Chapter 6: Work that saves 30 years of detours The Red Star Steel Plant is very large. It was originally the Peking Steel Plant before the liberation. In 1956, it received an aid project from Sulian and suddenly grew from a medium-sized factory with only more than employees to a large factory with more than employees. A few hundred meters away from the station at the south gate of the factory, you can see a straight factory wall. The outside of the wall is painted white, and you can vaguely see a huge red slogan in Song style underneath the white. Inside the courtyard wall are factory buildings and tall chimneys emitting thick gray smoke. In this era, these chimneys represent the power of heavy industry, and no one would despise them. A moment later, with a creak, the bus stopped at the stop at the south gate of Red Star Factory. Ning Weidong followed the crowd out of the car and was about to walk toward the factory when he suddenly heard someone calling him. Looking back, a tall and thin man walked over and said with a smile: "Weidong, you are taking this train too~" "Old Lu~" Ning Weidong recognized that the man was Lu Dayong. There were many people in the car just now. Ning Weidong was at the back door and Lu Dayong was at the front door, and neither of them saw each other.
"That..." Lu Dayong scratched the back of his head with a silly smile, seeming to be hesitant to speak. Ning Weidong knew what he wanted to say. Everyone formed the Black Signing Club to help each other, and Lu Dayong was the kind of person who couldn't get away with it. This is also why the person who came yesterday was Wu Bingzhong from their same hospital. Ning Weidong had money in his hand, and said readily: "Don't worry, Wu Ge told me yesterday that it's not Saturday, I remember it, I will definitely not delay your wedding. By the way, everything is ready, when are you going to hold the wedding?" Lu Dayong breathed a sigh of relief and chuckled again. …… The two chatted as they arrived at the factory gate. Bicycles and people at the door converged from the east, west and south roads and poured into the factory. Ning Weidong and Lu Dayong joined the crowd and were about to enter the door, but at this moment, a car horn suddenly sounded. Looking back, I saw a large bus with a blue bottom and a white top, and a front like a seagull spreading its wings, coming from a distance. It's not a bus, it's a commuter bus from the factory fleet. In this era, factories of the size of the Red Star Factory emphasized "big factory, small society", and they had almost everything the workers needed. The factory ran kindergartens, primary schools, middle schools, hospitals, guest houses, canteens, clubs, cinemas, dance halls... and even the logistics department had people specifically responsible for funerals. Almost everything imaginable was taken care of in the factory. The Five Star Group, which South Korea claims to be inseparable from from birth to death, is no more than this. It’s just that the Five Star Group is exploiting people through all these means. In China, at least for now, these supporting facilities are truly for the workers. Workers are the masters of the factory, this is not just a slogan. Unfortunately, as the external environment and general direction changed, many things also changed. When Ning Weidong saw the commuter bus, his thoughts wandered and he thought of many things.
Then he shook his head. That was not what he should consider now. The commuter bus drove into the gate, and Ning Weidong and Lu Dayong followed the regrouped crowd into the factory. Follow the cement road, turn left and pass a row of newspaper racks, then pass a vase-shaped moon gate, and you will see a large area of red brick and tile houses. These houses originally belonged to the Logistics Department. There are five houses from south to north. The west one is the Logistics Department office, and the three houses on the southernmost side are nurseries. Starting from the year before last, in order to accommodate the young people returning to the city, the Security Department expanded its staff significantly. The original team quarters were not enough, so they borrowed the northernmost room from the Logistics Department. Ning Weidong and Lu Dayong came to the first room of the fort. The paint-stained wooden door was open outwards, and a blue cotton curtain was hung inside. The upper right corner of the window next to the door had no glass, and a chimney protruded from inside. A circle was cut out of iron sheets, surrounding the chimney and blocking the window. When I opened the door curtain and walked in, a wave of hot air hit me in the face, along with a choking smell of cigarette smoke. There were about twenty people in the room, all of them were young. There was a circle of dark red wooden benches along the wall, and people gathered in groups of three or four, some sitting, some standing, and some with one leg on the edge of the chair, smoking, talking nonsense, and chatting. In the middle stood a large cast-iron stove, and next to it was a disproportionately small table from the nursery. There was a blue hardcover notebook on the table. The folder was open, and inside was an attendance sheet with an oil pen tied to the side with a black rope. Ning Weidong took a quick look, picked up a pen, found his name, and put a check mark under it. After finishing, he handed the pen to Lu Dayong and came out of the room again. The people in the room are all from the factory protection team. They are called a factory protection team, but in fact their purpose is to provide employment for young people, as the factory simply does not need so many people. In comparison, security guards do not have to do drills and are not exposed to wind and rain, and their salary is 17 yuan a month. Ning Weidong walked to the west gate of the factory. The west gate is a side gate. Normally, only cars and no people pass through it. The gate guard is responsible for opening and closing the gate, recording the vehicles entering and leaving, and receiving and sending goods. Ning Weidong stomped his feet in front of the guard room door. It snowed yesterday and there was snow under the soles of my shoes. I reached out and opened the door, and the spring on the door handle squeaked. Ning Weidong went in and let go of the door, the spring pulled the door back, and it hit the door frame with a bang. "Xiao Ning, you're here~" A yawn was heard in the room, and a man in his early thirties turned his head to look over. Ning Weidong observed quickly, and pretended to be familiar with the situation based on his memory. He picked up the handover booklet and signed it while smiling and saying, "Brother Wang, did you not sleep last night?" Generally speaking, there are three security guards in a shift. If it is a night shift, two of them leave early, and it is normal for one to stay to take over the shift. As long as there are no mistakes, no one will take it seriously. Brother Wang put on his cotton coat and said, "Don't mention it. There were more than ten cars coming in and out in the second half of the night... I'm leaving now~"
Without waiting for Ning Weidong to respond, he pushed the door open and went out. There was only one person left. Ning Weidong breathed a sigh of relief and looked around the guard room. The room is more than ten square meters, with a large window facing south, facing the factory's large iron gate. Below the window was a paint-chipped desk with an old-looking telephone on it. There is a coal briquette stove behind the desk. Opposite the stove, on the right hand side of the door, is an octagonal table with a lot of sundries placed on it in a mess. Under the table, there is a pile of half-filled coal briquettes, which have rubbed the cement floor black. On the east side is a whole wall of wooden cabinets, with a half-open door sandwiched between the round table and the cabinets. Behind the door was a suite of about seven or eight square meters with a bunk bed. The upper bed was not made, but the lower bed was tidy, with pillows and quilts stacked up, and a military coat with the cotton leaking out thrown on the bed. (End of this chapter)