Chapter 851: I Have a Magical Intuition

"I don't care about the household registration. If I can't come to the First Branch Factory next year, I'll just transfer back to Jilin Province."

After Zheng Qiang finished this sentence, he waited anxiously for Li Ye's reply.

Because once these words were out, he had no way back.

When he first came to the capital from Jilin Province full of confidence, it wasn't because of his family's capital household registration. After all, in 1987, the Northeast was not yet the "outside the pass" of later generations, and Jilin Province's automotive industry was also a national leader; compared to Jilin Province, the capital wasn't as superior as it would be in later generations.

But after Zheng Qiang arrived at his unit and joined the 1041 technical improvement project, he learned what "fighting alone" meant, and what "two fists being unable to fight four hands" meant.

As a technical improvement team leader, he seemingly had all kinds of special authority in technical aspects, but any technical change that needed to be implemented required explaining and arguing with a group of people.

【Without you, we could still slowly improve and perfect it. If you come, are all our previous efforts just making a wedding dress for you?】

This was all about the redistribution of interests, responsibilities, and credit. The difficulty for an outsider to get their share from others' hands can be imagined.

But a master's degree holder in the eighties didn't have the same gold content as the decades later when the number of master's and doctoral students exceeded undergraduates; young people who could read to a master's degree definitely didn't have low IQs.

So, for a period recently, Zheng Qiang had been constantly coming to the First Branch Factory to "learn experience," but in reality, he was quietly observing the First Branch Factory's work atmosphere.

After observing, he discovered that the First Branch Factory's "corporate culture" of putting technology above all else was simply amazing. To use Northeast dialect, it was—exactly to his taste.

Can you imagine a technical staff member, when solving a technical problem, requiring a management cadre two levels higher than him to "cooperate with the work"?

Zheng Qiang didn't know about other units, but whether it was in Jilin Province or at the Light Auto Company, if a technician wanted to solve a technical problem, they had to first submit an application according to regulations, and then complete the work step-by-step, requesting instructions and reporting at every step.

If there was even one step in the middle that wasn't reported to the superiors, getting a scolding was considered light.

【What? The technical improvement work is almost finished, how come I don't know?】

【You damn well don't understand technology, telling you is useless anyway!】

【Bullshit, if I don't understand technology, I don't understand how to command? What if the superiors ask, and I don't know anything, is all the work done by you? Is all the credit yours?】

That was why Zheng Qiang took the opportunity of the First Branch Factory's clearly priced "technical talent standards" to come to Li Ye and recommend himself.

If Li Ye didn't agree, then Zheng Qiang wouldn't hesitate anymore; he would take advantage of the Spring Festival to go back to Jilin Province to move around and apply for a transfer back to Jilin Province.

At the very least, there were still many relatives, classmates, and friends there, and there wouldn't be much difficulty in integrating.

Li Ye looked at Lu Zhizhang and promised with a smile: "Engineer Zheng, your qualifications exceed our technical talent introduction standards.

In principle, as long as you come, we are definitely willing to accept you and provide appropriate arrangements, but you must properly resolve the issues at the General Factory."

Zheng Qiang frowned and said: "We are all in the same unit, can't the First Branch Factory coordinate and transfer me over?"

"..."

Li Ye and Lu Zhizhang were silent.

Zheng Qiang hoped that the First Branch Factory would come forward to handle his transfer so he wouldn't offend anyone; for him, this was naturally the best method.

But the General Factory was currently working on the mass production difficulties of the 1041 car, and as a key staff member, how could the General Factory easily let him go?

Therefore, Zheng Qiang had to be determined to leave before the First Branch Factory could reach out to accept him.

"Ding-a-ling~"

Just as the scene was about to fall into awkwardness, the office phone rang.

"Hello? Where? Oh, oh, oh, Xiao Yu, what's wrong? Okay, okay, okay, I'll leave right away!"

Li Ye put down the phone and said: "It's snowing today, and the cars at my wife's unit are too busy, I have to go pick her up from work first."

Lu Zhizhang immediately said: "Yo, then you have to hurry, the snow is getting heavier and heavier today, the snow on the road must be thick, I'll help you put on the anti-skid chains."

