I Have a Lake as I Walk Through the Courtyard

Qin Huairu wore a gentle smile, silently cursing Yang Laowu's ancestors for eighteen generations. "Understood, Master Yang..."

Hearing Qin Huairu's gentle voice, Yang Laowu frowned even more. This was hardly the way a worker should speak. Everyone in this workshop had a loud voice, this woman was simply an anomaly!

Seeing that the people around weren't chasing them away, but instead letting them continue, Yang Laowu shouted, "What are you all standing there for? Turn on the machine and get to work!"

As soon as the machine started making noise, Yang Laowu subconsciously blocked out his surroundings, his eyes only seeing Qin Huairu and his trembling hands.

"Wait! You're going to put it on the machine like this? Your hands are shaking like a sieve! I'll give you two minutes to tame your hands! This isn't how you're supposed to waste the factory's materials!"

Qin Huai took a deep breath, but her hands still trembled uncontrollably. She looked at Sister Hua and the other women with pleading eyes, but all the workers present looked at her as if it were perfectly normal!

Yang Laowu glanced at his watch; two minutes passed quickly. He noticed Qin Huairu's hands were still trembling uncontrollably. "Your mental fortitude is too weak. Before I teach you the techniques, you must overcome this mental hurdle. It's a path every fitter must take. Since you can't control your hands now, then control your mind first. You'll be responsible for preparing the materials for machines number 1, 2, and 3 for one hour. You can only work on the machines when your hands stop shaking!"

Hearing this, everyone looked at Qin Huairu with sympathy. Preparing materials for three machine tools is an easy job for male workers and not difficult for female workers either, it's just a bit tiring. But everyone shook their heads at Qin Huairu!

Sister Hua looked at her apprentice with disappointment. She had trained him for so long, yet in Master Yang's eyes, he wasn't even qualified to go out on the street. "What are you standing there for? Do as Master Yang says!"

Qin Huairu, full of grievances, nodded, put on worker's sleeves, and obediently found a small cart! He laboriously carried basket after basket of iron lumps onto the cart!

An hour later, sweat dripped down Qin Huai's face. The three male machine operators seemed to be deliberately mischievous. As soon as they saw that she was preparing the materials, they all became as energetic as if they had been injected with chicken blood, and they worked quickly and steadily!

Yang Laowu walked up to Qin Huairu. "Your hands aren't shaking anymore, are they?"

Qin Huai took a deep breath. By now, the workshop had begun to bustle with activity, and no one was watching anymore, gritting their teeth at Yang Laowu. "Stop shaking."

"Great, go turn it on!"

After finishing a piece of work, Yang Laowu picked it up and inspected it. Without even using a ruler, he found many problems.

"Measure it yourself, this is 100% substandard!"

Qin Huairu picked up the calipers next to the machine tool and measured the workpiece she had just finished. The data was not much different, but the workpiece was already scrapped.

"The factory does have a scrap rate, but that's directly linked to your wages! Do you know where your problem lies?"

Qin Huairu shook her head. Yang Laowu quickly picked up a workpiece. Since the genders remained the same, Yang Laowu could only demonstrate it himself, making the eyes of the male workers next to him turn red.

"Did you remember that?"

Qin Huairu nodded.

"Okay, then try making another one. If this one is also ruined, you'll have to move it for another hour!"

Qin Huairu dared not refute these words. Since he entered the steel rolling mill, he had never encountered such a thorny problem. If he didn't want to do manual labor, he had to use his skills! At this moment, there were no more random thoughts in her mind, only the lump of iron in her hands!

Watching Qin Huairu's concentration visibly improve from afar, Sister Hua couldn't help but start to reflect on whether she had been too kind to the female workers. As she pondered this, she glanced at the other women around her. Sensing Sister Hua's gaze, the women, like startled rabbits, all became completely focused!

Qin Huairu had never felt so tired. Her arms trembled uncontrollably from the excessive force, and thankfully Yang Laowu noticed something was wrong and made her stop. "Your arm strength is insufficient, and your wrist strength is also lacking! This is why your scrap rate is so high! Go prepare the materials and work on your strength!"

After a morning of work, as soon as the lunch bell rang, Qin Huai dashed out of the workshop and into the canteen almost like lightning. "Quick, get me my food..."

Instead of feeling sorry for the meal tickets as usual, after getting my food, I found a corner and starved myself like a starving ghost.

Yang Laowu rushed over to check on Qin Huairu's meal, then took two steamed buns from the cafeteria and put them in her lunchbox. "You need to train your strength these days; you can't go hungry!"

"Thank you, Master Yang!" Qin Huairu's mouth was stuffed full of food, and she wolfed it down, making her choke and roll her eyes.

"Master Yang really went all out! Torturing such a delicate woman like that!" Guo Da Piezi and a few male workers watched with great interest from a corner of the canteen. If Yang Laowu and Sister Hua hadn't been sitting nearby, they would have already gone up to chat her up. For some reason, Qin Huairu seemed particularly charming today.

Having just finished a meeting yesterday, the three foodies have been quiet all day. Yang Laowu stared at the bland cabbage he had brought back from the cafeteria in his lunchbox and drank his wine without any appetite.

Qin Huairu waited until 8 p.m., and when she saw Sha Zhu return with a lunchbox, she rushed forward. "Zhu Zi, you're finally back!"

"Sister Qin, what's wrong?"

Hearing that voice, Qin Huairu felt all the grievances welling up inside her, and tears streamed down her face as she recounted what had happened in the workshop. "Waaah, when will this end?!"

"That old bastard is definitely targeting you on purpose! How can he let a woman do this?" After saying that, Sha Zhu rolled up his sleeves and stuffed the lunchbox into Qin Huairu's arms.

The aroma of the lunchbox wafted out, and Qin Huairu's mouth watered uncontrollably. "No, no, no, don't go! If you cause trouble, I might not even be able to stay in the workshop anymore..."

"This..." Sha Zhu's figure suddenly stopped.

"Tell Sister Qin what delicious dishes you made today!"

"This meal is so plentiful today! Now that I'm working at the third stove, I can bring back one vegetarian dish every day. My chef felt sorry for me and gave me half a box of meat! Look at all those big chunks of braised pork!"

Sha Zhu opened the lunchbox like it was a treasure. "Sister Qin, you need to replenish your strength after doing heavy work! Take this back."

"Thank you so much! I don't know if I could have kept this up without this opportunity!"

Sha Zhu frowned. "Should I put in a good word for you?"

Qin Huairu turned pale with fright. With this guy's silver tongue, he dared to plead for her; she'd be lucky if he didn't screw her over. "No need, no need! Master Yang made a solemn promise to my master! He guarantees I'll reach level 2 in three months. If he doesn't, then it's not up to him!"