met free Chapter 66 "Full of Love" - World Widows Raising Children 7
Chapter 66 "Full of Love" - World Widows Raising Children 7
The next day was a workday, and the courtyard was bustling with activity again. This Saturday happened to be New Year's Day, and January 1, 1955 was also Laba Festival. Since Liu Yuxi was a formal employee from the moment she joined the company, she was also entitled to the factory's benefits.
Early in the morning, Liu Yuxi soaked various beans in the kitchen, preparing to cook Laba porridge when she returned at noon, so that she could have it in the evening.
The steel rolling mill is a large factory. Although it hasn't expanded to the later-developed 10,000-person factory, it still has more than 3,000 employees. There's no shortage of supplies right now, so the benefits are excellent. On New Year's Day, each person received a pound of meat and two pounds of flour—enough for everyone to go home and eat dumplings!
Back in the courtyard that evening, every household had Laba porridge simmering in their pots, filling the air with a sweet aroma. Liu Yuxi took some extra pork belly from her spatial storage and made a braised pork dish with the pork from the factory. Today, the aroma of meat wafted from every kitchen, except for Uncle San's house. Uncle San's school also gave out welfare benefits, but Uncle San was used to being frugal and thought that since they were drinking Laba porridge today, they could save the meat for later.
After the family finished eating, the two children went to play in the yard. Perhaps because they had eaten well today, the children were very excited and played in the yard instead of going home.
I took the two kids to the library to return and read books over the weekend, but instead of going to Tianqiao in the afternoon, I took them to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City.
Later, Sister Chen started to arrange for Liu Yuxi to do hands-on practice. Everyone knew that Liu Yuxi had great strength on her first day in the factory. The raw materials and workpiece blanks weighed two or three hundred pounds each, which even a man couldn't lift, but she carried them herself and delivered them to everyone's workstations.
With strong and steady hands, Liu Yuxi quickly mastered the basics of fitter's work, such as filing, shaving, sawing, cutting, and scribing. Once she was proficient in these basic operations, Sister Chen assigned her to process some simple Level 1 workpieces. Like a pro, she quickly grasped the basics, passing all but the first one. Sister Chen told her, "From easy to difficult, you'll definitely pass the certification exam by the end of the year," which made Liu Yuxi very happy. Until the exam, Liu Yuxi processed only Level 1 workpieces. On the day of the exam, she indeed passed quickly, and from that month onwards, she received the Level 1 worker's wage of 33 yuan.
In this assessment, He Yuzhu passed the Level 9 chef exam and officially began cooking large pot dishes. Jia Dongxu also passed the Level 2 fitter exam and now earns 38.6 yuan per month. Liu Haizhong passed the Level 6 blacksmith exam and earns 72.3 yuan per month, while Yi Zhonghai failed the Level 7 exam and remains a Level 6 fitter, earning 72.3 yuan per month.
Now the Spring Festival holiday is only three days long. On the afternoon of New Year's Eve, the monthly salary and New Year's benefits are paid out so that the workers can go home and have a good New Year. Liu Yuxi received 33 yuan this month because he passed the certification exam, and the benefits were two jin of meat and two jin of flour. This shows the advantages of working in a big factory.
Back in the courtyard, everyone was busy preparing their New Year's Eve dinner. Those families where the women were home had almost finished cooking. Luckily, Liu Yuxi had already started stewing the cured pork ribs and pork when she returned at noon, so now they just needed to cook a few fresh dishes before dinner. They braised a carp, symbolizing "abundance year after year," cooked a small rooster, braised pork with potatoes, and made pine nut corn for the two children. With the cured pork ribs and pork, that made six dishes, five of which were heavy meat dishes—something most families wouldn't even dare to dream of. So, Liu Yuxi and her two children ate their New Year's Eve dinner behind closed doors. In the past two years, they hadn't needed to set off firecrackers; they could just eat. Of course, other families also ate behind closed doors—who wouldn't want to eat something nice during the New Year?
After the meal, Liu Yuxi put the fish and leftovers in the cupboard, then gave the two brothers some small firecrackers and told them to set them off with the other children in the yard. He wasn't worried about boys being a little rough around the edges, since there were older children watching over them.
During the Spring Festival holiday, since neither the original owner nor Wang Jun had any relatives, Liu Yuxi took her two children to pay New Year's greetings to the neighbors and then took them to a temple fair. In all these worlds, Liu Yuxi had never been to a temple fair in the 1950s. She and her two children had a blast these past few days, buying all sorts of snacks until their hands were sore and they couldn't carry them all. She even bought a double-shoulder basket, which she carried on her chest and used as a cover to store the snacks in her spatial storage. She also bought a lot of toys for her two children, returning to the courtyard every day with a full load of goodies.
Other people in the courtyard were either visiting relatives or entertaining guests at home; the area has been bustling with people these past few days.
The holiday was enjoyable, but unfortunately, it was too short (the author often laments this too!). The courtyard returned to its usual routine on the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, with everyone going to work. However, during the winter break, Jianguo and Jiandang weren't home as often. They spent their days running around the older kids in the courtyard. They were obedient; if they wanted food, they would go home. When playing outside, they never brought food with them—not because they were stingy, but because there really wasn't enough to go around. They did often bring their toys out to play with everyone.
Liu Yuxi is now very skilled at processing first-level workpieces, and Sister Chen has started teaching her the tools and operating methods required for second-level fitter work. It's the same process, but now the teaching starts after they finish their assigned tasks each day. Liu Yuxi can't keep learning and improving her work level indefinitely, otherwise this wouldn't be a factory, but a school. She also has her own work tasks every day.
After learning all the tools and operating methods required for a Level 2 fitter, Liu Yuxi completed his daily tasks by assisting different Level 2 fitters, taking notes as he went. Level 2 fitters had more tools and more complex operating methods. Although Liu Yuxi had a good memory, it still took him more than two months to fully understand all the knowledge, and he hadn't even started practicing yet!
During this time, Liu Yuxi took half a day off to send Jianguo Jiandang to Hongxing Primary School. They brought their own lunch to eat at school, where there was a special place to heat up the food. Since it was a school for working parents, many children of working parents ate lunch at school. Because the children were too young, Liu Yuxi was worried about them going back and forth every day. So, he packed the same food for them as everyone else. Now, he gives each of the two children an egg every morning, and only dinner is a bit more substantial. Fortunately, they eat dinner early now, otherwise Liu Yuxi would worry about upsetting the children's stomachs.
Now, Liu Yuxi eats lunch with Sister Chen in the cafeteria, and can also take the time to ask her some questions about work and studies. Because Liu Yuxi passed the Level 1 Fitter exam after only one month on the job, Jia Zhangshi has mentioned it to Jia Dongxu many times. Yi Zhonghai didn't teach him properly, and after hearing it so much, Jia Dongxu started to have his own thoughts. Now, seeing Liu Yuxi's enthusiasm for learning, he's afraid he might pass Level 1 again in the next June assessment, and then he'll catch up with him.
Perhaps feeling the pressure, Jia Dongxu has been asking Yi Zhonghai for advice more often lately. Yi Zhonghai now dares not not teach seriously, after all, there is someone else to compare him to. He can't let everyone say that Yi Zhonghai doesn't know how to teach his apprentices, can he?