque" is; he might use a rag dipped in an unknown liquid to quickly polish an oily part until it shines.

What he taught were genuine skills that Sha Zhu had never encountered before, whether in the kitchen or when fighting in the yard—skills that belonged to the category of "techniques."

Moreover, Sha Zhu found that he was so tired every day that he would fall asleep as soon as he got home, and he didn't have time to think about Qin Huairu or drink alone anymore.

More importantly, every noon, He Yuanchao would cook a meal for two in a small pot on an alcohol stove in the small conference room.

Sometimes it was fragrant fried rice with eggs, made with a long, thin variety of fragrant rice that he had never seen before; other times it was meat he had obtained by exchanging meat coupons issued by the factory, stewed until very tender, served with white steamed buns.

The food was simple, but it tasted so good that he almost swallowed his tongue.

Each time, He Yuanchao would silently share half with him, and the two would finish eating in silence before continuing to work.

That feeling was strange.

There were no thanks, no formalities, just like two soldiers fighting side by side in the trenches, sharing a hard-won ration.

Sha Zhu's heart was quietly changing amidst this daily grind of intense labor, harsh reprimands, and silent meals.

His mind, which had been filled with alcohol and resentment, began to rethink.

Meanwhile, the courtyard house was already in turmoil again because He Yuanchao had been reinstated and promoted.