"I often put on anti-skid chains when I was in Jilin Province, I'll do it."

"..."

Seeing Li Ye and Lu Zhizhang going out to put anti-skid chains on the Santana, Zheng Qiang hurriedly asked to help.

The result of his self-recommendation today didn't make him particularly satisfied.

In Zheng Qiang's expectation, the First Branch Factory, which valued technology, would inevitably be thirsty for talent and welcome him with open arms upon seeing a master's degree holder from Jilin University like him, but now it seemed his mindset had a problem.

They indeed needed technical personnel like him, but they weren't desperate for him specifically.

【In this world, no one begs anyone; if they need you, you also have to try your best to perform!】

Li Ye drove the Santana safely all the way, and it was already pitch black when he arrived at the Zhongxin Company.

By the light of the car headlights, Li Ye saw Watching Wen Leyu had already come out a few minutes early to wait by the roadside, and standing beside her was a young man.

After Li Ye parked the car, Watching Wen Leyu got into the front passenger seat and greeted the man to get into the back row.

"The snow is too heavy today, many buses are too crowded to get on. Several colleagues in our department usually take the bus or ride bicycles to work, but it's really inconvenient today, so I asked Master Liang to send them back..."

Watching Wen Leyu first explained to Li Ye why she didn't take the company car, then introduced: "This is our 79-class alumnus from Jingda, he also works in our unit now. He lives over in Ping'anli, let's give him a ride on our way."

Li Ye smiled: "It's only right, it's only right. We are all colleagues, let alone giving him a ride, not sending him to his doorstep wouldn't be friendly enough."

"Hehehehe~"

The man laughed heartily and said in a Tianjin accent: "I heard of your great name, Li Ye, when I was in school, but I was about to graduate then and didn't have the chance to make your acquaintance. Seeing you today, you really have a chivalrous spirit."

Li Ye hurriedly said modestly: "What chivalrous spirit! It's all rumors by others. How should I address you, brother?"

"My surname is Hu, Hu Shitai. Li Ye, don't call me brother, I'm from '63 just like you!"

"Oh? Hu Shitai?"

Li Ye was slightly startled and asked casually: "Which 'shi' and which 'tai'?"

The other party smiled and said: "The 'shi' from 'a scholar dies for his bosom friend', and the 'tai' from 'Mount Tai stands alone above the five sacred mountains'."

"..."

Li Ye was stunned for 0.5 seconds, then smiled and said: "Brother, you have a good name, and you are the same age as me, yet you are from the '79 class. It really makes me ashamed, ashamed..."

Hu Shitai shook his head and said: "Hi, it's just that I'm better at doing problems. Only after entering society did I realize that those little clever tricks aren't worth mentioning, not worth mentioning."

【Little clever tricks? Not worth mentioning? You have big clever tricks!】

Through key characteristics like his name, age, education, and employing unit, Li Ye confirmed the other party's identity.

Hu Shi is no simple man; he was admitted to the History Department of Jingda at sixteen and later went to work for the Zhongxin Group.

In the eyes of others, he was already a standout among the young people of this era; as long as he worked hard to develop, he was sure to have a quite promising future.

However, Hu Shi's ambition did not stop there; compared to the domestic environment, he yearned more for life abroad.

Thus, he found a suitable opportunity, applied for a government-funded study abroad program, and with state sponsorship, went to the Land of Kangaroos to pursue a doctorate in metallurgy. After graduation, he simply stayed in the Land of Kangaroos and went to work at the Musley Iron Mine, the second-largest mine in Australia.

Later, this mine was acquired by the Rio Tinto Group, the world's second-largest mining company, and Hu Shi naturally joined the Rio Tinto Group, becoming a core figure in their mainland office.

At this time, the halo around Hu Shi was very dazzling; although he had acquired citizenship in the Land of Kangaroos, he was also contributing his own strength to the development of the mainland steel industry.

But this "big smarty" actually didn't return to serve the motherland at all; he was a commercial spy who had changed his heart.

In the following years, Rio Tinto's commercial spy ring "forced Chinese steel companies to pay a heavy price of over 700 billion yuan in near-extortionate imported iron ore prices," which was equivalent to "10% of Australia's GDP."

