Populus euphratica

  The process of casting a workpiece in the factory is as follows: first, make a model of the workpiece with wood, then wrap it with sand material made from sand, binder and water. After the sand material solidifies, remove the wooden mold to form a sand cavity. Then pour 1300 degree iron water into the sand cavity, after cooling, an iron casting is formed.

  A specialized occupation that makes wooden models is called a wood model worker. Compared to rural carpenters, the technical level of wood model workers is much higher, because the precision requirements of wood models are far higher than ordinary furniture. In factories, when workers want to make furniture at home, they often ask the factory's wood model workers for help. Of course, although everyone is a colleague, the cost of making furniture still needs to be paid.

  Hu Yang was just a wooden mold worker at the Hanhua Machinery Factory, in his 40s, wearing a pair of near-sighted glasses, looking somewhat literary and out of place with his identity. Lin Zhenhua had also known Hu Yang before, he wasn't clear when Hu Yang started working at the Hanhua Machinery Factory, from what he could remember, since Lin Zhenhua was old enough to understand things, there had always been a person named Hu Yang in the factory.

  Huyang's wife, Qin Ying, also works at the Hanhua Machinery Factory, serving as a statistician in the container workshop. In Lin Zhenhua's mind, Huyang and his family give people a very vague impression, as if they have never participated in any disputes within the factory, nor have they received any awards or punishments. In short, they are an extremely quiet and unremarkable family.

  The only thing that could attract people's attention about the Hu Yang family was that their children did not bear Hu Yang's surname, but instead bore Qin Ying's surname, and were named Qin Bo and Qin Tao. In Hanhua Mechanical Factory, it was also common for children to take their mother's surname, but generally speaking, there would be multiple children, one or two of whom would take the mother's surname, not like Hu Yang's family where all the children took the mother's surname. Some people speculated that perhaps Hu Yang was a son-in-law who had married into the Qin family, so the children born to him would have to take the surname of his wife's family. These busybodies tried to find out what kind of family Qin Ying came from, but were greatly disappointed, as neither Hu Yang nor Qin Ying seemed to have any family background information that could be found.

  Qin Bo and Qin Tao were not much older than Lin Zhenhua, only six or seven years apart, so Lin Zhenhua had no relationship with them. However, he had also heard people mention that the brother and sister duo's grades at the factory's primary school were exceptionally good. If Hanhua Machinery Factory had any children who could be admitted to a key university in the future, then this brother and sister should be the most promising candidates. Everyone said that Hu Yang and his wife were dull and unremarkable, but unexpectedly their two children turned out so well, which was also a credit to their parents.

  Now, Lin Zhenhua and Zhao Yongqun are standing in front of Hu Yang, begging him to help make a few wooden molds.

  "Master Hu, do you have time to help me with this favor?" Lin Zhenhua said as he placed a sealed box of Red Double Happiness cigarettes on top of Hu Yang's toolbox.

  Poplar glanced at the cigarette, didn't refuse, but took over the drawings handed over by Lin Zhenhua, looked at them, and was still thinking about something while looking. Lin Zhenhua asked people to do things, naturally didn't dare to urge, just stood aside and waited.

  Hu Yang looked at it for a while, stretched out his hand and said to Lin Zhenhua: "What about your other drawings? Let me take another look."

  "That's all, just these few pieces." Zhao Yongqun hastily said, Lin Zhenhua had asked him to help cast earlier, and it was just these few pieces, so he didn't know there were other drawings.

  Lin Zhenhua hesitated for a moment, then pulled out several other drawings from his pocket. These were the parts he planned to process in the metalworking shop after work, and since they didn't need casting, he hadn't shown them to Zhao Yongqun. Now that Hu Yang asked to see his other drawings, Lin Zhenhua didn't know what his intention was, but he also didn't have any intention of hiding anything. After all, when asking someone for a favor, being evasive and secretive wouldn't do.

  Hu Yang took the drawing, looked at it again, shook his head, and pointed to a place on the drawing to Lin Zhenhua: "Little Lin, there is a problem with the design of this drawing. The X-axis output power of the universal milling machine is not enough, and this set of gears may not be able to drive the universal dividing head. It's better to change the gear combination relationship."

  Lin Zhenhua opened his mouth wide and it took him a long time to recover: "Master Hu, do you know what I want to do?"

  "Isn't it just installing a set of gears on a universal milling machine and converting it into a simple hobbing machine? This method was proposed by someone twenty years ago." Hu Yang said lightly.

  "Has anyone in our factory ever done this before?" Lin Zhenhua felt utterly disappointed, originally wanting to show off his skills and win a smile from the Americans, but it turned out he was just picking up someone else's leftovers.

  Poplar shook his head: "Our factory has never done so, and I've only seen someone introduce it in a book."

  "But you actually thought of the output power issue, I was the one who overlooked it." Lin Zhenhua was quite unhappy, he forgot that he was just an 18-year-old young worker and still a general worker. Hu Yang, although a carpenter, was at least a skilled worker, not to mention his age, had eaten more salt... cough, much more than himself.

  "What, you ignored?" Hu Yang bit the word "you" very heavily, he looked at Lin Zhenhua with a serious gaze, "Little Lin, are you saying that this drawing is designed by you?"

  Lin Zhenhua nodded: "It's me."

  "Who is your master?"

  "My...my master is Zhong Rulin."

