Chapter 124: Open House Day

“Damn it, and there’s more. The Henan Second Construction Engineering Company had three thousand workers in ‘72, about the same as our Civil Construction now. But they had over a hundred pieces of machinery with a total of eighty horsepower, and their completion area in the first year was only at the level of thirty thousand square meters. Damn it, those big shots in the Executive Committee, not only are they stingy with steel bars, but even the application for a few steam-powered bulldozers was delayed for so long before being approved. I have so few people under me, and they want me to build over thirty thousand square meters of apartment buildings in half a year? Is that possible? The superiority of the Yuanlao Senate can’t be that boundless.”

Yang Yun was choking. He quickly washed down the last few mouthfuls with kvass. Dai Xiu, who had already finished eating, naturally took out a handkerchief and wiped his mouth.

“This girl isn’t your life secretary, is she? She looks a bit young,” Zhang Xingpei suddenly changed the subject.

Dai Xiu’s face turned bright red. She took the bowls and chopsticks and fled as if she were chasing Zhang Xingpei’s secretary to wash the dishes.

“Don’t talk nonsense. This girl is the administrative intern assigned to me.”

“So you ‘interned’ her?”

“You… you little rascal, can’t your thoughts be less beastly?” Yang Yun said with a righteous air. “I am a proper HR. I’ve had at least eight hundred, if not a thousand, female workers under me, all young and beautiful girls. If I wanted to mess around with female workers, it would have been a matter of minutes. Do you see me doing it? A man still has to have some bottom line…”

“Hmph, who knows about you beasts who sit in offices? You don’t even spare such a young girl. Last time, that so-and-so even got someone pregnant. Truly a beast among beasts!” Zhang Xingpei said with a look of righteous indignation, then sighed with emotion, “If I had known earlier, I wouldn’t have gone into construction. I would have gone to be a beast too!”

“Your secretary is a B-class! She’s much prettier than this girl.”

“Even good things get boring after a while. Besides, I’m commanding a group of pigs on this broken construction site. I’m more tired than a pig. I don’t have the energy for that!”

“…” Yang Yun knew that the quality of the workers was a long-standing complaint among the Yuanlao. Slightly better prospects generally didn’t end up in the construction company. In the eyes of many, as long as you had the strength to carry bricks and move earth, it was enough for a construction company. It didn’t matter if you were a bit slow-witted. Under the guidance of this line of thought, many of the naturalized citizen workers who were eliminated from other departments and enterprises were all thrown into the construction company.

“There are many carpenters and bricklayers among the immigrants from Shandong. I will definitely pick them out for you…”

“That would be best. Although their skills are too different from our techniques, at least they know how to work. At the very least, they can build walls,” Zhang Xingpei said, picking his teeth. “And what about the matter of adding apprentices to the engineering team that you promised last time?”

“You won’t be short-changed. I will definitely get you the full quota.”

He slept until noon when his wife came to call him for lunch. Dai Dehou rubbed his sleepy eyes and got up.

When he had dressed and lifted the mosquito net, his son, Dai Yu, was sitting at the dining table by the door, waiting for him eagerly.

His wife covered the iron pot on the coal stove by the door and brought out the last dish. Since the Lingao Coal Company began to promote honeycomb briquettes, and gave away a free stove with a three-year subscription, the things had become very popular. They had already taken over the market in Lingao county town and various markets. Burning honeycomb briquettes was much more economical than burning firewood.

A side room housed the entire family of three generations. Three long benches with bricks as legs served as beds, and two chests crammed the small space full of belongings.

It took a lot of effort to arrange everything. They could only cook and eat at a table by the door. However, the meal was much more sumptuous than what his family had in Danzhou: fish balls with lettuce, cucumber mixed with shrimp paste, dry-fried eggplant, tomato soup, and steaming hot rice.

Not to mention so many dishes, in the past, they couldn’t eat their fill of rice every day. The Chiefs were very capable. Although Lingao suffered a typhoon disaster this year, the rice harvest was still much more abundant than in previous good years. Although there were many more mouths to feed, the price of rice had remained low. Especially since the Chiefs’ Delong Grain Store always had a large amount of good rice for retail, they were honest with both young and old and never cheated on the scales. Rice merchants who tried to speculate on the price of rice had no way to survive here.

“What about my parents?” Dai Dehou sat in the main seat.

“The food has already been sent over,” Mrs. Dai knew what her husband was worried about.

Although Dai Dehou’s parents were old, they still set up a stall outside to earn some small money. They ate their lunch outside. The family was large, and the expenses were high. Although they were living in a relative’s house, they didn’t get any discount on the rent. Daily expenses were still quite tight.

“Good, then let’s eat.”

After Dai Dehou finished speaking, he started eating with his chopsticks. His son, Dai Yu, quickly began to eat, while Mrs. Dai ate on the side, taking care of him.

According to the old rules, women did not eat at the table. The rules in Lingao were slowly changing. Many women worked for the Chiefs and earned money, some no less than men. Moreover, the female Chiefs had a high status, so the social atmosphere began to change slowly.

“My dear, if it’s too hard, let’s change jobs.”

“Where will the money come from if it’s not hard?”

Mrs. Dai sighed. Seeing that her son liked to eat fish balls, she quickly put a few more in his bowl.

“My dear, have the brothers agreed to the matter of the homestead?”

“Not yet.”