In the college entrance examination screening system of the Land of Flowers, the state selected Hu Shi for education and training, and even paid for state funding and government subsidies to send him abroad to study; who would have thought that in the end, it would cultivate such a thing?

So when they reached the halfway point, Li Ye "mistakenly" took a turn and changed the route; this route did not pass through Ping'anli and even required a long detour.

Watching Wen Leyu, sitting in the passenger seat, immediately looked at Li Ye.

Others might not know Li Ye, but Watching Wen Leyu knew that Li Ye's sense of direction and memory were heaven-defying; how could he have taken the wrong road?

Watching Wen Leyu narrowed her eyes and then pointed the way for Li Ye: "Let's take a detour from the second intersection ahead and drop Hu Shi off at Ping'anli."

Hu Shi, sitting in the back row, hurriedly said: "No need, no need, just drop me off at the intersection ahead. The road is slippery with snow and hard to drive on; it's just a little way left, I'll just walk back."

"Oh! How could we be so rude?"

"Hey, this is already great. If I hadn't hitched a ride with you, I would have suffered a lot today."

"Hehehe, don't be polite, don't be polite."

Li Ye parked the car and dumped Hu Shi on the side of the street.

Once only the two of them were left in the car, Watching Wen Leyu tilted her head and asked: "You don't like this person?"

Li Ye did not deny it either, and said in a deep voice: "Believe it or not, sometimes I have a very strange intuition, feeling that this person... is unreliable, somewhat similar to that Lu Zixue."

"Somewhat similar to Lu Zixue?"

Watching Wen Leyu was startled and murmured: "He is indeed applying for government-funded study abroad recently; your intuition really has some merit!"

"Look, look, I guessed it right! If you ask me, the state's public funds shouldn't be spent on people like him."

Watching Wen Leyu nodded slowly, but after a few seconds, she slowly turned her head back with a mysterious smile on her face.

"I'm just asking, when you first met Lu Jingyao, why didn't this magical intuition work? Was it because concern leads to chaos? Or was it lust going to your head?"

"..."

The little wife was becoming less and less well-behaved.

Li Ye said calmly and steadily: "This magical intuition of mine only appeared after I met you. Don't you feel that since we met at County No. 2 Middle School, we have had a tacit understanding of mutual telepathy?"

"I really do."

Watching Wen Leyu was both annoyed and amused, but she had to admit that she and Li Ye were truly destined and had a very tacit understanding.

Not to mention anything else, often just a glance between the two of them was enough to read the other's mind; this feeling is truly something only the two of them can experience the magic of.

By the time Li Ye returned home, the snow at the door was already over ten centimeters thick.

He parked the car, held an umbrella, and helped his little wife inside, saying as they walked: "Should we ask the urban construction side about opening a small door from the north-facing room to convert it into a garage? It will be more convenient to park when there are more cars at home in the future."

Watching Wen Leyu held Li Ye's arm and muttered: "We can park two cars at the door, why tear down the wall?"

"Isn't that so we don't have to sweep the snow off the cars when we get up in winter?"

Li Ye's courtyard was very large, and the open space at the entrance was indeed spacious enough; parking two cars was no problem.

But the difference between having a garage and not having one was still significant. Anyway, Li Ye's house had several idle north-facing rooms; tearing down a wall to convert it into a garage was easy, and converting two was also no problem.

Those self-media creators in later generations often posted videos after the snow in winter; those whose cars had no snow on them were the families "with conditions," because in the inch-of-land-inch-of-gold capital, a parking space was more valuable than a car.

But there were many rules in the capital, and he didn't know what procedures were needed to renovate the part facing the street, nor did he know if he needed to pull strings, which was why Li Ye said this.

Watching Wen Leyu glanced at Li Ye and said: "Then do you want to ask your Aunt Liu for help? Or do you want to ask your brother-in-law to find a way?"

Watching Liu Muhan's sister-in-law was in the Xicheng District Urban Construction Department, and his brother-in-law Wen Guohua had many friends at the grassroots level; both could help, it just depended on how Li Ye chose.

Li Ye did not choose Watching Liu Muhan, but said in a deep voice: "What is the situation with our brother? Can he come back anytime soon?"