  "Master Zhong? Isn't he a porter?"

  "Yes, I'm currently in the logistics team of the mechanical workshop."

  "You're a porter, how did you think of renovating the lathe? And how could you have thought of doing it this way? No, you must have seen it somewhere before?" Hu Yang threw out a string of questions in confusion.

  Lin Zhenhua also knew that what he was doing was somewhat against the heavens. An 18-year-old veteran, a glorious porter, actually designed a simple gear machine, and no one would believe it if they saw it.

  "Hu Master, actually, this is not my own idea, I learned it in the army, our army's repair shop had such a device, I saw it at that time, so..."

  "Hmm," said Hu Yang, "I thought so. If you hadn't seen it before, you wouldn't have thought of doing it this way. However, your mechanical drawing skills are quite good, very standardized, like a professional from a technical school. Did you guys also learn this in the army?"

  Lin Zhenhua had to dig out the old excuse he used to deceive He Haifeng: "Actually, this was taught to me by a professor from Huazhong University. He was a rightist who was sent down to the countryside and lived near our troops. I met him by chance and he taught me all these techniques."

  "What's the name of the professor at Huaqing University?" Hu Yang asked.

  "Call Xia Huanmin."

  "Xia Hanmin? Never heard of him." Hu Yang muttered to himself.

  Lin Zhenhua's eyes sparkled with gold stars: "Master Hu, you won't say that you know all the professors of Huaqing University?"

  Poplar suddenly realized that he had misspoken, and hurriedly said: "Of course not, I just like reading books better, so if it's a famous professor at Huaying University, I should have some impression."

  Lin Zhenhua said: "This Professor Xia, may also be using a pseudonym, he is a rightist, maybe he has changed his name. Unfortunately, he has passed away, and I have no way to ask him again." The last sentence he had to say, otherwise, if someone in the future asked him to find this professor of Huaqing University, he would not be able to find him.

  Hu Yang said: "What you said is also possible, so what does this professor look like?"

  Lin Zhenhua thought for a moment about the appearance of the professors he had seen in the past, and casually made up a few sentences. Hu Yang actually believed it, and after thinking for a moment, he said slowly: "Little Lin, listening to your description of this person, it seems somewhat like Professor Yao Heliang from the Mechanical Department. Has he passed away too?"

  Yao He Liang! Lin Zhenhua almost jumped up, and after Hu Yang's mention, he really remembered that when describing, he was unconsciously speaking according to his graduate supervisor Professor Yao He Liang's image. In those ten years of catastrophe, Professor Yao had indeed been sent down, of course, he did not pass away during the time being sent down. Lin Zhenhua never thought that in the wood model class of Hanhua Machinery Factory, someone could think of Yao He Liang from just a few sentences he described.

  "Hu Shifu, I'd like to ask you a question. Who else could be riding the white horse besides the prince?" Lin Zhenhua asked.

  Hu Yang was taken aback, thought for a moment, and replied: "Doesn't Tang Monk also ride a white horse?"

  "Ah!" Lin Zhenhua was unsure whether he should be happy or worried, "Then let me ask you another question, apart from angels, who else could have wings?"

  " Birdman?"

  Lin Zhenhua suddenly asked: "I'm dizzy, Old Hu, what's your QQ number? Do you usually use Baidu or Google? Which year did you come over?"

  Hu Yang mysteriously said: "Little Lin, what are you talking about? What's QQ? What's ferrying? And what do you mean by 'wearing'?"

  Lin Zhenhua patted his own head and asked: "Old Hu, you really didn't come from another time?"

  "What do you mean by 'crossing over'?" Hu Yang was completely baffled.

  Lin Zhenhua finally felt at ease: "It's okay, Master Hu, I was just thinking too much. By the way, how are you so familiar with Huaqing University? Is this Professor Yao... very famous?"

  "Hu Yang said, "Oh, I was just guessing too. Professor Yao is a relatively well-known mechanical expert. I've seen his photo in the newspaper before, of course, that was over 10 years ago."

  "Master Hu, what kind of person are you? How do you know so many things?" Lin Zhenhua asked to the bottom, today's performance by Hu Yang was enough to shock him.

  Hu Yang smiled slightly: "I'm just an ordinary worker, if I had to say, it's just that I like reading a bit more than others. These are not worth mentioning. Little Lin, the gear machine you designed is very good, with some minor modifications it will be fine, I'll make the wooden model for the parts you need right away."

  As they walked out, Lin Zhenhua asked Zhao Yongqun in a low voice: "Yongqun, what's the story with Hu Yang? I think he has some background."

  Zhao Yongqun said: "As for the background, I don't know, but Hu Shifu likes to read books, that's what everyone knows. Many of our technical problems, which the engineers in the factory can't solve, sometimes we have to ask him for advice. In fact, the factory has always wanted to transfer him to the technical department as a technician, he resolutely refused, and is willing to be a wood model worker."

  "Ah, I see." Lin Zhenhua nodded slightly. Indeed, among the workers, there were people like this who were naturally talented and loved to study hard. Although their educational background was not high, their technical level was exceptional. Lin Zhenhua still remembered that when he was studying at Huqing University, there was a janitor in the cafeteria who sold steamed buns and used his spare time to study English diligently. He had even passed the English Level 4 exam, with better pronunciation than most students, and it became a legendary story within the school. Hu Yang was probably a typical example of someone who had achieved success through self-study.