Courtyard House: From Deputy Division Commander to Civilian, Progressing All the Way

"Minister Lin, I, Lao Yi, have been a level eight fitter my whole life, and I'm utterly loyal to the country. Could you perhaps... make an exception for me on this trip to the Northwest? I promise, if you let me go, I absolutely won't let you down. This little token is a token of our respect from our old neighbor..."

Liu Haizhong quickly stuffed the Moutai and ginseng in his hands forward as well.

"Yes, Minister Lin, my level seven blacksmithing skill isn't to be underestimated. Just say the word and give me a position as a team leader, and I, Liu Haizhong, will be your most loyal dog!"

Seeing this, Jia Dongxu gritted his teeth and rushed forward, opening the wooden box in his hand to reveal the two dazzling little yellow fish.

"Minister Lin... Minister Lin! I'm my master's apprentice. Although I'm not high enough in rank, could you please grant me special permission to work as an apprentice? Please accept this gold bar and give me a way to survive!"

The cold wind howled in the courtyard.

Three people, three lavish gifts, and three ugly faces etched with greed and scheming.

They were convinced that in this era of scarcity, no one could resist such a huge sum of money. They believed that as long as the money was right, the so-called top-secret national project was nothing more than a stepping stone for them to get rich and promoted.

however.

They were facing Lin Yang.

Lin Yang looked at the banknotes, Moutai liquor, and gold bars handed to him.

His gaze instantly shifted from calm to a chilling, sinister intensity, like a Siberian blizzard.

A terrifying killing intent, forged from mountains of corpses and seas of blood, that sent shivers down one's spine, suddenly erupted from his body!

The surrounding air seemed to freeze completely at that moment.

"Make an exception?"

Lin Yang's voice wasn't loud, but it was like a resounding slap, striking the souls of the three people hard.

"What do you take this top-secret national defense project for?"

Lin Yang suddenly stepped forward, and the powerful pressure he exerted forced Yi Zhonghai and the other two to stagger backward, almost dropping the gifts in their hands.

"You treat it as a stepping stone to promotion and wealth? You treat it as a market to swindle double wages and special-supply pork?!"

Lin Yang's gaze was like a sharp blade, fixed intently on Jia Dongxu's face.

"You, a third-level worker who can't even understand blueprints, think you can go to the Northwest with just two worthless gold bars? Do you even know what kind of place that is? It's a Gobi Desert with endless yellow sand, temperatures dropping to minus thirty or forty degrees Celsius, where you can freeze a living person into an ice sculpture!"

"With your spineless body, you'd be blown away by a gust of wind if you went there! What would you do there? Desert?!"

Jia Dongxu was so angry that he turned pale and trembled all over. The wooden box in his hand fell to the ground, and the two gold bars rolled onto the bluestone slab with a crisp sound.

Lin Yang turned his head and looked at Liu Haizhong.

"And you, a level seven blacksmith. All you think about is becoming an official, and how to ride roughshod over others."

Lin Yang sneered, his tone full of disdain.

"The projects in the Great Northwest require relentless effort! They need pure laborers who are willing to risk their lives for the country, working themselves to the bone in front of the lathe! You want to be a cadre there? You're not qualified! You'll only pollute that pristine land!"

Liu Haizhong was so frightened that his legs went weak and he collapsed to the ground, shattering the bottle of his treasured Moutai liquor, which then filled the air with its aroma.

Finally, Lin Yang's gaze fell on Yi Zhonghai.

This once arrogant old man in the courtyard was now trembling with fear.

"Yi Zhonghai, you keep saying you're an eighth-grade fitter and that you're extremely loyal."

Lin Yang looked at him as if he were a decaying corpse.

"Ask your conscience. With your hands shaking so much these past few years, could you still achieve micron-level precision? Are you truly thinking of serving your country, or are you after that huge sum of retirement money?!"

Lin Yang stretched out his finger and pointed to the banknotes and gold bars on the ground.

"I'll tell you."

"This project in Northwest China is crucial to whether our new China can stand tall in the world! It's about whether we will continue to be blackmailed by imperialist nuclear powers!"

"That's a vital national asset! It represents the lives of millions of Chinese people!"

Lin Yang roared, his voice booming like a bell, making the windows of the entire courtyard vibrate.

"How dare you try to bribe me, the Vice Minister of Heavy Industry, with this filthy stuff? Trying to sell the backbone of the nation?!"

"I didn't bring any bodyguards today. If I had, my first order would have been to drag you three, these parasites who are sabotaging the country's development, out and shoot you!"

boom!

The word "execution" was uttered.

Yi Zhonghai felt a sudden darkness before his eyes, as if his heart had stopped, and he fell straight backward, crashing heavily onto the cold ground.

Liu Haizhong and Jia Dongxu were so frightened that they scrambled to their feet and kowtowed frantically on the ground.

"Minister Lin, spare us! Commander, spare us! We were bewitched! We'll never dare to do it again!"

Lin Yang coldly looked at the three beasts who were like rotten mud, without the slightest pity in his eyes.

"Put away your junk and get out of here!"

Lin Yang took a deep breath, his tone returning to its cold and resolute tone.

"There are no shortcuts in the selection process in Northwest China. Everything depends entirely on solid skills!"

"I will personally lead an expert team to supervise the practical assessment next week. The blueprints are top secret, and the precision requirements are extremely high. Anyone whose skills don't meet the standards, even if they are the King of Heaven himself, won't be able to set foot on the special train to Northwest China!"

"You bunch of heartless scum, you'll spend your whole lives stuck in the mud of Beijing until you die!"

Done.

Lin Yang didn't even glance at the gold bars and banknotes on the ground, and kicked away the debris blocking his way.

He strode forward, pushed open the main door, and went inside.

The autumn wind howled, whipping up a few banknotes from the ground and sending them flying through the air.

Yi Zhonghai lay on the cold bluestone slab, panting heavily, his eyes filled with utter despair.

······

Monday morning, the first workshop of Hongxing Steel Rolling Mill.

The entire workshop was completely sealed off, with guards every three steps and sentries every five steps around the perimeter. Fully armed security officers patrolled the surroundings with sharp eyes.

Inside the workshop, the deafening roar of the machines had all ceased. The air was filled with the mixed smell of machine oil and coolant, and it was so quiet that you could hear the sound of water droplets hitting the floor.

This is a selection and assessment process involving top national secrets.

Lin Yang, dressed in a dark gray woolen Zhongshan suit, sat imposingly in the examiner's seat, his face stern. Beside him sat two white-haired top military experts from the Second Ministry of Machine Building, and two taciturn Soviet technical advisors.

On the long table in front of them were rows of precision micrometers, vernier calipers, and various high-precision measuring instruments.