Watching Wen Leyu sighed when she heard Li Ye's question and said: "Who knows! If he wants to come back, we can work together and he'll be back in two or three years; if he doesn't want to come back, eight cows wouldn't be able to pull him back."

"..."

After Watching Wen Leyu finished speaking, both of them fell silent.

Wen Guohua being sent from the capital to the south was a suggestion first proposed by Pan Xiaoying; she hoped her husband could climb to a higher height as quickly as possible.

But Pan Xiaoying herself remained in the 501 Factory in the capital for development, which resulted in a situation of living in two different places.

According to the thinking of normal people, a husband and wife would definitely try every possible way to get together, but now it felt like Wen Guohua had the intention of escaping the cage and letting himself go.

"Sigh, when he comes back this year, I'll have a good chat with my brother-in-law! This family is always separated, it's not a good thing!"

In the end, Li Ye, an outsider, still expressed his opinion.

He felt that he was qualified to express this opinion; after all, he and Watching Wen Leyu could be described as inseparable, they went to school together, worked in the capital, and any external factors like studying abroad or promotion had to give way to married life.

It was just that after Li Ye and Watching Wen Leyu entered the door, they realized that worrying about Wen Qingsheng's affairs was like eating radishes and worrying about nothing; their own affairs hadn't been solved yet! And they were busy for others?

Because the little sister Li Ying and Han Chunmei had returned; the mother and her two children had returned to Hong Kong after the summer vacation and hadn't met with Li Kaijian for more than four months, which was even more miserable than Wen Guohua and Pan Xiaoying!

"Brother, you and sister-in-law are back? Youan and I have been waiting for you for a long time."

When Li Ying saw Li Ye return home, she hugged her younger brother Youan and walked over, stuffing Youan into Li Ye's arms.

Li Ye hurriedly waved his hand and said: "I just came back from outside, the cold air on me is heavy, wait a while before you give the little brother to me."

But just as Li Ye finished speaking, Youan had already stretched out his two arms and pounced toward Li Ye.

Li Ye hurriedly took off his coat and outer garment, wearing only a sweater to hold the child, hoping that the temperature on the sweater wouldn't make this younger brother catch a cold.

He was only ten months old now, his little body was fragile!

The little sister Li Ying said triumphantly: "Hehehe, didn't I say Youan recognizes you? He can even call brother! Youan, call brother, call brother..."

"How old is he! It's good enough that he can call mom, and he's calling brother?"

But just as Li Ye expressed his doubt, Youan actually said in a milky voice: "Bro-bro, bro-bro..."

At this time, Grandma Wu Juying also said in surprise: "You two brothers are really a match! Youan just came back today, he didn't even want me to hold him, well! This grandma is actually not as close as the big brother?"

Han Chunmei hurriedly explained: "Mom, don't say that, Youan is very close to you! It's just that when the child was two months old, he was glued to Xiao Ye all day long, he didn't even want Xiaojuan to hold him!"

Wu Juying thought about it, and it was indeed the case.

In the summer, when Han Chunmei brought Youan back, the child indeed cried whoever held him except for Han Chunmei and Li Ying, but he didn't cry when Li Ye held him.

Wu Juying looked at Han Chunmei and then said: "Alright, alright, actually! It's not that the child isn't close to me, it's that we haven't seen each other for a long time, so he's a bit strange, isn't he?

When Xiaoying goes to college next summer, you will bring Youan back, the whole family should still be together."

"Yes, I listen to mom."

"Um, we all listen to grandma."

Han Chunmei smiled gently, her smile very bright.

Li Ye looked at Han Chunmei and always felt that she had changed a lot in the past six months.

In the summer, when Han Chunmei learned of Hearing Fu Guiru's existence, that cautious and depressed look indeed made Li Ye feel tricky.

And looking at her now, it seemed she had already figured it out.

Sure enough, after dinner, the little sister Li Ying came to discuss with Li Ye: "Brother, mom asked me to discuss with you, during the New Year, can our whole family eat New Year's Eve dinner together?"

"Hmm?"

Does this "whole family" of yours include Hearing Fu Guiru and Fu Yiruo?