Hunting wild chicken at 2:00

  "Xiao Hua, do you have anything going on tonight?"

  When Yang Chunshan got off work that day, he intercepted Lin Zhenhua who had just come out of the production area and asked him.

  "Uncle Yang, I don't have anything going on, what about you, is there something you need me for?"

  "Hmm, there's a township enterprise, some things need to be done by someone, are you willing to go with me to hunt wild chickens and earn some money?" Yang Chunshan said in a low voice.

  "Wild chicken" is a slang term in the factory, which means to make extra money on the side. The workers at Hanhua Machinery Factory have technical skills, and some small enterprises in nearby towns would sometimes ask them for help with technical problems in private. Of course, this help wouldn't be free of charge. The factory leaders are also aware of these things, but since these workers aren't neglecting their duties in the factory and are only using their spare time to make extra money, the leaders don't interfere. In previous years, there were restrictions on workers doing private work outside the factory, but now these policies have been gradually relaxed, and the factory leaders are willing to turn a blind eye.

  Of course, workers going out to do private work is not without impact on their jobs. Some workers go to township enterprises at night, work all night, and rush back to the factory for work the next day. During working hours, they are naturally listless and dazed. There are also some workers who are even more excessive, secretly taking some small tools from the factory to help with township enterprises. If this is discovered by the factory, it will definitely result in a deduction of wages and public criticism.

  Yang Chunshan is a welder at the factory, with very good skills, and also has a reputation in the surrounding township enterprises. Many people come to him for private work. Sometimes he can't finish the private work alone, so he invites several colleagues to go together. This time, he invited Lin Zhenhua to go with him, naturally because of Yang Xin's relationship. Yang Chunshan now regards Lin Zhenhua as a potential son-in-law, and inviting him to do private work is on one hand giving Lin Zhenhua an opportunity to earn some money, so that he can afford to marry Yang Xin in the future. On the other hand, it is also to take this opportunity to further observe Lin Zhenhua's character and ability.

  "Uncle Yang, if it's something that can make money, I'm more than happy to do it," Lin Zhenhua said with a smile. "But, I'm just an ordinary worker, what can I possibly do?"

  "I heard from Xiao Xin that you learned to be a machinist in the army and your skills are quite good. I'll take you out to gain some experience, who knows, maybe someday someone will have a machining job and we can introduce you to it. However, this time it's an electric welding job, have you ever learned electric welding?"

  "Welding, I've learned a little bit, can ignite the flame." Lin Zhenhua said very humbly. Being able to ignite the welding wire is the first step in welding, and it's not really a big deal. Of course, for those who have never touched welding before, it's not easy to ignite the welding wire either.

  "It doesn't matter, you can't bite off more than you can chew. As long as you learn to be a good machinist, that's enough. For welding, I'll teach you some when I have time, sometimes just being able to get by is enough." Yang Chunshan said, "You go back and eat dinner, later I'll call you and we'll ride our bikes together."

  Yang Chunshan went to the "wild chicken" township enterprise in Xiao Gang Commune, 10 kilometers away from Hanhua Factory. The two of them rode their bicycles and arrived at a small enterprise called Xiao Gang Agricultural Machinery Parts Factory after about 40 minutes.

  "Master Yang has arrived." A peasant-dressed man stood at the factory gate to greet Yang Chunshan and Lin Zhenhua.

  "Director Mao." Yang Chunshan greeted the man, then turned around and pointed to Lin Zhenhua, introducing him to Director Mao: "This is my apprentice, named Lin Zhenhua. I brought him over to help out."

  "Oh, okay, a good teacher produces excellent students." Director Mao nodded at Lin Zhenhua, and then led the two of them into the factory area.

  It's called a factory area, but it's actually just a farmhouse. The east house is the workshop, with two or three old machine tools that were discarded from some factory. The west house is the warehouse. In the middle of the yard, there are all sorts of ironware scattered around. Because they need to work in the yard at night, they temporarily hung a 200-watt incandescent lamp in the yard using a long bamboo pole.

  "Is it these things?" Yang Chunshan pointed at the pile of iron tools and asked Director Mao.

  "The director of the factory said: 'It's just these, all need to be welded together. Can you see if it can be done in one night?'"

  Yang Chunshan estimated and nodded: "Yes, it's about the amount for one night, just my apprentice and I."

  "Same old rules, 4 yuan for a big job, 2 yuan for a small one, how about it?"

  "No problem, we're old friends."

  On the way, Yang Chunshan had already introduced Lin Zhenhua that this small port agricultural machinery parts factory was nominally a commune-run enterprise of Xiaogang Commune, but it had been taken over by Director Mao. The whole factory, except for Director Mao's family, only had 3 workers and no one knew how to weld. When there were welding tasks, Director Mao would accumulate them until they reached the equivalent of a night's work, then he would ask Yang Chunshan to come and handle it once. Yang Chunshan was skilled and considered a senior worker, earning 4 yuan for working overnight; each time Yang Chunshan also had to bring an apprentice to help, who was considered a junior worker, earning 2 yuan for the night, this was already a convention.