The land in Daijia Village was all owned by relatives with the surname Dai. It wasn’t that there was no homestead available, but seeing the price skyrocket day by day, no one was willing to sell it to him at a low price, not to mention that his family couldn’t pay for it all at once.

“My dear, is there any news about Yu’er’s enrollment?”

“I’ve asked someone. They said that you have to apply for school registration now. We don’t have a naturalized citizen household registration, so we don’t have a chance. Even for self-funded students, you have to have a local fixed household registration…”

To have school registration, you must have a local household registration. To have a local household registration, you must have a fixed residence. People like them could only be considered a floating household. They couldn’t even go to school as self-funded students.

Seeing Mrs. Dai silent, her eyes a little red, Dai Dehou sighed.

Lingao’s educational resources were limited. Adult education could be managed, but the dormitories at Fangcao were already full. Due to the limited number of teachers, the scale of school-age education could not be expanded in the short term. The population of Lingao was now over one hundred thousand, with tens of thousands of school-age children. It was already a struggle to guarantee the enrollment of the children of naturalized citizens. Only a small number of non-naturalized citizen children could be enrolled. Many outsiders like Dai Dehou who had no house belonged to the floating population. He didn’t want to become a naturalized citizen for the time being. Unless by some chance like last time, there was no hope of getting into Fangcao.

There were also private schools in Lingao now that taught the great way of Confucianism, but this kind of teaching was not recognized by the Chiefs. Even for a C-level diploma, you still had to take an exam.

Dai Dehou had never thought that his son could study hard for ten years and achieve fame. Seeing that life in Lingao was getting better and better, and the Chiefs’ prospects were bright, and his daughter had entered Fangcao by chance a year ago, he and Mrs. Dai had been there a few times and had their eyes opened. Naturally, he hoped his son could also get in. After all, his daughter would get married sooner or later. No matter how well she learned, it would benefit another family in the future.

In fact, his wife, Mrs. Dai, was also the daughter of a wealthy family in her early years and had studied. Dai Dehou also knew that his wife had long wanted to join the Chiefs’ enterprise. He and she were literate and could do arithmetic. He heard that it was easy to get a C-level diploma, and a B-level was not difficult either. With a B-level diploma, they could be of great use to the Chiefs, and maybe even become a cadre. Now, he could only do manual labor, and his wife’s work as a helper at the third brother’s inn was also very hard. It was said to be a helper, but she was only given a meal during work hours. As for the wages, she dared not ask for more or complain about less, taking whatever was given. Sometimes, she wouldn’t even see a green note for more than a month. The matter of a house had them stretched so thin that they had to let the third brother exploit them.

It was said that they were of the same clan and family, but in fact, there was not a bit of “kinship.” Thinking of this, he couldn’t help but sigh. But his old father was absolutely unwilling to shave his head. He had said many times that unless he died, no one in the family should think of shaving their hair. Dai Dehou’s heart had also been wavering.

Dai Yu had attended a private school in Danzhou, had studied, and was sensible. Seeing his parents’ difficult expressions, he just ate his meal silently and did not interrupt, although he was very envious after seeing his sister’s spirited appearance at school.

After the meal, Dai Dehou changed into a blue fine cloth short coat and washed his face. Mrs. Dai also changed into a newer vest.

Today was the open house day for the first grade of the high primary school at Fangcao. There was an open house day once every semester, usually arranged before the spring break. Fangcao adopted a closed teaching system. There were no winter or summer vacations. Students could only go home on rest days. In addition, there was only a three-day holiday for the New Year, and naturally no winter or summer vacations. However, every spring, there was a spring break, which was actually a busy farming season holiday. Students could go home for a week to help their families with work.

In the days before the spring break began, each grade and department took turns holding open house day activities to publicize the achievements of the new education system to the students’ parents.

Mrs. Dai held her son’s hand, carrying a food box with carefully prepared food, and followed Dai Dehou out the door.

They first went to the market in front of Daijia Village, where Dai Dehou’s parents were tending to a small food stall. Business was not bad, and they were both busy.

After entrusting their son to his parents, the couple went out to the Maniao New District Station, took the train to the East Gate Market Station to transfer, and soon arrived at Fangcao.

Many parents from all over Lingao had come for today’s public class. At this moment, a long queue had already formed at the guardhouse at the main entrance of the National School.

Half an hour later, it was finally their turn. Dai Dehou hurriedly handed over his visitor’s pass and temporary ID card.

“You are a floating household that arrived in Lingao last year. How can you have a daughter enrolled in the school?” The imitation-short-hair guard at the gate had a new face today, not the one he had seen when he picked up his daughter last time. After looking at Dai Dehou’s identification, he was immediately a little disbelieving.

“She was recommended by a Chief!” Dai Dehou quickly explained, his mood changing from the anxiety of a year ago to the pride of today.

“Oh, is that so…” The guard looked at the visitor’s pass, which had the student’s and parent’s names and fingerprints. After checking it, he stamped it and handed it back. “Go over there. Next!”

The huge iron gate only opened a small door. The couple entered the Fangcao National School, passed through the statue, and saw the magnificent main teaching building. The five-story red brick V-shaped building was like a giant red eagle overlooking the earth, giving a great visual impact. The hall of the main teaching building was a magnificent three-story open-air inner corridor. Through it, one could see the playground surrounded by a cinder track in the distance.