  Yang Chunshan brought someone to do odd jobs, and Director Mao wouldn't interfere, which was equivalent to giving Yang Chunshan an opportunity to do a favor. In the past, when Yang Chunshan came to do things, sometimes he would bring his own apprentice, and sometimes he would bring other workers with whom he had a good relationship. No matter who he brought, the other person would be very happy, because being able to earn 2 yuan in one night was still pretty good. This time, Yang Chunshan gave Lin Zhenhua the opportunity, telling him that when there were 2 yuan to be earned, he had a sense of doing a favor, and he didn't think for a moment that Lin Zhenhua would feel that 2 yuan wasn't enough for his own efforts.

  The director of the factory and Yang Chunshan finished discussing the price, and then went to do other things. Yang Chunshan pulled over the electric welder that had been placed aside, turned on the power source, and started working. Working for a private enterprise is different from working in a state-run factory. Since they've paid you money, they naturally hope you're doing something every minute. If you drag your feet, next time they won't look for you again.

  Lin Zhenhua, as a helper, was responsible for grinding off the rust on the workpieces to be welded with sandpaper and then moving the workpieces to Yang Chunshan's side. When welding large pieces, he also had to help Yang Chunshan hold one side of the workpiece. These tasks did not require much technical expertise and could basically be done by one person.

  "Uncle Yang, have a drink of water."

  Lin Zhenhua handed a cup of water to Yang Chunshan, who stopped welding and took the water to drink. He asked, "How many pieces are still not polished?"

  "It's all wiped clean." Lin Zhenhua replied.

  "Are they all polished?" Yang Chunshan was somewhat surprised, he turned his head to take a look, and indeed, all the parts that needed welding on the workpieces had been polished with sandpaper, and the polishing standard met the requirements for welding, indicating that Lin Zhenhua did not take any shortcuts. Yang Chunshan nodded in satisfaction: "Not bad, Little Hua, you're quite diligent at work."

  "Hehe, Uncle Yang, you must be tired too, why don't I take over welding for a while?"

  "This won't do." Yang Chunshan shook his head, "These haven't been welded properly, Old Mao will be anxious with me. Xiao Hua, if you want to learn electric welding, come find me in the container workshop after work and I'll find some scrap iron for you to practice on."

  Lin Zhenhua said, "Yang Shu, actually I also learned a bit of welding in the army. Look at this piece, it's just an iron fence, and there aren't any high technical requirements. Let me weld a few points for you."

  Yang Chunshan thought for a moment, handed over the welding tongs and said: "Okay, I'll take a look at what you've learned in the army. Xiaoxin said your skills are good, but I really don't believe it. Even if there's an opportunity to learn skills in the army, it's not as good as..."

  He said to this, suddenly stopped, he saw Lin Zhenhua with a soldering iron clamping the welding wire lightly touched the workpiece, and ignited, a string of welding sparks splashed out, a flat weld seam slowly flowed out under the welding wire.

  "Uncle Yang, take a look, will this welding work?" Lin Zhenhua put down the solder and pointed to his own work, saying to Yang Chunshan.

  Yang Chunshan stretched out his finger and rubbed the still warm weld seam back and forth twice, and couldn't help but burst into loud laughter: "Good, good! Next time you can get paid like a big worker!"

  "So, I passed?" Lin Zhenhua asked, in front of Yang Chunshan he didn't dare to be as arrogant as he was in front of Yang Xin, but he also knew that ordinary electric welding was not difficult for him at all.

  "Xiao Hua, how long have you been learning electric welding in the army?"

  "Hmm... about a month or so." Lin Zhenhua replied, this was the time he spent at Huqing Mechanical Factory for electric welding practice. However, during that period, he didn't just learn ordinary manual arc welding, but also came into contact with techniques such as submerged arc welding and gas shielded arc welding. Some advanced welding technologies don't even require workers to hold the welding gun themselves, instead they are operated entirely by mechanical arms.

  "In just a few months, you can practice to this level, it's really not bad." Yang Chunshan said with satisfaction. Electric welding is also a technical skill that emphasizes experience and intuition. Welding two pieces of iron together is not difficult, but making the weld seam so smooth requires the operator to have a good grasp of the force and speed of the weld. It's indeed not easy for Lin Zhenhua to reach this level in just a few months.

  "Come, with these few things left, do you have the confidence? If you do, I'll hand them all over to you to weld." Yang Chunshan said enthusiastically, now looking at his son-in-law as a father-in-law, the more he looked, the more pleasing to the eye.

  "No problem, Uncle Yang, you go take a rest at the side, I'll handle it myself." Lin Zhenhua said.